40 -Chapter 36-

-Chapter 36-

-1 week later-

-POV Jacelyn Bywater-

I never could have believed that I would be named Commander of the Dragon Guard, how could I have believed it when the one who appointed me also stripped me of my title as Captain of the River Gate.

But it happened, and I can never forget that discussion.

-Flashback-

"Ser Jacelyn," said King Aegon.

"Your Majesty," I said, anxious to know the reason for my presence in the king's personal quarters.

"I have summoned you for a good reason, Ser Jacelyn, so I will not beat around the bush any longer than necessary. I want you to lead the Dragon Guard, the Royal Family's Personal Guard."

"Why me? If you remember, you removed me from my duties."

"I removed you because you were loyal to the usurper, and had I wanted to reclaim my throne, which was rightfully mine, you would have opposed it. But the usurper is dead, and I didn't even kill him. So, if you want to return to the high echelons of power and into the king's good graces, I strongly advise you to accept and not betray me. It will not end well for you, I assure you," he said in an even tone, as if he were discussing someone else.

I felt a spike of fear run through my body before crushing it, and I immediately knelt before my King while pronouncing an oath of eternal loyalty.

-End of Flashback-

As soon as I was appointed, I was also charged with rounding up all the beggars and poor without homes, staying in the city's slums, to train them as soldiers of the Dragon Guard, a guard entirely devoted to a single goal: the protection of the royal family and the Red Keep.

I had already received 5,000 young soldiers among the best recruits, but with the departure of the king and the influx of refugees, I was able to increase this number to 8,000. King Aegon had specially brought instructors from Astapor, who train the Unsullied, along with a troop of 500 Unsullied to train and participate in the capital's protection.

The training was inhumane, and fortunately, I was not subjected to it, but the progress made by the newly recruited guards, who were too well-fed following a diet and training regimen carefully designed by the king, was unprecedented.

Although 8,000 men were many, establishing city surveillance with so few men was almost impossible since half had to train each day instead of making rounds, which meant we had only 4,000 guards to monitor a population almost 200 times larger.

It was, therefore, a relief to see the arrival of the Lannister army with Stafford Lannister, the brother of Tywin Lannister's late wife, at its head. At first, I thought the army of the Warden of the West had come to betray the King, but seeing Ser Barristan with a letter from the king, I understood His Majesty's brilliant plan.

It was only in the afternoon following Stafford Lannister's arrival that the crushing victory of His Majesty King Aegon VI over the rebels of the Riverlands and the Vale reached us, but the following news completely confirmed our victory: Renly Baratheon was dead.

'We have won the war against the Baratheons, and that without losing a single soldier in the Stormlands,' I thought with a small smile