The children's brazen confidence

Rhaenyra felt distinctly unhappy when she saw Danyla steal all her parents' attention.

She immediately retorted,

"Father has already tamed Balerion. Why should he tame another Great Dragon? Wouldn't that be beneath him?"

"It seems you're not just greedy for money, Danyla-you're greedy for everything! Whatever it is, you want it, and you have to keep it all to yourself!"

Danyla quickly put some distance between herself and Rhaenyra, then made a face at her.

"I just love seeing my niece Rhaenyra so jealous of me, yet unable to do anything about it! Hahaha!"

Danyla's words made both Viserys and Aemma laugh.

Rhaenyra, who had prepared a whole lecture, was struck speechless on the spot.

Holding back her laughter, Aemma smiled and tried to reason with them.

"All right, all right! You two haven't seen each other in so long. Don't rush straight into bickering. You should be spending some time together!"

"Rhaenyra, you only just ate the dessert your aunt prepared for you. Have you forgotten her kindness already?"

"And Danyla, you're a young lady now. You must remember to behave like one. You're princesses of House Targaryen, and you should be examples to the noble young ladies of the Seven Kingdoms! Do you understand?"

Rhaenyra nodded obediently.

"Yes, Mother!"

Danyla, however, replied unconcernedly,

"I think having my outstanding niece, the shining light of the Seven Kingdoms, is quite enough for the royal family! My goal is to become a powerful guardian of House Targaryen. I'll make everyone who harbors ill intentions toward our family grovel beneath our Great Dragons!"

"If even royal princesses like us can't live as we please, what's the point of life? Wouldn't you agree, Cousin, and you too, Cousin Aemma?"

"And Cousin, you really should give my suggestion some thought! Only power can keep power in check!"

Viserys and Aemma were both gentle by nature. What could they do when their own family behaved so brazenly, knowing they would get away with it?

They said no more and instead took Danyla and Rhaenyra along to mingle with the nobles.

They felt that children only needed patient guidance. After all, much of what Danyla had said was right: the most exalted royal princesses ought to have some freedom to live as they pleased.

The story of Danyla winning ten three-masted sailing ships from Borros in a wager at tonight's banquet would probably dominate the news throughout the Seven Kingdoms for a long time.

The troublesome children of the Great Lords would probably have an easier time of it, too. Compared with Borros, that spoiled wastrel, their behavior no longer seemed quite so unacceptable.

But even if their parents could not accept it, what could they do? How many parents in the world could truly win a battle of wills against their own children?

Danyla's Dragonfire Wine also became an overnight sensation. The nobles had already taken a great liking to it after tasting it, and with Samwell singing its praises, many houses had already placed orders.

Now, after Danyla's wager with Borros, they were eager to stockpile as much as possible.

These noble lords were shrewd indeed. Soon, the amusing tale of the heir to the Stormlands losing ten three-masted sailing ships would likely spread not only throughout the Seven Kingdoms, but across the Free Cities as well.

In a sense, Borros had earned himself a place in the annals of stupidity, becoming known as Borros the Ship Loser.

And the Dragonfire Wine featured in that tale would naturally become a much-sought-after drink.

For them, this was an excellent business opportunity!

After all, they had plenty of lesser nobles under them, as well as their own trading networks. Those people could not easily reach Dragonstone and would have to buy it from them instead.

They immediately sought out Samwell to increase their orders. Over the course of the evening, he received orders worth more than five hundred thousand gold dragons. Fortunately, White Sheep Town had stockpiled plenty of Dragonfire Wine over the past three years and could still fulfill them.

But production would have to expand in the future. At present, Goat Town's distillery could only produce a hundred thousand gold dragons' worth of new liquor each month.

Samwell had traveled all over the Seven Kingdoms to buy enough barley.

Westeros had been at peace for a long time, and its grain reserves were fairly plentiful. But shipping grain was expensive, and Dragonstone had few worthwhile products for merchants to carry back.

Grain merchants were therefore not particularly willing to come to Dragonstone.

To attract merchants, they naturally needed enough products worth buying.

Dragonfire Wine was the first branded product from White Sheep Town that Danyla had introduced.

But because Dragonfire Wine was so expensive, sales volumes were limited. It had not done much to attract trade over the past few years.

Instead, the cattle, horses, and sheep of White Sheep Town had improved greatly in quality after being fed Danyla's special feed, drawing quite a few livestock traders.

Together with the abundant vegetation on New Dragonstone Island, this had brought White Sheep Town's goat and sheep population to more than two hundred thousand.

Besides providing fresh meat for the Great Dragons, they brought Danyla tens of thousands of gold dragons in annual income.

The yellow cattle herd had also grown to several thousand head. However, Danyla had distributed most of them among her subjects to plow their fields.

Danyla had improved many farming tools and supplied them to her subjects on credit, greatly increasing the farmers' efficiency.

After tending Danyla's ten thousand mu of fertile fields, they had also cleared a good deal of land for themselves.

Because Danyla had waived rent for the first two years, even some of the poor from Fisherman's Village had joined in of their own accord.

They had already reclaimed forty to fifty thousand mu of farmland. Starting this year, they would have to pay rent to Danyla.

The rent alone would bring Danyla more than ten thousand gold dragons a year.

Danyla only took forty percent of their harvest as rent, which was quite low. However, they owed a considerable amount of compulsory labor each month, since New Dragonstone Island was still being developed.

Even so, Danyla did not make them work entirely for nothing. She provided meals and a small allowance.

Over the past ten years, the intensive development of New Dragonstone Island had kept Danyla's private treasury from growing much.

In the end, she had only managed to amass five million gold coins of various kinds by occasionally riding Dreamfyre over the Narrow Sea to plunder pirates and the merchant ships of certain ill-reputed great families from the Free Cities.

Danyla secretly sent all those ships to Tarth. After the Earl of Tarth disguised their origins, he sold off the ordinary vessels and added the better ones to the oceangoing fleet they operated together.

Danyla's close relationship with the Earl of Tarth had naturally come about through the efforts of her personal guard, Cameron.

He was the Earl of Tarth's younger brother, which was why they had established trust so quickly.

Moreover, Tarth had suffered several savage raids by pirates from the Stepstones backed by the Kingdom of the Three Daughters. They hated both the pirates and the Free Cities to the bone.

This was another important reason the Earl of Tarth was willing to cooperate with Danyla.

As for the sailors and crew, those of slave origins who were obedient and trustworthy were taken into their service. The pirates and wealthy merchants from those great families were either fed to the dragons or sent to work in the mines.

Their fleet had now returned safely from a long circuit through the Free Cities. The goods brought back from this round trip alone were worth no less than ten million gold dragons.

And that was with this voyage being merely an exploratory one, avoiding dangerous waters wherever possible. They had not visited any of the places rich in gold, silver, or gems.

The main purpose had been to learn about the various Free Cities and prepare for the future. Next time, Danyla planned to accompany the fleet herself on Dreamfyre.