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

Chapter 173: Chapter 172 – Long Live the King (VII)

Jaehaerys watched Maekar receive the oaths with a calm, deep gaze; no one knew what was going through his mind. Especially seeing everyone kneel for someone he didn’t want to be king.

“You should be happy, my lord husband. You can finally rest.” Hearing the familiar voice, Jaehaerys looked at his wife and said calmly, with a touch of arrogance characteristic of any king. “I can hold on for another twenty years.”

Alysanne laughed but didn’t contradict her husband. Whether it was her or Jaehaerys, they already felt the weight of time upon them. And, after living for so long, death didn’t seem so frightening; it even created some anticipation of reuniting with their sons and daughters.

“Let the young ones decide their own future while we go drink and relax, reading books or traveling.” Alysanne said, looking at Maekar and Gael with a gentle look full of tenderness.

Jaehaerys looked at Alysanne with a touch of surprise, then laughed in a teasing tone. “It seems your fire still burns fiercely in your chest, my lady wife.”

“I am a dragon.” Alysanne simply replied with a smile.

Looking at Alysanne, he let out a sigh and spoke with a touch of weariness. “Still, it doesn’t seem so bad to enjoy our last years like this, after almost six decades of sweat and blood spilled.”

“And many lives lost.” Alysanne added with a touch of loneliness in her voice.

Jaehaerys fell silent but agreed with his wife’s words. They truly lost many things to keep the throne stable and House Targaryen thriving over Westeros.

Leaving those thoughts behind, Jaehaerys looked at Alysanne and said calmly, “Let’s organize a tournament in Maekar’s honor; the people need to get to know the new heir and also need something to relax with after so much has happened.”

Now that Maekar had been chosen as his heir, Jaehaerys already planned to soften the image of how cruel Maekar could be. A tournament would not only serve to relieve the stress across the whole city because of the Great Council but also let the world know that the Heir to the Iron Throne had been chosen.

The people needed to know who their king would be.

“Wonderful, we do need something like that.” Alysanne said with a smile. “Feasts and tournaments have always brought people together; this time would be no different.”

Turning back to look at Maekar, who was raising his sword to the sky as the lords cried out his name, Alysanne spoke in a moved tone. “A new era.”

‘I just hope it’s a good era…’ Jaehaerys thought. He didn’t doubt Maekar’s ability, but rather how many obstacles he would have to face to get his revenge and how he would go about reshaping the kingdom.

–

What followed after the end of the Great Council was an enormous feast. The center of the feast was clearly Maekar; he was surrounded by lords and ladies. He showed no arrogance and spoke with everyone who came to greet him.

Though the ladies were a bit too bold for Maekar’s surprise. After all, he had Gael right beside him, and the women didn’t hesitate to flirt with him, even initiating some physical contact with him, like a light touch on his arms or even trying to hold his arm in an intimate embrace.

Those women weren’t single; they had husbands… The ladies who weren’t yet married were much more polite and only hinted at something subtly, without actually trying to touch him.

Of course, since Maekar couldn’t simply push those women away as a man and king, Gael made all those women back off with cold, icy stares. The woman’s eyes seemed to freeze even hell itself when they saw those women trying to approach her husband with wicked intentions.

“My dear lords, I have to speak with the king, and I’ll come back to drink with you.” Maekar said with a laugh as he tipped his wine glass and drank all the purplish liquid in one go. “Wait for me; I want to see who’s going to drink.”

“That would obviously be me.” Ellard spoke in an arrogant tone. As a northerner, he had confidence in his drinking ability. Not to mention wine was much weaker than northern ale. He could drink whole barrels without feeling a thing. At least, that’s what he thought.

“In your dreams, arrogant wolf.” Varon said in the same arrogant tone. As a pirate, could he possibly lose to a mere Lord Stark? Pirates practically lived on rum and ale on the high seas. Especially since water didn’t last very long.

“You’ll pass out in a coma by the time I’m done with you.” Ellard showed no weakness and drank his wine in just two gulps, showing his great capacity for drinking quickly.

Varon showed a smile and drank his in a single gulp, then belched and looked arrogantly at Ellard.

Seeing the two starting to fight again, Corlys and Boremund felt powerless, but they too showed no weakness. They also started drinking as if there were no tomorrow. Men liked to compare themselves to each other; how could they stay silent after Varon and Ellard started a drinking competition?

Faced with these veteran and experienced lords, young Theo had red cheeks from the alcohol and blurry eyes. As a noble of the Reach, of course he drank the finest wines, but that didn’t mean he had a tolerance for wine.

The poor boy got drunk after his tenth cup of wine, making all the powerful men around him start laughing heartily.

While everyone drank merrily, forgetting for a moment the personal feuds between them, in a corner of the feast, Daemon could be seen next to Viserys and Aemma.

“We have to flee King’s Landing.” Daemon spoke in a cold tone full of resentment.

He looked at Maekar talking with the king with a dark look, and a thirst for blood awakened in him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t fight Maekar in single combat. His only chance was to fight Maekar with dragons.

“Maekar said we could stay in the Red Keep; we’ll be one great family.” Viserys said with a smile, finding Daemon’s worries baseless and even paranoid. Honestly, without the burden of wanting to be king, he felt his life had gotten easier.

Although it had been painful to see all the men he was friendly with distance themselves because of his loss of status as heir, he was also left with many other friends who were truly his friends. So, he felt this was a victory for him.

Of course, deep down, he was also sad about not being king. Who wouldn’t feel sad about losing the throne of an entire continent?

“One great family?” Daemon scoffed at Viserys’s words. “Gael nearly killed me hours ago, and you say we’ll be one great family? You’re nothing more than a hostage that Maekar fears might be used by the Faith of the Seven to rebel against his future reign.”

Viserys’s face showed shock at the stunning news that Gael had almost killed Daemon. That news was so shocking that he forgot to even listen to the rest of his younger brother’s words. Aemma’s face showed the same disbelief.

It was hard to connect the sweet and gentle Gael with someone capable of killing Daemon.

“She nearly killed me and Caraxes; if it weren’t for the king and queen’s dragons, my body would probably be lying in the middle of the city right now, next to Caraxes.” Daemon said in a calm tone, but his hands were white from how hard he was clenching them.

“I suspect something strange is going on. Dreamfyre attacked Caraxes as if she didn’t care about her own wounds. That’s completely insane. Not to mention that, after landing, I noticed the dragon barely had any wounds; that’s impossible.” Daemon knew no creature would fight without caring about its own wounds; it was illogical even for animals, let alone for a dragon, which was intelligent.

“Could it be some kind of magic?” Aemma asked in a worried tone. “He accepted the Red Faith; he probably asked for some vile and evil magic.”

Daemon’s eyes narrowed at Aemma’s words. Remembering that during the battle he saw Gael touching Dreamfyre’s neck and closing her eyes. He showed a look of realization. Originally he thought it was Gael’s inexperience, but it seemed the woman was healing the dragon while it fought.

However, if that were true… Daemon’s face turned solemn.

If that were really true, a dragon rider without blood magic would be at a complete disadvantage against a dragon rider who possessed blood magic.

An even more terrible thought appeared in Daemon’s mind.

No matter how many dragons his children or Viserys’s children had, they would be defenseless against the dragons of the Main House of Targaryen.

———-

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