Casualties

"Lydia, come here."

Eren beckoned Lydia over and had her sit on his right thigh. With her and Sally in his arms, one on either side, he enjoyed himself immensely.

Just then, Flock entered with the slave masters. The moment they came through the door, the quick-witted slave masters dropped to their knees and babbled a stream of incomprehensible words.

Eren gave Lydia a look, and she understood. She said:

"My lord, this man says, 'Khal, spare us. Whatever you wish to ask, we will tell you everything we know.'"

Eren said to Lydia:

"Ask him what he knows about the current situation in Westeros, whether anything important has happened there in recent years, who the king on the Iron Throne is now, and what year it is in AC."

After hearing this, Lydia began questioning the slave masters kneeling on the floor.

The slave masters all scrambled to speak at once, making Eren's ears buzz. He told them, "Stop making so much noise. Have one representative speak."

Lydia repeated Eren's words to them. After hearing her, the slaves exchanged glances and finally selected a representative, who began speaking to Lydia.

After listening, Lydia said to Eren:

"My lord, he says the current king on the Iron Throne is Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name. As for major events, he heard that King Balon of the Iron Islands rose in rebellion a few years ago, but Robert led an army to suppress it. The current year is 295 AC."

The AC dating system was also called Aegon's Conquest dating system. The earliest and most famous campaign of the War of Conquest lasted two years.

The First Dornish War followed. During these campaigns, the date on which the High Septon crowned Aegon became the dividing point for the years the maesters used to record history.

After hearing this, Eren thought, There are still three years before the main story begins. I'll spend one year bringing all the Dothraki under my rule, then another seizing a city-state and founding a kingdom. But Slaver's Bay is a little far from Westeros. Looks like I'll come back for another round of plundering in a year or two.

And the Mother of Dragons is probably still a little brat just over ten. She was in Pentos when the main story began, so she'll probably be there a year from now too. That'll be a good time to make contact with her.

After all, the Mother of Dragons is worth a great deal, since she can hatch dragon eggs. Once I have her in my hands, I can gather more dragon eggs and build an army of dragons. That works out nicely. The power of the Giants is limited to the ground, and they're somewhat weak against forces in the air.

And once I have dragons, I can airdrop wildfire and some disobedient Dothraki. Then, with a single shout, they'll turn straight into Giant bombs.

"Let them go, Flock. Let these slave masters return to Yunkai. Don't hurt them. After all, we need them to rebuild Yunkai after our plundering. Once they've restored it, we'll come back and plunder it again. Lydia, don't translate that last part."

Lydia nodded. After Flock dismissed the slave masters, he presented the captured maps to Eren.

Eren examined the maps. They were not very complete, covering only Slaver's Bay and the lands west of it in Essos. There were no maps of the eastern regions, such as the Red Waste or Asshai in the Shadow Lands.

Next, Eren planned to return to Vaes Dothrak, the sacred city of the Dothraki. It was their religious site for worship, and whenever a Khal took a Khaleesi, he returned there to hold the ceremony. Likewise,

when a Khal died, his Khaleesi would be sent back to the sacred city to grow old alone and spend the rest of her life there.

Also, because it was the Dothraki's sacred city, many khalasars returned there every year, either to hold weddings or, after a change of Khals, to send all the previous Khal's Khaleesis back.

Within the sacred city, no Dothraki was allowed to draw a blade and kill. Of course, this was no great concern to Eren, because as someone who intended to unite the Dothraki, he wanted not only their people but their faith as well.

By going to the sacred city, he could readily absorb some of the khalasars visiting it and strengthen his own forces. He could also absorb their faith there and make them worship the New Gods.

After examining the maps, Eren asked the four regiment commanders, "What are our casualties?"

Flock said, "My unit had fifty killed and thirty-four seriously wounded."

Link said, "My unit had thirty-nine killed and twenty-eight seriously wounded."

Colin said, "My unit had forty-three killed and thirty seriously wounded."

Modun said, "Since my unit was the last to charge in, we had no deaths, only five seriously wounded."

Eren showed little concern for those who had died. Instead, he took an interest in the seriously wounded, because if any were so badly injured that they would not survive until tomorrow, he might as well turn them into Giants to fight for him.

After hearing their reports, Eren told them, "Take everyone who won't survive until tomorrow to an open space, and assemble all our current warriors there to watch."

The four answered, "Yes," then withdrew to make preparations.

After stroking Lydia and Sally for a while, Eren said to Lydia, "From now on, you'll be responsible for teaching me the Common Tongue of Westeros and Valyrian."

Although Lydia wondered why he wanted to learn those two languages, her years as a slave kept her from asking. Instead, she said, "Yes, my Khal."

After hearing Lydia's reply, Eren said, "Don't call me Khal or my lord anymore. My khalasar has already founded a kingdom. Although we only have a few tens of thousands of people now, once I've united all the Dothraki, I'll turn my armies toward unifying the continent."

Lydia replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

She was a slave who had been trained in Yunkai for many years, and she knew all too well that slaves could not speak unless their masters had spoken to them. Even when speaking, they had to be extremely careful to avoid saying the wrong thing.

Eren said to Lydia, "Remember this from now on. Although you two are my slaves, precisely because you're my slaves, your standing is above even Flock and the others. You're my property. Without my permission, no one will do anything to you. The person opposite you is Sally. Talk to her more, and teach her Dothraki while you're at it. She hasn't mastered it very well yet."

Lydia and Sally both nodded after hearing this. Since Sally's grasp of the language was poor, Lydia repeated it to her.

As for Sally, although she did not look Lhazareen and instead resembled an Andal, Eren had no interest in her past, whatever the reason she had ended up among the Lhazareen.

Eren had little interest in gaining standing through her identity or whether she was a noble. To him, the only way to make others obey was to hurt them through war, beat them into submission, and use strength to make them afraid.

Although ruling through fear born of strength had its risks-namely, that if they encountered someone stronger than him, he would be the first person they abandoned-it was still better than gaining friendship through an exchange of interests. Interests would also bow before strength. Since it all came down to strength, why not use it directly to rule his subordinates?

In Eren's future kingdom, anyone who wanted to hold a high position would have to drink his blood wine, and he had absolute control over those who drank it.

Moreover, once they had drunk his blood wine, he would occasionally inspect the memories of those in high positions through the Coordinate, ensuring that whatever happened in the future, he would be the first to know.