Chapter 70: All People Die Eventually

[ Jon Arryn ]

In the end, the meeting was finished without saying anything important. No one had dared to bring the sensitive situation up. So after some war talk, everything was finished.

Yohn Royce and Petyr Baelish, two people from the Vale I trusted came with me as we walked out.

"In the end, no one dared to say anything about Lord Redhawk going to war without the King's official permission." Said Petyr. Like always his intelligence shines through. "Something at this scale would be considered at the same stage as rebelling."

"Yeah," I agreed on that. 

Yohn Royce only nodded, listening to our conversation with great interest.

Petyr on the other hand suddenly stopped and his face showed that he suddenly came to a realization. "Wait… would someone like Lord Redhawk even do something like this? Endanger his whole house for some man. Ser Davos might be his right-hand man, but not someone to risk his whole family over."

Yeah… now that I thought about it. Why would Oliver do something like this? Though I haven't met the young man personally, I knew Arthur well enough to know that he wouldn't raise his kids to be this rash.

Unless Oliver didn't do this without the King's permission. Wait!! Did he get some kind of fake letter or something similar to show that the King had allowed the war!

Everything would make more sense now! 

I looked at Petyr and he nodded. A worried look also was apparent on his face, he too had come to the same realization.

"We must tell Robert about this immediately!" I turned around, hurriedly walking back to the council chambers.

"Wait!" Petyr suddenly grabbed my arm, stopping me from going any further.

"Baelish, it seems a small lord like you must have gotten more reckless after joining the small council." Yohn Royce pulled out his sword and pointed it at Petyr. "Let go right now."

As someone who had seen war and death in the eyes, Yohn Royce made quite the intimidating figure. 

Petyr glances at him with fear, looking at the sword and gulping. "My Lord, this wouldn't be a good idea. After all, for someone to fake a King's signature. It means that someone had to be close to the thing multiple times… only a very small group of people have that leisure. Only the small council…"

I now understood why he stopped me. If I went back to Robert right now, some other council members were still around and would overhear us. We would be giving the culprit a hint. Looking at Petyr, I had no idea what to do. "So, what would you suggest we do now?"

Petyr smiled and let go of my hand. "Leave this to me."

Hearing his reassuring words, I smiled back. "You have grown quite a lot Petyr. I am glad to have someone like you looking behind me. There are quite a lot of backstabbers in this place."

His smile only got wider at my words. "I am glad you think of me like that, My Lord."

...

[ Oliver POV ]

The war was over before it even began, while the pirates might have been skilled at robbing ships and sailing. Warfare was completely different.

I had fifty ships with trebuchets mounted on them. The rock-flinging weapons sunk the enemy ships like they were flies. After that, my men sailed by the debris and used bows and crossbows to shoot down anyone who had survived.

It was a massacre and the Three Sister islands were under my control before the sun even set. 

I observed this carnage from the deck of my ship. Now there was no need for me to get personally involved in wars. People would do the job for me, and my overwhelming number of soldiers and ships outnumbered the enemy 1:10. 

The cities were pillaged and raped, people were killed. This was all that went on in the islands, even though I couldn't see what was happening with my eyes… I know what was going on. 

War would always be brutal like this. I have to always make sure to not be on the losing side. Because losers are never treated well by the world. 

"Aren't you worried?" Asked Arianne, who had stood next to me the whole time. She had a brave face, but I could see through her act.

"No," I answered her simply. "War is just a battle of numbers. Most of the time, the bigger army will win."

"What about the times when they don't?" She asked once again, interlocking her fingers with mine and squeezed my hand. 

I didn't do anything to push Arianne away. Instead I just reassuringly smiled at her. "This war's result has already been decided. They are pirates, not people with reason. None of them could make their civilization work without piracy."

Sprinkling in some lies and truth in my words made her relax. Also, I demonized the enemy, there was no need for Arianne to know that war also involved children and women too.

Men fought, but the elderly, women, and children would always be the victims to the side. Someone like Arianne coming to that realization would make her into someone self-aware. 

She doesn't need to have things like self-awareness. After all, where would I benefit from her having that? It was way easier to have her continue to be naive.

...

When night came about, the fires in the island quilted down. I still just stood on the deck of my ship, looking at the island. 

Though in reality, I was looking through the eyes of my hawk that flew above the islands. The battle scale was heavily tilted on my side. I also made sure that no child of any leader escaped. I didn't want any of them to come back for revenge.

Blood flew through the castles like a river, my orders were carried out and even the servants of the places were gathered in the yards. They too were killed, just in case, someone from the leaders' families was disguised as servants. 

My orders were carried out and there was nothing unexpected. I had taken into account all of the situations that might happen, even the most outrageous ones. 

...

Not even an hour later, the island was up in flames. All the corpses were burned and the people looked in terror as their loved ones burned and turned to ashes. 

I looked at all of this coldly from my new castle. Arianne was next to me and looked terrified. It was easy to see that while she boasted of bravery, wanting to go on adventures and fight wars. But seeing the reality of war had broken her once again, tears streamed down her face. 

Still, this was nothing in comparison to how many Dornish died for Elia Martell. Life was like this to those without power and naive enough to be used by the powerful. 

Telling her how many people died because of her aunt would be counterproductive. Instead, Arianne should come to that realization herself. That way she can feel smart and think that everything she knew was real. Only then can I get what I want from her.

Whether the first child we will have together is a boy or girl depends. But I need a boy because in the worst-case scenario I wouldn't want to be reborn in a girl's body. Though I would do that if I was desperate, it wasn't my first go-to method.

Not only were females weaker physically which would be a detriment, but also people wouldn't listen to a female as much as a man during these times.

"My Lord, the Royal Fleet has been sighted," one of my guards informed me. As I looked at him, he gazed down, not daring to meet my eyes.

"Thanks, Herald," I called him by name. Being a tyrant wasn't the right thing to do. After all, statistically, tyranny would always fail eventually. "Now you should go and enjoy a drink. Tell the men that today we will be feasting."

He smiled at that thankfully. "Thank-"

"My Lord!" Another soldier came in with a box in his arms, interrupting Herald. "Lord Davos… his head was found mounted on a spike in one of the villages."

Oh, so Davos was dead? Well, that's a shame, but his death wasn't in vain. He had given me so much new territory. Though I guess this wasn't exactly new territory.

With those thoughts in mind, I still made myself appear a little sad, but after that, my face hardened. "Send what you can find of his body and prepare to send it to his family."

With that said, the soldiers nodded and walked away. Arianne gave me a comforting hug and I reciprocated. A small tear came out of my eye and fell on her exposed shoulder. I made sure she would feel the tears.

Davos had been exceptionally useful, and he could have been even more useful in the future. This truly was a sad turn of events. 

But still, nothing to whine about, all people die eventually. Some do so sooner and some die later, did it make a difference what time they died?

...

At the same time, on the other side of the island, Robert's ships landed and the King himself stepped into the docks. 

Looking around he only saw Redhawk soldiers all around the docks. 

"It seems like we were too late for the war," said Jamie Lannister. He was amused seeing the King so disappointed.

Another King's Guard came forward too and asked. "What should we do with Lord Oliver Redhawk, my King? After all, he did go and wage war without your permission is the same as rebellion.".

Jamie wouldn't call himself smart and he rarely was the most well-read person in the room. But even he could tell that this Kingsguard had just said something that he was clearly bribed to say. 

Robert stared intently at the Kingsguard who spoke. "What did you just say?"

With that question… Robert seemed calm. But the air around them felt frozen, and immediately the Kingsguard understood that he had just said something very… VERY bad.

Arthur Redhawk was Robert's friend, and accusing the man's son of treason in front of the King wasn't a good idea.

...

 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

...

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