Chapter 200: The Duchess of the North

King's Landing, King's Gate.

Twilight arrived quietly, and a dozen soldiers of the First Men from the Crab's Claw Peninsula, clad in various iron armor, stood guard at the still-intact gate with torches in hand.

This was the gate at the southwest corner; because travelers on the Roseroad usually entered the city through the River Gate (Mud Gate) further east after crossing the Blackwater River, the King's Gate was rarely used, and even less so at this hour.

Knight Yuri Urmis, wrapped in a black cloak, opened the lid of his leather pouch, took a deep gulp, and spurred his horse toward the gate.

He was a knight from Little Dock, sworn to his liege lord, Count Mathos Rowan.

Little Dock was a location in the Reach near Standfast. During the reign of Aerys I, Little Dock had been raided and devastated by the ironborn of King Dagon Greyjoy. It had once belonged to House Osgrey, but was later stripped and regranted to others.

The sentries, seeing the approaching Yuri, were very vigilant and ordered him to stop.

"State your name and the noble you serve, then open your cloak and let me see your family crest," the captain of the guard shouted.

Although the King had ordered the King's Landing Law Enforcement Team not to collect entry fees from commoners, intercepting suspicious individuals remained their duty.

Someone like Yuri, tall and sturdy, riding a tall warhorse and wearing armor, was clearly a suspicious person who should be intercepted.

"Parmen Crane. Do you know Ser Fortimo Crane? He is the Master-at-arms of Highgarden, and also my cousin."

Yuri casually assumed the identity of a Reach knight, then opened his large cloak to reveal the worn plate armor underneath.

The person he was impersonating was imprisoned in Highgarden for surrendering to Stannis, and even among the Reachmen, few knew this; aside from a very select few, truly no one could identify his lie.

The captain of the guard snorted coldly, "I thought you were some big shot; just a cousin of a master-at-arms from a remote castle. State your purpose for entering the city, or you can freeze at the gate tonight!"

These soldiers of the First Men had always taken pride in being loyal subjects of the House Targaryen and held a subtle contempt for the Reachmen. Furthermore, with Queen Margaery's entourage and House Tyrell recently performing good deeds in the city to win hearts, while the soldiers of the First Men were relegated to standing guard and patrolling the gates and streets, their resentment toward the Reachmen had only grown.

Yuri had originally thought that reporting a moderate connection would be enough to get in, but he hadn't expected the soldiers to refuse. He operated his not-so-bright brain at the fastest speed since birth and fabricated another lie:

"Do you know the House Crane of Red Lake? Lady Melara Crane, wife of the former Lord of Brightwater Keep, Alester Florent, comes from our family. Although House Florent has been stripped of its noble status, the Lady remains a member of House Crane and still belongs to the nobility. She is currently staying in Oldtown with House Hightower, but some people, in order to curry favor with the new master of Brightwater Keep, Lord Garlan, have subjected my relative to unfair treatment. I have come to King's Landing to appeal this matter..."

As Yuri spouted nonsense, he secretly rejoiced that House Crane was a northern neighbor of Little Dock; he knew a great deal about the family, otherwise, he truly couldn't have fabricated these words.

The captain of the guard was from the Crab's Claw Peninsula and couldn't even distinguish the noble relations of the few families in the Crownlands, let alone the frighteningly numerous families of the Reach.

"You talk so much, yet you don't even have a recognizable crest on you, and you're entering through the King's Gate, which no one ever uses. I don't think you're a good person."

Perhaps it was because Yuri remained on his horse, forcing the captain to look up while speaking, or perhaps it was Yuri's identity that made the captain suspicious; in any case, he decided to give this Reachman a taste of trouble.

The captain waved his hand, and his soldiers immediately dragged the still-mounted Ser Yuri Urmis down and began to punch and kick him.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop your foolish behavior; I will report this to the Duke of Tyrell."

Yuri was initially defiant, still protesting with the name of the Duke of the Reach, but after he realized the soldiers were targeting him specifically for his identity as a Reachman, he wisely shut his mouth.

After the captain of the guard stretched his neck, he finally felt relieved and ordered the man to be locked in a room at the gate.

"Wait until the night shift change to send him to the dungeon."

Poor Yuri suffered a beating for nothing at the gate, while in the Throne Room, Daenerys Targaryen was also taking a beating.

To be precise, Arthur and the Dragon Mother were engaged in a passionate struggle, and the two were negotiating during a lull in the fighting.

"I will never give up the Iron Throne," Daenerys said first, stating her bottom line. "My brother told me that only those with true dragon blood can sit on the Iron Throne."

She was riding on top of Arthur, looking down with an arrogant gaze.

The Dragon Mother's obsession with the Iron Throne made Arthur feel helpless. "I have a proposal: after we marry, we can share some titles, such as King of the Andals, the First Men, and the Rhoynar."

Daenerys retorted: "And then what? Who rules specifically? Are the subjects supposed to obey the orders of two kings and accept the rule of two monarchs?"

Arthur feigned generosity: "You're overthinking it. A mere Westeros is not my goal. Large numbers of slaves are suffering in the southern regions of the Free Cities. I want to break the shackles of these slaves as the Emperor of Valyria and re-establish the rule of the Valyrian Empire over Essos."

"The borders of the empire will no longer be the Free Cities region, Old Ghis, and Qarth, which serve as outposts. The entire world, from the snow-covered Land of Always Winter to the shadow-filled Shadow Lands, from Ib to Ulos, from the Dothraki Sea to the Jogos Nhai plains east of the Bone Mountains, Yi Ti, and Leng—every place where people reach shall accept my rule. My empire will be filled with fairness and justice..."

Arthur spoke his goals to the person most likely to support them.

Although the productivity of this magical world was low, and the living standards of nobles, wealthy merchants, and commoners were merely a blend of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance of his previous life, thanks to strange magic—such as Glass Candles that could transmit images across thousands of mountains and rivers, and dragons that flew at high speeds—information could circulate quickly, and high-end combat power could reach the battlefield rapidly. Thus, establishing an empire on which the sun never sets was feasible.

During the Valyrian Freehold era, the Dragon Kings only conducted three large-scale external expansions: the five wars against the Ghiscari Empire, the Rhoyne War against the Rhoynar, and the conquest of the Free Cities region, excluding Braavos.

After taking the western part of Essos, the Dragon Kings lost the motivation for external expansion. After all, there were already enough humans living in the Freehold, the Valyrian Peninsula couldn't even hold that many slaves, and gold, jewelry, silk, and the like were constantly being sent from the regions ruled by the Freehold.

For thousands of years, the most the Dragon Kings did was ride dragons to the brothels of Lys to spread their bloodline, and occasionally, a few explorers would just fly around the world on dragons.

For example, Jaenara Belaerys, who flew to Sothoryos on the adult dragon Terrax, spent several years concluding that Sothoryos was even larger than Essos, and then declared it an endless land covered by forests, deserts, and mountains.

"Your ideas are as big as your brother's." Daenerys actually quite liked this proposal, which seemed impossible to realize for the time being. "I also support taking Volantis, Lys, and Tyrosh, completely liberating these slave-holding regions, and nailing all the slave owners to wooden racks."

After adjusting her posture, Arthur said in a light tone: "Then it's settled. After we marry, we will exchange some titles. You will receive the titles of King of the First Men, the Andals, and the Rhoynar from me and rule the Iron Throne while I am away on campaigns, and I will receive your titles such as King of Slaver's Bay and Khal of the Great Grass Sea."

The Dragon Mother was busy with the struggle and only exhaled through her nose, seemingly agreeing to the proposal.

But she quickly added one point: "But the Unsullied army must still listen to my command. Those wives of yours cannot possess ruling titles like me; they are just your wives."

"No problem at all; you possess three dragons, so your status is naturally the highest."

Arthur also replied, panting, while making his final demand: "Also, since we have reached a marriage covenant, you cannot maintain any improper relationships outside of the marriage. The leader of the Stormcrows, Daario Naharis, must be secretly executed."

As far as he knew, although the sixteen-year-old Dragon Mother had a chaotic private life, she only maintained intimacy with one male at a time. After Khal Drogo died, Daenerys's only lover was Daario.

Although surprised by how the person behind her knew about this, Daenerys still agreed to half of it: "As long as you can satisfy me, I will fulfill my duties well. As for Daario, exiling him is enough. This world is too big, and ordinary people don't have dragons to fly around on. Once exiled, it's a lifetime of not seeing each other."

But Arthur was relentless, insisting that Daenerys add the clause about executing Daario.

The two engaged in a new round of struggle over this issue.

At night, in Queen Sansa's room in Maegor's Holdfast.

Arthur, refreshed after his exercise, walked in and signaled for the noblewomen hovering around Queen Sansa to leave.

"You all go and rest; my husband and I need to discuss matters of the kingdom," Sansa said, dismissing her companions with an air of importance.

Five or six young noblewomen left. Arthur glanced at them and recognized most of them: two married women from the Riverlands, Eleanor Mooton, the eldest daughter of Lord William Mooton of Maidenpool, a Reach noblewoman named Meredyth Crane, and a slim woman with large hips who looked very familiar.

Except for that Miss Meredyth Crane, the presence of the others was quite reasonable.

"I need to discuss something with you." After Brienne, who was guarding the door, closed it from the outside, Sansa, lying on the bed, stared at Arthur with determined eyes and spoke.

The King was surprised by her seriousness. "I also have a major matter to discuss with you; you speak first."

After a deep breath, Sansa said softly: "I heard you ordered Jeyne Arryn Westerling, my brother's wife, to no longer wear her crown. I want you to withdraw that order. It's just a gold headpiece; she can wear it if she wants."

Arthur had originally thought it was something major; he hadn't expected that what Sansa wanted to talk about was just this trivial matter.

After the people of the Westerlands surrendered, basically every family with even a little bit of fame sent a core member as a hostage, and the Westerlings of The Crag sent Jeyne Arryn, a person of awkward status.

Since Robb died in battle, Gawen Westerling, who had colluded with Tywin and married off his daughter, not only received no punishment but instead gained a not-insignificant fief, and Jeyne Arryn was also confined within The Crag.

And this Miss Jeyne Arryn clearly missed her status as Queen; even though it had been quite some time since Robb died in battle, she still wore the Golden Crown that the King in the North had given her.

Doing so in The Crag drew no criticism, but after being taken as a hostage, Jeyne Arryn suffered the mockery of many people; someone complained to the King, and Arthur ordered that she not be allowed to wear that crown.

Women truly do not understand politics, Arthur thought to himself, and then explained the matter to Sansa:

"From the perspective of the Iron Throne, all of Robb's actions were illegal; your ancestor, Torrhen Stark, had already surrendered his crown to the Conqueror. You cannot allow things that overstep boundaries just because Robb was your brother. You are my wife now; you must start from the position of upholding my authority."

But Sansa clearly lacked this realization, "But she is the only relative I have left. Since you dislike her so much, then after Winterfell is recovered by the people of The Vale, let her represent me in ruling Winterfell. After that, what headpiece she wears will have nothing to do with you, right?"

The King walked helplessly toward the wooden table and poured himself a glass of the sour drink kept on hand for the pregnant Queen.

"You must know, she is not your relative; your brother had some external reasons for marrying her back then." Arthur organized his thoughts and began to persuade Sansa, who was thinking entirely with emotion.

Robb had once been wounded in the fighting while attacking a castle in the Westerlands, and the North Army was full of rough men; the only two women, Maege Mormont and Dacey Mormont, were as sturdy as bears and did not act gently, so they clearly could not take care of the Young Wolf.

Thus, the people of The North chose Jeyne Arryn from among the captured noble ladies of the Westerlands to take care of the arrow-wounded Robb.

The Young Wolf's body had been ravaged, and coupled with the later news that Theon Greyjoy, who was like a brother to Robb, had betrayed him and that his brother Bran had been killed, he also suffered a psychological blow; under these circumstances, Miss Jeyne Arryn took advantage of his vulnerability and took the initiative to climb into the bed of the King in the North.

Robb had no choice but to take responsibility for his impulsiveness and married Jeyne Arryn to protect her reputation.

"Miss Jeyne Arryn is a very vain woman; half of her 'love' for your brother came from the overflowing kindness of tending to a wounded man, and the other half was coveting his status as King."

Arthur summarized it this way.

But Sansa was clearly unsatisfied, "When it comes down to it, you just don't agree with her wearing a gold headpiece that looks like a crown."

She pursed her lips, simultaneously shifting her gaze away from her husband, silently protesting with her actions.

"I not only disagree with letting her wear that crown, I also disagree with your idea of letting her manage Winterfell. The people of The North have basically zero identification with Southerners; letting a noble lady with zero martial strength represent you in ruling Winterfell and The North is equivalent to letting a lamb be the wolf king in a pack of wolves."

Arthur said this while moving himself into Sansa's line of sight.

"This is also the major matter I wanted to see you about; after House Bolton is wiped out, you will be the Duchess of Winterfell, and one of your sons will inherit the Stark surname and the territory."

PS: I've resumed updates; please give me recommendation votes and monthly tickets to give me more motivation to write.

(End of chapter)