The next day, after making many inquiries, Jack finally found a minor Good Master—Haggo Viseri.
In Astapor, there were at least hundreds of Good Masters. The Great Good Masters commanded several thousand Unsullied, while small Good Masters usually owned only dozens.
Besides Unsullied, Astapor also had bed slaves, skilled slaves, ship slaves, and all kinds of other slaves. This conveniently spared Jack the trouble of traveling to Yunkai and Meereen.
Through an informant's introduction, Jack met this Good Master at Pride Square.
Amber-colored skin, a broad nose, black eyes, and dark red hair—an extremely typical Astapori appearance.
Most Astapori were descendants of the ancient Ghiscari.
They usually possessed amber skin, wide noses, black eyes, and black or dark red hair, or the Ghiscari's distinctive mixed red-and-black hair.
Free Astapori nobles were accustomed to wearing toga-like robes, a symbol of their status.
Their hair was greasy and styled in strange shapes, and they wore yellow silk cloaks sewn with copper disks to signify rank.
Their robes were embroidered with silk thread, while below the waist they wore sandals and pleated linen skirts.
"Hello. You must be Jack Poseidon?"
"That's right. I heard you have some Unsullied, and the price is reasonable, so I came to take a look."
Jack spoke in Valyrian as well. He couldn't write it, but communication was no problem at all.
This was one of the few useful things his old man had ever taught him.
"Of course. The price is absolutely cheap. How many are you looking to buy?"
"Seven hundred gold coins' worth."
"Seven hundred gold coins? Very well. My Unsullied are on the outer edge of Pride Square. I'll take you to see them," Haggo said with a beaming smile.
Seven hundred gold coins was no small deal for a minor slave master like him.
Newgate explained to Jack, "Astapor has three famous squares: Pride Square, Punishment Square, and the Fighting Pit."
Pride Square was an open market where slave masters brought customers to view their slaves.
At the center of the square stood a red-brick fountain, topped with a bronze statue of an Astapori harpy.
Punishment Square lay just inside Astapor's main gate. It was where newly arrived slaves were brought into the city.
Rebellious slaves were punished or executed there.
The fighting pit was a place for entertainment.
It included contests like girls fighting bulls, or children smeared with honey and food fighting bears, while spectators gambled on which child the bear would eat first.
Afterward, the arena would be named after the victorious slave's owner.
Jack's eyelid twitched.
No wonder Daenerys wanted to liberate this place.
For freemen and nobles, this was paradise.
But for slaves, even hell might be better than this.
Fortunately, Daenerys had never received the kind of education Jack had experienced.
Otherwise, she would definitely have nailed every slave master to a cross—and no one would be able to stop her.
"I have sixty-two Unsullied. I'll sell them to you at twenty-five gold coins each—twenty-eight Unsullied total. I'll also throw in two bed slaves and a ship slave. No need to thank me!"
Haggo said confidently. No one sold Unsullied cheaper than he did.
Normally, a single Unsullied cost at least twenty-seven gold coins.
At twenty-five, this price was indeed very sincere.
The Unsullied were castrated slave soldiers, trained in Astapor from childhood. Their defining traits were absolute obedience and fearlessness in war.
In the Free Cities, they were widely used as guards.
They were sold in hundreds or thousands, though small slave masters also sold them in batches of ten.
They were excellent guards who never looted or raped.
They had their own unique faith and goddess, whose true name they kept secret. Outsiders called her the Lady of Spears, the Bride of War, and the Mother of Armies.
The most famous battle involving the Unsullied was the Battle of Qohor, where only three thousand Unsullied held off more than fifty thousand elite troops led by a khal.
Jack said nothing, carefully examining the Unsullied before him, just like in the TV series.
The Unsullied's equipment bore no decoration at all: a stitched tunic, a short sword, three spears, a shield, and a spiked helm—nothing more.
The number of spikes on the helm indicated rank. One spike meant an ordinary soldier; three spikes indicated a senior officer.
Seeing Jack remain silent, Haggo thought he was considering the offer and began explaining:
"We select young male slaves based on physique, speed, and strength, then train them as Unsullied.
Training begins at the age of five, every day from dawn until dusk.
The process is extremely brutal. Not only are they taught how to fight, but all individuality, emotion, and sense of self are erased.
They are completely castrated, and the removed parts are burned to ashes at the altar of the Lady of Spears.
They regularly drink the Wine of Courage to dull pain.
Each day, they draw name tokens at random from a barrel to decide their name for that day.
Each token bears two words—one a color, the other an insect, such as 'Grey Worm.'
If they fail at any part of the training, they are killed. In the end, only one-third survive to become Unsullied.
On the day a boy is castrated, he is given a puppy to raise.
At the end of the first year of training, the boy must strangle the puppy.
If he cannot do it, he is killed, and his body becomes food for the dogs.
During endurance runs all day under heavy loads, night climbing, and walking across burning coals, any failure results in elimination.
Finally, to earn their spiked helm, they must wear silver masks and come to the slave market.
There, they must purchase a newborn baby and kill it in front of its mother, then compensate the baby's owner for the loss."
(End of Chapter)