In front of the Temple of the Moonsingers, Freygo delivered a grand speech.
Twenty or thirty thousand people had gathered to hear him.
The substance of his speech was simple enough. He had made enormous concessions, but Viserys was greedy and insatiable, demanding more and more.
The purpose of the speech was naturally to extinguish any thoughts the Braavosi might have of compromising with the Targaryens and instead rally them for total war.
"We managed to gather nine million gold dragons and offered the entire sum to Viserys in exchange for his withdrawal.
But he refused. He said that nine million gold dragons were merely a golden egg, while Braavos itself was the goose that laid the golden eggs.
What he wants is Braavos!
That money is everything we have, yet he still wants to take our homes from us!
I, Freygo Antaryon, would rather fight until I am reduced to ashes than surrender Braavos to a Dragonlord who commands monstrous dragons!
Our ancestors endured countless hardships to claim this land under the guidance of the Moonsingers. I will never agree to any of his demands again!
Who among you is willing to fight alongside me until the very end?"
Freygo shouted the words with such force that it seemed even his chronic ailments and sickness had vanished.
If the ruler himself had resolved to die fighting, the rest of the Braavosi became even more impassioned.
They looked toward the dragons circling overhead, waving their arms as though they could somehow drag the beasts from the sky.
"Slay the Mad Dragon! Defend Braavos! Defend King Freygo!"
"Slay the Mad Dragon! Defend Braavos! Defend King Freygo!"
Passionate chants rose one after another through the crowd.
But just then, a tightly wrapped bundle of cotton struck a Braavosi soldier on the head.
Then another fell.
And another.
Soon, cotton bundles began raining from the sky like hail.
The repeated thuds sounded almost like an actual hailstorm.
Quairo picked up one of the bundles and tore it open.
Inside were five or six gleaming gold coins.
"Gold! It's gold! It's gold!"
"It's really gold!"
One man bit down on a coin, then held it up for everyone to see the mark left by his teeth.
"It's gold! No doubt about it!"
Only moments earlier, the crowd had wanted nothing more than to drag the dragons from the sky and tear them apart.
Now, when they looked up at those same dragons, their eyes were filled with greed.
Soon, someone discovered that the cotton bundles contained more than gold coins.
Folded pamphlets had been packed inside as well.
Quairo handed one to Freygo.
The more Freygo read, the darker his expression became.
Quite a few among the people attending the gathering could read.
Viserys stated in the pamphlet that he had already received the money Freygo had given him.
However, the man who had murdered his brother was still in Braavos.
He did not wish to drag the ordinary people of Braavos into his personal vengeance.
But neither could he allow such a blood debt to go unpaid. That was why he could not leave.
Suddenly, an excited voice rang out from the back of the murmuring crowd.
"The Sweetwater Canal has water again!"
"Really?"
In an instant, quite a few people began leaving the gathering.
They had spent days drinking the bitter water from wells and waterways until they could hardly stand the taste anymore.
Watching the situation gradually slip out of control, Freygo could not help feeling furious.
He had never expected Viserys to be so ruthless.
He had actually started handing money directly to ordinary people.
"Your Grace, that money was ours! We kept it in the fortress to reward the soldiers!"
The thought of Viserys using his own money to drive a wedge between him and his people was almost too much for Freygo to bear.
The flush that had covered his face from his earlier excitement had now turned an ashen blue.
"Your Grace! Give that Westerosi king to him!"
"Yes, Your Grace! Give him Robert! The people of Braavos have no business involving themselves in wars beyond our city!"
The old truth that those who eat another's food find it difficult to refuse his hand worked everywhere.
But how could Freygo allow himself to be swept along by popular opinion?
Robert still had nearly fifty thousand men under his command, all of them experienced and capable soldiers.
If Freygo expelled them, Braavos's defenses would be severely weakened.
"Your Grace, drive Robert out of Braavos!"
At that moment, Urom approached with a group of nobles from the peace faction.
Although they did not know Freygo's entire plan, they could now piece together what had happened.
They therefore used the growing demands of the Braavosi commoners to put pressure on Freygo.
"Your Grace, you surely don't want our people to learn that you never intended to negotiate in the first place.
If that is true, then you didn't actually give Viserys even a single gold coin, did you?"
"You!"
Freygo pointed at Urom, his face turning purple with rage.
Gambling his own reputation had been an extraordinarily risky move. He simply had not expected Viserys to dismantle it so effortlessly.
Quairo hurriedly stepped in front of Freygo, but he was still too late.
Freygo was so enraged that he fainted.
"Your Grace! Your Grace!"
Freygo's collapse quickly attracted everyone's attention.
Before the situation could spiral completely out of control, Quairo carried Freygo away from the temple.
But Freygo and Quairo's departure gave Urom an opportunity.
He stepped onto the platform where Freygo had just delivered his speech and shouted to the crowd.
"People of Braavos! You must understand that our Sealord never intended to negotiate at all!
House Antaryon has already allied itself with House Baratheon through marriage.
Viserys has demanded nothing more than Robert himself, which is already an enormous concession!
Yet our Sealord remains unsatisfied!
People of Braavos! It is time to make your choice!
Many among us still have brothers trapped in Gohor because of Freygo's mistakes, unable to return home and see their families!
Our lives did not have to become this difficult. We do not have to be reduced to ashes!
Believe me! King Viserys is a merciful ruler. He will never plunder our wealth!
But all of that depends on one thing: drive Robert out!"
"Yes! Drive Robert out!"
The situation escalated rapidly.
A large crowd of Braavosi gathered outside the Westerosi military camp.
They protested against the Westerosi nobles for bringing their war to Braavos.
During the Dance of the Dragons, the people of King's Landing had once managed to kill dragons. They could be quite formidable when driven to desperation.
Of course, there were certainly people secretly pushing events along from the shadows.
Braavos was no different.
Urom had mixed some of his own soldiers into the crowd and begun using them to attack the Westerosi camp.
Before long, punches and kicks turned into bloody clashes.
Clashes became skirmishes.
Skirmishes became a full confrontation.
After only a single night, Braavos had already reached the brink of losing control.
While Freygo remained unconscious, Urom ordered someone to leave the city and meet with Viserys.
"Your Grace, Quairo has deployed more than half of Freygo's defensive forces to suppress the unrest.
The Braavosi and Westerosi soldiers are already engaged in serious clashes.
This is the perfect time to strike!"
Urom believed Viserys should launch an attack immediately.
In his mind, he could already see the day when, with Viserys's help, he would overthrow Freygo and take the Sealord's seat for himself.
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