Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon

On the black foundation, surrounded by pure white marble columns, groups of male and female slaves came and went in the corridor, converging on the flowing courtyard in the center of the palace.

The water mixed with ice flows slowly in the special river channel, bringing a rare coolness to the hot summer of Volantis. The neatly trimmed shrubs divide the entire courtyard like a maze. Flowers are in bloom, and the fragrance of fruits can be clearly smelled even outside this huge palace.

In the center of the courtyard were several deck chairs studded with gems, and men in tokar robes were lying on the deck chairs in twos and threes. The slave girl wearing cool clothes next to her raised her face embroidered with flowers and hearts, and handed fresh fruits and light green Volantis wine to the mouths of her masters.

"Dolan, your plan has failed." A man with an exaggerated beard took a sip of the green wine handed to him by the slave girl. "The Bentalo family's pig and bastard died, and the coward came to your father to cry. If you and I were not willing to be embarrassed, it would be difficult for this matter to have a good outcome."

Dolan Meguya picked up a roasted golden turtle from the back of a male slave who was kneeling on the ground, dipped it in some chili pepper and threw it into his mouth until it made a crunching sound. "That's because they are stupid. I asked them to test the boys of Varese, but I didn't ask them to steal property. Haha, are the old wizard's things so easy to steal?"

"The tiger has been silent for too many years." The man who spoke was tall and thin, with a beard that was as long as a sword. "When the old wizard was alive, we were crushed by the elephant's cartilage. Now the old man The wizard is dead, what is the boy doing?"

He sat up, took a big gulp of green wine, and kicked the female slave serving the wine over. "Go and change it to Varese silver wine, son of a bitch, the silver wine is still strong enough."

The female slave who was kicked over by him didn't even dare to raise her head and crawled out on all fours.

"The boy is selling his father's land." The man's expression was a little ferocious. "Dolan, tell me, what does he want to do? That is the old wizard's lifeblood."

"I don't know." Dolan Meguya picked through the food with an indifferent expression and grabbed a fried worm. The cut body of the worm was stuffed with a sauce mixed with minced meat and chili.

"Anyway, I will buy whatever he sells. It's a pity that there are elephant cubs from the Elephant Party who are causing trouble, otherwise all those lands would be ours."

"Is it just land?" The voice came from an old man who had been drinking quietly.

"Lord Belicio, what do you mean?" The bearded man hurriedly sat up and turned his face to the leader of the Meguya family and the governor of the Tiger Party.

"Dolan, your contract does not include farmers on the land or workers in the workshop."

With just one sentence, Bellicio set off a storm in Dolan's heart.

"Generally speaking, it is a generally accepted rule that land estates come with slaves."

"But the old wizard has no rules." Bellicio said calmly. "The farmers on his land, the workers in the workshops, the miners in the mines, and the soldiers in the military camps are all different from Volantis' traditions. Those..." The old consul paused. "Not slaves, but hired hands so their indentures are still in the boy's hands."

"This" Dolan thought for a moment. "Sir Belicio, we have already obtained the land. The yield of these lands far exceeds that of our land. This is already worth the money."

"Without the skilled farmers and workers left behind by the old wizard, and without his technology, you can guarantee that the output will last for several years." Bellicio wanted to open his grand-nephew's head to see what was inside. When people dig a hole, they jump into it. "Did you pay a high price to rob the elephant gang?"

"Yes" Dolan's face suddenly turned red. "But these lands are also very important. More than half of the Varese family's estates are in the Elephant Party's territory. We can definitely use this to penetrate into the Elephant Party's voting areas."

"We are not fighting with the Elephants' bastards now." Belicio held his forehead. "Or do you think we can win over Elephant Party votes?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Forget it." Seeing that no one spoke, Bellicio could only continue speaking by himself. "Dolan, you can continue to acquire the Valanzes family's land. Since the boy sold the land, it's not a bad thing to take it back. No matter what happens, you can still give him a favor."

"I understand, Mr. Belicio." Dolan cheered up when he saw that his actions were not completely denied. "My original intention was also to sell favors to the Varese family."

"But Mr. Belicio." The bearded man suddenly thought of something. "The losers of the Bentaro family seem to want to do something. Do we want to do it?"

Bellicio narrowed his eyes. "These things have nothing to do with us." He paused.

"Don't worry about it."

"You mean, after the boys of the Varese family buried the old wizard, they started selling the family's manor and real estate?" The Elephant Party's female consul, Mrs. Klevna Wissama, summoned the Elephant Party MPs. The Varese family's sale of the estate's land is being discussed.

"Yes, madam." Hamar of the Cyrenaica family said, pointing to the map in the chamber. He is the younger brother of Vagadu, the consul of the Cyrenaica family, and a candidate for the next consul. "No matter what the boy from the Varese family wants to do, his family's land is fertile. Even if there are no farmers and workers on the manor, we can continue to use it for a few years. In a few years, even without the old wizard's means, the land will be The output is still considerable. To put it in perspective, our purchase of land is also a favor to our members.”

"Member Hamar, I heard that you lost a lot of land competition to the guys from the Tiger Party?" A tall man with a blue beard questioned. "If the Cyrenaica family is short of money, we can pay for it. Although the Varese family has not served as a member of parliament for a long time, they have always been our supporters. We cannot lose this powerful helper."

"Yes, yes, at least his family's Silver Blood Army is really good at fighting." The general of the Tiger Robe Army couldn't sit still. "At least with his family, we don't have to worry about the Tiger Robe Army controlled by the Tiger Party."

"Okay." Mrs. Klevna thought for a while. "Do you know what the purpose of Longzel Varese's selling land estate is?"

Everyone fell silent.

Only Hamar had some guesses. "I can probably guess that the Vareses family did not start selling land when Longzel inherited it. They had already started to sell it slowly when the old wizard was still alive. This shows that it was not a spur-of-the-moment move by Longzel Vareses. And when selling, the Vareses family had made all preparations, and even had plans that we didn't know about."

"If his family's contract servants are not on the sales list, what about the free people?" Mrs. Clevna mentioned the key issue.

The democratic politics of Volantis is very simple. Every free person who owns land can participate in the election of the archon and has his own vote. And these free people are actually attached to the big families and landlords. It is not completely "free". Archon families with a long history such as Megia, Cyrenaica, and Visama even have a fixed number of votes of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. As for the Vareses family, if Longzel wants to run for a member of the Senate, there are no less than 10,000 free people attached to his family.

"Except for the free craftsmen who signed the contract, the rest will belong to the new owner as the land changes." Hamar said. "Madam, please rest assured. The retainers of the Varese family who handed over to me have promised that there will not be a large loss of votes."

"Well done." Madam Clevna nodded. "Keep watching the Varese family, if the Silver Blood Army also wants to hand over."

"We must take it down at all costs, and the silk workshop of the Varese family." The general of the Tiger Robe Army said loudly.

"As for the Tiger Party, just keep watching it." Madam Clevna gently tapped the two clearly divided areas on the map. "Don't worry about the funds. The Visama family will invest 3 million Hui coins worth of gold and silver to purchase the land and property sold by the Varese family. You can bid freely with the Tiger Party."

"The Haldane family invested 700,000 Hui coins." The blue-bearded man raised his hand. "Lord Hamar, we must never let our vote bank lose to the Tiger Party."

The Elephant Party is still very afraid of the Tiger Party, which once had a strong military strength. Even though they have lost power for a long time now.

"The Magolwin family contributed 1.2 million brilliant coins." The general of the Tiger Robe Army also raised his hand. "Lord Hamar, we must not let the Silver Blood Army fall into the hands of the Tiger Party."

The members of the Elephant Party quickly reached a consensus. No matter what Longzel wanted to do, the property of the Vareses family must at least not fall into the hands of the Tiger Party.

Especially his family's strong military strength.

The underground laboratory of the Vareses mansion.

Longzel took off all his clothes and took a Valyrian steel dagger decorated with pure silver from the red monk.

The red monk's face was tattooed with flames, eyes and red patterns, but his eyes were full of fanaticism at this time.

Another red monk also walked out of the shadows.

This red monk was already quite old, and his wrinkled face was tattooed with blazing flames and roaring dragons. The long white beard hung down to his chest, and it was covered with flame-shaped ornaments. The blue-purple eyes were also full of fanaticism and piety.

Longzel knew him.

Ben Duro, a priest of the Great Temple of R'hllor, the Red God of Volantis, is also a magician who often visits Cleorius.

"Let's start." Ben Duro nodded to the young red-robed monk.

The red-robed monk stabbed the dagger into his heart without hesitation.

Longzel stretched out his hand, and the blood of the red-robed monk flowed in all directions along the symbols on the floor of the laboratory as if guided.

Then.

Flame.

It burned.

I am a new author, please criticize and correct me. The current update time is about one chapter at around 20:00 on weekdays, one chapter at around 23:00, and one chapter at around 12:00 on weekends, and one chapter at around 20:00.