To celebrate this year's harvest, Riverrun held a banquet, providing an opportunity to meet with various vassals and discuss the state of their territories.
Lady Helaena was busy preparing the congratulatory speech, the guard of honor, and the gifts for House Tully.
What was Roman doing?
Reading a selection of Taiwanese novels in his spare time was quite relaxing.
He was in the kitchen making a cake for Fili.
Fili had been by Roman's side ever since she was brought to Harrenhal.
When Roman went to the fields, she went to the fields; when Roman suppressed bandits, she managed the ravens and logistics; when Roman ventured into the North, she followed.
So whenever Roman had a chance, he would give himself a break, not just to recover his energy but also to look after Fili so she wouldn't be too tired.
Although the girl said things like "it will be better once the other apostles arrive," Roman just treated it as one of her dreams acting up.
Agriculture in Harrenhal had seen massive improvements.
Roman understood the importance of non-staple foods, so from the start, he planned plots for growing vegetables and fruits, and set up beehives and mushroom logs in some woodland villages.
Combined with intensive farming, it provided meat, eggs, milk, and fur products while also providing manure for the farmland.
Now the residents of Harrenhal consumed a wide variety of food; with a balanced diet, the demand for staple grains was not as high as before.
This also led to luxury items like pastries being affordable for ordinary people in Harrenhal; several pastry shops could be found in slightly larger towns, with all sorts of people buying these desserts every day.
This time, Roman made a specialty of the Long Summer for Fili: lemon cake.
Ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, and lemons were easily obtainable; speaking of which, this cake seemed to be Sansa's favorite as well.
As the refreshing and delicate cake entered her mouth, Fili closed her eyes happily, a sweet smile gracing her face.
The girl wanted to savor the feeling as much as possible, taking only a small bite each time, which made Roman laugh.
"Pastries aren't some luxury; even the commoners of Harrenhal can eat them occasionally. You don't need to be so frugal."
"But I don't want to develop greedy habits. If I don't practice moderation, I'm afraid I'll become a glutton like in the stories."
Hearing this, Roman felt a mix of emotions: heartache for Fili, admiration for her self-restraint, and gratitude for meeting such a girl.
He rubbed Fili's blonde hair and extended his right pinky finger.
"Then let's supervise each other. From now on, neither of us should develop any bad habits."
Fili was touched by these words, her azure eyes shining brightly.
Without even wiping the cake crumbs from the corner of her mouth, she immediately grabbed Roman's hand.
"Then it's a promise. Lord Roman must also take care of his health in the future; I will be monitoring you!"
"You brat! Don't go expanding the scope!"
During the harvest, the two temporarily set down their burdens to enjoy a rare and leisurely holiday together.
Once his energy was fully restored, Roman threw himself into building the water distribution system.
The Riverlands has many rivers—that's a given—but not every place enjoyed a convenient water source.
Some higher-elevation areas still required manual labor to transport water.
Furthermore, some rivers were clearly only a few hundred meters apart, yet using boat transport required taking a long detour.
So Roman's goal was simple: build a hydraulic system for water supply, drainage, irrigation, and digging canals.
While Riverrun prepared for the harvest banquet, Harrenhal began constructing dams and cofferdams, along with digging various accompanying channels and aqueducts.
The first to see the benefits were the workshops across Harrenhal; previously, transporting various raw materials to the reactors required a lot of animal power.
Now Roman had the subjects dig small aqueducts that could accommodate two ferry boats, allowing coal and ore to be transported directly to the workshops.
The goods produced by the workshops could also be sent directly to the docks or post stations by small boat.
Next were the farmlands; Roman's canal project brought the irrigation rate of the farmlands in Harrenhal's territory to a staggering 90%.
Meanwhile, Lady Helaena spent a great deal of time preparing supplies for the harvest banquet.
It wasn't until House Tully sent invitations to the lords of the Riverlands that Roman set off for Riverrun with Lady Helaena.
Riverrun.
Hoster Tully stood on a high tower, looking down at the banners of his vassals.
"Edmure, have the people from the Riverlands not arrived yet?"
"No, Father. Lady Helaena said they are bringing a lot of goods and it will take some time for them to arrive."
A flash of impatience crossed the eyes of the Duke of Riverrun; the Hean Family, or more accurately, Roman Rivers, made him very uneasy.
He knew Lady Helaena didn't have the ability to turn Harrenhal into this; only Roman, that boy, had the ability to turn waste into treasure.
Now the Riverlands had become unified; from the Gods Eye to Maidenpool, it was slowly coalescing in Roman's hands.
A group of frustrated Royalists had gathered once more and become even stronger.
If there were another marriage alliance, they could replicate the four-house alliance of the wolf, stag, fish, and falcon from before the War of the Usurper.
At this moment, Hoster could somewhat imagine how The Mad King felt facing their four-house alliance back then, yet he had no reason or ability to deal with Roman.
By now, the nobles had been waiting in Riverrun for several days; although they arrived at different times, the fact that the riverlands nobles took so long still made people displeased.
Finally, on a sunny day, Lady Helaena arrived at the scene with a group of nobles.
The appearance of the Harrenhal contingent made everyone present gasp.
In the front was the usual guard of honor: various flashy singers, flower girls, colorful banners, and bread distribution teams common in the Riverlands.
Behind them was an endless convoy filled with various goods, including the ingredients for the banquet and gifts for House Tully.
On either side of the procession were the heavyweights: 800 Armored Sergeants plus 500 Ironmen, along with accompanying auxiliary troops and hired commoners.
Seeing this display, the riverlands nobles immediately reached a conclusion:
Do not engage in field battles with the people of Harrenhal.
Aside from anything else, the equipment on those few hundred Ironmen was the kind of gear only a proper knight would have in other regions.
But now that Harrenhal had armed an entire organized unit like this, the riverlands nobles really couldn't think of any family that could stand against Harrenhal alone.
After the Hean Family arrived, the Darry Family and the Mooton Family followed shortly after.
It was clear that these three families had united around the Hean Family.
"It seems this harvest banquet won't be peaceful."
"Why did Harrenhal's heavy cavalry come too? What are they trying to do?"
"I heard that the taxes paid by Harrenhal alone exceed the total taxes of all the nobles between Riverrun and the Gods Eye. The Hean Family is showing off!"
...
Roman and Lady Helaena ignored the gossip and walked respectfully before Hoster.
"My Lord, Harrenhal prepared many goods for the banquet, which caused some delays on the road. Please forgive us."
Lady Helaena responded to Hoster while gesturing for Roman to move the goods into Riverrun.
At this point, Roman no longer hid his talents; instead, he took the initiative to work with Fili to arrange and deploy personnel, and with the help of Scholar Tom, began greeting the other nobles.
Every noble visited by Roman was trembling with fear; even though the heir of Harrenhal was kind and humble, they couldn't stop imagining the scene of the Ironmen charging under Roman's command.
Hoster looked at his son and found him actually chatting amiably with Roman about interesting anecdotes in the Riverlands.
The Duke of Riverrun suddenly felt like he was going to faint; how could the gap between people be so large?