People's Square and the Monument to the Defenders of Freedom were not just empty gestures.
Nor did "freeing the slaves" simply mean removing their collars and shackles.
In the original story, Daenerys believed exactly that—and acted accordingly.
Then everything fell apart.
Once the old system has been destroyed, a new one must be established to keep society functioning. Otherwise, a world without any system at all becomes even worse than the old one.
The purpose of the square and the monument was to constantly remind the newly freed people:
You are the masters of this city now. It is only natural that you build and defend your own home.
Indeed, only yesterday Daenerys had conquered the slave city.
Today, she was already preparing to place a new set of "shackles" upon its free citizens.
She needed them to work.
She needed them to serve.
She needed them to farm.
Throughout the morning, with the help of the Unsullied, Daenerys removed every slave collar in the city.
That afternoon, beneath the blazing sun, the newly freed people lined up in long queues across the red-brick square.
Before the Great Pyramid, rows of clerks sat behind registration desks, recording each person's name, occupation, family circumstances, and hopes for the future.
The previous afternoon, after liberating the slave soldiers, Daenerys had immediately turned her attention to the household slaves emerging from the pyramids.
Cooks, maids, weavers, and other manual laborers all gratefully embraced the Dragon Queen's gift of freedom.
But when it came to scholars, gardeners, physicians, and other highly skilled workers...
They stubbornly refused to become free.
When Daenerys asked why, the scholar Ethan replied,
"My Good Master treated me very well. I had the finest food, clothing, and lodging. My work wasn't difficult, and I even had two servant girls attending me. If you force me to make a living on my own, I may not survive at all.
If Your Majesty truly wishes us well, you'd be better off selling us to Yunkai or Meereen. Skilled slaves like us are highly valued there—we could fetch quite a handsome price."
This wasn't difficult to understand.
During China's Qing Dynasty, there existed the booi system.
Booi were, fundamentally, slaves.
Yet countless people competed for the chance to become the personal slaves of Manchu nobles.
Many protagonists in time-travel novels set in the Qing Dynasty were even born into booi families.
But booi were slaves.
Their lives, dignity, even their wives and daughters belonged entirely to their masters.
And yet even modern women fantasized about traveling back in time just to become Manchu slaves.
It was utterly unbelievable.
The reason lay in the Qing social hierarchy:
Imperial Family → Nobility → Booi → Han Officials → Han Commoners.
If you served as an imperial household slave, your status could easily exceed that of an ordinary Manchu.
First, they never lacked food or clothing.
Whatever the emperor possessed, they enjoyed as well.
Sometimes they even had things the emperor didn't.
Second came power.
As the saying went, even beating a dog requires consideration for its owner.
Who dared strike the emperor's dog?
Finally came opportunity.
Could serving the emperor possibly offer no future?
Hardly.
Many imperial princes were born to booi mothers.
Even the Jiaqing Emperor's own mother had been a booi.
That was the real appeal for those "Qing time-travel" heroines.
Take the famous Cao Xueqin as another example.
For three generations his family oversaw the Jiangning Imperial Textile Bureau.
In Jiangnan, their influence ranked second only to the Governor-General of Liangjiang.
Yet officially, they remained hereditary booi of the Imperial Household Department.
Ethan and the others were much the same.
Daenerys' solution was simple.
If you're so eager to remain slaves...
Then be my slaves.
That'll save me quite a bit of money.
Just like now.
Dozens of scholars sat beneath sunshades at identical desks arranged neatly below the Great Pyramid's steps.
Working under the blazing sun, they busily registered citizens, issued identity papers, and sweated profusely from the workload.
Daenerys, meanwhile, didn't have to pay them a single copper.
After all—
Slaves did not receive wages for serving their master.
Still, she herself wasn't hiding comfortably inside the cool pyramid.
Instead, she moved a chair into the middle of the clerks' work area and personally answered questions from the freed citizens.
In this world—especially in Westeros—a king had the duty to regularly hear petitions from his subjects.
To put it in modern terms:
A king = a neighborhood committee auntie + a county magistrate.
Anyone with grievances...
Anyone facing hardship...
Anyone who simply wished to speak with the king...
Could line up outside the palace during designated audiences and await a royal hearing.
If the king happened to be lazy, the Hand of the King would deal with matters in his place.
For example, Eddard Stark once sat upon the Iron Throne to hear Riverlands peasants accuse Ser Gregor Clegane of his atrocities.
That single hearing eventually led to the rise of the Brotherhood Without Banners, Lady Stoneheart, and many later events.
Interestingly, this differed greatly from imperial China.
In every Chinese dynasty, what prime minister would dare sit upon the emperor's dragon throne?
Yet in Westeros, the Hand of the King could literally represent the monarch.
He could sit the Iron Throne.
Command the realm's armies.
Control its treasury.
Appoint and dismiss officials.
Aside from sleeping with the king's wife, there was almost nothing the king could do that his Hand could not.
Such immense authority would have left China's most powerful ministers green with envy.
Yet throughout the Targaryen dynasty's three centuries—and later under Robert Baratheon and House Lannister—
Not a single Hand of the King rebelled.
They remained astonishingly obedient.
If the king wished to execute them...
They submitted.
If he exiled them...
They silently packed their belongings and left Westeros.
The reason was simple.
In a feudal realm, the Hand was merely the king's representative.
Even the king's own authority weakened once he left the Crownlands.
How much less authority did his Hand possess?
Any Hand foolish enough to rebel would immediately find countless great and lesser lords raising banners to teach him a painful lesson.
Besides fulfilling her royal obligations, Daenerys also hoped to gain a deeper understanding of the common people's lives and concerns through these audiences.
Perhaps she might even discover a few talented individuals worth cultivating.
Simple, honest folk with no remarkable abilities usually followed the crowd.
Whatever the Mother of Dragons arranged, they accepted without complaint.
Those who deliberately sought an audience with Daenerys generally fell into one of two categories.
Either they possessed unusually innovative ideas...
Or, like Cleon, they were ambitious souls unwilling to remain ordinary.
Naturally, Daenerys remained wary of the latter.
But there were no useless pieces on a chessboard.
A skilled player knew how to make use of every piece.
She still vividly remembered the example of Zhanzha.
Once celebrated as the greatest heroine of the Jogos Nhai...
History remembered her only as:
"The Zebra-Faced Woman."
"The Barren Woman."
"The Cruel Woman."
...and countless other insults.
There were wicked deeds Daenerys could not personally perform.
Yet they still needed doing.
That was where people like Cleon became useful.
When the Green Grace arrived in her sedan chair, she saw Daenerys seated beneath a parasol, bent over a sheet of white parchment while speaking to a woman from the Summer Isles.
"...Go ahead and do it without hesitation. I'll provide you with an interest-free loan. You can repay it within ten years. And if your goods don't sell, every quarter—every three months—I will purchase all your remaining stock at market price."
"Thank you, Your Grace."
The young black woman wiped away tears as she repeatedly bowed.
Only after noticing the Green Grace's arrival did she excuse herself.
The people waiting in line also tactfully stepped back, leaving the two women space to speak.
"What does she intend to do?" the Green Grace asked curiously.
"Her name is Lysa," Daenerys said, handing over a handkerchief embroidered with exquisite peonies.
"She's a textile worker whose embroidery rivals that of the finest craftsmen from Yi Ti's imperial court.
She wants to open a clothing shop, but she lacks the capital and fears no one will buy her products.
So I'm giving her a ten-year interest-free loan to start her business.
If her merchandise doesn't sell...
I'll buy every piece myself."
"..."
The Green Grace's wisdom told her there was profound significance behind Daenerys' actions.
Yet her limited experience prevented her from grasping the deeper truth.
"What brings you here?" Daenerys asked while motioning for Jhiqui to pour the Green Grace a cup of chilled sweet lemonade from a clay jar.
Unlike other kings and queens, Daenerys did not seat herself upon a lofty throne while petitioners stood below to display royal majesty.
Because under such circumstances...
Who would ever speak honestly?
Her wooden chair, taken from one of the Good Masters, was certainly spacious and elegant.
But every petitioner received a chair as well.
They spoke face to face.
The Green Grace sat down, glancing uneasily at the glaring sunlight surrounding them.
She felt as though she were sitting atop a blazing fire pit.
Wiping sweat from her forehead, she sighed.
"Your Grace, you really ought to receive visitors inside the pyramid."
"The pyramid is too high," Daenerys replied with a smile.
"Ordinary people can't easily reach it.
Nor can they even see what's happening."
The pyramid's lower levels sat close to the ground.
But they mostly housed prisons, warehouses, and servants' quarters.
Formal audiences would naturally be held at the summit—
One hundred meters above ground.
Climbing up required exhausting effort.
Coming back down wasn't much easier.
If she herself were an ordinary citizen...
She would hesitate before making such a journey merely to see a queen she scarcely knew.
Besides—
Justice conducted without public witnesses could hardly be called transparent.
The Green Grace hesitated.
"But receiving people here in the square seems a little..."
"In a few days I'll renovate a spacious audience hall on the pyramid's ground floor specifically for common visitors."
"I..."
The Green Grace's expression shifted behind her green silk veil.
"Your Grace... the Ghiscari nobility traditionally preserve their ancestors as mummies inside the lower levels of the pyramids. You..."
"No need to worry," Daenerys interrupted with a wave.
She picked up a porcelain bowl and drank half of its lemonade in several large gulps before letting out a satisfied sigh.
"Even if they were all unforgivable slave masters...
The dead are still the dead.
I won't disturb their remains.
Didn't we place the Ghiscari who died during the battle in Pride Square so their families could claim the bodies?"
The Green Grace immediately turned pale.
She remembered that square all too well.
The stench of decomposition had become unbearable.
So many families had already been wiped out.
Who was left to claim the corpses?
Under the scorching summer sun...
Several days had passed.
The bodies were already decomposing into sludge.
"Your Grace, whatever remains should be burned before disease spreads."
"Mm. Tonight."
Daenerys nodded.
Even without the reminder, she had intended to do exactly that.
She had publicly announced from the beginning:
Families had three days to reclaim their dead.
After three days...
Every remaining corpse would be cremated.
The notices were still posted throughout Pride Square.
"I'll also relocate all the coffins from the various pyramids into a single pyramid.
That way, I'll preserve the Ghiscari nobles' burial traditions while freeing enormous amounts of space for other purposes."
"Your Grace is wise."
The Green Grace felt greatly reassured by Daenerys' consideration.
She seized the opportunity to explain why she had come.
"I have two matters to discuss.
First...
Three pyramids remain occupied by noble families.
If they choose to surrender, how will Your Grace deal with them?
Second...
It concerns Ser Cleon—the Breaker of Chains—and his conduct.
During the capture of fifteen pyramids, twelve noble households were slaughtered completely.
Men, women, children...
Only a few families left behind children younger than five.
As for the remaining three pyramids...
The nobles surrendered.
Yet Ser Cleon still executed every person over the age of fourteen."
Seeing Daenerys' expression grow serious, the Green Grace continued.
"If Your Grace intends only to rule Astapor, such actions may not matter.
But your ambition is to transform the entire Slaver's Bay.
Astapor is merely a frontier city.
Yunkai and Meereen possess far more pyramids—and much larger ones.
Beyond those stand mighty city walls."
"I issued strict orders from the very beginning," Daenerys said slowly.
"Kill only those slave masters guilty of heinous crimes.
Never harm their children.
That was clearly stated both on the leaflets scattered over the pyramids and the notices posted throughout the city.
Two thousand Freedom Fighters died during the uprising.
Roughly half of them were killed by the Unsullied...
Because they crossed the line I had drawn."
"But..."
The Green Grace replied,
"The household inside the Great Pyramid behind you was wiped out completely.
No one ever accepted responsibility.
Seeing that no punishment followed, Ser Cleon lost all restraint.
The attackers at the other pyramids seem to have found an example to imitate.
Before opening their gates to surrender...
They simply slaughtered the wealthy merchant families inside first."
-----------------------
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