Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 122 Justice and Selfishness

Lightning flashed across the sky above Storm's End, and the dark sky highlighted the weight of one of the strongest castles in the Seven Kingdoms. The outer walls were thick, and the stones were so tightly packed together that not even a gust of wind could get through. The castle itself was a huge tower with solid battlements on top, like a giant spiked fist reaching up into the sky.

Legend has it that a spell is woven into the stone of the walls. The mighty fortress stood for centuries, undeterred by the harsh weather of Shipbreaker Bay. In its long history it has never been captured or damaged by a storm.

From here you can even hear the surging waves of Shipbreaker Bay hitting the cliffs, washing the foundation stones under the solid cliff where the castle is located.

A few heartbeats later there was thunder, like the beating of distant drums.

A huge brazier was placed in the lord's room. It was daytime, but the light was dark because of the heavy rain and storm. Stannis was sitting alone in the lord's room in the unlit tower, and the charcoal in the brazier was the brightest source of light.

He looked very tired, with dark circles under his eyes, sunken eye sockets, unshaven beard, and a thin appearance. One could even see the shape of his head under his face.

He held the reply letter sent from Dragonstone in his hand. He wanted to throw the letter into the brazier several times, but never did it. He just held the letter tightly in his hand, looking solemnly at the hazy storm land in the wind and rain outside the window.

During Robert's Rebellion, Stannis was in charge of the defense of Storm's End. He refused to surrender during the year-long siege, and his men had to eat rats. It was Davos Seaworth, who was still a smuggler at the time, who slipped through the sea blockade and delivered supplies, allowing the garrison to finally survive the siege. He thought that was the most difficult time in his life. That victory was also his proudest victory.

After Robert became king, Stannis should have become the lord of Storm's End, but Robert gave it to Renly and drove him to the poor Dragonstone.

Robert has never been a good king, nor is he a brother worthy of respect. Stannis feels that he has no feelings for him. What the King of Dragonstone said in the letter may not be what he has always thought but has not been able to put into words.

It’s just that national laws give him responsibilities. Responsibilities, is that true?

He tried to put aside his inner doubts and think about the current situation.

There are five other kings in the country, and the other three are richer and have more troops than him, especially Lannister and Tyrell.

But the biggest threat to the legitimate king and the many false kings is undoubtedly the last one, who is said to have fewer troops than Stannis. But he has dragons.

And Stannis's responsibility...and legitimacy, had become elusive after the arrival of the Targaryen king at Dragonstone, and his letter exacerbated Stannis's uneasiness.

This Targaryen's pen was sharper than a battlefield sword, and he fell into a deep state of self-doubt.

People often say that all justice in the world comes from God, but all the justice and justice that Stannis sees is achieved through human efforts.

Stannis asked himself, this is a wise king, at least that's what he has shown so far and the letters he wrote are like that. Stannis knew that he could never be the good king described in his letters.

Perhaps he should
He quickly put that thought out and continued to stare at the stormy land outside the house.

The princes and the people will not love him, and they never will.

In this case, what does it matter whether they are good or not, what difference does it make whether they love him or not, they have the obligation to sacrifice their lives for the king and put the legitimate king on the throne. Is he still the legitimate king?

His valet, Byran Farling, announced at the top of the stairs: "Andrew Esmond wishes to see His Majesty."

Stannis said wearily, "No, I will not see anyone. The Hand's seal is with him. Let him make the decision on his own."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The attendant responded and left.

The room fell silent again, with only the sound of wind, rain and distant thunder.

Since Earl Alister was imprisoned, the only thing the king did was to take back the bachelor's power to write and receive letters to the outside world, and he did not care about anything else.

Without the king to make the decision and the prime minister being imprisoned, Andrew Eastmond, the only person who went to advise the king, was elected acting prime minister. The prime minister's seal was sent from Earl Alister's room to the king's cousin. The king had no objection, so the matter was decided hastily.

The internal situation of a team that is about to disband is always the most chaotic.

There were two factions around Stannis before. One was the Queen's Party, who followed Queen Selyse to convert to R'hllor, and the other was the King's Party. These people were disgusted by Melisandre's exotic beliefs, aggressive policies, and mysterious powers, and did not follow Selyse and the Queen's Party to convert to R'hllor.

Now at Storm's End, it stands to reason that most of the Florent family are the Queen's Party, with a large army and more people, and the Queen's Party is far more powerful than the King's Party. However, the three core figures of the Queen's Party, Queen Selyse and Axell, are on Dragonstone, and the only one at Storm's End, Earl Alister, is imprisoned, and the group is leaderless.

And if anything really happened to Lord Alister, the Florent army would immediately turn against Stannis.

Stannis's decision to imprison Lord Alester in a fit of rage has put him in the same situation as Robb Stark faced with the Karstarks.

After Robb executed Earl Karstark, Karstark's army left Robb directly, and the Northern Army was reduced by half, leaving only more than 4,000 Northern Army troops, which Robb could guarantee the most loyalty, when they went north. After Roose Bolton sent away 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers loyal to Stark through military deployment on the Eastern Front, Robb's kingdom was doomed to fail.

Now that Lord Alister is executed, Stannis will undoubtedly face the same thing. So even though Alister has been in prison for some time, no one dares to judge him on behalf of the king. On the part of the harem, even Melisandre would find it difficult to burn down the Seven Sacred Sept, let alone an earl.

Except for Florent, most of the original queen's party were lords of the Narrow Sea. They did not really believe in the Red God. It was more because the number of lords of the Narrow Sea was relatively small and they needed to stick together.

Originally, Ser Justin of House Marseille was trusted by the king, and he had the hope of becoming the new leader of the Queen's Party. However, the lords of the Narrow Sea are now under the rule of King Targaryen on Dragonstone. The lords of the Narrow Sea who were now being dragged to Storm's End are in an awkward situation, which makes this group of people, such as Justin, Bar Emmon, Triston and other nobles and knights from the Narrow Sea, become a new branch of the Queen's Party and are suspected by everyone else.

There are many knights in Storm's End who would rather play badly than fight. They are still loyal to the king, but they have given up hope that the king will get the Iron Throne. They just spend their days doing nothing. Even the most optimistic knights under Stannis are defeatists. They are just waiting for the king to make a decision to execute it, and they are unwilling to betray their oath of loyalty.

The only one who can now see the king directly is Melisandre the Red Lady.

But now Melisandre is unable to arouse the king's fighting spirit, because even though she predicted to the king that other false kings will be punished by the Lord of Light, she could not help him see the fate of the king and dragons of Dragonstone.

Once, more than half of Stannis's knights dared not even pronounce her name. She could act as a witch who spread fear and majesty for the king just by standing beside him. But when people heard that there were dragons on Dragonstone, this fear was diluted by another kind of fear.

No one wants to be on the losing side.

Even Stannis knows that he has nothing. The king of Dragonstone waits, growing stronger as time goes by, while the Lannisters have the gold of Casterly Rock and a marriage to the rich Highgarden.

What Stannis is doing now is nothing more than waiting for the army from Dragonstone or King's Landing to attack. He wants to die in battle rather than surrender. He wants to be the "last Baratheon."

But neither King's Landing nor Dragonstone had any intention of marching to attack him. Tyrell withdrew his troops to King's Landing, and the king of Dragonstone advised him to govern the country well and be a good king as mentioned in the letter.

But he knew that he couldn't organize an offensive at all.

Stannis is now dragging his feet and doing nothing, not even wanting to continue replying to the King of Dragonstone. He knows that he is not a person who can debate reasonably, and the King of Dragonstone is obviously much better than him in this regard. He will not surrender, but he will not humiliate himself.

There was lightning outside, blue and white lights flashing alternately for a moment.

Stannis felt sad when he saw the crowned stag and the flaming heart banner in the room.

One, two, three, four, the king counted silently in boredom, and then thunder was heard.

At the staircase came another report from the attendant: "Your Majesty, Scholar Juna has sent a new letter."

"Bring it in," Stannis ordered.

When the servant brought the letter to the king and wanted to light the lights in the room, Stannis stopped him with his hand: "No need to light the lights. It's daytime now. I can see."

The attendant left silently.

There was more than one letter, and Stannis opened it and examined it closely.

This turned out to be a letter from Bright Water City.

The letter said that the Tyrell army in Brightwater seemed to have stopped its attack plan and was stagnant in Highgarden. The trade route from Brightwater to Oldtown was also unblocked. The ransom and supplies prepared by the king were disguised as a caravan and taken by sea, but were detained by Redwyne's fleet after leaving Oldtown Port. It was not until recently that there was news that they were back on the road, but there was still a long way to go to reach Storm's End.

The second came from Lannisport.

The letter was sent back by a spy sent to Lannisport at the beginning of the war. It said that King Balon of the Iron Islands had fallen to his death. It was also said that the island of Pyke was in chaos as they were selecting a king.

The letter from the spy in Lannisport was about the Iron Islands. Stannis estimated that by the time he read the news, a new false king would have picked up the crown.

The third letter was even more outrageous, it actually came from King's Landing.

It was a secret letter from an unnamed King Honorable, who told Stannis about the current situation in King's Landing. King's Landing was shocked by the news of Dragonstone and was actively defending itself by building a giant anti-aircraft crossbow, which was said to be to guard against dragons. The King Honorable heard that there was a rumor among the nobles in King's Landing that the dragon's weakness was its eyes. The King Honorable suggested that Stannis write to the Citadel to verify this and ask about the historical records and war records of Dorne shooting Meraxes, perhaps from which he could know how to fight against dragons. He also wished that he could recapture Dragonstone, build a fleet, return to King's Landing, and bring justice to the country.

Stannis's teeth began to grind unconsciously.

Stannis was no fool, and he quickly realized the meaning behind the first and third letters. Lannister and Tyrell intended for him to be the first person to challenge the Targaryen King of Dragonstone.

Because he is the "legitimate king".

Stannis put the letter from the King of Dragonstone into his pocket. He thought to himself that he was destined not to be a good king who could make the country strong, the princes harmonious, and the people rich. Good kings could win the love of the people and even the support of their enemies. He couldn't do that. He didn't have that talent.

Stannis realizes that he is not the hero that Melisandre claims he is. He actually has his own selfish motives and is not as fair as people think. He is just a mediocre Baratheon king who insists on fighting to maintain the throne of House Baratheon.

He looked north, trying to see through the rain and the horizon to the Targaryen King in Dragonstone Castle.

The Targaryen king undoubtedly showed signs of being a wise ruler, but wisdom cannot win wars. Aegon the Conqueror conquered Westeros with blood and fire, and the young king must know this.

Stannis concentrated his thoughts. If the Targaryen king wanted to become the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and sit on the ugly Iron Throne that could even cut people, he would have to defeat Stannis Baratheon on the battlefield, just as the Conqueror Aegon sent his Queen Rhaenys to defeat the last Storm King on the battlefield.

"Byram," he ordered. "Send Ser Andrew." After a pause, he added, "And Melisandre."

"As you command." The king's servant's boots landed heavily on the ground, he bowed to him, and then walked quickly to the door.

(End of this chapter)