Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 203: Youlun's Thousand Layer Cake
"How is that possible? You saw the Targaryen banner on the banks of Highgarden?"

"Yes, the Shield Islands ships and several merchant ships that were sent back blocked us on the river. We couldn't go any deeper and had to turn back."

While going deep into the Mander River and planning to plunder along the river, the Ironborn captain continued to lure the Tyrells to summon the Redwyne fleet and brought back intelligence from Highgarden.

The Ironmen who had just looted the Shield Islands, including the Iron Captain Victarion, were all deeply shocked.

"Did you see any dragons?" Victarion asked.

The captain who came back said, “No.”

None of the Ironborn had ever seen a dragon, but rumors and Euron's words confirmed that Viserys Targaryen did have a powerful dragon. Euron the Crow's Eye claimed that he had fought Targaryen's three-headed dragon head-on on the Summer Sea south of Valyria and escaped unscathed.

The Crow's Eye called this a legend along with his trips to Asshai and Valyria.

The Targaryen army appeared in Highgarden, which obviously shocked Victarion, but he was relieved when he saw the Targaryen banner instead of the dragon.

He led his army to plunder the Shield Islands, but the Targaryen army in Highgarden did not come to stop him, which means that the other side had insufficient ships and the dragons might not be there.

"The wizard of the Crow's Eye must have known where the Targaryens were going, yet he sent you to the Shields all the same, and he wanted us to raid the Reach," Ralph the Lame said to Victarion. "I told you, my lord. The Crow's Eye is a foreigner, and he fears you and the Iron Fleet. He has driven you to these shores, to attack the South Shields. He intends for us to face the Targaryens for him, while he and his sea monsters remain in the dark."

"Words are like wind," Victarion answered him. "You would have me make war with the Crow's Eye? Brother against brother, ironborn against ironborn? We have conquered the Shield Islands, the shield of Highgarden has been shattered, and now the Mander is open to us. Even if the Targaryens come, they have no ships to stop us. We have won the battle in the Shield Islands, and the spoils!"

"The spoils of war," replied Rodrik Harlow, the chieftain of Harlow Island. "You mean these stones? The four islands put together are not as big as Harlow Island. What did we win? All the living captives, women and children, and the men who were not dead were taken away by the half-blooded bastards of the Crow's Eye. We won stones, trees, and broken towns, as well as the hostility of the Tyrells and the hostility of the Targaryens."

Rodrik was a rare scholar among the Ironborn. He was reading all the time, so he was called "Rodrik the Scholar".

"The Barber" Newt disagreed: "Roses and dragons? The sea is the territory of sea monsters? We shattered the shield of the South and reoccupied the castles and villages that belonged to the Iron Men thousands of years ago." Being able to have the title of "Barber" on the battlefield, one can roughly imagine how this person will perform in battle.

Victarion looked at Newt, Victarion's best subordinate, but he seemed to be blinded by Euron's promise. Euron promised to promote the most meritorious people in this battle to the position of leader, and to grant the four islands of the Shield Archipelago to the meritorious people. "The Barber" Newt was among the most meritorious in this battle. Although Newt was Victarion's subordinate, he still had fantasies about the land and the position of leader.

Even Victarion himself felt that this victory was worthy of promotion to lord, and that Euron should allow him to have an island as well.

But Victarion remembered his own warning: Euron's gift must be poisoned.

And this is not the Seastone position.

"Yes," the scholar answered. "We have broken the shields of the South, and will soon meet the swords of the South and the dragons of the Targaryens. Barber, you will learn that roses have thorns, and dragons bring blood and fire."

Lord Dunstan Drummage, nicknamed "Bonehand", the chieftain of Old Wyke Island, nodded and placed a hand on the hilt of the family heirloom sword Red Rain. "The wisdom of the Ironborn is not to commit oneself to the dragon's flames."

It is said that the Valyrian steel heirloom sword of the Drogum family, Red Rain, was won by the "cunning" Hylmar Drogum from a fully armed knight with his wisdom and a stick a thousand years ago. The Drogum family is an important family in the Iron Islands, with its fiefdom on Old Wyk, which is considered the most sacred island by the Ironmen.

Victarion's desire to fight was stoked by the words of the scholar and the hand. "Let them come. Let the rose come, let the dragon come. What Euron can do, I can do better. In the sea, the sea monster is supreme. Even the dragon cannot shake it."

"Don't worry, Commander," the scholar said with a helpless expression on his face, "They will come - that is exactly what His Majesty intended. Otherwise, why would he specifically ask us to release the castle's ravens and a dozen longships?"

"You read too many books. You no longer look like an Ironborn." The barber smiled. "Scholar, you are almost like a person from the Green Land."

The scholar turned his head away and ignored the barber's words.

Bonehand couldn't help but say: "Commander, I certainly believe you can do better. But you are missing something. The Crow's Eye has sea monsters, but you don't."

Victarion's face darkened with anger, and a huge stone seemed to block his heart. Victarion thought, his faith and piety to the Drowned God are as strong as anyone, but where is his sea monster?

The Drowned God might have protected him from falling into the sea and drowning in his heavy armor while he was sailing on the sea. But why didn't the God give him a sea monster? Did he really have to listen to the Crow's Eye and go to the depths of the Sunset Sea?
However, the success of the sack of the Shield Islands has satisfied some ironborn captains, who no doubt wish to continue plundering the Reach rather than chasing unknown "sea monsters" to the ends of the earth.

Victarion knew that even for him, who had been the commander of the Iron Fleet for many years, it would not be easy to get the leaders and captains of the fleet to abandon the open gate in the river and head for the "sea monster's" lair in the depths of the Sunset Sea to an unknown destination.

unless
Victarion thought of a possibility.

Given the Crow's Eye's sinisterness and cunningness, his wizard may have known all this and deliberately sent Victarion's Iron Fleet here to make him see the power of the "dragon".

"Brother, open your eyes."

Victarion pushed away the words that Euron had spoken to him privately that day.

Eye-opening
Victarion shuddered. Was Euron trying to open the eyes of all the ironborn captains?
He seemed to see a gleam of mockery in Euron's smiling eyes.

Victarion found himself unable to shake the thought off. "Where is the Crow's Eye now? Has he really gone to the Redwyne Sound?" he asked.

The scholar Rodrik replied, "At least that's what the king claimed when he separated from us. Commander, what do you think of this?"

Victarion stood up. "Harro, you read a lot of books. Do any of them mention whether there is a sea monster lair at the end of the Sunset Sea?"

The scholar gave a strange answer: "Sea monster's lair, this statement is rare. But there are many records about sea monsters. You don't need to go to the end of the world. It is said that sea monsters often appear in the waters of the Summer Sea in the south of Dorne and the northern part of the Sunset Sea. It is said that sea monsters in the deep sea are often attracted by blood and appear on the sea surface."

"In the second year of the Conquest, Aegon the Conqueror burned Harren the Black, the last king of the Iron Islands and the Riverlands. The Iron Islands were plunged into a civil war that lasted for more than a year, with several kings fighting each other. It is said that the civil war caused the waters between the islands to be filled with corpses, and hundreds of sea monsters appeared on the sea surface attracted by the blood."

"In the same year, Aegon the Conqueror invaded the Iron Islands. When he invaded Old Wyk, it was recorded that the priest King Rhodes, who called himself the 'Son of the Drowned God', tried to summon sea monsters in the deep sea to drag Aegon's fleet into the abyss of the sea. However, Rhodes did not summon any sea monsters. After sensing that the overall situation was settled, Rhodes told everyone that he was going to consult his 'father' the Drowned God for countermeasures. He stuffed stones in his robe and walked into the sea, and thousands of people followed him. But everyone knows that the Conqueror conquered the six kingdoms. The direct consequence of Rhodes' suicidal behavior was that in the next few years, bloated corpses would occasionally wash up on the coast of the Iron Islands."

The scholar quoted a story and concluded, "But there is one thing we can speculate, based on the records of many sea monster sightings. If there are a lot of corpses and blood on the sea surface, and if there is a sea monster's nest somewhere on the seabed, then it is very likely that these sea monsters will be attracted by the blood and float to the surface."

Victarion's eyes widened. "So blood can summon sea monsters?"

"That should be it," the scholar had already guessed something. "Commander, His Majesty the King sent his wizards and bastards to load the ship with 'gifts' for the Drowned God. What is the destination?"

After hearing this, Lord Dunstan Drummage, the "Bone Hand", and several Ironborn captains who were in the meeting also realized a possibility.

Victarion sensed the uneasy mood in the hall and answered, "In the depths of the Sunset Sea."

Ralph the Lame, the staunch supporter of Victarion's claim to Seastone, cried out, "That is absurd. The Mander is here, and there is nothing beyond the Sunset Sea. Everyone knows that Lone Light is the last point of land in the endless grey ocean, and west of the Lone Light there is nothing but endless water stretching to infinity. There are only lairs of seals and sea lions there, and no sea monsters."

But the scholar frowned. "It is recorded in a book by Dr. Girdan of the Citadel that during the reign of King Jaehaerys Targaryen I, Alyssa Farman of the Farman family stole three dragon eggs from Dragonstone, exchanged them for gold in Braavos, and used the gold to build her own Sun Chaser. In the 56th year of the Conquest Era, Alyssa Farman set out from Oldtown, accompanied by Eustace and Norman of the Hightower family on the Lady Maritis and the Autumn Moon respectively, sailing west."

"On this voyage westward, only Eustace Hightower's Lady Maritis returned to Oldtown in the 59th year of the Consolidated Era. Eustace brought back many rumors about sea monsters in the Sunset Sea. He said that in a big storm, lightning destroyed the mast of the Autumn Moon, and some crew members screamed that they saw the arms of a sea monster rising from the sea. Sir Eustace then saw the waves sink the Autumn Moon, but the crew of the Lady Maritis claimed that it was a sea monster that dragged the ship into the sea. Later, fearing that the Lady Maritis would encounter more sea monsters, Sir Eustace returned to Westeros at the request of the crew. And Alyssa continued to sail west on the Sun Chaser despite Eustace's objections, and no one has seen them since then."

Lame Ralph looked at him fiercely: "What do you want to say?"

The scholar blinked reluctantly: "I want to say that if someone told me that there is a sea monster's lair deep in the Sunset Sea, I might believe it is true."

(End of this chapter)