In the end, Dr. Volgrave was helped out of the conference room by Pet. In his current state, the old man was completely incapable of communication.
Dany let out a breath of relief; one moment the old man was insisting on meeting Princess Rhaella, and the next he was pulling "Cressen" to pay respects to Queen Rhaella.
She had considered the resemblance between mother and daughter before, but Barristan had clearly told her that she didn't resemble Queen Rhaella—especially not in temperament. He claimed he couldn't see a trace of the queen in her.
Just as the White Knight had said, until they met Dr. Volgrave, not a single person had ever questioned her identity.
"Apologies. Dr. Volgrave is getting on in years, his memory is confused. You saw it yourself—he couldn't even recognize the assistant who served him for three years," Dr. Perestan apologized awkwardly.
"It's fine," Dany waved it off and took a seat to the right of the old doctor.
Once everyone was seated, Perestan announced the start of the meeting and first handed Dany a piece of parchment detailing the income and expenditures from sea trade over the last fifty years.
"After returning to the Citadel last night, I worked with twenty-five economics scholars to compile trade data from the six major sea ports—Lannisport, Oldtown, Sunspear, King's Landing, Gulltown, and White Harbor. We calculated Westeros' trade deficit over the past forty years."
Dany examined the parchment carefully. During the "Mad King" Aerys' reign, there were both surpluses and deficits. The years with a deficit, when singled out, formed almost a straight line—about 200,000 gold dragons annually.
Hmm, there were even a few years of slight surplus during the middle of summer, but large deficits appeared during winters.
But after Robert came to power, everything changed. Not only was there a deficit every year, the amount of deficit soared—from 800,000 gold dragons in the second year of his reign to 2 million in the year before his death.
Hmm, the numbers dipped somewhat after the War of the Four Kings, with the deficit hovering around 500,000 gold dragons over the last two years.
And to think—during Robert's 14-year reign, ten of those years were summer!
"This is insane. In the sixteen years since the Usurper's War, Westeros has lost a total of 16 million gold dragons?!" Dany exclaimed in disbelief.
Perestan rubbed his dark-circled eyes and gave a bitter smile. "We didn't expect it to be this horrifying either. It scared me so badly I couldn't sleep all night."
"We should put King Aerys' statue back up. Compared to Robert I, he actually did a decent job during his reign," joked a maester named Moras.
"That was mainly Duke Tywin's doing," said the maester next to him, Nymos, shaking his head.
"Actually, apart from his obsession with wildfire and making the nobles live in constant fear, Aerys didn't commit many great evils. At the very least, he wasn't extravagant and was even particularly frugal. Robert inherited at least four million gold dragons from him," added Maester Hadonyin.
"Ah, why is it so hard to have a good king? The frugal one goes mad, and the bold, heroic one is extravagantly wasteful," Nymos lamented, clutching his head.
Dany's eyes flickered with a hint of calculation, and she tentatively suggested, "It's true that Westeros is in need of reform. The Citadel could initiate a 'Great Council' to learn from the trade cities and limit the king's power."
"Don't even think about it. The Citadel is just a service institution—we're not qualified to initiate a Great Council, nor to participate in the game of thrones," the maesters said in unison, shaking their heads.
What was going on?
There was no need to lie at a time like this, and their expressions didn't look like they were trying to brush her off. Then why was the Citadel, supposedly uninvolved in the game of thrones, targeting her?
Questions began piling up in Dany's mind.
"Ahem, back to the point," Dr. Perestan coughed a few times to draw everyone's attention. "The most urgent issue now is how to reduce the trade deficit."
Dany frowned. "To solve that, we need to figure out where all the money in Westeros is going."
"We've kept records," said Perestan as he handed over another scroll. "During King Aerys' time, the Citadel's 'sorcerous lens' experiments accounted for one-tenth of the kingdom's foreign expenditures. Luxuries like Myrish lace, silk, Qohorik steel, spices from the East, and ivory took up eighty percent. The remaining ten percent was spent on necessities like grain, linen, salt, whale oil, and sugar.
However, we also exported lumber, furs, and wines to the Free Cities—especially the Arbor wine from the Arbor, which made Oldtown the second largest port after King's Landing."
Dany looked down to examine the scroll and casually asked, "How far have your sorcerous lens experiments progressed?"
"Miss Rhaella knows about the sorcerous lens?"
"Mm, I read about it in a book."
"Sigh, creating a sorcerous lens requires magic. But after years of study, we've concluded that magic is a fraud. We wasted more than 1.5 million gold dragons for nothing," Perestan shook his head.
"Magic?" Dany paused her reading and looked up at the old maester. "Are you sure it requires magic?"
"Of course. We have all the documentation on how to create the sorcerous lens," he said as he tugged on his chain necklace, revealing a link of dark iron. "See this? Valyrian steel. I've been researching magic for twenty years. I'm a master of magic!"
Dany stared into his brown eyes for a long moment. Aside from determination and pride, there were also crusty yellow-white sleep crusts in the corners of his eyes. She didn't detect even half a meditation rune.
Just a total muggle!
"Maester, may I ask—how do you research magic?" Dany asked, testing him.
"By memorizing the basic rune tables, studying the structure of spell runes, breaking them down into hundreds of individual runes, then analyzing their functions, comparing the similarities and differences, and interpreting the meaning of various combinations."
Dany's eyes widened in disbelief. "By the Seven… the way you study magic is incredibly formal and systematic."
Yes—formal. Just like studying a university major.
This was completely beyond Dany's expectations. The maesters of the Citadel had such a professional process for studying magic that, if she didn't already know he was a muggle, she would've assumed the old doctor had graduated from a wizarding academy.
"It's fake," the old man said with a shake of his head, clearly unimpressed.
"It's real," Dany said seriously. "There's nothing wrong with your method of studying magic—but you've overlooked two important prerequisites."
"Miss Leila even knows about the occult?" Dr. Nymos beside her asked curiously.
"Not very well—just some basic common knowledge. To learn magic, there are two prerequisites: First, the learner must have the talent to become extraordinary; second, there must be a magic tide—that is, there must be dragons in the world, or the area must be under the influence of divine power."
After speaking, Dany also looked puzzled. "You even know the proper ways of magical cultivation, so there's no reason you wouldn't know these basic things, right? If nothing else, you could just go to the docks and ask any fire mage or Red God priest—you'd hear all about this."
"This…" The expressions on the doctors' faces shifted back and forth.
"Miss Leila, fire mages are all charlatans," Dr. Perestan said in a tone of finality.
"You are all wise men who possess the truth. Just think about it: the Mage Lens was invented by the Valyrians, and Valyrian magical techniques are renowned across the world—absolutely real and undeniable.
Without real magic, how could the Mage Lens even be forged?
The reason you've failed to replicate it is mainly because, for over a century, dragons have been extinct, and the world has entered an age without magic.
No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to learn magic. And runes without magic are like decorative patterns on armor—useless."
"Is that so?" Some of the scholars looked suddenly enlightened, but most of them remained unconvinced, even showing expressions of disgust at the topic.
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Sensing the shift in mood, Dany quickly changed the subject and said, "I understand now—King Robert is excessively extravagant, and the other nobles are following his example. This trend of luxury radiates outward from King's Landing, causing excessive consumption of luxury goods across the Seven Kingdoms. Naturally, this results in a significant trade deficit.
If the next king rules with frugality and moderately increases tariffs on imported goods, the trade deficit could be easily resolved."
"That… Miss Leila, your suggestion is good, but it's difficult to implement," Perestan paused and explained with a bitter smile, "The king collects two types of taxes from the lords of the Seven Kingdoms: land tax and commercial tax.
Land tax is tied to the population and territory under a lord's rule, and it's generally hard to increase.
But commercial tax is different. If Oldtown has booming trade, His Majesty naturally receives more tax revenue.
In other words, the more luxury goods the nobles buy and the more they spend, the more income flows to the Iron Throne. When Littlefinger was Master of Coin, he set tariff policies that maximized commercial prosperity and royal revenue.
Tariffs also affect the nobles' purchasing power. High tariffs mean higher prices. Imagine—these nobles are already used to spices and fine clothing.
Raising tariffs would offend both the king and the nobles, yet no one would obviously benefit from it."
"If they can't endure poverty and hardship, then only two options remain," Dany said after thinking for a moment.
"There are actually two options?" The scholars were taken aback and hopeful.
"Yes. The first one I already mentioned: cheat the Iron Bank out of its money."
Perestan frowned. "But what about our credit—?"
Dany waved him off and interrupted, "Forget credit. Westeros should completely abandon its international credibility."
"Uh, what do you mean?" Seventeen pairs of confused eyes turned to her.
"It's obvious, isn't it? The Iron Bank can only be tricked once, right?"
"Right."
"After that, the people of Westeros will completely lose their credibility, correct?"
"Correct."
"So let's just go all in and become a rogue nation," Dany said boldly, waving her hand. "I've said it before—knights of the Seven Kingdoms are unmatched in the world. Let's build a few hundred pirate ships, follow the ironborn's 'old way,' blockade the Narrow Sea, and charge tolls."
"…"
The suggestion was so outrageous that the scholars nearly dropped their eyeballs on the table.
After a long silence, Dr. Perestan shook his head regretfully. "It's somewhat feasible, but it violates the teachings of the Seven and the traditions of the Seven Kingdoms."
"That's easy. Just take off your knight's armor and pretend to be foreigners. A band of 'foreigners' can take over the Narrow Sea and run a zero-cost business."
"How is that any different?" Perestan asked, bewildered.
"It makes you feel better, doesn't it? You don't even believe in magic—do you really still believe the Seven are real? If even the Seven are fake, why can't we pretend to be fake foreigners too?"
The scholars opened and closed their mouths, clearly conflicted, yet unable to refute her logic.
"Besides, the Seven Kingdoms are already falling apart—parricide, regicide, the violation of guest rights and sacred vows—one after another. Let's just go all the way and become a land of beasts!" Dany said with a sweeping gesture, her tone brimming with heroic bravado.
Hearing this, Perestan and the other scholars were on the verge of collapse.
"Maybe the king can still set things right… Just tell us the second method," the old scholar groaned.
(End of Chapter)
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