Myrcella realized her mistake the moment the words left her mouth. She instinctively wanted to cover it up, to smooth things over, but she hadn’t expected Aegor to react so quickly—or so strongly. She tensed, shrinking back slightly, and obediently stopped what she was doing. Circling around the sofa, she hesitated before carefully gathering the hem of her gown and lowering herself into a seat, tentative and wary.
The sofa was meant to comfortably seat two, yet even with an extra p...
2025-01-29 19:37:19 +0000 UTC
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"Exactly. When everyone else is basking in the joy of their newfound autonomy, only to discover that one of their supposed allies refuses to cooperate and instead seeks to undermine their hard-won victory, they will cast that person out. They’ll exile him from their ranks, strip him of his standing. And once he’s isolated, taking him down won’t just be uncontroversial—it might even earn them allies."
Aegor raised an arm, spread his fingers, then clenched his fist as if crushing...
2025-01-29 19:37:00 +0000 UTC
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In theory, the entirety of Oldtown—its people and its assets—belonged to House Hightower.
The citizens of this great city were little more than serfs, burdened with heavy taxes and feudal obligations. They not only endured the tithes and forced labor but also suffered under the Hightowers’ monopolization of the most lucrative trades, their imposition of exclusive rights, and their relentless exploitation by any means imaginable. To put it in modern terms, Oldtown’s "business en...
2025-01-29 19:36:41 +0000 UTC
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Baelor Hightower acted just in time to stop his younger brother from committing an irreversible mistake.
A sharp reprimand snapped Humphrey’s attention back to reality.
“Lord Hand—what—you… You call that a reasonable request?!”
Humphrey Hightower, still too young to temper his emotions, turned red with rage at Aegor’s audacity. His temples throbbed, and his whole body tensed—a reaction sharp enough that it immediately drew the wary gazes of Aegor’s guard...
2025-01-29 19:36:21 +0000 UTC
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"Move?"
Baelor Hightower’s heart lurched.
He had only just lowered himself into his seat when the words struck him like a thunderclap, making him hesitate before fully settling in. His back went rigid, and he forced a confused expression, shaking his head.
"I don’t understand, Lord Hand."
"I believe you do," Aegor replied coolly, casting an unimpressed glance at the man’s act.
"But for the sake of argument, let’s assume Lord Tyrell neglected to infor...
2025-01-29 19:36:04 +0000 UTC
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If the Wall was the largest man-made structure in the world of ice and fire, then the Hightower of Oldtown was certainly the tallest.
A castle and a lighthouse combined, it was an unmistakable landmark, standing out as if the gods themselves had placed a colossal candle atop a pie laden with assorted fillings. One could see it from miles away.
In fact, not just today—its beacon had been visible even the night before, when Aegor and his forces were still twenty to thirty league...
2025-01-29 19:35:46 +0000 UTC
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A blast of dragonfire erupted from Drogon’s maw, a tongue of orange-yellow flame licking across the earth in a precise, sweeping arc.
It caught Harry Strickland in mid-sprint, barely a hundred yards from where he had started.
The heatwave that followed was so intense that even those standing at a distance instinctively recoiled, their faces stung by its searing touch. No one dared to imagine what it must have felt like to be caught within that inferno.
Strickland’s sc...
2025-01-29 19:35:27 +0000 UTC
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“Right thumbprint!”
A single command from Aegor cut through the tense silence.
An Unsullied soldier and Myrcella bolted toward the carriage where Aegor kept his inkpad.
Meanwhile, Harry Strickland, sensing imminent disaster, began frantically shouting out the names of the nine men who had accompanied him to the secret meeting, calling on them like drowning men grasping for driftwood.
Aegor made no move to stop him.
Only after he was certain that Daenerys...
2025-01-29 19:35:09 +0000 UTC
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“How did this happen? Who killed Prince Aegon?”
Daenerys lifted her head, her violet eyes—usually warm, sometimes seductive—now burning with fury as they swept over the assembled officers of the Golden Company. Finally, her gaze locked onto the leader of the surrendering delegation.
“I need an explanation, Captain Strickland!”
Seven hells.
Doing the dirty work was one thing, but now he had to put on a performance too?
This was like a whore trying...
2025-01-29 19:34:48 +0000 UTC
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On the open bed of the wagon, amid layers of luxurious silks and fine wool, lay a young man with silver hair, his face pale, his eyes closed in death. There was no mistaking him—this was the so-called "son of Rhaegar," the pretender Aegon Targaryen.
With the surrender of the Reach army and the massive stores of grain and supplies from House Tyrell now under their control, the Western Expedition had turned into little more than a leisurely march. The fields along the road, once desola...
2025-01-29 19:34:27 +0000 UTC
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The moon hung high, its light silvering the land, while sparse stars flickered in the vast night sky. A gentle spring breeze rustled through the brush and grass, carrying with it the faint chirping of insects. It was the kind of night that spoke of renewal, of life bursting forth.
And yet, as Prince Aegon stood beneath the bright, round moon, staring into the night, all he felt was an inexplicable sorrow.
The taste of being cornered was as bitter as it was suffocating.
Co...
2025-01-29 19:34:10 +0000 UTC
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“Mace Tyrell must be kept alive. And once you take Storm’s End, you will destroy this document in my presence. Until then, I trust it will offer you some peace of mind.”
Lyon narrowed his eyes at the sellsword captain—a look he had often seen his own commander give to subordinates who had disappointed him. Even though that gaze was not directed at himself, he felt its weight.
Harry cursed inwardly but forced himself to push back. “Plenty of people want to claim Storm...
2025-01-29 19:33:52 +0000 UTC
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The flat, open fields of the Reach were good for many things—hiding was not one of them.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Neither side could set an ambush, sparing both parties the trouble of scheming or fearing the other’s deceit.
With the setting sun at his back, the commander of the Golden Company rode toward a lone, conspicuous tree standing several miles east of the camp, where shadowy figures awaited beneath its branches.
Dusk was falling. A secret meeting...
2025-01-29 19:33:35 +0000 UTC
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----
"Most of a dragon's magical energy is wasted."
Aegor didn't hear these words until he was standing in front of Rhaegal once more, listening as Daenerys relayed the spell’s details to Kinvara, the second Red Priestess. Only then did he fully grasp the nature of this so-called dragon-riding ritual—not just a ceremony for show, but a true magical rite.
The Queen, now a seasoned dragonrider, scholar, and de facto administrator of the dragon stables, had drawn thi...
2025-01-29 19:33:17 +0000 UTC
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A devil. This man is an absolute devil.
Margaery trembled once more, her hands and feet icy cold.
But unlike the last time—mere minutes ago—her mind was no longer a chaotic mess. This time, she saw Aegor’s intentions with terrifying clarity: he was forcing House Tyrell into a cruel, unsolvable game.
A game that, in Aegor’s world, had a well-known name—The Prisoner's Dilemma.
He was offering her house a relatively small advantage in exchange for an act of ...
2025-01-29 19:32:59 +0000 UTC
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"So you're really going to keep making this joke?" Margaery was beginning to lose patience. The man in front of her was clearly intelligent—so why was he being so utterly unreasonable on this point? "Then tell me, Lord Hand—this so-called 'relocation to King’s Landing' for the Reach lords—should it take place before or after the war across the Narrow Sea is over?"
What does he mean by this?
Margaery found herself struggling to keep up with Aegor’s line of thinking. Am ...
2025-01-29 19:32:42 +0000 UTC
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Now this—this was a negotiation.
Aegor silently savored the intoxicating taste of victory—a fine vintage called "submission at the gates." Straightening slightly, he prepared to critique the little queen’s performance.
"Lady Margaery, you’ve spoken at length—your throat must be parched. Have some water."
He lifted the pitcher, poured her a cup, and slid it across the table. Only after withdrawing his hand did he finally begin to speak.
"First, I must ackn...
2025-01-29 19:32:24 +0000 UTC
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To be honest, Aegor rather enjoyed this.
It was true—Margaery’s arguments held merit—but they were old, predictable, and lacked real weight. He shrugged slightly, neither agreeing nor denying her words.
He didn’t make a show of being impressed, but he remained silent, staring at her face, his gaze conveying a simple message: Not bad, but not enough.
For one, she wasn’t a knight. And for another… she was afraid.
That tone of hers!
"It’s easy to ...
2025-01-29 19:32:06 +0000 UTC
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"It's all yours."
With a light, almost playful tone, the Queen tossed out the half-sentence before turning and gliding away.
This wasn’t an abandonment of duty. Aegor had secured this authority long before setting out on his Western Campaign—an imperial sword of sorts, granted by the Queen herself. As the architect and executor of the Greater Crownlands Plan, he had full discretion over the Reach’s conquest, including the fate of its nobility and the terms of any negotiati...
2025-01-29 19:31:49 +0000 UTC
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The green dragon had never carried a rider before. When it crouched down, it had intended only to display submission, not to invite Aegor onto its back. Unsurprisingly, then, Rhaegal lowered itself, but unlike its elder brother, it did not instinctively settle into the proper position for a rider to mount with ease.
…
Daenerys raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Even her—the dragon’s so-called mother—had never been met with such obedience from Drogon when attempting to...
2025-01-29 19:31:32 +0000 UTC
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The moment Daenerys phrased her question, Aegor felt his heart sink.
She didn’t say “the false king.” She said, my nephew.
That small detail spoke volumes. Even if she didn’t fully believe it, she at least had doubts—enough to consider that the young silver-haired prince might truly be her kin.
Perhaps the war had ended too quickly and decisively—before this so-called king had the chance to truly threaten her rule or cause significant harm. The instinctive bon...
2025-01-29 19:31:14 +0000 UTC
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As the most powerful man and woman on the continent, their so-called "walk" was, of course, never just a casual stroll. True to expectation, Daenerys soon shifted the conversation to matters happening not here in the west, but in the east, where a different crisis was unfolding.
"We must move quickly. If the Reach lords are willing to surrender, sparing them even slightly is not out of the question. The Reach isn’t going anywhere—it won’t fly away. Once we finish dealing with the...
2025-01-29 19:30:57 +0000 UTC
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Considering the logistical burden on the Crownlands and the efficiency of resupplying along the way, Aegor had deliberately dispersed the weaker Riverland levies and the unruly Northmen when the main force of his Western Expedition set out. The army he personally led numbered just over thirty thousand, though he publicly claimed forty thousand, a figure that included non-combatants. As they swept across the land, taking castle after castle, he had to leave behind garrisons of a hundred or so ...
2025-01-29 19:30:37 +0000 UTC
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"Impossible!"
King Aegon shot to his feet, his face flushed with fury. "I will not cower behind my own Hand like some sniveling coward, begging my aunt for forgiveness!"
They hadn't even managed to salvage a single ballista.
"Shut the gates—now!" Jon Connington barked. There were undoubtedly stragglers still outside, but at this point, there was no time to care.
"All men still standing, get to the walls and prepare to fight! The enemy came too quickly to bring si...
2025-01-29 19:30:19 +0000 UTC
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Has anyone ever used shadow-binding like this before?
Broad daylight. In full view of thousands.
A shadow surged straight through the heart of the battlefield, slipping past legions of soldiers, heading directly for the enemy's command post.
To accomplish this attack, Aegor had offered the pure magical essence of R'hllor’s Scale as the catalyst. For over thirty straight hours, Melisandre had fed it power without rest, and Kinvara had poured nearly all of her own energy ...
2025-01-29 19:30:01 +0000 UTC
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It seemed absurd that the soldiers of both armies could struggle to distinguish friend from foe, but the reality was that both sides bore the same sigil—the Three-Headed Red Dragon.
Neither Daenerys nor young Aegon had been willing to modify the Targaryen banner, even in the slightest way, for the sake of battlefield clarity. Not even a simple color change, as had been done during the Blackfyre Rebellion, had been considered. Both were too fixated on asserting their legitimacy as the...
2025-01-29 19:29:44 +0000 UTC
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A sea of metal, banners, and bloodied helmets churned across the battlefield, an unrelenting tide of war. At its heart, like a lone reef amidst the storm, Jon Connington stood still, his gaze fixed on the impenetrable tortoise-like formation of the western campaign army.
"The last scraps inside that shell are starting to gather," he noted, relaying the scout reports in the simplest terms. Then, with a frown, he muttered his own doubts. "Strange... It’s like Aegor is always one step a...
2025-01-29 19:29:25 +0000 UTC
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"Gather the baggage train guards, the kitchen hands, and every man in the southern second phalanx who can still lift a weapon. Bring them to me."
Aegor had accepted the reality of his situation. There was only one choice left.
"Send word to the artillery positions—fire off all remaining grapeshot westward, then switch to solid shot. Aim for the river to the north, adjust for range, and prepare to engage enemy ships!"
The Reach’s intentions were painfully obvious—alm...
2025-01-29 19:29:08 +0000 UTC
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Aegor sensed something was wrong even before the call for reinforcements reached him.
Following the principle of “balanced combat distribution,” the explosive grenades of the western campaign army had been evenly allocated among the nine phalanxes—each phalanx was assigned around a hundred grenadiers, each carrying two grenades. Any extras were reserved for Aegor’s direct vassal forces, while the Unsullied and Westerlands cavalry were not equipped with them at all.
Unlik...
2025-01-29 19:28:50 +0000 UTC
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The sharp blast of horns cut through the chaos of battle, accompanied by the rise of a stark black banner. Like a tide of midnight, the armored warriors who had instilled fear into nobles and slave masters alike surged forward, flowing through the gaps between formations toward the embattled southeastern corner of the battlefield. A wave of sheer, unshakable confidence swept across the Queen’s forces in their wake.
“Deploy the Unsullied! Fill the gap! Replace the southern second ph...
2025-01-29 19:28:33 +0000 UTC
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