Disturbing Rumors

"So, what are you going to do now?"

Albus Ferros asked when they finished the business, as the two of them had already been acquainted for some time. 

"Going to rest for some time before returning to the Painted Mountains again... with the incoming overpopulation of the goblinoids, it is a good opportunity for the adventurers to make some money."

Unfortunately for Valkorion, even though he was something that was generally called a "transmigrator", he wasn't some kind of educated person in his past life. He was just an ordinary lawyer and Professor of History of Law and also had a doctorate in Politology. 

If he was an engineer or something like that, he would be already dabbling in creating some things from his past life or so, but unfortunately enough, he didn't have enough practical or theoretical knowledge to do something like that. 

However, he was keeping an eye on some skilled people because he could provide something that was almost equally valuable... ideas. 

"Understandable... though lately there have been rumors of some powerful Dothraki Khal united several Khalasars, and some say that they would be attacking either the Freehold or the Slaver's Bay en masse."

Hearing what Albus said, Valkorion didn't really know what to think about it because it was weird. Dotharki were known as the scourge of Essos; even though they were very primitive, they had numbers and were rather powerful warriors on their own.

Not to mention, they had a rather large number of Beyonders, so even for the Valyrians, they needed to take them rather seriously if a powerful Khal emerged among them. Only due to the Dragons, were they able to keep the Dothraki from attacking them every other day. 

"Didn't they learn anything from the past already?"

As someone who was born and lived in the Freehold, Valkorion greatly looked down on the horse lords due to how primitive they were... even though the Valyrians were not the most advanced civilization compared to the 21st-century earth, Dothraki were just plain barbarians. 

"Ha, by the Dragon Gods, who knows what is going in their heads aside from riding across the plains. Still, they have become more bold and from what I heard, they even started attacking caravans of the Clan Ferros."

Now, that would be considered a serious problem because normally, Dothraki were not attacking the caravans that belonged to the prominent families in the Valyrian Freehold, be it that of the Dragonlord Families, some Valyrian Nobles or several of the most powerful Mercantile Clans.

As someone who was rather skilled in understanding politics and how things worked, he understood that there was something that forced the Dothraki to change their habits, and that wasn't good news. 

They were cowards when it came to the Freehold, as they feared Dragon fire more than anything else.

"You fearing that they would be able to bypass the Painted Mountains and attack the Catharys directly?"

Catharys wasn't far from the Mereen itself, so it wasn't really impossible for the Dothraki to bypass the Painted Mountains and attack the Catharys directly.

"There is certainly that possibility, in the end, this city is one of the most prosperous fortress cities in the Freehold. I don't doubt that if they could plunder it, they would obtain sizeable riches, especially when it came to the Beyonder side of things."

Indeed, that was a thing that sacking cities such as Yunkai or Mereen were severely lacking. 

If they sacked some of the cities in the Slaver's Bay, they would be able to obtain enormous amounts of gold and slaves, perhaps some Sealed Artifacts and some things, but that's all...

If they sacked some cities like Catharys, their gains would be much bigger. 

"I don't think that the House Belaerys would allow something like that..."

Valkorion voiced his thoughts and saw Albus Ferros agreeing with the sentiment.

There was no way that the House Belaerys would allow something to happen to the Catharys; it was one of their most prized possession, so Valkorion didn't doubt that at first sight of trouble, there would station several Dragon Riders and powerful Beyonders to protect the city.

"Yeah..."

After they exchanged some small talk and after that, Valkorion decided to return home. As he was walking him, he couldn't really shake off the bad feeling because, as someone who had meta-knowledge, he knew that such a big move as this was most probably an Advancement Ritual for the Dothraki Khal...

And it wasn't as simple as that...

***

Residential Area of the Catharys

Within the Residential Area of the Catharys, there was a rather nice, medieval-looking villa behind huge walls. It wasn't overly big, but it wasn't very small, one could safely say that it was rather big for one person living there. 

In fact, it was one of the secret properties of the House Tenebraenys, and it was also the place where the servants of his father brought him, when they espaced with him from the capital Valyria when he was still a babe.

He was brought up by a few remaining loyal servants of the Tenebraenys, but from them, one of them was one of the butlers who died a few years ago, and the rest were some soldiers, but they perished even before the butler died. 

They worked as adventures and got killed in the Painted Mountains as they were not Beyonders or anything, just ordinary slave soldiers.

Unfortunately for Valkorion, the one who brought him from Valyria to Catharys, wasn't really a high-ranking servant of the Hosue Tenebraenys, so they didn't bring with them almost any wealth...

From there on, he was living in the house alone.

On the bright side of things, as this was supposed to serve as one of the secret places for the members of the House Tenebraenys, it was given top-notch protection and there were even a few defensive spells that were laid by Saints of several Beyonder Pathways.

That was something that Valkorion learned from the old butler who was taking care of him until he died. It was basically a safe place; he didn't really need to fear that someone would break in or anything.

Even then, such things were beyond rare in the Valyrian cities.

He had to admit that real crime was very rare in the core Valyrian cities and fortress cities such as Catharys. If this was his past world, one wouldn't be able to really stroll through the city during the night and act like nothing was happening.

His house was rather cozy; for the past several years, he had been buying some pieces of furniture and so on; thus, the interior of the house looked rather nice. And because he was paranoid as fuck, he didn't have any servants in his house. 

He was thinking of buying some slaves, but he would need to buy those who were marked with Beyonders to make them absolutely loyal to their master.

Valkorion wasn't betting on the mundane methods of training, but the slaves that had some Spells placed on them to ensure their absolute loyalty were sometimes even ten times pricier than those without.