Well, a lot has happened. First off, the bastard who reported the story as containing inappropriate material using bot accounts can go to hell. Webnovel blocked my access to the story until it was proven that it didn't contain any of the stuff I was accused of, which wasn't until yesterday, so you can go to the Seven Hells. And as if that weren't enough, the Shift key on my laptop decided to break, so I had to type on my mobile, and it was absolute torture.
But anyway, here's the new chapter.
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Caspian Darkwood
Essos, Volantis
57 AC
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"They seem very fanatical, don't you think?" Valka was sitting in one of the chairs on the large balcony of the room the High Priest had offered us as a gesture of piety. The room was in the highest part of the Red Temple, offering a view of a large part of Volantis from here.
"Well, their religion has revolved around a being who will end the darkness they speak of so much. It's only natural they act this way when they see the one they have always been waiting for finally appear," I replied, walking to a nearby table and picking a cluster of grapes.
"I don't doubt that, but are they trustworthy? Beyond their fanaticism toward you and what you signify to them." Truthfully, I wasn't clear on that. I didn't know much about the customs of the Red Priests beyond the fact that they liked to burn things, but right now, they were a gamble worth considering.
"I don't know for certain, but what I do know is that the faithful believe in the prophecy of Azor Ahai Reborn—a savior who will wield Lightbringer to defeat the darkness." I brought up the subject of religion. Beliefs were volatile and shifting; I had already been playing with them with the Dothraki, which was why they followed me so faithfully.
Beyond having exploited their customs to obtain the title of Khal after the death of their former leader, I had used their faith in the Great Stallion and the Stallion Who Mounts the World to my advantage. I knew the Red Priests would be no exception, especially considering that Hephaestus was the one who brought me here in the first place.
The very God these fire-lovers worshipped. From that perspective, it was clear they would follow me. Hell, even their god was on my side. That created even more reasons for them to help us with everything we needed.
"Besides, R'hllor is very popular among slaves, freedmen, and commoners. This is the perfect pass to influence the minds of those who are the pillar of all these Free Cities. Look at Volantis, for example; for every free person, there are three slaves, and the vast majority of them believe in R'hllor. That is the power the Red Temple offers, and I am motivated to use it."
Valka didn't respond immediately. Instead, she also took a small cluster of grapes from the table and began to swallow them one by one without chewing. "They have a lot of religious and social power, I admit that. In the four days we've been here, I've seen it. Though their direct political power was limited—if it hadn't been for the witches and the Endermen, the Triarchs would have mobilized the Volantene army against the Temple itself."
That had happened on our first night in the city, three nights ago. I knew I had the Red Temple under my command ever since Kinvara arrived at the camp I had set up near Qohor, but those who governed the city didn't feel the same way.
So, I did the most sensible thing. What was that? I sent my friends from the End to take out anyone who held a political office or had closeness to anyone of power in Volantis. In a single night, the city's entire political power structure was emptied, left free to be filled with my own people. As for the common people of Volantis—didn't I say the Temple had them in their hands? It only took sending priests throughout the city with food, gold, and honey to keep them happy.
We ended up taking over the city in a single night without bloodshed... or at least, no more than was necessary. At this point, they might as well call me the Night Conqueror.
"In any case, the priests have been preaching in the other Free Cities where there is a Red Temple—Myr, Lys, Pentos, Norvos, and Tyrosh for now. They have done nothing but preach about you and perform 'miracles.' It's good propaganda, as you call it; at least it clears the path for when we make the sky fall on them." I looked at her as she finished.
A smile formed on my face. I know it wasn't very healthy to smile when your lover spoke about murdering people, but any man would do it if a woman as beautiful as Valka said it.
"I think that's enough conversation for now, isn't it?" I told her, but it seemed my words went in one ear and out the other, because she gave me that look she gave me when there were still topics left untouched. "Speak."
"The matter of Aerea's mother—what have you thought about doing? She arrived at Vaes Yeraan four days ago on a dragon. She may not have caused trouble yet, and we both know it's best for her, but with that visit, it's clear Aerea's presence has drawn unwanted attention—especially from volatile people with fire-breathing weapons beside them."
"I know she is her mother, but with her visit, Vaes Yeraan is the focus of attention now. We were already the focus of many. Aerea doesn't want to leave Vaes Yeraan; she has formed some kind of strange bond with you, which surprises me because you haven't shared much. And that's fine, I'm not jealous, I'll always be number one—but let's not forget she commands the most powerful dragon of the Targaryen dynasty, and the King of Westeros won't be happy with his family's property falling into the hands of 'horse savages,' as they surely call us."
I wanted to laugh, but seeing her serious face, I simply smiled. "My love, my beam of light," I said, approaching her and gently taking her chin, forcing her to look at me. "You are a Minecraft witch. We have a dragon of our own; you saw her in action against the abomination of the Black Goat in Qohor. If that weren't enough, there are also the Endermen. I'm not saying we shouldn't be cautious, but there is no reason to fear the Targaryens and their dragons. As far as we both know, the Targaryens are too busy dealing with their kingdom on a tightrope to worry about an empire rising on the other side of the world. I'm sure Jaehaerys won't make a move that forces us to respond; he's too busy dealing with his own problems."
"Now, can we go to sleep already?" I asked her again, and this time she accepted.
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"I'll be working late—well, you already know that—so don't wait up for me," I told Valka as we both sat at the same table as the night before. What did I mean by working late? It meant being able to rebuild the city. Volantis—or to be more specific, the location of the city—would be the core of my kingdom. It enjoyed an excellent location, at a good distance from both Westeros and the other Free Cities of Essos, even relatively close to the Summer Islands.
This made it ideal, and with the presence of the Rhoyne, my interest in the location was much greater.
That's why I had started to build, but before that, I had to erase the city that was already here from the map.
Volantis was big—immensely big. The show didn't do it justice. But just as they didn't do it justice, they also didn't show how the city was built in such a way that it could be mistaken for a damn labyrinth kept in a sauna.
Many alleys, streets led nowhere, and buildings constructed on the fly in unstrategic directions, which made it easier to destroy what was there and build from scratch.
But for that, I first had to wait for everyone—and when I say everyone, I mean everyone, even the dogs and cats—to evacuate. Not so much for the construction, but for the clearing of the city, since I would be using the Structure Block for that. When I did, everything in its loading range would be erased, without exception, and I didn't want to make people disappear.
So, the last few days I had dedicated to creating barracks at a safe distance from the city with enough beds for everyone to stay for the days the construction of the new city would last. And today, finally, I was about to begin, since everyone had evacuated, taking their animals, belongings, and everything of value that shouldn't be erased.
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So here I was, flying in front of a mountain range that hadn't existed a few hours ago. The row of high peaks reached heights that would make any invader reconsider, ending in them packing their things and going home.
The lowest peak reached a height of sixty meters, with some reaching even eighty. I had left no passages or paths that could be used to cross the mountains.
Furthermore, the mountains created a perfect rectangle... well, not quite perfect, but I did my best, surrounding an area of two thousand eight hundred square kilometers—more than enough space to build the city inside, surrounded by mountains as a natural barrier against invasions.
Something I had ordered to be done when everyone evacuated to the outskirts of Volantis was a census—something to show how many people there were, their specialties, and their ages. And I was not prepared for such a large number of people.
In total, there were 1,095,000 people, and of that total, 700,000 were slaves. That was an astronomical number of slaves, something that greatly surprised me. For me, someone from the 21st century, seeing slavery first-hand—something only known through history books in my old life—left me stunned.
Luckily, all the slaves had professions and were very good at them. From slave soldiers and sex workers to dung collectors, hathay drivers, slave smiths, money handlers, gravediggers, builders, carpenters, and fishermen.
If something needed to be done in Volantis, there was a slave dedicated to it. Without a doubt, they were the bastion that made Volantis breathe, which was a blessing since it meant skilled labor—something my Dothraki weren't entirely suited for.
That was why I decided to create a new type of identification with the help of Name Tags, moving beyond the use of tattoos.
I tasked the carpenters with creating a kind of ID card showing the name, occupation, and a serial number. With this tag, people could do many things: from applying for jobs in the city by showing their tag and their skills, to receiving a monthly salary of three gold coins if they were citizens of the city and had a job.
This was done to gradually eradicate slavery, integrating slaves into citizens with rights rather than objects without freedom.
"And that's it!"
With the final erasure of the structure block, the entire terrain was free to build anew, and this time, the right way. So, with no time to lose, I immersed myself in construction.
As for the design of the city itself, I decided to build it in such a way that the Rhoyne river would cross the city along the eastern edge, with the river touching the inner wall of the mountain range to the east. I widened the river considerably, reaching approximately fifty to seventy meters at its widest points.
Thus, I led the flow of the river—which originally emptied into the Summer Sea—to converge in a gigantic internal fjord on the south side of the city, accessible from the sea thanks to an opening large enough for large ships to cross side-by-side without touching. The entrance would be protected by a massive arch-shaped gate, both at the Summer Sea entrance and the northern entrance toward Norvos.
I divided the city itself into three sections, separated by enormous walls, at least ten stories or forty meters high.
The southeastern part was designated for the Royal Fortress—a stronghold of marble and concrete walls with sea-green roofs, a massive complex occupying almost three square kilometers, not counting the gardens, pools, a private coliseum for court events, and a type of Dragonpit to the south.
To the north of the massive fortress complex, I created an immense forest spanning one hundred and fifty acres with a lake in the center. The fortress area, which I named Minas Tirith, was surrounded by walls with access through a single giant gate.
To the north of the fortress area, I laid out the high-society district called Goldflower, where I built mansions for court members, high-ranking military figures, and top-tier workers.
To the east of Goldflower, divided by walls, was Bronzeflower, the "lower" zone of the city where former slaves would live, alongside Silverflower, which was near the farming and livestock areas.
And further south, past a central forest, was the Red Temple—or the new Temple. If the previous one was giant, the new one was immense. I did this with the intention of it being more than just a place for prayer; instead, it would occupy a central axis within the city, as it would house the Great Academy—a sort of school and educational center for various fields of knowledge.
Not only that, but the city bank would also be located there, along with the bastion of the witches, whom I wanted to work hand-in-hand with the Red Priests regarding the sector of faith that would undoubtedly revolve around me.
A bit further south was the area I named Silverflower. It was composed of huge fifteen-story buildings, each capable of housing more than two thousand people, thanks to twenty apartments on each floor; totaling three hundred apartments per building, with each apartment designed to house seven to ten people comfortably.
This would be the area where former slaves, city visitors, port workers, temple staff, and other tradespeople would live. It was the area with the highest presence of buildings dedicated to entertainment: taverns, hotels, brothels, theaters, and circuses.
Past Silverflower were the shipyards, featuring large docks with a capacity for at least thirty galleon-sized ships each, since Volantis's fleet was one of its primary strengths.
I thought about creating smithies or mines, but in the end, I decided against it. I already had Qohor under my control, and when I rebuilt that city, I built massive smithies and immense mines there. The goal was to establish Qohor as the armaments center of the kingdom, avoiding centralizing everything in one place—centralizing has never been a good move.
Thus, on the tenth day, Volantis—or as I renamed it, Xandar—was ready. With it, my kingdom now had three cities: Xandar as the administrative, commercial, educational, and arcane center; Qohor as the pinnacle of weaponry and mining; and Vaes Yeraan as the synagogue—the militaristic site serving as the trainer for the kingdom's soldiers, as well as the gateway to Vaes Dothrak.
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