Chapter 71 - 70 - Seven Kingdoms (III)
Gael was different from Mara. Knowing about the dreamers, she could not help but feel happy and excited to learn it was a boy and a girl. This also meant Maekar would have an heir early in the marriage, which was the best thing she could want at this moment.
Looking at her future husband, she wanted to hug Maekar and kiss him, but unfortunately they were in public and could not do something so indecent.
Although he did not know what Gael was thinking, from her look, Maekar understood he would have a very pleasant night tonight.
"It looks like this is turning into a feast." Mara remarked, seeing that the nobles were more enthusiastic than ever, as if they were the ones who had helped Dorne bend the knee to House Targaryen.
"The king certainly knows how to liven things up, making these people feel like they helped a great deal." She could not help speaking with a touch of sarcasm in her voice. She had not forgotten that these people had called her a whore and many other things.
"When they regain their senses tomorrow, after a lot of wine, they will attack you like hungry wolves." Maekar said with a smile. "Be careful not to get bitten."
"I am a serpent, I will poison any fool who dares try to touch me." Mara said with a dangerous smile. "I already have so many blood feuds, what is one more among hundreds?"
Maekar laughed and fully agreed with Mara’s words. Just as she said, what was one more stain on your clothes if you were already completely filthy?
"Speaking of blood feuds, Daemon is looking at you." Mara remarked with a laugh. Although she had never seen Daemon before, she recognized his features, especially the missing right arm. There was no other Targaryen with those features.
"Let him look all he wants, maybe he will fall in love with me and switch sides." Maekar said, looking directly into Daemon’s eyes with a provocative look.
"It is easier for fire to rain from the sky than for that to happen." Gael said in a calm tone. "Not to mention I would feed him to Dreamfyre for coveting my man."
Maekar laughed and held Gael’s hand. He quite liked this possessive jealousy. He said with a smile and gently kissed her cheek. "You do not need to worry about that, I would never trade you, much less for a man."
Gael showed a satisfied expression and kissed Maekar’s cheek in return.
Mara, watching the scene before her, wanted to vomit, feeling a sweet pink aura in the air. At the same time, she refused to accept that she was feeling envious. She was not envious of having Gael, of having Maekar, of having his love, of having the security he brought...
No. She was definitely envious!
Mara acknowledged this with a huff, but she did not dare say such things out loud. She had not forgotten that, seconds ago, Gael had threatened to feed Daemon to her dragon over an unrealistic hypothesis. And, knowing this girl’s possessiveness, she feared being thrown in as an afternoon snack for her dragon.
"Stop doing that in front of me, do you not know how uncomfortable it is for a young, unmarried lady to witness such a scene?" Mara said in a bitter tone, feeling like a third wheel in the middle of a couple celebrating something.
The dragon princess only gave Mara a shy look and nodded her head. Maekar heard Mara’s words and laughed, but stopped being intimate with Gael in public.
"Gael, ask them to serve the drinks and the food. Today we celebrate, the Seven Kingdoms were born today!" Maekar said with a smile. Gael gave her betrothed one last kiss on the cheek and quickly stepped away. Discreetly, five women followed behind her, all forming a five pointed star, protecting Gael at the center.
"You do not seem so excited about the Seven Kingdoms finally being united." Mara remarked, looking at Maekar’s calm expression. Everyone was showing happy expressions, and even Jaehaerys seemed more relaxed talking with his wife.
Mara was not wrong. Maekar was not excited. Perhaps because he knew the future, he did not feel particularly excited about the complete unification of the realm, he just felt it was natural for such a thing to happen.
"It is something natural to happen, but sooner or later it would have happened. You and I just sped things up." Maekar said in a calm tone. "So, I am not so surprised that it could happen, unlike everyone else here."
In the future, House Martell had accepted House Targaryen’s terms, since it had no dragons after the death of Daeron I Targaryen, and bent the knee after the death of Baelor I Targaryen, so why refuse the terms set by Maekar?
Mara did not know whether Maekar was right in his claim that the Seven Kingdoms would unify naturally. Despite the growing envy of the Seven Kingdoms’ wealth, the idea of having a supreme sovereign was still a decision many did not want to make.
In the end, Maekar’s terms had been essential for the Dornish lords to accept bending the knee, even if they were now pretending otherwise so as not to be looked down upon by future generations.
"Celebrate, Maekar Targaryen, let us toast and dance, it is a happy day."
"Tomorrow will be a long day of war."
Seeing the girl hold out her hand to him, asking for a dance, Maekar laughed and took her hand. Fortunately, other lords were already dancing with the wives or companions they had brought to Harrenhal, all dancing to the improvised rhythm of clapping.
The arrival of Maekar and Mara drew attention, and even with the animosity against Mara, she was not met with hostile looks. Though the same could not be said the next day.
"Maekar, the conqueror!!!" Maekar heard countless lords calling him a conqueror. He was pleased by this. In the end, Dorne was still a kingdom, just like the other kingdoms that had bent the knee to Aegon, Visenya, and Rhaenys.
Maekar had conquered a kingdom through diplomacy. This would win him many votes in this Great Council, surpassing Rhaenys in any vote.
From a distance, Jaehaerys said to Alysanne in a displeased tone. "He is going to become more arrogant."
"If you had conquered a kingdom through diplomacy at fourteen, would you not become arrogant?" Alysanne answered Jaehaerys’s question with another question.
Jaehaerys was left speechless for the first time in years. If he had been in Maekar’s place, he might have been smiling even half a year later. Not to mention arrogance, he would probably compare himself to Aegon the Conqueror.
Seeing Maekar acting so calmly, Jaehaerys even doubted whether Maekar was truly a fourteen year old boy. He seemed happy, yes, but it seemed as though he had done something trivial rather than unify the Seven Kingdoms, as if it were an achievement one might win after a tournament.
"I wish I had had that calm at fourteen, perhaps I would have killed Rogar in a painful way." Jaehaerys remarked in a calm tone.
"If you had killed him, the Stormlands would have rebelled at the start of your reign." Alysanne rolled her eyes, hearing the name of Rogar, her mother’s second husband.
Rogar, with help from Alyssa Velaryon, wife of Aenys I Targaryen, had wanted an indefinite regency and to control Jaehaerys. Which naturally did not happen, Jaehaerys proved himself a genius, even while young, and expelled Rogar from the Court.
Although Alysanne knew that Jaehaerys had been so furious that he wanted to kill Rogar that year. Unfortunately, the more furious her brother/husband became, the more indifferent he also became. He used this to control his anger and fury over nearly six decades.
Vermithor was the true reflection of the face Jaehaerys hid so perfectly. A man who was no less a tyrant than Maegor, but, unlike Maegor, was not an animal controlled by his own feelings and instincts.
Perhaps this was why Jaehaerys had been the king this continent needed after the Civil War between Aegon and Maegor. The Faith Militant, the Noble Houses, and the Targaryens, all were at war, and the entire continent burned in the flames of war.
This was a war that surpassed many others before it. Setting aside the War of the Andals, the Rhoynar, the Long Night, and the war against the Children of the Forest, this was the greatest conflict Westeros had seen in thousands of years.
In the end, Jaehaerys had done very well and had given the realm time to accept House Targaryen in less than a hundred years of the Targaryen dynasty’s existence over Westeros.
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Note: I’ve been studying why Jaehaerys was considered the best king Westeros ever knew, and I’ve come to a very simple conclusion. Westeros had never known peace for thousands of years; any king who put an end to the constant wars would be considered an extremely good king. Not to mention Jaehaerys contributed a great deal to the economy of Westeros and created good laws.
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/GOTSW
Read my other books:
House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.
Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard
