The Silent Sisters finished this ritual that had lasted three or four hours and withdrew in fatigue.
The Hand of the King stood on the steps, silently looking at the corpse on the stone sarcophagus.
At this moment Grand Maester Payton and Ser Barristan Selmy seemed to know the ritual had ended, and they walked into the throne hall to find him.
"Grand Maester Payton, are you certain that the letter sent to the new king can reach him at the first possible moment?"
Eddard did not turn his head, asking this question that he cared about deeply.
Robert's final reminder made him vigilant in his heart.
"Ten ravens have been sent. According to His Majesty Kal's route, the general area has already been covered. Even if he does not receive it, once he reaches a nearby town, the local maester will inform him of this news at the first possible moment."
After answering the Hand's words, Grand Maester Payton also felt somewhat troubled. He had only just taken office for a few months, yet a king had already died like this.
Hearing this, Eddard nodded. "We need to wait until he returns to preside over the King's funeral— this will be the last time he can see him."
Hearing this heavy topic, Barristan also looked toward those bottles and jars containing blood and organs, and said in a heavy tone, "This will require at least a week. I hope the Silent Sisters' work has no accidents."
However, just as his words fell, a voice suddenly came from behind the three of them.
"No, my lords, I have already arrived——."
In the silent throne hall, Kal's voice suddenly exploded, immediately startling the few of them.
Eddard thought he was hallucinating and hurriedly turned his head, just in time to see Kal walking out from a patch of shadow, his figure still tall.
"Kal— you, we only sent you the message yesterday evening after His Grace was confirmed dead."
Seeing Kal suddenly appear before his eyes, Eddard was full of disbelief, and his tone also carried hidden vigilance.
But Kal did not pay attention to the Hand's faint caution. His steps did not stop as he passed the three of them and came before Robert, whose body had already been prepared by the Silent Sisters.
Only when he saw with his own eyes that this foolish king had ended his life in the same way as in the original did Kal finally accept reality.
Robert was truly dead.
Silently looking at Robert's torso, after a moment, Kal finally opened his mouth, his tone becoming somewhat hoarse. "I received the message last night. As for how I came? I ran back the whole way."
As he spoke, he turned around, his gaze cold as it looked at Eddard Stark, his future father-in-law.
"Lord Eddard, you should have sent me the message the moment you received it. At the very least, your king would not have died because of this."
Facing Kal's sudden anger, Eddard Stark had not yet even digested the fact that Kal had run all the way back to King's Landing in a single day after receiving the message, when Kal's shout stunned him.
He wanted to say something, but facing Kal's gaze, he found he did not dare look directly at him, subconsciously lowering his head.
And upon hearing that Kal had run all the way back after receiving the message, Barristan Selmy and Grand Maester Payton at the side were both shocked.
However, upon hearing Kal rebuke the Hand, as someone who should have been protecting the King's safety, he still stepped forward to speak a word in defense of Eddard Stark.
"Kal— Your Grace, I understand your sorrow, but when the King was brought back from the Kingswood, it was already three days later. After returning to the Red Keep, he passed away in his sleep in less than half a day————."
But it would have been better if Barristan Selmy had not explained. Once he did, Kal's anger surged even more violently. He suddenly twisted his head, and at some point both his eyes had already turned completely red.
"As long as he still had one breath left, I could have kept him alive!!!"
Kal could no longer suppress himself and roared at Barristan Selmy. "Tell me, why did you not tell me at the first moment?!"
"Your Grace——" Grand Maester Payton could not bear to watch anymore and stepped forward to pacify him.
Hearing the comfort of the newly appointed Grand Maester, Kal glared at the silent Barristan Selmy and Eddard Stark, and in the end could only take a deep breath and turn his back.
He knew that no matter how much he blamed them, it was useless. In that kind of situation, how could anyone have delivered the message to him at the first moment?
He was merely Robert's bastard, and moreover the Warden of the West who was on his way back to his own lands.
If Robert had not legitimized him on his deathbed and named him king, the raven would not have delivered the news to him at the first moment either.
But Kal still could not fully control himself in that minute.
Because the fact he knew was that as long as Robert still had one breath, he could have saved him.
Whether it was his magic or that miraculous healing potion, both could have let Kal snatch Robert back from the Stranger's hand.
"But I am not a god. I have no way to make someone who has died live again."
Looking at Robert's peaceful face lying on the stone sarcophagus before him, Kal muttered to himself.
Toward this man, he honestly did not have much feeling.
But in these last few months, Robert's affection for him was something he had always kept in his eyes.
But he was the King, a usurping King, no longer the carefree young man who would still hold him in his arms and tease him when he was a child.
In Kal's memory, these fragments still faintly surfaced, and these fragments gradually overlapped with the scene before him.
"Your Grace——" Hearing Kal's murmuring that carried hidden sorrow, Eddard Stark, who had been inexplicably yelled at twice, walked forward. "Now we need to immediately convene a council before the King, to announce the King's will and your legitimacy."
He looked solemnly at Kal, who had rushed back the moment he received the news, his voice carrying seriousness.
"My Lord Hand is worried that my two uncles will refuse to accept me?"
"Lord Renly is fine, but His Grace Robert reminded me of Stannis on his deathbed——"
Eddard Stark did not speak the rest, stopping only at that point.
Hearing this, Kal once again took a deep look at Robert lying peacefully in the stone sarcophagus and could only nod.
"Then convene the council before the King. I want to hear their answers in the meeting. If they submit to me now, I will not pursue the past——"
Kal's arrival was silent and unnoticed by anyone.
And the sudden convening of the council before the King was also reported through the stewards and the overseer of the King.
However, when Kal sat in the chamber used specifically for convening the council before the King, waiting for everyone to gather, as the minutes passed one by one, a small half of the seats before him still remained empty.
At this time in the council before the King, the Hand of the King, Lord Eddard Stark, was present.
Although arriving late, the Master of Whisperers Varys was also present.
Grand Maester Payton, and Ser Barristan Selmy, Captain of the Kingsguard, were among the first to arrive, and naturally were present.
Kal himself was present.
At the long table, Eddard Stark's face had already turned iron-blue.
At this moment, ever since learning that the Small Council was being convened, and that Kal El had already returned, Varys let out a sigh.
From the moment he entered the chamber, he had been sitting silently, eyes lowered, breath steady, saying nothing.
Only now, as he watched the steward and the master of household withdraw, and waited for the Kingsguard to close the doors, did he finally turn his head toward Kal, who sat in the King's seat, his face full of gloominess mixed with a hint of fear.
"Your Grace, I fear we will not be able to wait for them—"
Hearing his words, the gazes of the high nobles all turned toward him.
But Kal continued to sit with eyes closed, quietly resting.
Seeing this Kal, who was about to become the new King, give no reaction at all—showing not even the slightest expression—Varys's face grew bitter.
He could only brace himself and continue speaking: "Yesterday evening, after the Grand Maester announced the King's death, Lord Stannis Baratheon ordered his warship to set sail and leave the port, heading toward Dragonstone."
"Then, in the middle of the night, Lord Renly Baratheon also departed. He left through a side gate, and with him was the Queen-to-be whose wedding had not yet been held, Lady Margaery Tyrell—"
"Oh, and Ser Loras Tyrell, along with the one hundred guards he brought."
"And according to the latest reports, they are galloping south at full speed, undoubtedly bound either for Storm's End or for Highgarden."
After saying all this, Varys looked at Kal with dread in his heart.
As for Grand Maester Payton and Hand of the King Lord Eddard Stark, they both remained silent.
Grand Maester Payton rubbed his temples in exhaustion. How could he fail to understand what would happen next given the current situation?
As for Hand of the King Lord Eddard Stark, he clenched his fists, his expression extremely grim.
"Then why did you not flee?" Kal suddenly spoke as the silence stretched on.
But he still leaned against the back of his chair, eyes closed, as if merely resting.
Hearing this unexpected question from Kal, both Lord Eddard Stark and Grand Maester Payton could not help turning their eyes toward Varys.
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