"Did you come specifically to find me?" Dany asked.
Zhong'er shifted uneasily, her lips moving slightly. "Yes. I heard that Your Majesty was in the sept. Earlier, I also heard from Aiju that King Stannis of King's Landing made King Robert's bastard daughter the Crown Princess."
"Aiju is the madam of the Peach Inn. She's well-informed, probably heard about Mya Baratheon from mercenaries," Septon Nocamp explained at the right moment.
"Zhong'er, do you also want to become the Crown Princess?" Dany's lips twitched.
Zhong'er hurriedly shook her head like a rattle drum. "I'm a prostitute. How could a prostitute become the Crown Princess?
"It's just that with the Long Night coming, life has been very hard. And I heard that Mya is also a bastard like me, so I wanted to take this opportunity to get a little benefit."
"You're quite honest," Dany said with a laugh.
Seeing the Dragon Queen laugh, Zhong'er split her thick lips into a grin and chuckled foolishly along.
After laughing for a while, Dany asked again, "What proof do you have that you are Robert's child?"
"Although King Robert slept with every woman in the inn, everyone said he liked my mother the most. After sleeping with her, he went out to fight with his hammer," Zhong'er said proudly.
Dany's expression became very strange for a moment.
"Ser Clinton seems a bit wronged," the dwarf said, rubbing his nose and chuckling.
"The madam is called Aiju, right? Is she here?" Dany asked.
"She's outside," Septon Nocamp replied, then hurried to the adjacent sept hall and brought in the old woman who had been praying beneath the statue of the Mother.
A tall, thin woman in her early fifties.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," the madam said, prostrating herself on the ground, her expression full of fear and caution, far more restrained than Zhong'er.
"I'll ask you. Back during the Battle of the Bells, was Robert hiding in your inn?" Dany asked.
"Your Majesty, forgive me, forgive me," Aiju's powdered face turned even paler as she repeatedly kowtowed, begging for mercy.
"Get up and speak. The Queen is only curious about what happened back then. You don't need to be afraid. Just tell the truth," Barristan said in a deep voice.
Aiju did not dare stand immediately. She only raised her head and glanced at the Dragon Queen.
"Get up. Since you dared send Zhong'er to find me, you must have had some confidence," Dany said calmly.
Aiju's face turned even paler, her body trembling more violently, but she still shakily stood up, lowering her head and bending her waist as she said softly, "At that time, King Robert was hiding in Zhong'er mother's bed."
"Clinton failed in his duty! He even said he had searched every house in Stony Sept!" the dwarf stamped his foot in lament, looking as if Jon Connington had lost his Iron Throne.
Aiju glanced at old Barristan beside the Dragon Queen and explained, "Ser Clinton, like Ser Barristan, is a knight who cherishes honor.
"He wouldn't even dare look at a woman's chest. When he saw women inside in disheveled clothing, he hurriedly stopped the soldiers outside and let us get dressed first before entering.
"That delay was enough for us to move King Robert into rooms that had already been searched."
"He should have gathered everyone in the courtyard and lined them up, then sent soldiers to search the inn," the dwarf muttered.
"Ser Clinton probably never imagined that in such a critical situation, Robert would still dare to fool around in a brothel," Barristan guessed.
Why was Robert hiding in Stony Sept?
Although Robert killed "the finest knight of the Seven Kingdoms," Rhaegar, his battlefield command ability was not particularly outstanding.
Robert's talent could not compare to Stannis. He could be called a fierce general, but not a renowned commander.
Before Stony Sept, Robert had just suffered two consecutive defeats. The first was at Ashford, where Randyll Tarly chased him like a rabbit from the Reach into the Riverlands.
Note that he was defeated by Randyll Tarly, not by the Reach army. Randyll led only his own Horn Hill troops and fought Robert's Stormlands army, winning a decisive victory despite being outnumbered.
Robert suffered heavy losses and fled in disgrace.
However, Randyll's achievements were later claimed by Mace Tyrell, and he was sidelined by his superiors, left to idle outside Storm's End, with no chance to participate in the subsequent major battles.
Because of his defeat at Randyll Tarly's hands, Robert led his Stormlands troops north, where the Starks, Tullys, and Arryns were.
When he reached near Stony Sept, Jon Connington struck him hard again, nearly wiping out his entire army. Robert himself was seriously wounded and fled alone into the town.
Thus came the "Battle of the Bells."
A normal person, after losing their army and suffering severe injuries, would hide in a dark corner, quietly licking their wounds. But Robert spent his time in the brothel, drinking heavily, eating heartily, and once full, indulging with women on the spot.
Just as Zhong'er said, he slept with every woman in the Peach Inn.
Heaven have mercy, at that very time, Jon Connington was frantically searching the town for him.
"Robert's magnanimity is something I cannot match," the dwarf sighed.
They both indulged in debauchery, but Robert didn't need to pay and still won their devotion, while even paying money got him scorned.
Robert's indulgence was not without result either. He spread his seed everywhere. Cersei killed more than a dozen of Robert's bastards, yet even now one could encounter his offspring anywhere.
And you? Could it be a problem with your genes, unable to produce children?
Dany looked at the dwarf with a strange expression.
"What is it?" the dwarf asked, awkwardly touching his face.
Dany shook off the odd thought and said in a complicated tone, "So it turns out the succession of Westeros dynasties is decided by a group of prostitutes. No wonder the kings who later sat on the Iron Throne were either born of whores or were whores themselves."
"Uh…" The dwarf and Barristan both froze, their expressions twisting.
Aiju and Zhong'er, however, did not feel insulted. Instead, they couldn't help but laugh, and there was even a hint of pride on their faces.
Dany then asked the madam, "You should know that Ser Clinton represented the Iron Throne, while Robert was a rebel. Why did you help the rebel against the king?"
Aiju hesitated, wanting to speak but fearfully glancing at the Dragon Queen.
"Just tell the truth," Dany said.
"Because the one sitting on the Iron Throne was the Mad King, while King Robert was a kind and easygoing man," Aiju said, shrinking her neck.
"Did the Mad King raise your taxes?" Dany frowned.
"No," Aiju shook her head.
"Did the Mad King come to Stony Sept and kill people?"
"He never came here," Aiju shook her head again.
"Have you ever seen the Mad King?" Dany asked.
"No. I heard he stayed in the Red Keep, afraid of being harmed by the common folk," Aiju said.
"Did the Mad King ever provoke you?"
"I've never even seen him," Aiju replied.
"The Mad King ruled for twenty years. Did you live in hardship?"
"It was alright," Aiju thought for a moment, then looked at the old septon. "It seems winters were never short of food back then. Am I remembering wrong?"
Septon Nocamp was already over sixty and had even lived through the reign of the Mad King's grandfather.
The Battle of the Bells got its name because he rang the sept's bells to warn the townspeople to stay indoors when the fighting began.
"Stony Sept lies by the Blackwater Rush. The land is fertile, resources abundant, and trade is prosperous. We never lacked food in winter.
"During King Aerys's reign, merchants even came here to buy grain and transport it across the Narrow Sea," he said.
"Did Robert later grant Stony Sept tax exemptions?" Dany asked.
"No."
"Did the 'good man' Robert make your lives better?"
This time, Aiju did not answer immediately. She thought for a long while, then shook her head helplessly. "It doesn't seem like much changed."
"Then why did you rebel?" Dany asked, puzzled.
"We didn't rebel."
"Helping Robert wasn't rebellion?"
"We only wanted to help him, not rebel," she said, then added, "King Robert joked and drank with us. We all liked him.
"The Mad King never provoked us, but his past actions, and the brutal killing of Lord Stark, were too horrifying."
So foreigners prefer this kind of approachable, charismatic leader who openly displays the same flaws as the common people?
Dany shook her head, dispelling the strange thought, and asked the madam, "What proof do you have that Zhong'er is Robert's child?"
"Everyone in Stony Sept knows," Aiju said, confused.
"Others don't know. You need to convince them, at least convince Stannis," the dwarf said.
Aiju thought for a moment. "Zhong'er was born naturally, and the timing matches the Battle of the Bells."
"Did Robert stay in Stony Sept for a long time after the battle?" the dwarf asked.
"No. He left the same day after the battle," Aiju shook her head.
The dwarf spread his hands. "So why did you come to the Queen?"
At that moment, Zhong'er, who had been listening quietly, spoke up with a sigh. "Stony Sept is miserable now. During the War of the Four Kings, lions and wolf cubs ravaged the town in turns. The city gates and a third of the houses were burned into black shells. The townsfolk either died or fled.
"Before winter even arrived, famine broke out. More than half of those who remained starved to death. After the Long Night, nine out of ten households were empty.
"Now the Others have come. There are barely any people left in the town, and the inn business is completely gone."
Stony Sept lay at the intersection of four regions and could reach King's Landing via the Blackwater Rush. It had once been a very prosperous inland trade town.
Its permanent and transient population, as well as its economic output, even surpassed Winterfell.
But now the town was desolate. Burned houses remained unrepaired, charred walls stood crumbling in the center, and it was difficult to find a living soul on the streets.
Worse still, this was not even the worst time yet. The future would only grow more bleak year by year.
But who could be blamed?
Robert and the Baratheon dynasty were their own choice. The armies that ravaged the town, took their food, destroyed their crops, and burned their homes—whether wolves, trouts, or lions—were once the rebel forces they admired and strongly supported.
More ironically, many of the soldiers who ravaged the town during the War of the Four Kings had participated in the Battle of the Bells. Now they were revisiting old ground, renewing the bond between army and people?
(End of Chapter)
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