"Six hundred thousand Gold Dragons!?"
Even Jorah Mormont, who was accustomed to Illyrio's extravagant lifestyle, found his voice dry as he spoke the number.
This sum was enough to buy the entire city of Lys, with plenty left over.
"Six hundred thousand?"
Viserys's shriek shattered the silence.
He bristled instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"That damned slaver, why doesn't he just rob us?!"
"Who does he think we are?"
"the Iron Bank of Braavos?"
Daenerys's heart sank as well.
Although she had no concept of money, she knew this was an impossible, astronomical figure.
Lynn, however, smiled.
He meticulously wiped the blood orange juice from his fingertips with a clean white silk handkerchief.
"Ser Jorah, do you think if I truly had six hundred thousand Gold Dragons, I would use them to buy slaves?"
Jorah Mormont paused, then understood the meaning behind Lynn's words.
If a person truly possessed such immense wealth, he could easily assemble a large army of free sellswords, more than enough to conquer Astapor twice over.
"He's not selling anything."
Lynn threw the handkerchief on the table and stood up.
"He's humiliating us."
"Or rather, what he wants to see isn't my Gold Dragons at all."
Lynn walked to the window, his gaze fixed on Astapor's night sky, divided by countless pyramids.
"He wants my dragon."
This single sentence startled everyone present.
"No exchange!" Daenerys blurted out.
"Winter is yours..."
She swallowed the rest of her words.
She didn't know how to describe Winter's relationship with Lynn.
A companion?
A pet?
Or some other connection?
"Is he mad?"
A ridiculous sneer appeared on Viserys's face.
"Does he think dragons are livestock that can be bought with gold?"
"In the eyes of a merchant, everything in the world has a price."
Lynn turned around, his dark eyes appearing especially deep in the candlelight.
"Kraznys is testing me."
"He wants to see what price I am willing to pay to get his Unsullied."
"If I'm foolish enough to haggle with him, he'll conclude that I'm weak and easily manipulated, that he can control me."
"He'll incrementally raise the price until I offer what he truly desires."
Lynn's analysis sent a chill down Jorah Mormont's spine.
He suddenly realized that the confrontation between them and the good master had been unequal from the start.
After all, they had no army, and their bargaining power was pitifully small.
The other party had never intended to trade; he was simply afraid they would ride off on the dragon.
"My lord, what should we do?"
"Are we to leave Astapor?"
A hint of doubt entered Jorah's voice.
Lynn pulled a small, heavy pouch of gold coins from his leather bag and tossed it to Jorah.
"Leave? Why?"
"The army isn't ours yet."
"I need you to go again, but not to see Kraznys."
"I want you to find out everything about Astapor."
"How many Unsullied there are, and how many are currently in training."
"Where their barracks are, who commands them, and how they rotate guards."
"How many city guards there are, what their weapons and equipment are like, and their combat effectiveness."
"And those good masters, how many private soldiers they have, and what their weaknesses are."
Every word from Lynn was a precise command.
"I want a map of Astapor, a map that clearly marks every street, every barracks, and even every gutter."
"Use this money to bribe the greedy overseers, to buy off the slaves who harbor resentment against the good masters."
"Within one day, I want all the answers."
Jorah Mormont held the bag of gold coins, feeling as if it weighed a thousand jin.
He finally understood that Lynn had never intended to buy.
From the moment he stepped into this city, he had already planned to take it without paying any price!
"Is that all?"
Viserys scoffed from the side, breaking the solemn atmosphere.
"Sending a spy to ask around? That's too slow!"
"If you ask me, we should just have Winter bite off Kraznys's head directly!"
"Then tell the remaining fat men to either hand over the Unsullied or turn into cinders along with their city!"
He waved his arms as if he already saw himself reigning over Astapor.
"You're right, that certainly is the simplest way."
Lynn actually nodded in agreement.
Viserys froze, a look of triumph on his face.
"But what then?" Lynn retorted.
"We'd get a group of mindless automatons driven by fear, and then what?"
"Take them to the next city and burn it again?"
"Before long, all of Slaver's Bay will know that two madmen riding giant dragons have come from Westeros?"
"They know nothing but destruction."
"By then, what awaits us will be the combined fleets of all the Free Cities, and countless assassins hired from the Shadow Lands and Braavos."
"Do you want to be a conqueror, or an arsonist hunted by the whole world?"
Lynn's words poured cold water on Viserys's fantasies.
He opened his mouth but couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.
"Governing a country is much harder than fighting a war."
Lynn patted Viserys's shoulder and turned to leave.
Leaving Viserys alone, his face ashen, standing rooted to the spot, his fists clenching and unclenching with a grinding sound... The night deepened.
Daenerys tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
The bloodshed of the day and the schemes of the night once again enveloped her heart, which had just found a sense of belonging, with unease.
She quietly got up and left her room.
On the highest terrace of the mansion, she found the figure that brought her peace of mind.
Lynn stood there alone, looking down at the city sleeping in sin.
The night wind rustled his black robe, making him look like a statue merged with the darkness.
"Can't sleep?"
Lynn didn't turn his head, yet it was as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
"I..."
Daenerys walked to his side and, imitating him, rested her elbows on the cold stone railing.
"I was just thinking, those Unsullied... are they truly beyond saving?"
"Their souls have been killed by those good masters."
"No." Lynn shook his head.
"Souls cannot be killed, Daenerys; they can only be imprisoned."
"As long as the cage is broken, even the faintest spark can rekindle a prairie fire."
Daenerys understood, yet didn't quite understand.
She looked at Lynn's profile.
In the moonlight, his well-defined features seemed a little cold and hard.
"You... are you really going to free them?"
She asked softly.
"Why?"
"Because I promised you."
Lynn turned his head, looking at her clear purple eyes in the night.
"I told you, I came to break chains."
Daenerys's heart skipped a beat.
A warm current surged from the depths of her heart, instantly dispelling all coldness and unease.
She said nothing more, simply wrapped her arms gently around Lynn's waist... The next day, Jorah Mormont returned, covered in dust and smelling of wine.
He spread a crude map, drawn on parchment, before Lynn.
"My lord, everything you asked for is here."
His voice held a hint of fatigue, but his grey eyes were astonishingly bright.
"Astapor's defenses are even weaker than I imagined."
"The city has eight thousand trained Unsullied, and another five thousand boys undergoing training."
"They are all concentrated in the Unsullied Plaza in the east of the city and the surrounding barracks."
Jorah's finger traced across the map.
"The information came from an Unsullied named Grey Worm."
"As for the city's defense..."
A hint of disdain appeared on Jorah's face.
"There are only six hundred city guards, poorly equipped, more like thugs kept by the good masters to guard their homes."
"They're fine for oppressing commoners, but completely useless on a battlefield."
"All the good masters' confidence comes from the absolute obedience of the Unsullied."
"They never worry about betrayal, because in their eyes, the Unsullied have no concept of betrayal."
Lynn looked at the map and nodded.
Everything was as he expected.
A city whose rule relied entirely on a slave army was like a castle built on sand.
No matter how solid it looked on the outside, it was hollowed out within.
"There's one more thing, my lord."
Jorah's expression grew serious.
"I heard a piece of news from a drunken good master."
"Kraznys mo Nakloz never expected you to produce six hundred thousand Gold Dragons."
"He boasted in the council to all the good masters that he would trade his eight thousand eunuchs for a real dragon."
"He wants Winter."
Viserys, hearing this from the side, showed a look of 'I knew it,' and a schadenfreude smile played on his lips.
Daenerys, however, looked at Lynn nervously.
Lynn's face showed no surprise whatsoever.
He simply looked up at Jorah and asked a question that caught everyone off guard.
"Ser Jorah, what do you think, how many Unsullied is one dragon worth?"
Jorah was stunned.
"My lord, you..."
He couldn't believe his ears; Lynn was actually considering this trade?
"If I say I'm willing to trade Winter for all his Unsullied, do you think Kraznys would agree?"
"He would!" Jorah said without hesitation.
"He would be ecstatic!"
"He would immediately package and send all the Unsullied, along with their weapons and equipment, to you!"
"He would even roll out a red carpet for you!"
Trading a group of slaves that could be trained again at any time for a peerless giant dragon?
It was a temptation no merchant could refuse!
"Very good."
Lynn stood up, a meaningful smile on his face.
"Let's go, let's take a walk together."
"I want to see who will lose patience first."