Illyrio’s mansion had blue-tiled roofs and whitewashed walls, with ivy covering sections of the exterior and flowerbeds that remained in bloom throughout the year.
The estate wasn’t merely beautiful.
Dozens upon dozens of servants worked there, doing everything they could to provide their master with the most comfortable life possible.
Shamira was having breakfast with Aegon, but she hadn’t said a word.
Her expression was somewhat stiff, and she seemed noticeably sullen.
Aegon had recently sold not only some of his own clothes that he rarely wore, but also several of Shamira’s dresses and her incense.
Although everything a servant possessed technically belonged to her master, Shamira was deeply resentful of what she considered an almost heartless decision.
So during breakfast, she deliberately ate little more than bread and barely touched the other dishes, using her appetite—or rather, her lack of it—to express her displeasure.
Aegon knew that he had indeed gone a little too far.
He took out a pearl necklace and placed it in front of her.
“I was a little short on money recently.
Take this for now.”
Aegon had always remembered one important lesson: power only exists within seven steps.
He couldn’t casually humiliate the people closest to him.
Otherwise, there was a very real possibility that they would eventually turn against him.
He had learned that lesson the hard way while playing King-Making Plan as well.
If you really wanted to throw your weight around as a master, you had better send the person away as soon as possible.
Otherwise, you were simply planting a hidden disaster beside yourself.
The flawless white pearls gave off a soft, warm glow.
For a moment, Shamira couldn’t take her eyes off them.
Although she knew Aegon was offering the necklace as an apology, she still deliberately hesitated before saying, “Master, you bought this necklace, so it belongs to you.
You should keep it with you.
If you want me to wear it, you can give it to me then.”
Shamira was clearly expressing her dissatisfaction.
Although her spending money came from Aegon, she had saved for a long time to buy the incense she liked.
The people who had trained the girls had once told them that refusing something when a master offered it was a “dangerous gambit.”
Used poorly, it could anger the master and result in being thrown out.
But if used properly, it could make the master like you even more.
As far as Shamira was concerned, Aegon’s temper had always been fairly good.
So she decided to give it a try.
However, Aegon’s expression immediately changed.
Smack!
He slammed his dinner knife onto the ceramic plate.
The sharp sound made Shamira’s heart jolt.
Oh no.
Am I about to be thrown out?
Is he going to give me to someone else?
Could he hand me over to those filthy, foul-smelling soldiers at the military camp?
Shamira instantly became extremely nervous.
Her heart began pounding wildly, so fast that she almost felt sick.
“What do you mean, yours and mine?” Aegon said coldly.
With that, Aegon domineeringly fastened the necklace around her neck.
…
The southern outskirts of Pentos.
Aegon kicked a clump of cloudy salt crust lying on the ground and looked out over the vast stretch of barren land.
Apart from being relatively flat, there was practically nothing good to say about it.
This was the piece of land he intended to purchase.
The wasteland lay on the southeastern outskirts of Pentos and covered roughly two hundred square kilometers.
Including a stretch of hills to the east, the total area should come to around two hundred and fifty square kilometers.
Roughly the size of forty football fields.
Just like with armies, the system had an entire set of indicators for evaluating Domain.
Domains could also be acquired in many different ways.
They could be seized through conquest, inherited, or obtained through marriage.
Even leasing land was acceptable.
As long as the host could ensure that he possessed absolute control over the land for a certain period of time, the system would recognize it as their Domain.
And that period had to be at least six months.
The evaluation criteria included area, strategic importance, population, prosperity, and various other factors.
Depending on the rating of a host’s Domain, the rewards they received could differ enormously.
The system divided Domains into several levels:
Land, Castle, City, Free City, and Kingdom.
If the host managed to obtain territory at the level of a City or above, the system would reward him with an entire mineral deposit.
When the host possesses a kingdom, the system goes even further, directly rewarding them with an entire high-quality gold vein.
After all, resources in the real world were just as essential to the struggle for power.
Compared with building an army, however, having a Domain recognized by the system was much easier.
As long as the territory was sufficiently large and the host was expected to retain control of it for a long enough period, the system would recognize it as their Domain, allowing Aegon to claim the corresponding rewards.
Aegon still had some money in hand, so he planned to purchase this piece of land first and make it his first Domain.
He could claim the reward first and worry about everything else afterward.
In a sense, he was exploiting a loophole in the system.
“Young Master, are you really going to buy this land?
It doesn’t look like you can do anything with it.”
Although Belwas was merely a pit fighter, years spent at Illyrio’s side had broadened his horizons considerably.
The coastal section of this land had already been developed into a harbor and divided off for sale.
The land itself was extremely barren.
Salt deposits could be seen scattered everywhere beneath their feet, meaning that crops couldn’t grow here at all.
Even weeds were sparse and sickly.
Its location was another problem.
It was some distance from the main city of Pentos.
If someone wanted to build houses here, they would have trouble selling them in the first place.
Illyrio had given Aegon a considerable amount of money, but he had also instructed Belwas to keep Aegon from wasting it and, at the very least, to make sure nobody cheated him.
“Don’t worry, Belwas.
I have my own plans.
In everyone else’s eyes, this was nothing more than worthless wasteland.
But after observing the area over the past few days, Aegon had already come up with an excellent use for it.
If he played his cards right, this place could become a golden goose.
His plan was to build a horse-racing track here.
Horse racing involving gambling and betting didn’t seem to have been explored anywhere in Pentos—or even throughout the Free Cities.
It was practically an untouched blue ocean of opportunity.
In other words, Aegon intended to open a gambling establishment.
If he could somehow lose money running a gambling house, then he might as well go home and spend the rest of his life eating and waiting to die.
As for Shamira, she didn’t care in the slightest what Aegon intended to do with the land.
She simply believed that if Aegon wanted to do it, he must have his reasons.
The words Aegon had spoken to her that morning still echoed in her ears.
Whenever she looked at him, her eyes practically sparkled with admiration.
At this point, whatever the young master said, she considered it right.
The three of them waited for roughly half an hour.
Before long, several servants arrived at the agreed meeting place carrying a sedan chair.
According to the customs of Pentos, only those who held the title of Prince were entitled to travel in a sedan chair.
That meant the man coming to negotiate the transaction with Aegon was, at the very least, a Prince.
A man in his forties stepped down from the red sedan chair.
He had brown hair, a thin face, and an unnaturally straight back.
His long neck jutted forward, making him look rather like a proud rooster.
The moment he saw the finely dressed Aegon, he immediately recognized the young man as his prospective buyer.
As for Belwas and Shamira standing nearby, he didn’t even spare them a glance.
Aegon, meanwhile, had already investigated the man beforehand.
Although he was a Prince, his family had long since fallen into decline.
He was essentially a nobleman whose house had lost its substance but stubbornly clung to its former prestige.
Simply maintaining the appearance expected of a Prince was already enough to leave him exhausted.
Even so, he still put on an affected, self-important air, clearly intending to squeeze as high a price as possible out of this worthless piece of land.
So the moment he opened his mouth, he quoted a price that was almost impossible to accept.
A full ten thousand Pentoshi gold coins.
“Prince, surely you’re joking.”
Aegon gestured toward the barren land.
“Take a good look at it.
Other than being flat, what exactly is this land good for?
You can’t grow crops here, and it doesn’t look like there’s any mineral deposit hidden beneath it either.”
“The only section suitable for building a harbor has already been carved off and sold.”
“Buying the rest would basically be nothing more than giving me somewhere to ride horses in the future.”
Aegon adopted an attitude that clearly said take it or leave it.
The Prince immediately realized something.
This might be his only chance to get rid of the land.