Chapter 149: All Are False Kings

The Royces of Runestone have always been the most powerful vassals under the Arryn family, the Lords Paramount of the Vale. At the end of the reign of Jaehaerys I, the then-head of House Arryn, Jeyne, was too young, so Lord Yobert Royce served as regent of the Vale; the relationship between the two sides is evident from this.

The current head of House Royce, Bronze Yohn, is most famous for being a loyal subject to the Arryns, in addition to his passion for participating in various tourneys.

Even though Eddard Stark was extremely close to him, Bronze Yohn did not lead his own soldiers to join the Young Wolf's forces without the permission of Lady Lysa.

"How close is the kinship between Black Walder and the main branch of the Royces?"

In the dim candlelight, Arthur asked.

House Royce is also considered a great house, with relatively famous branches including Runestone and Moon Door. As the former lord of The Crossing, the status of Walder Frey's first wife could not have been too low; at worst, she came from one of these two branches.

Lothar Frey stroked his mustache, thought for a long time, and then said: "Black Walder's grandfather, my eldest brother Stevron, was a cousin to Bronze Yohn. But Lord Yohn has always looked down on my eldest brother, so they didn't interact often; he probably doesn't even remember having this relative."

Arthur thought about it; that should be the case.

Lord Yohn Royce holds himself in high regard; Duke Tywin once proposed marriage to the family on behalf of his son Tyrion, but was rejected by Bronze Yohn.

One must know that Tyrion Lannister was a legitimate heir to Casterly Rock at the time, the next Lord Paramount of the Westerlands; even with such status, he was still looked down upon by the Lord of Runestone.

"Then do you think it's possible for Lord Royce to send troops for this junior relative of his to retake The Twins?" Arthur was still unsure about the kinship of the Freys, so he asked.

To say his family is looked down upon—they can claim kinship with one-third of the nobles in the Seven Kingdoms, and some of the married-off Frey women hold high status, with three or four being wives of counts or heirs, and those married in include top-tier nobles like Genna Lannister.

But they are indeed at the very bottom of the noble hierarchy; families with even a few hundred years of history don't really associate with them.

"That's impossible. If Black Walder can get a hot meal at Runestone, that's already Lord Yohn's great mercy. Besides, my nephew Alyn Frey's wife, Rhea Royce, is also a relative of Yohn's; he couldn't possibly be good to one and not the other!" Lothar's tone was quite certain.

Alyn Frey is the only son of Hosteen, as tall as his father, but slightly inferior in martial prowess.

One point of the secret agreement between Arthur and House Frey is that after the Freys achieve great military merit, the Riverlands King must grant them appropriate lands and castles.

This is very tempting for someone like Hosteen, who cannot get a single bit of land from The Twins; he has been very attentive in several battles, wanting to earn enough military merit for himself and his son to exchange for a legacy that will last for generations.

"That may be so, but Black Walder and the Vale must be guarded against. Send Ser Hosteen with a two-hundred-man battalion to the southern Mountains of the Moon, focusing on the movements near the Bloody Gate. Once the Vale sends troops, have someone send word immediately."

It is no secret that the Riverlands lacks food, so if the Vale mobilizes a large army, they will inevitably bring their own supplies.

And it is difficult for outsiders to attack through the Bloody Gate, just as it is difficult for the Vale to attack out. Not to mention how a narrow mountain path can guarantee the food supply for ten thousand people, the indigenous people of the Mountains of the Moon alone would be enough to give the Vale knights a hard time.

Since Duke Jon Arryn took office as Hand of the King, the entire Vale has not organized any campaigns to clear out the Mountain Clans, which has caused the population of those natives wearing fur robes to rise rapidly, and they now have the strength to threaten the passages in and out of the Vale.

After Tyrion Lannister walked out of the Bloody Gate, he once subdued three Mountain Clans: the Burned Men, the Black Ears, and the Stone Crows. These three clans joined the Riverlands Coalition at Lord Harrenhal's town, but suffered heavy losses. Outside King's Landing, after the Gold Cloaks burned the coalition's camp, these Mountain Clans took the opportunity to scatter and flee, their whereabouts unknown.

But these three clans are only a small part of the Mountain Clans; five or six other clans, such as the Painted Dogs, Moon Brothers, Milk Snakes, and Crow's Eye, are still active on the southern side of the Mountains of the Moon.

"As for Raventree Hall, after the battle of King's Landing ends, Lothar will immediately take people to take over; don't let it end up like Stone Hedge," the Riverlands King ordered.

Arthur had sent his uncle Yule with a five-hundred-man battalion to take over Stone Hedge and its lands, but because Yule lacked the ability, he couldn't manage the entire earldom at all, and couldn't even fully control the castle, failing to provide any assistance.

So even though the Riverlands King ordered troops to assemble at Stoney Sept, he did not dare to let these five hundred men head south.

"I understand, I understand," Lothar nodded and said.

After discussing the situation with Dickon and Lothar again, and having Hosteen lead men north overnight, Arthur dismissed all the vassals, preparing to discuss the Dornish troop deployment in depth with Arianne.

"I can choose not to pursue the matter of Prince Oberyn detaining Lord Jayson, but you must send one of the Sand Snakes back to Sunspear. Firstly, to have the Prince release the Lord of Seagard, and secondly, to urge him to send troops to attack the Reach. Tell the Prince that my promise regarding Nightsong remains valid."

The Dornish Princess, lying on the table, turned her head and smiled sweetly at her lover:

"My father is the one who holds the power. He wants my brother Quentyn Martell to marry the Stormborn Daenerys Targaryen. By now, Quentyn should have already set off for Slaver's Bay. I suspect that before Daenerys lands in Westeros, he won't send anyone to attack the Reach or the Stormlands."

Arthur slowed his movements, "That may be so, but how will you know without trying? Now that Aegon VI has already taken Crow's Nest, Griffin's Roost, Rain House, and other places in the southern Stormlands, and Storm's End is also in jeopardy, plus the Lion-Flower Alliance and Stannis are still fighting over King's Landing, and Tommen is gone, the situation for the entire House Targaryen is excellent. Even if Prince Doran is cautious, he should show some sign, at least send part of his troops to the vicinity of the Prince's Pass to disturb the morale of the Reach nobles."

The Dornish Princess huffed and said: "Fine, after this is over, I will go find my cousin Obara. She is infatuated with the mercenary Bronn and wants to marry him, but finds it hard to speak to Uncle Oberyn. I will write two letters to facilitate it for my uncle; one to bring them together, and two to handle the matter you mentioned."

When at Lord Harrenhal's town, Bronn was captured by the Fish-Wolf Coalition and was kept tied up until they reached the gates of King's Landing. But after the camp was burned, Tyrion Lannister untied Bronn's ropes, and the two took the opportunity to escape.

Tyrion Lannister, who had a knife wound on his nose, was captured and brought back, but this lucky mercenary slipped away. Since Tyrion returned to King's Landing to exchange for Eddard's remains, Bronn appeared by his side again, until he was sent to protect Tommen, who was secretly fleeing at Duskendale.

After the Dornishmen killed Cersei's last son, Bronn, knowing it was impossible to gain the forgiveness of the Lannisters, surrendered, and then quickly hit it off with the Sand Snake Obara, who liked mature men; they became inseparable and thick as thieves.

In just over ten days, the two had actually reached the point of discussing marriage.

Although Dorne does not value the family background or lineage of a marriage partner, the Red Viper is quite fond of his illegitimate daughters; it is still a bit difficult for a mercenary like Bronn, who has very low status and is old, to marry Obara.

Arthur patted the Dornish Princess's bottom to show he understood, "I remember one of your cousins is very skilled with poison; which one is it? Remember to keep her; we'll go together when I take men to the barrowlands in The North."

"It's Tyene, she's closest to me," Arianne tidied her hair, "Why do you want to keep her?"

"You'll know when we get to The North."

After that, the Riverlands King said no more and focused on his work.

Three days later.

The results of the battle of King's Landing had already reached the Riverlands Army.

The result was about what Arthur had expected.

After Stannis defended for a round, he lost several gates, including the Gods Gate, Iron Gate, and Old Gate. Realizing he could not hold, the second stag, whose military ability was considered outstanding, directly sent the remaining troops to the south bank of the Blackwater River using longships commanded by Davos Seaworth.

"It is said that he re-elected a High Septon, which led several great lords of the Stormlands to swear a Sacred Oath to follow him to the death. After King's Landing fell, Stannis prepared to take his men back to the Stormlands; Tarth, Haystack Hall, Bronzegate, Harvest Hall, Greenstone, and other places are still in the hands of the Stormlanders."

Dickon introduced this to the Riverlands nobles.

Duke Mace Tyrell, Mathis Rowan, and other Reachmen, as well as Dornishmen like Arianne and Tyene, also participated in this meeting. Of course, the "Inflatable Fish" lord was forced to attend.

The remaining Reach captives, such as Valerius, did not have such treatment; they were tied up and locked in another small tent.

"How many soldiers does Stannis have left? What are the losses of the Lion-Flower Alliance? After Tommen died, was there any disagreement between the two houses?" Arthur asked the question he cared about most.

Dickon said: "Including infantry and soldiers on the longships, Stannis should have withdrawn about ten thousand. Because Kevan ordered the Reachmen's servants and laborers to rush to the city walls first to fight, consuming Stannis's defensive supplies, the coalition's soldiers suffered much fewer losses, with only six or seven thousand killed. I heard Tommen has returned to Queen Regent Cersei's side, so their alliance looks very stable. But Lord Tyrell is on our side, so the Reachmen refuse to march north to attack... us."

Dickon is from Horn Hill in the Reach, so his relationship with Duke Mace Tyrell is awkward.

Moreover, when Arthur recruited him before, he didn't say he would let him lead troops into battle; he still wanted to go to the Wall to see his brother Samwell, but because the Riverlands King kept putting it off and Dickon wasn't thick-skinned enough, it was delayed until now.

Hearing that "Tommen" had appeared again, the Dornishmen, including Arianne, Nymeria, and Tyene, said one after another:

"Impossible, that Tommen must be a fake."

"The real Tommen is already dead; his body has been on display in the ruins of Duskendale for how many days now."

"A detachment of the Brotherhood Without Banners is occupying that place, and they can also prove the death of that Lannister bastard."

Most of the Riverlanders chose to believe in Tommen's death, but Duke Mace Tyrell was different.

"I knew you were lying to me. How could a perfectly fine king just die like that? You must have spread rumors to destabilize my army's morale so you could seize the chance to defeat us."

Upon learning that Tommen had returned to the Queen Mother's side, the Lord of the Pufferfish, dressed in magnificent brocade robes, instantly perked up.

As long as the Lion-Flower Alliance could be maintained, his previous choices would not be considered wrong.

Moreover, the Reach army still possessed its strength, and no one dared to do anything to him.

"Creating a fake Tommen is exactly the kind of thing Tyrion Lannister would do. Of the five kings, besides me, the other four are all fakes. It's like an old lady crawling into a quilt—it really made me laugh."

Euron, the Great King of the Iron Islands, was a self-proclaimed false king because Asha Greyjoy and Theon Greyjoy were absent during the Kingsmoot, making the process invalid; the fake Tommen was a direct replacement, a false king; Aegon VI was likely the Bastard of the Pentos Jiu Jiu Jiu Jiu Zongdu Illyrio, a standard false king.

As for Stannis, after he sacrificed his Shadow to the Lord of Light, he lost his fertility and his shadow, and could no longer be considered human.

A human king must first be a human, so Er Lu also counts as a false king.

"Tommen is not a false king," Mace Tyrell muttered softly.

He was still trying very hard to defend his future son-in-law, but he only dared to say this one sentence.

No one else in the tent paid any attention to the words of this most noble captive.

"Your Majesty, what are our next movements?" asked Innes, the Lord of the Crossing.

The battle three days ago brought the number of soldiers in this army to around 15,000, with about 5,000 laborers and servants, and over 4,000 captives.

Such military strength was not enough to engage the Lion-Flower Alliance, but it was sufficient to protect themselves if they retreated to the vicinity of Harrenhal.

The laborers, servants, and captives were excellent labor, most suitable for renovating the castle.

"With Mace and Jaime there, the Lion-Flower Alliance cannot fight a major battle against us in the short term," Arthur said, staring at the military map showing the distribution of forces.

When it comes down to it, the northern part of the Stormlands is much closer to King's Landing than Sow's Horn is.

Er Lu still retained some strength and had the support of more than half of the Stormlands, so King's Landing was not yet very safe; the Lion-Flower Alliance had to leave enough troops to defend the capital.

The Reachmen were also wary of collateral damage and dared not march their main army north to attack the Riverlands, so it could only be the remnants of the main Lannister army marching north, while the Reach soldiers remained to guard King's Landing.

As for the Westerlands, after extreme mobilization, they should not be able to squeeze out a single field soldier.

The only force that could threaten the Riverlands in the short term was the Vale, which had been resting and building up its strength.

"Then we march north. A portion of the soldiers will cross the wide Trident to prepare for the defense against the Vale, and the rest will all go to Harrenhal. Firstly, to renovate and reinforce the castle, and secondly, to observe the situation. Mace, you will come with us to Harrenhal to see my dragon; I think you will reconsider the alliance relationship."

The Pufferfish looked aggrieved, "You can send people to communicate with my sons Garlan, Loras, and the others first; they would certainly be willing to pay tens of thousands of Gold Dragons to ransom me."

The Riverlands King waved his hand, "We can talk after we get to Harrenhal; it is settled. Everyone go out and mobilize your own men; we are marching and retreating overnight."

The situation seemed stable for a period of time, and Arthur prepared to take this opportunity to go to The North to break the curse.

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(End of chapter)