Since they had said so, the two Night's Watchmen didn't say any more and followed the Lannister master and servants along the main road of King's Landing. After passing Shoemaker's Square and Central Square, they turned left and forward, riding up the gentle slope extending along Street of the Sisters, gradually approaching the summit of the lowest of the three hills enclosed by the King's Landing walls.
As the elevation increased, the surrounding scenery quickly began to change. The streets became wide and clean, and the demeanor and clothing of the pedestrians became more leisurely and proper. Shops selling non-essential goods—luxury items—even began to appear on both sides of the road.
Aegon quickly realized that this was the rich district of King's Landing, and for outsiders to stay here permanently would likely be an expense he absolutely could not afford. Finally, they stopped in front of an inn called "Albatross." Following Tyrion off his horse, Aegon looked into the distance and found that where he stood was already higher than the walls of King's Landing. It was dozens of meters higher than the lowest point in the city, and below the summit of Rhaenys's Hill where the Dragonpit was located—the height was just right to greatly reduce the smell without overly affecting the residents' travel and daily activities. It truly was a good place.
"Boss, four rooms, one for me, one for each of my two black-clothed friends, and one for my two servants, all connected," Tyrion said loudly as he stepped into the inn's entrance, clearly familiar with the place. The inn's decor was even better than the great hall of Winterfell, and the boss obviously knew the Little Imp. He courteously instructed his staff to take their horses and luggage and led everyone upstairs.
"You are now a representative image of the Night's Watch, so you must pay attention to your attire when you go out. There are many shops on Street of the Sisters, some selling ready-made clothes, and others that can custom-make them. I suggest you take some time to get a few outfits," Tyrion said to the two Night's Watchmen before they entered their respective rooms. "Also, turn right when you leave, and then turn left when you can clearly see the hole on top of the Dragonpit, and you'll reach Street of Silk. Half of the brothels in King's Landing are there. Just mention my name, and you can have a good time even without money. If you don't dare to go by yourself, I can take you another day, but today, I need to relax my backside first—sleeping on my stomach might be a good idea. See you later."
...
To be honest, Aegon was a bit tempted. He was a normal adult man and had his own needs. He had been transmigrated to this world for a year and a half and hadn't touched a single woman... He really couldn't bring himself to deal with the women in Mole's Town near the Castle Black, who were called prostitutes but were actually village girls working part-time. Perhaps things would be different here in King's Landing?
The impure thought flashed and he quickly extinguished it. He owed Tyrion a huge favor and carried a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. Where would he find the interest and courage to use someone else's money to be a patron?
Pushing open the door to his single room, he put away his clothes and luggage, then went out to the front desk to ask the boss for paper and a pen. Aegon sat down at the small table by the window. King's Landing was a dangerous place, but as long as he didn't meddle in the game of thrones, at least he, a Night's Watchman, was temporarily safe. But if he didn't want to return to that hellhole on The Wall, he had to plan his future carefully.
***
Watching the people coming and going on the street, he took a few minutes to adjust his state of mind, then first wrote down his four tasks on the paper: raising supplies, recruiting personnel, mining Dragonglass, and improving the image of the Night's Watch.
Compared to when he first received these tasks and had no idea where to start, after more than a month of traveling South and thinking, plus discussing with Tyrion, he already had some ideas and plans in his heart. Now, what he needed to do was to write them down in written form before he became too busy to remember the plan.
First, what Aegon and Tyrion both agreed on was that the task of "improving the image of the Night's Watch" was essentially non-existent: in this era of underdeveloped communication, whether the Southerners' impression of the Night's Watch was good or bad, could the Night's Watch send a large number of people South to conduct surveys and statistics?
Only he himself knew whether he was serious about this task, and how well it was completed was entirely up to others to say. To put it bluntly, the only meaning of this task was to provide an excuse in case he completed the other three tasks well, but the Night's Watch still wanted to forcibly recall him for special reasons.
As long as the worst-case scenario didn't happen, no one would ever mention this again.
Aegon crossed out the last task with his pen.
The remaining three tasks had to be carried out in earnest.
But what constitutes completion? There was a lot of room for maneuver here. If he couldn't hand over a single person when Yoren came from The Wall to ask for men next time, if he hadn't shipped any supplies to The Wall for several consecutive months, if the dragonglass mining hadn't started when the Night's Watch transport ship reached Dragonstone... These three situations absolutely could not happen, otherwise, recall would be non-negotiable. But how many people to hand over, how many supplies and dragonglass to provide, there were many intricacies in this.
It couldn't be too little, at least not too little for a long time—if you can't pay the ransom, who will let you live freely outside?
But too much is also not good. People's appetites will only grow, and organizations made up of people are the same—the new recruits he recruits will make the Night's Watch larger and larger, and a larger and larger army will inevitably require more and more supplies to feed. Not to mention that as winter approaches, the supplies that the Northern Lords can provide to The Wall will definitely shrink. Various factors determine that the supply gap will inevitably become larger and larger—if he gives the Night's Watch leadership the impression that he can provide as many supplies as they need, that would be terrible.
The level of productivity in this world is what it is. Except for air, water, and land, there are basically no particularly abundant resources. Even if he could truly speak eloquently and persuade the wealthy nobles of King's Landing to spend their entire fortunes to support the Night's Watch, it wouldn't fill a bottomless pit.
The ideal situation is that the supplies, new recruits, and dragonglass he provides are at a low level that makes the Night's Watch leadership "not very satisfied, but not to the point of falling out and recalling him." This way, if The Wall ever requires more supplies and personnel, the starting point for the increase will be lower.
But where this safe level line is, he will have to figure out for himself.
Aegon determined the core idea for carrying out his work and planned his itinerary: he would first arrange the affairs related to sending Tyrion's "sponsorship"—that is, his "ransom"—to The Wall, and then hurry to Dragonstone to survey and start the dragonglass mining work. Once these two matters were settled, he would return to King's Landing to find ways to recruit people and "raise" subsequent supplies and equipment.
...
After getting the itinerary sorted out, he hesitated for a moment, and at the bottom of the paper, in Chinese which people in this world would absolutely not understand, he added two more points:
Take off the black clothes.
Find a way to go home.
Finding a way to complete the tasks Jeor Mormont gave him was a means—a means to buy time. And the purpose of buying time was to find a way to leave the Night's Watch. He had previously hoped that Tyrion could achieve this, but later found that even leaving The Wall required overcoming many difficulties. As for changing his identity... no one had that authority, so he ultimately had to find a way himself.
Not only that, he would also absolutely not forget that he was not from this world. If possible, he hoped to find the reason why he transmigrated to this world and find a way to transmigrate back.
There is a saying that goes, "Better to be a dog in times of peace than a man in times of chaos." For Aegon, even being a King in this damned Ice and Fire World was not as good as being a middle-class person in his original world, in a strong and stable country.