The dwarf was dressed just like Aegon had been that day. His magnificent formal attire was embroidered with the lion of his mother's house and the three-headed red dragon representing his father.
And just like Aegon, he looked astonishingly handsome today.
Precisely because he was so handsome, and "so tall," the guests ate their cherry and strawberry salad while examining the newly appointed royal elder brother with suspicious gazes.
Dany noticed their looks and said, "Everyone knows him. Wildfire General Tyrion.
Yes, his appearance and height have changed.
But this is his true form. That previous monstrous appearance was the result of a curse cast by a forest witch."
And so on and so forth. The Dragon Queen adapted the story of The Frog Prince, turning it into the captivating tale of The Dwarf Prince.
No one knew whether the guests believed it or not. In any case, the Dragon Queen told the story brilliantly, and everyone listened with complete concentration and great satisfaction.
While the Dragon Queen was telling her story, the dwarf also tried his best to maintain an elegant and proper smile, as if he truly were that lecherous prince who had been kissed a hundred thousand times by a red priestess.
Well, the one who kissed the ugly dwarf and turned him into a handsome prince was not a princess, but a red priestess from the temple.
"In recognition of Wildfire General Tyrion's outstanding contributions to Slaver's Bay, and because he is the only surviving male descendant of my late father, I grant him the title of Honorary Prince of Gien."
At last, the Dragon Queen produced something substantial and gave the dwarf a surprise.
"To Prince Tyrion of Gien!" the Dragon Queen raised her wine glass.
"To Prince Tyrion of Gien!" the guests echoed in unison.
"What's this about Prince of Gien?"
After the opening remarks ended and the banquet officially began, every guest came forward to greet the newly appointed prince. Only afterward did the dwarf finally get the chance to voice the question in his mind.
"You don't know about Gien Island?" Dany asked in return.
"You're granting me New Ghis?" The dwarf grew excited, then deeply moved.
New Ghis was the transfer hub for maritime trade between east and west. It was the pearl of the Summer Sea and the gateway to Slaver's Bay. Its commercial and military value was enormous.
"Is something wrong with your ears? You are the Prince of Gien, not the Prince of New Ghis."
"Well… isn't New Ghis Island part of Gien Island?" the dwarf said awkwardly.
"I'm not Aegon the Conqueror with a faulty brain. New Ghis can only belong to the royal domain. And you are an honorary prince. You merely receive the taxes from Gien Island. The island itself will still be governed by officials appointed by the crown. As you said, New Ghis cannot exist without Gien Island."
The dwarf sighed dejectedly. "So after all that, my princely title is just a court rank."
Dany sneered. "Does a court rank come with the title of prince? Does it come with an annual income from a fief? Can it be inherited?
As long as you're not stupid, you should understand that I will never fully grant away strategic locations like New Ghis or Qarth."
Tyrion gave a wry smile. "If Aegon the Conqueror had been as calculating as you and kept the Riverlands firmly in his own hands, Robert's Rebellion would never have happened."
The stupidest thing Aegon the Conqueror had done was grant the Riverlands to House Tully.
The wealth of the Riverlands was second only to the Reach.
However, the great lords of the Reach were all descendants of Garth Greenhand. Outsiders found it very difficult to insert themselves there, just as external lords found it hard to rule the North.
Leaving Highgarden to the Tyrells could be considered the best option under the circumstances.
But the Riverlands were completely different. They had been ruled by Harren the Black, and historically the region had never had a fixed master.
Harren's reputation in the Seven Kingdoms was comparable to Maegor the Cruel. Just listen to his nickname: "the Black." Killing him would only earn the support of the Riverlands' lords.
Moreover, the Crownlands and the Riverlands had no real geographic boundary. In fact, part of the Crownlands plus the entire Riverlands together formed the complete Trident basin.
No one knew what Aegon the "Conqueror" had been thinking when he split that imperial foundation in two, choosing a scrap for himself while leaving the largest piece of meat to the Earl of Tully.
"Oh, right. Gien Island hasn't been conquered yet. The Ghiscari on the island are openly waging guerrilla warfare and acting very arrogantly.
General Hatar, who is leading the southern campaign, is ruthless enough but lacks proper methods.
In a couple of days I'll arrange for you to go to New Ghis and assist Count Hatar in governing. Gien Island is your fief. You'll be working for yourself. No problem with that, right?"
"You haven't even conquered it yet…" The dwarf's face twisted. "Why not make me Prince of Pentos instead? It would at least be closer when I go back to visit my hometown."
"To be honest, if you had the ability to deal with the various evil gods in the Free Cities, I wouldn't mind giving you Pentos," Dany said seriously.
"Evil gods?" The dwarf looked puzzled. "Are we talking about the same Pentos?"
"When the Long Night descends, the higher powers of the world begin to stir. Think about it. If there's a hundred-meter supergiant tree in a forest, would there really be a lack of ordinary giant trees fifty meters tall?"
Tyrion suddenly shivered. "The noble hierarchy of a kingdom is basically a pyramid. The king stands at the top, beneath him the seven great dukes, below them the powerful counts of the seven kingdoms, then the middling counts, ordinary counts, barons, knights…
If the hierarchy of power in the world is also a pyramid, and if R'hllor and the Cold God are kings, with seven dukes beneath each king, then…"
"Demigods everywhere?" he said in horror.
"You're not completely stupid," Dany nodded approvingly. "Just as the world has more kings than those in Westeros, there are more true gods than just R'hllor and the Cold God.
Outside Westeros, every trading city-state on the continent of Essos has a god behind it."
"I want to return to Westeros," Tyrion said after a moment of silence.
"You think Westeros is safer?"
"In Slaver's Bay, I can't find a sense of belonging," Tyrion sighed and spoke honestly.
"Very well." Dany picked up a cherry and placed it between her red lips. "You can leave anytime."
"I thought you would try to persuade me to stay." Seeing how readily she agreed, Tyrion felt oddly disappointed.
Dany looked at him strangely. "I'm not planning to stay in Slaver's Bay for long myself. Why would I try to keep you?"
"I completely forgot about the Others." The dwarf laughed awkwardly. "When are you going back?"
"Two giant dragons will remain at Dragonstone and assist Barristan in forming the Dawn Warriors. I personally will no longer involve myself in trivial matters. Once I finish handling the winter preparations in Slaver's Bay, all my time and energy will be devoted to cultivation."
With a sigh, Dany did not conceal anything and explained the messy situation between herself and R'hllor.
After recovering from his shock, Tyrion's expression became extremely complicated.
"You've grown to such a level."
"I was never an ordinary person."
The next afternoon, outside Meereen, Prince of Gien saw Tessa again after many days apart. At the same time, he witnessed an extremely spectacular scene.
More than fifty wyverns were flying in the sky. Each one carried a long chain in its claws, some ten meters long, others dozens of meters, some even three hundred meters long. All the chains were connected to the side of a flying ship in the sky.
The ship's body was extremely crude, shaped like a "U." It had neither bow nor stern, only a huge frame.
Or rather, it was essentially the rough framework of a gigantic vessel built from dragon bones.
"Sssaaaang!"
The charcoal-covered ground suddenly bulged upward. A gigantic dragon-worm poked its head out and roared amid the smoke and flames, waves of scorching heat radiating from its body.
The round dragon-worm was more than two and a half meters tall and wide. When it opened its mouth full of sharp teeth, it could swallow an elephant alive.
Yet now, under the cold gaze of the great dragon Drogon, this thirty-meter behemoth behaved as meekly as an earthworm. It wriggled quickly across the burning coals and climbed onto the skeletal giant ship.
Next, more than a dozen centaur-like men carried up a huge roll of straw matting. They spread it open and wrapped it around the dragon-worm's body.
"Skraa!"
After the centaurs left the ship, Drogon roared loudly at the wyverns resting on the ground.
In the language of the source: Lazy worms, get up and work.
"Skra—!"
"Skra—!"
One wyvern after another flapped its wings and slowly took flight until the chains in their claws became taut.
The dwarf also spotted his own Tessa among them. No one was riding it, but under the dragon's roar it behaved as obediently as the Imp before Tywin.
The fifty wyverns occupied different layers of the sky in perfect order, without interfering with each other.
When they flapped their wings together, the bone ship carrying a twenty-ton dragon-worm swayed slightly, then slowly lifted off the ground. It quickly climbed into the sky and flew toward the southeastern mountains.
"This is a crazy yet brilliant idea," Tyrion murmured.
"That's nothing. I'll show you something truly crazy."
Two hours later, the dwarf followed behind the Dragon Queen's little silver horse until they arrived at a grand estate surrounded by brick walls south of Meereen.
The estate's buildings were luxurious: a magnificent palace built from white marble and a dome supported by a red copper framework embedded with large panes of glass. It was magnificent enough to serve as the royal palace of any king in the world.
It had once belonged to Meereen's most noble Great Master, Hizdahr zo Loraq, but now it was the Dragon Queen's royal retreat.
However, Dany had not brought the dwarf here to admire the slave master's magnificent palace.
They went to the smithy in the backyard.
Near the courtyard wall, Tyrion saw a strange road laid across the ground.
"Do you know what this is?" Dany pointed at the two iron rails fixed parallel on wooden sleepers.
Tyrion only thought for a moment before nodding.
"In the mines of the Westerlands, miners cannot do without tracks like this, though most of the time they are two grooves recessed into the ground."
Dany's eyes flickered as she smiled. "What do you think would happen if tracks like this were laid across the entire region of Slaver's Bay?"
The dwarf frowned. "It would be meaningless. Rails forged from fine steel like this are far too valuable. On flat ground, tracks are less practical than wagons."
Dany gave a look to the Unsullied beside her. The canvas covering a structure inside the brick building next to the smithy was pulled aside, revealing an unbelievably ugly lump of iron.
It had eight iron wheels, a steel front shaped like a dragon's head, along with a chimney and windows. Tyrion stared at it in complete confusion and astonishment.
But his astonishment was not at the era-defying machine before him. Instead—
"Seven gods above! What kind of master blacksmith could forge an iron vehicle with such a complex structure, such precision, and such smooth surfaces?"
In an age when forging relied entirely on hammers, Tyrion was utterly stunned by the locomotive's exquisite casting technology.
"Dragonfire and magic can break the limits of technology and satisfy humanity's fantasies of surpassing its era," Dany said with a complicated expression.
Tyrion did not quite understand her sentiment. He simply asked, "After wasting so much refined iron, what is it for?"
(End of Chapter)
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