Game of Thrones: Joffrey the Chosen

On King's Road, a river of steel rushes northward.

Dozens of flags embroidered with crowned stags fluttered in the air.

But the most eye-catching item in the procession was still Her Majesty the Queen's double-tiered palace.

It was pulled by a full forty-two horses, arranged in six rows and seven columns, divided into two teams, driven by four drivers, with a charioteer in the center adjusting the front and back.

Getting this thing to move steadily is no easy task.

The king kept cursing, and Joffrey, riding beside him, felt as if his ears were about to be deafened.

"Seven levels of hell!"

"At this rate, we won't reach Winterfell even next year!"

Like a wild boar roaring, every sound Robert made was laced with the heavy smell of alcohol.

But that's not entirely true; he himself caused quite a few problems.

Before setting off, the king sent out a large number of crows to the royal domain and the storm lands, calling on his idle vassals to come and make his northward journey more impressive.

So each knight was followed by two sworn knights or free riders, along with five or six squires.

Robert, on the other hand, accepted all comers; as long as they shouted "Long live the King," he would recruit them all.

Cersei, on the other hand, disliked everyone. If anyone did not meet her expectations or behaved improperly, she would immediately put on a cold face and send Lannister guards to kick him to the back of the line.

With additions and subtractions, the line grew to over two hundred people.

This only includes those who live nearby, and those who came early from the Stormlands in the south to pledge their loyalty.

Half of the people in the north were waiting along King's Road, ready to join the procession once it had passed.

Like a stone rolling down a hillside, it gets covered in all sorts of weeds along the way.

The group consisted of a diverse mix of people.

There was a young knight eager to show his face before the king, wearing armor that was polished to a gleaming shine but had never seen actual combat.

There were also shrewd and calculating young lords who, with gifts and their daughters of marriageable age, would dart their eyes over the noblemen's sons.

There are also plenty of smooth-talking characters who come purely to freeload and complain about territorial disputes, their faces always plastered with an overly ingratiating smile.

Joffrey secretly memorized these faces.

Which will support Baratheon in the future, which will side with the Lannisters, and which will surrender after the Targaryens land on Dragonstone?

He tried to connect with the family he remembered, but those fragmented memories appeared and disappeared intermittently.

He was sorry, but he really couldn't remember those people's names.

It's so messy, long, and full of duplicate names—it's such a hassle.

On the seventh day after the group left King's Landing, the prestige of the Twin Wheel Palace was diminished for the first time.

Having just left the royal domain and traversed the flattest section of the King's Road, they entered Lady He'an's territory.

Then they came across an inconspicuous mud puddle that went unnoticed by hundreds of people.

With a "plop," one of the wheels on the wheel sank deep into the ground.

The coachman's whip left afterimages as it lashed out, the horseman was foaming at the mouth, and the wheels remained motionless.

"I knew it! Harrenhal is cursed!" Robert roared on horseback, his curses audible across half the column.

The queen, however, remained as steadfast as a mountain of bones, insisting on sitting in her swaying palace and refusing to get out of the carriage.

He believed that stepping into the mud was improper.

Seeing that they were getting deeper and deeper into trouble, Joffrey finally spurred his horse forward and found Tyrion squatting by the roadside muttering to himself.

"Perhaps we could build a road out of planks, just like we built ramps when transporting siege towers."

Tyrion looked up.

"So clever!"

He immediately jumped up, rolled up his sleeves, and began to direct the work, calling over a group of people to dismantle the planks and ropes.

It took dozens of people pushing and pulling to dig the wheel palace out of the mud pit.

After setting up camp for the night, Tyrion slipped into Joffrey's tent with a jug of wine.

"After all these years, finally someone in the family knows how to use their brain." He found a stool and sat down.

"But could you lend a hand next time? I almost lost my voice trying to get those knights to come and do the manual labor."

Joffrey simply poured him a drink, silencing him from the rest of the conversation.

The further north we went, the more gloomy the sky became.

Instead of the warm breezes of King's Landing, the air of the Riverlands is damp.

The fields along the roadside gradually became muddy.

The royal convoy had its own supplies, but the lesser nobles following behind were not so relaxed, and there were always quarrels over who would take the dry campsite.

Three days later, the group crossed the Trident River and everyone flocked into the Crossroads Inn.

The three-story white stone building was quite impressive, and the proprietress, flashing her bright red teeth, served up a sweet cake dipped in honey.

Her forced smile was quite unpleasant, after all, the shop could only accommodate a hundred people, and half of the rooms were already full.

However, the phrase "The King has arrived" is quite effective.

As soon as the words were spoken, the original guests voluntarily gave up their rooms.

But only a few people were able to stay there. Two knights from the Royal Territory and the Stormlands got into a fight over who was more qualified to stay at the same inn as the king.

The situation escalated amidst the shoving and pushing, eventually leading to a duel of honor where swords were drawn.

When the news reached Robert, his first reaction was to grin.

The area was marked out in the courtyard on the spot.

"Hurry up and fight! Let me see what you've got!"

The two of them were thus carried up there.

They shout and curse loudly, but when it comes to real fighting, they become timid and hesitant, afraid of hurting themselves or their opponents.

Robert lost all interest in watching, and after finishing his drink, he smashed his glass and told them both to get out of there.

As night deepened, Joffrey lay on his narrow bed in the inn, flipping through a book called "The Herbalist's Manual of Westeros" by candlelight.

If you're going to put on a show, you have to go all the way. He had already finished altering the family tree long ago and returned it along with the book he borrowed from Paisell.

I only kept this one to pass the time on the road.

His box also contained other books, but they were all romance novels adapted from ballads, such as Florian and Jungki, or Prince Imon the Dragon Knight and Queen Neresh.

I did a lot of intensive study beforehand so that I could deceive young girls in the future.

These days, the mere sight of such a thing makes me feel physically nauseous.

After the incident at the palace, the queen's mood visibly darkened.

She has rarely shown her face these past few days, and has been eating, sleeping, and living there.

Joffrey didn't dare to provoke him, as Cersei had recently suspected that he was getting a little out of control.

After all, on the day she retrieved the sword from King's Landing, she had asked why she was going to fight this thing.

Upon hearing that it was a gift for young Stark, he immediately flew into a rage.

But Joffrey had planned this all along, so he revealed the boy's affair.

"I met an apprentice at Master Tob's place. He had black hair and blue eyes and looked remarkably like my father."

The words landed lightly, and Cersei's attention was immediately diverted.

She glanced at him, said nothing, and left.

Joffrey no longer cared what would happen next.

After crossing the Green Fork River, the group continued to slowly incline northward.

To the west flows a great river, and to the east lies the treacherous Bright Moon Mountains, with King's Road sandwiched between them, stretching all the way to Neck Lake.

Lord Eddard Stark's captain of the guard was already there with twenty honor guards.

The swift action demonstrated Duke Eddard's high regard for this trip.

Robert had been traveling for several days before he remembered to inform them. He hastily wrote a letter along the way and borrowed a raven to deliver it when he passed a castle.

Upon reaching this point, the Queen's palace had become a complete burden.

The accompanying craftsmen spent another half day disassembling it and disassembling the parts onto several carriages.

Cersei quietly changed to a light carriage and drew the curtains tightly shut.

"How come we've only gone halfway?"

Joffrey wailed.