The instructors

Astapor, Essos

Eren rode into Astapor with Lydia. Smoke hung over the entire city, and all the surviving residents, slaves and commoners alike, were bound with ropes and escorted outside the city.

Besides the people, cartloads of treasure were also being hauled out. Once outside the city, the treasure would all be loaded onto large flatbed carts pulled by Pure Titans. After all, besides fighting, these Titans could only do this sort of manual labor. Their daily fuel consumption consisted solely of sunlight, and they worked around the clock without stopping.

Inside the city, Modun and Flock were still wiping out those who continued to resist. They had also captured a useful group of people earlier. Both Flock and Modun felt that their presence could benefit the empire and improve its future.

These people were the instructors responsible for training the Unsullied. By taking them along, the empire could have its own Unsullied legion in the future. After all, it could not rely solely on cavalry forever; it needed infantry too, and the Unsullied infantry phalanxes ranked among the best in the world.

Of course, the empire would not castrate its future Unsullied, and their name would certainly change as well. After all, Unsullied meant people without reproductive organs, and the same applied to Pure Titans.

But their discipline and fighting ability were still worth learning from. On the battlefield, a soldier who obeyed orders was a good soldier.

After their subordinates told them that Eren had arrived in Astapor, Modun and Flock discussed matters and decided that Flock would stay to clean up, while Modun would bring Eren the good news that they had captured the Unsullied instructors.

He also brought along the leader of the Unsullied instructors so Eren could meet him.

Modun simply picked the instructor up in his claws and carried him as he ran toward Eren in his Titan body.

When Eren saw Modun's transformed Jaw Titan running toward him with someone in his grasp, he thought he had captured someone important.

Once Modun reached him, he made his Titan body crouch, released the instructor from his hand, and said:

"Your Majesty, this man is the head instructor of the Unsullied. Flock and I feel that, although the Unsullied cannot compare with our Dothraki cavalry that sweeps across the world,"

"they are still a type of soldier renowned throughout Essos. After discussing it, Flock and I thought keeping them to train an Unsullied legion for the empire in the future would be a good choice."

Hearing Modun's words gave Eren some ideas as well. He had Dothraki cavalry and Pure Titans to storm cities and strongholds, but the empire would need infantry to defend its cities in the future. Among infantry, the Unsullied had good military proficiency and were an excellent choice.

With that in mind, Eren said to Modun:

"Very good. It's good that you had this idea. Gather all these Unsullied instructors together later and give them the same food as our warriors. Let them recover their strength and spirits for now. Everything else can wait until we occupy a city-state."

After speaking, Eren took another careful look at the Unsullied head instructor. The man had a buzz cut, slightly dark skin, a resolute face, and somewhat sunken eyes. Many scars marked the parts of his body left exposed by his armor; it seemed he had fought in quite a few battles. He was a man of few words and looked to be in his thirties.

Eren looked at the head instructor and asked, "What is your name?"

Beside him, Lydia asked the head instructor in Valyrian.

After a brief silence, the head instructor replied:

"I have long since forgotten my former name. If you must call me something, call me Black Rat. Every Unsullied is given a new name after being castrated."

After hearing his answer, Eren said:

"You used to be an Unsullied?"

Black Rat nodded and said:

"I was once one of the Unsullied too. After I was wounded in a battle,

"my injuries were too severe for me to fight anymore, so the Good Masters made me an instructor. All the surviving instructors were Unsullied as well. Only an Unsullied understands the Unsullied best and can train Unsullied." Hearing this, Eren understood where these instructors had come from, so he said:

"From now on, you will help the empire train its army to Unsullied standards, but leave out the castration. Just obey the empire's orders and work for the empire."

Hearing this, even Black Rat, an Unsullied who had endured many battles, could not keep his expression under control.

Eren told Modun to make proper arrangements for Black Rat and the other instructors. After all, only by eating and drinking well would they have the energy to serve the empire.

Modun answered Eren with a yes, then picked up the head instructor again and ran back with him. He was going to take all the captured instructors away together.

After watching their retreating figures, Eren rode to the foot of Astapor's tallest pyramid, then had Lydia ride his horse back to camp.

Eren walked toward the top of the pyramid. The entire interior had fallen silent, with bloodstains and corpses everywhere. From time to time, Dothraki could still be seen looting the bodies inside, not even sparing the jade ornaments decorating the pillars.

Of course, Eren had ordered all of this. He had always followed the principle of plucking feathers from every passing goose, wasting nothing.

Eren followed the stairs to the top of the pyramid, where he looked down over all of Astapor.

All of Astapor was bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun. It should have been a beautiful scene, but in stark contrast, the sounds of fighting, shouting, and screaming rang out throughout the city.

As time passed and night fell, the Dothraki cavalry began throwing torches everywhere inside Astapor to see more clearly, setting houses alight and plundering gold and grain.

As the flames spread through the city, the Dothraki cavalry began driving their later captives outside. With the departure of the cavalry and prisoners, all of Astapor was completely engulfed in a sea of fire.

After Eren saw the cavalry withdraw from the top of the pyramid, he transformed into a Titan and blew all of Astapor away.