Aegor was amused by the Queen's willfulness. A polite remark, "You will definitely rule the world in the future," and you are already preemptively using a monarch's power?
Pardoning past crimes, do I need you to pardon the crime of merely stealing a few potatoes, or stopping in front of someone's chicken coop to glance at an egg? Telling me to take off the black clothes immediately to serve you is even funnier, what kind of service do you want? Without his Night's Watch identity, what would he use to command this large group of people in The Gift? You know, even the Night's Watch Industry, which he completely controls, is legally registered under the name of the Night's Watch.
The reason Aegor had to decline a few times was just to go through the motions and maintain some composure. After all, if the process turned into the following situation:
[Queen: Hey, you, come help me conquer the world.]
[Myself: Coming, beautiful!]
That would be too demeaning, nobody values things that are just handed to them.
However, while it is true that things obtained with effort are more precious, you also need to know when to stop playing games. Others could get people to come to them multiple times because their talent and network were truly worth that price, but Daenerys is not Liu Huangshu, who started with nothing. Even without him, she has many other paths she can take. If he played too hard and forced her to marry Aegon and join forces with The Reach and Dorne, thus unifying the South, and she became the final big boss he had to fight, that would be ridiculous.
Since he did not plan to force her into a difficult situation, and this was her second show of goodwill and offering a step down, Aegor should take it.
However, things were not that simple after all.
"Your Grace, I am very willing to join your cause for the welfare of the people, but I am, after all, the Commander of the Night's Watch and responsible for the Wall. The White Walkers' attack is imminent, and duty calls, I dare not leave without authorization," Aegor said solemnly. "How about this, Your Grace agrees to some conditions of mine and does one thing first to prove that you prioritize the people, then I can not only swear allegiance to you, but even bring the entire The Gift to fight for your cause."
This was actually nonsense. Once he decided to join a certain faction, he would inevitably invest his entire fortune without reservation. As a lone transmigrant, he had neither family nor children, so he naturally did not consider leaving any leeway.
Of course, the Queen did not know. Aegor was actually using the "gift" that should have come with "allegiance" to raise the price.
"Speak."
With the foundation laid, everything that followed came naturally. In the time that followed, Aegor, with just a few words, successfully persuaded Daenerys to abandon the settling of old scores from the Deposed King War, pardon the Kingslayer who had already joined the Night's Watch, and agree to his series of suggestions.
"The last thing is, you, in the war between the Night's Watch and the White Walkers, bring your three dragons and fight for humanity."
The series of scattered suggestions above were none of them out of selfishness, but rather problems he had to solve before joining Daenerys. On the contrary, that last matter, seemingly simple, actually contained many considerations.
First, Aegor definitely wanted to leave The Gift, but he must find a reasonable excuse, a righteous cause. "Helping the Queen conquer the world" was clearly not a good excuse, completely violating the Night's Watch's neutrality principle and would be scorned by the people of the Seven Kingdoms. But, "because the Queen helped the Night's Watch in the decisive battle, the Night's Watch repaid the favor by fighting for her," although the essence of the matter was still the Night's Watch violating the law and interfering in the internal affairs of the Seven Kingdoms, it sounded much better.
Secondly, as long as Daenerys agreed to this, it would invisibly and reasonably postpone the time, the Night's Watch and The Gift army could only free up their hands to do other things after defeating the White Walkers. But if he directly told Daenerys, "Wait a moment, I will help you after I finish fighting the White Walkers," it would easily be perceived as disrespectful and intentionally delaying. But, "Let us conquer the realm after we have dealt with humanity's natural enemy," that would unknowingly avoid the previous awkwardness.
Finally, the news itself that "the Queen rode a dragon to the Wall to help fight the White Walkers" could greatly reduce the hostility and resentment of the Seven Kingdoms, especially the Northmen, toward Daenerys. Daenerys is, after all, the Mad King's daughter, and Aegor could not possibly convince the Northmen to help the Queen conquer the world no matter what he said. But with this event as a good premise, the difficulty of keeping the North neutral was suddenly much lower. Eddard and Robert were staunch allies, but Robb Stark and Stannis Baratheon had no real affection for each other. The Northern army had fought several battles for the new king and The Reach without gaining any benefits, and even their homes were almost raided. Their already low loyalty to the Iron Throne had actually been greatly discounted. Did they not stop marching south after driving out the Ironborn?
As long as he could offer attractive enough terms, for example, the Queen not pursuing the old scores of the Stark family's participation in the Deposed King War, and allowing Robb to retain his status as the ruler of the North, he could very likely avoid conflict with his North friends and go entirely south to participate in the great melee. Among the residents of The Gift are the Mountain Clans, and if war with the North is unavoidable, it would be very difficult for him, both emotionally and in terms of actual combat.
"Reasonable terms." Daenerys nodded. Although she understood in her heart that the previous set of conditions Aegor proposed were for her own good, she was somewhat reluctant to truly agree to them. Only this last matter, fighting for the people, already aligned with her hopes, not to mention that according to prophecy, she was certain to participate in this battle. Since it was something she was going to do anyway, doing it now could net her a powerful follower and a free army as a bundled gift for free, why not? "But, I wonder when this battle will actually break out?"
"Hmm." Aegor was indeed stumped by this question. Everyone said the great battle was imminent, but who knew how imminent "imminent" really was? He could not exactly send someone to tell the Night King that everything was ready on their side, the dragons were in place, so he should come and die. "It will not be too long. Your Grace can rest assured and stay here for now. This tower will be your exclusive residence, and the Night's Watch will do its best to ensure your safety and living conditions."
With the terms of allegiance settled, both sides felt they had gotten a good deal. Facing Aegor, who was like-minded and already had one foot on her ship, Daenerys's expression softened considerably. She glanced sideways at Aegor reproachfully. "Am I worried about safety and treatment? Commander, it must be made clear beforehand, I am personally very willing to meet your demands, but I am, after all, not just your Queen. The war in the South is in full swing, my Unsullied and Free Folk armies are invincible, but Stannis is a tough opponent. It is my dragons that have forced him inside King's Landing, not daring to meet the challenge, and it is my dragons that have prevented the lords of the Riverlands and Stormlands from coming to his aid. But if he were to learn the news that I am in The Gift..."
With the distribution map of the Crownlands forces provided by Varys, Daenerys's army was able to plan their advance and attack routes strategically. After landing on the Crab Claw Peninsula, they swept forward like a tidal wave, taking control of most of the Crownlands north of King's Landing in just one month, and were about to complete the encirclement of the Seven Kingdoms.
Even though he was fully prepared, Aegor still did not dare say he did not want the three dragons that were offered to him, three flying large Wildfire sprayers that could eliminate at least a few thousand wights in the decisive battle, reducing his own casualties by three to four digits. The fewer casualties, the more leverage he would have after the war. Therefore, although he could roughly guess the current situation in the South, he could not casually say "It is fine, Queen, go ahead and attack King's Landing, I can handle things here," nor could he fabricate a lie to force the Queen to stay long-term in The Gift and leave himself open to blackmail. After thinking about it, he decided not to respond to this topic.
"Your Grace is free to come and go. If you have plans to go out or wish to visit Crown Town, please call the guards, and I will personally accompany you. You must be tired from riding the dragon all this way. Since we have reached an agreement, I will not bother you further. It is getting late. Later, female workers will come to clean and make the bed in the room upstairs for Your Grace. Conditions in The Gift are tough, and things are certainly not as good as in the South, but I assure you that Crown Town is doing its utmost to host you."
"Okay." Daenerys did not dwell on the issue too much and nodded, agreeing to his arrangements. "Prepare sheep to feed my dragons tomorrow morning. Just bring them to the square where I landed. Drogon needs at least three, and Viserion and Rhaegal have smaller appetites, two will be enough."
Tsk, if it were not for the large number of livestock brought in when the Wildlings surrendered, it would really be hard to feed the three dragons with The Gift, which was originally like a no-man's-land.
"I will arrange it. Well then... Your Grace, I shall take my leave."
"Mm."
Daenerys was indeed a bit tired, but the vision Aegor painted for her was too invigorating. She was wide awake now, not only not wanting to rest but even wanting to continue chatting with this Night's Watch Commander, whom she had only truly gotten to know today. Whether it was to hear his detailed follow-up thoughts on the Great King's Landing Plan beforehand, or to discuss life and deepen their understanding of each other, either would be fine. But since the host had already taken his leave, as a guest, she could not stop him. She could only nod and watch him leave the room.
Aegor, leaving the tower, let out a long breath. Although Daenerys's visit was somewhat sudden, after some twists and turns, things finally proceeded according to his plan. After confirming that the Dragon Queen would at least stay overnight, he gave instructions to the guards waiting outside again. Only after ensuring there were no security loopholes and warning the young men again not to embarrass The Gift in front of the Queen did he feel at ease returning to his office.
Through Yam's report, he got a brief understanding of the internal situation in Crown Town. The panic and unrest he had worried about did not occur. Thanks to the prompt intervention of the Crown Town officials to control public opinion, most people in the city now believed the statement that "the Dragon Queen was called by the Commander to help." The three dragons not only caused no negative consequences but even boosted confidence in victory, which could be considered an unexpected gift from Daenerys.
However, Aegor then faced a new problem, dinner time was almost here. In the past, he would dine with all the guests in the great hall, but now there was a Targaryen Queen in the castle, and she and most of the other guests absolutely would not get along. It could not be solved simply by adding a chair at the table. Accompanying the large group would neglect the Queen, and accompanying the Queen would neglect the large group. Although the matter was small, the trouble was not to be ignored at all.
After thinking about it, Aegor could only adopt a simple and crude method, lock himself in his office and pretend to be too busy with official duties to get away, even having his meals delivered. Since he was afraid of showing favoritism, he might as well make it clear that he would not accompany anyone.
(To be continued.)