"So, if life was so enjoyable running a snack stall in Volantis, why did you join the allied army and become an elephant rider in the campaign against Slaver's Bay?" Dany asked in confusion.
She clearly remembered that back when Cadillac had still been a slave wagon driver, he had been exceptionally devoted to "Mhysa," the liberator of slaves.
It was precisely because of that admiration, which won the Dragon Queen's favor during her incognito visit, that she decided to give him a chance to change his fate.
Could a person's thinking really change the moment their status changed?
Dick Tywin said helplessly, "I had just gotten married. Of course I didn't want to go to war, much less fight for slave masters.
"But Dana's mother lost her status as a freedwoman after extorting a high-ranking officer of the allied army. As a slave cook, she had no choice but to accompany the army to Slaver's Bay.
"Dana worried about her mother and cried every day. So I went to ask the allied officers about Kelly's situation, and that happened to be when the Long-Nose King was recruiting elephant riders.
"My story of going from slave to free man had made me somewhat famous in Volantis, and people gradually came to recognize my elephant-handling skills.
"The Long-Nose King had heard of me. After personally testing my abilities, he immediately recruited me as his guard and promised to arrange a good position for Kelly.
"If I distinguished myself on the battlefield, I could even use my merits to buy back her freedom."
Dany frowned thoughtfully for a moment before asking, "That Kelly... does she happen to run a meat pie shop in western Volantis?
"Right beside the Valyrian Road. Her specialty is carrot lamb pies, and she has a cousin who used to own your carriage company?"
The horse-faced youth widened his eyes in disbelief. "Your Majesty, you know Kelly?"
That fat woman had swindled her out of five golden dragons!
"What exactly did she do to end up enslaved?" Dany asked curiously.
"The allied army traveling to Slaver's Bay mostly used the Valyrian Road, and Kelly's lamb pie shop sat right by the roadside. Mercenaries and officers from all over the world often stopped by her business.
"For some reason, Kelly, who had always been shrewd and experienced, suddenly became incredibly greedy. Whenever she spotted outsiders, she charged outrageous prices.
"Two trained horses, two meat pies, four bottles of Arbor wine, and a bag of snacks, and she dared demand seven golden dragons!
"And the wine was fake.
"The customers happened to be the famous Windblown Company. They directly arrested her and handed her over to the military magistrate, who demoted her to slavery according to the law."
"Hehe..." Dany laughed rather unkindly.
After laughing for a while under everyone's puzzled gazes, she finally returned to business. "Can you find Prince Rio within the worm tunnels? Or rather, did Prince Rio leave you any method of locating him?"
"Your Majesty, I specialize in handling elephants and understand them extremely well. I can track elephant herds through dung, footprints, and scent.
"And wherever the elephant herd is, that's where Prince Rio will be. After the Long-Nose King died, he became the commander of the elephant riders."
Dick Tywin's expression turned somewhat strange as he said the last sentence.
"That's actually a pretty good method," Dany praised before asking, "How long would it roughly take to find the herd?"
"That mainly depends on how far away I am from them. If they're twenty kilometers away, then even without counting the search time, simply walking there would take two or three days," the long-faced youth said helplessly.
"The village south of the city that was attacked by dragonworms... they should have found the dragonworm nest by now, right?" Dany turned toward Layla.
"I also arranged for people to bury water jars nearby to listen for underground movements," the Lord of Meereen replied with a nod.
Dany immediately stood up, her hand resting on her sword hilt. "We leave at once. It's time to eliminate the final hidden danger in Slaver's Bay."
"Your Majesty, there are too many uncertainties in the worm tunnels. If you fall into an ambush, then no matter how powerful you are, you won't be a match for dragonworms in such confined spaces," Old Aemon hurriedly advised.
"That's not wrong. Before, I definitely wouldn't have dared enter the tunnels personally. But things are different now. I have methods to protect myself," Dany said with a smile.
Seeing her confidence, Old Aemon relaxed slightly, though he still advised, "Even if you're confident, there's no need to rush like this.
"Don't forget that tomorrow you're supposed to inspect the living conditions of the common people outside the city, and the day after tomorrow you still have to give a speech in the plaza."
"It's not like entering the worm tunnels means I'll find Jenny immediately. I can ride the dragon back tomorrow. Or we can simply move the inspection site to villages near the tunnels."
Dany moved with swift decisiveness. She fitted Little Silver with a special saddle, had Drogon carry it, and flew seventy kilometers away to "Cuckoo Village."
Layla Amber and fifteen other wyvern riders each brought along three armored knights.
Including Dany and Dick Tywin, there were sixty-two people in total.
"Ah, Khaleesi, I never expected you to come personally!"
The moment the dragon landed in the manor threshing ground, an old horselord with a gray braided ponytail hurried over.
The old man was short and skinny. His reddish-brown face resembled a shriveled orange dried of moisture, and his toothless grin stretched into an ugly but eager smile.
Aside from replacing his tattered Dothraki vest with a clean new sheepskin coat, he looked almost exactly as he had before.
Dany could not help but fall into a daze as scenes from years ago in the Red Waste flashed rapidly through her mind.
"Avanti..." She thought for a moment before suddenly realizing. "I remember now. Cuckoo Village is your fief."
Even Count Broken Chains had been granted land, so naturally the Dragon Queen would not mistreat those old retainers who had followed her out of the wasteland.
The three cities of Slaver's Bay were all directly governed crown territories. South of the HLJ, especially around Meereen and Astapor, the region fully implemented a prefecture-county administrative system.
From Meereen northwestward to the northern grasslands and westward to the border of Mantarys, the great nobles under her command were allowed to freely choose between the prefecture-county system and feudalism.
Even the military garrisons of the Ming Dynasty had hereditary offices and lands. The Dragon Queen had her own direct knights, and they all required land to support themselves and pass down their family lines.
Along the HLJ river basin, she divided many small knightly fiefs, one of which belonged to Avanti.
Horsemen, slaves, and foreign knights formed the three major factions under the Dragon Queen's rule. Maintaining a balance among the three was more beneficial for her governance... no, for the governance of Simba's descendants.
The founding emperor had no need for petty political schemes. Everything was planned for future generations.
"Yes, yes, my fief is right around here. Sigh, those damned Valyrians. The sun is already gone, so why are they still causing trouble?" the old horselord grumbled.
"Oh right, Khaleesi, do you know when the sun will return? I don't have many years left. I just hope to see the summer sun one last time before I die," the old horselord sighed.
Your ambitions are really something. You actually want to live until the next summer. How many years would that take?
In any case, Dany had absolutely no confidence she could bring back the sun within ten years.
"You're still vigorous for your age. Living another twenty years won't be a problem. By then, the Long Night will certainly be over," Dany casually comforted her old subordinate.
When they arrived at the manor entrance, three horselord women in their forties and fifties smiled as they bowed to the Dragon Queen.
"Khaleesi, we're so happy you could visit our home."
Beside them stood two little horselord children around two or three years old, a boy and a girl.
The pair, who looked nothing like Avanti, solemnly addressed her as "Khaleesi" according to horselord custom.
Avanti waved his hand and ordered his wives, "Go to the stables and bring sixty-one good horses. Khaleesi didn't come here as a guest. Until the dragonworms are dealt with, this land won't know peace for a single day."
The feudal system of Slaver's Bay also differed from Westeros. Every feudal lord held one or more official positions serving the crown.
Take Avanti for example. As the feudal lord of this land, aside from the traditional obligations of military service and taxation, he also had to manage a ranch for the Dragon Queen.
The ranch sat on his own land. He covered all costs such as pasture and labor himself, but whenever nearby relay stations needed warhorses or trained mounts, Avanti had to provide them free of charge.
Then there was Count Broken Chains. Even though he counted as a "great noble" in Slaver's Bay, though in Westeros he would be utterly ordinary, he still had to maintain and protect the royal highway between Meereen and the Dothraki Sea within his territory. However, he was forbidden from setting up toll gates along the road.
The royal highway belonged to the kingdom.
To put it plainly, although those nobles carried the title of feudal lords, they were more like hereditary magistrates or governors. A large portion of their territories' production had to be devoted to contributing to the kingdom.
In essence, they served the state rather than the king.
To a certain extent, Slaver's Bay had achieved a centralized system of "strengthening the trunk while weakening the branches."
Before long, Avanti's three wives and over twenty horselord relay riders led over a group of healthy horses already saddled and bridled.
The Dragon Queen planned to explore the worm tunnels on horseback. Drogon had carried over her own mount, while the remaining sixty-one warhorses had to be supplied by the relay station.
The relay station system in Slaver's Bay had originated in Astapor. Back then, to ensure effective control over villages outside the city, one of the measures implemented was a network of horselord relay stations linking all settlements.
After Yunkai and Meereen fell under her control, and after the great victory in the Battle of Meereen, elderly horselord warriors retired from military service and became relay riders for Slaver's Bay.
Besides delivering packages and letters, conveying the queen's orders to rural villages, and helping village chiefs submit reports to higher authorities or even directly to the queen, they also assisted local militias in capturing bandits and thieves.
"Khaleesi, I know this area very well. Let me accompany you!" Avanti volunteered eagerly, pounding his chest.
"You may know the land above ground, but we're going underground. There will definitely be fighting. You should stay home and look after the children instead."
Dany waved her hand and led the sixty fully armed knights away from Avanti's home.
The worm tunnel lay beneath a collapsed ruin of brick houses in the center of the village. The buildings had caved in because of a dragonworm attack.
The village militia had already cleared a path there long ago.
The tunnel averaged around three meters wide, making it fairly comfortable to travel through.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
A series of black shadows flew out from Dany's purple eyes, transforming into eighty-one large crows.
"Go. Search for tunnels with denser fire elements and the highest temperatures. Also pay attention to scents in the air. If you discover dung or signs of human or livestock activity, inform me immediately."
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
Seventy-nine of the crows cried out before silently vanishing into the darkness ahead.
"Boom!"
The remaining two transformed into fireballs the size of washbasins. One floated in the center of the cavalry formation, while the other drifted at the very front.
"Move already!" Dany frowned impatiently at the stunned Dick Tywin.
"O-Okay..." The long-faced youth looked at the Dragon Queen with awe before quickly spurring his horse forward.
"Your Majesty, did you go to the continent of Sothoryos again? You actually picked up so many little spirits. Are there really that many there?" Layla stared at the baby-faced miniature suns overhead in amazement.
"There are tons of them. Whole groups, like radishes growing in a field. I picked up two thousand in one go. I only came back because my pockets couldn't hold any more," Dany said expressionlessly.
(End of Chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09