Chapter 28 - 27 - The Slayer (1)
Alyssane entered her daughter’s room and, as soon as she stepped in, dismissed the Royal Guard accompanying her with a simple glance. However, the Royal Guard looked at the queen and merely stepped back instead of leaving. The queen didn’t bother to look at the Royal Guard and closed the door in his face.
Turning around, she saw her daughter lying on a sofa, being served by two maids; one was putting food into her mouth, while the other massaged her feet. This, honestly, was surprising, Alysanne. Her daughter, despite being a princess, never really wanted help from maids for anything.
So, it was quite a surprising sight for Alysanne. However, she soon noticed a difference in her daughter. It was an aura that only a confident woman would possess. Something her daughter had never truly been.
Alysanne sat in the chair beside the sofa, and, with a wave of her hand, a maid approached and served her grapes and apples.
Taking a grape and putting it in her mouth, Alysanne looked at her daughter’s relaxed and peaceful expression. She soon figured out what was happening and showed a knowing smile. "I see you had fun last night, Gael."
Knowing that her mother had already deduced what had happened, a blush appeared on Gael’s pale cheeks. She looked at her mother and, with an animated gaze, spoke with a touch of resentment: "You didn’t say it would hurt so much; I thought I was going to die."
"It’s different for every woman; your sister Alyssa barely felt any pain." Alysanne said with a casual tone. "She was so excited that poor Baelon showed up at breakfast with shaky legs and a scared expression."
A trace of nostalgia shone in Alysanne’s eyes; she truly missed those days when all her sons and daughters were alive. In the end, besides Baelon, Voegon, and Saera, all the others had already gone to the gods’ embrace.
Gael smiled, remembering the brave, beautiful, and incredibly confident Alyssa.
"She would be proud if she knew what I did." The princess said, her eyes narrowed in a happy arc.
"She would have mocked you and said you fell too quickly for Maekar’s sweet words." Alysanne said with a teasing tone.
Gael’s cheeks flushed deeply, but she didn’t deny the truth in her mother’s words. Just as Alysanne said, she fell too quickly for Maekar’s charms. She replied with a shy tone. "He is so charming, charismatic, sweet, and confident."
Alysanne merely rolled her eyes and smiled. As someone who was once a young woman in love, she knew better than anyone that Gael could spend days praising Maekar without even mentioning a single flaw of his.
"How are things at court?" Gael asked, remembering the banquet from the previous night.
"Perhaps even the rats already know that Maekar killed Tymond Lannister with the ease of cutting a cake. They are calling him Maekar the Slayer." Alysanne said with a calm tone, but there was a touch of pride in her voice. In her eyes, a man should be like this: famous, strong, and prestigious. Only such a man could protect everything that was important.
(Note: The title is inspired by Frieren, the Slayer.)
"As for the Court, well, I’m giving your father, that old dragon, a hard time." Alysanne added with a touch of sarcasm. She was still causing chaos at Court; Jaehaerys’s increased workload was due to exactly that.
The king, who used to work about an hour, now spent almost half a day just in the Great Hall. However, the king did not humble himself to ask Alyssanne to stop and continued to work as if he were thirty years younger.
"And Loreon?" Gael asked, her tone slightly colder and less delicate, completely different from the sweet Gael from before. Maekar wanted her to be his Visenya, and she decided to change into a better version of herself, not just for Maekar, but for herself.
She had to be strong for what was to come. Although it was still a gradual change that would take years, she had already taken the first step.
Alysanne looked at her daughter in astonishment and seemed to see a bit of Alyssa in Gael; this filled her with happy and relieved feelings. She had always worried about Gael, and now, seeing that she was becoming increasingly confident and wise, it only brought joy to the Old Queen.
"He still hasn’t left King’s Landing; it seems he ignored Jaehaerys’s last goodwill and is determined to fight Maekar." Eating another grape, Alysanne said, narrowing her eyes with a dangerous glint.
Alysanne felt no pity for Tymond’s death; Loreon chose to enter the game, and he had to be prepared to die. In this game of House Targaryen, everyone was a pawn to be discarded at any moment.
If Loreon had to blame someone, he should blame himself for his greed.
"Mother, can we kill him?" Gael asked with a calm tone. Perhaps, if it were before, Gael would never have said that, but Loreon represented a real danger to Maekar; she felt that the idea of this man dying didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Alysanne wondered what Maekar had told Gael to cause such a surprising change in her mindset. However, she viewed this change favorably. It was good that her daughter was determined to kill on certain occasions.
A great man needs a great woman behind him. An indecisive woman is not suitable to be a great woman.
"We can’t do anything to him until he does something." Alysanne taught her daughter without any reservation. "If we do that, the noble houses will become cautious and will probably band together into a rather problematic group. Although they are nothing before dragonfire, they can do much more damage than a war."
"Economy." Gael was not stupid; she was a princess who had private lessons from a young age with Alysanne.
"Exactly." Alysanne was pleased by Gael’s quick thinking. "They cannot cause much damage with wars, but they found that they can cause even greater damage using gold as a weapon. And so they did to pressure Jaehaerys over the years."
"However, the more they did that, the more Jaehaerys increased taxes on them, which consequently increased taxes in their own fiefs to pay the taxes, leading to revolts from the commoners." Alysanne said with a smile.
"It might seem like mutual destruction, but, for the king, this was a good thing, as the people came to adore the king more than ever."
Gael felt that politics was truly complicated; war was not just physical war, but also economic, but she resolved to learn this and become a woman like her mother.
"What do you think he will do to hurt Maekar?" Gael asked with a worried tone. Although she knew it was impossible for Loreon to physically harm Maekar, she still worried about her beloved’s safety.
"Maekar is a prince; Loreon will not dare to conspire against him under everyone’s eyes. He will use his money and influence to cause chaos in Maekar’s life." Alysanne replied with a cunning smile. "But in the end, Loreon himself cannot do anything truly drastic, or Maekar will have a valid reason to burn him without the repression of the nobles."
Given the current House Targaryen, even if Maekar had killed his son, Loreon was, in the end, defenseless against dragons.
"However, you cannot underestimate a grieving man or a man who does not fear death; you never know what he might truly do." Alysanne warned Gael with a solemn tone. She had seen men who did not fear death, even in the face of dragons. For some, the fear of death was far less important than other things.
Gael nodded and also showed a solemn expression.
The maids around them had their heads bowed, wishing they were deaf at that moment. They had heard many secrets, and despite being trained as trusted maids by Alysanne herself, knowing too many secrets was never a good thing.
"Now tell me the details of last night." Showing a smile, Alysanne asked with a teasing look.
Gael’s cheeks flushed and she looked at her mother shyly, but she hid nothing and spoke about the experience of the previous night.
Mother and daughter talked endlessly amidst joyful laughter.
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Read my other books:
House of The Dragon: The Pale Prince
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.
Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard