"What makes Westeros so special?" The two white knights curiously looked at Dany.
Westeros had White Walkers, a Three-Eyed Raven who could observe the timeline, and a group of undeniably real Old Gods.
As long as Dany set foot in Westeros, all her actions and words would be under Bran's surveillance — the future Bran, the current old Three-Eyed Raven.
However, these reasons couldn't be explained to the two Kingsguard.
"If I show myself, Duke Tywin might... Ah, forget it. Even the Faceless Men are here, so what am I worrying about? Could Tywin still delay Westeros from joining the Allied Army?" Dany shrugged, smiling as she brushed off the thought.
Just in that fleeting moment, she suddenly realized — the news of the White Walkers' reappearance would eventually reach Slaver's Bay. By then, how could she stop the two white knights from wanting to return home?
Or rather, would she always avoid the White Walkers and Westeros?
Impossible.
"Which one of you will go to Westeros?" Dany asked with a smile.
"I!"
"I!"
The two glanced at each other. Barristan was the first to speak, "Ser Mormont, with your reputation in the Seven Kingdoms, don't you have any self-awareness?"
"I—" Jorah's face flushed red as he argued, "I am a Kingsguard now!"
The Kingsguard's honor came from the Queen, but it couldn't bring honor to the Queen.
"I can provide more help to Her Majesty, Ser. Do you admit that?" The white-haired knight said calmly.
Without a doubt, as long as people saw Barristan in his white cloak standing behind Dany, 90% of the nobles in the Seven Kingdoms would regard her with newfound respect — perhaps even rally to her cause.
Jorah, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. His infamously poor reputation would only bring Dany negative influence.
"How about this? Since it's the first attempt at long-distance flight, we'll gather intelligence on the Seven Kingdoms first. Next time, we'll head to the North — Bear Island is a bit too far." Dany looked at Mormont.
The distance from Slaver's Bay to King's Landing was roughly six thousand kilometers, three thousand kilometers less than the journey to Bear Island.
"Alright..." Jorah muttered, unwilling.
Three days later, on a bright and sunny morning, at the top garden of the Great Pyramid in Astapor.
One knight was slender, the other tall and robust — two warriors clad in peculiar iron armor nimbly climbed onto the dragon's back.
Well, they were medieval armored knights carrying modern mountaineering backpacks.
"Hiss—Gaah—"
"Hiss—Gaah—"
A milky white dragon and a jet-black dragon, both slender and elongated, spread their wings and leaped from the half-meter-thick granite wall, gliding westward.
They flew over low hills covered in shrubs, crossed the glimmering Long Island Strait, the abandoned island Dany had personally named Long Island, and another 150-kilometer-wide strait.
Dany raised her head and gazed forward.
A land of deep green forests covered the sea cliffs, shrouded under a layer of gray mist.
Once the garden of the Summer Sea — the Land of Long Summer.
At a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, the dragons glided high in the sky, reaching the Land of Long Summer in just three hours.
Departing at seven in the morning, it was now around ten — the sun's warmth was pleasant, white clouds drifted through the blue sky, and the golden sunlight reflected off the sea's shimmering surface.
Yet the land ahead seemed as if it belonged to another world.
It was like a brightly colored island landscape photo split down the middle — the eastern side a black-and-white photo with a hazy filter, while the western side was enhanced with premium beauty filters.
Dany couldn't help but call out to halt Little White beneath her. Big Black also slowed down, gliding closer.
"The Land of Long Summer... how eerie!" Barristan lifted the wool scarf from under his visor and shouted to Dany, "Your Majesty, should we detour through the Dothraki Sea?"
Detouring would mean an additional few thousand kilometers.
"I'll see if we can fly over it." Dany called out, then spurred the white dragon to soar.
The sky grew brighter, the sunlight dazzling. The cotton-candy clouds above were scattered as she ascended. Little Green climbed to seven thousand meters, then to ten thousand meters.
Ahead, the thin layer of gray mist still veiled the sky.
"What's going on? Could the smog rise this high?" Dany was dumbfounded.
"This world is too unscientific!"
Cursing, she commanded Little White to descend.
After nearly half an hour, Dany spotted Big Black circling over the sea.
"We can't fly over it!"
If they ascended any higher, the air would become thinner. Dany and the dragon could endure it — there was even less oxygen in flames — but Barristan could not. If the old man suffocated and fell from the dragon's back, he'd go down as the most pathetic Kingsguard in history.
Seeing that Dany was unwilling to take a detour, Barristan shouted, "I'll go in and take a look first."
Dany thought for a moment and let Big Black carry the white-haired knight into the hazy gray mist.
It wasn't that she deliberately sent the old man to scout the pit — the key was that her resistance to various harmful effects was significantly higher than ordinary people.
A giraffe could cross a river, while a pony might drown.
Let the "pony" try it himself. If he could handle it, they'd proceed. If he felt even a little uncomfortable, he would leave immediately.
Dany also entered the deepest dragon-bonded state, carefully observing every subtle fluctuation in Big Black's perception.
There was a change!
Magnetic field perception showed slight ripples, but the fluctuations were not significant — Big Black did not lose his sense of direction.
The danger sense flickered faintly — almost imperceptibly.
What... What was this?
Where was the danger coming from?
Dany was bewildered.
Big Black's danger sense often showed fluctuations.
For example, on the battlefield, even when he flew at over 800 meters — far beyond any arrow's range — his sense would still produce strong vibrations.
The lower he flew, the greater the amplitude.
The strange thing was, if there were no archers or scorpion bolts below, even at just 10 meters in the air, there would be no danger fluctuations at all.
Hmm, when Big Black saw Daenerys holding the dragon whip with an angry expression, he also felt a sense of crisis—
though, in most cases, the dragon getting whipped wasn't him.
Big Black was an excellent student!
Barristan stood in the mist for five minutes. Daenerys then called Big Black back and asked the White Knight,
"Do you feel any discomfort?"
As a top-tier knight who had stepped into the "Third Realm," he was acutely aware of even the slightest changes in his body.
Narrowing his eyes and sensing carefully, he shook his head. "My limbs feel strong, no signs of poisoning, no abnormal breathing,
steady heartbeat, no itching or stinging in my eyes, mouth, or nostrils. I think I'm fine."
"Then should we try rushing through in one go? It should take about an hour and a half," Daenerys asked.
"If Your Majesty is certain the dragons won't lose their way, we can try."
Daenerys thought for a moment, then took out a water flask from her backpack.
She dampened the wool scarf outside her visor and wrapped it around her nose.
Whitebeard followed her example.
After that, Daenerys continuously adjusted their altitude, observing the haze over the distant continent from top to bottom.
"Damn! The higher we go, the thicker the haze?"
Newton, where are you? Get out here and explain this to me!
Starting from an altitude of 800 meters, the closer they got to the ground, the denser the mist became.
Daenerys only descended to 500 meters before flying back.
"Hold on tight, we're moving out!"
Beyond the sea cliffs lay rolling hills, with a dark green, dimly lit forest, followed by an endless ochre-green plain.
Sparse tufts of sickly green grass dotted the reddish-brown earth.
At 800 meters in the air, Big Black and Little Green soared forward at full speed.
Big Black almost shot forward like a cannonball, reaching speeds of 350 kilometers per hour.
With a sharp whistling sound, he left Little White far behind in just a few breaths.
Two minutes later, Daenerys couldn't even see Big Black's shadow.
"Little White, why are you so weak?!" Daenerys patted the white dragon's neck and teased.
"Hiss-screech—!"
Little White let out a sharp cry and flapped his wings even harder.
They had only been flying for less than ten minutes when Daenerys' expression suddenly tensed.
A perfectly straight road, as sharp as a blade, split the ochre-colored wilderness in two.
Big Black tilted his head downward, his eyes adjusting focus, and the gray-white road magnified in his vision.
For a moment, Daenerys was dazed—
Had they just stumbled upon a national highway?
By rough estimate, it was no less than 12 meters wide and raised a palm's height above the ground,
completely unaffected by rain or snow, with a surface as smooth as could be.
Was this a cement road?
No, it wasn't a cement road.
Daenerys had seen it before in the original owner's memories—
the ancient Valyrian highway stretching across the plains east of Pentos.
More than four hundred years had passed, yet this Valyrian road remained completely intact,
without even the slightest sign of wear, not even on the sharp edges of the raised stone path.
It was as immortal and unyielding as Valyrian steel.
Four hundred years... No, more than four hundred years.
The Valyrian civilization had existed for six thousand years.
This broad stone road must have been around for thousands of years as well—
only left unmaintained for the last four centuries.
Perhaps, it didn't need maintenance at all?
Daenerys sighed in amazement.
"Compared to the buildings in this world, which last for thousands of years,
the real estate developers on Earth should all be ashamed."
"Wait, is that... a person?!"
A figure on all fours, with a tattered gray cloth wrapped around its waist,
darted across the stone road like an ape, chasing a fleeing moose?
Was that a person?
Or a moose?
A humanoid creature with dark red scales on its skin,
a hunched back protruding with seven or eight jagged bone spurs?
Yet it had clothing, even if just a rag.
And the moose—
Was it even a moose?
Since when did moose have half a face growing out of their backsides?
Its entire body was covered in blood,
as if it had just been skinned alive,
yet it ran at full speed.
But it definitely had antlers,
twisted like tree branches.
Big Black was flying so fast that the scene flashed by in an instant.
Daenerys didn't catch the full picture.
But she wanted to know.
So, Big Black slowed down and circled back.
Yet when they returned, those two strange creatures were gone.
"Why did we stop?"
Barristan noticed Daenerys peering intently downward and explained,
"This is the Valyrian road."
"I know. I've seen these stone roads on the Pentos plains before," Daenerys replied absentmindedly.
"Let's follow the road south for a bit."
After directing the dragons to turn, Daenerys explained to the White Knight,
"I think I just saw a person."
"You must have been mistaken. Everyone knows there are no villages in the Lands of Long Summer,
only demons roaming about."
"How could I be mistaken? That person had a rag wrapped around their waist—
which means they have a sense of shame, which means they have rational thought."
Daenerys called out casually, then urged Big Black to speed up,
flying south along the straight road.
But soon, she hesitated.
The further south they flew, the thicker the gray-black haze became.
In Big Black's mindscape, danger warnings pulsed more frequently.
While hesitating, she had Big Black and Little White gain altitude.
By now, even at 800 meters high, the air was no longer free of haze.
"A village!"
After more than half an hour of agonizing indecision,
Daenerys, in her dragon-linked state, suddenly heard Barristan's exclamation.
Beneath the dark, somber sky,
a pale stream wound through mottled greenish-brown fields.
By the stream, seven or eight gray, low-roofed huts formed a tiny village.
A dozen hunched, indistinct figures moved about by the water.
"There really are people!" Barristan was stunned.
Clearly, only humans built wooden houses.
At the same time, Big Black shifted course,
leaving the ruler-straight stone road and flying southeast.
They were definitely human!
Some were fishing by the stream,
some were washing things,
some were hanging clothes out to dry in an open area,
some were returning to the village carrying hunted game.
The village was small but full of life.
But when Big Black adjusted his focus,
allowing Daenerys to clearly see the villagers' faces,
her voice almost distorted with fear—
"Go! Get out of here immediately!"
(End of Chapter)
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