Chapter 157: The Lion and the Rose Still Intertwined
The Crownlands, King's Landing, the Red Keep
"Let us welcome the honorable Warden of the South, Lord of Highgarden, Defender of the Marches, and Lord Paramount of the Reach, Lord Mace Tyrell!"
In the Throne Room of the Red Keep, the excited voice of the royal herald echoed continuously throughout the hall.
After months of negotiations, House Tyrell of the Reach finally agreed to a marriage alliance with House Lannister. Since House Lannister had already begun to infiltrate the Riverlands and brought it completely under their control, the Westerlands could be said to be the strongest power in all of Westeros.
Through the repeated efforts of Littlefinger and the envoys, House Tyrell finally agreed to join forces. After all, they truly had no one else left to cooperate with.
Stannis had always been at odds with the Reach, let alone Dorne; the hatred between the two sides could be traced back to the Dawn Age.
As the doors to the Throne Room opened, the portly Mace Tyrell walked in, accompanied by his daughter Margaery Tyrell, his son Loras Tyrell, and his mother Olenna Tyrell.
As this family from Highgarden entered, the nobles of the Crownlands present quickly began to whisper in low voices. During this period, due to the outbreak of war, countless refugees had instantly flooded into the Crownlands.
Coupled with the blockade of the Reach, prices throughout the Crownlands had risen several times over. While these nobles didn't care at all, commoners driven mad by hunger were capable of anything.
"Those of House Tyrell are finally willing to cooperate. If no more grain comes in, I suspect we won't be able to hold out much longer."
The speaker was a male noble dressed quite sumptuously, appearing to be a lord of one of the castles in the Crownlands.
"Hopefully, everything will get better!"
This was Janos Slynt, the Lord Commander of the Gold Cloaks, speaking. Recently, his men had been finding it difficult to keep the commoners suppressed.
"Have you heard? It seems Margaery of House Tyrell is to marry His Grace King Joffrey. Didn't I hear she's already been married once?"
A certain noble lady whispered to the female companion beside her.
"There seems to be trouble within the Faith. A fellow calling himself 'The Shepherd' wants to depose the High Septon. It seems the Great Sept of Baelor hasn't held prayers for a long time."
A noble wearing a seven-pointed star necklace complained to the person next to him.
Everyone in the hall was quite welcoming of House Tyrell's arrival. Since the north and south of Westeros were currently in a state of confrontation, Lord Tywin Lannister and Renly Baratheon were overseeing the war near Harrenhal.
Although Cersei Baratheon also welcomed the arrival of House Tyrell, she did not particularly like Margaery Tyrell. In her eyes, this woman was certainly not a little girl like Sansa Stark, but a calculating presence. This could be seen from her agreement to marry Joffrey and her joyful expression.
Cersei had stayed in the Red Keep for so many years and had seen all kinds of people. She knew very well that this woman was likely the one in the prophecy destined to replace her. It was a feeling, just like when she could sense that Melara Hetherspoon would try to take Jaime Lannister away.
"Your Grace Joffrey, our House Tyrell will forever stand by your side. Starting tomorrow, grain from the Reach will be sent to King's Landing in a steady stream."
After leading his family in a salute to Joffrey upon the Iron Throne, Mace Tyrell proclaimed loudly to everyone present.
Although the allied forces of the Reach had been defeated by Stannis, thanks to Renly Baratheon's bravery and persistence, the army had managed to retain part of its structure.
Afterward, Mace Tyrell split the army in two. One part was led by Renly Baratheon to assemble near Harrenhal, while the other was led by Baelor Hightower of House Hightower to protect the security around Highgarden.
The Reach and Dorne have a millennium-old blood feud; they knew very well that what the Dornish loved most was to harass and raid the Reach.
"This is my daughter, the beautiful Margaery Tyrell. She shall be your Queen, and the friendship between our two houses shall be continued through this marriage."
Mace Tyrell's voice was filled with pride; he was very proud of this daughter.
"Welcome, Lord Mace! Following this, the Red Keep will hold a grand welcoming feast to celebrate the arrival of you and your family."
Fortunately, Grand Maester Pycelle had prepared a speech for Joffrey early on; otherwise, Joffrey likely wouldn't have been able to say anything.
Following this, the acting Hand, Kevan Lannister, and the Queen Regent, Cersei Baratheon, spoke in turn to welcome the members of House Tyrell.
After the war reached a temporary lull, Kevan Lannister was sent to King's Landing to manage the situation. Lord Tywin knew exactly what kind of person Cersei was; especially after Barristan Selmy was ousted by Cersei and her son, Tywin had labeled the pair as incapable of achieving anything.
Take today's meeting for example: if Kevan hadn't made arrangements in advance, this mother and son would likely have just stared blankly at the Tyrells.
After a brief royal meeting, it was already afternoon. Due to Kevan's arrangements, afternoon tea was prepared in the royal gardens.
Kevan took this opportunity to find Mace Tyrell, who was drinking with Littlefinger. At this moment, Littlefinger's face was full of smugness. After completing his mission to the Reach, Littlefinger had been named Lord Paramount of the Trident and Lord of Harrenhal.
One could say that at this moment, Littlefinger had become a powerful lord capable of influencing the course of Westeros. Given time, if Littlefinger could marry a wife of ancient bloodline, his descendants might truly establish a foothold in Westeros.
Unfortunately, this fellow was too impatient. Multiple successes had caused him to completely lose himself. Littlefinger now treated the Vale as his private property; in his view, with just a little more effort, he could make Stannis and the Crown fight until both were devastated.
"Lord Mace, apologies for the interruption!"
Kevan spoke very politely, causing both Littlefinger and Mace to look toward him.
"I look forward to our next conversation, Lord Mace!"
Realizing he might be superfluous, Littlefinger immediately took his leave.
Subsequently, Kevan began to converse with Mace. However, they did not see that the smiling Littlefinger's face darkened with anger immediately after he left.
Kevan paid no attention to this. After glancing at their surroundings, he spoke directly:
"Lord Mace, is that report true? Does that fellow Stannis have dragons in his possession?"
When he said this, Kevan was also somewhat incredulous. After all, he knew very well that dragons had been extinct for many years. If there really were dragons, House Targaryen wouldn't have fled to Essos back then.
"They are two monsters somewhat similar to dragons. Our army was routed by them; otherwise, how could that pretender Stannis possibly defeat us?"
Mace was also full of indignation when he mentioned this. To be honest, he truly never expected his army of eighty thousand to be broken through so directly.
However, what angered Mace even more were House Florent and those families of the Stormlands; they actually dared to openly support Stannis. If it weren't for the fact that the Reach was currently under threat from the Dornish, he would have gathered an army to besiege House Florent long ago.
"Our biggest problem now is those people lurking in the shadows. However, I heard that the maesters at the Citadel also seem interested in these dragons. I just don't know if they have a way to deal with such dragon-like monsters."
Kevan's words were actually Lord Tywin's intent. Now that House Lannister and House Tyrell were closely linked, it shouldn't be a problem to have the Citadel in Oldtown contribute some effort.
In history, Dorne used a scorpion bolt to kill the dragon Meraxes. Although hitting a flying dragon with a scorpion is like a stroke of pure luck, the success rate might be greatly increased if the target were on the ground.
"I would have forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it. That's no problem; several branches of our family serve as maesters at the Citadel. I'll write to them now to have them look up the records."
"Thank you very much, Lord Mace. May our kingdom continue to prosper!"
After hearing Mace agree to help, Kevan was instantly excited.
Afterward, the two discussed some future arrangements. When Lord Tywin gave Kevan his task, he had also promised to give a seat on the Small Council to Lord Mace.
Since the Master of Laws and the Master of Ships of the Seven Kingdoms had defected one after another, these two positions were now vacant. The position of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard had already been decided; it had to be Jaime Lannister.
So the remaining matter was to discuss how to give one of these two positions to someone from House Tyrell. Lord Mace was quite inclined to become the Master of Coin.
However, Littlefinger had just performed a great service, and it would be difficult for the crown to remove him. Thus, the focus of the matter now was when to vacate the position for Lord Mace.
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