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

Chapter 176: Chapter 175 – The King’s Landing Tournament (III)

The next day.

Maekar woke up feeling like his head was about to explode at any moment. Even the sound of the shutters fluttering in the wind seemed to turn into a terrible noise, causing even more pain.

“I have to drink less wine.” Maekar muttered in a pained tone as he closed his eyes again to calm himself. When the pain got just a little better, he opened his eyes and looked down, where he saw Gael clinging to him like an octopus.

That made his lips curve into a beautiful, amused smile. Perhaps from moving so much in their sleep, the blanket was now on the floor, and both of them were completely exposed. Fortunately, because of the warmth of each other’s bodies, neither he nor she felt cold.

Looking at the figure lying on his chest, Maekar reached out and stroked her soft hair. She was naked; the sunlight bathed her figure, creating a faint golden veil around her pale skin. Gael looked perfect, a true goddess.

“Gael, wake up.” Maekar whispered gently in Gael’s ear and gently shook her body. They had a lot to do, especially with the tournament Jaehaerys wanted to hold and, more importantly, killing the High Septon.

Honestly, if it weren’t for the risk of immediately causing a rebellion, Maekar wanted to use the High Septon’s life as the tournament’s grand prize. Just imagining the scene of tens of thousands of people watching, horrified, as the High Septon was killed was incredible.

Unfortunately, if he did that, he was certain it would cause rebellion across the whole continent. And, at this stage, with no preparation, he didn’t want to start a war. He’d wait a few months or even years before starting a war.

He wanted to crush the Faith of the Seven quickly without causing too much damage to the realm. It would be fast, efficient, and lethal. For that to happen, he had to stay calm and plan carefully and cautiously. A war before its time wasn’t ideal.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t kill the High Septon. As he had told Jaehaerys, that man wasn’t leaving King’s Landing alive. Of that, Maekar was already making sure it would happen. At the same time, he was eager to kill that fat pig like an animal.

With Maekar’s gentle movements, Gael woke up but didn’t open her eyes and rubbed her cheek against his warm, comfortable chest. She let out a comfortable nasal sound, then her white lashes fluttered before opening, revealing her beautiful eyes.

“Good morning, my love.” Maekar greeted his wife with a smile and kissed her lips in a gentle kiss.

“Good morning.” Gael replied in a lazy tone and didn’t break the kiss, continuing to kiss him gently.

“Although I’m reluctant to stop kissing these irresistible lips, I think the king and queen are waiting for us to break our fast.” Kissing Gael’s chin, Maekar said with a teasing smile.

Gael climbed on top of Maekar and sat with her lovely bottom on his waist. Her hair spread over the front of her body, partially covering her nakedness. She looked at Maekar with a smile and spoke seductively. “If you’re quick, I think we can have some fun before meeting my father and mother.”

Maekar became instantly aroused.

Feeling this beneath her, Gael’s lips curved into an amused smile.

“Seems like you’ve accepted my proposal, my king.”

“How could I refuse my queen’s affection?” Would Maekar be a man if he refused such a thing?

When Clarisse was about to wake the prince and princess, she stopped what she was about to do. Moans came through the door, leaving the woman speechless.

“Sound like two cats in heat…” Clarisse muttered and stood on standby at the door.

–

Thirty minutes later, Maekar, Gael, and Clarisse entered the King and Queen’s chambers.

“My apologies for the delay; it was a hard start to the day,” Maekar said with a smile as he sat down across from Jaehaerys and Alysanne. There was a smile on his lips, while Gael, beside him, looked at her husband with a touch of shame and shyness.

Jaehaerys, who was drinking a cup of juice to ease his hunger a little, felt the delicious taste of the juice stop being so delicious. How could he not understand the subtlety in the boy’s words? The idea that this boy had actually kept him waiting in order to sleep with his daughter made the vein on the king’s forehead twitch grotesquely.

When he woke up that morning, Jaehaerys promised himself that nothing that happened that day would make him angry. But he was wrong, very wrong. He had forgotten about Maekar…

“It’s good to be young.” Unlike Jaehaerys, Alysanne just laughed and didn’t think it was a big deal. If Maekar and Gael didn’t do that, she’d suspect something was wrong with their marriage.

Gael just grew more embarrassed and looked at Maekar with an accusing look. Which made the prince roll his eyes at Gael’s hypocrisy. Obviously it was she who wanted to have sex before breakfast, and she was putting the blame on him.

Taking a deep breath so as not to start arguing with the boy, Jaehaerys took a sip of the juice and set the cup back on the table. “I’ve already ordered the tournament to be announced. The city should already know you’re my heir.”

“Any unrest?” Maekar asked in a casual tone. After all, regardless of Jaehaerys having legitimized him, he was a bastard born out of wedlock. Some people are foolish and stubborn, unable to accept something, believing they are right.

“Yes.” Jaehaerys replied in a displeased tone. He had received news that about a dozen men were spreading slander and lies among the population early that morning. This caused a bit of chaos in the poorer parts of King’s Landing, but it was soon contained by the City Watch.

“Even with everything I’ve done, there are still fools; human stupidity still surprises me,” Maekar said with a sigh.

How many people did he have to kill for people to truly listen to him? Wasn’t he causing enough fear? It seemed he had to redouble his efforts to build an image of fear and justice in the eyes of the common people.

“It’s not that they’re fools; it’s that they have nothing to lose.” Jaehaerys, at sixty-six years old, had long understood human nature and knew that men who had nothing to lose simply didn’t care about power or anything of the sort.

“I presume their heads are on a spike right now.” Spreading grape jam on his bread, Maekar asked in a still quite casual tone.

Jaehaerys paused and looked at Maekar with displeasure. “They were only arrested and won’t be getting out for a long time.”

“Waste of food,” Maekar remarked, biting into the bread with a big bite. Honestly, he didn’t believe in life imprisonment at all. For monsters capable of being sentenced to life in prison, it was better to kill those animals than waste food on them.

At that moment, it became clear just how different Jaehaerys and Maekar were. One was gentler and didn’t like killing so casually. The other was the opposite, believing that only the fear of death and imprisonment was necessary to create an environment where safety was the priority.

Only when you have safety, food, and a job can you start to think about other things. Do you think a poor family would care about animal rights when they can’t even eat properly?

“There are more than a dozen people like that. Will it be a hundred or a thousand? Will you kill them all?” Jaehaerys stopped eating and asked in a solemn tone.

“I know what you mean; you’re afraid that if I kill too many, it will create chaos in the city.” Without looking at the king, Maekar said, looking at Gael with a gentle smile.

“You’re not wrong to think that way,” Maekar turned to Jaehaerys and said calmly. However, thinking about it from another angle, the prince smiled and looked at the king in an amused tone. “Though using prisoners as forced laborers is quite an interesting idea.”

Jaehaerys’s eyelashes fluttered slightly at Maekar’s response. The boy knew the consequences of his actions, and that was exactly why he spoke about killing so casually.

“Although I partly agree with you, you have to understand that people have short-term memory. They’ll soon get on with their lives or starve to death from not working.” Maekar added in a calm tone.

Humans were like that; they quickly forgot things. Maekar had seen this countless times in his past life. The government would use a show or event to divert people’s attention, and people really did forget.

Even if other, more intelligent people said it was just a smokescreen, people didn’t care, because it was too much effort to think about something so complicated.

Therefore, Maekar wasn’t worried about killing in order to build an image of fear and justice in the eyes of the people.

The people will forget once he lowers taxes a little, and those who called him a tyrant will call him a wise king.

The purest hypocrisy in the world.

Gael and Alysanne ate calmly, not concerning themselves with the ideological discussion between the king and the heir. Alysanne was too lazy to join the conversation, and Gael simply trusted Maekar.

———-

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