"At your service!"
Karen shouted firmly, her heart instantly filled with surprise. Her friend Koda was just one of the tax officials in the tax department, and she had already surpassed him.
"Captain, the maester and I will take our leave!"
He escorted the maester out of the hall, and Earl Selwyn couldn't wait to ask, "Do the Others really exist?"
"They do! Including the Old Gods, the Lord of Light, the Three-Eyed Raven, the Children of the Forest, and so on, they all exist!""Garedon's expression was grave. This world was making it hard for mortals to survive. No wonder the Citadel wanted to establish a 'real world' without magic and dragons."
"Impossible, how could it be..."
Lord Selwyn slumped into his chair, muttering in disbelief.
"Don't worry, Father, those things are like the Targaryen dragons, they can be killed," Garedon said, trying to sound reassuring. "White Walkers, even the legendary Night King, die easily with a stab from dragonglass or Valyrian steel!"
Lord Selwyn breathed a sigh of relief, then asked worriedly, "What about the Long Night?""At least seven or eight years left. Haven't we been stockpiling grain and dried fish...? And we have the Narrow Sea!"
"Oh, right!" Selwyn instantly calmed down, lamenting, "The Seven Kingdoms are going to suffer! I wonder how many people will die?"
To break the somber mood in the banquet hall, Garredon joked, "Well, the Seven Kingdoms fall, we eat our fill!"
He walked over to the map on the banquet hall wall, lit a new candle on the stone candlestick in front of the map, the candlelight flickering, Garredon's reflected shadow covering the entire Narrow Sea area on the map.
He looked at the map and explained;"We absolutely have to capitalize on this demographic dividend! Once we take Lorath and the Stepstones, those islands can accommodate at least a million people!"
Lorath is located in the center of the Narrow Sea, the weakest and most isolated of the nine Free Cities.
If Tarth takes Lorath, it can deter the Free Cities that also covet Tarth's maritime trade interests, without alarming the other eight cities and causing them to join forces against Tarth.
The Stepstones are a series of large islands formed after the breaking of the Arm of Dorne, connecting the Narrow Sea and the Summer Sea to the south, and are infested with countless pirates.
Lord Selwyn Tarth walked over to his son and said in a solemn voice;""Hmm, I've also heard whispers about a large-scale military exercise!"
"Are you interested in participating?" Remembering Earl Selwyn's consistent support, Garreton felt a warmth in his heart and couldn't help but suggest, "You could come along for some fun, bringing your 30,000-strong joint naval and land legion."
"Forget it, in your words, old guys like us should have retired and be resting long ago."
A clear look of interest appeared on Earl Selwyn's face, but he quickly shook his head in refusal. Compared to the smoke and fire of war, he still preferred the warm embrace of his beloved wife at home.
Brenne is unfortunate, he actually owns a lot of the southern and northern hemispheres.Galeton was speechless and admiring!
But wanting to retire at fifty is as beautiful as he imagined! The difference is that Earl Selwyn is actually living a winner's retirement life!
He is a little more benevolent than the nobles and lords of this world. The people of Tass can stop working after the age of sixty and go to the school to receive food, only needing to use a stick to help the teacher maintain order in the classroom.
Can you imagine the consequences of being in the same class as your grandfather but not being able to keep up with his grades?
The children of Tass are truly miserable!
"Is it okay to withdraw all fleets and the entire First Legion?"Lord Selwyn squinted, his index finger slowly tracing the Narrow Sea on the map.
"From the moment I decided to take the Royal Fleet, I've been planning this," Garreton explained to him. "The Royal Fleet disappeared in the Narrow Sea, and even if we deny it, King's Landing won't believe us."
"Then, based on the Royal Fleet's combat power,
they can deduce part of our strength!"
Lord Selwyn's eyes flashed with a wise light as he continued, "They will start to worry that our strength is growing too fast! They will worry about what we are hiding!""That's right, the war department anticipates King's Landing will mobilize the fleets from the Arbor and Dragonstone to pressure us!" Galbarton pinched the narrow Straits of Tarth with his fingers. "But the initiative is in our hands, they won't dare to attack across the sea!"
He clenched his fist and slammed it on the west side of Westeros on the map. "Only!"
"The Westerlands?" Earl Selwyn was incredulous. The Westerlands and Tarth were on opposite sides, separated by a continent!
"No! The Westerlands and the Iron Islands! Perhaps even Braavos!"
"The Westerlands and the Iron Islands?"Six years ago, Balon's third brother, Victarion, burned the Lannister fleet at Lannisport, causing the Westerlands' navy to never recover to this day!
Six years ago, in 289 AC, Iron Islands Duke Balon Greyjoy launched a failed rebellion, which instead allowed Robert to consolidate his rule with the prestige of victory, but the damage it caused to the Westerlands was real.
As for a Lannister-Braavos alliance, Lord Selwyn thinks it's possible, after all, one family is rich in gold mines and claims that even their "poop" is gold, while the other is a "financial group" that controls the world.
But the Westerlands and the Iron Islands cooperating? Impossible!"As long as there's a common interest, even the most hateful enemies can become friends!"
Galadon was unconvinced. That old lion wouldn't dwell on past grudges.
"Father, don't underestimate that old lion's quill and ravens!"
Who knows, the old lion might even want to incite the Iron Islands and then use Tarth to cut down the Iron Fleet.
"Our Lord Tywin is a true lion, cold-blooded and cruel, while Balon of the Iron Islands is like a squid on a platter, naive and delicious. Combine the two with some pirates from the Stepstones, plus the fleet of Braavos, and you have four forces attacking Tarth simultaneously!"
His tone was a little grave."Then...!"
Lord Selwyn's voice immediately became dry, and deep worry appeared in his eyes: "Then the Dragonstone and Arbor fleets will definitely join the war! Tarth is finished!"
He suddenly looked at his son, his voice trembling: "You want to abandon Tarth?"
"How is that possible!!!" Garedon was speechless. Didn't his father know how much effort he had put into Tarth?
"Taking Lorath and the Stepstones in advance is to avoid this situation from happening. Besides, this is the worst-case scenario we anticipated!"
"Maybe the letter I sent a few days ago has already deterred that old lion, Tywin!"Lord Selwyn's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands together: "Yes, we know Jaime Lannister and his sister are committing incest! Blackmailing them into standing by, that's definitely a good idea!"
After a moment, he shook his head again and said, "It seems too drastic. We could propose a marriage alliance instead."
Because they have a common enemy, House Baratheon!
"Ha! An alliance with the old lion is never a good idea!"
Garedton scoffed after listening, waving his hand in refusal.
"And I'm not blackmailing the old lion, I'm just using it to curse him fiercely! Insult him! Even provoke him!"His entire letter to Tywin conveyed only one message: "Come at me!!!"
"Ugh!" Selwyn rubbed his temples, feeling his brain wasn't working hard enough again. Shouldn't he be deterring or pacifying the Westerlands? To prevent them from forming a four-way alliance to attack Tarth?
"What are you even thinking?"
Selwyn pondered for half an hourglass, then gave up. It was normal that his old-fashioned mind couldn't fathom his son's thoughts.
Garedon's eyes shone with a dazzling light as he replied with unparalleled dominance: "I want to seize control of Westeros's naval power in one battle!"
"Who's there!"Suddenly, he whirled around and shouted sharply towards the banquet hall window, pulling the dazed Earl Selwyn behind him.
"Caw~!!"
Before the stained-glass window, a large raven had landed at some unknown time, its pair of horrifying, dead fish eyes staring at Caledon with a human-like intensity.
"Dead raven, behave yourself!" Caledon recognized the raven at a glance, his eyes filled with coldness as he threatened angrily, "Otherwise, I wouldn't mind completely disrupting the established destiny of Westeros!"
The raven tilted its head strangely, its body emitting waves that seemed to not exist in this space, like a nocturnal owl!
"Whoosh~!""Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
Suddenly, three sharp whistling sounds of arrows came from outside. Three silver arrows, gleaming with cold light under the cold moon, shot swiftly from different directions, completely blocking the crow's escape route.
"Caw!"
The crow cried out in alarm and flew up, its voice rough and grating, making it very uncomfortable to listen to!
"Garedun Tars, you will come looking for me!"
What made Garedun feel even worse was that a voice, aged and hoarse, seemed to penetrate infinite space and resound in his mind.
[Warning! Unknown virus data has been generated and spread again - has been re-constrained]
The three silver arrows were fast and swift!Despite shattering the windowsill, the great raven ascended straight into the clouds on an unknown gust of wind, but the silver arrow that sealed off the sky above was even faster, causing the great raven to be pierced through the heart as if it had flown straight into it.
"Commander~!!!"
The three, Divine Sword Colin, Thunder Fist Cade, and White-Haired Nick, burst through the door. Colin, wielding his sword, instantly crossed the entire banquet hall to protect Caledon.
Cade, taking strides of nearly ten meters, chased out through the broken window, continuously using the castle's architecture to leap and bound like a wall-running acrobat, catching the falling raven's corpse on the tower roof opposite the banquet hall.Nick followed closely behind, aiming his new Mir crossbow, capable of firing six bolts in rapid succession, at the sky to cover Cade. It was clear that the three bolts from before were his doing.
"I'm fine!" Garret waved his hand at the three worried faces, then said to Cade, who had jumped repeatedly and broken into the banquet hall through the window, "Take the dead crow's body to Big Zhuang and the others."
Cade nodded in agreement, turned and left, burning with towering rage. The crow's corpse in his right hand was crushed into a pulp by his anger. Colin and Nick's eyes were also filled with guilt.
Colin sheathed his cold longsword and bowed his head in apology, "I'm sorry, Captain! If Hawkeye had been here earlier...""That might have been some kind of perception-blocking technique just now. Even if Hawkeye was here, he might have overlooked the opponent!"
Galeton dismissed their self-blame. Sharpshooter Hawkeye is always responsible for long-range attack defense and high-altitude defense.
Tonight, it happened to be Hawkeye's night off, and Galeton didn't need the four guard knights to protect him at all times.
"J-Just now, what was that?"
Earl Selwyn finally recovered from the series of changes, but with his mortal eyes, he couldn't see the threat of the crow at all.
"That was the Three-Eyed Raven!"
...
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Here are a few fan-fic titles that I've recently uploaded on my Patreon:
"Game of Thrones: Dragon Prince"
"Game of Thrones: Political Life"
"Game of Thrones: Holy Flame"
"The Game of Thrones Upgrade System"
"Game of Thrones: Lannister Kingdom"
"Game of Thrones: Godzilla vs. Dragons"
"Game of Thrones: Ruler of the Deep Seas "
"Game of Thrones The Glory of a Knight"
"Game of Thrones: The Most Powerful Dragon Queen"
" Game of Thrones: From the Elden Lord to the Young Wolf"
"Game of Thrones: Rise of a Lord with the Army-Building System"
(End Chapter)