Game of Thrones: Roar of the Dragon

Chapter 116: Heart Tree Destroyed, Blonde Girls

In the Red Keep of King's Landing, Jacaerys is holding his first royal meeting.

In this large, bright room, all decorations belonging to the Church of the Seven have been removed.

Once the situation in the Seven Kingdoms stabilizes, Jacaerys will gradually replace the faith of the Seven Gods with a new faith.

And this new faith, that is him and Womacks!
The many gods in this world are competing to spread their faith, and perhaps there is some shocking secret hidden in it.

The new candidates for the Imperial Council had just been announced in the throne room.

At this moment, most of the people sitting at the stone table in the imperial meeting had excited smiles on their faces.

Jacaerys sat in the innermost king's chair, with Captain Daario of the Kingsguard standing behind him.

To Jacaerys' right was Stone, who was trying to keep a serious expression with the Hand of the King brooch on his chest.

Below Stone was Coleman, the chief of intelligence whose seat was newly created by Jakaris.

Coleman is actually quite similar to Varys, the "Octopus Spider" in later generations. Both are foreigners and eunuchs.

As if he felt that he had finally regained trust, Coleman's face was full of pride.

But when his eyes met Jakaris's, his expression would immediately change, and he would put on the look of a fawning and flattering vassal.

No matter what Coleman hides deep in his heart, without military power he can only be a dog who relies on the power of a real dragon to intimidate others.

Sitting in the first seat to Jacaerys's left was the new Lord Justice, Lord Forrest Frey.

Just as expected, as the Black Party supporting family with a firm stand and the greatest sacrifice in the Blood Dragon Dance.

Jakaris was to hold it up as an example of how being true to yourself would be richly rewarded.

Moreover, the Tully family, which has only sent a messenger so far, should indeed be severely punished.

The second position is the new Lord Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lucerys Velaryon.

Lusris, who knows nothing about financial management, is now pretending to be calm, but he has a plan in mind.

If he has any questions, he can directly consult his brother.

Apart from the dragon, military and financial power are the most important, so Jacaerys naturally has to keep them in the hands of his own people.

It just so happens that Xiaolu's personality is not suitable for fighting and killing, but he is smart and flexible, so he can be of great use with a little training.

The third position was held by Grand Maester Mukun, who took over the position of Grand Maester during the reign of Aemond.

With the Citadel destroyed along with Oldtown, maesters are more sought after in the Seven Kingdoms than ever before.

Everything else is easy to deal with. The raven studies and medicine they have are what every noble needs.

Jacaerys planned to use all the knowledge of Grand Maester Mukun when he had time.

Then he compiled his past life experiences into a book, and then began to establish his own royal school.

In particular, the raven, who can manipulate public opinion in the seven countries, must serve him.

Finally, directly opposite Jacaerys sat the new Lord Admiral, Lord Samwell Blackwood.

This true-hearted Earl is now fidgeting and looking confused.

He had thought before that he would receive a reward from Jakaris, but he had not expected it to be of this level.

After all, Crowtree Castle is just a medium-sized castle, and it can only mobilize an army of about 600 people in this war.

The best reward he could envision was to destroy his Green-loyal neighbors and mortal enemies, the Brackens, and then gain a portion of their fiefdom.

And the most important thing is that in his life, he had never taken any other boat except the ferry boat on the Blue Fork River.

He can't even swim, and now he's the Minister of the Navy?
As mentioned earlier, the Conqueror Fleet and the Velaryon Fleet are military forces that Jacaerys must personally control.

Earl Samwell was just a figurehead, and he now ostensibly had a distinguished seat in the royal council.

Secretly, Jacaerys would also grant him the lands of House Bracken.

I believe that Earl Samwell would be very happy to play this puppet role.

As this was the first imperial meeting, there were many backlogged government affairs that needed to be discussed.

But Stone had already worked overtime to deal with most of the small matters in advance and reported them to Jakaris for review and approval.

So what we are discussing today are some important matters.

The first thing was the reconstruction of the area from Rhaenys Hill to Dragon Gate in King's Landing.

King's Landing now has a population of nearly 400,000. There is certainly no shortage of labor, but there is a lack of funds for reconstruction.

Since the Dance with the Dragons ended very quickly, most of the funds in the King's Landing treasury were still left.

Add to that the money the Conqueror's fleet had looted from Myr and the Baratheon wealth of Storm's End, and Jacaerys now had a million gold dragons.

So he did not be stingy about this matter, or exploit the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms and make them pay for the Targaryen civil war.

He directly promised that the reconstruction costs would be paid from the national treasury.

Upon hearing this, all the ministers present began to praise Jacaerys' generosity.
Lord Forester and Samwell even planned to publicize His Majesty's generosity and kindness after the meeting.

The second thing is that the armies of the Black Party and the Green Party consumed a large amount of food supplies during the war, and food was in short supply in the Royal Territory, the Riverlands, the Stormlands and other places.

The essence of this matter is actually the same as the first matter, and it can be solved by the Golden Dragon.

But Jacaerys did not intend to deal with it in the same way as before. He knew very well the principle of repaying a favor with a favor.

In this world, it is natural for vassals to fight for their lords, and they should pay for the food and supplies consumed in the process out of their own pockets.

If the territory lacked food, he would have to buy it with his own money. At most, Jacaerys would send raven letters to tell the wealthy lords of the River Reach and the Valley not to raise the price too high.

The third thing is that after the destruction of Oldtown, the southwest route to Westeros was cut off.

Should we support Qingting Island off the coast of Whispering Bay as a new port town, or choose other small port towns near Whispering Bay for expansion?

The first two matters were basically decided by Jacaerys alone, so he did not speak this time, but let these new ministers participate in the discussion.

But most ministers believed that supporting Qingting Island, which already had a good reputation, would save time and effort.

Even Xiaolu, who had been silent, spoke up in agreement on this matter.

Only Stone voiced his dissent, fearing that the Redwynes of the Arbor would become another Hightower.

Jakaris was very pleased to hear this, he was worthy of being the right-hand man he had trained since childhood.

As Stone said, the Redwyne family has accumulated a huge fortune through the wine industry of the Honorable Seven Kingdoms and its lesser-known shipbuilding industry.

If the Southwest Route is handed over to them, it would be equivalent to cultivating the first family of the seven countries with one's own hands.

They might be able to behave themselves while Jacaerys was in power, but it's hard to say what will happen a hundred years later.

At his eye signal, Stone exercised his power as the Hand of the King for the first time and made a strong decision to expand the small port town called Laurel Town.

Seeing that Jacaerys had no objection, the other ministers naturally would not offend the new Prime Minister for something that was not in their own interests.

The first imperial meeting ended successfully, and Jacaerys finally left Stone alone.

"Has the reward been issued?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. After you left last night, I took the golden dragon to find the white maggot in the flea pit as you instructed.

The ravens with the high bounty are probably flying to all the cities with weirwood trees right now."

Stone responded immediately upon hearing this.

Jakaris stood up, reached out and patted Stone on the shoulder to encourage him, “Well done!
But you must make sure to rest, I will have many things for you to do in the future.

By the way, bring your relatives from Dragonstone to the Red Keep for a reunion!"

As he said the last sentence, he raised his hand and pointed at Stone and Sir Daario beside him.

Family may be the only weakness of these fourteen personal guards, and this weakness can only be mastered by Jakaris.

"Yes, Your Majesty! Thank you for your mercy!"

……

In Winterfell, in a tavern called The Boar's Tooth in the Winter Market.

The Boar's Tooth Tavern is the largest and most lively tavern in the Winter Market. In addition to providing drinks and food, it also provides accommodation and various entertainment services.

Intelligence and news from all over the world are gathered here, and all kinds of shady and private business are also completed here.

Twelve or thirteen burly men with thick faces, who looked like bad guys, were crowded in a corner of the tavern and whispered to each other.

They all had doubtful looks on their faces, obviously not believing what they were talking about.

To be the leader of this group of ferocious men, he must have some extraordinary qualities.

In the end, he suppressed his objections and made the decision.

Anyway, this bounty mission is not very dangerous. If it is really a scam, he will go south to King's Landing in person to find the white maggot who is famous in the dark world.

After accepting the task, the group of people immediately split up and took action.

Some people bought the necessary materials and items at the winter market, while others went to Winterfell to scout and observe the target.

After purchasing the necessities, they prepared the mission items in a temporary rented room in the city while waiting for night to fall.

In the early hours of the morning, the entire Winterfell fell into deathly silence.

This group of strong men carried huge pottery jars and sneaked into the night.

On the inner city wall of Winterfell, the Stark soldiers on duty observed the night scene diligently.

However, the target of this group of strong men was not the main castle in the inner city, but the godswood located in the northwest area of ​​Winterfell.

The godswood of Winterfell has been growing for 12141 years, and in the vast area of ​​three acres (about square meters), there are all kinds of towering trees.

In the very center of the godswood stood a weirwood older than Winterfell. It was rooted beside a small pool of black water, and a weeping human face was carved into its trunk.

This is the heart tree of Winterfell.

Rustling!

The group of strong men arrived at the ancient heart tree very smoothly.

As criminals who live on the edge of a knife and regard money as truth, they don't care about the old gods or the new gods.

Gulu, Gulu!
Without any hesitation, they took turns pouring the highly concentrated salt water in the pottery jars directly onto the root area of ​​the heart tree with the weeping human face.

This thing won't take effect overnight, so there's nothing abnormal about the ancient heart tree.

After doing all this, the group of strong men quietly left the Shenmu Forest and returned to their rented room to refill the high-concentration salt water.

They spent most of the night watering all the weirwood trees in the godswood, except for the ancient heart tree.

At dawn the next day, they returned to the winter market as if nothing had happened.

All you have to do next is wait for the results and claim the generous reward.

In fact, it's not just Winterfell. There are also godswoods in White Harbor, the Dreadfort, Deepwood Motte and other large and small cities in the North.

There are always dark shadows taking advantage of the dark and windy night to water the heart trees and fish beam trees of various sizes with highly concentrated salt water.

The sacred forests in each city were not important areas, so there were no soldiers guarding them, and naturally no one noticed the small movements of these dark shadows.

A few days later, Lord Creggan, who was concerned about the desperate situation at the Wall, returned to Winterfell exhausted.

As soon as he returned to the main castle in the inner city, the old scholar who had heard the news shouted anxiously from a distance: "My Lord Duke, it's not good, it's not good!"

When Duke Creggan heard the shout, his heart skipped a beat.

He immediately asked, "Is it the barbarians who attacked the gap in the collapsed Great Wall, or something even more terrifying?"

"Savage? No, no, no, your Excellency.

Winterfell, no, the heart trees of the entire North, the weirwoods, withered and died in just a few days!"

Hearing Duke Creggan's words, the old scholar was stunned at first, and then immediately told him the bad news he was going to report.

As a maester, although he did not have any beliefs, he understood the significance of the heart tree to the Stark family and most of the northern nobles.

The Great Wall collapsed, and all the weirwoods suddenly withered and died. These signs seemed to indicate that something big was about to happen.

what?
Upon hearing this, the young Lord Creggan immediately turned around and ran quickly towards the godswood of Winterfell. Seeing this, his personal guards immediately followed him.

As soon as he stepped into the godswood, Duke Creggan saw bare fish beam trees, with large amounts of blood-red leaves falling around them.

Walking quickly to the center of the godswood, the heart tree, which was older than the Stark family, was also bare, obviously withered and dead.

Duke Creggan approached and stroked the trunk of the heart tree, muttering to himself, “The Wall collapsed, and the heart tree died!

Could it be that the 'death' outside the Great Wall that the Stark ancestors had passed down is really going to invade the North?"

Hooray, hooray!
There was a sound of flapping wings, and Duke Creggan looked over quickly.

He saw a black raven perched on a branch of the dead heart tree, its black eyes staring at him.

……

Red Keep, Throne Room.

More than half a month after Jacaerys was crowned, Jason Lannister, the Warden of the West and Duke of Casterly Rock, finally expressed his sincerity to him.

Carriages carrying cattle, sheep and food supplies stretched like a long dragon, from the Lion Gate in King's Landing to the gate of the Red Castle.

In the throne room, two delicate-looking, blonde sisters with skin as white as milk were paying homage to Jacaerys who was sitting on the Iron Throne.

The older one was named Tishara Lannister.

The younger one is named Celela Lannister.

This pair of blonde sisters are the daughters of Duke Jason, and they can be considered as part of his apology!

Thanks to the gods for subscribing! At the same time, thank you to all the big guys for voting for the monthly tickets.

PS: I originally wanted to ask everyone which blonde girl you like, but I think your answer will definitely be that only children make choices, adults want them all!

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(End of this chapter)