The Day of the Deal

Satisfied with the 'positive' response from the Good Master, Jon's lips curved into a smile.

"I will return in three days with the gold. Have the Unsullied prepared by then," Jon said, getting up from his seat to leave.

Kraznys mo Nakloz had now regained his composure and nodded his head again. Although he was not afraid, the moment the sword had touched his neck, his back had been drenched in sweat.

Jon was about to walk out the door when the Good Master interrupted him, a slight hesitation in his voice. "May I inquire, what are you buying so many Unsullied for? And which force or place do you represent?"

Although for greedy merchants like him, the profit earned by selling the Unsullied was the only thing that mattered, he at least wanted to know what force the boy represented. For a boy no more than sixteen name days old to spend so much gold was not something that could be called a regular occurrence.

Jon stopped at the door of the room. He turned around and faced the Good Master with a smile on his face and amusement in his eyes.

"My purpose for buying the Unsullied is something you will learn sooner or later. As for the force I represent, I come from a faraway place. You can refer to the force behind me as Monarch," Jon said.

"Monarch?" the Good Master muttered in confusion.

Jon did not say anything further. He turned around and walked away from the mansion, followed by Slyvia.

After leaving the Good Master's mansion, Jon returned to the inn. For the next three days, he had nothing to do.

While Jon was idling around in his inn, Kraznys mo Nakloz was not. He gathered a few of his men and asked them to collect as much information as they could on Jon Snow.

Though he had agreed to the deal, he was not entirely sure himself. He doubted Jon's ability to pay that much gold. He doubted Jon's identity and his purpose.

Although the latter issue was not of much importance to him, as his main purpose was to earn profit, he did not want to remain shrouded in ignorance.

The day before the handover was to be done, Kraznys mo Nakloz gathered with other Good Masters and their subordinates in the same room where Jon had sat.

Kraznys mo Nakloz alone could not provide 6200 Unsullied. The Good Masters functioned through a guild like system, and Kraznys mo Nakloz was part of such a guild. His status in the guild was like the head of the guild, and the other Good Masters functioned under his lead.

One old man with typical Astapori features knelt in the room in front of all the Good Masters and waited for instructions.

Kraznys mo Nakloz said, "Tell everything you have gathered so far."

The old man nodded his head and a serious expression formed on his face.

"Master," he said, "the boy whose name is Aeos, and the girl following behind him, whose name is Slyvia, came to Astapor around seven days earlier on a merchant ship."

"On further inquiry, we found that the ship which brought them here was coming from Sunspear in Dorne. Aeos and the girl also boarded the ship at Dorne."

One of the other Good Masters muttered, "Dorne?"

He turned towards Kraznys mo Nakloz and said, "I believe that the way you described him, he definitely did not have Dornish features."

Kraznys mo Nakloz shook his head and replied, "No. If I were to compare, he would be described as having the features of a Northerner from Westeros."

"Continue," he said to the kneeling subordinate.

The old man nodded and continued, "Both of them are really good fighters. Although not much information could be collected, one other person from Dorne had some additional information."

"According to him, they had arrived in Dorne on a ship, but the ship captain had some kind of confrontation with Jon and Slyvia. In response, both of them killed around a dozen of the ship crew members along with their captain."

The Good Masters gasped in surprise hearing this. For two people to kill around a dozen ship crew members was no small feat.

"After arriving here in Astapor, they booked a room in one of the inns and have been staying there since then," the old man continued with his same serious expression.

"What is peculiar is that for the journey, Aeos and Slyvia had no luggage. They only had their swords with them. Neither have they received any kind of luggage after they arrived in Astapor."

Kraznys mo Nakloz frowned, "Is he trying to fool me then? How is he going to pay? Where is his gold?"

One of the other Good Masters interjected, "It might be possible that he has brought in his coins secretly at some other place. After all, carrying such a large number of coins openly is a very risky task."

Another Good Master also nodded. "It might be true. No matter what it is, we will know tomorrow."

Kraznys mo Nakloz said with a slightly angry tone, "That day I did not take any action against him, even after the girl placed a sword on me, because I thought that they were being serious."

"The girl really had great sword skills, which made me believe they were not deceiving me. I leaned into believing they had some relation with some powerful force."

"If it turns out that they were bluffing, then they will make a fine collection as slaves or serve as great fighters in one of the fighting pits," he added with a cruel expression on his face.

The other Good Masters laughed and chuckled in flattery.

The next day, Jon woke up early in the morning. He came down to where the old man was sitting on his stool.

Seeing Jon and Slyvia, he quickly got up and bowed in greeting.

"Lord Aeos, I have prepared the two carriages for you as you had asked."

Jon nodded and placed another coin on the table. "Very well. Thank you for your service."

The man laughed with happiness and picked up the coin. "It is my pleasure to serve you, Lord Aeos."

Jon walked and took the reins of the horse tied to the first carriage, and Slyvia took over the second carriage. After this, Jon and Slyvia nudged their horses, and the carriages left in a direction opposite the port, outside Astapor.

Meanwhile, Kraznys mo Nakloz, who was waiting for Jon, received this news.

He wondered, "Is he trying to flee after bluffing me?"

"No," one of the other Good Masters present opined with a smile. "If he had to flee, he should have used only horses. The carriage will only slow him down."

Kraznys mo Nakloz understood the implication and said, "It seems that they have gone to bring their gold. He must have secretly made arrangements for the gold to be brought somewhere outside Astapor."

All the Good Masters grinned greedily, feeling quite happy at the prospect of concluding such a large sale in a single day.

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