Beside the cucumber vines, a long wooden table was set.
The Dragon Queen sat at the head, while the dwarf and Tycho sat facing each other.
A debtor might act like a lord, but if he wants to borrow more money, he must behave like a grandson. Therefore, as the Hand of King Stannis, Davos voluntarily took the seat below Tycho.
"Your Majesty, you've won. You won your gamble on this Long Night," the Braavosi representative said dejectedly, his thin eyebrows, thin goatee, thin face, and thin figure all seeming to droop.
"I thought you'd keep pretending to be dead and refuse to pay," Tyrion said with a smile.
—As if we didn't want to. If it were anyone else, the Faceless Men would have dealt with them long ago. But the Dragon Queen crushed the world's allied forces head-on, beat the cold god who defeated R'hllor into submission, and treated the Night King like a whipped grandson. Whether in military strength or personal power, she is the only one who can act tyrannically. How could anyone else dare to default on her debt?
Tycho shot the dwarf a glare and said righteously, "The Iron Bank's credit is stronger than the sacred oaths of Westeros."
"Are you implying something? In recent years, Westeros's sacred oaths have been as firm as mud," Tyrion said oddly.
"We have the ability to enforce contracts," Tycho said, turning to the Dragon Queen.
"So how do you plan to fulfill the contract, gold or grain?" Dany asked.
"Your Majesty, the situation is this." Tycho cleared his throat and said tactfully, "After receiving your grain purchase contract, the Iron Bank immediately packaged it and handed it to twenty major grain merchants across the Nine Free Cities.
Now they are unable to deliver the goods, and therefore we are also unable to provide you with the grain specified in the contract.
Naturally, we have breached the contract, and we are willing to pay twenty times the compensation as stipulated.
However, those twenty merchants cannot currently produce that much gold. So, the Iron Bank is wondering whether their debts to us could be transferred—"
"No!" Dany interrupted, shaking her head. "Your Iron Bank is vast and stable. You can't run away or go bankrupt. But if those grain merchants jump into the sea and kill themselves, who am I supposed to cry to?"
"Your Majesty, please hear me out," Tycho said awkwardly with a smile. "Your contract with us stipulates twentyfold compensation, but our contracts with those merchants require twenty-fivefold compensation. If the debts are transferred, you would earn an extra twenty-five percent."
"I'm not interested in gold dragons. Keep your profits for yourselves," Dany said indifferently.
—If you're not interested in gold dragons, then you should just cancel the contract outright! Fifty million gold dragons multiplied by twenty—that's a billion!
Tycho desperately wanted to complain out loud, but the "truth" that debtors are kings did not apply to Braavos. The Dragon Queen's fists were simply too strong.
"Then could we settle the account after the Long Night?" he asked.
"Ah…" Davos, who had remained silent until now, suddenly sighed.
The stark contrast between the Iron Bank's submissiveness toward the Dragon Queen and its arrogance toward him left the old knight feeling conflicted. Why was the gap between people so vast?
"How much gold does the Iron Bank have?" Tyrion asked curiously.
Tycho glanced at Davos and replied maliciously, "How much gold do the Lannisters have stored in Casterly Rock?"
Tyrion narrowed his eyes and chuckled. "I'd like to know as well. But I'm a second son with no inheritance rights, and a dwarf at that. My father never allowed me into the treasury. He only said I'd get two thousand gold dragons when the family assets were divided.
On the other hand, you Braavosi have so much gold that even your old mines couldn't hold it, so you had to build larger vaults.
A billion gold dragons should be nothing to you, right?"
"I'm only a representative of the Iron Bank, not even a shareholder. I'm not aware of its total reserves," Tycho deflected, imitating the dwarf.
Dany said, "I'm not unreasonable. Paying a billion gold dragons all at once is indeed difficult. You can pay in installments, a portion each year.
I won't demand high interest either. Just half the rate you charge the kings of Westeros."
"How many installments?" Tycho asked nervously.
"That depends on your repayment ability."
The Dragon Queen was very understanding, yet Tycho felt troubled.
If each installment was too large, the Iron Bank couldn't bear it, because it simply didn't have a billion gold dragons. But if the repayment period was extended, the accumulated interest would be enormous. If only they didn't have to repay at all.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Can we use goods as collateral?"
"Yes. Haven't you collected hundreds of Valyrian steel swords? Leaving them in storage is a waste. You might as well use them all to settle the debt. It would allow me to equip more 'Dawn Warriors,'" Dany said casually.
Tycho probed, "At what price would Your Majesty purchase Valyrian steel?"
"The market price for Valyrian steel has been plummeting recently, hasn't it?" Dany smiled.
"If it's calculated at current market prices, we won't sell," Tycho shook his head.
Then he added, "In fact, the Iron Bank is actively acquiring those depreciated Valyrian steel weapons.
Even if you melt down dozens or hundreds of tons of Valyrian steel statues, the total amount in the world is fixed. Once all circulating Valyrian steel weapons enter the Iron Bank, the price will naturally rise again."
"How naïve. Whoever controls more Valyrian steel has the power to set the price. If the Dragon Queen wishes, she can make any hoarder lose everything and jump into the sea," Tyrion sneered.
"Hoarding garlic or medicine might lead to losses, but hoarding Valyrian steel never will, as long as you don't use leveraged loans.
Valyrian steel doesn't deteriorate even after ten thousand years. Yet accidents can cause weapons to be lost, like your Lannister family sword, 'Brightroar.'
As time passes, the total number of Valyrian steel weapons will inevitably decline. Hoard it for a hundred thousand years and see whether its value rises," Tycho said confidently.
"If you really wait a hundred thousand years, even the interest on a single copper coin loan would accumulate to hundreds or thousands of gold dragons. Can Valyrian steel increase tens of thousands of times in value?" the dwarf mocked.
"Yet in reality, the Iron Bank always keeps a portion of gold sitting in vaults. And gold stored in a vault won't generate even a single copper coin of interest after a million years. It's better to buy absolute hard currency and wait for appreciation."
For once, the dwarf had no retort.
After thinking for a moment, Dany said, "Let's go with the market price from five years ago. I'll take all the Iron Bank's Valyrian steel weapons in one package."
Tycho's heart was suddenly filled with joy. He said eagerly, "You're not joking? There are over seven hundred Valyrian steel weapons. Even at the 'low price' of eighty thousand gold dragons per kilogram, that's at least one hundred fifty million gold dragons!"
Dany shrugged indifferently. "It's money picked up for free. Spending it doesn't hurt at all."
Tycho felt as though he had been stabbed straight through the heart. His earlier joy vanished, replaced by bitterness. "Aside from Valyrian steel swords, do you need anything else? For example, Yi Ti silk, Qohor fine steel, Myr lenses, Lys poisons?"
"What use are those things during the Long Night? I wouldn't even have a place to store them," Dany shook her head.
Tycho fell silent.
Of course he knew what the Dragon Queen needed, but grain and winter clothing were in short supply even for themselves. How could they possibly sell them?
Seeing his silence, Dany turned her gaze to the Onion Knight. "What about you? Why have you come this time?"
"For the upcoming 'Battle of King's Landing.'" Davos glanced at Tycho and explained, "His Majesty Stannis believes the Long Night threatens the entire world. Fighting the Others is not just Westeros's responsibility.
Therefore, he hopes to expand the 'United Front Against the Others' to the entire world. At the very least, the Free Cities across the Narrow Sea should participate.
In the last battle at Winterfell, nearly the strongest forces of the Seven Kingdoms gathered, yet we still failed. It is foreseeable that an even fiercer battle will erupt beneath King's Landing.
To protect King's Landing and to completely end the Others beneath its walls, all the people of the world should unite.
Just as the warriors of the Seven Kingdoms aided Winterfell, the great cities of the world can send knights and mages to King's Landing.
Westeros has few extraordinary forces, but on the continent of Essos, there are many wizards and sorcerers.
According to Priestess Melisandre's plan, if ten thousand mages can be assembled into a mage corps, they could even confront the cold god head-on.
In that case, there is great hope that the Battle of King's Landing will become the final battle against the Others—driving back the cold god, killing the Night King, and ending the Long Night."
Tyrion was dumbfounded, and Dany was equally shocked.
However, they were shocked for different reasons. Dany was astonished by the idea of ten thousand mages confronting a true god, while the dwarf was shocked because he realized he had still underestimated Stannis.
The man was neither a fool nor merely a scapegoat. He had his own thoughts and plans.
If things followed Stannis's script, Tyrion's planned third defensive line at Storm's End would become almost meaningless.
If the Battle of King's Landing was won, the third line wouldn't be needed. If King's Landing, backed by the power of the entire world, fell, Storm's End would inevitably fall as well.
Not to mention, assembling a mage corps of ten thousand extraordinary individuals to resist the cold god was something Storm's End simply could not achieve.
There was only one question—could Stannis's plan actually be realized?
Would the great cities be willing to help King's Landing resist the Others? Could ten thousand mages truly be gathered?
"Ten thousand mages forming a corps to fight the cold god—that was Melisandre's idea?" Dany asked skeptically.
"Yes. She proposed the entire plan for the Battle of King's Landing," Davos nodded. "She said that as the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, King's Landing can produce royal bloodlines and possesses its own unique magical properties.
If a magical formation gathering the power of ten thousand mages is set up there, it could cast a fire-based forbidden spell capable of opposing the cold god."
"Gasp…" Tycho inhaled sharply and murmured, "A forbidden spell capable of opposing a true god… how terrifying would that be? What is the name of this spell?"
"I don't know. I have no real understanding of forbidden spells. The Red Woman told me this, and I'm simply relaying it," Davos said awkwardly.
"Why didn't she come herself?" Dany frowned.
"Your Majesty, I didn't expect to run into Lord Tycho here. We're not together. This visit is only to reach a preliminary agreement, after all, King's Landing hasn't even been taken yet," Davos said with a bitter smile.
After a while, seeing that the Dragon Queen was still deep in thought, he couldn't help asking, "What do you think?"
"It's a good idea, but where would we find ten thousand mages? There aren't even that many extraordinary individuals in the entire world, are there?" Tyrion asked doubtfully.
"Priests are also extraordinary," Dany said calmly.
"Yes, Melisandre said that priests of the Seven and priests of the Red God would both count."
"In that case, the Battle of King's Landing might actually have a chance…" Tyrion began, but upon noticing the Dragon Queen's cold expression, he suddenly fell silent.
He remembered her relationship with R'hllor.
"Lord Tycho, what do you think?" Dany turned her gaze to the Iron Bank's representative.
(End of Chapter)
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