The Battle of Fury Sweeping the Plains, fought on the continent of Essos, finally came to an end.
Of the original two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, Freygo managed to take fewer than forty thousand back with him.
Robert took a little over thirty thousand.
Eddard still had roughly fifteen thousand men.
The Tully army commanded by Edmure had only three thousand left.
As for the remaining forces from the Iron Islands and Harrenhal, only a thousand or so survived.
Tywin's army was worth mentioning.
After all, the older a fox became, the more cunning it was.
Tywin had reacted the fastest.
When Mathos led the army in its assault on the coalition camp, he had already taken most of the Westerlands soldiers and begun rapidly withdrawing toward the Braavos Coast.
By now, he had seized enough ships and divided the roughly twenty thousand Westerlands soldiers into three groups to return to Westeros.
Not many had actually been burned to death by the dragons.
Viserys had captured more than fifty thousand prisoners, and they were now being escorted toward Gohor.
Because they had just won a major victory, they had been able to capture such a huge number of prisoners in one stroke.
Even after adding the cavalry coming from Gohor, it would take at least half a month to round up all the prisoners scattered across almost the entire Andalosi Plains.
The number of prisoners was even greater than the number of soldiers who had captured them.
But with Meraxes and Vhagar circling overhead, the defeated soldiers had no desire whatsoever to resist.
As for Viserys, he rode Balerion back to Gohor first, taking Aegon and Aemon with him.
He did not immediately return to the Dragon Palace.
Instead, he spent some time circling above Gohor and the river.
Even after burning for an entire day and night, the wreckage of the warships could still be seen everywhere.
"Did the slavers' fleet all burn up?" Aegon asked in astonishment.
He read frequently, and his imagination was vivid enough to reconstruct much of the earth-shaking battle in his mind.
"Not all of it. There are probably two or three hundred ships left," Viserys replied.
"But now that we have dragons, they aren't our opponents!"
Aemon excitedly stroked Balerion's scales.
When Mathos had led the army in its assault, the two boys had also charged into the coalition camp under the protection of their guards.
Aemon had even personally captured a northern nobleman.
Because Eddard had deliberately smeared Lyanna's reputation, Aemon disliked the uncle he had never met.
In many ways, Aemon was actually envious of Aegon.
Aegon's uncle treated him well, and he was kind to Aegon's mother as well.
Aegon also had silver hair and blue-violet eyes.
Aemon's own hair was black, while his eyes were closer to the gray of the Starks.
It made him feel somewhat out of place within his own family.
Only when his dragon egg hatched one day and he became a true dragonrider would he be able to prove that he was a true Targaryen.
He hoped his dragon egg would hatch soon.
He wanted it to grow quickly.
Although the battle had been fierce and caused enormous destruction and losses, the actual fighting had lasted less than two days.
Yet in those two days, the main strength of the World Coalition had been crippled.
And now that the Targaryens possessed dragons, there was no army that would dare fight them on an open plain.
Aemon could hardly wait to see the day when the Targaryen dragons filled the sky.
Looking at the excitement on his two nephews' faces, Viserys asked, "Aegon, Aemon, tell me. Are dragons powerful?"
"Of course!"
"Yes!"
The two boys nodded repeatedly.
Viserys continued, "Then now that we have dragons, does that mean the Targaryens are invincible?"
"Of course!"
"Yes, Uncle."
Viserys smiled.
"No. Dragons have enemies too."
The two boys looked at him in confusion.
Aemon's mind was more sensitive.
He immediately thought of the bloody civil war during the Dance of the Dragons.
Could Viserys be wary of them?
Aegon had no such thoughts. He simply waited eagerly for his uncle's explanation.
"It is arrogance."
"Never think that having dragons makes the Targaryens invincible. Don't forget that Dorne never submitted to the dragons."
Viserys was naturally not so petty.
There would be more and more dragons, and the world was enormous.
If the two boys refused to obey him in the future, he could simply let them take their dragons and go conquer new lands.
Even if another civil war eventually broke out, that would be hundreds of years from now.
There was no reason for him to worry about it now.
But Viserys had another thought.
He was considering abandoning the Iron Throne.
He was searching for a form of government more suited to the Targaryens.
The Dance of the Dragons had nearly destroyed King's Landing.
Yet Valyria had possessed at least three hundred dragonlords and had gone five thousand years without a bloody internal struggle of that scale.
That was something worth learning from.
Moreover, after Robert's oppression, the people of Westeros had long since been reduced to paupers.
Integrating the Free Cities had now become a higher priority than seizing the Iron Throne.
There was more land here.
More abundant resources.
A denser population.
Originally, the legitimacy of the Targaryen dynasty had rested on the Conqueror uniting the Seven Kingdoms.
But after this war, Viserys had forged a new source of legitimacy for House Targaryen.
The liberation of slaves.
Because of that, Viserys had no intention of retaking Westeros for the next two or three years, perhaps even five.
At most, he would reclaim Dragonstone as a symbolic foothold and reminder of his claim.
The harsh living conditions could also encourage the smallfolk of Westeros to migrate south.
That would help him weaken the power of the nobility even further.
After all, if their lands were emptied of people and they became little more than lords of empty castles, what bargaining power would they have against him?
For now, however, the northern nobles were already retreating toward Braavos.
Taking Braavos would greatly accelerate this process.
As Balerion circled through the sky, the soldiers and civilians below in Gohor also noticed his presence.
After all, he was such a colossal creature that even his shadow alone could almost cover an entire village.
"Gods! Is that a dragon?!"
"Where did that dragon come from? How can it be so enormous?"
"Gods, it's landing!"
Faced with such a gigantic beast, the civilians' first instinct was to flee.
To reassure the people and strengthen the prestige of the royal family, Viserys had Balerion land near one of the chain towers.
The chain tower stood more than ten meters tall.
It could not even reach Balerion's chin.
Viserys climbed down from the dragon's back with the two boys.
Before long, some sharp-eyed civilians noticed his and Aegon's unmistakable silver hair.
"That person... I think that's His Majesty! And Prince Aegon and Prince Aemon!"
An officer raised his telescope and recognized Viserys.
"Don't be afraid! It's His Majesty! That's His Majesty's dragon!"
With the officer's reassurance, the soldiers and civilians who had been clearing the battlefield gradually stopped panicking.
More and more people gathered around Viserys.
A hundred.
A thousand.
Three thousand.
Centered around the enormous dragon, the crowd spread outward like a gigantic umbrella.
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