Game of Thrones: Rise of the Supreme Dragon Queen

"At its peak, Valyria conquered the entire world, yet still maintained respect for Braavos," the Sea Lord declared in a resounding voice.

What utter nonsense.

Valyria never respected Braavos.

Braavos was founded by a group of rebellious slaves, while Valyria, every year, scoured the world—raiding hundreds of kingdoms—to capture hundreds of thousands of slaves and send them to the Fourteen Flames to mine.

This persisted for centuries, forming an almost industrialized assembly line of "mine slaves." Countless slave uprisings occurred every year.

To the people of Braavos, escaping from the Valyrians was the greatest victory—worthy of being recorded in history, glorified for eternity, and sung of for millennia.

But to the Valyrians, it was merely a matter of a couple of overseers being negligent—like a few defective items on an assembly line.

Clearly, the Valyrians wouldn't let a few defective products disrupt the entire operation of the factory.

As for the escaped ancestors of Braavos, perhaps a high mage casually dispatched three or four dragonlords to scout the coast on dragonback.

When they found nothing, the matter was dropped. After all, they were too busy—tens of thousands of things to handle each minute—they couldn't afford distractions.

Meanwhile, the ancestors of Braavos celebrated joyfully, convinced they had defeated the hundreds of mighty dragons of Valyria.

What came next was even more laughable to outsiders but deeply prideful to the Braavosi.

A century after the slave revolt, Braavos had developed in secret for a hundred years, not daring to make contact with the outside world, fearing the dragonlords would come to exterminate them.

Little did they know, the Valyrians had long forgotten about them.

Still, the Braavosi remained anxious. Before revealing their city to the world, they sent emissaries with large sums of gold to Valyria, greasing palms, bribing the powerful, ensuring every connection was smoothed out.

Once they confirmed Valyria wouldn't trouble them, Braavos proudly spread "heroic invitations" across the lands, proclaiming their emergence as "Valyria's illegitimate daughter"—Braavos.

Indeed, Braavos was not independent in the same way Westeros was. It still lay within Valyria's sphere of influence, and was referred to as "Valyria's bastard daughter."

Just think of Volantis, "Valyria's eldest daughter," or Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh, the "three Valyrian sisters," and Braavos' status becomes clear.

In truth, before the Doom, Valyria did rule the world.

Aside from Westeros, even the disease-ridden and plague-filled lands of Essos were dotted with Valyrian Freeholds (which, unfortunately, were too close to Valyria and destroyed in the tsunamis following the Doom).

At this moment, the Sea Lord's pretentious remarks were as laughable as Kakuzu claiming he once fought the First Hokage.

"Heh." Dany gave a soft chuckle. Leaning forward with her elbows on the table, she locked eyes with the Sea Lord's sharp blue gaze and said calmly,"Everyone, Braavos was never considered a true enemy by the dragonlords, which is why it never suffered the Dragon Doom.

This led to a false belief among you—that a strong wild bull should fear five hundred tigers, but can disregard five of them.

The truth is, whether five or five hundred, to Braavos, there's no meaningful difference when it comes to dragons."

"Bang!" The Sea Lord slammed the table with force, eyes blazing as he panted, "Daenerys, you are too arrogant. Even your father and grandfather wouldn't have dared speak to me like this!"

Don't try to pull seniority with me, and don't compare those two failures to me, the queen!

Dany really wanted to yell that, but she bore the name "Targaryen" after all. It was fine to curse them in private—but publicly dishonoring ancestors would be scandalous.

Instead, she said in an eerily soft voice,"They didn't have dragons. In this world, nothing else matters—having dragons is what makes one king.

And that's been the truth for six thousand years.

I don't want to be Braavos' overlord, but the problem is—someone who could be the overlord would never agree to be a servant.

Your Majesty Ferrego Antaryon, do you understand now?"

The Sea Lord gasped for breath, his sickly pale face turning beet red. He stared deeply at the confident, proud, and unyielding Dragon Queen across from him, and gritted out:"The Targaryens, even at their peak, had more than twenty dragons—but none were ever this mad."

Dany couldn't hold back anymore. She shouted,"Don't mention those idiots—they don't deserve the name Targaryen!"

"What?" The Sea Lord, the Keyholder, and the First Sword were all stunned.

"I am the head of House Targaryen, and also the High Septon of the Faith of the Seven. I hereby declare the new family rule of House Targaryen:

Any dragonlord who slaughters his kin, any Targaryen who commits kinslaying, shall lose the name of Targaryen.

Just like bastards are named Waters, those fools expelled from the family shall take the surname 'Idiot' instead."

Blood and fire raged—Rhaenyra 'Idiot' of the Black Party vs. Aegon 'Idiot' of the Green Party.???

Sounds about right!

"You… are insane!" The old Sea Lord looked horrified, fear creeping into his voice.

Not just him—even the ever-rebellious Arya was shocked into dropping her stern expression. Her gray eyes widened so much you could see the gunk at the corners.

"I'm not crazy," Dany sighed helplessly and asked,"If it were you, and your family had over twenty dragons, would you still fight to the death over a pointy iron chair?"

Silence fell over the room.

The Sea Lord sighed bitterly:The very scenario Braavosi ancestors feared for generations… has finally come to pass with me.

Indeed, anyone with a functioning brain wouldn't fixate solely on the narrow strip of land that was King's Landing.

What difference would it make to sit on the Iron Throne?

Westeros is divided into seven kingdoms and the Crownlands—the Iron Throne only governs the Crownlands.

If it were the Braavosi, they would wait for the dragons to multiply and their power to grow—then aim to conquer the entire western continent of Essos.

Just like countless city-states and races attempted after the Cataclysm: the Valantene tried to unite the Free Cities, the Dothraki tried to turn the western city-states into their pasturelands, Pentos and Braavos fought over the plains along the Rhoyne River, Myr and Tyrosh battled over the Disputed Lands, and Qohor clashed with Pentos and Volantis for the central plains of the Rhoyne.

Even now, with Braavos having risen as the leader among the Nine Free Cities, they continue to expand their influence, even starting to meddle in the affairs of Westeros.

They all possessed ambition.

And once they had power, they all tried to rule the world.

Thus, ever since Aegon founded his kingdom, the Braavosi have been constantly on edge, fearing that the Targaryens would unite the power of Westeros and invade the Free Cities.

Especially during the period between Aegon I and the Old King — the equivalent of the Targaryen dynasty's golden age — the Targaryen dragons and their kin flourished. Dozens of family members, over a dozen dragons — the leaders of the Free Cities were terrified.

Putting themselves in Targaryen shoes, they were certain the family would try to recreate the dominance of Valyria.

So, the Braavosi manipulated Rhaenys's close friend, Elissa, into stealing three dragon eggs.

The Braavosi didn't dare send the Faceless Men to steal the eggs, because back then, no one dared to provoke the Targaryens — in fact, the Old King had already prepared for total war. If anyone was discovered hatching dragons, he would lead his entire family and a dozen dragons to wipe them out.

At the time, no one knew who Elissa gave the dragon eggs to, or even where she went. If they had, war would've broken out long ago.

— Princess Rhaenys only guessed that Elissa had gone to explore the Sunset Sea based on the ideals Elissa once confided in her.

In truth, Elissa had died long ago.

Naturally, the Braavosi wouldn't leave any living witnesses who could bring disaster upon them.

It wasn't until 250 years later, when Dany saw that red dragon egg in Volantis, that she finally revealed the secret that had plagued the Targaryens for centuries to old Aemon.

But for over a hundred years, the Sea Lords of Braavos had lived in constant fear, only to finally receive news of the Dance of the Dragons — damn!

Crying with joy, that generation's Sea Lord also thought to himself with disdain: so many dragons, yet not a shred of matching ambition — and they call themselves descendants of the Valyrian conquerors? Those Targaryens are nothing but fools!

With that thought, Sea Lord Ferrego suddenly found himself understanding the Dragon Queen's words perfectly.

But it also confirmed something else — the Dragon Queen was sane. She hadn't inherited her ancestors' "foolish blood." She wasn't brain-dead.

She was demanding the status of a Dragon King from the world.

And that — was exactly what the Braavosi feared the most!

Agitated, the Sea Lord turned his head — only to lock eyes with the Keeper. In each other's gaze, they saw the same deep concern.

Yet the Sea Lord failed to notice the hidden determination buried deep within the Keeper's eyes.

"You make a good point. You are a Dragon King and deserve more," the Sea Lord sighed, turning respectfully toward the kindly one, pleading with his eyes. "High Priest, could you perhaps make an exception for the Dragon Queen?"

After a long silence, the kindly one glanced subtly at Arya from the corner of his eye and said calmly, "A life for a life. The Dragon Queen spared the life of an unnamed soul — under the witness of the Many-Faced God and within the jurisdiction of the House of Black and White — no follower of the Many-Faced God will act against her again."

The kindly one did not surrender directly, but instead compromised by offering the "life for a life" principle — while preserving the dignity of the House of Black and White.

In truth, until they fully understood the Dragon Queen's hand and were 100% certain, the House of Black and White had no intention of sending more Faceless Men.

Because of that, the only one who knew — Grand Maester Pycelle — had repeatedly written letters rebuking the House of Black and White for breaking their word and taking payment without fulfilling the contract. The kindly one simply responded to Pycelle: "A life for a life."

"What about my officers?" Dany asked with no expression of joy, her tone flat.

The kindly one answered only with silence.

After a moment, the Keeper broke the awkward silence, squeezing out a cheerful smile from his chubby face and greeting the Dragon Queen with utmost friendliness.

"Your Grace, unless there's a deep personal vendetta, very few would pay such astronomical sums to hire the Faceless Men to kill your subordinates. After all, there is only one king — officials, however, can be replaced by anyone. It's just not worth it!"

Dany wasn't sure what to do.

If she demanded that the Faceless Men not target her followers, wouldn't that give them leverage against her?Normally, kings didn't concern themselves with the lives of their subordinates.

As the chubby Bessaro had said — officials can be anyone.

Originally, the Faceless Men didn't care much for the officials of Slaver's Bay. But now, seeing how much she cared for their lives — would they start using them to threaten her?

And one day, if things went sour, wouldn't they launch a large-scale assassination campaign against her people? Even if they couldn't harm her, they could at least enrage and torment her?

"How much would it cost to kill me?" Dany asked.

"This…" The chubby Keeper looked embarrassed, glancing left at the Sea Lord's emotionless face, then right at the kindly smiling elder.

"High Priest, would it be appropriate to reveal this?" the chubby man asked pitifully.

"Mm." The kindly one gave a gentle nod.

Then, the Keeper slowly raised a single hand.

(End of Chapter)

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