Chapter 198: The Master Behind The Scenes

After becoming the captain of Stark's guard, Alaric was surprised to find that the two daughters of Stark seemed unusually fond of him. 

Before that, he had only met each of the two girls once, but now their eyes towards him were filled with warmth, admiration, and shyness, which puzzled him.

However, perhaps accustomed to the inexplicable self-strategizing and kindness of girls in this world, Alaric did not dwell on it for long. 

Instead, he happily accepted this fact, and thus began a life surrounded by the two girls.

Arya would ask him for swordsmanship guidance every day, inevitably involving some talks between them in practice.

As for Sansa, she completely gave up the social interactions and banquet life with other noble ladies and ladies that she once longed for, choosing to stay at home to accompany her sister.

Then she would tempt him twenty times a day. If it weren't for the presence of other guards and servants, he would have acted decisively already.

Such an ambiguous life was quite enjoyable, especially when Eddard Stark was busy with affairs every day, investigating everything about Jon Arryn. 

Unfortunately, Alaric had to temporarily interrupt such a life and ask for a day off from Eddard.

Then, he immediately left the city and secretly went to the Eyrie.

The reason was that something happened in the Seven Kingdoms that could affect the entire political situation.

Tyrion Lannister was captured by Catelyn Stark, the wife of Eddard Stark.

This was a big deal.

Because the two families involved were major lords of the Seven Kingdoms, and although Tyrion was not favored by Tywin, he was still his legitimate son, which could lead to conflict between the two families.

Catelyn was undoubtedly wise. 

Instead of bringing Tyrion back to Winterfell, she took him to the Vale, to the Eyrie, where her sister Lysa Arryn resided. 

Lysa married the aging Jon Arryn and bore him a son. 

After Jon's death, her son inherited the Vale and Jon's title. However, since the child was still young, Lysa herself became the de facto ruler of the Vale.

It's worth noting that, in the Seven Kingdoms, apart from the royal territories, there were eight major families controlling the eight major regions. 

The Vale controlled by House Arryn was one of them. 

The others were the North controlled by House Stark, the Westerlands controlled by House Lannister, the Stormlands controlled by House Baratheon (Robert's main family).

The Riverlands controlled by House Tully, the Iron Islands controlled by House Greyjoy, the Reach controlled by House Tyrell, and finally, Dorne controlled by House Martell.

It was indeed a considerable force.

In the Vale, Lysa warmly welcomed her sister, and then, at her sister's request, she initiated the trial of Tyrion Lannister.

The charges she pronounced were that Tyrion was suspected of trying to murder Bran Stark and actually murdering her husband Jon Arryn.

In fact, these two charges had nothing to do with Tyrion.

Tyrion did not attempt to murder Bran. On the contrary, he got along well with Bran's brother, Jon Snow, who was considered by the world to be Eddard Stark's illegitimate son. 

Perhaps it was a sense of mutual sympathy. 

Tyrion's birth caused his mother's death during childbirth, so he was not favored by his father. Jon Snow, on the other hand, was not favored by Catelyn due to being a bastard, so there was some common ground between them. 

Of course, the instigator behind all this was Petyr Baelish, who grew up with Lysa, deeply infatuated with her, but deeply in love with Catelyn.

On one hand, Baelish killed Jon Arryn, allowing Lysa to control the Vale. 

On the other hand, he hinted to Catelyn, trying to frame Tyrion Lannister of House Lannister for Bran's murder, in order to create conflict between the Lannisters and the Starks.

However, he was not the one who attempted to murder Bran; it was Prince Joffrey, the cruel prince who acted impulsively, randomly choosing someone to murder Bran. 

After Baelish learned of this, he seized the opportunity to sow discord between the Lannisters and the Starks.

Of course, this was only a temporary plan. He had another plan to provoke conflict between the Lannisters and the Starks.

In short, Petyr Baelish was determined to stir up chaos in the Seven Kingdoms. 

Only then could he, born into a minor house, rise quickly and become a new noble. In the original work, his plan was almost successful—looking at it this way, he indeed had some traits of the selfish and cunning advisors.

However, his plan still had some loopholes. 

For example now, although Lysa obeyed him, her own political acumen was not high, and with Baelish away in King's Landing, this led to delays in obtaining intelligence and conveying orders, making the situation vulnerable to sudden changes.

If an unexpected event occurred, or if Lysa acted on something he hadn't arranged in advance, then the situation could be ruined.

Now, such a thing had indeed happened.

Catelyn had captured Tyrion, causing a furious Tywin Lannister to march from the Westerlands, targeting the Riverlands, the maternal home of Catelyn, of House Tully. 

However, once Tyrion was killed in the Eyrie under the pretext of murdering Jon Arryn, Tywin would redirect his anger towards the Vale—the territory that Baelish had practically controlled.

Lysa naturally didn't want to be the target of House Lannister, but now, due to the guilt of killing her own husband Jon, she felt extremely fearful and eager to find a scapegoat to absolve herself of guilt, leading to a major flaw in Baelish's plan.

However, in the original book, fate sided with Baelish and the cunning Tyrion Lannister managed to escape a death sentence in the Eyrie by using his wit and the trial by combat, thus removing the motivation for the Lannisters to target the Vale.

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