The grey-robed Faceless Man pushed open the door and left the meeting room without looking back, his movements so swift and clean that Gorden did not even have time to call out for him to stop. As the door closed again with a gentle push from the guard, the atmosphere in the room instantly relaxed.
After all, there were few individuals with transcendent status like the Moon Singer priestess who were not afraid of the Faceless Men. If the proposal to "expel the House of Black and White from the House of Keyholders" were truly put to a vote, most of those present would likely be caught in a deep conflict between protecting the interests of the city-state and fearing retaliation from the Faceless Men. Now that the representative of the House of Black and White had voluntarily shown weakness and left, this was actually the best possible outcome for the other members present, aside from Gorden himself.
Gorden glanced at Isha and gave a slight nod to express his thanks for her cooperation, then suppressed the faint dissatisfaction rising in his heart. On the surface, the representative of the Moon Singers' Temple had spoken up for him, and the result was indeed a successful exchange that "drove away" the representative of the House of Black and White. However, from another perspective, she had also acted as a peacemaker, giving the Faceless Man a way out, which ruined his plan to continue applying extreme pressure.
For a moment, it was truly difficult to judge whether she meant to help the House of Black and White, or was simply acting out of goodwill and did not want the conflict to escalate further.
But one thing was certain: with the last dissenting voice gone, the discussion of how to overthrow Daenerys's regime could finally continue.
"Alright, everyone!" The current Keyholder clapped his hands, pulling everyone back into the meeting from their lingering thoughts, or perhaps lingering fear. "The representative of the House of Black and White has voluntarily relinquished their voting rights in this meeting, and is also highly unlikely to participate in Braavos's comprehensive intervention in Westeros. Therefore, we will amend the plan so that 'the elimination of Daenerys and the Hand of Daenerys will be the sole responsibility of the Iron Bank Special Affairs Department.' Regarding this... are there any issues?"
"As long as the money is there, there are plenty of assassin organizations willing to take the job. Killing people is not a problem," the representative from the Special Affairs Department, who had been called upon, said with a shrug. "But I must make this clear in advance: only the House of Black and White has invested enough effort and achieved sufficient mastery in the matter of 'making assassinations look like accidents.' Based on current intelligence, the security and protection around Daenerys and Aegor are quite thorough, and for now there are no obvious loopholes. If we are to assassinate them under such circumstances, the commotion will be significant, and Braavos will have to invest resources or be prepared for actions such as creating opportunities, handling the aftermath, and dealing with retaliation."
The Iron Bank Special Affairs Department was responsible for dirty work, and their training and practice covered a wide range of fields. In theory, they could handle any task. The representative's words were not an attempt to shirk responsibility, but a statement of fact and a frank warning about the possible difficulties.
People are only flesh and blood. If you get the chance, a cup of poisoned wine or a direct stab in and pull out of a blade will finish them. But as Littlefinger said, whether you can kill someone is one thing, whether you can bear the consequences of killing them is another. To use a recent and vivid example: Aegor used the advantage of home ground to easily eliminate the two troublemakers, successfully escaped suspicion, and even became the investigator in charge. It seemed very satisfying. However, as long as the "true culprit" is not caught, with conclusive evidence and clear facts that convince everyone, Daenerys will not forget it for even a day, and Aegor will have to keep thinking about how to cover up the truth. Even if he manages to avoid exposure for his whole life, he will still go through countless moments of guilt and paranoia in the process, at least in the beginning. This is the consequence.
And the cause of this consequence was simple: the deaths of Varys and Petyr were undoubtedly man-made, an act of hostility so severe that it could not be overstated, and there were even clues to follow, even though they were later lost.
And the Faceless Men?
When they assassinate important figures, they will certainly conduct surveillance and investigation beforehand, design a perfect plan, use every unbelievable environmental and human advantage, and complete the assassination flawlessly. This is divided into two situations: ordinary and advanced. If they are not afraid of retaliation, they only need to simply eliminate the target, destroy the evidence, and leave no clues. If they are worried about retaliation, then they will invest even more resources and manpower to make the death look like a natural death or an accident, not only making it impossible to investigate, but even making the very existence of a killer open to doubt.
Killing is simple. The difficulty lies in how to deeply hide one's accomplishments and fame after the killing. No matter how clever a staged case or an unsolved case may be, it can never be as secure as "a case that cannot even be filed." But reaching that level requires exceptional skill and accumulated experience, and it cannot be achieved in the short term simply by throwing resources at it.
The consequence of the House of Black and White refusing to act, forcing the Iron Bank to use second-rate or even third-rate assassin organizations, was this: the mission executors first had to strive to ensure that the assassination itself succeeded. As for high-level operations such as leaving no clues or forging the cause of death, sorry, they were powerless.
"Daenerys has no heir to the throne, and Aegor has not left behind any offspring. As long as we eliminate both of them at the same time, and then support Aegon to take the throne... who is going to come looking for trouble with us? The Night's Watch on the Wall, or that group of eunuch soldiers who have lost their master?" Gorden impatiently tapped the table with his finger, unable to stop himself from repeatedly breaking the rule that outsiders should not speak at the meeting. "The Special Affairs Department should just do it boldly. If something goes wrong, I will help cover for you! This is a life-and-death war. We cannot be timid and overthink everything! Now stop dawdling, let us discuss the main business!"
...
Under Gorden's half-coaxing, half-pushing, the latter half of the meeting proceeded with rare smoothness.
Centered on the core issue of overthrowing Daenerys's regime, and aimed at the ultimate goal of safeguarding Braavos's status as a financial center, this group of elites skillfully worked out a set of interconnected and mutually reinforcing plans through a series of consultations, proposals, and votes.
First, Braavos would send personnel, publicly called "observers" but in practice acting as representatives, to contact the city-state coalition. Publicly, there would be no announcement, but in reality they would join and fully cooperate with the actions of this anti-Dragon Queen alliance, using the Narrow Sea as a base to pressure Westeros. The reason for taking this roundabout approach was that Braavos's ideology was different from that of the other major city-states, at least officially. If they openly announced that they had joined the coalition, it would easily give the public the impression that "the city-states are joining forces with slave owners to fight against the liberator Dragon Queen," which would trigger widespread and intense anti-war sentiment, making it difficult for the House of Keyholders and the Sealord to mobilize the city-state's resources and recruit soldiers, thereby affecting their overall strategy.
This move ensured that if the Iron Bank's assassination of Daenerys and Aegor was not entirely successful, or even if it succeeded but their faction still organized a counterattack, Braavos would not be caught panicked and unprepared for the confrontation.
At the same time, the city-state's foreign affairs department and the Iron Bank's Department of Commerce would also actively contact known and potential opposition forces within the Seven Kingdoms. For example, the Vale, which had not yet taken a side, the remnants of the Ironborn who had fled back to the Iron Islands after a major defeat, the wealthy Reach, provided they could hold out until then, and the Faith of the Seven in Oldtown, which had long-standing grievances against House Targaryen. They would be incited at all costs to resist Daenerys to the end. Combined with the constant spreading of rumors and defamation of the enemy leaders through propaganda channels, this would mobilize all available forces within Westeros, from hostile lords at the top to believers of the Seven at the bottom, to make trouble for Daenerys's regime and obstruct them.
While such underhanded methods could not be exposed to the light, on the surface they could weaken and reduce the effort and efficiency with which Daenerys's regime integrated the resources of the Seven Kingdoms, thereby increasing the anti-Dragon Queen alliance's chances of winning a direct confrontation. Beneath the surface, given the thorough personal security around Daenerys and her Hand Aegor, only by constantly creating accidents and troubles for them could opportunities be made to disrupt their plans and force them to keep running around to solve problems. In the process of this back-and-forth, loopholes would invisibly appear.
And those loopholes would provide an opportunity for the assassins sent or hired by the Iron Bank Special Affairs Department to strike when the enemy was vulnerable.
Finally, Braavos's arsenals and intelligence departments had to operate at full capacity. While trying to decipher the designs and data of the suspected unreliable firearms sent back from King's Landing, they also had to continue trying to obtain more detailed secrets, strive to build ships, and prepare for the possible hard war, as well as the new arms race in the age of firearms after the war ended.
During the House of Keyholders members' heated discussion of the final plan, Gorden finally observed the rules and did not interrupt frequently. But the old man sitting at the front and watching like a tiger was itself a major source of pressure. Everyone present felt uncomfortable, like students being watched by a teacher while doing their homework. In their dazed state, they did not even have the mind to scheme for personal gain or for the interests of the industries they represented. Dozens of shrewd people genuinely racked their brains for the overall interests of the city-state of Braavos for an entire afternoon.
As the sun set and the light in the room gradually dimmed, the frequency with which the attendees proposed new suggestions and added details to the existing plans also slowly decreased, then stopped. After several contagious yawns spread around the conference table, everyone's gaze gradually turned toward the current Keyholder, waiting for him to announce the adjournment at the proper time and bring this major meeting, which had kept their nerves tense and pressure high, to an end.
But they were destined not to get their wish.
"It seems you have basically nothing more to say, so let me add one last point." The old man in the wheelchair, who had kept a low profile for a long time, stepped forward again at the final moment. "What is the most important thing in a confrontation if you want to win? A hundred people will have a hundred answers, but I believe it is which side has fewer internal troublemakers and is more united."
He handed the small pot back to the serving girl and sat up straight in his wheelchair again.
"For some strange reasons and explanations, the House of Black and White refuses to participate in this operation to overthrow Daenerys's regime. Looking on the bright side, they may remain in the House of Black and White's temple and wait for the end of this full-scale war in a neutral role. But what if they do not?"
The yawns quickly disappeared, and the relaxed atmosphere in the room vanished. There were no fools among the members of the House of Keyholders. Everyone immediately understood the old man's underlying meaning. This was a terrifying accusation, but everyone present was a formidable figure and a shrewd individual who dominated in a particular field. How could they fail to understand that even if the possibility of this malicious speculation becoming reality was small, they still had to guard against it?
"Although Daenerys's regime has not yet unified the Seven Kingdoms, after a series of victories it has already accumulated an unstoppable momentum. Braavos must unite every force that can be united, and concentrate all its spirit and attention on confronting this unprecedented great enemy. At such a critical moment, the existence of an assassin organization inside the city-state, one with an ambiguous attitude but ruthless and unpredictable methods, is an absolutely unacceptable and dangerous situation. Today, I once again propose, as an observer: order the House of Black and White to immediately state its official position to the House of Keyholders. If they still insist on the attitude shown by their previous representative, then mobilize heavy troops and expel all Faceless Men from Braavos!"
Gorden had become the most prestigious and influential former member of the House of Keyholders in Braavos because he possessed many outstanding qualities that ordinary people found difficult to have: always rational, decisive when necessary, cautious when necessary. Listing them all could fill an entire article. But no matter how much praise was heaped upon him, "tolerance" had never been one of his traits.
You can be a thief for a thousand days, but you cannot guard against a thief for a thousand days. The representative of the House of Black and White had publicly contradicted him at today's meeting of the House of Keyholders, and had stated a firm attitude that they were absolutely unwilling to confront the enemy he had identified. Therefore, both publicly and privately, Gorden had only one choice, to strike first and decisively eliminate them.
His proposal of "expulsion" was real enough, but with the claws and influence of House Gallonier reaching into every level and aspect of Braavos, as long as this proposal passed, he was one hundred percent certain that the originally bloodless expulsion could escalate into violent conflict. That would allow this group of Faceless Men, who thought so highly of themselves, to "actively resist the law," and then, taking advantage of the situation, make this assassin organization, which had become unwieldy and burdensome, become history tonight.
A hundred layers of human-skin masks could not stop a steel knife driven into the chest!
(To be continued.)