Chapter 108: A New Plan
While these lands were unclaimed, they all had claimants. If it were just a few small holdings, that would be fine, but if they showed signs of growing powerful, they'd inevitably face opposition from Braavos or Volantis.
Places without claimants required searching even farther east—and that was Dothraki territory.
If this were a single-player game, Ian could, like countless protagonists in fanfiction, outwit these horse lords and successfully develop his domain.
But facing so many other players, openly establishing a holding in a specific location made him far too easy to target.
The crucial point was that starting a farming operation now was too late. According to the timeline from the books, the Long Night would fall in little over four years.
In such a short span, finding an existing city to implement reforms might prove effective.
Starting from scratch on wasteland? Without the typical advantages found in city-building novels, how could he possibly succeed in time?
As for the Long Night not affecting Essos? He shouldn't harbor such foolish hopes.
In the world of Ice and Fire, legends of long nights and heroes wielding flaming swords abounded across every continent. Even the first Long Night in human history had been triggered by the Bloodstone Emperor of the Great Empire of the Dawn in Yi Ti.
There was no reason the Long Night wouldn't descend upon Essos as well.
Therefore, the best approach was to seize control of an existing city—such as Astapor.
This put Ian in a quandary once again, because following Daenerys's storyline seemed to offer faster advancement than any scheme he could devise on his own. Moreover, it would allow him to acquire major city-level territories and a complete army of Unsullied at a pace unmatched by other players—in just over a year. And that was without even considering the dragons.
Although seizing Astapor would significantly damage his reputation and create enemies in Yunkai and Meereen, if he could influence Daenerys as a high-ranking advisor and mentor beforehand, changing some of her convictions and preventing her from immediately abolishing slavery, he could mitigate this.
That way, at least they wouldn't antagonize New Ghis, Qarth, and Volantis simultaneously, allowing ample time to conquer and consolidate Slaver's Bay, instead of getting mired in the Meereenese Knot as happened in the original story.
Furthermore, to consider it from another angle—if Daenerys truly proved stubborn and unyielding, insisting on abolition no matter what—why couldn't they prepare in advance?
Who would be most pleased if someone were vigorously promoting abolition throughout Slaver's Bay?
The answer was undoubtedly Braavos and the Iron Bank.
First, Braavos was a city-state founded by escaped Valyrian slaves; they were among the most fervent opponents of slavery in the known world, wishing for its complete extinction.
This was the sentiment of Braavos's common citizens.
Second, Braavos's greatest rival, Volantis, was a city-state whose entire economy depended on slave labor. An abolitionist movement would shake the very foundations of the Volantine state.
If slavery were abolished throughout Slaver's Bay, it would likely draw Volantis into open war. At that point, Braavos could easily support anti-Volantine factions in the ongoing conflicts among the Three Daughters, completely driving Volantine influence from Essos's western shores.
This served the interests of Braavosi politicians.
Finally, the abolition of slavery could unleash massive economic growth in Slaver's Bay and even in a defeated Volantis. The Iron Bank and Braavosi merchants could simply invest heavily in those regions and profit enormously, just as they had after forcing Pentos to abolish slavery.
This served the Iron Bank's interests.
Therefore, if abolition proved inevitable, he could begin now cultivating relationships with the Braavosi envoy in Pentos and the Iron Bank's representatives! That way, he could find intermediaries to convey his willingness to cooperate to Braavos as soon as possible.
With this realization, Ian completely abandoned the idea of fleeing Pentos. Not only could he not leave, but he also needed to undertake considerable work to eliminate interference from other players and ensure everything proceeded according to the original timeline.
No, it didn't need to follow the original timeline exactly, Ian suddenly realized.
The months-long journey Daenerys and her followers took across the Red Waste to Qarth after Drogo's death could be completely bypassed! After all, Daenerys hadn't gained any real benefits from her stay in Qarth—she'd only heard a few cryptic prophecies before being driven away.
In the show, Daenerys had plundered Qarth before departing, which had greatly weakened the city. In the books, Qarth was located on the straits between the Summer Sea and the Jade Sea, serving as the hub for all trade between East and West—at least comparable to Constantinople in the real world.
If Daenerys had truly sacked Qarth, there wouldn't have been that scene in Astapor where she was mocked by slave traders. She could have easily purchased eighty thousand Unsullied, let alone eight thousand.
Therefore, he only needed to ensure the original storyline progressed to the point where Daenerys hatched her dragons. After that, they should head directly to Astapor.
But that would require crossing the entire Lhazareen region, whose people harbored deep hatred for the Dothraki. How could he manage that?
A few minutes later, Ian had formulated a rough plan.
After swearing allegiance to Viserys and receiving the reward for the second main quest, he would spend 20 points to purchase two more A-rank NPCs. He'd send them with a portion of his wealth to Slaver's Bay to buy some Unsullied and a company of regular Meereenese slave soldiers. Then they would head north into Lhazar, occupy a small town, and wait.
Once Drogo's khalasar entered Lhazar to raid and the khal was wounded by the maegi Mirri Maz Duur, Drogo's khalasar would dissolve on the spot, abandoning Daenerys and the others.
At that point, the NPCs he'd positioned in the Lhazareen lands could immediately bring their forces to rescue him and Daenerys.
With an entire armed company escorting them, the Lhazareen—derisively called the "Lamb Men"—likely wouldn't dare attack them, allowing them to march directly toward Astapor and seize the city using the methods from the original story.
Since Daenerys's conquest of Astapor had relied primarily on the Unsullied, with the dragons serving merely as intimidation, month-old dragons versus three-to-five-month-old dragons wouldn't significantly impact the outcome. However, this approach would save several months of development time.
Finally, Ian settled on his plan.
He would remain in Pentos, and during these two months, he had three primary objectives:
First, to further gain Illyrio's trust, ensuring the magister would confidently keep Ian at Viserys's side.
Second, to find some way to befriend the Braavosi envoy to Pentos and the Iron Bank's representative stationed there, ideally establishing genuine rapport with them.
Third, to thoroughly master his character abilities and improve his combat prowess during his free time.
"This was a grave miscalculation, Tarobyne. You've made a serious error." Prince opened his mouth and accepted a peeled grape offered by the woman at his side, speaking to the cheese merchant standing before him.
(End of Chapter)
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