Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 364: Darren's Reign

Princess Diana finally opened the gate of the Silver Widow Manor and allowed Daemon and others to return "home". The middle-aged princess was very dissatisfied with her son's compromise, especially when she knew that her son had tamed the most powerful dragon of the Targaryen family, Koraxus. She could not understand why her son would be driven back.

It was not until her son patiently explained to his mother the difficulties they were facing and that the Vareses family had become a solid backing for Darren's rule that Princess Diana desperately accepted this reality.

Her son was now a destabilizing factor that the kingdom was focusing on, and the fact that he was able to reach his fiefdom alive was entirely due to Daeron's kindness - or rather, his unwillingness to destroy his own reputation.

This haunted Princess Diana for years to come.

People knew nothing about the undercurrents in King's Landing when Daeron ascended the throne, but this did not affect Daeron's drastic actions after he ascended the throne. The gold that was originally intended to be used to conquer the land was taken out of the vault by Daeron. The king used the dowry brought by the queen, the gold deposited in Dragonstone, and a large amount of gold borrowed from the Silver Blood Bank and the Iron Bank to recycle most of the Aegon III gold dragons circulating in the market of King's Landing. After melting them, he used the gold deposited to cast the high-quality Daeron II gold dragon.

With Daeron's strong support without any consideration for his own living standards, the treasury of King's Landing was emptied, but the economy of the crown lands stabilized and began to recover slowly - the royal family became much poorer, and even the salaries of courtiers and white cloaks were difficult to guarantee. The king could only dismiss some unnecessary courtiers and let them return to their respective fiefdoms. The white cloaks affiliated with the Kingsguard were also reduced in size.

The lords and courtiers promoted by Aegon III were basically cleared out of King's Landing, and replaced by lords and nobles from the princedoms of the Marches, the Reach, Dorne, and the North, as well as several nobles from the West Riverlands who were openly members of the Silver Dragon Party.

This caused a lot of political turmoil in the first three years of Daeron's reign - the king dismissed us because the kingdom's treasury could not pay our salaries, but our positions were taken by these country bumpkins? Because they brought their own food? Was the king playing tricks on these forces left by the previous king? Or did the king no longer want their support? Some of the tempered nobles even challenged the nobles who replaced them to a duel - the result is predictable.

The chaos ended with the sudden death of Earl Lucas Rothstein, the broker who had served Aegon III diligently for more than ten years, was found drowned in a stinking ditch in King's Landing. Some said that the Earl was unfortunately killed in a duel with a knight who replaced his vassal position. The knight was afraid of revenge and abandoned the Earl's body. Some said that the Earl drowned after excessive indulgence and drunkenness.

But in any case, the sudden death of the most powerful lord during the reign of Aegon III also announced that Aegon III's forces were completely eliminated from the court of Daeron II.

Brynden's eyes began to spread to King's Landing, the Crownlands, the Riverlands, the Stormlands and other places. King's Landing established a rare and complete intelligence network.

The conquered lands were stabilized again after losing the gold of King's Landing. The Bol family, the Reyes family and the Osgrey family were all affected to varying degrees. The Second Sons were completely stabilized and were stationed in the Bol family's fiefdom as a frontier corps of the kingdom.

A rare peace came amid the chaos in the conquered land.

The afterglow of midsummer has lasted for five years.

The heavy fruits ripened five times.

then.

winter is here.

This is a winter that is even worse and more severe than the short winter nearly ten years ago that lasted only a year and a half.

The trembling sea in the North froze first, and the Great Wall was engulfed by the blizzard. The rangers in black began to send out 100-man teams to wipe out the wildlings driven south by the wind and snow. The Great Wall was not short of manpower now. William Mallister, the commander-in-chief of the Great Wall, stationed the Black Army in seven castles. After a long summer and the strong support of the North, which was not short of supplies, the Black Army maintained a size of 7,000 for a long time. When the winter was approaching, the Stark family mobilized 3,000 veterans from the North to put on black clothes to supplement the strength of the Great Wall, allowing the Night's Watch to resist perhaps an unprecedented wildling army - a wildling army that was larger than the battle that the still-living Duke Cregan Stark experienced when he was young. Then, the Last Hearth ignited the eternal flame, and lit the northernmost flame in the blizzard that swept from the New Land to Barrowton. The winter town under Winterfell became a bustling city again, and the mountain clans walked out of the wolf forest and sought refuge from the lord of the North.

After the North was engulfed by the blizzard, the Neck gradually dried up, the Trident River began to enter its dry season, and the upper reaches began to slowly freeze. The riverlands, valleys, and westerlies were all covered with heavy snow, and even King's Landing began to snow.

The storms in the Storm Land gradually subsided, and the climate became drier and colder.

Of the Seven Kingdoms, only the Reach, the March Princedom, and Dorne could remain warm.

The time came to the ninth year of Daeron's reign.

This winter has lasted for nearly four years. Compared with the bitter cold in the first two years, the climate in the last two years has gradually become milder. Crops can be grown again in the stream areas south of Neck Marsh and in Huangzhongtun.

These were also nine years of abundance.

Daenerys Varese and Basilon Stark gave birth to two children. The eldest daughter, Maegor Stark, inherited her mother's Valyrian beauty, violet eyes and silver-gold hair, as well as her father's long face. The second son, Jonel Varese, inherited his father's brown hair, gray eyes, and a straight long face.

The Varese family has entered its fourth generation.

The three generations also gradually achieved successful marriages, the most obvious of which was Sebastian Varese marrying the granddaughter of Prince Lucerys Martell, establishing a marriage alliance between the Marchers and the Martell family.

Daeron and Xirui also welcomed the fruit of their love - in the second year of his reign, Xirui gave Daeron his eldest son, Beile - a strong little guy with silver hair and purple eyes.

Some of the illegitimate dragon knights are still single, such as Garin, Aegor, and Benson.

Some have already started families - such as Daemon, whose wife was hand-picked by the king, Rohanne, the daughter of a noble from Tyrosh - and everyone knows the true identity of this girl. Tyrosh is the territory of the Varese family, and this girl's family is one of the original Valyrian families who followed Dragonzel to Westeros.

The answer is self-evident.

But Damon still accepted the marriage proposal, and he loved his wife honestly, and even gave birth to three sons soon.

Everything is so harmonious.

(End of this chapter)