Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 176 Five Years (Two in One)

Blood and fire, iron and rust.

The smell of war that once permeated Westeros gradually dissipated, and peace once again descended on this vast land.

Good news came one after another in the peaceful years.

The six-year-long winter slowly came to an end as Aegon officially returned to the Iron Throne. The snow in the Vale and the Westerlands slowly melted, revealing mountains with new buds sprouting. The Neck returned to its miasma-filled swamp state, the Trident River surged again, and in the distant Last Hearth, the fires lit by Moon Dancer for them gradually went out.

The ships of Eastwatch at the eastern end of the Wall set sail again, heading for the port of the southern lords, bringing back shiploads of supplies and new soldiers for the Night's Watch, who had persisted in the ice and snow for six years.

At the end of winter, the wildlings outside the Wall gathered a team of tens of thousands and tried to break through the Great Wall, but they were instantly defeated by a charge led by Commander Jason Lannister, who had more supplies, and hundreds of heavy cavalry, which was rare in the history of the Night's Watch after the Conquest War. The self-proclaimed King Beyond the Wall had his head bitten off by a lion. His head was passed from Eastwatch to the Shadow Tower in the following year, allowing the entire Great Wall garrison and the wildlings outside the Wall to witness the end of the invasion.

Spring is here.

Peaceful times always pass quickly.

In 137 AD, Viserys and Lady Lara welcomed the fruit of their love, a strong silver-haired boy whose cry at birth could be heard in the Black Palace of Vareses.

But Ringol shrugged it off.

Aegon was very excited about the addition of a new baby to the royal family. He personally named the baby "Aegon", the name of the Conqueror, which was also his own name, to show his importance to the child. Lady Lara's position in the Targaryen family was further consolidated because of her contribution in giving birth to a newborn for the royal family.

But when the king was about to go to the dragon cave to choose a dragon egg for little Aegon, he was stopped by Viserys, who said to the king: "My son will tame a real dragon in the future, not a little dragon that grew up with him. Brother, have you forgotten the plight of our brothers in that war?"

This reason convinced the king.

Aegon condoned Viserys's decision not to prepare a dragon egg in the cradle for little Aegon.

The kingdom was unusually peaceful this year. Even the most unruly Dalton Greyjoy of the Iron Islands strictly abided by the rules of Westeros and restrained the old ways they often talked about. With the harvest from "raping the three daughters", the Ironmen spent the whole winter surrounded by mead and barbecue. Dalton's prestige also reached its peak.

This clever "pirate" knew very well what he relied on to enjoy most of the spoils. Over the years, he had sent many looted treasures to King's Landing and Dragon's Nest, and he also took the initiative to contribute to the reconstruction of the royal fleet.

However, Joffrey Velaryon and King Aegon politely declined. Joffrey had already ordered a large number of ships from Hulltown, Silverharbour, King's Landing, and Braavos to expand the royal fleet. Although he was the head of House Velaryon, he also remembered that he actually had more Targaryen blood in his veins.

He also wanted to do something to help his brothers.

Joffrey has now given birth to a daughter and a son with Princess Alexandra Martell. The eldest daughter, Belins Velaryon, is a beautiful black-haired girl, and the second son, Lucerys Martell, will inherit the position of Prince of Sunspear in the future according to the marriage contract. Lucerys is a black-haired boy with olive skin of the Rhoynar people. He inherited the beauty of his mother and the handsomeness and strength of his father. At a young age, he showed his talent as an excellent heir.

Lord Elmon Tully of Riverrun, who had always been in poor health, did not survive the long winter. When spring came, the Governor of Three Rivers, who had made great contributions in the Dance with the Dragons, died in his own river castle. The young Kermit Tully inherited his position.

The "boys" in the Three Rivers Region who had once gained fame in the war gradually replaced their fathers and stood at the forefront of the political stage.

After the young dragon was killed by Dreamfyre, Viserys thought for a long time. His reason told him that he should go back to Dragon's Nest to check the information. Although the Vareses family's in-depth materials and notes on dragons have been hidden somewhere unknown, the great library of the Laurel Tower still retains a lot of dragon information. But in the end, his reason returned to the greater scope of the family, and Viserys finally chose to summarize the Targaryen family's own dragon hatching rules.

By consulting a large number of documents from before Aegon's conquest to the time when King Viserys ascended the throne, Viserys discovered that most of the Targaryen dragons were hatched in the Dragon Mountain on Dragonstone, and only a very small number were hatched in the dragon pits in King's Landing. However, the dragons hatched in the Dragon Mountain often died in fighting each other, or had problems of one kind or another at birth.

This is a difficult problem to solve.

Now that the stock dragon eggs in the Dragon Mountain have almost been hatched, Viserys decided to wait for the existing dragons to grow up healthily for a period of time. After the family has recovered a few adult dragons, they will send the stock dragon eggs in the dragon cave back to the Dragon Mountain for hatching. In this way, with the presence of adult dragons, the survival rate of the young dragons will be greatly improved.

The 137th year of the Conquest calendar passed slowly in the joy of the arrival of spring.

The 138th year of the Conquest Calendar arrived quietly with the sound of Diana vomiting. Longzel's wife was pregnant again. In order to ensure the smooth birth of the child, Longzel rode on Wormisol and sent Diana back to Dragon's Nest.

Ten months later, Longzel welcomed his second son, a beautiful silver-haired boy. When this child with a pair of deep blue eyes was born in the delivery room of Dragon's Nest City, Kong Yi, who had been very quiet in the dragon's cave of Dragon's Nest City, suddenly flew out of the dragon's cave, flew around the Silver Blood Tower where the delivery room was located for several times, and then returned to his own nest.

Longzel named his second son "Jaccaris", after his most obedient servant, to commemorate the little tail who had been by his side for so many years and finally passed away by his side.

At the end of the same year.

Viserys' wife, Lady Lara, became pregnant again. In 139 AD, she gave birth to a girl with silver-gold hair. Viserys named her "Naerys".

According to tradition, the girl would marry Aegon the Younger, or one of Aegon's other children, but Aegon asked his brother for advice after Naerys was born.

He wanted Narish to be engaged to Jacaerys, who was also just born.

Of course, this plan ultimately remained only verbal, as Viserys evaded the idea with the excuse that "the children are too young, let's wait until they grow up a little."

Viserys would prefer that the Targaryen children be managed internally.

He wanted to ensure that dragon riders would not flow out to other families again. However, it seemed that he still had doubts about his daughter's ability to tame dragons in the future.

He finally placed the dragon egg in his daughter's cradle.

Unfortunately, the dragon egg was just like Igaras's dragon egg back then, and there was no movement at all.

This year continued to pass in peace and stability in the kingdom.

Only a few minor incidents occurred.

Duchess Jeyne Arryn of the Vale died of a sudden outbreak of typhoid fever in the monastery of Gulltown. Before her death, she once again defended Joffrey Arryn's right of succession.

The throne of the Vale passed smoothly to the next ruler. Joffrey Arryn, along with Lord Artis Royce and Lord Coln Corbray, sailed to King's Landing to meet King Aegon.

After leaving the throne room, Lord Joffrey expressed the same sentiment that everyone who had attended King Aegon's court would express.

Compared to King Aegon, Prince Dragonzel sitting beside the Iron Throne is more majestic and more like a real king.

Longzel also earned a nickname "Vice King"

Prince Chryon Martell also died peacefully in Sunspear in the same year. As the last prince of Dorne who caused Dorne to lose its independence after a thousand years, Chryon was not blamed too much. People understood his despair when they witnessed the eight dragons destroying the Yronwood family. Just like they treated the last King of the North who surrendered, the people of Dorne gradually understood this prince in the peaceful years.

He died peacefully.

Alexandra returned to Sunspear with her son and became the Princess of Sunspear. She and her husband went to the south and the north respectively and began to build a navy.

Aegon and Viserys acquiesced in Sunspear's efforts to build a navy.

In the 140th year of the Conquest, a new long summer officially arrived in Westeros. Even the North, which used to have snow in summer, now had summer flowers blooming. From the Last Hearth, the New Grant, to Barrowton, the entire North began to sow seeds under the leadership of Duke Creggan. The northerners had to take advantage of this rare long summer to store enough food.

And the South.
The nobles in the south completely recovered the vitality they had consumed in the Dance of the Blood Dragon. Consecutive years of bumper harvests not only increased the population, but also filled the pockets of the nobles again.

The only drawback is that because King's Landing could no longer take care of it, Oldtown, which was directly governed by the Iron Throne, gradually declined. As time went by, the decline of Oldtown became more and more obvious, and fewer and fewer ships chose to dock at the port of Oldtown. The once clean and tidy cobblestone streets are now full of dilapidation and filth, the dense canals in the town have completely dried up, and the once bustling residents have long moved away. The towering tower has also been completely turned into a pile of ruins in the past few years due to years of no one repairing it, coupled with the damage during the post-war liquidation. Only the black stone that serves as the base is still intact.

This second largest city in Westeros, which once had a population of hundreds of thousands, gradually disappeared from the stage of history, just like its former owner, the Hightower family.

At least that's the case now, but who can say what it will be like in the future?
Speaking of the Hightower family.

Ser Gaimund Hightower, Lord of Overlook, married the daughter of his acting lord, Harvard Cobber, three years ago. After having a son and a daughter with her, this young man, who had long imprisoned himself in the tower of Overlook, finally died of alcohol poisoning this year.

His body was discovered when his wife brought him food as usual.

Poor Hightower died with the bottle still in his hand.

Although the Gray Island was barren, there was a steady flow of supplies from the mainland. There was a lack of everything here, except for wine.

And milk of the poppy.

Melal Yangyan of the Hidden Tower of Gods gradually grew into a handsome young man. From the day he could remember, his world consisted only of this small tower, the never-ending sound of the tide, the town tavern under the Gray Terror Castle, and his acting city lord.

Until now, he doesn't even know who his parents are.

In the 141st year of the Conquest Era, Lady Lara gave birth to Viserys' third child, a silver-haired boy with a loud cry. Viserys happily believed that the child would become an excellent dragon rider in the future. Everyone was very happy, except little Aegon, who was not very happy, because he felt that his younger brother would take away his parents' love for him.

So while his parents weren't paying attention, he quietly picked up his sister's dragon egg and threw it at his brother.

Fortunately, Mrs. Lara was quick to stop the dragon egg.

Viserys angrily scolded little Aegon and locked him in a small dark room, and did not release him until little Aegon cried and admitted his mistake.

King Aegon, who heard the news, failed to convince his brother to let his nephew go, but King Aegon still obtained the right to name the little boy.

He named the child "Aemon".

The once proud name of House Targaryen, first mate of Caraxeus, eldest son of King Jaehaerys I.

It was also in this year that Longzel's five-year term as Prime Minister expired. He took off the brooch of the King's Hand without hesitation and prepared to return to Dragon's Nest with his son.

Varese Black Palace.

The dragons were all excited, even Wormisol, who had slept for several days, was excited. The mountain-like Bronze Fury looked expectantly at Longzel, who had put on his dragon riding gear and was ready to take off at any time.

Xingge couldn't even wait to fly a circle.

Although the dragon pit in the Black Palace of Vareses is nice, it is definitely not as comfortable as the dragon cave in Dragon's Nest City. Wormisol can't wait to go back and continue expanding his huge cave.

Only Huohuo was still lazily lying on the edge of the dragon pit, and a hint of resentment could be seen in its big watery eyes.

It knew well that both Wormithor and Starsong could return to Dragon's Nest, but it could not.

Because its partner is still here, it is impossible for it to abandon its partner and fly back home by itself.

Ringol has grown into a fifteen-year-old boy. He has short silver hair, but retains a fringe that covers one eye, making him look less easy to mess with. He inherited his father's handsomeness, but based on Longzel, Ringol's face is tougher and his eyes are colder. When he looks at others, it always makes people shiver unconsciously.

"Father." Samantha was wearing the red and black queen's dress of the Targaryen family, with a silver and purple cloak of the Varese family on the outside, and a slender golden crown on her head. She looked at her father and twin brother calmly.

"Samantha." Longzel looked at his daughter who had grown into a graceful young girl, and couldn't help but feel a little dazed. Although it wasn't a long time since they last saw each other, the fact that his daughter had grown so big still made the old father sad. "We are going back to Dragon's Nest City."

"Father, brother." Samantha walked up to her father and brother and gently raised their hands. "I hope you won't blame me. After all, I am the queen of the Targaryen family now. In many things, I will still consider my husband's choice more."

"How could that be?" Longzel smiled. "My little princess, father will support you."

"The Vareses family will keep their oath." Ringol looked at his sister seriously. "Day and night, but Samantha, please also tell cousin Viserys that he has communicated with the Martell family, those guys in the Stormlands, and some people in my territory over the years. We all know that we will keep our sacred oath, and please ask him to keep his oath as well."

Samantha smiled. She knew that what Viserys did could never escape the intelligence network of her father and brother.

Does he think Tigara is a freeloader?
But she also knew the love her father and brother had for her, as well as her brother's terrifying ability to keep his oaths.

"Brother, may the Seven Gods bless you."

"May the Seven Gods bless you, sister." Ringol scribbled a seven-pointed star on his chest. In fact, neither of them believed in the Seven Gods. After all, their father was far more like a god than the Seven Gods.

But I'm used to it.

The boy said goodbye to his sister and walked towards Xingge, who had grown up over the past few years.

This black dragon with silver-gold star patterns has grown several times larger in the past five years. The disc-shaped horn crown on its head, which looks like a crown, has also grown several times larger, and looks more like a huge crown.

In terms of size, it is now close to the original "Red Queen" Melias. It is estimated that if it continues to grow at this rate, it will surpass Dreamfyre next year and become the third largest dragon in Westeros.

The large species are a bit scary.

"Samantha, I'll leave these fifty guards to you." Longzel looked at the somewhat empty Black Palace. "And this palace, when we're not here, it also belongs to you. Protect yourself, Samantha."

"Don't worry, father." Samantha looked at the fire confidently: "I am your daughter. I will not let you down."

She said in her mind.

I will be the bond that makes Varese and Targaryen feel like one family.

Longzel looked at his daughter for a long time.

Then he sighed and turned back to walk towards Womisol.

The roar of the dragon could be heard even in King's Landing. On this day, the citizens of King's Landing once again saw Wormithor and Starsong take off into the sky.

King's Landing, the Red Keep, Maegor's Holdfast.

Watching Starsong and Wormithor go away, Viserys breathed a sigh of relief, then condemned himself in his heart.

At this moment, the voice of young Aegon came.

"Father, father, my brother is looking for you, please come and take a look."

This chapter is a transition chapter for the next three volumes, so it is sent two in one. There will be two reports tomorrow, so the update will be a little later, but it will still be two updates a day.

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(End of this chapter)