Return to Canahs

Victor returned to Canahs and his own home on March 14th 280 AC, exactly two weeks after the start of the first meeting of his new private club.

Honestly the last two weeks were very exhausting for him. Even though everything went mostly exactly as planned, he still needed to find a certain balance in many things. For example, when he decided to disregard the Targaryen's, he couldn't straight up show hostility towards the crown in front of so many nobles of Westeros.

Many private talks with those nobles were quite tricky and full of deceptions and seductions. It was hard to keep his secrets to himself and not announce any information he didn't want to reveal by mistake.

Even the oldest son of House Manderly, certainly not the most brilliant person to have ever been born, grew up in a large noble family from birth and should not be underestimated.

Overall, Victor was truly happy that he could now return home into the embrace of his family and rest for a month or two before the wedding of Elia Martell and Rhaegar Targaryen started.

He wasn't sure yet whether he wanted to go there or not. Of course, he received an invitation from Oberyn Martell but before the Mad King wasn't eliminated stepping in front of the Targaryen's was honestly a large threat to his safety. He would probably not step into such danger without reason. This would leave him with a lot of time before the tourney of Harrenhal in 281 AC and the following Usurpers' war.

His family stewards were already frantically preparing weapons and drugs for this coming war and stockpiling them in Redwater. His family would surely gain immense benefits once this war starts.

But the only problem he had right now was his close relationship with House Martell. If he didn't use the large armed forces of House Di Natale and Lys while the aunt of his future wife was under attack this would pretty much lessen their good relationship.

Of course, Prince Doran would not break their alliance because of this, but at least Oberyn would never be as warm to him as before, because this would seem like an abandonment.

If Victor wanted the best of both worlds, keeping his relationship stable and not participating in the Usurpers' war with his own army, he would need to find a place to use his own armed forces during the upcoming war.

He would need to research a goal in the future. Obviously, he could never attack Westeros during this time, as an attack from outside of Westeros would instantly make him the target of all sides and they would first eliminate any outside treat before deciding their internal war.

Attacking the Free States of Essos would exclude him from this alliance and attacking the Slaver's Bay wouldn't be worth it. There was not much to be gained from the attack and the long supply chain would be extremely costly. Never mind, he still had a long time to decide before the tourney of Harrenhal and Lyanna Stark's abduction.

When Victor stepped down from his own private ship his two little sisters were already waiting at the port. Of course, the two little girls were already in his arms before he could take a few steps.

The antics of the three siblings were already known by the whole family and nobody was surprised by the action in front of them. Only by promising Giulia and Diane many gifts and conditions the two girls stopped crying and were holding one of Victor's arms happily.

Ashara and Isabelle were looking at each other helplessly. They tried to teach the two little girls' etiquette during this time, but every time Victor appeared and gave in as soon as he saw a single tear in their eyes all their efforts would be in vain.

Obviously, his sisters knew that their brother would pick the stars for them if the family interest was not hurt by them. This led to their behavior being quite wild, but always stopping before they broke any family rule or caused large trouble.

Of course, this led to many disagreements with his mother Isabella, but as he himself never planned to use his sisters as a political bargaining chip he simply didn't care at all. Secretly many family members were quite happy with how Victor dealt with the problem. They could see just how kindhearted he was to his little sisters and that he had no pride in front of them nor looked down on any female family member.

When he stepped in front of his elders, he gave Victor gave his sisters a light pat and they returned to two little well-behaved ladies, to the surprise of his mother and Ashara. Obviously, their respect for their brother was very high.

After formally greeting his elders and the family guardians he gave Ashara an ambitious look but didn't go too far in front of so many people in public. But the flirty look was enough to make the beautiful girl very shy and she kept looking towards the floor and hid behind Isabella a little bit. Seeing the always lively and confident girl becoming like a shy rabbit just because of one look of her son made the mature Isabella very helpless but also proud.

The family prepared a large evening banquet for Victor's return and of course to thank all his guardians who protected him very well during the long journey.

Victor explained his elders the all the guardians all the happenings during the first meeting of the Athenaeum club and everybody was very excited and proud about the new gains during this time.

The important stewards were very happy that their young master already found ways to sell all the stocks on Redwater and bring new profits and markets to the family.

They were slowly getting worried about the massive wealth that was stockpiled on Redwater in secret. Of course, they could never expect that the upcoming war would turn these stocks into something worth more than pure gold in weight.