Assigned partners

"Do you have any good way to escape, Jace?"

One of the people sitting beside the campfire spoke.

Jace frowned and said:

"So far, none of the people who escaped have ended well. But while these Dothraki are on the march, they generally ignore the old, weak, sick, and disabled who can't keep up, leaving them to fend for themselves."

"If you want to escape, you'd have to be ruthless enough to cripple yourself so badly that you couldn't walk. These Dothraki would have no choice but to abandon you."

"But then you'd really be on your own, dragging your crippled body through the wilderness without food or water. You'd die sooner or later."

"For now, we can only follow these Dothraki. When they put us to work as laborers later, they're bound to give us tools. They might not be sharp, but tools will give us a chance. All we can do now is lie low and contact as many like-minded compatriots as possible to gather our strength. Once we reach our destination and assess the situation, we'll have more opportunities, whether we choose to escape or resist."

Hearing what Jace said, the people around the campfire could only continue to lie low. In their circumstances, they could only conserve their strength and wait for things to change.

The perspective returned to Eren.

Eren was holding a meeting with officers of regiment commander rank and above, along with the Church's Mother Superior. The Mother Superior was the Crone who had once belonged to the Dosh Khaleen. As the leader of all the sisters, she oversaw all the affairs of the Church of the Giants in Eren's absence.

They now had too many captives, and Eren was discussing how to deal with them with Flock and the others.

"We've captured too many Ghiscari from Slaver's Bay. I want our Dothraki to intermarry with these Ghiscari, encourage our subjects to have more children, bring about the integration of our peoples, and increase our population."

Seated below him, Flock said:

"Your Majesty, intermarriage is a good thing in the long term, but the captive population is too large. It won't be easy for us Dothraki. Even counting the elderly, the weak, women, and children, we only number 300,000, while there are nearly 700,000 captives."

Eren understood the danger in what Flock had said. He wanted the Dothraki to remain the dominant group in these intermarriages, but unrestricted intermarriage could very well leave the Ghiscari dominant instead. However, Eren had already prepared a countermeasure.

"Indeed, our Dothraki population is still small. Although everyone is a soldier, there aren't many people in their prime."

"But by intermarriage, I don't mean lifting all restrictions. I mean selecting women of suitable age from among the captives and assigning them to our warriors to bear our children."

Eren paused before continuing:

"As for the male captives, they're all good laborers. Besides, with their homeland only just destroyed, plenty of them must be thinking about restoring their country. I want them to spend a few years doing hard labor to clear their heads."

Eren said this to Flock.

After listening and realizing that Eren already had a plan, Flock said no more.

Eren continued by laying out the detailed rules for intermarriage. He had come up with a name for them: the National Assigned Partner Law.

The first provision of this law was to select all women of suitable age, which meant women between eighteen and thirty-five. These were ages suited to childbearing, when the risks and complications of childbirth would be at their lowest.

The second provision was that once a partner had been assigned to a Dothraki, he was not permitted to abuse, beat, or even kill her. These women were theoretically Eren's property; in other words, human rights were nationalized. Everyone's life belonged to Eren, and anyone who endangered the lives of his property would face severe punishment under his laws.

The third was that although the women in these marriages were assigned,

the assignments would not be random. Eren would grade these women by their looks, figures, and ages. For example, young, beautiful women with good figures would be placed in grade A. Those who were young and beautiful, or beautiful but somewhat older, would be grade B. Older women and those with ordinary looks would be grade C. Finally, the ugly ones would be grade D.

Eren would place the grade A women in his song-and-dance troupe. Such women could only be assigned to someone whose achievements made Eren sit up and take notice or influenced a major battle.

Grade B women would be assigned according to merit in battle. A man would qualify for an assignment after killing fifty enemies in combat, and the total could accumulate. For instance, if he killed only five people in this war, he could qualify after killing another forty-five in later wars.

Grade C women could be assigned after a man killed a cumulative total of ten people in combat. These military merits could likewise accumulate.

Finally, a man only needed to kill three people to be assigned a grade D woman. The numbers of all these women were limited, and assignments would be first come, first served.

Although this all seemed cruel to those women, this was an age of cold steel, when women's status was already low. Most importantly, these women were captives from an enemy country. There was no need to show mercy to another people.

As the saying went, without ruthlessness, you could not hold your ground. If you did not do it, someone else would. In that case, why couldn't that person be him?

After hearing Eren explain the rules, the officers below all felt they were worth trying. They thought the introduction of this system would probably cause something of a stir.

Watching the officers discussing it below him, Eren continued:

"Although this law is being promulgated, when you return, tell your subordinates that from now on, apart from being intimate with their assigned partners, they are not permitted to rape women elsewhere. Those women are all my property. Laying a hand on them is the same as slapping me in the face. I will subject anyone who does so to the harshest punishments. Of course, if both parties are willing, that's fine. But remember, there must be no coercion."

Hearing the killing intent in Eren's words, the officers below shuddered involuntarily. Only then did they remember that their king was not merciful, but brutal. For those who disobeyed his orders, the fate awaiting them was to become Pure Titans condemned to endless hard labor, or to be eaten.

After settling the intermarriage arrangements, Eren said to the Mother Superior, "We now have many captives. The church should regularly organize people to preach its teachings among them, and select some believers from their ranks as appropriate to manage these captives."

After listening, the Mother Superior said to Eren:

"Your Majesty, I hope you can send some troops to protect us when we go to preach."

Eren nodded and gave his approval, then issued another order: after resting and regrouping for three days, the army would prepare to march toward Pentos and build an empire there.

After the continuous campaigns of this period, it was time to let the soldiers rest and recover.