Chapter 165: The Little Rose Takes the Initiative

The contribution of Cersei Lannister's death to the world is greater than everything she did while she was alive.

Considering she only lived to be thirty-four, Queen Regent Cersei's contribution to the world during her life was minimal, amounting to nothing more than raising an enterprising Qiao Fo Li Da Di.

For the Lannister soldiers stationed in the Red Keep and King's Landing, the Queen Regent's death has even saved their lives.

In the room of this thirty-four-year-old Queen Regent, Arthur found the fake Tommen, a little boy of five or six.

After the Riverlands King feigned a stern interrogation, the child admitted that his name was not Tommen.

"My name is Levi Lann!" he said timidly.

Based on the child's surname, he must be a distant relative of the Lannisters in Lannisport; although he has a surname, he possesses neither land nor a castle, making him little different from a commoner without a surname.

Arthur handed his Jiu Jiu Jiu Jiu Dadao to the soldier behind him and picked up the child, "I will take you to see some people, and then I will have someone send you home, alright?"

Although he could not see the child's face clearly in the darkness, judging by his small, trembling body, the child was still very afraid.

"O... okay."

After Levi agreed, Arthur held him and walked out, followed by his warriors.

The Riverlands King's target was the Tower of the Hand, which had already been captured by over a hundred Redwyne soldiers.

It was deep in the night, and only the Lannister soldiers on duty in the Red Keep were wearing armor, while the rest were resting as usual; therefore, the battle led by Sir Velo's soldiers was exceptionally smooth.

Currently, Maegor's Holdfast, the Tower of the Hand, and the White Sword Tower were firmly controlled by Redwyne soldiers, while the Throne Room, Huayuan, stables, and Traitor's Walk further west were being fought over by both sides.

Although the Lannister soldiers were numerous, the news that Queen Regent Cersei was dead had already spread, and once Randyll's army broke through the Lion Gate, it was expected that these Westerlanders would have no heart to continue fighting.

After climbing the hundred-plus steps in front of the Tower of the Hand, Arthur carried Levi toward the "Small Hall."

Although named the "Small Hall," this large room was truly not small; with the long table and chairs set out, it could easily accommodate two hundred people. During Eddard's time as Hand, the Stark family would eat here, Mody and Sansa would do needlework here, and once the dining table was cleared, it was where Arya practiced Water Dancing.

At this moment, over a hundred candles were burning on the tower-shaped candelabra, dispelling the darkness that shrouded the world.

Hobber was reporting the movements of the Reach Army to his grandmother and great-aunt, the Queen of Thorns; the Knight of Flowers, dressed in a wide brocade robe, stood behind his grandmother, and a dozen Redwyne soldiers were scattered throughout the Small Hall, constructing a tight defensive line with the soldiers on the steps outside the tower.

Margaery, the Little Rose, dressed in a dark blue gown, sat beside the Queen of Thorns, also listening to her cousin speak of military and political affairs.

Although she was not very interested in these things, as a participant in the game of thrones, she ought to know some major events.

"... Prompted by the Dragonrider, we fought our way in through the secret passage of the Red Keep, and then... Cersei has been executed, and Lord Randyll Tarly is leading a large army in through the East Gate; our situation is excellent."

Hobber briefly clarified the previous situation.

Because the liege lords of the Reach, House Tyrell, had not sworn allegiance to the Riverlands King, Hobber still used the title of Dragonrider when facing his grandmother.

"A secret passage..." the Queen of Thorns mused for a moment, then exchanged a look with her granddaughter Margaery.

Aside from the Master of Whisperers Varys, only members of House Targaryen could know about the Red Keep's secret passages.

This made the rumor that the Dragonrider was Rhaegar's Bastard more credible.

At this moment, a burst of footsteps approached.

The guarding soldiers immediately became alert, but upon seeing that they were allies, they returned to their original positions.

Arthur said loudly: "This is that fake Tommen; his real name is Levi Lann."

As he spoke, he walked toward the nobles and handed the child to Hobber.

The latter took him, examined him several times, and said to his grandmother: "The facial features are indeed very similar, but the height is quite different; no wonder Cersei felt guilty and acted right there in the Throne Room."

Lady Olenna also took the child and began to question him in detail.

Of course, she did not forget to give her granddaughter a quiet wink.

The clever and beautiful Margaery naturally understood her grandmother's meaning, so her face immediately turned sorrowful and aggrieved; she then stood up, threw herself directly onto Arthur, and wrapped her fair arms around Arthur's neck.

Although wearing a gorget and neck armor looked uncomfortable, the Little Rose did not hesitate at all and pressed herself against him.

"Without you, Grandmother and I might have been killed by the Lannisters."

The sweet, coquettish whisper made Arthur's heart tremble.

Could he resist a beauty's coquetry? He could not; he lacked that strength!

Arthur used his iron-gloved hand to gently pat the Little Rose's beautiful back, "Rest assured, I am here."

There were many people in the Small Hall; Margaery complained coquettishly for a while about her brothers' weakness and the incompetence of the family soldiers before letting go of Arthur.

The Queen of Thorns had already figured out all the details, "Tommen is indeed dead; by all accounts, House Baratheon no longer has any claim to the Iron Throne. Our House Tyrell was a loyal subject to the Targaryen royal family in the past, and we shall be in the future."

In the current situation, the Reach and House Lannister no longer had any ties, and they could not possibly support Robert's true heir, Stannis; however, because they were not very familiar with the Riverlands King, Lady Olenna spoke very cautiously.

Hobber Redwyne understood his great-aunt's meaning, "Red or black, a dragon is a dragon. Your Majesty Arthur, we Reachmen will always be loyal to you."

They did not know how to calculate the kinship between the Riverlands King and the Targaryens, so they spoke very vaguely.

If one were to go by the rumors, the Riverlands King was considered Rhaegar's Bastard, and without a Targaryen king to legitimize him, he had no claim to House Targaryen; furthermore, this rumor had never been confirmed by Arthur himself.

"Excellent; with your joining, my kingdom can be renamed the Kingdom of the Sanhe and the Reach," Arthur said.

Previously, in order to build momentum, the two earls Tristan Rivers and Clement Piper had ordered people to spread rumors in the prosperous towns and populous villages of the Riverlands, but this was a muddled account that even Arthur could not explain clearly; he couldn't exactly go around claiming Rhaegar as his wild father, could he? So he remained vague.

His plan was to discuss it in detail after the Stormborn Daenerys Targaryen arrived, or perhaps he could learn from the Martell family of Dorne and take a compound surname after marrying the Dragon Queen.

The full name of that family is Nymeros Martell, where Nymeros means the blood of Nymeria, while Martell was the surname of the lords of Sandship before the Rhoynar arrived.

The Queen of Thorns blinked, not knowing what this handsome king meant.

Did he not want a claim to the Iron Throne?

However, doubt was doubt, and Lady Olenna still promptly put forward her family's request.

"Your Majesty, I hear you are not yet married; I feel my granddaughter Margaery is a qualified Queen, so..."

She, along with her grandson and granddaughter, were under house arrest here and did not yet know that Arthur had already married Sansa Stark.

"Ahem, ahem, well, Your Majesty Arthur has already married Lady Sansa," Hobber said with an awkward expression, whispering a reminder to his grandmother.

Upon hearing this, the Riverlands King was instantly anxious; how could the Margaery he had in his grasp fly away?

Such a great beauty, the delicate Little Rose, how could she not marry him just because of a word from Hobber?

"It is no matter, it is no matter; I believe in the ancient Valyrian gods, and they do not care how many wives I take. For the stability of the kingdom, I shall toil a bit and act as an old farmer, tilling an extra plot of land."

Arthur waved his hands repeatedly, signaling that these were all minor issues.

The members of House Tyrell looked at one another, and even the Queen of Thorns did not know how to handle this.

The atmosphere became somewhat delicate.

Arthur decided to go outside and hack away for a while, letting the people of House Tyrell decide for themselves.

He gave a wink to Hobber, with whom his relationship was passable, and then said in a loud voice, "Since there are still plenty of Lannister soldiers outside, I won't waste any more time. You lot, follow me. We're going to hack the Lion soldiers to pieces!"

After taking the Jiu Jiu Jiu Jiu Dadao from the hands of a soldier behind him, the Riverlands King nodded at the members of House Tyrell, lowered his visor, and turned to stride away.

The twenty-odd soldiers he had pointed out followed him out, and this fresh force quickly walked down the steps, heading toward the main battlefield near the Huayuan to slaughter.

……

In the small hall, having been awakened to the reality, Hobber understood that the Riverlands King still wanted to marry his cousin.

He therefore changed his tune, "Gods like Balerion truly do not care how many wives a believer takes. Now that the Seven Kingdoms are in chaos, even if our Margaery is lower in the order of marriage to him, it wouldn't be much of a grievance for our cousin."

Margaery was the face of House Tyrell; what Hobber meant was that House Tyrell would not lose face either.

The decadent Loras cared even less about such marriage contracts; his association with Renly was already a very serious act of blasphemy.

"Grandmother, I also don't think this is a big deal. We are all Queens, can one really distinguish between high and low? Besides, Lady Sansa is the eldest daughter of Duke Stark; there is almost no daughter of a great noble more noble than her. It is truly no grievance for my sister to marry Arthur."

In the entire Westeros, only two families have a history of ten thousand years: the Hightower of Oldtown and the Dayne of Starfall; both of these families are currently only Counts.

Nobles with eight thousand years of history include: Lannister, Stark, and the Greenhand-lineage families of the Reach.

Compared to the eight-thousand-year-old top-tier noble Stark, House Tyrell, which has only been the master of Highgarden for three hundred years, indeed lacks prestige.

The Queen of Thorns glared at her grandson Loras, "Your brain is entirely used on your skill for swallowing swords. That is not what I am struggling with. Why does the Dragonrider say his kingdom is the Kingdom of the Sanhe and the Reach, rather than the Seven Kingdoms?"

A Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and a Queen of two regions are two different things.

The Knight of Flowers, having been snapped at by his grandmother, gave a sheepish smile and stopped talking.

Hobber continued to smooth things over for Arthur, "Oh, Grandmother, the Princess of Dorne, Arianne Martell, is already in his army, and Lady Sansa has already entered into a marriage alliance with him. The two regions in the Seven Kingdoms that are hardest to fight have already been taken, and the Westerlands have been beaten to a pulp; taking them is only a matter of time. Stannis of the Stormlands and Aegon VI are locked in a chaotic battle; we only need to wait for them to finish fighting before we enter the fray. Only the Vale is temporarily out of reach, but Petyr Baelish is also a smart man. Once we have settled the Westerlands and the Stormlands, what other choice will he have?"

Although Aegon VI claims to be the eldest son of Rhaegar, many people are clear that The Mountain did indeed stomp all of Rhaegar's heirs to death; therefore, there are not many nobles in the entire Seven Kingdoms who support Aegon VI.

Currently, the only known great noble publicly supporting Aegon VI is Jon Connington, but he is the deputy commander of the Golden Company, and the Mad King has already stripped the Connington family of their lands and ancestral castle, so his influence is far less than before.

Upon hearing this, the Queen of Thorns' expression changed slightly, "There is also a Princess of Dorne? How many does he intend to marry? Is his body up to the task?"

Because of the frequent intermarriages between House Martell and House Targaryen, Dorne is a die-hard supporter of House Targaryen. To gain the support of the Princes, the Dragonrider will likely have to marry Arianne as well.

After they had talked for a long time, the principal party, Margaery, said in a low voice, "I don't care how many he marries, as long as I am a Queen. Once I bear him his first son, everything will be in our hands."

From birth until now, this noble lady has been instilled with the idea that family interests are greater than her own, and her own ambition is not small either.

The Queen of Thorns looked at her granddaughter with satisfaction, "You are much better than Garlan and Loras. It is settled then. Since Lady Stark has already married him, you must conceive his child as soon as possible, lest the birth time fall behind."

The customary inheritance law of the northern six kingdoms is that the eldest son takes everything.

In a situation where the King has two Queens, whoever gives birth to the eldest son first wins this war without gunpowder.

Even the Queen's family will benefit from this for a long time.

Little Rose nodded and took her grandmother's words to heart; she prepared to find Arthur within the next day or two to open her heart to him.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Hobber felt that he had done right by Arthur, so he casually said, "Anyway, since we will occupy King's Landing and the Red Keep in the future, we might as well arrange for servants, manservants, and the like to enter early to make plans for the future."

Previously, all the servants and guards of the Red Keep were carved up by Cersei, Varys, Littlefinger, and others; even the late King Robert did not have many trusted servants and could only have Lancel Lannister serve as an Attendant.

The Queen of Thorns nodded, "Once the situation stabilizes, Hobber, you handle this matter and pick people from King's Landing to bring in. Loras, don't be idle either; take some time to find people to map out the secret passage system of the Red Keep, then write it down and draw it on cloth."

In the foreseeable future, House Tyrell and the Reachmen will be among the most important players in King's Landing, and the Queen of Thorns is already thinking about how to manage the Red Keep.

"By the way, after driving the Lannister soldiers out of King's Landing, you should send a few Counts to welcome Mace Tyrell over, and by the way, bring Lady Sansa over as well. She is a Queen, after all; how can she live in a place like Harrenhal that is practically a ruin?"

Lady Olenna arranged.

She already had several methods to ensure Sansa could not bear children.

The people of House Tyrell were planning for the future, but Arthur had to face the present.

The Lion soldiers in the Red Keep were genuine Lannister main forces, with strong fighting spirit and extremely high morale.

Although the news that the Queen Regent was dead had spread, these Lion soldiers fought even more bravely, and they had already pushed back from the Huayuan into the Throne Room.

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)