"You've gone mad. You'd even say something as outrageous as that?" Gaudi Farin cursed in shock and fury from atop the city wall.
"You dead fat bastard, I can see straight through you. You want to trick us like this so we'll let Aegon go.
I'm telling you, not a chance!We don't believe you!
Absolutely not!
Aegon is the son of Rhaegar and Elia, Daenerys's own nephew. You can't fool us!"
Uh, this guy had completely forgotten how earlier he kept calling him a "false king" and a "fake prince."
"I'm not lying. I swear it!" Illyrio said as he wiped away tears. "Varys has been my close friend for many years. With his help, switching a baby was far too easy."
"You're lying!" Gaudi Farin shouted in a rage.
If Aegon were fake, the allied army would no longer need him. If they didn't need him, they wouldn't trade for a wyvern. Without a wyvern, he could never become a dragon rider.
How could the Giant Slayer tolerate that?
Uh, he was overthinking it.
"Kill him!"
Illyrio was about to argue when, from within the castle just beyond the gate, the furious roar of the Second Stag suddenly rang out.
Hearing this, Gaudi Farin snatched a long-armed hand crossbow from a soldier by the battlements and aimed it at the fat man below the walls.
"Hiss—kreeeeee—"
Suddenly, a wyvern's agonized wail echoed from the courtyard behind him. In an instant, Gaudi Farin recalled the scene of King Aegon falling from his dragon that day.
He spun around sharply and saw dozens of ballistae extending from castle balconies and windows. Arm-length refined steel bolts shot out one after another, piercing straight through the massive wyvern's body, wings, and neck in the courtyard.
"What's going on?" Gaudi Farin murmured blankly.
Then he saw the Ragged Prince clutching his head, rolling and howling in the mud.
He saw Taicho, the Iron Bank's representative, struggling beneath a knight.
He saw the grim-faced king.
He saw Melisandre lifting a horn.
"Woooo—"
Aunt Mel's peach-pink, heart-shaped face flushed deep red as the horn's sound pierced the soul, echoing for several kilometers around Snakewood Castle. The wyverns in the sky flew about like headless flies, shrieking in chaos.
Ah, my liege lord is stealing peaches again!
Gaudi Farin suddenly understood. Completely at ease now, he turned and laughed at Illyrio below the walls. "You bastard, I saw through your intentions long ago!
I've always said that Aegon is a fake prince!
Hahaha, wasn't I right?
Still, you're truly audacious and utterly deranged. You even used your own son to confuse true dragon blood, plotting to seize the sacred and great Iron Throne under the guise of a lowly foreign merchant.
Hmph. Just wait for the king's judgment!"
"I'm willing to accept judgment. Hurry and have His Majesty Stannis let my son down!" Illyrio cried.
Gaudi Farin's sudden shift in attitude was obvious. With Illyrio's intelligence, he instinctively sensed something was wrong. But with wyverns struggling and roaring overhead, he was terrified out of his wits, his face pale with fear.
His son was up there in the sky!
The Ragged Prince's wyvern was not controlled by a dragonbinder. It had been ambushed and shot down by the Second Stag's Flaming Heart Knights. The small shadow dragon carrying the dragon horn in the courtyard, along with the eight riderless wyverns in the sky, were easily controlled by the horn.
Only the last one, the fully grown patterned dragon carrying Aegon, still had a dragon rider controlling it. Aunt Mel was using the horn to wrest control of the wyvern from him.
"Ahhh!" Suddenly, Illyrio was terrified out of his mind and screamed as he stared upward.
"Ahhh!" Jon and the others also looked to the sky and cried out in horror.
"Aegon!" Sansa no longer cared about her husband's status. She looked at Aegon falling from the sky and cried out in despair.
Well, Aegon had originally been bound in front of the dragon rider. Illyrio's cries, coming from several hundred meters away, could not possibly be heard. But the upheaval in Snakewood Castle could not be concealed. Even the wyvern beneath him had lost control.
That allied dragon rider decided to go all the way. Shameless Westerosi, you won't keep your word? Then I'll kill King Aegon right now!
He threw King Aegon off the dragon's back.
The wyvern was flying more than a thousand meters high, an "absolutely safe" altitude. King Aegon was no Dragon Queen, so survival was impossible.
Amid the screams of thousands, King Aegon smashed into the northern camp below, turning into a pool of blood and pulp.
"Ow—" Sansa's eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
"Ow—" Illyrio's legs gave out. He collapsed to the ground, covering his face as he wailed. "Oh gods, I never should have clung to false hope. Stannis killed even his own brother for the Iron Throne. How could I expect him to give up the allies' generous terms just to keep a promise?"
"Waaah, my son! Such a brave, such an upright child. You died so miserably!"
The fat man staggered to the crash site like a madman, crawling in the blood-soaked mud. With both hands, he frantically gathered the pulped red flesh, white bone, green intestines, and dark purple organs toward himself.
The people around him had previously suspected he was acting, deliberately claiming King Aegon as his son to rescue him from the allied army. But now, everyone's expressions changed.
They were both enraged by the fat man's utter madness and unable to believe the truth of King Aegon's identity.
Yet seeing Aegon's death so horrific and hearing the fat man's grief so heart-wrenching, they could not help but feel pity for the father and son.
"This is really…" Greatjon stamped his feet in anxiety, yet could not even understand what he was anxious about, which only made him more irritable.
Jon supported his unconscious sister, his gray eyes icy as he stared at the fat man and growled, "Illyrio, explain this clearly."
"What's there to explain? He's already dead," Illyrio said dully, not lifting his head, only digging at his son's crushed skull.
"Something's wrong!" Suddenly, the fat man shouted, scrambling backward in terror.
"This isn't Aegon. It was clearly Aegon before. What's going on?"
"Ah, this isn't King Aeg—" Those around who saw the shattered head of the corpse all cried out in shock.
They couldn't make out his face, but everyone knew King Aegon had silver hair.
Yet in the heap of rotting flesh lay a head of black hair.
Jon's heart stirred. He handed Sansa to Alysane Mormont, hurried a few steps forward, and came to the corpse.
Sure enough, it was not Aegon. The skin was coarse, and the hair was jet-black.
Then, amid the mangled flesh, he saw a gem that radiated warmth and a red glow.
"This is…" Jon picked up the gem and wiped it clean.
"This is one of Melisandre's magical implements. It contains her power!"
"It's an illusion. Aegon was fake from the very beginning! Brienne was deceived by this same illusion back then. Melisandre disguised another person as herself. The Imp really did guess right." Jon suddenly understood.
Then he became conflicted again.
Aegon was fake.
This Aegon was also fake.
Was the real brother-in-law and the fake Aegon still alive?
What should be done?
"Illusion?" Illyrio cried out in shock.
"That's right. An illusion." A soft, alluring female voice came from behind.
The city gate had already opened. Mel, graceful and seductive, walked over with Stannis, whose face was ashen.
"A king's promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold," she said in a strange tone. "King Stannis was determined not to violate his vows or the law, but the allied forces pressed too hard. Just once, they blew up fifteen of our ships.
"So I designed today's situation for His Majesty. We already saw the outcome in the flames, but we did not expect that the outcome would only be a new beginning."
"Why didn't you discuss it with us beforehand?" Jon asked, his expression complicated.
"You are such a clever person. How can you say something so foolish?
"If you had not genuinely besieged the city, how would the Beggar Prince have come?
"Not just you. Even Ser Godry, Ser Richard, and the other king's confidants knew nothing of the truth.
"This is not a matter of trust or distrust. None of you were suitable for acting."
Mel's eyes were full of allure, her words tinged with coquettish reproach, which could not help but spark rosy imaginings about her relationship with Jon.
"Ah!" Illyrio froze for a moment, then threw back his head and let out a long wail, his voice filled with regret and despair.
"Slap, slap, slap, slap." Left hand, right hand. The fat man seemed to go mad, repeatedly striking his own plump face.
Stannis looked at him sharply and said coldly, "I thought you would deny it outright."
The plump spice merchant raised his head. Seeing the contempt, hatred, and resentment in the eyes around him, he gave a bitter smile and said, "You think I was mixing up the Targaryen bloodline?"
"Isn't that so? Don't tell me you also have true dragon blood," Godry Farring sneered.
"I don't, but my wife does," the fat man sighed.
"What?" Everyone was shocked again.
"Who is your wife?" Stannis asked in disbelief.
"Cyra Blackfyre!"
The fat man slowly spoke a name that horrified every Westerosi present.
They did not know Cyra, but they all understood what "Blackfyre" represented.
"I remember that after 'the Monstrous' Maelys died by Ser Barristan's sword on the Stepstones, the Blackfyre line was extinguished," the old crab said with a frown.
"The male line was extinguished, but my wife is Daemon Blackfyre's illegitimate daughter.
"In Pentos, I am something of a prince myself, roughly equivalent to your dukes in Westeros.
"If not for the Blackfyre family's final wish, why would I wade into this muddy water?" Illyrio said bitterly.
"I don't believe it. I don't believe it. You're lying. You're lying!" Sansa's pretty face turned pale. Tears welled in her eyes as she shook her head repeatedly.
In the old wet nurse's legendary stories, there were only frogs turning into princes and common lads reclaiming their royal status. There was no such thing as a prince turning into a frog or a king becoming a nobody.
"This is true. I'm your father!" Illyrio said with deep emotion.
"Oh, no!" Sansa's eyes rolled back, and she fainted again.
Aunt Dany was gone, replaced by Father Illyrio. This was even worse than trading a Cadillac for a Chery.
"That's how it is," the old crab sighed. "Although I long suspected that Aegon was not Rhaegar's son, a Blackfyre descendant is still far beyond expectations."
After confirming Aegon's identity, the old crab relinquished the position of "temporary advisor to Queen Sansa," mounted a dragon, and returned to Dragonstone.
Daenerys stood dazed, her eyes empty, seemingly unable to bear the blow of having her feelings deceived. She looked utterly lost and pitiable.
"Alas, Your Majesty, look…" The old crab made a throat-slitting gesture and asked in a low voice, "Should Illyrio be punished?"
Gerold Dayne said coldly, "Of course he should be punished, and Varys as well. Neither of them can be spared.
"They did not only deceive Your Majesty over Aegon. Their so-called help in restoring the Targaryens before was certainly not sincere.
"They used Your Majesty and Prince Viserys as shields, covering for that fake prince, and even planned to let the true dragon pave the way for him to take the throne.
"This shows that they harbored murderous intent toward Your Majesty and Prince Viserys.
"If Her Grace had not been in Slaver's Bay, but had returned to Westeros and successfully reclaimed the throne, would Varys and Illyrio have tolerated the 'true prince' they cultivated continuing to lie low?"
The poor Dragon Queen's face turned white, and she swayed unsteadily. "How could this be? How could this be…"
(End of chapter)
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