iron throne of ice and fire

Chapter 665 Dazzling Light 2
Duke Ed's seemingly cold eyes gleamed with undisguised satisfaction, but Prime Minister Mays, standing on the other side, had a tense face, his cheeks slowly puffing up—he felt that King Green had been too lenient with the wolf.

Stark is indeed cunning...

Prime Minister Mays sighed inwardly again. Green was good in every way, except that he was too sentimental. This made him easy to be taken advantage of by people with ulterior motives, such as... this Stark in front of him.

As the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, he could not stand idly by and watch the "Running Wolf's" plot succeed.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Mays stepped forward: "Your Majesty, I captured tens of thousands of barbarians from beyond the Great Wall..."

As he spoke, he deliberately squeezed into the small space between Grimm and Eddard, and then used his large buttocks to ram into Stark.

however.

The skill that Prime Minister Mayes had mastered in the Red Castle failed to work on the strong wolves.

Duke Eddard remained motionless, while he himself staggered slightly, looking somewhat... disheveled.

Instantly, the Duke of Inflatable Fish's cheeks puffed up again.

Duke Ed assumed he had simply slipped, as such things were commonplace in the North, and he reached out and firmly grasped Mace's arm: "Your Excellency, watch your step."

Prime Minister Mayes' cheeks puffed out again, and he slowly squeezed out his voice: "Thank you."

actually---

He wanted to shake off the wolf's claws, but he held back, since the wolf seemed to be acting out of goodwill.

Angry.

“Regarding the prisoners, Prime Minister Mays, we’ll discuss it together tonight,” Green’s voice came at that moment, and then his gaze moved, “Duke Ned, come for a walk with me.”

“Okay.” Ed’s response was concise and steady.

Seeing Green and Ed leave directly, Prime Minister Mays, left behind, thought: "..."

……

The gray sky, like a wet gray cloth, pressed heavily overhead, blurring even the distant mountains.

Green and Ed walked silently for a while, the only sound being the soft crunch of their footsteps on the snow.

Green slowly stopped, his gaze sweeping over the snow-covered world, and said with a sigh, "In my earliest memories, my mother's embrace was not only warm, but sometimes... or rather, many times it was cold and hard."

He smiled slightly at Duke Ed and continued, "Back then, the savages of the nearby mountains often harassed Cleber's new lands, and she often had to wear armor to fight."

Upon hearing this, Duke Ed's grey eyes flashed with reminiscence: "She was a brave mother (Chapter 127)."

Green shrugged: "She was a strict mother too."

The Duke of Eddard thought of Kate, who always taught the children strictly, and he couldn't help but smile: "It's a mother's responsibility. For their children, they can always become stronger than anyone else."

"Yes, incredibly strong."

Green took a step, paused, and then said, "After that war, Clayberth... it was so difficult. The soldiers upheld their honor with their sacrifices, but lost... the trust of the New Red Keep."

"The suppression from the Red Keep and the blockade by the Vale nobles have made the fighting within the already barren Crab Claw Peninsula even more bloody, especially during the harvest season when wheat is in short supply..." "It can be said that... a piece of black bread can trigger a conflict involving hundreds of people."

Green stopped, gazing at the snow-covered hills in the distance, and sighed softly: "When I inherited the territory, the Crab Claw Peninsula was already at its weakest point; the Crab Claw Peninsula people had finally run out of killing power. Their hatred for the Red Keep and the Vale had far outweighed their animosity towards each other..."

His brown eyes shifted to Duke Ed, whose lips were tightly pressed together, and he continued, "...Therefore, I was able to quickly reclaim the old territory and restore Clayber's rule over the Crab Claw Peninsula because the people of the Crab Claw Peninsula, who had been brutally fighting for more than a decade, were yearning for peace and revenge."

Duke Eddard's feelings were somewhat complicated. The blockade of Crabclaw Peninsula by the Red Keep was orchestrated by Jon Arryn, and the Vale nobles buried by Grimm were acting on orders, a fact he later learned after becoming Robert's Hand.

Duke Ed moved his lips, his hoarse voice slightly dry: "If I had known about this beforehand..."

Green raised his hand and waved it gently, interrupting Ed's unfinished words. His eyes were calm: "It's all in the past. Although Duke Erin's methods were cruel, he was just doing what the Prime Minister should do. Duke Ned, this has nothing to do with justice, and perhaps... it has nothing to do with personal motives either."

After taking a few steps, he continued, "When I first met Duke Erin, I was actually quite surprised. In my imagination, he should have been a cunning and evil falcon. However, what I met was a sickly but upright old knight. This old man... he was struggling to support that crumbling Iron Throne all by himself."

A hint of sadness flickered in Eddard's eyes. Jon Arryn was gone, but his foster father had left him the most precious honor of the Arryn family.

The road to honor was exceptionally difficult. Although he had doubts and wavered, each time he recalled his adoptive father's teachings, he was able to become more determined.

He will continue to protect this honor, generation after generation.

Ed looked at the tall and upright Green, and a glimmer of light appeared in his gray eyes: "Jon will rest in peace."

Upon hearing Ed's sincere voice, Green raised an eyebrow and then gave him a smile.

He paused, then suddenly smiled, as if recalling something amusing: "To tell the truth..."

Green's smile widened: "Two years ago, I was forced into trying to get into the Red Keep."

He shrugged slightly: "Clayber really has no ability to 'repay' the debt imposed on him by the Red Keep (Chapter 3)... Throughout the entire Seven Kingdoms, it is rumored that the Lannisters have the most gold, and in the entire Red Keep, Clayber's only choice is that... Queen Lannister."

Eddard's expression became complicated once more. Cersei Lannister...

Green put his hands behind his back, turned his gaze to Duke Eddard, and continued, "It was precisely because Duke Arryn distrusted the Crab Claw Peninsula that I gained Cersei's trust more easily."

Duke Eddard's expression turned bitter. Jon... to be precise, who could have imagined that a young lord from Crab Claw Peninsula could bury the entire Vale Knights?
After helping Robert overthrow the Targaryens, Jon Snow repeatedly urged him to stay at the Red Keep and assist Robert in ruling the Seven Kingdoms.

Jon told him that the war was not over yet.

But he firmly refused.

He raised an army to avenge his father and brother, not for the power of the Seven Kingdoms.

Moreover, what he found most unacceptable was that Robert would reward Tywin for the massacre of women and children, and Jon Snow even used this achievement to facilitate the marriage between Baratheon and the Lannisters…

He found that they had suddenly become very unfamiliar...

Therefore, he resolutely returned to Winterfell.

"The Lannisters are generous, well, I should say Cersei is extremely generous..."

(End of this chapter)