Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 120 The End of the Year of the Two Kings

"Let me go in and take a look."

Everyone knew the power of the tremor, and Queen Rhaenyra had blocked the gate, so no one could get close. Just when they were at a loss, the old voice of Count Collis, the "Sea Snake", came from behind them.

"Grandpa, you..." Joffrey saw his grandfather slowly approaching, and couldn't help but reach out to stop the old man, but the old man waved his hand. "When I was young, I was infected with the Tremors in the Basilisk Islands, but I survived." The sea snake said firmly: "Maester Gladys has not been infected with the Tremors. He is old. If he is infected, it will be difficult for him to survive these few days. Someone must bring out the queen's will." The sea snake looked at everyone: "We can't let the mistakes made when the previous king died repeat themselves."

Daemon wanted to say something, but was stopped by Joffrey. The young man with brown and black hair shook his head, signaling his stepfather not to stop Collis. Collis looked at his grandson with satisfaction, knocked on the door gently, signaled others to step back immediately, and then pushed open the first door and walked in.

Daemon looked at Joffrey with some doubts. It was not that he did not believe in Lord Corliss's loyalty, but Corliss did have his own little calculations. Under his painstaking efforts, the Velaryon family, which was originally attached to the Targaryen family, became a first-class family in Westeros in terms of power and wealth. The Velaryon family, which had never even touched the edge of dragons, not only got Melias, one of the most ferocious dragons of the Targaryen family for a long time through the marriage of Rhaenys, but also earned dragons for the two Velaryons by taking advantage of Jaehaerys's guilt after the Great Council, and even Vhagar, the largest dragon after the death of the Black Death. During that time, the dragons of the Velaryon family surpassed the Targaryen family in both quantity and quality.

But it all ended. Laenor's accidental death made Haiyan a wild dragon. Laena's death caused Vhagar to be taken back by the Targaryens. The war also caused Princess Rhaenys and Melias to die on the battlefield. The Velaryon family lost all their dragons, and they even lost their own bloodline. The rise of the Vareses family replaced the Velaryon family's transcendent status.

Vareses also has a fleet, and the Silver Fleet is stronger. The Silver Fleet can even form a fleet with giant ships of four hundred and five hundred oars, while Velaryon's fleet only has one giant ship of five hundred oars and nine giant ships of four hundred oars. As for the ocean-going sailing ships, the purple-sailed sailing ships of the Vareses family are famous in the seas, and even Corliss envied them very much. He also ordered three sailing ships when he sailed in the past, and they are still the core of the Velaryon fleet.

The wealth of Varese is even greater and is still expanding.

Dragons, no doubt, Vareses' dragons are the best in the world in both quantity and quality. The dragon blood is also much purer and nobler than that of Velaryon.

Even more tragically, Corlys condoned the Targaryen family's heavy blow when Wymond's brothers and sons were fighting for the right of succession, leaving some dead and some disabled. The remaining inheritance rights were not even legally higher than those of Daemon and Laena's two daughters, which directly prevented the branch of the Velaryon family from inheriting Tidemark.

After Lucerys's death, in order to win over the Vareses family and make Longzier completely stand on the side of the Black Party, Rhaenyra presided over the betrothal of Rhaena to Rey, whose engagement was automatically invalidated. This meant that Corliss's original plan of letting Jacaerys sit on the Iron Throne, making Baenilla the queen, maintaining the status of the Velaryon bloodline in the royal family, and then letting Lucerys marry Rhaena so that the Velaryon bloodline could continue to stay on Tidehead through marriage completely failed.

Because now, the first heir of Tidemark is Joffrey Velaryon, and even he knows that he has almost no Velaryon blood in him. Oh no, if you look back, you can still find Velaryon blood in him. After all, Aegon the Conqueror's mother was a Velaryon, and Queen Alysanne's mother Queen Alyssa was also a Velaryon. Rhaenyra herself has Velaryon blood, so her children will naturally have Velaryon blood as well.
The most important problem is that none of the three children look like Valyria, and they do not have the blood of Lannino in them. This is the most important reason why although Corliss likes the children very much, he always has a thorn in his heart.

"I went to see Grandfather after my brother died." Joffrey looked into his stepfather's eyes and slowly told Daemon about his previous conversation with Corliss.

That was after the news of Luthris's death was brought back to Dragonstone, and Joffrey found Corliss and Princess Rhaenys. Joffrey still remembered his timidity and embarrassment at that time, and it was his grandmother who gave him the courage to speak his mind to his grandfather.

At that time, the queen's ministers, including Corliss, supported the marriage between Rhaena and the Vareses family. It was not until the decision was made that Corliss remembered the embarrassing issue of his bloodline, but Joffrey was already engaged to Alexandra Martell, which gave Corliss a headache. Until Joffrey took the initiative to come to him. He promised Earl Corliss that his children, including the one who would inherit Sunspear, would marry Velaryon's people, so that Velaryon's bloodline would be back on track, and he would ride Tyrex to stay on Tidehead Island.

After getting Joffrey's promise, Corlys and Rhaenys, who were already very fond of these three people who were sensible and filial, had outstanding abilities at a young age, and had no flaws except for their questionable bloodline, immediately agreed to Joffrey's arrangement. This also meant that the blood of Velaryon would be integrated into the blood of Martell in the future.

This was actually not a big loss for the Velaryon family, as they could still ensure that a dragon would remain on Tidemark after the war, so Lord Corliss quickly and completely accepted Joffrey's suggestion.

After listening to Joffrey's story, Daemon couldn't help but touch his stepson's head. He didn't know what to say. Should he blame his wife for being irresponsible? Or should he praise the children's sense of responsibility and wisdom? Daemon couldn't think so much anymore. He was old. The 47-year-old prince no longer had the impulse, passion and ambition of his youth. Although a warrior was still a warrior even when he was old, he was more concerned about restoring peace in the kingdom as soon as possible, and watching his children grow up and have children.

In the queen's bedroom, Rhaenyra's lips had slowly turned blue, and her body was no longer shaking so violently, not even as much as that of Maester Gladys. The old maester used boiling hot medicine, potions with fire dragon pepper, and even flames and boiling hot water, but none of them could save the queen, and he himself fell down. But even so, the old maester was still trembling as he prepared the potion, praying for a miracle to happen. "Lord Kokolis, sir, you, you can't, you can't." Maester Gladys trembled and tried to stop Earl Collis who had opened the last door and walked in, but his condition was still rapidly deteriorating, so that he fell to the ground just after leaving the chair.

"Maester Gladys, I have survived the Tremor and the Red Death. You know that anyone who has been infected with the Tremor or Greyscale once will never get it again." Lord Collis helped the old maester to a chair and stood beside the queen. He watched the weak Rhaenyra open her eyes and said slowly, "Your Majesty, I..."

"I understand what you mean, Lord Corliss." Queen Rhaenyra seemed to have regained some strength, although her lips were still turning blue at a visible speed. "Please convey everything I say next to Daemon and Prince Longzel."

"I am listening, Your Majesty." Count Collis took paper and pen from Maester Gladys's desk and prepared to start writing.

The queen spoke slowly in High Valyrian: "After my death, my heir, Prince Jacaerys Targaryen of Dragonstone, will inherit the position of King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, and Lord of the Iron Throne. His fiancée, Princess Baena Targaryen, will be crowned Queen. Prince Daemon Targaryen will continue to serve as Protector of the Realm and Regent until Jacaerys comes of age. I appoint Prince Dragonzel as Hand of the King for my sons, and ask him to serve as foster father to Aegon and Viserys until they come of age."

Rhaenyra looked at Lord Corliss and said, "Tidehead Island."

"The island of Tidehead will be inherited by Prince Joffrey." Earl Collis smiled and said, "My grandson has already discussed it with me. I will support his unquestionable right of succession."

Rhaenyra forced a smile and continued, "Until my son and Princess Baena have children, Aegon will temporarily serve as the Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne. Lord Corliss, please inform Prince Dragonzel and my son that they are not allowed to return to King's Landing until the epidemic in King's Landing is over."

"I understand, Your Majesty," said Earl Collis. He would continue to serve as Jacaris's Minister of the Sea. He recognized Longzel's abilities, especially his pivotal role in the war. It could be said that without Longzel's participation, this war, later known as the "Dance of the Dragons", would not have lasted for more than four months, nor would it have ended with the death of just five dragons.

No one dared to question the strength of this fierce god whose family killed Vhagar and the Blue Queen, not to mention that the main force of the Silver Blood Army hardly appeared on the battlefield. Even when attacking the South, the Vareses family only sent a thousand Unsullied Silver Blood Army instead of the main force led by Aslan Longdel.

After Rhaena finished her narration, she closed her eyes in satisfaction. Corliss could clearly see the queen's lips finally turn a dark blue, and her body slowly stopped trembling and twitching, and the last trace of blood on the queen's face gradually faded.

"Lord Collis." Maester Glades stretched out his hand tremblingly: "Can I check His Majesty's will?" Collis nodded and handed the parchment in his hand to the old maester. After the old maester read it with wide eyes, he relaxed with relief.

Collis took back the will with a sigh and watched the queen and the old maester gradually stop breathing.

On the eve of victory in the war.

Queen Rhaenyra I of House Targaryen, the light of the kingdom, "the reincarnation of Maegor", the rightful queen, and the "Queen of Taxes" as the people of King's Landing called her, died of tremors.

The era of two kings coexisting is over.

First update check-in. While typing today, I went through the family tree and found two interesting points. One is that the Three Strong actually have Velaryon blood. Their biggest problem is that they don’t have Laenor blood, so there are big problems in blood inheritance, and they are essentially bastards. The other is that the "caste toughness" of the Baratheon family is reflected in Rhaenys, but not in Rhaenys's descendants. This is somewhat different from the setting of the original story, and may also be related to the fact that Martin modified Rhaenys's hair color. At the beginning, Rhaenys was set to have silver hair, but in order to meet the requirements of "caste toughness", it was changed to black hair, which is the current version.

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(End of this chapter)