Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 25 Otto Hightower's Plan
"Otto, be patient and let the Grand Maester finish his report." Viserys tapped the table lightly a few times, motioning Otto to sit down.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. This news is so horrible that I lost my composure." Otto lowered his head and explained, then slowly sat back in his original seat.

Grand Maester Melos opened a book and continued, "According to records, the Vareses family was once one of the forty dragon king families. The last Valyrian emperor, Orion Vareses, was a member of this family. After the Doomsday catastrophe, this family lost all its dragons, and its descendants huddled behind the black wall of Volantis, relying on the huge wealth left by their ancestors to survive. But its previous patriarch, Cleolius Vareses, was a genius. He accumulated even greater wealth for the family and formed a fully full-time standing army of thousands of people. This army has long fought against the Dothraki and mercenaries and has accumulated rich war experience. More than ten years ago, Cleolius married..."

The Grand Secretary suddenly stopped.

"Go on." The king held his head. He was shocked when he learned this information. Even after thinking about it for a long time, he still found it difficult to accept.

"The self-exiled Princess Ceniella Targaryen."

The ministers were silent. Even Larris Strong lowered his head and fiddled with his orb, wondering what he was thinking.

"The princess gave birth to three boys, Longzel, Valar and Rey. The two who tamed the dragon were Longzel Varezes and Valar Varezes. According to news from Pentos, the fleet of the Varezes family is sailing to the west, with at least 300 large ships in the fleet."

"So they not only have dragons, but also wealth and thousands of capable men?" Ser Tyran Lannister pointed out the problem, cleverly not mentioning Princess Ceniella.

"Your Majesty, we cannot allow the dragons to escape." Otto Hightower stood up.

"I know." The king waved his hand helplessly. "So what do you think we should do?"

"Send out the dragons. We have Vhagar, Sunfyre, and Dreamfyre." Otto Hightower paused and continued, "There are Syrax and Korax on Dragonstone, and Princess Rhaenys's Melias. We have even more dragons."

"Prime Minister." Larris Strong's low voice sounded. "I think I need to remind you that Princess Rhaenyra is still pregnant, as everyone knows." He put the orb he had been playing with back into the groove. "Pregnant women cannot ride dragons. Prince Aemond has just recovered from his sickbed. He has only ridden Vhagar once. The same goes for Princess Helena and Prince Aegon." Larris squinted at Otto.

Otto pursed his lips and sighed inwardly. He could only sit down and continue, "Your Majesty, if this matter is not dealt with in time, it is very likely that the past will happen again." He did not mention Aegon's conquest.

Viserys knew what he meant, and he looked at the other ministers. Queen Alicent looked at her father, then at her husband, and finally said nothing.

Lord Linman coughed. "Your Majesty, it seems that the only dragon riders we can send into battle are Prince Daemon and Princess Rhaenys, but..."

"Your Majesty, since he is the son of Princess Senilla, why can't we persuade him to join the kingdom?" Count Jasper suddenly said.

Otto was about to retort when he found that there was some truth in it. None of the people present were fools. They were well-versed in history and knew very well what would happen to the Dragon King's family in Essos. The Eastern Continent had complicated feelings towards dragons. If Longzel stayed in Volantis or other places in the Eastern Continent, the ensuing chaos would sweep across the entire continent and eventually devour his family and his dragon.

Then the purpose of his fleet sailing westward became obvious.

"During the Great Council of your grandfather, King Jaehaerys the Arbiter, Princess Senella's offspring were disinherited." Lord Jasper continued.

"cough."

Count Linman suddenly coughed, interrupting Count Jasper's words.

"Lord Wilde, please don't get involved in other matters." Earl Linman reminded.

The king's expression changed for a moment, then returned to normal. "Go on."

"Your Majesty, please forgive me." Lord Jasper apologized hastily, and then said, "Since it does not involve the issue of succession rights, we can completely regard him as another family of Velaryon."

"Lord Wilder." Otto interrupted him. "Valerian has followed Targaryen for hundreds of years." He looked at the silent King Viserys. "The two families have been intermarried for generations, until Lord Corlys' generation temporarily had dragons because of Princess Rhaenys. There is no comparison between the two families."

"Prime Minister, Lord Jasper has a point." Grand Maester Meros looked at Otto and continued, "The Velaryon family once owned three adult dragons, including Vhagar. But with the death of Lady Lannar, the dragon rider, Prince Aemond successfully took back Vhagar, and Sea Smoke also returned to the wild dragons after Ser Lannino's accident."

"I understand what you mean, Grand Maester." Otto spread his hands. "Win them over through marriage, and after their death, use the marriage relationship to take back the dragon. However, there are no girls in the royal family now!"

Queen Alicent finally found a chance to get a word in. "My Lords, my son Aegon and my daughter Helena have consummated their marriage and have received the blessing of the Seven Gods, and Rhaenyra's son has also been married to Prince Daemon's daughter."

"We can handle this through marriages of the next generation." Larris Strong said. "Or wait for the birth of a new girl in the royal family, Grand Maester, if I remember correctly, they are three brothers." Melos nodded. "Yes, the youngest, Rey Vareses, is only 12 years old."

"We can wait," Larry Strong said. "Or we can start a fight between brothers."

"Lord Laris." Sir Tyran interrupted Laris. "Your Majesty, I think you should know that if you want to win them over, the so-called marriage alone is not enough. They brought hundreds, thousands of ships and tens of thousands of people."

"Territory, wealth, and title," said Earl Linman. "The boy only pursues these three things."

"Lord Linman, you are talking lightly." Count Jasper responded bluntly. "Territory? Which territory? Your Hive City? Or my Rain House City? Although the Seven Kingdoms are large, they all have their own owners. If we want to divide new territories, we must negotiate with the lords of each place. How easy is that?"

"Alright, let me be quiet." King Viserys finally couldn't help himself. "I agree with the plan of winning over the people, but how to win them over, you guys go down and discuss it." He covered his head and motioned for Queen Alicent to come over and support him. "Mellos, you go and search for any unowned lands or royal territories that can be divided, then send letters to the guardians to inquire about the land matters, and we'll discuss the rest next time."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

Watching King Viserys leave, the ministers also left the Red Keep with doubts. Only Ser Otto Hightower walked towards the Prime Minister's Tower with a serious face. Several servants of the Hightower family saw the Prime Minister coming and hurried to greet him.

"Write to Earl Hobart and ask him to clear out a piece of territory near Old Town as soon as possible. Quick."

The servant was stunned for a moment, and then Otto kicked him on the butt. "Hurry up."

"Yes, my lord."

Watching the servants running towards the Raven Tower, Otto flashed a barely perceptible smile on his face.
Summer sea.

Varese's fleet was getting bigger and bigger, and Lady Clevna did not stop Varese's fleet from leaving the port with soldiers, craftsmen, and civilians. On the contrary, she was very pleased when she saw this scene. She even took the initiative to help provide ships.

"My lord, the Tiger Party envoy's ship has been following us for many days." Vincent Kaon stood steadily on the deck and said to Longzel who was watching his brother playing with the little dragon.

Above the sky, Vermithor and Silver Wing hovered over the Lord of Silence.

Valar was practicing flying in the sky.

I don't know if it's because of the dragon egg or other reasons, but Rey's little dragon grew very fast. In just a few weeks, its scales hardened and it grew dense and terrifying spikes. The little dragon also increased several times in size. However, what was different was that this little dragon was relatively slender. If you ignore the spikes and scales, you can't even see much flesh.

Rey named the little dragon "Shadow Nightmare". This was the name of his favorite pony when he was a child, but unfortunately, the horse died. And the hunting falcon "Flame Wing" also died in the sky after the last group of people evacuated Volantis.

Lei held up a piece of roasted meat and teased the little dragon, but the little dragon stretched out its neck like lightning, grabbed the meat and swallowed it.

"Brother, is there any more meat?"

"Yes." Longzel smiled and asked the chef to bring a few more pieces of meat. Then he looked at Fansen, "No, the Tiger Party wants to keep us in the quagmire of Essos."

"But Westeros," Vincent pursed his lips. "Excuse me, it's a backward land. It's barbaric and has no civilization at all."

"I know." Longzel looked up at the sun in the sky and squinted his eyes. "This is an attempt, but also a mission."

Fansen lowered his head and said in a deep voice, "The Kaon family is your spearhead. Your direction is my direction."

Womisol happened to fly by and blocked the sun's rays.

The boy's gaze then turned towards the distant west.

Second update check-in.



(End of this chapter)