House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Chapter 124: Chapter 123 – The Festival of Flames and Ashes (I)

The Twins were two castles located on either side of the Green Fork River, at the Trident. It is the only crossing point over the Green Fork for hundreds of kilometers in both directions, from the north down to the western Riverlands. It sits directly across the main route from Winterfell to Riverrun.

Because of this, the Freys, besides being wealthy, had an army much larger than that of their Lord Paramount, House Tully. Though everyone had more soldiers than House Tully.

At this moment, Addam Frey, the Lord of the Twins and Head of House Frey, sat on the Crossing Throne. He was in his sixties. He had thin hair on both sides of his head and was bald in the middle. His skin was dry and sagging, with small eyes that gave him a rather sarcastic look.

Beside him sat a beautiful fifteen-year-old woman; sitting on her lap was their son, Forrest Frey, heir to House Frey, a boy a little over a year old. Unlike his father, who looked like an ugly, wrinkled weasel, the boy had delicate skin and pretty green eyes. He had clearly inherited only his mother’s looks.

Addam looked at his son with an affectionate look; the boy hadn’t inherited the ugly Frey looks, something Addam appreciated. Picking up the silver goblet, he drank some wine to wet his dry throat and looked at his youngest wife with an even more satisfied look.

He didn’t hesitate to reach out and grope one of her breasts, to the girl’s disgust. Addam naturally noticed the disgust in her look but didn’t care and was pleased by her resistance. He liked this cat-and-mouse game.

Though his young wife perhaps didn’t share his tastes, Addam didn’t care. Who cared what a wife thought? Was there such a foolish man in this world?

Suddenly, an ugly man, resembling a weasel, approached quickly and reached Addam’s side.

Addam narrowed his eyes and showed an unpleasant look on his face, but he suppressed his thoughts and asked in an impatient tone. “What happened, Franklyn?”

“My lord, the witch has fled…” Franklyn whispered in a worried tone. Remembering the skeletal, frightening figure that had fled. His expression showed fear and horror.

Addam’s face darkened; he let go of his wife’s breast and threw the goblet he’d been drinking from at his nephew’s head. “YOU FOOL, HOW COULD YOU LET AN OLD WOMAN ESCAPE!?”

Addam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The witch was the only thing that could incriminate him, but his stupid nephew had let her escape. Just thinking about it made Addam’s blood boil with fury; he was surrounded by incompetents.

However, the Lord of the Crossing soon calmed down. So what if the witch had escaped? The prince was competing for the Iron Throne. If the prince attacked over mere rumors, he could forget about controlling the Riverlands, since, without House Frey, the passage to the north could be cut off.

At this moment, Addam could be considered brave, but he had very good reasons to be brave, since he believed there was no living dragon capable of doing what had happened to Harrenhal. However, Addam forgot something very important, or rather, he was arrogant enough to assume it.

The Twins wasn’t Harrenhal. No castle was like Harrenhal. Addam thinking the Twins were as powerful as Harrenhal was something only he believed.

While tightly squeezing one of his wife’s soft breasts, Addam heard a sound resembling a bird flapping its wings.

Before he could reason out what was happening, he began hearing screams throughout the castle.

Addam showed a confused expression, not understanding what was happening. Suddenly, the doors of the hall burst open and a soldier shouted.

“MY LORD, PRINCE MAEKAR IS BURNING THE TWINS!” The soldier shouted in a tone full of fear and horror. He had personally seen all the soldiers on the battlements being burned by the dragon’s flames.

Lord Frey finally reacted. The first thing he thought was that Maekar was mad. The second thing was how to get out of this dangerous situation.

Unlike those, Scorpions weren’t a priority in the castles of Westeros. After all, when your lord has a dragon, it isn’t looked upon kindly to have weapons capable of killing dragons. So, aside from Dorne, Oldtown, Highgarden, and Casterly, there weren’t many Scorpions in Westeros.

Which meant that most castles, which were the peak of human engineering and warfare, had become an easy target for dragon riders.

Showing a determined, cold look, Addam said to the soldier. “Raise the white flag and invite the prince to enter the Twins.”

The soldier, who was terrified, seemed to hear the voice of the gods. He immediately turned around and ran out of the hall.

Addam looked at his nephew, Franklyn, and spoke in a tone full of malice and fury. “Have the soldiers position themselves with crossbows; we’ll kill the prince here. We’ll blame the witch.”

Franklyn’s knees weakened hearing those words. Kill a Targaryen prince!? He couldn’t believe he was hearing such things.

“House Targaryen may look strong, but it isn’t. Prince Viserys is a weak fool; the king is old, and the queen is old. This is the moment House Targaryen is at its weakest since the Conquest. As for blame, like I said before, we’ll pin it on the witch either way.” Seeing his nephew was terrified at the idea of killing the incestuous brat, Addam spoke in a cold tone.

Addam’s words gave Franklyn the idea that House Targaryen was weak and House Frey was very powerful. Honestly, the Freys weren’t known for being very intelligent. Even Addam was prideful and ignored many things.

–

Maekar, who had just finished burning a dozen soldiers on the castle’s battlements, made Bahamut land on the castle on the left side of the Green Fork. The dragon walked across the castle like a lizard crawling on a wall.

Pieces of the castle broke away and fell into the river or onto the bridge.

Suddenly, Maekar saw a white flag rising to the top of the castle on the other bank of the Green Fork. A cold smile appeared on the prince’s lips.

Peace?

Even though he didn’t know for certain whether House Frey had truly ordered the assassination of his son, Maekar didn’t care. As he had said before, he would rather kill a thousand than let one escape.

Besides, he didn’t believe House Frey would dare such a thing without backing. In the future, Walder Frey had carried out the Red Wedding at Tywin Lannister’s order. Addam Frey certainly wouldn’t have had the nerve to kill his son without having someone to trust in.

Maekar could even guess who it was; after all, the news that he had accepted the Red Faith had already spread among the Noble Houses, especially reaching the Faith of the Seven.

Yes, Maekar suspected the main conspirators were the Faith of the Seven.

Thinking of this possibility, Maekar showed an icy, murderous look. In this sense, Maekar was like his great grandfather, Aegon I, and Maegor I. All three didn’t hesitate to use their dragons to burn those who dared to harm their family or stood in their way.

Once he destroyed House Frey, Maekar would join with Gael and Alysanne to burn all of Oldtown. To reduce that fanatical city to nothing more than ashes.

As for the consequences of this act, Maekar didn’t care. Since deciding to be king, he had already been prepared to change the future. As for losing the advantage of knowing the future, it truly didn’t matter. The world was no longer the same; besides, relying on the future was something illusory.

This was the real world, with real people, not the pages of a book. People change, choices change; it was perfectly normal for there to be deviations from the original history.

Seeing the white flag, Maekar narrowed his eyes and smiled, a smile full of malice. If Addam Frey thought he could escape by surrendering, he was sorely mistaken.

As for entering the castle, Maekar was no fool. Trust that House Frey wouldn’t harm its guests and would respect the Sacred Right of the Guest?

The word “honor” couldn’t be uttered alongside House Frey, since there was no house more treacherous, more traitorous, and more unworthy of that word than House Frey.

——–

Note: Surprisingly, I thought there would be a lot of backlash over the death of the protagonist’s son, and even a lot of negative reviews. However, it was very well received. I’m happy about that; I wanted to give the impression of a true Game of Thrones, where anyone can die.

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