113

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118 AC

Kingslanding

Daeron Nymeros Martell

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Most five year old's in my past life would be in Kindergarten.

My five-year-old sits in my office listening to me complain about the Lords and Ladies of Westeros.

"Kepa!" Aegon chirps happily while holding up an unopened raven scroll. "You missed one." His grin turns mischievous as he holds it out for me to grab and I sigh.

"Thank you." A vindictive urge hits me to tell him one day he will be buried under paperwork at some point but I hold it back.

If I scare him too much he might just make plans early to avoid such a fate.

Like relying on his Hand of the King too much.

I don't want Aegon to be lazy, but I also don't want him to be completely chained to a table either... conflicting feelings are the worst.

Breaking the Greyjoy kraken seal I unroll the small message and prepare to read it.

"What does it say?" Aegon asks while bouncing his head side to side with curious eyes locked onto the message in my hands.

"He has had success in the Summer Sea... which is good news." The pirate problem I have been having should be closer to being solved.

Volantis.

The city sits at the mouth of the Mother Rhoyne and has been secretly funding and supplying pirates to attack my ships heading for the Mother River.

My slow-growing resettlement of Ny Sar has been constantly harassed by Volantis but they have been hiding behind pirates.

So I paid the Iron Born to attack the 'pirates'.

Fighting fire with fire.

"Summer Sea." Aegon repeats and looks toward the large map on the wall which shows Westeros and as much of Essos as we have mapped. "The Summer Sea is big." Aegon observes as he looks at the map.

I smile and fight the urge to ruffle his hair.

"It is... do you remember which part is called the Jade Sea?" He nods and points toward the Eastern half of the map.

"Past the Straits of Qarth." I nod as he looks back at me to see if he got it right.

I doubt many young Princes have had to worry about the Far East, but with my plans for the future Aegon needs to know more about the East than likely any before him. He is young and does not understand fully, but he is learning the names and locations which will help him mentally visualize things later on in life when the 'real' lessons start.

Baby steps.

* Knock * * Knock *

I look toward the door moments before it opens and my Wife steps in with Viserra held in her arms.

"How are my boys today?" I snort and lower my eyes back to the message in my hands as Aegon jumps up and heads to hug his Mother.

"Aerys is sleeping!" Aegon loudly responds which unsurprisingly does not awaken my resting younger Son.

I side-eye Aerys who is sleeping peacefully beside my desk on a couch I had brought in here for relaxation.

The moment the books are brought out he passes out.

He won't awaken until there is food or fun to be had.

"I see." Rhaenyra snorts and approaches the desk and takes Aegons seat with Aegon choosing to climb onto her lap being mindful of his Sister. "Are you alright?" Rhaenyra asks me as she adjusts Viserra to look at me.

"I am fine, I just got some responses to send out and a few tax reports to read over before I can have my midday meal." I regret offering my assistance to the Master of Coin, I wish I just left him well enough alone.

"I can send for your meal early and we can enjoy it together if you want?" I purse my lips lowering the Greyjoy letter and rub my eyes.

"Sure... make sure Narhia brings me some of the spicy 'sauce' she has been working on." I turn suddenly seeing movement on the couch and deadpan seeing Aerys slowly raising his head.

How does he do it?!

He always knows!

----

"So..." Rhaenyra licks her pointer finger to 'clean' it of the hot sauce that was generously poured over the chicken wings we just devoured ravenously.

"What are you scheming woman?" I tiredly ask as I hold Viserra who is nodding off with a cute little yawn.

"I am not scheming anything." She lies as easily as she breathes. "I just want to see the 'plans' you have drawn, you told me you finished them last night." I roll my eyes and slowly reach toward the large rolled-up parchment on the edge of my desk.

"Here." I hand it over to her and then carefully cross my arms over my lower stomach supporting the rear of my Daughter who is nuzzling her face tiredly against me.

Rhaenyra slowly unrolls the large 'blueprint' I hand drew, the 'colosseum' I have planned to hopefully start construction of soon is rough but it gives a good idea of what I envision. I have convinced my Good Father to buy up all of the businesses on top of Visenyas Hill and only a run-down sept current remains that needs to be 'relocated'. The faith won't like it and will say all kinds of bad things about replacing their building with a place for 'entertainment' but they can get over it.

The future Colosseum will bring in large amounts of coin for the crown to benefit from, it's a good investment. 

But it will take a long time to complete, so I would like for it to be started as soon as possible which is something I have been working on diligently recently.

"How big will this be?" My Wife asks as Aegon adjusts on her lap to look at the drawing.

"Bigger than the Dragon pit." The Dragon Pit has some stands in it and could function as a colosseum itself to host events like I plan but with the dragon's presence there it's likely not a good idea.

I want to fortify Rhaenys Hill and keep people away from the dragons, not bring them closer and give them access to the building directly.

"It won't have a dome?" I shake my head imagining the Roman Colosseum that inspired me.

"No, it's supposed to be open to the elements." She hums and nods while grabbing Aegons hands and stopping him from messing with the parchment.

'Games' of all sorts will be hosted and even Tournaments will be hosted inside of the future Colosseum. But that is not the sole purpose of the Colosseum, there are tons of things that can be done in a large structure such as I have in mind. There is also the matter of a secret tunnel system under the Colosseum inside of Visenyas Hill that I plan to have built as well much like the tunnels in Aegons Hill under the Red Keep.

Lots of potential uses for something like that come to mind.

Plans within plans within plans... I might not even live to see them completed if I am honest.

They might change over time as well.

But it's undeniable that the Colosseum would benefit Kingslanding.

The city's Economy and Culture would flourish... ideally at least.

I also want to have a canal dug from the Blackwater Rush and have it pass through between Aegons Hill and Visenyas Hill going toward Rhaenys Hill. That would let it cut past the lower half of Flea Bottom and would vastly improve 'waste' disposal. Improving the city's famous stench and making a massive 'attraction' to draw in more people seems like good plans in my books.

With more people comes more trade and more trade means more coin which means more investments can be made into the city.

The capital needs to grow.

It's not 'small' by any means.

But it needs to grow, maybe even in time it can expand across the Blackwater Rush and an expansion to the city can be built on the other side.

House Targaryen's wealth would vastly improve but also its economic 'weight' would improve which is the real aim.

Compared to Braavos and Volantis and even Qarth according to the reports I have seen, Kingslanding is pretty weak as far as trade goes. It's in the top three of Westeros 'cities' easily but that is mainly due to the city being the Kingdom's capital. I want Kingslanding to be the city for trade as far as the Narrow Sea is concerned, I don't see a reason why it can't be.

What would really help is if the crown had a larger trade 'fleet'.

It has a fleet for war.

But not for trade, not to the level I would expect from the most powerful House in Westeros.

"-are you even listening to me?" I snap from my thoughts as Rhaenyra places a hand on my shoulder and lightly shakes me.

"I wasn't." She sighs and shakes her head at my response.

"Aegon is tired as well, I think you can take a quick break to help me carry all the children to their rooms." I look over at Aerys who is once more asleep and slowly nod at my wife's words.

"Alright, a short nap after eating sounds nice." I won't fight to stay in this room, if she gives me an excuse I will quickly follow after her and snooze away a bit of the day.

I can return to the 'grind' later or even call it an early day and wait until tomorrow.