Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon

"The blood of fools, the blood of kings, the thighs of virgins also bleed, the guests are tied with chains, the groom is tied with chains, I know, I know, oh oh oh! No one enters the castle, the dragon dances"

Viserys would have the illusion that the person in front of him was just waiting for him to appear, singing these inexplicable songs in front of him.

"No one?" Viserys walked to the dungeon door and looked at the strange man who was still singing and dancing happily in the dark deep dungeon under the torch light. With red and green tattoos covering his entire wide face and hairless scalp, this jester looked a little scary in the shadow of the dungeon. He had a fat and limp body, sometimes twitching and shaking inexplicably, and sometimes unable to speak clearly.

Shireen Baratheon once took the initiative to try to find Viserys to rescue her jester, because it was one of her few friends. At that time, it was Daenerys who met with Viserys. It took me who knew how long it took to summon up the courage to ask for permission. girl. After being prevaricated by Daenerys, he didn't come back.

Daenerys didn't know at first why Viserys wanted to lock this strange jester alone in the depths of the dungeon without anyone contacting him. She had seen the jester that day when she was pretending to be Viserys and watching the crowd enter the prison. I just felt that he was behaving strangely and seemed to have something wrong with his head.

But Viserys said privately that he had an instinctive feeling that the man was dangerous.

Since then, Patchface has been locked in the depths of the dungeon, with few people around him. Only the Unsullied jailer is responsible for delivering meals.

Today, Viserys was exploring the lower half of the Y-shaped cave in Dragon Mountain. In this area, he discovered the foundation wall of Dragonstone Castle built on solidified lava. On the hot lava river bed that ordinary humans can no longer set foot on, Viserys Reese discovered an underground factory that was suspected to have been used to melt black stone to make huge black stone bricks for the castle. The factory was deliberately destroyed. It was suspected that before it was abandoned, someone used dragon flames to deliberately melt the pile of rocks and bury most of it.

In addition, Viserys also discovered some blocked abandoned mine tunnels near the semi-solidified lava river bed. There were traces of excavation inside, and exposed obsidian mines could be seen from time to time.

Black stones, these black stones mysteriously appear in every corner of the known world, wherever there are ancient wonders.

But there are also differences between black stones. The black stone related to Valyria is dry rather than oily. It is suspected to be a molten mixture of obsidian and certain kinds of ores using dragon flames in a special ratio.

Instead of Valyrian Blackstone, it is usually oily and greasy.

To this day, the ratio and method of making black stone have not been disclosed, and no one can tell the historical origin of this stone.

But the factory ruins found by Viserys today seem to be able to explain the huge castle on Dragonstone Island that can accommodate thousands of people. Where did these huge and thick black dragonstone bricks come from, and where did the castle begin to be built? Get up.

It seems that no one would come here after this place was abandoned. The temperature of the lava river bed infested with magma is extremely high. Viserys does not doubt that after ordinary humans settle here, their flesh will be burned into coke, their blood will evaporate, and even their skeletons will be destroyed. The half-melted lava slowly swallowed it.

But there is a high platform in this place that is similar to the one where the Targaryen Mausoleum was. It seems to have been specially left on top of the suspected black stone factory that has been destroyed. It is speculated that it was once the observation post of the managers who controlled the Blackstone Factory. There is a commanding observation deck and garrison there overlooking the overall situation.

At the end of the road above, there is also a protruding black stone mechanism on the stone wall that is clearly the castle wall.

Viserys spit out the clothes package specially made for the transformation adventure in the lava cave, returned to his human form, dressed neatly, and then pressed the mechanism. The black stone wall opened for him a stone door similar to the secret passage in the bedroom, and then he Find yourself deep in the dungeon.

But this time the fun of reverse pushing pictures failed to bring him much happiness and joy.

As soon as he came in, he heard the weird lyrics Patchface was singing.

Viserys didn't care where he appeared from, and walked straight towards the strange figure who was singing and dancing happily in the prison: "No one? The faceless man? No one entered the castle, does that mean the faceless man came in?"

The weird jester was crazy and didn't answer. He just continued to dance his weird dances and sing his weird songs happily.

"Under the sea, birds have scales but no feathers," Patchface quickly changed the song and murmured. As he sang, he stood on one foot, and then switched to the other foot. "The mermaid has seaweed on the tips of her hair, silver. Seaweed dress."

Viserys stood in front of his cell door, took a deep breath, and moved his mouth: "Gulu, woah woah woah woah~" He made a strange sound that was usually voiced by a fishman in a fantasy game.

"." Patch Face's singing and dancing movements froze for a moment visibly.

"Ha." Viserys sneered as if he didn't care, then ignored him and just returned to the black stone wall door on the wall where he just came out.

".The snow on the bottom of the sea is going up and down." Patchface started singing his song crazily again.

Viserys ignored him and kept observing at the black stone wall door.

On both sides of the wall door are two black stone torch holders that look like dragon heads. They are facing each other at the moment. The other torch holders are all facing the wall at the moment.

It can be inferred that if the black stone wall door is to be opened from the dungeon, the two dragon heads must face each other. Viserys touched one of the stone seats and found that it was very solid. He tried his best but could not move it at all. If he had not known that the stone seat was a mechanism, he would have thought that this stone seat should be like this.

The sound of deliberately lowered footsteps came from overhead.

Viserys vaguely heard the sound of someone drawing a sword, and he shouted above his head in Valyrian: "Soldier, it's me."

The sound of clattering footsteps sounded, and two solemn-looking Unsullied appeared at the corner of the dungeon stairs. They saw Viserys, saluted him, and said in Valyrian: "Your Majesty." They saw Viserys. The door suddenly appeared on the stone wall where Reese was. His expression was surprised for a moment, but he soon remained solemn.

The two Unsullied who came to serve as jailers in shifts were quite alert. They probably heard some noise. Viserys called to them: "You two come here, one for each of these two stone seats. Try to pull them at the same time." just."

The two Unsullied Ones did not doubt that he was there. They followed the order and stepped forward. One person at a time, they simultaneously pulled the stone base with force.

They all seemed to have spent a lot of effort, and their feet could not help but straighten apart. As they exerted force at the same time, a dull clicking sound sounded. The two stone seats were slowly straightened, and pieces of black stone slabs slid out of the thick wall of the stone wall door, quickly sealing the entire wall like a puzzle. Tight and solid, as if they are one body.

Only then did Viserys discover that there were carvings of two giant dragons on the wall. Their dragon tails were engraved in contact in the middle, and the dragon heads were on the two torch pedestals.

Viserys ordered: "The secrets here must not be told to anyone."

The two Unsullied ones responded: "Yes."

Viserys didn't stay long in the dungeon. The Unsullied, familiar with the passages of the dungeon, guided him up the winding staircase. As they climbed up, the walls were made of black stone bricks. As they climbed up, the stone bricks changed from warm to cool to the touch.

The light of the torch shines ahead, and the Unsullied and his shadow walk on the wall. At the ninth turn, they passed an iron gate and walked to a corridor. At the twelfth turn, there was another gate. Viserys has an amazing memory, and he is still a little dizzy even now. Next came a wooden door and they continued to climb. Arrow holes began to appear on the wall, and sunlight came in from outside the thick stone and sprinkled on the wall.

Finally they reached the surface, and Viserys looked out through the narrow view of the arrow holes and recognized the prison tower.

After walking all this way, Viserys felt for the first time that there were nearly five hundred people in the castle, including the prison, but he still felt that the castle was so empty.

On the other side of the last heavy iron gate is an elevated stone arch bridge, leading to the magnificent central tower. The two Unsullied jailers on duty were sent back by Viserys when they arrived here.

Viserys returned to the main castle from the stone arch bridge and returned to the Picture Table Hall of the Stone Drum Tower. From the gap in the Picture Table Hall, he overlooked the school yard, blacksmith shop, guard room, and arrow tower under the castle. Not only that, he walked around the Picture Table Hall. Walk around and observe the towers of Dragonstone, Aegon's Garden, and the sept from the four tall narrow windows facing east, west, north, and south.

Daenerys, who was reading in the bedroom in the partition room of the Tutable Hall, noticed her brother's unusual behavior and couldn't help but get up and go to him: "What's wrong?"

"No one enters the castle," Viserys said. "I overheard Patchface's song, remember him? His song seemed to tell me that a faceless man had entered the castle."

Viserys had just tried to communicate with Patchface, but he seemed to be showing off his precognitive ability and just kept singing riddles one after another.

So Viserys saw that there was no hope of communication, so he answered him with a riddle in Murloc.

"Faceless Men?" Daenerys hadn't heard their names carefully.

"The Faceless Men are a religious assassin group who believe in the Thousand-Faced God. Today, the House of Black and White in the Free Trade City of Braavos is their gathering place." Viserys gave her popular science about this fact that ordinary people are unaware of. He also didn't talk to her about the assassin organization in detail. "Faceless assassins are the most mysterious assassins in the world. They will change their identities and use other people's faces to disguise themselves. If a faceless assassin infiltrates the castle, We might not even notice. They're dangerous and deadly. It's half the price of hiring a faceless man to assassinate an ordinary merchant. Someone wants to assassinate you or me. It will be unimaginable. But let’s not think about who hired it, we have to find a way to find out.”

Only a thousand days to be a thief, how can a thousand days to guard against a thief? As time goes by, there will always be times when we become lax. Viserys has implemented semi-military control in the castle, which is already considered to be tightly guarded. Anyone who is qualified to enter the castle has been strictly vetted by him. But if the song Patchface sings is true, perhaps someone in the castle has been replaced by the Faceless One.

"If they are such weird assassins, wouldn't we be in danger?"

"No, let me think about it. It's actually not difficult to check." Viserys gritted his teeth and pondered. "The Unsullied guards in the castle can basically be eliminated. They always operate in small groups. Even if something happens to someone, they pretend to be Unsullied and follow them. The team's actions are also extremely easy to expose. Although they are silent, they still know something about their teammates. The prisoners in the prison can also be eliminated. There is no point in pretending to be them, especially the chefs in the kitchen. The chefs and porters who went out to do the shopping for the banquet before need to be strictly investigated; the attendants and stewards under the bachelor, who and the laundry servants wash the clothes of the injured, also need to be investigated; and the batch of clerks who are in training Officials, although they are fine on paper and come from vassal families under the rule, they are the latest group of people to enter the castle."

After seeing him lost in thought, Daenerys seemed to have an idea and asked, "What should we do?"

"Let the guards escorting us go to the maester, get two bags of salt from the warehouse, make a large barrel of salt water, find two wash basins, and inform all the castle staff that this is a means for the castle to prevent disease. Let everyone line up in the square in front of the sept to wash their faces. Everyone must wash. Starting with Missandei and the guards, the Unsullied on duty will guard behind them, and then the trained officers, all the kitchen staff, the officers under the maester, the laundry servants. The prisoners will wait until everyone is done before dealing with them."

——

The castle under semi-military rule moved quickly.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Viserys prepared what he needed, and then began to execute the orders he issued.

"What? Wash your face in front of the sept? Prevent disease?"

In the past few days, Barristan's mind was full of account number comparison tables and various common accounting rules, formulas, and mathematical models. In fact, Viserys's accounting method was not changed very deeply. He just asked several officials to coordinate a set of rules that could be widely used on the existing basis. The only requirement was institutionalization, unification, and clarity. The only major change was the implementation of some commonly used numerical models and accounting methods, and the accounts were changed from text to coordinated and unified digital numbers.

But even with such a small change, these literate people who were similar to the Middle Ages on Earth felt a huge difference. They were dizzy to learn, and it took a long time for those experienced accountants to adapt. However, after getting familiar with it, the efficiency and accounts did become clearer.

At this moment, Barristan heard that his friend, the well-informed Celtigar illegitimate son Miles, told him such a notice, and he also felt strange and weird.

The castle's notice generally did not consider personal wishes, and they all had to go.

Barristan was somewhat nervous for no reason. He entered the castle in disguise and had not been recognized until now because the nobles and knights under the Dragon King had never seen him. However, he could not guarantee that his disguise would not be exposed when everyone gathered in the Cathedral Square. After all, among a group of young officials, an old man with white hair and beard would attract so much attention.

But the guards in charge of the castle were waiting there, so he had to go over.

When they arrived, the guards on duty in the castle had already lined up, and a large number of them had washed their faces and went back to their own work.

In front of Barristan was his new friend, the chatterbox Miles, who always had a lot to say: "Hey, where is the general manager Max? I saw him coming to the castle this morning."

Miles especially liked to tell Max's jokes. From him, Barristan learned about Max's experience in becoming the general manager, which was also an interesting story. It was said that the general manager was chosen between the two former account managers of Dragonstone Island. Viserys's acting finance minister asked them to do the accounts for a week according to the new rules to see who did the best. This Max played a little trick and recorded the bribes he received in the account under the name of financial administration income - although the Dragon King may not have promoted him for this, people who knew about this believed that this was the key reason why he became the general manager.

When Barristan heard this, Earl Gunther, who was standing on the stone arch bridge, didn't look at him. Earl Gunther had been to King's Landing to participate in the tournament. Barristan was afraid of being recognized, so he hurriedly said: "I'll call him. The general manager probably didn't hear the notice."

Miles was about to say: "Arstan, what do you care about him-"

But before he finished speaking, Barristan had already strode to the side room of the hall where they were receiving training.

I know that the adventure part is not well written. The previous chapters of the cave adventure were very bleak, but the setting part cannot be missing. I am looking for a new way to put the setting into the text.

I am not very satisfied with these two chapters related to the adventure puzzle part. The author is still trying to find ways to improve it.

By the way, if you are interested in medieval lords, I suggest you listen to the two episodes of "Manor Lords" radio program on Jihe Network. After listening to them, the author had new feelings about traveling through the medieval world.