"Since those female vampires arrived at Castle Black, the fighting among the Night's Watch brothers has greatly reduced, and they've become much more serious about their duties," Benjen and Wright walked down the Castle Black tunnels, chatting as they went.
Wright directly asked the most critical question: "Where did they come from?"
"They're all commoners, families facing hardship with no food, so they voluntarily underwent transformation and sold themselves. They're beautiful, the price is fair, and they don't have to worry about procreation. That's what they've said themselves, but you can judge for yourself whether it's true or not." Benjen finished, not forgetting to clear himself of any involvement.
The tunnels of Castle Black were vast, with many warehouses, connecting various parts of the Wall and serving as underground fortresses in times of war. The two of them passed through the spacious tunnels and arrived at a room, where four young members of the Night's Watch were guarding the door.
"My lord, do we execute them now?" Seeing the Commander Benjen accompanied by Wright, the guards assumed they were about to execute the women and felt a bit guilty.
Benjen waved his hand. "You all return to Castle Black, I'll leave this to Lord Wright."
It was better to stay out of the way when big figures were handling things. The guards quickly pulled away the one who had spoken and left.
The door opened, and Wright saw five women inside. Upon seeing him enter, they huddled together, looking terrified. Some were even trembling, clearly having heard of Wright's fearsome reputation from the Night's Watch.
"I'm not here to kill you. I just need to ask a few questions and leave."
Seeing the vampires, who once brought terror to the world, now reduced to this state, Wright couldn't help but reflect that success or failure truly depended on one's mindset. Despite their power, they never thought of stealing or robbing, still relying on their bodies to make a living. Truly, they were kind-hearted and simple.
When Benjen heard that Wright was about to question them, and seeing the five women still wearing revealing clothes in the cold winter, he tactfully turned and left the room, closing the door behind him, guarding the entrance himself.
The door clicked open, and Wright walked out with the five women.
Benjen pulled out his pocket watch and glanced at it. "So fast! It's done in under five minutes?"
Wright waved his hand. "Routine. I went straight to the point, of course, it was fast!"
The results of the questioning were just as Benjen had said. The five women were indeed from poor backgrounds, illiterate, and had been ordinary-looking before their transformation into vampires, which made them beautiful. As for where they had undergone the transformation and by whom, they were hooded when they were placed in the carriage, so they didn't know the terrain or who was involved. Only one of the women had heard a guard mention "Dreafort".
The seven left the tunnels, and the Three-eyed Raven's affairs were now concluded. Benjen watched as Wright, riding a dragon, flew south.
Once the dragon's figure disappeared into the sky, Benjen looked around to ensure no one was watching, then led the five women toward the Commander's bedroom in the King's Tower, muttering as they walked, "Tch, only five minutes!"
---
Wright returned to Winterfell and borrowed a study from Eddard to use as a temporary office. His letters had already gathered in Winterfell through ravens during his time in Castle Black.
In the warm study, Wright sat comfortably on a large sofa, holding Kana in his lap as she opened letters one by one and handed them to him.
"Our dear Hand of the King sure knows how to play!" Wright commented, holding a letter and inhaling the scent of Kana's hair, sighing in her ear.
"Did he get into a fight with Lord Mace?" Kana wasn't too surprised, as it was well known that the House of Rowan and House Tyrell were publicly at odds.
Many years ago, during the vampire uprising in the Reach, Hand of the King Mathis's fief, Goldengrove, was destroyed, and House Rowan blamed House Tyrell for not providing enough aid, while House Tyrell claimed the vampires were too difficult to deal with.
As Mathis Rowan had spent more time as King's Hand, his power and influence grew stronger. Now, with House Rowan at the forefront, the northern cities of Goldengrove, Old Oak, Coldmoat, Red Lake, Standfast, and the Footly family of Tumbleton, had often clashed with Lord Mace in various situations.
Renly had been working to ease the tensions between Queen Margaery and Hand of the King Rowan. No one knew Renly's exact intentions, and some privately said the king was politically weak and ineffectual, but when this reached Renly's ears, he only smiled and gave no further explanation.
"Our dear Hand of the King sold five years' worth of sugarcane and corn production from the six northern cities of the Reach to the Lannisters!" Half of the agricultural products from the Reach were now going to the Westerlands, and Wright couldn't help but admire how Rowan had truly gripped Lord Mace by the neck.
"Tyrell is the lord of House Rowan. How dare he do this?" Kana knew of the relationship between Margaery and Wright and usually avoided discussions about the Reach, being unfamiliar with matters there.
"Several years ago, Lord Mace tried to implement a full-order system in the Reach, copying Renly's Stormlands model. However, his people couldn't manage it, and Rowan took advantage of the loophole. Now it's a legitimate business deal with black-and-white contracts. Even if Lord Mace takes it to the king, there's no way he can argue his case."
The commercial model of the Stormlands had taken nearly thirty years to perfect, with not only systems but also a large number of mid- and low-ranking officials. The Tyrells had only learned the basics and then rushed to implement reforms, but without the necessary grassroots execution, it was no surprise that problems arose.
This is a huge trap. Kana asked with some concern, "If Margaery finds you, will you help her family?"
"I'm just her son's father, not her husband. Why should I worry when Renly isn't?" Wright gently stroked Kana's hair. "If the raw materials are missing, Lord Mace will have a large number of contract defaults in the next two years, possibly losing all the money he's earned in the last decade. It's not our responsibility to fill that hole, but your bank can lend him some money. Otherwise, if he gets desperate, he'll resort to war. Just make sure the interest is collected."
"Understood." Kana's banking business in the Reach had always been lukewarm, with the Hightower controlling the bank there. This assistance would be a perfect opportunity to expand the business.
At that moment, a knock on the door was heard.
"Come in!"
The visitor was Geralt. Upon seeing Wright holding Kana, he jokingly asked, "I'm not interrupting, am I?" But he had already sat down in the chair opposite Wright's desk. Geralt was used to Kana clinging to Wright whenever they were alone together.
"I called you here because Wendy sent you a gift." Wright handed a golden armlet from the desk to Geralt.
"The middle-aged beauty? She hasn't forgotten about me!" Geralt took the armlet and carefully examined it. "This is quite an expensive piece. Does she have anything to say to me?"
Wright had only learned the details about the two of them at Castle Black. "She said that if she becomes pregnant with your child, she will take good care of it."
"Haha, so it's my status that made her give such an expensive gift." Geralt, who had spent half his life with Oberyn, was quite open-minded about matters between men and women. Initially, he thought Wendy was attracted to him, but now he felt a bit disheartened. He laughed self-deprecatingly, then placed the armlet back on the table.
Wright tapped the armlet with his finger and smiled, "You can also consider this armlet as payment for services rendered! Even the top dancers in Braavos don't get this kind of price. Don't want it?"
Geralt thought for a moment, then after some internal debate, replied, "Why wouldn't I want it! This is my hard-earned money!"
In the end, he reached out and took the golden armlet.
"Now that we've finished with your matter, it's my turn." Wright handed Geralt a document. "You mentioned the vampire issue in the North earlier. After my investigation, Dreadfort is highly suspicious. I've prepared an authorization letter from the Magic Administration Committee. Go investigate Roose Bolton in secret."
Geralt took the document and glanced at it. "Now that all the skinchangers have gone to the Wall, and I have the temporary status of an investigator, those mages shouldn't dare to capture me, right?"
Wright said slowly, "As long as the profit outweighs the life of a person, they will still act. So, you need to investigate in secret. This document is just to protect you in case of emergency. It has my personal seal on it. Hopefully, it'll shake up a few people."
"Since the matter is so big and dangerous, aren't you going to investigate it yourself?" Geralt asked, retorting.
"I have my own methods of investigation." Wright answered seriously.
Geralt was talented and intelligent but too reckless because of his youth. He often thought short-term and didn't consider the long-term consequences. Wright still needed to let him gain more experience. Wright, on the other hand, wouldn't be conducting the investigation himself. He would just wait for Bran to become the Three-eyed Raven and ask him for the results.
"Then I'll go prepare." Geralt said and bade them farewell, leaving the study.
Kana bumped her head against Wright's chest. "You just love lying to kids!"
"Younger people need to be kept busy! I'll take a look at the other letters."
After reading a long letter sent by the intelligence officer Andrew, Wright's face grew increasingly grim.
There had been multiple bloody conflicts in Pentos. Since Wright took control of four city-states, Pentos, as the next target, had become a gathering place for all sorts of factions. Conflicts weren't unusual, but this time, there were five opposing sides, four of which were connected to Wright.
The Windblown, supported by Wright, had become one of the most powerful mercenary groups in Pentos. During one of their missions, their headquarters was attacked by a group of bandits. The mercenaries were skinned and hung on spears, and the gold coins they had stored were stolen.
This bandit group was also secretly supported by Wright and was currently the most infamous bandit gang among the nine great trade city-states. The White Demon, Baelish, and the Black Demon, Ramsay, originally set out to raid a R'hllor sect, but learned on their way back that the Windblown's headquarters had been poorly defended, so they decided to take advantage of the opportunity.
The information for the Demon Squad came from none other than Wright's secret ally, the former head of intelligence in King's Landing, Varys. Varys had quickly risen in Pentos, amassing wealth and power, and after reconnecting with Baelish, he began secretly supporting the Demon Gang.
The R'hllor cult was attacked by the Demon Squad, and since the incident happened at night, all the witnesses were dead by morning. Following the principle of "who benefits, who is the mastermind," several high-ranking priests quickly rallied their followers to take up arms and lay siege to the Pentos Dragon Cult headquarters. After a brutal battle with heavy casualties on both sides, neither faction could even treat their wounded without seeking help from the nearby Moonsingers.
The Windblown, Demon Squad, Varys, and the Dragon Cult were all factions controlled by Wright. Varys secretly supported the Demon Squad's robbery of the Windblown. Originally, the conflict between the Dragon Cult and the R'hllor cult was limited to physical confrontations, but now, due to the Demon Squad's actions, the R'hllor cult mistakenly blamed the Dragon Cult and launched a vicious retaliation, destroying years of work in Pentos.
Wright slammed the letter onto the desk, cursing furiously, "Damn it, Varys is stirring up trouble in Pentos! With the way he gathers intelligence, doesn't he know the Windblown are also my people?!"
"Calm down," Kana said as she snuggled up to him, knowing that Wright would soon be distracted by her. "Perhaps Varys has encountered some difficulties; you can have him write to explain himself."
"You don't know Varys, his big bald head could come up with a hundred excuses for me!" Wright said, grabbing some parchment to write a letter to Varys.
Crackling sounds of lightning sparked from Wright's fingers as he quickly wrote the letter. When it was done, he handed it to Kana, who lit a red candle to seal it. As she saw the last line of text, she gasped, "You want Varys to kill Littlefinger!"
Wright responded, "Littlefinger, Baelish, is the kind of person you've heard me talk about. Once I take Pentos, I'll still implement a co-governance council with multiple governors. He'll try everything to become one of them."
"And he and Ramsay have caused you all this chaos in the trade city alliance; why not just give him a governorship?"
Wright replied, "Don't forget, both of them are wanted criminals in the Seven Kingdoms. If I openly use him, the noble families won't dare do anything to me, but my reputation and wealth will certainly suffer. So, the Demon Squad is useful when I need it, but I have to get rid of them when I don't. Ramsay, though cruel, doesn't have the cunning of Baelish. I can't let Baelish have any power."
Kana asked, "Then why have Varys take action? Aren't they old acquaintances?"
Wright answered, "The losses of the Windblown and the Dragon Cult have to be pinned on Varys! This mess started because of him, and he needs to clean it up. Telling Varys to kill Baelish is a warning—don't think that Pentos is far enough away that the laws of the kingdom won't reach him. I'm no longer the second son of a royal family with only dragons and magic to my name. Now, with just one word, I can take anyone's life."
Wright had stirred the waters of Pentos so much that recently, some people had started fleeing the chaos, moving to Myr or Tyrosh. He believed that soon, an opportunity would arise to push for the Magisters Council to approve Myr joining the Tyrosh alliance.
Once Pentos was annexed, Wright's next target would be the Slaver's Bay. As for the far northern city of Braavos, Wright planned to let it remain independent, for only then could goods in trade be subject to cross-border tariffs.
---
Over the next period, Wright took Kana to inspect various strongholds and castles in the North, checking whether strategic supplies sent by the kingdom were in place. After inspecting the processing of obsidian daggers and the reserves of wildfire and fire oil, they discovered that some officers had been secretly selling them. In front of their lords, Wright personally took their heads off.
The Dreadfort had long been prepared for this, and when Geralt went to investigate, he didn't find much, aside from encountering some female vampires. However, he was easily deceived by the son of the Roose Bolton, Domerick, and spent over a month living in the Dreadfort, engaged in passionate encounters with several female vampires. It wasn't until he received an urgent letter from the Night's Watch that he left.