A white stone wall encircled a castle. The wall had been built from enormous white boulders quarried from the neighboring valley.
"That used to be a small hill," the rat garrison commander explained excitedly. "After years of quarrying stone, the hill became a valley."
A large formation of rat guards—wearing all kinds of armor—had already assembled in neat ranks beneath the outer wall, awaiting their arrival.
The castle's main structure was a tower, exceptionally tall—tall enough to rise even slightly above the distant hill.
This, presumably, was the "wizard's tower" the rat mage had spoken of.
It was Dominic's first time seeing a place that so clearly embodied a mage's residence, and he found himself liking it at first glance.
In truth, the "wizard's tower" had no ornamental style at all—only pure verticality, straight as a spear thrust into the heavens.
A rat that had clearly been waiting for some time stepped forward.
This rat was unusual: lean-built, nearly half a man's height, dressed in an immaculate gray formal coat, with a stiff, serious manner.
A rat with such "aristocratic" bearing—Dominic could only think: Absurd on top of absurd—this is absurd all the way down.
Dominic dismounted, his boots just touching the ground.
The rat bowed deeply and, in a low, slow voice, said:
"Ser Dominic, I am the steward of this castle.
Lord Isie has been informed of your visit and is most pleased. Please, follow me."
With that, the "rat steward" turned and led Dominic's party inside.
Before long, Dominic was brought to the wizard's tower at the castle's center—the residence of the mage Isie Orz.
Or, if Dominic had his way—
He would have called it a library.
Because it was enormous.
Huge even by human standards—let alone for rats.
It was a circular chamber with a towering domed ceiling, and an unbroken ring of massive bookshelves around the perimeter—
Damn it.
The shelves were two stories tall.
They were packed tightly with books, potions, bottles and jars, and all manner of scrolls.
Dominic did a rough estimate: there had to be tens of thousands of volumes here.
Along the lower walls stood numerous iron cabinets, used to store more critical items—minerals, materials, and old or important documents.
At least a hundred enormous rats scurried up and down, carrying materials and dumping them into a gigantic vessel…
Below it burned a flame of a strange color.
The white rat, Isie, sat on a tall chair at a workbench, directing the rats as they added ingredients while consulting books laid out before him—several rats existed solely to turn pages for him.
"Ser Dominic, I'm pleased to see you!"
When Dominic entered, the white rat greeted him cheerfully. Beside Isie, a "pet girl" in an ornate dress—his original body, before he swapped with his pet—brought over a tray of tempting pastries.
…
"Lord Isie, forgive my bluntness," Dominic said straight away. "But the rats in your castle… they seem rather unusual."
"Unusual?" Isie bit into a pastry, cheeks puffing. "More than unusual. They look like humans, don't they?"
"Don't tell me they also swapped bodies with rats because of magical experiments?"
Dominic's heart lurched. You didn't turn everyone in the castle into rats just because you accidentally became one, did you…?
"Of course not. I became like this by accident." Isie scratched his cheek with a tiny paw. "But they really are rats. They've simply… evolved."
"Evolved?"
"Yes. Put simply—I made a magical potion and used rats as test subjects."
Isie spread his small paws and sighed. "With ordinary animals, it's difficult to see effects quickly, and even harder for those effects to manifest in offspring.
But rats are different.
They're cute, but they react strongly to potions—and they reproduce quickly…"
"I see." Dominic nodded. Of course. In any world, white mice were the best experimental subjects.
"The rats that drank the potion evolved—into intelligent, physically strong rats… almost like humans."
Isie spoke with faint regret.
"Unfortunately, after evolving, they lost their ability to reproduce."
Dominic's expression darkened. He looked at Isie and said flatly, "Good. Otherwise, Lord Isie, you would have become the enemy of all mankind."
"Why?" Isie blinked.
"When rats are weak, unintelligent—mere low creatures—they're already famous for survival and breeding.
Now imagine this: rats growing to nearly half a man's size, with intelligence not far below humans…
And then add that terrifying reproductive ability.
If 'rat-men' bred like that…" Dominic let the thought hang, then finished coldly, "They'd threaten the survival of humans across the entire continent."
Isie opened his mouth, then thought it through—and shuddered.
"You're right. I nearly caused a dreadful catastrophe."
Dominic patted the rat's head and laughed.
"Still, your castle is remarkably well put together. You must be living quite comfortably as a 'lord,' Lord Isie. What does it feel like to rule over rat subjects?"
"It's not as simple as you think!" Isie's ears shot up, eyes widening.
"Over the years, teaching a bunch of rats—rats that look like humans—how to speak, how to behave, how to be civilized… it's been genuinely interesting.
The experiment gave them intelligence. I couldn't just abandon them to fend for themselves, so I ended up becoming their rat chieftain.
Do you have any idea how much effort it took to train them not to relieve themselves wherever they pleased?
Ha!
And being a lord isn't easy. There are tens of thousands of rats in this castle—food, drink, waste, clothing, shelter, daily life—everything has to be managed by me. It's robbed me of time I could have spent experimenting…"
"Wait." While the white rat complained, Dominic suddenly caught an important point.
"Lord Isie… this potion you developed—does it work on humans?"
"No." Isie shook his head.
Hearing that, Dominic exhaled unconsciously.
By Isie's explanation, the potion was extremely effective on animals—especially those with low intelligence.
But on humans… it did nothing.
As expected. Dominic gave a small, crooked smile.
And yet—
A thought flashed through his mind.
If he used this potion to mass-produce a "rat legion," would it have potential on the continent of Westeros?
Heh.
The idea flickered for only an instant before he dismissed it.
Dominic had no desire to create an otherworld version of biohazard.
"Thank you for clearing that up, Lord Isie," Dominic said after a long moment, smiling politely.
"By the way," Isie asked, "you didn't come all this way just to visit. You must have something important."
…
"A powder—burns rapidly, produces large volumes of gas, explodes…"
After hearing Dominic's description, the white rat called over several rats, who hauled multiple heavy tomes down from the towering shelves and began flipping through them carefully.
After a long time, Dominic asked, his voice slightly tight, "Well?"
"According to these ancient spellbooks," Isie said slowly, "there is something like the powder you described… and the method of making it is quite simple…"
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🏰 Game of Thrones: Secrets Beneath the Dreadfort
📢 Dark Secrets Await in the North! 📢
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