Chapter 141: Illyrio's Trump Card (Part 2)
"A bit closer," Illyrio nodded, "but that's not enough. In fact, General Othello has always kept his intentions well hidden and hasn't shown any intention of running for office.
Therefore, both of the top two candidates are seeking his support, and his attitude is ambiguous. While he vaguely shows support for the second-place candidate, he leaves room for the first-place candidate to win him over," Illyrio continued.
"Hazan and I had a similar relationship before. He tried to win me over, but since he hadn't succeeded, he seemed quite dissatisfied with me."
"But then why didn't you stop Prince Hazan yesterday? What if Prince Hazan had died in Pentos?" Ian pressed urgently.
"If Marian Fregar's precious son died in Pentos, and I prevented a Water Dancer master from becoming Hazan's champion, then in the eyes of this wealthiest Keyholder of the Iron Bank, Hazan's death would be my responsibility," Illyrio interrupted Ian.
"For the Sealord's Palace, such a duel is nothing more than a trivial matter in insignificant Pentos, but for Marian Fregar, it's her son's life. Which is more important?"
"Uh..." He's a cunning old fox after all; I'd overlooked that.
Come to think of it, Illyrio seems unaware that the Sealord's Palace has already turned the two Water Dancers who were supposed to represent Hazan against him, and is preparing to use Hazan's death as a formal declaration of war against the Fregar family.
I wonder what Illyrio's expression will be when he realizes he's ruined the Sealord's grand plan after the duel.
"Before doing anything, you must weigh the costs and benefits. If what you do will have a far less damaging impact on the enemy than the potential retaliation you might suffer, then you shouldn't do it," Illyrio continued his lecture.
"I will remember that, Your Excellency," Ian replied, of course understanding the principle. However, he found himself sometimes lacking that certain intuition—that is, he might overlook something in the process of weighing things. This intuition might require experience to develop.
"Besides, Ambassador Oranto and I have a good personal relationship," Illyrio added. "He has always wanted to win me over to Marian Fregar's camp. Yesterday, I was thinking of taking this opportunity to do Oranto a favor, but I didn't expect Hazan to find a way to persuade Viserys, not giving Oranto a chance to ask me for help."
(That was exactly the plan, wasn't it? That was my hint to Hazan.) Ian rubbed his nose.
"But in any case, you will offend the Volantis faction, won't you? This still undermines your neutrality in Pentos." Ian suddenly wanted to take this opportunity to get more information about the internal strife in Pentos, so he posed a new question.
"What is the Volantis faction anyway?" Illyrio took another bite of bread, then tore off a quail leg, a rare look of disdain on his face.
"Unless the Tiger Party returns to power in Volantis, the so-called Volantis faction is nothing but a nuisance. If I hadn't secretly helped them considerably to counterbalance Hazan, they would have been crushed by Hazan long ago.
Even Magister Tetrus, one of the two pillars of the Volantis faction, only joined them because the Iron Bank refused his extortion and retaliated against him. Would they dare to be dissatisfied with me?"
"But what if Magister Tetrus loses his son in this tournament?"
"Grero Tetrus has seven sons, not counting bastards."
Uh... Ian suddenly wanted to laugh.
"Since Suthra Tetrus is so unimportant, and the Volantis faction is so weak, why did Prince Hazan accept Suthra's invitation to the tournament? He didn't need to take this risk himself, did he?" Ian suddenly thought of a new question.
Illyrio, who was eating, looked up at Ian, seemingly surprised that Ian had thought of this.
"To be honest, I had my doubts at first. Hazan is the kind of person who's very diplomatic; logically, he shouldn't have accepted such an invitation. So I had someone investigate thoroughly for quite some time."
"And the conclusion?"
"The conclusion involved a woman. You've met Hazan's betrothed, Delilah, haven't you? What did you think of her?"
"Absolutely stunning," Ian said after a moment's thought, and it was the truth.
"That is the answer. My little birds gathered a lot of clues, and finally I discovered that ever since Hazan became involved with Delilah, he's always become irritable, short-tempered, and narrow-minded when it comes to that woman. He's completely different from his usual self. Actually, that's quite normal. No matter how capable a man is, when his cock takes over his mind, he becomes... less rational.
This reminds me of a friend of mine who doesn't have this problem, which is why he's always so wise."
His cock taking over his mind... Ian inexplicably thought of his absurd idea from the previous night.
Pentos had Illyrio's intelligence network and private army, and outside there were Drogo's forty thousand screamers. Moreover, the player Ander Poole hadn't been eliminated yet, and Ginny Taymee hadn't been found. Under these circumstances, he had actually conceived an idea whose risks far outweighed its rewards.
This was probably the situation Illyrio was referring to, wasn't it?
"Do you have any other questions?"
"No, Your Excellency. Since everything is going according to plan, I'm relieved." Ian offered a subtle compliment.
This was an excellent result, because it meant he could openly help Hazan without having to devise new excuses.
"Very good," for some reason, Illyrio was increasingly satisfied with Ian. "However, the reason I called you here today wasn't actually to discuss this issue."
"You summoned me for something else?" Surely it wasn't to adopt him as a son?
"You've already met Viserys. What are your impressions of him?" Illyrio directly posed a question that was somewhat treasonous for a subject.
"His Grace?" Ian paused for a moment, then blurted out, "Aegon the Conqueror reborn."
Illyrio hadn't expected such an answer. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, blinking and trying hard to control his facial expressions, but ultimately he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Aegon the Conqueror reborn! Ha ha ha," Illyrio repeated loudly, "Aegon the Conqueror reborn!"
Seeing Illyrio's astonished expression, Ian explained, "It's always the king who judges his subjects, not the other way around. If the king makes a mistake, it's because his advisors failed to offer the right counsel."
"Very good, tactful. That's a basic skill for a politician, something I taught you," Illyrio praised with satisfaction, though he himself had forgotten whether he had actually taught Ian this. "It seems you've learned it quite well."
"But today," Illyrio changed the subject, "I hope to have an open and frank conversation with you. What do you think of Viserys?"
This time, from Illyrio's serious tone, Ian suddenly realized that this might be the prelude to Illyrio telling him about the existence of 'Aegon VI'.
And his next answer would determine whether he could truly enter Illyrio's inner circle.
(End of Chapter)
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