Chapter 68: Astapor
Olivia soon found herself being in the same room with a man calling himself the butcher king. Astapor. The sleazy man took one look at her and decided to have her as his wife.
"You mean to marry me and be king of my city?" She asked him with an unreadable expression.
"I heard you are still without a husband we can marry and you will have our children inherit the city you built and my other wives may share power in Astapor." The man said with a voice that Olivia did not find attractive at all.
After a few months of talking and dealing with a pretty face like Daario's face it is really unpleasant to sit across such a ridiculous face.
"No." She said straightforwardly. The man's face turned uglier if that could be possible and looked at Olivia with a livid expression.
"Then I will continue to block your trading routes. My city may be with smaller soldiers than yours but I have friends who are willing to help me attack you to take away your recipes." He saw her expression change and knew he got through to her.
"Join me and become my wife, together we will lead the tree cities to a new future." He said with strong sense of confidence but it is shattered in an instant when Olivia said one word.
"Ugly." She said and stood up leaving before he can say anything more. As soon as she reached outside her door she saw the council members and her dukes. She said one statement.
Prepare for war." The council members looked at each other in dismay.
"Can the clan leader explain the reason the negotiations didn't succeed." Adrios asked.
"I despise his hair." She said and turned to leave. What she didn't say is that this meeting had been to gage if the other party is someone she can work with just like Daario. However, the results were disappointing.
Olivia doesn't like to seize that which has history of its own and belongs to others which is why she built her own empire in lands were others wouldn't set foot in. Now However her neighbor is being very difficult by blocking her livelihood.
If there is one thing she cannot tolerate is someone taking away her wealth. Olivia doesn't have reliable family so her one constellation is the money she can make which they are not able to in several lifetimes but now a toad from God knows where has decided to stomp her way of life?
The next day on the grounds in her military castle made in ancient Chinese style, tens of thousands of soldiers stood in attention wearing gleaming armor with cooling under garments underneath.
"Will need 10 thousand." She declared. Enemies stepped forward and knelt in front of her.
"My queen, this one wishes to be the one by your side just one more time." Enym's golden pupils stared at her pleadingly.
Olivia walked towards him and pulled him up.
"Alright then." She looked at her army and smiled. "We board in one day."
"Hhe..! Hhhe!..." The army shouted in one voice.
The next day at day break she made it ashore and her ten thousand men followed her in a tight formation. Astapor I'd not what she used to be but she can still struggle till her last breath. Olivia knows most of the unsullied were nobles in the past which means they will likely be averse to a dragon rider.
She doesn't need men but a peaceful neighborhood is what she desired. To prevent her army from approaching a rain of arrows is fired at them but the narrows stopped in mid air a small distance for her men and in a freakish manner all the arrows turned around and lodged themselves into the group on the city walls.
Hundreds died on the spot. The onlookers felt a shiver up their spine. Olivia is not done, that set of large gates got yanked off its hinges and flew out leaving them wide open for her soldiers to kill the enemy.
Just as they approach, large barrels of oil is poured out from on top the city wall but Olivia had been waiting for more tricks and all the liquid oil is tucked into her soul space.
This is specifically concocted to be extremely flammable. That is mostly why the fat butcher king had been very confident because these things were sold by the sinister wise masters who wanted to use him to get rid of another dragon queen.
As soon as the men enters the city they started killing all the solders serving the king. Be it as an unsullied or a normal soldier working to earn coins.
Just as they finished the last man a sound of hurried foot steps sounded and a group made of approximately 15 to 20 thousand men ran towards the city most of them being the unsullied and others being the paid sword men from the free cities.
Olivia snarled. "Men! Destroy them!" She commanded and her army obeyed.
They turned their backs on the dead on the ground and faced the new enemy. One man took a step toward and spoke towards Olivia's direction with pride.
"Filthy foreign whore! Surrender and maybe your men will not be completely destroyed."
Olivia walked on the Astapor city wall, her battle armor gleaming in the sun with black sinister luster making her white flame sigil even more prominent.
She looks at this clown with a cheeky grin. Then she turns to a direction causing the man to also look there. A colossal figure of a black dragon drew near.
Olivia looked at her men and asked. "Are you tired? Do you need this queen to clean up after you lot?!" She asked and the men shouted back a resounding "NO!"
Morpheus flew and stood next to Olivia watching as the men who should have been tired from slaughtering the city soldiers ran towards to army of the free cities.
"If one of you dies here I will take it as your failure!"
"For the queen!"
"Flaming snow!"
Their bodied are beyond normal soldiers and fighters. It will be embarrassing to be bested by slaves and sell swords who fight for coins.
Indeed. Her army did not disappoint her. The numbers of the enemy dwindled little by little until someone had the bright idea to run back to the ships. Soon a wave of people sprinted towards the ships and boats.
Many made it on board falling on the deck with exhaustion and pulsating heart. "Monsters!" Someone complained.
But before they could celebrate having escaped a massive black fame greeted all the ships attempting to leave. This day, 25 to 27 thousand humans lost their lives.
Olivia beheaded the would be king and released all the slaves who were said to be the previous nobles. After the unsullied died and the remaining ones were the citizens and normal small folk Olivia gave them the option to take a small bag of coins and decide it among themselves leaving this place.
"Astapor now belongs to the Flaming snow kingdom!" She shouted and the exhausted army shouted in delight.
"My queen, there are at least 8 thousand trained warriors still remaining who had thrown their weapons down when the fight began."
"You may leave. From now on there will be no unsullied or slavery in this city!" She declared.
Many chose to stay because they have houses here awhile they will be picked and sold into slavery outside.
"I am Olivia Snow. Originally I wasn't interested in this city but your king was a nuisance and I quickly got irritated with him." Olivia stood in front of tens of thousands of people. Those place has about 48 thousands humans.
"I am taking over this place and unlike those in the past I will run it my self. These are the new laws of your Astapor city from now on." The people are clearly very afraid and many are just hoping to be able to survive whatever happens next.
"First I will clear out these temples and Ghis structures. We do not believe in slavery here." There is a commotion because of this statement.
Olivia is able to address all these people because her voice is carried on by magic towards the crowd so everyone is able to here and understand her high valerian.
"I understand that change is hard and I will not force you to accept it. If you are a strong believer of the Ghis religion I already have a ship outside waiting to take those willing to the new Ghis and Yunkai." The words silenced the crowd.
A moment later however many pushed to come over and be taken away. What is surprising is that these people were mostly young girls who will grow up to be used as the called 'grace' in the temples.
It must be dome sort of brainwashing. Those under brainwashing will be very dangerous to leave in her new city unchecked. "Very well, these people will take you to your destination."
Just like that 18 thousand and some change people chose a religion that will take away their rights and self respect just because it is all they have ever known.
"Those remaining will have to live by the set of new rules. The most important one is these sets of books. Everyone of you will have to tell my people what kind of work you do so that I will create a job for you and you can then earn coins to feed yourself. Sounds good?" She asked and the crowd sounded very happy.
It's only 23 thousands. Lines are quickly made and the available careers were first normal and then spiraled into fighting pit managers, slave feeders, pit animals care takers, whores and even unsullied trainers.
"There will be no unsullied soldiers from now on just soldiers. You may remain in your post and I will give you new soldiers to train."
What surprises Olivia is the many priests still remaining behind. Seeing they have no sign of leaving she made this group drop their blood on the contract first because they are more likely to betray her than the rest.
This city only knew how to enslave people. They buy everything else with the coins obtained from selling humans.
A very big city but not much to make money with if not to sell humans. Olivia felt a headache but Enym brought her a chair.
"Thank you Enym what am I going to do? These people will need food and clothing. I have food but I will need man power, like a lot of it."
"How much are we talking? Let's just use them." Enym suggestion is not something she hadn't considered but they will have to complete the contract signing to do that.
That will take a long time but if they start with this the rest will be automatically taken care of.
"Fine. Help with the signing and make sure every adult has signed with blood on each related book." Olivia took out rice and some meet and a lively atmosphere ensued.
Those with the ability started cooking spirit rice and some meet from her space. The health conditions of these former slaves is not well. It took four days to complete the employment contracts.
The gates of Astapor are closed firmly for the next foreseeable future. Olivia opened a granary. Wheat, flour, maize meal rice and so forth.
Calling Aderio over with his sophisticated printing machine that can be powered by the the several batteries he invented. He then proceeds to print an ID for each person. They will use their ID to redeem food allowance from the granary.
17 temples were demolished. The city looked like a head shaved in some places leaving hair in some places making it look unsightly. But these temples couldn't be left unattended.
Not just these places but a place filled with filth and unsightly living conditions in the back of the city near the city wall was demolished and all those living there were told to move into the houses in the inner city.
This size of the city land is large enough to feed the city for years. Olivia just pulled the stone houses and all the materials disappeared leaving open land.
A month later, rows of glass houses lined up the place. Just to make sure, Olivia spells the place to not be uprooted under any circumstances. Now even the most powerful of thieves will never be able to steal this glass.
People are employed to work in the fields. Olivia had previously given them spirit food to improve their health. Now more than a month later they are able to take up tools to turn the earth and plant crops.
Olivia make a water system again and there is soon plenty of fresh water for the city to drink and water the crops. Using strong heavy wood, Olivia made several water tanks pulling and purifying eater from the rivers.
These tanks will fill themselves as soon as the water inside is used. The people were amazed but was not all the changes Olivia made. Once everyone settled into their respective work she began the process of cleansing the previous branding.
All those with scaring and branding from the previous masters were given medicine to smoothen the skin.
Screams of happiness sounded in the entirety of the city. Olivia stood on the balcony of the only remaining temple and watched as they all celebrated hugging each other and crying on the ground below.
Morpheus snorted and fell asleep nor seeing the big deal. "I believe they truly feel free now your grace." Enym said with a smile on his face.
"Perhaps. But currently I am making losses running this city. It's about time I put them to work but first we need to make this place presentable."
"As you asked, we cleared all the dead and those on the punishment path were given swift deaths and all the bodies were burned and their ashes scattered in the sea."
"As you commanded we got rid of anything that is associated with slavery."
"I have the plans here. Textile factories in the back, soap factory here, furniture and miscellaneous items here and beer here. Alcohol is a big business and I am sure these thieves will be eyeing the place so I will have to keep a close eye in that place with magic."
The first this before building these factories she make several large bathing houses with excellent security so that people will wash up and use toilets here instead of loitering the city.
There are people hired to clean the city and public dedication became against the law. There are bathrooms and flushing toilets several parts of the city. With provided water and soap, people had no excuse to be unhygienic anymore.
Olivia made it clear that being clean will prevent diseases from attacking them every so often. Surprisingly it didn't require much convincing.
Seven factories sprang up in the city. People used the coins they earned from working in the farms and the factories to buy the products from the factories.
Especially soap, clothes and furniture. Many even applied to have their houses under their names and changed their houses to include plumbing.
Many put indestructible windows and soon the city started looking better and cleaner. Because everyone has a way to earn coins, they purchased the items Olivia had on display in her new buildings.
In the location where temples were previously now there are several buildings that will bring money for the city. A supermarket, where the extra food will be sold off.
The product Olivia couldn't wait to sell is the beer. In a couple of weeks the product came out just as well as it did when she had made it in her tower in Winterfell.
Just she had anticipated, beer was an instant hit especially with he ones working outside all day long. It turns out this will be the signature item of the Astapor city from now on.
Then several other drinks with acid and caffeine making the people who do not drink alcohol very happy. The cola flavored non alcohol drink, then there is the various fruit flavored sweet alcohol with a fizzy acid which helps with cooling. These are famous amongst women. They can in cans and small bottles.
Six months later Olivia has now established that the city can feed itself, clothe itself. Their clothing style has changed from Tokar to simple shorts, long tight pants, skirts, vests, silk shirts and different styles of dresses that do not waste fabric.
Shoes are the same as in the red lands and the true North. Sandals, elegant heels and closed shoes. There are even variety of hats designs. The winter in this place is peculiar. It is hot then very cold which makes people get sick easily but there is medication selling in the new 15 floor building built by Olivia to sell the packaged fruits, vegetables and the various drinks.
Another part of this large place is a section for restaurants, another part sells clothing made from the local factory while others are ordered from the two cities. This place has the modern lights and tile floors with floor to ceiling windows making it convenient for shoppers to see whatever they want to buy.
This place is so famous in the city that Olivia made two more just like it filling them with items from the true north and red lands. These items include the basic medicine kit, paper, picture books and stationary, glass items, spirit wine, spirit food, frozen vegetables, frozen fruits, furniture and shoes made from soft wood, fresh bread and many other items from the rest of the snow flame kingdom.
The life in the city of Astapor suddenly became easy all you have to do is to earn coins. People started gaining weight and the children became lively again. When the gates finally opened the city and the people living inside seem to have transformed completely.
Buying and selling humans became illegal's in this city just like in Bravos. Anyone found to be doing this will be executed with their entire families. No exceptions.
Olivia travelled to take a look at the progress in Meereen. Leaving the operations of Astapor in the hands of a new council. All this time she has been training them to run the city and take care of the citizens just like in the red lands and the true North.
She transferred 20 thousand soldiers from both the true north and the red lands to assist with guarding the city.
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