-Chapter 26-

-20 days later-

-19th Day of the 7th month of the Year 298-

Like every evening, I was in the center of the royal garden where I had brought in a one-ton stone.

I was training my magical telekinesis daily with it since I had already finished refining my multitasking mind.

A capability that allowed me to split my mind to do several things at the same time, an excellent complementary ability for my telekinesis that I discovered while trying to throw knives by controlling them with my mind.

After this discovery, I trained this ability every day until I was capable of dividing my mind to sense and control 50 different targets of a maximum weight of 10 kilograms which was my current limit.

What I needed now that I had maximized my mind's division was power, and to have more power, I needed more mana.

Magic in me acted like a muscle, and to "strengthen" my mana, I had to exhaust my mana daily so it would become "stronger," the fastest way was to use telekinesis on an extremely heavy load like this huge one-ton rock.

I had been doing this for two weeks already, and little by little, I was improving; the first time, I managed to hold the rock for about 30 seconds, but now I could hold it for 10 minutes.

I also worked on my magical sense, a sort of magical Byakugan that allowed me to sense people within 20 meters of me and create a mental image of them; it was complicated to keep it active without being really focused, so I used the rock practice to get used to using it in situations of stress and intense exercise.

I sensed someone coming and hearing the little snicker, I understood who it was without even needing to use my magical perception.

"What do you want, Cersei, you have no one else to bother?" I said in an annoyed tone while I was maintaining the rock in the air.

"Nothing at all, Snow…" she said, and I rolled my eyes at her little insult because it was one of the only things she could try to hurt me with.

"...I just wanted to know what the effect of a crown does to you," she said.

I opened my eyes and had a small smile; I observed Cersei, who was dressed in a dress in the blazing red colors of her House, hugging her curvaceous body with gold threads outlining her voluptuous neckline.

Her long blond hair and her eyes of a magnificent green only enhanced her beauty, already worthy of the title of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, Valeria was a beautiful woman, but Cersei was on a completely different level.

By all the gods, this woman is as beautiful as she is evil, her wickedness kills all her beauty.

I closed my eyes and said, refocusing on the rock that was wobbling in the air:

"I know what you're trying to do."

"Oh really? And what do you think I'm trying to do?" she said, still as sure of herself and confident.

"You're trying to poison my mind," I said in a neutral tone without any animosity, as if I was recounting the schemes and plots she was trying to carry out on someone else.

She burst into laughter and then said, "Poison your mind?! And how could I do that? Me, a weak and defenseless woman...No, actually I came in a completely sincere approach because I am one of the only trustworthy allies you have left here at court."

"Trustworthy ally...is that a joke?" I said this time amused by her ridiculous declaration; I could practically feel all the hate she felt towards me.

To her credit, she didn't back down and said in a solemn tone:

"I am very serious, you might not see it yet, but you are isolated, the Lords of Westeros will never stand behind you."

"And for what reasons?" I said.

"Let's start with the Dornish, after you essentially called the dead children of their also deceased princess bastards and you made an alliance with us, there's no chance they'll follow you into a war," she said.

I nodded before saying calmly, "Ok, but those are just the Dornish; I don't care if they stay buried in their desert."

She continued, "It's not just the Dornish, the Lords of the Riverlands will not stand behind you in the long term either because the Tullys will clearly be the victims of your reign; it is obvious to everyone that you hold a huge grudge against Catelyn Stark, and they have yet to respond to your missive to bend the knee, and it's been nearly two moons now."

She added, "The Stormlands won't fight for you even with the supposed bastard of Robert; they will surely follow Stannis or Renly who will betray you as soon as he regains his freedom, and the Vale is now under the domination of Lysa Tully who harbors a terrible hatred towards you because of what you did to her lover."

I smiled and said, "You're aware of that?"

She said nothing, leaving only a confident facade, but I shook my head because everything she had just said still did not put me in a position of weakness; in fact, I was even more dangerous because I would be forced into war according to her scenario, and I would not stop until not a single one of my enemies breathes the same air as me.

I smiled and said:

"I have more than enough men who can fight; I control the Crownlands..."

She cut me off and then said, "Half at most, because the other half will fight for Stannis, and the half that supports you does so only because you hold them or a member of their family hostage, not because they want to and have chosen you for king."

"As if they had chosen a bastard with no royal lineage."

She clenched her teeth and said nothing to my jab, and then I added:

"Even in this scenario, I still have the Stark, Lannister, and Tyrell armies," I said.

"Hahaha...hahaha you are a smart child, but you are not the smartest...do you think my father will not kill you, that he has accepted the humiliation you imposed on him and has sincerely surrendered?...your grandfather thought the same, and where is he now?" she said.

"Dead," I said, opening my eyes this time to look at her, and she took this opportunity to add, "Yes, he's dead, do you want to suffer the same fate?"

"I am not my father, nor my grandfather, even without your father and even without the Tyrells, I will always have the Starks by my side," I said, beginning to feel annoyed by all her little speculations and these vain threats because I was not afraid when I was nobody; it was not now that anyone was going to instill fear in me.

"The Starks can muster at most, being the most generous possible, 30 to 40,000 men, you 30 to 50,000 men, which amounts to a maximum of 90,000 men, and if you want to be the king, the real king of Westeros and not the king of this city that smells a little less like shit since you've been king, you MUST keep me here to prevent me from fleeing to the western lands," she said, clearly threatening to flee so her father could turn against me.

"And you're going to flee?" I said in a low and dangerous tone.

"That depends on what I can get by staying here," she said, not intimidated.

"Tell me what you want and stop talking for nothing," I said, annoyed.

She smiled with a kind of pride and said:

"I want you to recognize my sons, as the true sons born of Robert..."

I interrupted her before she could even finish the stupid scenario she had imagined to dethrone me: "Go fuck yourself, do you think I can't see what you're up to, you're not as smart as you think, I know very well that once legitimized, you'll claim either the Stormlands for Joffrey or my throne, I would rather become your whore than let your degenerate bastard have any influence whatsoever in the future peace of my empire."

"I will make Joffrey renounce his right to the crown," she said, willing to make 'concessions.'

She must have imagined that I would be foolish enough not to see that she would try to make Joffrey or Tommen Tywin's heir instead of Tyrion, which suits all the lions because none of them want to kneel before a dwarf.

"HE HAS NO RIGHT," I yelled, and the block of stone I was maintaining exploded; I quickly created a telekinetic bubble to protect us, and I took a deep breath to calm myself.

I could almost hear her heart beating, and I knew that even though she maintained a cold and indifferent facade, she was scared...she was even terrified.

I enjoyed this feeling more than I should have, and then I smiled arrogantly, which must surely be familiar to her because it's the same smile she wears most of the time when she faces someone inferior.

"I understand what you're trying to do, and I partly agree," I saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes before crushing it by giving my condition, a condition she would never be able to satisfy, "I will legitimize your son if and only if he proves to me that he will be useful to me (which will never happen, we're talking about Joffrey), but until any of your children prove their worth to me, whether in battle, as a scholar, or as an adviser, they will remain what they are...vile bastards born of the incest between you and your brother."

She clenched her teeth and swallowed any remark that could have completely annihilated any chance she had of regaining a respectable position under my reign, and I added in a more neutral tone:

"I don't like politics, and I'm quite simple, so if you ever prove your usefulness to me, your status will naturally increase, otherwise, in the opposite case, I will make you marry Walder Frey, and he will not hesitate to impregnate you."

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