Chapter 58: Beat Them Again

"Seven hells!" King Robert exclaimed loudly.

"If there isn't a sufficient reason, I will certainly use my boots to kiss your ass hard."

He was disheveled, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at this Gold Cloak.

The Gold Cloak who had come to report to the King did not look askance, pretending not to see the several women behind the King, and loudly reported the matter of two groups of nobles fighting to Robert.

"It's that stupid fellow Cleos again; does their House Lannister have to be so troublesome?" Robert shouted, his face full of displeasure.

He had perhaps forgotten that Cleos was merely a cousin of House Lannister and did not share the same surname as the Queen's family.

In the Gold Cloak's account, he had only grasped the key information that it was the Queen's cousin, and then naturally assumed this was another bad deed done by the Lannisters.

Although he was very annoyed that his intimate time with several women had been interrupted, he still quickly put on his clothes, preparing to head to the Throne Room to handle this dispute.

Robert even made up his mind that as long as Cleos, the Queen's cousin, was even slightly in the wrong, he would make the Lannister relative pay the price.

Pay the price for interrupting his pleasure, and for the joy of having the Kingslayer Jaime standing outside the door listening to him shout.

When King Robert arrived at the Throne Room with the Kingsguard and other attendants, a large crowd had already gathered inside, chattering about the matter.

"I think the people from Seagard are in the right."

"Bullshit, it's just a commoner being bullied; the ones beaten were nobles, and one of them is even the Queen's cousin, how could Seagard possibly be in the right?"

"Aren't you a commoner too? Why are you speaking up for the nobles?"

"This isn't a question of who I'm speaking up for; this is the universal rule!"

Most of the nobles also believed that the people from Seagard were not in the right; after all, what Arthur and his group did infringed upon the interests of most nobles.

Robert walked into the Throne Room from the back, nodded at the Hand of the King, Duke Eddard, who had already arrived and sat down but stood up upon seeing him, and only then walked up the steps to sit on that huge chair forged from iron swords.

The sensation from his backside was so uncomfortable that it made Robert's mood even worse.

"Quiet!" he shouted.

Perhaps being a natural-born warrior, Robert's voice was exceptionally loud.

After this shout, the nearly one thousand people inside and outside the Throne Room immediately shut their mouths, and the surroundings fell silent.

"The person who was beaten speaks first."

Robert naturally assumed that Cleos was the one who had done the beating, so he let the person who was beaten speak first.

This way, he could avoid being biased.

But when he saw Cleos, with blood on his forehead, stand out to recount how he had been beaten, he couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

Then his mood became slightly more pleasant.

Being able to see House Lannister suffer a setback could bring the King simple joy.

"Seven hells, I know to pay!" Robert let out a loud exclamation after hearing Cleos's account.

"I wasn't not paying; it's just that she dirtied my clothes first, and her parents wanted her to spend the night with me," cousin Cleos whispered in defense.

In the account of Cleos and his cousin, the little girl had dirtied his clothes, and her parents had thought of compensating him by having her spend the night with him.

As for the subsequent fight, it was all because Arthur's side had flown into a rage out of humiliation and beaten them up, and that was while they had no preparation at all.

"If we had been given full preparation, we could have won too," Cleos said with a lack of confidence.

"Isn't that still not paying? When I was young, I knew to pay one Gold Dragon." Robert looked at this person with disgust, then let the side that did the beating come out to defend themselves.

Arthur and the others looked left and right, then pushed out the mature-looking Desmond.

"... That is the situation. Mr. Arthur, out of Justice, taught him a lesson; as for the subsequent conflict, it was entirely because Lord Cleos wanted to extort us, and he brought it upon himself."

Desmond extremely concisely overturned the lies of Cleos's cousin and stated the cause of the matter impartially.

"I would also like to believe you, Master-at-arms of Riverrun." Robert glanced at the mentioned Arthur, "But the fact that he alone beat down twenty people is hard for me to believe!"

In Robert's eyes, Arthur was just an unremarkable little noble with a tall, thin build and a handsome face; how could he possibly beat down twenty people in a few breaths, and while empty-handed at that?

Although he also wanted to see the Lannister relative suffer.

"Your Grace, you still have witnesses you can summon," Desmond pointed to the tavern-keeping couple.

Robert nodded and let the three of them speak.

Cleos stared at the tavern-keeping couple obscurely, causing the latter's expression to change.

Under the gaze of the entire hall, the tavern-keeping couple weighed their words, stammered for a long time, and actually aligned with the version of the Cleos side.

"Look, even the account of the parties involved, as you call them, differs from your version."

Robert tried very hard to uphold Desmond's words; in reality, the tavern-keeping couple's statement was completely opposite to Desmond's.

Arthur suddenly spoke up at this moment: "Why don't you think about the reason behind this again?"

He took a few steps forward to a place where everyone in the hall could see him.

"It is precisely because of our rescue that we would certainly not retaliate against the tavern-keeping couple, but Cleos, having suffered a loss, would come back to retaliate, so it is very easy to understand who this couple is speaking up for."

"To His Majesty the King, you should use honorifics!" the captain of the Kingsguard, Barristan, reminded Arthur.

"It doesn't matter." Robert, wearing the crown, waved his hand, "The young man has a point, but you still cannot prove your version; after all, it is very difficult for me to believe that you alone beat down twenty people."

"There is still one party involved who hasn't spoken," Arthur looked at the little girl, believing that there should be truth in her words.

Although the little girl still had two tear tracks on her face, she was not timid at all, standing out generously to recount how Arthur had saved her from the clutches of the devil, and then how he had justly counterattacked Cleos.

"My head is spinning." Robert looked toward his good brother, Duke Eddard, "What do you think?"

"It sounds like this Mr. Arthur's version is more reasonable, but I also cannot believe that one person could beat down twenty people in the blink of an eye."

Although Duke Eddard extremely loathed the behavior of Cleos's cousin, he also remained skeptical of the words of Arthur and Desmond.

As the Warden of the North, he had also always believed in the Old Gods, but he firmly opposed the lord's right of the first night, for which he even issued an order for the northern nobles to abolish this right.

"That's easy to handle; the parties involved are all here, just let them fight again."

Robert's brother, the Duke of Storm's End, Renly, did not know when he had also arrived, and suggested with a light laugh.

"Excellent." Arthur also echoed, as he also wanted to beat Cleos and the others again.

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly votes.

(End of chapter)