GOT/ASOIAF: Ruler Beyond The Ice

Chapter 635 - 637: Dangerous Race

The temperature finally rose to the point that even the slowest people began to feel warmth. In the narrow and crowded streets and alleys of King's Landing, within the sewer system, and in the sunless corners and shadows, the dirty ice accumulated during winter began to melt. Together with the mud sticking to people's shoes came the long-absent Breath of King's Landing, which had been gone for nearly a year.

Although the pervasive stench was unpleasant, the troubles facing Illyrio were far more dangerous than the foul air.

First, the identity of the murderer who poisoned Varys and Petyr remained hidden in fog. Aside from being certain that it was not Ezzan, Illyrio knew almost nothing about the details of the entire affair. There were simply too many people with motives. Slave masters from the Reach, the Westerlands, and even the various city-states all had reasons. Guessing led nowhere, and attempting an investigation was even worse. He could not investigate.

First, he did not dare.

Ezzan was a brave man. During this incident he had firmly fulfilled their agreement. If a situation arose that might expose him as the mastermind, he would sever the information chain at any cost to prevent the matter from escalating further. Illyrio did not know exactly what happened in Winterfell that forced Ezzan to take his own life and accept the blame as the murderer. However, since the man was dead, Illyrio could at least be certain that the insurance mechanism had worked and the fire would not spread to him.

At least for now.

Although being unable to avenge his companion was frustrating, abandoning sunk costs at least made the loss certain. Daenerys had lost two important advisors and was undoubtedly focusing all her energy on tracking down the killer. As the Magister of Pentos, a suspicious outsider, if he rashly involved himself in the investigation and approached the center of the storm, even asking questions that should not be asked could arouse suspicion, bring trouble upon himself, and cause the situation to spiral out of control.

And in Illyrio's philosophy of life, anything uncontrollable equaled danger.

Second, he could not.

Varys had long prepared contingency measures in case something happened. These arrangements ensured that if an accident occurred, his allies could still take over his resources in Westeros and minimize the loss. Those countless informants and little birds, even if only half were recovered and reorganized, would still form a formidable intelligence network.

However, compared with avenging their former master, they currently had a more important task.

After meeting Daenerys and failing to obtain the expected result, Illyrio realized that the Targaryen campaign westward could not be stopped. Upon returning to his residence, he immediately began searching for another way to save his son.

If the problem cannot be solved, then remove the person causing the problem.

Many ordinary people would treat such thinking as a joke, but for those who possess power and resources, it was indeed a real option. As a seasoned and decisive man, the first solution Illyrio considered after persuasion failed was exactly this.

Assassinating Daenerys would be the most permanent solution. Eliminating her radical black-clad Hand could also greatly reduce Aegon's crisis. Unfortunately, after the assassination of Varys and Petyr, the security surrounding both targets had been raised to an absurd level. The Unsullied could not be bribed, and the Gift Army could not be infiltrated in advance. Therefore this most straightforward solution had to be abandoned first.

The second plan was to lobby the powers surrounding Daenerys, such as the North, the Riverlands, the Westerlands, and Dorne. If he could dismantle the Queen's military logistics system, the war itself would become unsustainable. Political maneuvering was Illyrio's strength as one of the rulers of Pentos, and under normal circumstances it should have been an easy task.

But after brief investigations and attempts to make contact, he discovered the situation was entirely different.

The North and the Riverlands had been completely intimidated by Aegor and internally divided into several small factions. They had lost both the courage to resist and the unity required to act together.

Dorne was firmly tied to the war chariot by generous benefits and promises of victory. They had no intention of discussing any alternative terms with a third party. Illyrio could not even arrange a meeting with Prince Oberyn or Princess Arianne.

As for the Westerlands, Tywin Lannister had been stripped of power and sent to the Wall. Command of the Lannister army had temporarily fallen into Daenerys's hands. The new head of House Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, was currently traveling to King's Landing to assume the position of Master of Coin and could not be met.

Difficulty did not mean impossibility. With the right method, even solid rock could be broken. However, even the most brilliant political maneuvers required time to ferment and take effect. Distant water could not extinguish the fire burning before him. The westward campaign had already begun and could not be halted by intrigue alone.

After encountering repeated obstacles and failures, Illyrio finally turned his attention to the final path.

If the enemy could not be stopped and could not easily be weakened, then strengthening the opposing forces might be the better option.

Those opposing forces included the Golden Company, the Reach, and the nine Free Cities that stood against Dragon Mother.

Whether it was the complete submission of the North and Riverlands, the decisive victories in the battles around King's Landing, Tywin Lannister's obedient surrender, or the complete confidence of Daenerys's army in the western campaign against the Reach, all of it seemed to originate from a new type of ranged weapon known as artillery, mastered by the Gift Army.

Naturally he could not persuade Daenerys to abandon such a powerful weapon. But if he could steal its technical secrets and pass them to her enemies, allowing the anti–Dragon Mother forces to replicate it, then Daenerys's absolute advantage would be weakened.

If both sides possessed the same destructive weapon, the balance of fear might make negotiations and ceasefires possible again. That would buy precious time for the other strategies that currently could not succeed.

Since the weapon had already appeared on the battlefield, it could no longer be concealed.

By analyzing the flow of steel, charcoal, and manpower around King's Landing through intelligence from the little birds, Illyrio quickly determined that a new round of improvements and mass production was underway in the Industrial Park, which had recently completed a large expansion and renovation.

Through heavy investment in security, Daenerys might be able to protect herself and her Hand perfectly. But within the Industrial Park there were constant movements of workers and materials. At least eight hundred, perhaps even a thousand people were involved in building the weapon. Illyrio did not believe they could monitor every participant according to the highest security standards.

As long as he could open a gap in this arsenal, whether by stealing documents or bribing technical personnel, he could obtain the secret of the new weapon.

The strategy was clear. Only execution remained.

Yet soon after issuing his orders, Illyrio received a series of troubling reports.

The Night's Watch arsenal operated under closed management. Core technical personnel and their families lived entirely inside the Industrial Park and rarely left. Informants could only approach peripheral workers responsible for manual labor.

At the same time, King's Landing began citywide cleanup and management campaigns. Refugees were gathered, vagrants registered, and orphans placed into care institutions. Many of the little birds trained by Varys were inexplicably captured and sent to welfare institutions for centralized education. Intelligence activities became increasingly difficult.

In addition, communication across the Narrow Sea was gradually being restored as ships resumed travel. Daenerys would soon discover that the so-called City-State Coalition opposing her was nowhere near as powerful as Illyrio had claimed.

The problems above were troublesome but manageable.

However, the next piece of news made the wealthy Magister tremble and break out in cold sweat.

According to the servants and sailors who had accompanied him from Pentos, many of them had recently been questioned by Daenerys's soldiers or officials.

"What did they ask?" Illyrio demanded.

"They were holding a detailed portrait and asked whether we knew or had seen the person depicted. From what we heard, it seems to be the murderer who poisoned the Queen's two advisors."

Illyrio did not need further details to know the portrait depicted Ezzan.

An investigation itself was not unusual. But why had it reached his people, who were guests from Pentos?

Was it simply part of a citywide investigation that left no stone unturned, or was there another reason?

Illyrio had always possessed strong instincts for self-preservation. His ordinary subordinates knew nothing about his relationship with Ezzan. What frightened him was not the questioning itself, but the signal behind it.

Someone might already be watching him.

And that someone might intend him harm.

Even worse, this time he stood in the open while his enemy remained hidden.

No one understood better than a thief how difficult it was to guard against a thief for a thousand days. If someone truly wished to destroy him, even if Ezzan had no real connection to him, fabricated evidence could still be created.

The moment he sensed the danger, Illyrio's entire body tensed.

His survival instincts urged him to board a ship immediately and return to Pentos.

Yet his love for his child and his unwillingness to abandon everything he had built forced him to grit his teeth and make another decision.

He would stay.

And he would enter a dangerous race against both the hidden enemy and time.

(To be continued.)