Game of Thrones: The Road to Pirate King

Chapter 267 Robert Baratheon

House Frey's decision to keep the gates of the Twins closed, refusing to let the Northern army cross, infuriated Eddard Stark and Euron Greyjoy. The allied forces then launched a fierce attack on the strategically important castle. At the height of the battle, Euron summoned the colossal beast lurking in the Green Fork River—the "King Crab with Claws."

This colossal creature destroyed the stone bridge connecting the two cities and part of the city walls with overwhelming force, allowing the allied forces to storm into the city.

After capturing the castle, the allied forces uncovered a truth far more horrifying than the war itself during their search. They found the hidden chamber where old Walder Frey had concealed an evil altar of black bloodstone.

Evidence suggests that the Frey family engaged in a cruel ritual of sacrificing pregnant women and their unborn children to exchange for a "life loan" from an evil god, thus ensuring the family's "prosperity."

This shocking scandal, along with the news of the fall of Lihe City, spread like wildfire throughout the Seven Kingdoms through word of mouth among merchants, ravens, and refugees.

For a time, everyone, whether noble or commoner, was shocked and outraged.

The Frey family was not only militarily destroyed, but also morally condemned. All families that had ever married into or had dealings with them were eager to distance themselves, and the aftershocks of this scandal reverberated throughout Westeros for a long time.

Others only heard about it, as if they had heard a legend or a story, but none of them were as angry as those who saw it with their own eyes.

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Those Northern warriors and Ironborn warriors who had killed countless people on the battlefield and were accustomed to bloodshed and death, when they clearly learned about the deeds of old Walder Frey and his family, especially the evil ritual in that dark room that desecrated the gods and sacrificed pregnant women and fetuses, a pure disgust and contempt that transcended the barriers between factions spread through the hearts of all the warriors.

The killings in war can perhaps be justified by honor, loyalty, or survival.

But this kind of dark behavior, hidden in the shadows, that sacrifices the most vulnerable and innocent lives for personal desires and the continuation of the family line, touches upon a more primitive and fundamental bottom line.

Its stench was far more repulsive than the bloody smell of a battlefield.

Whether they were Northerners who followed ancient traditions or Ironborn who revered plunder and conquest, they all reached a rare consensus: the destruction of House Frey was deserved.

Driven by overwhelming rage and extreme disgust, the allied forces of the North and the Iron Islands were not content with merely capturing Lee River.

The soldiers used every available tool—warhammers, axes, and even captured siege equipment—to carry out a thorough and retaliatory destruction of the twin castles that bore witness to six hundred years of Frey family history and sins.

The towering stone walls were pushed down section by section, heavy stone slabs rolling to the ground, raising clouds of dust. The twin towers, which once symbolized absolute control over the Green Fork River, collapsed under the continuous onslaught, plunging into the murky moat.

The soldiers, as if performing a sacred purification ritual, smashed every stone engraved with the Frey family crest to pieces, determined to wipe all traces of filth from the earth.

Only when the once magnificent castle was completely reduced to unrecognizable rubble and ruins did the pent-up resentment in the warriors' hearts, fueled by the evil ritual, seem to be slightly released and calmed down with the smoke and dust of the collapse.

This ruin will become the most silent yet powerful tombstone for the Frey family's heinous acts.

Robert Baratheon's warhorse shattered the morning mist, and the drawbridge of Storm's End slowly rose behind him.

Robert tightened the reins and glanced back at the family fortress perched on the cliff edge—its dark walls still soaked with the marks of last night's downpour, like a colossal beast bowing its head to drink from the sea. At that moment, the Stormlands army surged past him like a steel torrent, their spear tips piercing the dim light, the golden-crowned stags on their fluttering banners seeming to leap into the damp air.

Stannis Baratheon stood atop the city gate tower, his figure as lean as a tempered sword. In the brief instant their eyes met, Robert raised his warhammer and swung it, his grin tinged with the salty haze of the sea breeze. Stannis merely nodded slightly, his right hand remaining firmly on the hilt of his sword, as if determined to nail himself to this isolated stone island.

As the last archer disappeared at the end of the winding King's Road, he turned and walked into the shadows, the resounding crash of the city gates startling the circling seagulls.

Robert Baratheon's blood was already raging in his veins; the long wait at Storm's End had almost exhausted all his patience.

The somber walls of Storm's End had once imprisoned him like a cage, but now, leading the Stormlands army on the King's Road, every hoofbeat and every clang of armor sounded like a war drum beating in response to his pounding heart.

News spread like wildfire, faster than an army.

As Robert's army camped along the riverbank, every soldier whispered the blood-pumping news: Leh River had fallen. The Frey family, who straddled the Green Fork with their twin towers and charged exorbitant tolls with their drawbridge, the Marquess Walder, who swaggered like a hyena in every war, devoid of any honor, along with his countless offspring, had been crushed by Euron's Ironborn and Eddard's Northern army.

But even more appalling was the terrifying secret hidden deep within the cellars of Lihe City that was subsequently revealed. It is said that, in order to obtain a false prosperity for his family and the continuation of his lineage, old Wald had engaged in the despicable act of sacrificing innocent pregnant women to an unknown evil god.

On the cold stone altar, the wish for many children and grandchildren was watered at the cost of the lives of other mothers and children.

Now, this heinous crime has finally brought divine punishment upon itself.

The moment the allied forces breached the city gates, pent-up resentment erupted like a flood bursting its banks. No one paid any attention to Frey's surrender flag, nor to their belated pleas for mercy. Justice came too late, but that made it all the more thorough. The twin towers of Lee River groaned and tilted in a raging fire, finally crashing into the Green Fork River, which they had traversed for generations, stirring up towering waves of mud, as if even the river itself was striving to wash away the blood and filth from this land.

The treacherous die from betrayal, the bloodthirsty perish in pools of blood, and the ambitious who trade their lives for prosperity are ultimately uprooted along with their entire empire—this is the most just retribution.

"Ha ha! Good! Well done!" Robert's loud laughter startled the birds in the woods.

Robert slammed his hand heavily on the wooden plank covered with the map, making his wine glass rattle. He could almost picture the collapse of Lee River, a sight that filled him with exhilaration, as if he had drunk a whole barrel of strong liquor. However, this pleasure was like an aperitif; it didn't satisfy him but instead ignited his long-suppressed thirst for battle. After the applause came a deeper hunger—a hunger for the real battlefield of clashing swords and splashing blood.

Robert stroked the warhammer "Robert's Judgment" standing beside him, the cold metallic touch making his blood boil.

He longed for a war! A bloody, head-on battle!