|3rd POV|
"How is it, dear husband? Is the king willing to help us? Will Lord Jon Arryn help us?"
Triston Sunderland, the Lord of the Three Sisters, released a sigh. He looks at his wife and shakes his head.
"No. Lord Arryn says that the famine is going south, and he requires all the food and cannot help us. However, he is willing to cut the tax by half."
"Not even all of them?"
His wife frowns at the news. Triston nods his head tiredly and releases another sigh.
"Aye. Winter was a problem; now, famine is still happening and spreading. The food we have in storage will be depleted soon. I don't know how long it will last, but at least we can survive for at least two months."
Triston is thinking of how he and his people can get food. However, only one person can provide them with food, and this person is the Archenemy of the crown. He knows the other house is buying food from the Solaris Kingdom, and the Royal Family also knows about them.
However, instead of killing those people who buy food from the enemies, the royal family tightened their patrols around the Narrow Sea. Anyone who is caught trying to buy food from the Solaris Kingdom will be captured and ransomed.
This is the right way to do it because it is a punishment for the people who try to break the king's law, but it is light enough for the nobles not to have reason to rebel. Jon Arryn tries to balance things out. However, by doing this, he loses respect from both sides.
He loses respect from the people who are still loyal to the crown because he does not punish them hard enough, and he loses respect from the people who ask for help because they get punished instead of understanding why they are doing this.
House Sunderland never gets caught, but its vassal gets caught once. The Heir of House Borrel gets caught and needs to pay a large amount of money for his release. Triston helps Lord Borrel pay the ransom because of his order to buy the food that Heir Borrel gets caught.
"Husband, I think I have a solution for this problem."
"Hmmm? What is it?"
"Have you heard the rumor of wildlings creating a proper city in the north?"
"I have heard of it from one of the merchants, yes. What of it?"
"The sailor says that Lord Targaryen built the city."
"What?"
Triston looks at his wife in shock and confusion.
"Is he working with the Wildling now?"
"It is not what I heard, no. The sailors say that Skagosi approached the Golden Dragon, and after he made them a proper land for them to stay, they swore fealty to him. He named the city Fenris, and the flag is a snarling silver dragon on top of a black background."
"That confirms it."
Triston leans forward and formulates a plan to use this opportunity as much as possible. He knows the crowd will try to block any incoming traffic, and he wants to get as many goods from that place as possible before it happens.
"Where is this Fenris? Is it far away from us?"
"According to the sailors and merchants that stop here, they are located in Hardhome. We need to set sail through the Bay of Seal. As long as our merchants do not go too far east and reach Skagos, they will reach Fenris."
"Good!"
Triston claps his hands and stands up. He looks at his wife and says.
"I shall be the one leading this expedition. Tell Lord Borrel, Lord Longthrope, and Lord Torrent to gather half of their ships. We will go north. We will use the fact that the North does not have a fleet to set sail without anything stopping us."
"I shall tell the Maester about it, dear husband."
Triston smiles and kisses his wife affectionately. He is truly blessed to have a wife who knows how to open her ears for any useful information that is flying around.
However, he doesn't know that all of the rumors flying around are a deliberate part of the Solaris Kingdom. The Faceless men are the ones spreading that rumor around. Melisandre is the one making this plan, and Viserys agrees with this plan.
After the nagging from Melisandre and his sister, Viserys agrees to the plan and tells the others to prepare for war. Targaryen will return home, but this time, it is not only dragons that will win them the war.
They will win through Dragons, Army, and Economics.
Solaris Kingdom is growing at a tremendous speed and is stable enough for a long war. They have the number and power to fight the entire Westeros if they want to. However, they will not be the ones who start the war. They will be the ones responding to it, and let the Seven Kingdoms be the ones attacking them first.
To do that, they need to lure the Seven Kingdoms to attack them. They already know about Jon Arryn's attempt to block all the nobles from purchasing goods from the Solaris Kingdom. It is rather successful with the help of the Royal Navy.
Stannis is smart enough to attack the passing ship that is flying the Solaris Flag, but he is very aggressive to anyone who flags he recognizes.
However, it will change when they try to block the incoming traffic between Fenris and the Seven Kingdoms. The only way to do that is through the Bay of Seal, and the Fenrisian will make sure to anchor there, provoking the Westerosian to attack first.
War will officially start when they are attacked, and they can invade the Seven Kingdoms.
They already train soldiers on the main continent and sailors in the Lunarian City. They are still less than what the Seven Kingdoms can raise, but they are accepting a lot of refugees from other city-states to recruit them as soldiers to fill the ranks.
Not only that, they also have better equipment than the Seven Kingdoms. Making armor in the Minecraft world is super easy.
They are now waiting. Waiting for the keg to explode.
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For you guys who don't know, I took a loan to pay for all the funeral processing, and I need to pay quite a bit for the first installment. I don't have enough money to pay for rent, the electric bill, and food, alongside that monthly payment. I need your help to pay for the first few payments so I have enough savings to pay the rest without risking my family and I going starving or not paying rent.
For anyone who wants to help me, you can go to my Ko-fi: Ko-fi.com/fangrove
Thank you for your understanding, and I am sorry for not updating frequently.