Chapter 465: Terms of Negotiation

"Your Grace."

"Ferego Antaryon has committed grave mistakes and has been deposed from the Seastone Chair through a vote in the House of Truth. He is now imprisoned in the dungeons, awaiting trial."

Upon hearing Viserys's suddenly altered tone, Tormo Fregar's expression tightened, and he hurriedly spoke.

No matter whether the plan to steal the dragons had been approved by them or not, at this time, all the blame would be placed on the head of the former Sea King of Braavos.

After all, Ferego Antaryon had become the designated sacrificial lamb, perfect to quench Viserys's wrath.

However, unfortunately, merely deposing the previous Sea King would not bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

After all, in this nakedly real world, might makes right, especially when Braavos is in the wrong. They could only bow their heads and submit.

The new Sea King had not yet selected his chief swordsman, a vital position that must be filled by someone of both virtue and ability, and absolutely trustworthy.

Now, to show his sincerity, he had come to negotiate with only a small number of soldiers.

Braavos's soldiers stood far away, not eavesdropping on the conversation between the two men. Viserys and Tormo's negotiation was simple, looking like two men chatting by the roadside.

Although the new Sea King of Braavos was at a disadvantage, being the one with the smaller fist, he still argued reasonably on some issues raised by Viserys and did not allow himself to be slaughtered.

Viserys, having recently become accustomed to the Seven Kingdoms' nobles who bent with the wind, looked at Tormo Fregar with new respect.

The man could bend and stretch, not stubbornly adhering to so-called honor, nor showing a spineless tendency to kneel before others. It seemed he had been elected the next Sea King of Braavos for good reason.

With human progress and the leap of civilization, the national system indeed became more and more critical. However, Viserys did not rashly change to a monarchy or, as Tyrion would later suggest, an elective monarchy.

Each era has the system most suited to it, a historical inevitability. In the current age, even an incompetent king could maintain the country's rule and stability, avoiding war and division, especially for a vast nation where the dispersion of power could easily breed rebellion.

Braavos, with only one city, could play its own game, but Viserys could not afford to do so.

Eventually, the casual negotiation between the two men reached a conclusion, and there was no need to sign any agreement. When one party's strength was sufficient to casually fly overhead and defecate, an agreement became unimportant, merely a piece of waste paper.

Braavos needed to publicly try the former Sea King, Ferego Antaryon, and announce his crimes, including the theft of the young dragons, previous assassination attempts by the Faceless Men, contacts with the Dothraki, and a series of other offenses.

This act of publicizing the crimes would undoubtedly deal a significant blow to the Sea King's authority among the people of Braavos.

However, this was Viserys's first demand and the basis of the negotiation. Tormo had no choice but to grit his teeth and agree.

Then, Viserys opportunistically proposed the abolition of the Iron Throne's debts to the Iron Bank, incurred during the Baratheon dynasty.

That money was not borrowed by him, and he had no reason to repay it on behalf of Robert Baratheon.

However, previously, Braavos had always been in a superior position in world politics.

The Iron Bank's overbearing terms were that no matter the change of dynasty or power, all governors, princes, or kings must respect the Iron Bank's contracts, recognize the previous debts, and repay them. Otherwise, the Iron Bank would embark on furious retaliation.

Even the Braavosi had a proud saying: "The Iron Bank will have its due."

But these depended on Braavos retaining absolute strength, with its invincible fleet that dominated the Narrow Sea and even the Summer Sea as the capital for debt collection.

Now, the situation had reversed, and Braavos had fallen from grace. Viserys, holding absolute strength, naturally would not accept such domineering terms.

Moreover, Robert's years of profligacy, plus the money borrowed to defeat the White Walkers, was simply too much.

Viserys had begun to refuse to repay the debt even before he ascended the Iron Throne...

Tormo Fregar naturally found it hard to speak, as the Iron Bank in Braavos was a terrifying force that even the Sea King dared not provoke.

However, fortunately, the possibility of Viserys defaulting on the debt had already been psychologically anticipated by the Keyholders and the Iron Bank's manager during the meeting in the basement of the House of Truth.

After all, one must bow under the eaves, especially as the Targaryen family's power was swelling, absorbing a large number of soldiers after defeating the White Walkers and the allied forces. Even after selecting the best, the total military strength was still close to one hundred thousand.

With the three-headed dragon banner flying over the Narrow Sea, and the shipyards of Pentos not far behind Braavos, new warships were being launched at a rapid pace.

Even without this matter, the Iron Bank had prepared a plan to deal with Viserys's default.

Whether to retaliate or remain silent had not been unanimously agreed upon, but now Viserys had helped them make the choice.

Through the Keyholders' and the Iron Bank's manager's nods, the massive deficit on the books would be collectively filled by many families.

However, Viserys's conditions were not over.

He then demanded the return of three dragon eggs

stolen over two hundred years ago.

This was an old story, occurring around the 41st year of Aegon's Conquest, and even Tormo Fregar was baffled.

However, the three dragon eggs had long disappeared in the river of time, and their whereabouts were unknown.

After all, even at the time, this was a highly confidential matter, with little external circulation. More importantly, after so much time had passed, even the authenticity of this matter was hard to discern, and Viserys found it difficult to confirm.

Tormo Fregar denied the existence of the dragon eggs, and Viserys bluffed and threatened for a while, but to no avail. The new Sea King clearly claimed ignorance, and in the end, the matter had to be dropped.

Viserys didn't have high expectations of recovering the two-hundred-year-old dragon eggs, but the absence of the eggs could not be simply dismissed.

Since Braavos could not find the dragon eggs stolen from Dragonstone two hundred years ago, they needed to compensate with a large sum of gold dragons.

This was reasonable.

Finally, after some haggling...

Tormo Fregar's face was not looking good, even somewhat livid, but he still gritted his teeth and agreed.