The orange-yellow dragonflame spewed from Drogon's mouth, licking the ground like a fiery tongue, accurately sweeping across Harry Strickland's escape route and instantly engulfing the Golden Company commander, who had only run a little over a hundred meters.
Hot wind rushed forward, scorching faces even from a distance. No one dared to imagine the purgatory the person wrapped in dragonflame was in... The scream lasted only a few seconds before stopping abruptly. Harry's round body, carried forward by inertia, fell face-first onto the ground like a burning sack of garbage. All that remained in the world was a small pile of ashes barely resembling a human outline, and the nauseating smell of burning flesh and grease wafting out.
An operation so impressive it would be unforgettable for all time: sentencing, execution, and on-the-spot cremation completed in an instant. Daenerys truly lived up to being a hero among queens.
Sounds of gasping and swallowing arose among the remaining Golden Company officers. It took them a long while to tear their gazes away from their commander, or rather, their late commander's cremation ceremony, and look back fearfully at Daenerys, whose face was still frosty, and Aegor, who wore a serious expression.
The Golden Company had a custom that had lasted nearly seventy years: after each commander died, his skull was boiled clean and plated with gold, then hung at the top of the army banner. This was so it could be carried and placed before the army when they crossed the Narrow Sea to "reclaim" Westeros in the future, allowing them to "witness" the final victory.
Aegor did not know whether Harry Strickland, whose ashes had been scattered by Daenerys's dragonflame in full view of everyone, would still receive this treatment, nor did he care.
He had more pressing matters to worry about.
From the perspective of the mastermind behind the scenes, the plan to use the Hand of the Queen to silence the witnesses was naturally a huge success, exceeding expectations.
But from the official identity of the Hand, Daenerys had created a complete mess in a fit of irrationality.
Aegor's series of schemes to eliminate "the prince," Connington, and Harry Strickland was, after all, meant to maintain the stability of the Targaryen Dynasty, not to undermine Daenerys or rebel against her. Now that the goal had been achieved, how to handle the aftermath and reduce the subsequent impact of this incident became his top priority.
The most urgent task was to silence the Golden Company to prevent the malicious rumor that Daenerys had committed "kinslaying" from spreading.
Aegor's plan for this was to pacify and incorporate the Golden Company.
Excluding those missing, scattered, or captured, this premier sellsword company of the Free Cities still presented a force of three to four thousand men before him. With such a large number, eliminating them all was not only a foolish choice but also an impossible task. And if they were allowed to return to Essos as agreed in the peace treaty...
It was estimated that within a few days, they would become living witnesses for the slave masters' slanderous rumor that "Daenerys hired assassins to kill her kin and then silenced the killers."
And the best way to prevent this from happening was to temporarily detain all Golden Company personnel, offer appropriate hush money, and tie their interests to Daenerys.
Only when their interests aligned with the Targaryen Dynasty would this group of sellswords voluntarily and spontaneously spread the story that "Harry Strickland was tricked and murdered the prince, and was subsequently executed by Daenerys in her rage," the version where he got what he deserved.
As for the conspiracy theory version of "Daenerys committing kinslaying," Aegor absolutely could not prevent its inevitable appearance in the future, but he had to at least try to delay it until after the war against the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance ended.
"Yesterday, Lord Harry met a fake Hand, but Her Grace and I standing before you now are the real ones! Witnessed by Lord Mace Tyrell, I, on behalf of Daenerys, grant a true and formal pardon to all members of the Golden Company. Aside from necessary investigations, no one involved in this matter will be held accountable for their crimes!" Aegor stepped forward, cleaning up the mess for Daenerys, who had just vented her anger and was still in a state of intense emotional turmoil. "As for what comes next, I want to ask, who is the commander of the Golden Company now?"
The group of Golden Company officers, still shaken, looked at each other. Who dared to step forward?
"If you need time to discuss or nominate someone, then I will take the liberty of designating a 'temporary' one for you first." Aegor did not have the patience to wait for them to calm down and discuss. He initiated his traditional skill, appointing by decree. "That brave warrior who just snatched the fake pardon from Lord Strickland's hand, what is your name?"
"Black Balaq, Hand of the Queen," the sellsword with dark skin, white hair, and a feathered cloak stepped forward. Even if he had been frightened by the dragonflame, he did not show it. "I am from the Summer Isles. Since the time Ser Myles Toyne, Blackheart, was commander, I have served as the Golden Company's archery commander. If the Hand of the Queen needs to stop a maester in a certain castle from sending out a raven, I am your best choice."
"Very good. It sounds like your qualifications should be sufficient to convince everyone." Aegor did not need a master archer for now, nor was he interested in delving deeper into this man. He nodded casually. "Acting Commander Black Balaq, I know the Golden Company traveled a long way across the sea only to gain nothing, and certainly cannot be sent back so shamefully. Now there is a new order before you. Take it on, and you will not only have work to do, but might even be set for the rest of your lives. Interested?"
Not very interested. The Golden Company had suffered successive defeats and setbacks, and was now undergoing the drastic change of losing its head. This was the time it most needed rest and leave.
However, having just witnessed Daenerys deal with their former commander, and now under the invisible pressure of the True Dragon's might emanating from Aegor, the word "no" simply could not come out of Black Balaq's throat.
"What kind of work? How will the payment be made?"
"In the latter half of the Western Campaign, there will inevitably be some diehard Reach loyalists who refuse to obey House Tyrell's command to surrender and pledge allegiance to Daenerys. Highgarden and Daenerys do not have enough manpower to split their forces and deal with them one by one. To avoid further delaying spring planting, we need some helpers." Aegor smiled. Although he was serious this time, even he felt that his next words sounded a bit like he was tricking the other party. "As for the payment, land and castles, of course. The Stormlands and the Reach are currently least lacking in these two things. Whether you return across the Narrow Sea to face the angry relatives of fallen comrades demanding compensation, or stay in Westeros and become nobles with property and land, will depend on your performance from now on."
...
How to control the beast that was the Golden Company without suffering backlash was a technical skill, but as long as one was cautious, its difficulty would in no way be greater than defeating the hundred-thousand-strong Reach allied army.
In the original Great King's Landing Plan, after the Western Campaign began, Daenerys's faction would no longer accept new joiners to share the fruits of victory. However, the commotion caused by the slave masters' alliance was greater than expected, and time was tight, requiring the Western Campaign to end as quickly as possible. Given the urgency, giving up some spoils in exchange for greater benefits was not completely unacceptable.
Fortunately, after years of war and a winter, the size of the cake freed up on the continent of Westeros was large enough for a few more people to share.
Aegor had already figured it out. The most fertile lands in the Crownlands, the eastern Reach, and the northern Stormlands would be divided by Daenerys and his own Gift Army faction. This would be the core "Great King's Landing" in the future. The borderlands in the southern Reach would be taken by the Dornish, giving the Martell family, this barefoot rogue, shoes so they could not forever remain uninvolved... The remaining southern Stormlands, the marginal areas in the mountains between the Rainwood and the Kingswood, still had many territories of slightly inferior but not too barren quality, which could be carved out a bit to serve as hush money for the Golden Company.
As for whether they would stay after the war as minor lords of middling status, or sell their land for coin and return to Essos to continue living by the sword, that would be their own choice.
Suppressing the loss of having no relatives left and the anger toward the mastermind, Daenerys dejectedly returned east to King's Landing, while Aegor, after adding the task of investigating the true culprit to his list, took the temporarily disarmed and incorporated premier sellsword company of the Free Cities and continued toward Oldtown.
There were not many exciting stories to tell about the investigation into the "impersonation case" or the process of intimidating and winning over a group of sellswords. In short, four days after departing from Highgarden, they arrived outside Oldtown along the perfectly clear Rose Road.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)