5

Chapter 5: Chapter 4: The Wise KingChapter Text

"He always was the smartest and wisest of us all."

- Princess Rhaenyra, at the funeral of King Jaehaerys I

101 AC, Red Keep

My father left the Red Keep a mere prince and returned as the heir to the Seven Kingdoms. In order to appease Lord Corlys and prevent him from bringing his great fleet to bear against us, I had accepted Laena Velaryon as my handmaiden and companion, and she would wed my future younger brother. They also tried to push for Laenor marrying me, but Father had demurred.

In addition to Laena, the Red Keep now had a new maester in its staff. Archmaester Vaegon had taken a temporary leave of absence from the Citadel, citing a sabbatical as the reason. He had moved back into his old room in Maegor's Holdfast and had swiftly taken over Grand Maester Runciter's duty of tutoring the royal children.

When he arrived, I expected to be given the full works of the Citadel, centuries upon centuries of accumulated knowledge and wisdom. Instead I was taught a wide variety of topics I considered largely pointless, to my disappointed surprise. It took me three months before I even understood what was happening.

Now, I had always assumed that being in the Middle Ages, Westerosi knowledge was scarce and shallow. And in a sense, I was right. Their understandings of most subjects was rudimentary compared to modern courses. However, even what knowledge they had was still a lot. It always boggled me how acolytes were considered productive if they earned a link a year, but I was naive.

Modern society was practically overflowing with knowledge. Mass media and the internet all but guaranteed that everyone was bombarded with information day in day out, from nearly every possible topic. Through sheer osmosis, most people developed at least a rough understanding of dozens of topics from biology to politics, even if they never touched the subject in their lives. For example, the average dime-a-dozen salaryman probably never learnt the finer points of medicine, but even he would understand the meaning of cancer and leukaemia beyond 'fatal disease'. A janitor may never have learnt a whit of physics, yet would be able to explain the bare bones of magnetism.

It was those little things we all took for granted. The things that everyone just knew. That required no explanation. Simple things. Like the boiling and freezing point of water. What communism, fascism and democracy was. Why the seasons changed. Why covering our mouth and noses and washing our hands with soap prevented the transmission of a virus in a pandemic. Genes. Friction. Nutrition. Reading and writing.

Westeros didn't have any of that. The average smallfolk lived hand-to-mouth. Few of them bothered to learn how to read and write or count beyond thirty. They didn't know or care who was in charge of a region on the opposite end of the country. Even Kings and Lords were not spared that fate. History was recorded through songs and oral folklore for them. Unless one rose above the crowd, they'd just be another face in an endless crowd of overlords. While Aegon I would never be forgotten, half the population didn't even know who Aenys I was beyond 'the King Maegor usurped'.

What Vaegon was teaching Laena and I, was the bare basics. The foundations upon which all knowledge was built on. What we called 'common sense' on Earth. It was mostly superfluous knowledge for me, but the average child in Westeros knew none of it. Laena barely knew any of it, and she was the daughter of the richest man in the Seven Kingdoms. The nine-year-old was as literate as a five-year-old, less, actually. Yuri and I had better handwriting and vocabulary when we were that age. At least she wasn't as bad as my younger brother, who didn't know anything beyond his ABCs until he was nearly eight.

I actually had to sit down with her after our lessons and help her practise her reading and writing, which I greatly enjoyed. Teaching was a hobby of mine. It didn't pay enough to consider as a job, but there was just something so fulfilling in tutoring the next generation. And Laena was a joy to teach, even if she habitually treated me like a teddy bear instead of a person.

Alas, with Vaegon personally teaching me, less and less people were treating me like an innocent little girl. Lordlings quieted when I approached instead of ignoring me as usual. The guards started treating me less as an adorable child, and more like a Princess of the Realm. Servants treated me with thrice as much respect, which was painful. My heart broke when my personal maid Nadie began calling me 'Your Grace' instead of 'Nyra'.

I still did not regret it though. It was a calculated risk. Playing the precocious, but still childish, girl had served me well. The Old King was like a great number of my past relatives, in that he was vulnerable to the assault by an adorable granddaughter when even the most silvertongued speaker couldn't budge him. But with my Father confirmed as heir, I could no longer afford a childhood. I was nearly five now, which meant I had five more years before Aegon was born. I needed to make the most of it, and that meant having the people in power treating me seriously.

Plus, I didn't need to play the adorable granddaughter to manipulate Viserys. Getting him to do my bidding was contemptuously easy.

My initial plan was on cancelling the Great Council and crowning Rhaenys, before marrying Laenor to claim the throne. That failed, so I was on Plan B. I needed to prevent my mother from dying in childbirth and Alicent marrying Father and whelping kids. Which was why I revealed my true intelligence to Vaegon and got him to lure the best maesters in the Citadel to King's Landing. But I didn't hold out much luck for that plan working.

It didn't help that I sympathised with Viserys. Alice was the second love of my life, and was totally willing to accept Yuri as her own daughter. She was even good friends with Yuri's mother. But unfortunately, while Alicent Hightower was the second love of my father's life, she wasn't Alice Sethi, and what I was inheriting wasn't the family clinic, but the Seven Kingdoms. 

So I began Plan C, which took advantage of the fact that I had years before Aegon was born and could be considered my father's heir. In this time period, I needed to tack as many achievements as possible onto my name. Enough such that when anyone suggests naming Aegon heir over me, everyone else would go 'Over Rhaenyra?! Are you a lackwitted fool?!'. It would have to be quite the list in terms of both quality and quantity, because for some bizarre reason, having a penis was apparently the single best attribute a King could have, and overturning that would require quite the arsenal of amazing and awesome achievements.

And step one of Plan C (and D, E and F) involved getting the respect of every single power broker in Westeros. And the best way to do that, was to become an advisor on the Small Council. Which was why I had dropped the facade, and had Archmaester Vaegon as my personal tutor. There was prestige in that. Such that when I had Viserys (preferably Jaehaerys, but he wasn't living much longer) appoint me to the Small Council, nobody would ignore my advise.

But there was one last person I had to talk to, before I fully left my childhood behind.

———

101 AC, Red Keep, Maegor's Holdfast

"How has your day been, Mother?" I politely asked, the two of us having tea on her balcony, with nobody else around us. "I'm sorry I don't spend as much time with you as I used to, but I'm the crown princess now. I have duties and lessons to attend to."

"Indeed. I'm proud of you, sweetling. Archmaester Vaegon is a hard man to please. Your great-grandfather says he's never seen him so happy in his life." Aemma Arryn replied. My mother looked way too young to be a mother, with blond hair, blue eyes and dimpled cheeks. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was a cousin or sibling instead of my mother. No surprise: she was only nineteen.

I still shuddered when I thought about that. No wonder she had such difficulty conceiving children and eventually died in childbirth, when Father began bedding her at age eleven. She gave birth to me at age fifteen, which was horrific from both an ethical and a medical standpoint. When I ascended as Queen, I passing a law that prohibited marriage and sex before age sixteen, and bearing children before eighteen, and if I had to fight a civil war over it, then so be it. This was a war that I was willing to fight, unlike the Dance.

I'd make the law forbid bearing kids before age twenty-one, but that was beyond hypocritical. I knocked up Mochizuki Yuuki when we were eighteen, and she gave birth to Yuri the year we turned nineteen, so I had no right to impose an age higher than that.

"I'm glad that he's enjoying himself. I know I am." I said, drinking the iced milk provided. God what I wouldn't give for some chocolate right about now. It was like the thing I missed the most from Earth, surpassed only by my family.

"Good." Mother simply said, elegantly sipping her chamomile tea. "So how long were you hiding this secret?"

"Years." I just as simply replied.

"Why reveal it now? Surely a girl as smart as you can see the benefits of pretending to be a child."

"Pretending to be a child has outweighed its usefulness. Grandpapa was strong against manipulation, but weak against his brood's youngest. Father is weak against both anyway, so I need not bother." I replied honestly.

"You tried to get him to cancel the Great Council. More than once. The Lord Hand was certain you were working for Lord Corlys." Mother said.

"He did stand to gain the most from it, didn't he?" I mused. "Husband to a Queen."

"The same way you wanted to become the wife of a King." Mother drily pointed out.

"Found out about that plan did you?" I agreed amicably. "Laenor is not his parents. I would have hollowed him out to use as a puppet with ease."

"You covet the Iron Throne." Mother accused.

"Who doesn't want to rule the Seven Kingdoms?" I laughed. "And the fact of the matter is, I'm the best ruler in the world. I will usher in an era of peace and prosperity. Learning and progress. A united realm, regardless of race, language or religion, based on justice and equality, with one people, one Kingdom and one throne."

How could I not? I was an Isekai protagonist with an OP superpower: Knowledge of Earth. And I intended to bring it all to bear in my second life. Inventions from the printing press to antibiotics. Progressive laws. Great public works. Reforms that commoners and lords alike would applaud. There was no one else in this world, now or ever, that could contest me.

"Everyone says that. Every King has said that. Aegon the Conqueror, when he declared war on the Seven Kingdoms. Aenys the Weak, when he bowed to every demand of his subjects. Maegor the Cruel, when he broke the back of the Faith. Your very own great-grandfather, Jaehaerys the Wise, is the only one of them whom actually fulfilled his promise." Mother said accusingly.

"Let it not be said that Rhaenyra Targaryen ever backed down from a challenge." I said, raising my goblet in a toast.

"You have great ambition, child. But I will bear a son, and he, not you, will sit the Iron Throne." The Arryn Queen declared.

"Your health is in no shape to bear another babe. To do so is death." I warned.

"Is that a threat?"

"A promise. But at the very least, I will not become a Kinslayer." Not against you anyway.

"Then I shall take my chances."

———

The very next day after my tea with my mother, I was summoned to the King's solar in Maegor's Holdfast, alone. And to add to the oddity, the Kingsguard that normally flanked the doors of any room the King entered were ordered to evacuate every other living soul in the Holdfast, including themselves. I watched out of the windows as Ser Ryam Redwyne and Ser Steffon Darklyn positioned themselves at the foot of the drawbridge over the moat of spikes, barring entry from the rest of the castle.

"Grandpapa? What is the meaning of this? Did I do something to displease you?" I asked innocently, turning back to the Old King and unleashing the patented puppy dog eyes that were every little girl's best weapon.

"You can drop the act, Rhaenyra. You're not fooling anyone." Jaehaerys sternly instructed.

"As you wish." I replied in a clipped and businesslike tone, ceasing my cutesy voice and behaviour. I straightened my back and faced the King, emotion draining out of me like water down the drain. I took a deep breath and forced my breathing and heart rate to slow, before looking up, my face a wax mask, and my body a statue of stone.

"Someone taught you that. Removing your tells." Jaehaerys noted, eyes narrowing. "Not anyone here, no. You always knew too much, and were one of the best mummers I have ever seen."

I kept silent as the Wise King dissected me with his eyes.

"Ah. This is your second life, isn't it. Where else would you have learnt all those skills without a teacher." Oh damn. He was sharp.

"I see your reputation as the wisest King in the history of House Targaryen is not exaggerated." I grinned, leaning back in my chair.

"History. I see." He nodded at that. "How many years from the future did you come from, child?"

"A thousand years. You are well remembered in our time, Wise King. Never again was there a ruler as good and wise as you were." I sincerely said. Explaining that he was a character in a book was way too much trouble, but I wouldn't deny being from the future.

"That is pleasing to hear. Gods, a thousand years. Tell me of the future." Jaehaerys said, awestruck.

"It was glorious. Men have grown to control the world. We could send messages across entire continents in a heartbeat. Fly in the skies with metal dragons. Men have even walked the surface of the moon. We've recreated the topless towers of Valyria and our population has swelled to eight billion. We've sailed around the world and filled in every inch of the map. Men could expect to live over eighty, women no longer had to fear the birthing bed and infants did not die in their cradles." I recounted, the Old King sighing in wonder before slumping back in his chair.

"Wonderful."

"It was."

Silence reigned for a long moment.

"Who were you? In your past life? A scholar mayhaps? A Lady? A merchant?" He asked, straightening his back and peering at me.

"I was a healer. But I've spent time as a soldier."

"A soldier who heals. You must have been a very interesting man."

"By my time, women could also fight and study in Citadels. The longest reigning monarch was a Queen as well. Elizabeth II reigned for over seventy years."

"My apologies, Milady."

"Oh, I was a man. But I wanted you to know." 

He snorted. 

"And what are your plans now, Milord?" He asked.

I said nothing, instead pointing at the crown on his head. Seven jewels, one for every kingdom, set in a simple circlet band of yellow gold.

"I see." The King of the Seven Kingdoms nodded. "And what do you intend to do with the Iron Throne?"

"I'm glad you asked." I grinned.

———

God I was naive. So apparently there was a lot more to ruling that I previously expected. King Jaehaerys agreed with my plans, calling them 'Ambitious, Audacious and Progressive', but he had poked them all full of holes, picking them apart and autopsying them like a cadaver.

I appreciated it though, the methodical dissection of my plans. The Old King had offered me a harmless opportunity to cut my teeth on selling my reforms and plans on the other Lords and Ladies of the world. It was an abject lesson that not even knowledge from a thousand years in the future was enough to rule.

Regardless, I now had a dozen revised plans and was already scheming on how to implement them. I had to dial back my ambitions considerably, with many of them being projects that would take a generation to bear fruit. My initial plan to outshadow Aegon before he was even born was now out of the window. I'd have to settle for overachieving him in his lifetime, making him look like the perpetual second place.

Still, King Jaehaerys was now my supporter till the hilt. He didn't have long left, but he was willing to lay the seeds of my plans in the last days of his reign. Already, he had Laena and I begin working as his scribes, writing letters for him. Teaching us how to talk to the peoples of power in the Seven Kingdoms. How to sound authoritative, but not tyrannical. How to be friendly, but not a pushover. How to politely tell someone to go fuck their mother and how to sound pious despite not being religious. It did not escape my notice that the contents of these letters were all meant to lay the groundwork for my future reign. Some of them would remain sealed for years if not decades.

And one last thing. I deliberately forced myself to write as neatly and beautifully as I could, desperate to avoid disgracing the document before me with horrid calligraphy.

'The Last Will and Testament of King Jaehaerys Targaryen the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhonyar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm'