Boss direct recruitment

Not Burden "the Builder."

It was Burden Snow, the bastard brother of the King in the North when Aegon "the Conqueror" conquered the North.

He had once planned to assassinate Aegon, but Aegon's guards kept him from getting close.

Then he had a flash of inspiration.

Aegon only relied on his dragons.

Simple. Why not just kill the dragons?

The North's predicament would be solved at once!

Aegon had guards, but the three dragons were out in the wilderness.

The dragons had no guards!

The dragons themselves were not particularly vigilant either. Every last one lay sleeping out in the open without a care!

What a perfect opportunity!

So Burden Snow planned to sneak across the river alone and assassinate all three dragons single-handedly.

Baelon would gladly call him invincible.

The two old women carried wicker baskets on their backs and wore no shoes.

Two pairs of scrawny, misshapen feet.

Baelon glanced at the knight. "What happened?"

"These two kept loitering outside the door, acting suspiciously!"

Baelon turned to the old women and asked patiently, "Is there something you need?"

The one with neatly arranged hair steadied herself, forcing down her fear.

She stammered, "My lord, I'm Meiri from Crossed Elm Village, and she's Sharon. I... we came to sell a few clumps of moonflowers today."

In her nervousness, all manner of thoughts swirled through Meiri's head.

She had heard songs praising Prince Baelon's kindness and generosity.

She had always been a bold woman, and she had heard only a few scattered words from a bard.

He had said that several red factories had risen outside King's Landing.

People from King's Landing and the surrounding area could earn coppers by cutting reeds, hauling and digging mud, or growing flowers.

Meiri had been tempted.

She had spent two days persuading Sharon, who had been driven out of her home by her son and daughter-in-law and could only live in a pigsty.

At dusk, the two had dug up a few clumps of moonflowers, shouldered their baskets, and set out into the night.

Along the way, Sharon had kept wanting to turn back. Meiri had been just as frightened, but had shown none of it.

She had visited King's Landing when she was young and still roughly remembered the route. After dawn, the two had asked for directions along the way and finally reached the Perfume Factory.

Some people stood in line holding flowers in their arms, while others carried them on shoulder poles.

Meiri and Sharon had exchanged a glance, each seeing joy in the other's eyes.

It was true!

Sharon's limp had vanished, and she had immediately rushed to join the line, only for Meiri to grab her.

"Our flowers have wilted. I'm afraid they won't fetch much. Let's find some water and water them."

Nourished by the water, the moonflowers had slowly lifted their heads.

In the end, their eleven clumps of moonflowers had fetched one copper star.

Sharon had been beside herself with excitement. "One copper star!"

"We can buy some oats to carry home!"

Then her son and grandson would speak to her warmly again and let her sleep on the floor of a room once more.

As though imagining her family's delighted, astonished faces, Sharon had smiled until her eyes narrowed.

Even the aching that made her whole skeleton feel ready to fall apart had vanished.

Meiri spoke very quickly. Perhaps out of fear, she stammered somewhat and kept repeating herself.

Listening left Baelon rather tired.

He looked at Leado.

A thoughtful look entered Leado's eyes. "I remember now."

"Crossed Elm Village. That's the one with three elms crossing each other at the village entrance, isn't it?"

Meiri froze.

She contradicted him instinctively. "No, no, no. There are only two elms at our village entrance."

Leado nodded. "Crossed Elm Village is about a day's walk away."

Moonflowers were a kind of wildflower native to Westeros.

They bore large, pale-white flowers that opened in the early morning and closed after noon, with a delicate fragrance.

The Perfume Factory bought all kinds of flowers, spices, and timber year-round.

These days, most residents of King's Landing had taken to growing flowers in broken wine barrels and cracked clay pots, then selling them to the Perfume Factory to supplement their household income.

Though the cramped spaces in their homes meant most of the flowers bloomed poorly and fetched little.

Still, they cost nothing. All they needed to do was dig up a few handfuls of soil outside the city, steal a flowering sprig, and tend it for a few months to earn some money.

How was that any different from finding money on the ground?

Farmers from nearby villages, meanwhile, sometimes brought baskets of country wildflowers to sell and could earn a few coppers.

It was noon now.

By that reckoning, hadn't these two old women started walking in the middle of the night?!

He asked helplessly, "What have you eaten since last night?"

Meiri froze, her fluent tongue suddenly unable to form words.

Sharon raised her head.

Baelon sighed.

With the thousands of years of history from his previous life, he subconsciously believed that an emperor reigned supreme. How could he allow another to snore beside his bed?

That was why he found it hard to tolerate anyone other than the king, such as the Hand of the King, sitting on the throne.

How could just anyone sit on the dragon throne?!

But he could not let his previous life influence him only when it came to the throne.

His subconscious was also influenced by ideas such as the ruler being a boat and the people the water, practicing frugality and caring for others, and loving and benefiting the people.

If an emperor could not give his people a good life, what kind of good emperor was he?

Another particularly strong influence was his instinctive dislike, as a transmigrator, of powerful hereditary clans-in other words, the nobility.

What self-respecting transmigrator became emperor without taking on the great clans?!

Oh.

Him.

Baelon Targaryen, currently incompetent, still had to rely on a marriage alliance to reclaim the largest dragon.

In this world, either the east wind prevailed over the west wind, or the west wind prevailed over the east wind.

Velaryon had three dragons, while Targaryen had only two, and only one of those was fully grown.

Who exactly ruled Westeros, you Velaryons or us Targaryens?!

Baelon handed a plate of white bread from the table to Ser Uther.

He gestured with his chin. "Have something to eat first."

"You can talk while you eat."

Meiri accepted the plate in a daze.

She wiped her hands on her clothes and picked up a piece of white bread.

So soft...

He really was letting them eat it!

Baelon continued asking, "What happened after you sold the moonflowers? Why didn't you go home?"

Meiri's dry eyes lit up, while Sharon slowly rose to her feet and picked up a slice of bread in a daze.

"I heard you were hiring something called perfumers here!"

Courage now filled Meiri's chest, and her voice rang out strongly. "Prince, I'd like to try."

Baelon raised an eyebrow. Had he stumbled into direct recruitment by a prince?!

But he liked this old woman Meiri's courage.

"Why do you think you can do this?"

She hurried to explain her strengths. "I grew a rosebush when I was young, and it did wonderfully. Everyone in our village knows!"

Though the rosebush had later withered and died because of a fire.

"And I have a very sharp nose!"

"I can smell moonflowers from fifty or sixty paces away!"

She grew more confident as she spoke. "I can even tell two onions apart by their smell!"

"Everyone in the village calls me 'dog nose.'"

Meiri even deliberately scrunched up her face and sniffed like a dog, trying to amuse the prince.

Baelon tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop.

Meiri swallowed and waited apprehensively.

Baelon said, "If what you say is true."

"Then you certainly can join the Perfume Factory."

"Leado, have someone take her for a test."

Leado nodded, went to the door, and called out.

Two workers immediately ran over and led Meiri and Sharon away.

Meiri snatched up the bread, stuffed it into Sharon's clothing pockets and her own, then offered the clean, empty plate with both hands.

"Prince, your plate!"

Ser Uther took the plate with both hands and smiled. "Prince, you owe Steward Leado a plate of bread now."

Leado's solemn expression did not change. "Everything I have belongs to the prince."

"Meiri!" As Sharon walked out of the room, her silenced voice came back to life.

She had already thought being able to earn one copper star by selling flowers was a blessing from the Seven.

But now, Meiri might become one of those perfumers!

She looked at Meiri enviously and said, half in jealousy, "Meiri, don't forget me when you get there!"

"Put in a word for me. Get a good price for me!"

The worker in black glanced back at the pair.

Meiri knitted her brows and said angrily, "Don't talk nonsense!"

Sharon reluctantly shut her mouth. After a while, she spoke again. "You took two more pieces of white bread than I did."

"The prince said it was for both of us to eat."

"You know I have a big family. You only have your daughter-in-law, a grandson, and a granddaughter."

Meiri glared angrily at Sharon and shoved her hard to the ground.

"Stop following me!"

"Go back by yourself!"

Meiri hurried after the worker in black, leaving Sharon behind.

That old hag Sharon!

What a waste of pitying her!

She could crawl back to her pigsty and sleep there!

Sharon wailed as she clambered up.

A steel-clad foot stepped past her face.

She raised her head and looked.

A noble lord dressed in armor.

Sharon instantly fell silent and got up without a word.

The noble lord hurried past her without so much as a glance.

Sharon suddenly noticed that the man was dressed much like the knight beside the prince.

"Prince!"

Baelon looked up.

"Word has come from the Red Keep."