Game of Thrones: Battle Royale Game

"Our Barliwell family has been in decline in the past two hundred years. Although we have the status of key keeper, we no longer have the wealth to match it. We are marginalized people in Braavos." Hominas ·Baliwell’s sudden heart-to-heart talk confused Xaro.

"The whole world knows that Braavos hate slavery," Hominus continued, "but the Iron Bank has never given up on the idea of ​​making money from Volantis, Slaver's Bay, and Qarth, so they want to A way to get the best of both worlds was to leave the dirty work to less noble people."

"Your family can be traced back to" Xaro wanted to defend Hominas.

"The bloodlines of the 23 keykeepers can all be traced back to the ancient Valyrian period," Hominas interrupted Xaro, "In Braavos, whether a person is noble has nothing to do with bloodline, it only depends on them. family wealth.

55 years ago, the declining Barliwell family finally stabilized its decline under the leadership of my shrewd grandfather. One of his investments in Myr was due to the Myr people's military victory in the disputed land. It brought him a huge report.

Using the money, his grandfather organized a trading fleet. In the next 10 years, he successfully opened up new markets in Slaver's Bay and Qarth, and sailed to Yin, the capital of Yi, to meet with the then crown prince Bu. Xuan established a friendship.

After obtaining the qualification to trade porcelain, silk and spices, our Ballywell family quickly gained great wealth, and for a time appeared to be on the verge of re-emergence, until" Hominas stopped as he said it.

"I think I know what happened later. Was it the Yindu Water War during the 'Rebellion of the Four Kings'?" Seeing Hominas' expression, Zaro immediately remembered the incident that had a devastating impact on the entire Eastern world at that time. All things that had a huge impact.

31 years ago, the 16th emperor of Yi Di's Azure Dynasty passed away. The second prince Bu Xuan, who had bribed the commander of the Imperial Guard, did not announce the mourning. He summoned the prince Bu Xuan to the palace and killed him, and then succeeded to the throne as the seventeenth emperor of the Azure Dynasty. Because of the improper position of Divination, the four princes of Yidi colluded with the fleet commander of Yindu to launch a rebellion. It is said that thousands of merchant ships anchored in Yindu port at that time were affected.

If there is one thing that can have a fatal impact on the re-emerging Ballywell family, there is no doubt that it can only be that thing.

"My grandfather's six galleons happened to be located at the most intense location of the battle, and they were all sunk in the crossfire between the emperor's and the rebel fleets." Hominas nodded, "In addition, my grandfather was originally a friend of the former prince. He did not dare to stay in Yindu any longer, so he could only escape from Yidu overnight and returned to Braavos.

Six large sailing ships, their cargo, and the industries invested in Yindu were wiped out overnight. This not only wiped out most of my grandfather's life's business, but also saddled the family with huge debts that could not be repaid.

The Iron Bank could have easily given us a hand. The debt that is already sky-high for the Ballywell family is actually nothing to the Iron Bank. But not only did they forcefully reject my grandfather’s request, they also forced him to sell the last of our family’s shares in the iron bank to pay off the debt.

In order to retain the title of our family's keykeeper, my grandfather had to accept the plan proposed by the Iron Bank and became the Iron Bank's new representative in Slaver's Bay, making money for the Iron Bank despite the curses of the people of Braavos.

He died in grief two years later, and my father took over his position and business, and then me.

Our family has been deeply involved in Slaver's Bay for three generations and has made millions of wealth for Braavos and the Iron Bank in nearly 30 years. However, my sister..." Hominas said and tightened his grip. Fist, "My sister who married back to Braavos because of tradition.

Less than a year after she returned to Braavos, a large number of people set fire to her house and burned her alive at home because of the crime of being an accomplice of slave traders. She was only 17 years old that year.

Noble Braavosi! Proud Braavosi! They are as shiny as the gold and silver we shipped back. The only ones who are dirty are those of us who made money in Slaver's Bay, only us."

"The look on your face scares me, my old friend." Xaro tapped his finger on the table. "You look like you're crazy now."

"I've been crazy for a long time. Don't you know how much I want to resist Tiejinku? You don't know how much I want to trample those high-ranking guys under my feet. But I don't dare. There are many informants of Tiejinku around me. And the Iron Bank usually chooses to use the Faceless Men to deal with traitors." Hominas shook his head, "I can't do anything but make money for them honestly, and I don't even dare to keep a cent for myself."

"So, what gave you such courage later?"

"Before leaving the camp of General Eres Zo Emde, he gave me one last suggestion. He asked me to visit Priest Celia again and talk to her frankly. Maybe I will get unexpected results. I thought the harvest he was talking about was money, so although I went, I actually didn’t have any special hopes." Hominas said in a solemn tone, "But after I saw her, she asked me The first sentence turned out to be: Do you want revenge?"

"How did she know about you?" Zaro was also surprised.

"That's why I particularly despise the arrogance of you Qarthites. You are always self-righteous and never understand your friends or your opponents." Hominus chuckled, "To be honest, I At first, I was shocked as to how she could find out everything about my investigation. Some of the things were easy to find out, and some were supposed to be very secret. Later I found out that many people around me had been bribed by her, including many. It was originally someone sent by the Iron Bank to monitor me."

"So...how did you answer her?"

"She didn't rush for me to answer, but showed me something first, one." Hominas' tone became lower again, as if just mentioning that name was enough to scare him, "One was chopped off." The Faceless One with arms and legs.”

"How is that possible?! I have never heard of a faceless man missing. It would be even more ridiculous for a faceless man to be captured."

"I am a Braavos man, and I know the horror of the Faceless Men better than you. When Braavos was in crisis countless times in history, all it took was Sea King to threaten the Faceless Men, and the crisis would be solved. Even if it was once Those arrogant Dragon Kings are also afraid of the Faceless Men."

"Is it possible that the woman in red robe just grabbed a random person and told you that it was a Faceless Man?"

"No, she showed me the evidence, a bag of human skin masks. It's not the air-dried kind, but it has been preserved for a long time, but it is still as fresh as when it grew on the face. That is the magic of the Thousand-Faced God , only the faceless ones can possess this kind of thing. In other words, the House of Black and White once sent the faceless men to assassinate Earl Darry or someone around him, but he was caught by him in turn. You can understand Does this mean anything?"

"Yeah." Zaro responded softly with a nasal voice. He finally understood why Hominus wanted to put everything on Ian Darry. The reason why Hominus couldn't get rid of the control of the Iron Bank and didn't even dare to resist at all was because the one he feared the most was the Faceless Men.

"Celia promised me that as long as I am loyal to Earl Darry, they will ensure that I will not be threatened by the faceless men, and let me take charge of the future national bank of the new empire, and use the resources of the entire empire to support me to go to Iron Treasury makes a fight. I actually don't fully believe her promise, but I want to take a gamble because there's no way I'm going to get a second chance otherwise.

So that night, I followed Celia to visit Ian Darry, who was already the supreme commander of the Gith Alliance at the time, and knelt down to swear allegiance to him. Then I quickly used the power in my hands to mobilize all the resources of the Iron Bank in Slaver's Bay and nearby areas to invest in Lord Darry's war preparations.

According to regulations, investments of more than 200,000 gold coins must be approved by the Iron Bank headquarters. However, considering that the ship from Meereen to Braavos goes smoothly, it takes 4 months. After receiving the news, the Iron Bank responded again. It takes four months. In order to avoid missing good opportunities, the person in charge of each branch has the power to dispose of it, so even the informants placed around me by the Iron Bank are not qualified to stop me.

Although they will report the news to the key keepers in power, it will be at least half a year before the accountability personnel sent by the Iron Bank arrive in Meereen. By then, I will either be dead or no longer have to be afraid of him. . "

"So," Zaro thought for a while, and finally asked, "You have told me so much since just now, what exactly do you want to do? Simply share your story with me. No, secret, what you just said Those things are enough to be described as secrets. Tell me, tell me this, what do you want me to do? "

"Please do me a favor." Hominas smiled.

"I can tell you clearly," Xaro immediately frowned, "I don't have the experience you have, nor the hatred you have. I am very rich, richer than most people in the world, I am very Cherish everything you have now. I can't gamble like you.

If your Lord Darry wins the war against Drogo, then I will do business with him, if he loses, then I will do business with the new ruler of Slaver's Bay. Even more, if the city of Slaver's Bay is really completely destroyed by the King of Horses, then at worst I will not do business in Slaver's Bay. I will still have a huge fleet and routes to all places in time. "

"Of course," Zaro seemed to realize that his words were a bit too absolute. Businessmen often shouldn't say too absolute things, so he added, "If it's something without too much risk, I can still help you." .”

"There is no risk-free thing in this world. Look at them." Hominas glanced at the guests in the hall. "They are all the same as you, doing what they think is the least risky thing, no matter what Whether Lord Darry loses or wins, they can all be winners.

In fact, they were already sure that Lord Darry would lose. After all, we had previously paid a high price to hire all the ships anchored at the ports of the three cities of Slaver's Bay to participate in war preparation transportation work. Even though we offered a very high price, less than a third of the ships accepted our employment, and the remaining ships chose to stay at the ports of Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor. Here, why do you think this is? "

“I am worried that if I participate in the transportation work, I will miss the opportunity to sack the city after the defeat of the Gith coalition. After all, the large and small pyramids in this city contain the wealth accumulated from the slave trade that the Gith nobles have been operating for hundreds of years. The price Ian Darry offered for hiring ships to participate in transportation is indeed high, but compared to what they can grab from the pyramid, it is just a drop in the bucket." Xaro certainly knows the answer, he himself is He thought so, but he still used the word 'they' to remove himself from it.

"So, they are not innocent about the fate they will face next, right?" Hominas also deliberately emphasized the word 'them'.

"What do you want to do?" Zaro suddenly had a bad feeling.

"How many ships of Qarth are there in Meereen's harbor today?" Homenas still did not answer Xaro's question.

"How could I know such a thing?" Zaro rolled his eyes.

"Okay, I forgot that you are a high-ranking noble who has been in Slaver's Bay for a month, but you don't even know whether the finance minister here is a man or a woman." Hominus spread his hands, "Let me tell you, in total 26 ships, of which 4 ships belong to you, 3 ships belong to other members of the Thirteen Giants, 11 ships belong to the Tourmaline Brotherhood, 6 ships belong to the Spice Ancient Guild, and two ships belong to two independent sea traders."

"How do you know so well?"

"Just like Celia was able to find out about me, I can now find out anything that happens in Meereen, because the Meereen Intelligence Station under Lord Darry is also working for me now."

"It seems like you've gained a lot of trust?"

"It's absolute trust. Even after Celia went out with Lord Darry's army, she left her job as finance minister to me. Is there anything strange about this? I not only provided them with huge gold coins and There are a large number of ships. If I want to survive from the faceless men, I have to rely on them. What reason do they have to not trust me?" Homena paused, "Back to the topic, these captains of Qarth have formed a Temporary alliance. Do you know about this?"

"I seem to have some impression that they invited me, but I refused." Xaro thought about it for a while and said.

"Join them immediately and then obtain the leadership of the temporary alliance. As the leader of the Thirteen Giants, this is not difficult for you."

"No, why should I do this? I remember I didn't promise you anything."

"You will agree. Later Grazdan Zo Eraz of the ruling alliance will come to this hall to announce something to everyone, and then you will naturally agree to my conditions. Remember, get that first Leadership of the Qarth Captain Alliance, come to me again and I will tell you what to do next." After Hominus finished speaking, he stood up and left.