Illyrio simply couldn’t understand.
Wasn’t it good to honestly and obediently be a wealthy young master?
He had even gotten him a beautiful maid.
What on earth was this fellow dissatisfied with, always messing around with this and that?
He had just taken a trip to King’s Landing to meet with his old friend Varys, and upon his return, such an upsetting thing had happened.
“Where is that little thing now?” Illyrio stepped down from the carriage and asked angrily of the servant beside him.
“The young master is in his room right now.”
Learning Aegon’s whereabouts, Illyrio strode in two or three steps, walking angrily toward Aegon’s room.
But just after taking a couple of steps, he accidentally stepped on a stone.
If not for the servant’s quick eyes and hands, he almost would have twisted his ankle.
“Who cleaned up today?
Dock their wages for a month!” Illyrio said furiously, subconsciously moving a bit further away from the shadows of the fence, as if the sharp shadows cast by the fence could pierce his feet.
Illyrio was already angry, and he walked faster and faster along the way, which made his breathing extremely heavy.
By the time he reached Aegon’s door, he was already panting.
When he angrily pushed open Aegon’s door, Shamira was massaging Aegon’s feet.
“Get out!” Illyrio said coldly.
Shamira lowered her head and kept her hands at her sides, preparing to leave the room.
She had never seen Illyrio angry to this extent.
“Old thing, what kind of madness are you throwing?
Stay!” Aegon said without showing any weakness.
But Illyrio truly had no pleasant expression to offer.
He had never imagined that Aegon would stir up such huge trouble.
In the past, he could still act like a loving father, spoiling Aegon almost unconditionally.
But now, he only felt a ball of fire pent up in his heart; if it wasn’t vented out, it could suffocate him alive tonight.
Illyrio glared at Aegon, strode toward him, and finally kicked over Aegon’s foot-washing basin with a fierce kick.
“You little beast!
Are you trying to anger me to death?”
“What did I do?” Aegon’s volume was not the least bit smaller than Illyrio’s, and even because of his youth, his breath was even steadier. This story is hosted at g.com.
Neither of them yielded to the other, scaring Shamira aside quite a bit.
Illyrio panted twice before speaking: “I went to attend the Council of Magisters today.
Do you know what decision the council made?
They are preparing to dispatch troops to annihilate the bandits recently running amok, and they specifically named you to lead the troop in suppressing the bandits!”
“Suppressing bandits?” Aegon laughed.
“Isn’t this just right?
What I command is already a field cavalry regiment.
Suppressing bandits is naturally my duty, and I must go.”
Seeing that he still maintained this casual attitude, Illyrio’s head was practically about to explode with anger: “Do you know that this is a war, and people will die!”
For so many years, he had raised Aegon by his side, and the most important plan was: if his own biological son, young Griff, failed in his uprising in the future, he could hand over the real Aegon to exchange for his son’s life.
If Aegon died in this bandit-suppression matter, all his calculations would come to nothing, which was something he absolutely could not accept.
“It is me who dies, what do you have to be excited about?” Aegon sat up and said indifferently.
Those purple eyes stared straight at Illyrio, as if trying to dig out the answer hidden deep in the other’s heart from his expression.
Illyrio’s mind was dazed with anger, and for a moment he didn’t know how to respond.
He couldn’t even say a phrase like “Because you are my son”.
He held it in for a long time, his plump body shaking more and more violently.
Seeing him looking like this, Aegon decided to add fuel to the fire: “I thought you would say that I am the only memory left to you by my mother.
Seeing you so furious now, it looks like you threw her to the back of your mind long ago, and all your thoughts are placed on that young Griff!”
After hearing Aegon’s words, Illyrio was completely dumbfounded.
Clearly it was he who came to question the other party, how had the situation been reversed instead?
“That is precisely what I meant, exactly what I meant!
I don’t want you to take risks.
If something happens to you and you lose your life, how could I face your deceased mother?” Seeing Aegon offer him a way out, Illyrio simply followed the thread of the conversation downward, finding room for himself to ease tension.
Aegon understood clearly in his heart that the name young Griff was simply too useful.
As long as he showed that he held a grudge because of this and ‘vied for jealousy with young Griff’, Illyrio would immediately make concessions.
The atmosphere between the two eased slightly, and only then did Illyrio speak of what happened at the Council of Magisters.
Molvagen approached Illyrio, stating that he wanted Aegon to go and suppress the bandits roaming around Ghoyan Drohe.
Of course Illyrio disagreed.
At a critical moment, Aegon was meant to be used to redeem his own biological son; no matter what, he could not simply die anywhere. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Ghoyan Drohe was originally a city established by the Rhoynar.
After it was destroyed by the Valyrians, the remaining Rhoynar there hid in the mountains.
In short, the Rhoynar who originally possessed a brilliant civilization turned into unruly people amidst the barren mountains and wicked waters.
They secretly supported the bandits headed by the bandit leader ‘Lucci’.
In short, that place was extremely dangerous.
The Thoxor Family sent people there several times and failed to take it.
He believed Aegon couldn’t handle it either, so he proposed that perhaps they could raise money to hire a mercenary company.
But the other party told Illyrio about Aegon refusing to help.
Although he immediately expressed willingness to apologize and compensate, once the Thoxor Family also got involved, Illyrio knew the other party wasn’t targeting Aegon, but rather it was caused by his long-term failure to take a side.
Originally in his plan, after persisting for a few more years, young Griff would have grown up.
Once Daenerys married the horse lord, the grand plan of the great substitution could be put on the agenda, and he wouldn’t need to care about Pentos anymore.
But now it was clearly no longer possible.
Listening to Illyrio’s account, Aegon also roughly understood the petty machinations of the Pentoshi magisters.
However, he wasn’t angry at all; instead, he was extremely excited.
At least he knew the reason why the two major giants did this was not to squeeze out Illyrio, but to teach him a lesson and make him quickly choose a side.
That is to say, if he went smoothly this time, he would soon be ‘promoted’, obtain a higher title, and control more troops.
What Illyrio wanted was to one day leave Pentos, walk away from the table and stop playing; what Aegon wanted was to control Pentos, flip the table and play by himself.
“Old man!
Bandits!
They must be suppressed at any time!
They cannot not be suppressed!
I grew up in Pentos since I was a child, what’s wrong with contributing a bit of effort to Pentos?
Besides, they are just a bunch of bandits, leave it to me.”
Seeing Aegon say this, Illyrio only felt it was absurd.
It looked like he treated war as hunting, or a slightly more exciting game.
It was impossible for him to sink himself into the big cesspool of Pentos for Aegon’s sake.
If Aegon truly wanted to seek death, then let him go.
His own biological son, young Griff, was the core of the entire plan.