50 Chapter 50

|Jon Arryn - Lord of Eyrie and Hand of the King|

I look at Pycelle and frown a little.

"You and your fellow bastard cannot even solve this problem?!" Robert roared at the old Maester. "You and the other maesters, the so-called smartest people in the world, cannot even solve the current problem?!"

The old maester steps backward from Robert and quickly says.

"Please, your majesty. We are trying our best!"

"And your best is not enough!"

I decide it is time to step in and stop Robert from killing the poor Maester.

"Robert, enough."

"Tch. Fine! You better be solving this matter. The other lord is already demanding me to stop this so-called sickness."

When Rober walks away from my office room, I look at Pycelle and say.

"Pycelle, let's be honest here. How bad is this sickness?"

"... Bad, my lord. The other Maester is already telling the citadel just how many people died from this."

"Which place is the most affected, and which one is the least affected?"

"The most affected are here, and the least affected place is in the north."

I nod my head. I have already seen a thousand people die in the streets of King's Landing. However, I don't know how bad it was compared to the other city.

"The second one is the Reach. At the minimum, we predict that the number of dead will be tripled by the end of the month."

"Haaaa"

I lean on my chair, look out the window, and then sigh.

"Do you truly not have any cure for this madness?"

"Sadly not, my lord. However…"

"What? Out with it!"

"There is a place we can visit for the cure."

"Where?! We will send people there immediately."

"The Lunaria Kingdom, my lord."

"Ah."

"Yeah. That is why I did not tell the king about this cure. There will be a war between our two kingdoms. We already have a hard time paying our debt to the other kingdom. We cannot afford another war. Especially war against a kingdom in the middle of an ocean."

Pycelle is right. We cannot afford a war, especially against a kingdom in the middle of an ocean. Land warfare is expensive, but ocean warfare? It is even more costly. A short-distance war is not a problem, but Lunaria is too far away from us.

Especially when we need to pass the nest of pirates in Bloodstone.

"Dammit! Have you tried to send someone there?"

"We have, my lord. However, the king banned anyone from the Seven Kingdoms from coming there. The first three Maesters we sent came back, but the fourth one we sent came back in a box."

"They kill them?"

"Aye."

"Curses! Why did they kill a maester?!"

"Because they said that we are nothing but a spy for the crown."

Well, that is not a lie. I know that Pycelle will sell any information to the other with the right amount of money. There is a reason why I only place trusted personnel around my room and the tower.

"They also said that they will not befriend anyone coming from the place that wants them."

"Tywin?"

"Tywin, my lord."

Dammit! It was the old lion's fault all along.

"There is another place that can sell us the cure, my lord."

"Oh?"

"I did not know if this information is true or not, but I heard Dorne got the cure from Lunaria."

"I see. It looks like they are really going to Lunaria and make an alliance for Dorne instead of all the Seven Kingdoms."

"Aye, they did."

"Haaaa"

This will be a risky move, but we can beat this sickness if we can get that cure.

"I will go there."

"Are you sure, my lord? You know that you will most likely get killed when you go to Dorne."

"I will take that risk. I just want to make sure that you can recreate the cure if you get your hand on one of them."

"Yes, my lord. I will make sure to recreate it."

"Very well. Tell the stable boy to prepare a horse for me. I also need a small group of soldiers for my journey."

"I will prepare them at once, my lord."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Again?"

"Aye, Your Majesty. Many merchants are sending more money to us."

"Just put them in the vault."

"They also send us more expensive goods."

I look at the massive pile of vases, armor, and even swords on the cart in the throne room. There are five of them filled with expensive-looking goods.

"Put them inside the vault as well. We will sort them out later. Why can't they just send something useful like the ingredient to make the potion for the Black Death?"

"Because it was a common plant, your majesty. It sounds like an insult sending something that can be found in the street to someone who saves their life."

"Haaa, yeah. I guess you are right. However, they can send some rare plants instead. At least I can experiment with it."

"I will tell them about it next time."

"You do that. Anyway, how is the situation? It has been five months since the plague started, and I want the overall report."

"Of course, your majesty."

Bakir took out a book from his pocket and started to read it to me.

"Lunaria managed to avoid the worst situation because of your wisdom and quick thinking, your majesty."

I wince a little when I hear how he said that. He sounds like a zealot that sees his god work for the first time. I did not like it.

"Braavos already practices what you called Quarantine, your majesty. At the moment, they are minimizing getting out of their house. The only one that can get out is the one who already drinks the potion five times and after they are learning about the Clean Life lesson you teach us."

"Good. How many have died from Braavos?"

"Three thousand people have died, your majesty. They are mostly from the Purple Harbor district. The area with the least infection is Ragman's Harbor. So it looks like your teaching of Clean Life is practiced to this day by the people of the Ragman's Town."

"That's good. However, Three thousand people are still too much. That is not accounted for by the people from the village outside Braavos."

"You cannot beat yourself for that, your majesty. You do what you can to help those people, and many lives are saved because of your quick thinking and action. If not for you, many people will die, and the number will reach as high as a hundred thousand people like Myr and Volantis."

"I guess you are right… Speaking of Myr and Volantis, how bad is it?"

"We did not know for sure, but from the report we get, at least a million people died in Volantis, and another five hundred thousand are dead from Myr."

"That is a lot of dead. What about the other?"

"Pentos is the third city-state that has the biggest dead. From the report we get from the guild, around three hundred thousand people died in Pentos from the Black Death. They did not want our help in the beginning, and they paid the price. More than half of their magister is dead and leaving a massive power vacuum in their ranks."

"Just help them, okay? There are already too many deaths happening."

"Of course, your majesty. Lorath is very lucky. Because of their reclusive policy, they manage to avoid the worst. Because of this, they are only in the early stage of the pandemic when our healer arrives in Lorath. So far, only a hundred or maybe fewer people have died in Lorath. I have yet to receive the newest report from the healer that goes to Lorath."

"That is good. The last one is Dorne. How are they doing?"

"Dorne…"

Bakir takes another stack of paper from his pocket and reads it.

"They are doing fine, your majesty. We managed to send our healer there before the pandemic could reach Westeros. Sadly, it still continues to grow, and our healer is already asking for reinforcement. They ask for more healers to be sent to Dorne."

"Hmmm, sent seven more healers and ten apprentices to Dorne. Also, make sure to send one magician there to be sure."

"Of course, your highness."

"Good. Let's move on to another matter…."

Before I could finish my sentences, the door to the throne room opened up, and I could see a servant get inside the room.

"Your majesty."

"Hmmm? What is it?"

"The people from Dorne have arrived, your majesty. They are the house of Martell."

"Hmmm? Dorne? I did not get a letter from them saying they would get here. Do you get the letter, Bakir?"

I look at Bakir, who is shaking his head.

"No, your majesty. I did not get any letter from Dorne."

"Hmmm. I guess we need to see what they want."