Chapter 123: The Red Kraken: Can Anyone Tell Me What Happened?
"Your Majesty, it's not that we don't believe your promise." A tattered septon, clutching an old but well-preserved copy of The Seven-Pointed Star, first drained his bowl of bean soup before standing up and saying in a deep voice, "It's that we don't believe our lord." He scanned the common folk, old and young, able and disabled, who were gathered around the young, brown-haired King.
"The lord will still send tax collectors to collect taxes. He will also grant lands to new knights, and these new knights will still come to collect taxes." The septon said, "Knights need warhorses and armor, while the common people need bread and salt. The conflict between the two is almost irreconcilable. Your Majesty, can you guarantee that before relief arrives, the lord will not take the last copper coin, the last bean, from our hands?"
Draezel looked at the barefoot septon from head to toe with some surprise. He was very old, his already shaven head completely devoid of stubble, and even his sideburns were sparse, with only a few strands remaining. Yet, the old septon's eyes were as clear as a child's, and Draezel could even see that his tattered satchel was full of herbs.
If Draezel hadn't guessed wrong, this old septon was one of the wandering septons stationed in these villages. Unlike the septons of the septs, poor villages could not afford to build septs for them, so these septons, who had sworn to practice the teachings of the Seven, used the sky as their blanket and the earth as their bed, traveling between villages to preach and also serving as healers. It seemed that this old septon was outstanding even among the wandering brothers.
Draezel listened to the old septon's plea and wanted to hear what Jacaerys had to say. Jacaerys fell into thought, but soon, the young, brown-haired King looked firmly at the old septon:
"Septon, I do not know your name, but I would like to ask you to oversee matters after the food arrives. My Hand of the King, Prince Draezel Varezes, has already issued a requisition order to the Reach, and Lady Xenia will, on behalf of Lord Lyonel Tyrell, mobilize enough grain to travel north. Food from the Vale is also ready to be shipped from Gulltown, and House Hightower's granaries have also been opened. They will pay the price for their betrayal. What I can guarantee is that food will definitely come to the Riverlands."
Jacaerys stood up.
"If the food is not distributed to every village, I will personally ride my dragon to your lord's castle and question them. As for taxes, I will fly to every castle and admonish them to understand your suffering." The young King bowed his head to the common people. "This is the King's promise, and the King will surely fulfill it."
"Easy to say," a man who had lost an arm in the war muttered, "It's still your mess."
But the looks from others around him stopped the man from continuing, and he could only mumble while looking at the ground.
However, the old septon still quietly watched the King, who was bowing to the people, and likewise bowed his head:
"I believe in your sincerity, Your Majesty, and please do not disappoint your people."
Draezel watched Jacaerys repeatedly assure everyone that they would survive the winter and the plague, and sat among the crowd, listening to their demands and resolving disputes between several villages. He smiled contentedly, but then thought of the multicolored dragon in the prophecy that died outside the Iron Throne, and ultimately sighed deeply in his heart.
Draezel wondered what House Targaryen was thinking, creating such a highly symbolic throne. He felt as if something was wrong with their minds. Dragons were clearly the most important symbol of the Dragonlord family's rule, yet they insisted on creating the Iron Throne, which was extremely dangerous and tainted with terrible omens, all in the name of warning future generations.
Although the Iron Throne indeed meant that King Aegon I had completed the basic integration of Westeros and created an unprecedented unified realm on this continent, it truly did harm his descendants.
Thinking of this, Draezel still resisted the urge to continue complaining.
Following Jacaerys's line of thought, he began to conceptualize the integration and governance of his own territory.
The Marches were not heavily populated, and Dorne's population was even smaller than the desolate and cold North. Even though he occupied the northern valley plains, one of Dorne's three fertile regions, and absorbed a large number of immigrants during the War of the Three Kings in Dorne, in reality, the core population of his territory was still the immigrants from Volantis and the Marcher people.
Now, he had absorbed large fertile and populous territories in the southern Reach and had largely completed the integration and unification of the Dornish Marches, except for House Swann of Stonehelm and House Grandison of Grandview, who remained loyal to House Baratheon of the Stormlands.
This meant that the population of the Reach had also entered his demographic system, along with thirty thousand Northmen. The old wolves of the Winter Wolves army also remained in the South.
Lord Cregan Stark was extremely grateful to Draezel for taking in his army. He had marched south with thirty thousand soldiers, but returned with only dozens of men, hundreds of nobles who had taken the black, hundreds of ships of grain, and a wife.
Cregan fell madly in love with Alysanne Blackwood. After a day and a night of long talks with the maiden, Alysanne Blackwood happily accepted the Wolf's proposal.
Under the witness of Draezel and Jacaerys, the Wolf and the Raven were married beneath the heart tree at Harrenhal.
Well, I've strayed from the topic.
Pulling his thoughts back, Draezel continued to ponder.
So, upon returning to his territory, he must do a good job integrating the new population so that he could smoothly assimilate such a large territory.
The new territories should be distributed among his own people, and Valarr and Ray also needed territories to support their descendants.
Of course, family members should try not to be too far apart, and the administration and military of the territory would still be managed by the acting lords he appointed, who would simply pay taxes on time.
Draezel did not think for too long; he still needed to help Jacaerys continue to appease the realm.
Jacaerys was very enthusiastic; he rode Vermax, almost sleeping rough, flying to every castle in the Riverlands, and even many knightly holdings and small castles, leaving the King's dragon shadow.
Jacaerys refused all the lords' enthusiastic hospitality. He and Draezel often suddenly flew over a castle, asking the lord to gather his people for a royal court, where the King personally mediated various disputes.
Actually, there weren't many major disputes.
Relatively speaking, the most intense was the ongoing conflict between House Blackwood and House Bracken.
After House Strong ceded their territory, a portion of Harrenhal's land was taken out as a reward for the knights ennobled in the war. Among them, a knight from House Blackwood had a conflict with a knight from House Bracken over a border mill, which eventually escalated into Bloody Ben Blackwood deploying soldiers on the border.
In the end, Jacaerys and Draezel arrived on their dragons, and under Vermithor's might, the two knights redrew the boundary and resolved the dispute.
After inspecting the Riverlands, Jacaerys flew to White Harbor, where he supervised the arrival and reception of the grain ships, and then immediately flew to the Westerlands.
Iron Islands, Pyke.
Lordsport harbor was already filled with longships, the largest of which was none other than the Lord of the Abyss, belonging to the current Lord Reaper of Pyke, the Red Kraken, Dalton Greyjoy.
This young ruler of the Iron Islands stood steadily on the precarious rope bridge, made only of wood and iron chains, outside the Sea Tower, his face grim as he watched nearly ten longships sail into Lordsport harbor.
Dalton was the pride of House Greyjoy.
This ancient family, with a golden kraken as its sigil, was one of the greatest houses of the Iron Islands. The number of their kinsmen chosen as rulers of the Iron Islands was not much less than that of House Greyiron, House Hoare, and House Goodbrother.
They were also descendants of the Grey King, who according to legend from the Age of Heroes killed the sea dragon Nagga and built his palace from its pale bones.
Like all Ironborn families, House Greyjoy was keen on the Old Way of "paying the iron price rather than the gold price."
When Dalton was ten years old, he followed his family aboard longships to participate in raids around the Basilisk Isles.
By the age of fourteen, he already owned his own longship and had married four salt wives.
His only defeat was a head-on collision with House Varezes's Silver Fleet in the Summer Sea.
In that battle, the Ironborn raiding fleet of one hundred and twenty longships faced the Silver Fleet's sixty-seven warships, and only twelve longships escaped, including Dalton's own vessel.
The Red Kraken considered that defeat his shame, but since then, he never again attempted to raid the Silver Fleet's shipping lanes.
It was also in that battle that Dalton, covered in blood, earned the nickname Red Kraken.
After re-accumulating his strength, Dalton defeated his rivals and obtained the Valyrian steel longsword Nightfall.
Thus, the Red Kraken established his position and, at sixteen years old in 128 AC, won the Kingsmoot and became Lord Reaper of Pyke.
His keen instincts immediately told him the realm was about to descend into chaos, so Dalton immediately ordered the Ironborn to temporarily cease raiding, build ships, and forge weapons and armor, preparing to make a major move during the coming turmoil.
Sure enough, less than a year later, King Viserys died, and civil war erupted.
Both the Blacks and Greens extended olive branches to Dalton.
Compared to the Greens, who lacked naval power, the Blacks had less need for a navy, so Queen Rhaenyra only asked Dalton to strike the Greens in the Westerlands and Reach.
So Dalton decisively chose the Blacks.
But just as he was assembling his fleet and preparing to widely practice the Old Way—
The war ended in just four months.
The Greens' dragons and male heirs were almost all dead.
House Hightower was ruined.
The Greens suffered a catastrophic defeat.
Dalton was dumbfounded.
I haven't even set sail yet, and you're telling me the war is over?
What about my reavers?
I can't just tell them the raid is canceled and everyone should go home.
Impossible.
An entire Iron Fleet had already gathered at Lordsport.
Without a satisfying reaving under the Old Way to sate the Ironborn's appetites, they simply would not leave.
Thinking of this, Dalton Greyjoy couldn't help but look south with anger.
Damned House Hightower.
Damned Aegon II.
Damned Aemond.
Why couldn't you have held on a little longer?
If only they had held out for two more months, I could have brought back ship after ship of plunder and salt wives from the Westerlands.
Useless.
A bunch of useless fools.
You've truly let down House Greyjoy's painstaking efforts.
No.
I can't just let this go.
Dalton Greyjoy pondered.
The war had just ended, and House Targaryen and House Varezes, these two Dragonlord families, would surely focus first on mending their wounds.
This meant they would temporarily not concern themselves with his affairs.
However, if he raided Westeros itself, it would invite a dragon's retaliation.
Thinking of the raven reports of Vermithor killing Vhagar, Dalton shivered.
Too terrifying.
That dragon didn't even need a fleet to send the entire Iron Fleet to the bottom of the sea.
Since he couldn't raid Westeros, and he couldn't disband his reavers...
Then there seemed to be only one target left.
One that would absolutely not incur retaliation.
Might even bring rewards.
And would let him earn mountains of plunder.
"The Three Daughters."
The Red Kraken slowly licked his lips.
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