Chapter 432: The Gathering of All Armies
WILOW-Ch.432: The Gathering of All Armies
King’s Landing, Crownlands
POV of Doric Bolton
A day later.
"How does it feel to co back here?" Doric asked as he rode his horse and looked at the large city in the distance.
"I can’t say it’s good. Fucking city filled with pits and vipers," Hound grunted and took a swig from the wineskin. "When your allies take the city, their n will pillage the city, kill the smallfolk, and rape their won."
He frowned. "Is there no way to avoid it?" he asked.
After all, they were going to liberate the city from King Stannis. If they loot and pillage the city, then they wouldn’t be much of a ’liberator’, would they?
And he didn’t want King Aegon’s reign to start with a grueso event.
"No." Hound said in his usual gruff manner, "The Tyrell n. They’ve been waiting outside the city for more than a month. A siege is a tense place to be, and tensions rise over ti. So, when they eventually enter the city, they’ll want to lose all their tension. And what better way to do so than kill a defenseless man and rape his wife and daughter?"
He closed his eyes at that description.
He had not wanted to hear this, even though he knew that it was very likely that this would happen.
He knew his history and also knew that every ti a city with a large population falls, the invaders go on to rape, loot, and pillage the people inside the city.
The only way to avoid this was for Stannis to surrender to them, or for him to die and his n surrender.
He wondered if he should break his unwritten rules and kill Stannis in his sleep.
After so deep thinking, he decided not to do that. He wasn’t going to kill Stannis.
Doing so might save the population inside King’s Landing, but that would make people suspicious and afraid of him.
If he could sneak inside Red Keep and assassinate the King, then were the other people really safe from him?
Such a thought would breed fear, and that fear would turn to resentnt and anger.
He would not let his family be the source of resentnt and anger.
And as heartless as it might be of him to say this, saving the populace of King’s Landing would not gain him anything but make him and his future family lose a great deal.
But perhaps there was a way to protect the small folk without killing Stannis. After all, life wasn’t just about making one or the other choice.
"Do you think issuing a decree prohibiting the looting of the city and the harming of the smallfolk would stop these n?" he asked Hound.
"No, maybe a few might be a little more hesitant, but the vast majority will ignore it. After all, in that chaos, it’s impossible to know who did what. And those hesitant ones who see them will follow in their footsteps." Hound said.
"I see. But what if I knew who did what?" he asked.
Hound stared at him strangely for a few seconds, but then said, "It wouldn’t change anything. After all, the n wouldn’t believe it and would still do what they wanted. And even if you catch them later, what do you plan to do? I don’t know much about politics, but punishing them all wouldn’t be well-received by your allies, would it?" Hound said and took another swig from his wineskin.
And Doric couldn’t help but agree with the Hound.
The main reason he was having this conversation with him was that he was the only one among those close to him who had participated in real city sieges and faced their realities.
Doric might have captured Golden Tooth and Casterly Rock, but he had done so with the help of his own special army and magical thods.
But the siege of King’s Landing was different. Five different alliance armies were involved: the Reach, the Vale, the Riverlands, the North, and his own.
And although this alliance army was generally called the Imperial Army, Doric knew that many generals didn’t respect him as Emperor, especially the Tyrells.
They might have shown him respect because of his successes in the civil war, but they hadn’t yet fully accepted him as their Emperor.
After all, Doric hadn’t yet been crowned Emperor, and the other kings hadn’t knelt before him to pledge their allegiance in front of his throne.
Currently, his claim to the Empire was rely a pretext for forming this alliance, and if they saw Doric’s weakness or Doric gave so reason, the swords that supported him today could turn against him tomorrow.
Therefore, Doric knew the Hound was right. Even if he forbade his n from plundering the city, they would disobey his order.
And if Doric rounded them all up and punished them, it would alienate his allies. His relationship with the Tyrells could even be completely severed as a result.
It seed that if Doric wanted to help the small folk in King’s Landing, he needed to resort to his magical powers.
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"Ser Garlan." King Aegon nodded as their two contingents t.
The other nobility of the Reach followed Ser Garlan, while King Aegon was followed by King Stark, Prince Robb Stark, the Lords of the North, the Lords of the Vale, the Lords of the Riverlands, and the Blackfish.
Doric was riding alongside Jon, with the Dark Knights right behind him.
He had specifically requested that Jon represent their side. After all, he was to beco king of these lands and needed to establish his influence gradually.
"Your majesty." Ser Garlan greeted him first, and Doric responded with a nod of his head.
"Your grace." Then Ser Garlan gave a short bow to his King and future good-brother.
He wondered what kind of moniker would have been given to Jon Snow by the people of his world.
King-they-didn’t-know. King-who-hid. Or so other bullshit like that.
No one spoke after the initial greetings, and a tense silence fell over the field.
That tense silence was broken when a red-haired woman ca out from behind the Tyrell contingent.
Clip clop. Clip clop. Clip clop.
Catelyn Stark finally reached their group and, as she did, threw herself into King Stark’s arms and embraced him.
Although King Stark hugged him back, Doric could see that the hug wasn’t very sincere. Probably King Stark tried to act normally to avoid any gossip.
After a while, Robb joined them in the hug.
Robb didn’t yet know about his mother’s betrayal of his father, and he’ll probably be devastated when he finds out.
But there was nothing Doric could do about it.
Catelyn Stark should be halfway through her pregnancy and would give birth to a child that wasn’t her husband’s in about four months.
Even though Catelyn Stark was hugging her husband while carrying another man’s child in her belly, this fact was known only to a select few.
Therefore, for everyone else, this scene was a touching mont of reunion. And that reduced the tense atmosphere a bit before "Queen" Catelyn spoke. Although Doric disliked it, Catelyn Stark was currently the queen of one of his kingdoms.
"Ser Garlan. I’m sure these n have travelled a good deal to be here. How about we continue these talks during the feast?"
Ser Garlan nodded. "That is acceptable, Queen Catelyn."
And that was that. The rest of the talks were thus postponed.
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Ch.433: Siege Discussion
Ch.434: Infiltrating the Red Keep
Ch.435: Change of Plans
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