The soldiers who had previously been ordered to go out and recruit new soldiers also received extra silver coin rewards.
Among them, Roget received the most rewards, having recruited a total of eleven new soldiers for the team, and those Dothraki were the ones he brought back.
Because of his Dothraki mixed heritage, those Horse Lords were willing to trust him.
According to the originally agreed-upon remuneration, Aegon distributed eleven silver coins to him in full.
The heavy silver coins brought a reassuring weight; an ordinary person in Pentos might not be able to save this much money even after saving for half a year.
After distributing the military pay, everyone sat around together to enjoy a sumptuous meal.
Pentos is close to the sea, so fish is relatively abundant.
The staple food of the soldiers is corn and potatoes, and they can also eat rare greasy meat.
Belwas accompanied Aegon by his side, watching his little master pierce corn with a wooden stick and taste it with relish.
There is an insurmountable chasm in status between soldiers and nobles.
Nobles would never dine together with bottom-tier soldiers, just as slave owners would never eat at the same table with slaves.
When he first arrived at the camp, Belwas even felt that the soldiers here lived worse than slaves, and their days were even harder to endure.
Yet Aegon, as Illyrio’s nominal son, was willing to eat and sit with this group of bottom-tier soldiers.
In Belwas’s eyes, this matter was simply incredible and close to heretical.
At least before he was bought by Illyrio, he could only sit on the ground to eat, and after following Illyrio, he could sit in a chair to eat.
This was also the reason why he respected Illyrio.
But even so, Belwas was not allowed to eat with Illyrio.
Aegon, however, did not care about this at all and even enjoyed this interaction very much.
The newly arrived soldiers were also very surprised by this.
After all, Pentos had overtly shaken off the label of a slave-owning city-state for only about a hundred years, and the abolition of slavery was even more superficial.
The belief in strict hierarchies was still deeply rooted in everyone’s heart.
Precisely because he ate and trained together with the soldiers, the system task progress rose by another two percentage points.
Aegon was very happy about this.
It seemed that his action of dining together with the soldiers greatly narrowed the distance between each other.
After eating and drinking their fill, Aegon asked the soldiers to carry out free training in the afternoon, intending to have heart-to-heart talks with the soldiers one by one to figure out everyone’s situation and personal qualities.
Now there are more than two hundred people in total, which can barely be divided into three centuries.
Aegon himself commanded a century, and there was still a vacancy for another centurion.
The whole conversation process went very smoothly.
Aegon was generous.
As soon as he arrived, he advanced a month’s military pay to everyone and promised to help shoulder their debts.
Many soldiers developed a favorable impression from the bottom of their hearts, and the shouts of “Allegiance” and “Long live the lord” rose one after another.
Not long after, Aegon walked up to several Dothraki recruited by Roget.
These people all had standard brown skin, which, moistened by sweat, looked at first glance as if they had been coated with a layer of palm oil.
Although they had also lived in Pentos for a period of time, they still carried that wildness of the Dothraki.
Especially one of the soldiers named ‘Mago’, his physique was much more robust than the others.
On his broad chest were several arrow-wound scars like medals, and on his shoulder was a fierce claw-mark tattoo.
After some conversation, he learned that this group of people were wanderers who had drifted here.
The long summer caused a large-scale withered sea of grass, making it difficult for small Khalasars to survive, and they could only wander around.
To make matters worse, they encountered an attack by another Horse Lord Khalasar.
Their Khalasar was annexed, and only a small portion of the able-bodied men escaped.
The Horse Lords who left the Khalasar lost their sense of belonging and could only run to the Free Cities to make a living.
Because the magisters of Pentos seemed relatively friendly to the Dothraki, they chose this place.
The system seemed to sense Aegon’s interest in recruiting Mago and immediately popped up a prompt:
[Whether to use the submission card to start the conquest mission for the current character Mago?]
Every ambitious ruler who dominates a region needs a powerful personal guard by their side who can command the scene, and Mago happened to meet this standard.
He was tall and robust, with exquisite Riding skills, and his individual combat capability was very outstanding.
In the drill not long ago, he could fight against the siege of six or seven ordinary soldiers on horseback alone.
This required first-class martial arts and Riding skills to achieve.
After successful submission, he could acquire one of his skills, and because of the ‘submission card’, the other party’s loyalty was also extremely guaranteed.
Without hesitation, Aegon chose to start.
Character: Mago
Submission Points: (0 / 100)
Just as Aegon was pondering how to start the conquest mission for Mago, Mago suddenly took the initiative to speak: “My lord, as long as I remain under your command, I will fight hard for you. This story is hosted at novelping . com.
But my Khalasar was annexed, which is an irreconcilable hatred.
If I want revenge, I hope you will let us leave.”
The Horse Lords did not understand what the employment system was; they only knew that leaving was also a betrayal, or at least required advance notice.
The straightforward words of the Dothraki instantly diluted the lively and joyful atmosphere in the field.
Everyone’s gaze fell squarely on Aegon, fearing that this rule-ignorant Dothraki would anger the commanding officer, and even more afraid that Aegon would retract his promise to help everyone pay off their debts in a fit of anger.
Yet Aegon did not get angry, but just smiled faintly: “No problem.
As long as you stay by my side and fight for me wholeheartedly, that is enough.
If there is a chance in the future, maybe I will crusade against your enemy together with you.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
Seeing that Aegon not only was not angry, but also made such a promise, Mago raised his right fist and heavily pounded his own chest.
This was the exclusive etiquette for the Dothraki to express respect.
Mago did not expect whether Aegon would fulfill the promise of helping him take revenge, but he had explicitly said that as long as he wanted to leave, he would let them go, and that was enough.
And Aegon saying this indeed had the intention of quickly subduing Mago, but at the same time it also contained a bit of his own ambition.
If he had the opportunity to rule Pentos in the future, then naturally it would be impossible to kowtow to the Horse Lords like these magisters did, exchanging gifts and the blood and sweat of the Pentoshi for some ridiculous peace.
There would surely be a battle between himself and the Horse Lords.
Sure enough, after reaching the agreement, Aegon’s submission points towards Mago changed:
Character: Mago
Submission Points: (7 / 100)
Seeing that just a promise increased seven points, Aegon was not that happy.
The thing about favorability is that the further it goes, the harder it is to farm.
After all, holding hands is one difficulty, kissing is another difficulty, and bodily fluid exchange is the highest difficulty.
Of course, this refers to non-monetary transactions; changing it to subduing subjects is the same.
The target subdued by the submission card will forever be 100% loyal to the monarch, as long as the monarch does not do things that hurt him from the aspect of dignity and personality.
As for Mago, Aegon was determined to win him over.