"There's no need to go to the study!" Tragg stood up, letting out a long sigh. He began to take off his silk nightgown, and in the blink of an eye, he was as bare as his wife.
"Right here. Do whatever you want. No need to hide anything. I won't resist."
Tragg spread his arms, raised his chest, and faced the "dwarf" without shame.
Daenerys, who had grown up in the fighting pits, was no naïve maiden. She immediately understood what Tragg meant.
She was angry, but not to the point of losing control. She raised her hand crossbow and aimed it at the Prince of Lys, who was "sacrificing himself for righteousness." Her tone was cold. "Come with me. To the study."
"Go on," Liness said to her dazed husband in the tone of someone experienced. "Westeros isn't like Lys. They're old-fashioned. Even when they want to play with you, they'll still avoid doing it in front of others."
Tragg had no choice but to follow the "dwarf" into the study. When the dwarf closed the door behind them, he sprawled across the desk, spread-eagled, closed his eyes, and said, "Go ahead!"
Daenerys took out a folded square of dragon-marked paper from her belt, unfolded it on the desk, and said, "Go ahead. Copy what's written on this."
It was only then that Tragg realized the "dwarf" hadn't come to neglect duty or take advantage of him.
"What…" He picked up the paper and glanced at it, his face twisting in disbelief. "Gods, this—this is the New Ghis defense map! Even the positions and numbers of the dragon crossbows are marked, along with our residences. Everything's on here!"
"Who's your informant? Some of this even I don't know!" Tragg glared at the "dwarf," both furious and alarmed.
"Do you want to die?"
A sharp sword tip traced a thin red line down his groin, and blood instantly welled out.
Tragg's face changed several times. He wanted to sound defiant and say, Go ahead, kill me if you dare.
But he was terrified that the "dwarf" might actually do it.
Anyone who dared kill both his father and nephew clearly wasn't lacking in nerve.
Humiliated, Tragg sat down, pulled a sheet of dragon-marked paper about the width of two A4 pages from the desk, and began copying with an ink pen and ruler.
After more than half an hour of painstaking effort, the Prince of Lys finally finished recreating the complex military defense map.
"There's also this." Daenerys put away the copied map and handed him a letter.
After reading the contents, Tragg could no longer contain himself. His face twisted in outrage. "You people are ruthless! You're using me as a scapegoat!"
The letter was a pledge of allegiance written by a spy to the Dragon Queen—full of disgusting flattery and detailed intelligence about New Ghis.
Although the author's name had been blotted out with ink, Tragg could tell from the handwriting that the letter and the defense map had been written by the same person.
What did that mean?
First, there was a traitor among the coalition's high command.
Second, the War God of Yunkai had once again misjudged the situation. The Dragon Queen hadn't abandoned her assault on New Ghis—she was about to begin it.
Finally, to protect the real spy, the Dragon Queen was already arranging a scapegoat.
And that scapegoat was Tragg himself.
But...
Why me?
"Hurry up and write," Daenerys urged.
Sensing the "dwarf's" growing impatience, Tragg became even more convinced of his theory. The lack of any pretense of explanation meant they weren't truly trying to recruit him.
"I won't write. Writing it means death anyway. I'll lose my honor and die a disgrace. Better you kill me now. At least my name will stay clean—and that vile traitor won't have the last laugh." Tragg stiffened his neck as he spoke.
"You're overthinking it," Daenerys replied at last, her tone dismissive.
"Heh…" Tragg let out a cold laugh.
Daenerys raised her hand crossbow, aiming between his brows. Her voice was low and hoarse. "If you write, you might live. If you don't, you'll definitely die tonight."
The cold smirk on Tragg's face froze. After a long pause, he sighed bitterly, picked up the pen, and obediently copied the letter word for word.
Without even being told, he signed his own name at the bottom.
When the "dwarf" put away the letter and then burned both the original and the map over a candle flame, Tragg's bitter smile deepened.
There's no escape. I really am the scapegoat.
But I can't die. I must live—live to find that bastard who betrayed us!
"This will serve as your pledge of loyalty," Daenerys said, shaking the letter and the map. "You know what to do from now on. With your rank and position, you can access a lot of the coalition's secrets.
I'll keep these letters safe and won't reveal them. But if you dare deceive the Queen… well, you know the consequences.
And just as you suspect, we have our own people among the coalition's leaders. You're not the first, and you won't be the last. So don't think you can hide anything."
Tragg felt his heart sink into despair, his face turning ashen.
Is there any hope left for this war?
The Dragon Queen had dragons, magic, an invincible talent for war, and a slave army of a hundred thousand ready to die for her.
And on their side?
Crippled wyverns, a war god who kept losing battles, and an unknown number of traitors.
Now, even a loyal fighter like himself, sworn to the cause of "Opposing the Dragon Queen," was on the verge of betraying his ideals.
"Why did it take so long? I didn't hear a sound."
When Tragg, still naked, walked out of the study with the assassin and returned to the bedroom, Liness peeked curiously from behind the door.
There hadn't been much noise, yet her husband's face was pale, his eyes red, and his steps weak and unsteady. Even Liness began to feel afraid.
"What… what did he do to you?" she asked worriedly as the assassin splashed water on two unconscious guards to wake them.
Tragg shook his head with a pained expression and sighed deeply.
Good gods, Liness thought, the dwarf's that twisted? Her husband was the champion of the Pleasure Gardens, the general among courtesans, and even he had been…
As Liness's mind ran wild, imagining what the "dwarf" might have done to subdue her husband, the assassin returned and began questioning Tragg about military secrets.
He asked about troop deployments, warehouse inventories, and even the secret residences of high-ranking officers. Tragg revealed everything without omission.
Once the assassin finished taking notes, he disappeared back into the darkness.
"You betrayed the coalition?" Liness stared at her husband, horrified, her finger trembling as she pointed at him.
Her face had already gone pale, and she had barely restrained herself from screaming earlier out of fear that the "dwarf" might kill them both.
"You're loyal enough to the coalition," Tragg muttered irritably, brushing her off as he began to get dressed.
"Where are you going?" Liness asked.
"The thirty wyverns escorting the fleet had just departed this afternoon. The positions of the city's dragon ballistae have been exposed. The Dragon Queen will definitely launch an attack on New Ghis tonight. I must…"
At this point, Traeger froze.
What should he do?Should he send an urgent report about the leaked allied defense map?But how could he explain it?Maybe—he could explain it clearly…Yet with a traitor among the high command, would they even give him the chance to explain?
Perhaps, while explaining, he could observe the reactions of the commanders and determine who the traitor was…
But what if there was more than one traitor?What if several of them joined forces to destroy him?Maybe he should first confide in a few allies who were definitely not traitors, explain everything to them, and then…
Traeger's hand stopped midway through buttoning his coat. He stood motionless before the mirror, his reflection revealing the hesitation and turmoil on his face.
"What's wrong?" Lynesse asked softly.
"Don't bother me!" Traeger snapped irritably, waving her off as he began pacing back and forth across the room, muttering under his breath.
What to do, what to do, what to do…
An hour later, a mouse that had been hiding in the corner of the wardrobe slipped into a hole and left Traeger's mansion.
"Your Majesty, he's still hesitating."
Twenty kilometers away, in the harbor of New Ghis, on a flat-bottomed cargo ship among the many vessels, a shapeshifter reported to the Dragon Queen clad in full battle armor.
"Then let's begin," Daenerys said.
She tore off her crimson cloak embroidered with the seven-pointed dragon sigil and stepped to the ship's rail, silver boots clanging against the oak deck.
Bang!
A pair of milky-white wings, each four or five meters wide, burst open from her blue-and-white armor.
Angel's Wings.
Forged from holy flame, every feather glowed with vivid clarity under her mastery of fire magic. The heat was intense enough to make the air shimmer, and a single beat of the wings covered half the deck.
The shapeshifter stood dazed, almost intoxicated by the sight.
"Ah—ah! What is that?""Wow, a bird-woman!""Look! A harpy! That's a harpy!"
To blend in with the enemy is the mark of a true spy.
Daenerys's ship was hidden among the allied merchant fleet, and the sailors on nearby vessels were not blind—they could clearly see the enormous glowing wings spreading from the cargo ship's deck.
However…
This world had no concept of angels.A winged woman, on the other hand—a harpy—was well-known.
And here, in the port of New Ghis, harpies were worshipped as the chief deities of the ancient Ghiscari Empire.
So much for her grand entrance—it had backfired spectacularly.
Daenerys's expression stiffened. She crouched, then suddenly leapt upward.
Whoosh—splash!
The Angel's Wings of holy flame beat rapidly, propelling the Dragon Queen like a rocket into the night sky—Soaring seven or eight meters high—Then, as she drifted down like a feather—
Boom!
The sea below erupted as if struck by a torpedo. Amid the explosion and the spray, a massive black shape burst from the water.
"Roooar!"
The dragon's cry thundered across the bay, echoing like a storm.
By sheer coincidence, the Dragon Queen—with her radiant wings unfurled—landed squarely on the great beast's back as it broke through the waves.
"A dragon! A dragon! The Dragon Queen!""The Dragon Queen is here!""A dragon assault on New Ghis!"
The once-peaceful harbor, as calm as a grandmother's bedtime lullaby, exploded into chaos, like boiling oil splashed with cold water.
Everything erupted.
The roar of Drogon was not only a declaration of the Dragon Queen's arrival but also a signal—the battle had begun.
Almost at once, the dragons hidden in the shroud of night launched their assault.
Led by Viserion and Rhaegal, fifteen wyverns split into two squadrons—one flying south to north, the other north to south—bombarding New Ghis below according to the battle map.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
From the two thousand ships floating in the bay came the pounding of war drums, the blare of horns, and the shouts of warriors.
It was as if the entire allied fleet had mutinied, turning to aid the Dragon Queen in her attack on New Ghis.
The harbor, untouched by dragonfire or incendiary bombs, was now in greater turmoil than the city itself.
"Hissss!"
By the time Daenerys reached the skies above the city, the enemy wyvern squadron had already emerged from their cavernous mountain dens and taken flight.
A bloody dragon battle was about to erupt.
Daenerys commanded fifteen wyverns and three dragons.New Ghis had twenty wyverns—slightly smaller in size. Their elder dragons had already perished in the first and second waves, while Daenerys's captured wyverns were older and larger than those raised by Jaene in the third wave.
If the thirty escort wyverns hadn't left that afternoon, and if the ballista positions hadn't been exposed, New Ghis might have stood a fifty-fifty chance. But now—
(End of chapter)
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