Part 22 - Jousting results

281 AC

(Escanor POV)

"Hah... that's quite the conundrum indeed."

I was sitting in my father's solar. We were going over the reports he had gotten over the last couple of days.

"Hm...", was all Tywin said. He was deep in thought after having read the last report.

It had been ten days since the start of the tourney at Harrenhal. A lot had happened during that time on the side. Escanor and his father had been quite busy. The tourney itself had not been very interesting but the outcome ... now that was something VERY interesting indeed.

Escanor knew the story of ASOIAF and GOT more or less and knew about the event that jumpstarted the war that would be known as Robert's Rebellion. And right now, he and his father had just gotten the news that a certain young woman had been crowned by the Crown Prince.

It seems like Lyanna Stark had been crowned Queen of Love and Beauty just like in the story. This would undoubtedly lead to disaster and the Rebellion was only a matter of time now.

The tourney had gone like he knew and was not particularly interesting. The Lords from the Westerlands that attended the tourney had sent reports about events almost every day.

The Joust was the first event and also the most popular one. It took a total of five days. And during those five days, some very interesting things happened. Escanor and Tywin got the news a bit late due to the time it took the Ravens to get to Casterly Rock.

The key events were the same as he knew. One noteworthy event was the story about a certain Northman, a crannogman. This man, named Howland Reed, had found himself bullied by three squires, none older than five and ten name days.

Even though Lord Reed was an adult, these three squires or better yet ... these boys, were all larger than him in size. Haha, imagine that. According to the report, Howland Reed did in fact have a weapon with which he could have defended himself. It was a three-pronged spear.

However, this spear was snatched away by the three squires ... haha. I can only imagine the humiliation he must have felt at that moment. Being disarmed by three squires that weren't older than fifteen ...

Escanor only got the news of this particular event, due to him specifically asking the Western Lords to keep an eye on the Northerners. He wanted to see whether his knowledge would prove to be correct or if he had created a butterfly effect already.

Anyway, the squires repeatedly mocked Howland Reed, shoved him and kicked him. They acted like some basic bullies in Highschool. The interesting thing came in the form of a rescue.

Lyanna Stark, the she-wolf arrived shouting indignantly that Howland was her father's bannerman and they should stop or she would make them. Of course, this didn't help at all as she was a woman and they were all taller than her. Surprisingly she bet off the three with a ... tourney sword ... hahahahaha.

I couldn't stop laughing when I heard that. Imagine being beaten by a woman that holds a dull sword and you are three squires ... I mean seriously.

Now this event seemingly over and solved, was in fact not. You see Lyanna Stark, ever the willful woman that she was, refused to let things be and forged a plan. She in her wisdom thought is smart enough to disguise herself as a knight and challenge the knights whom those three bullies squired under.

And so on the evening of the second day of the tourney, a mystery knight, later called the Knight of the Laughing Tree, appeared. Lord Payne described the knight in his message.

He wrote: "The knight was short of stature. His armour was made up of mismatched armour bits and pieces that appeared ill-fitting on him. His shield was blazoned with the image of "a white weirwood with a laughing red face".

The mystery knight challenged and defeated all three of the previously mentioned knights, winning custody over their horses and armour. None of them were particularly popular, so the smallfolk cheered for the mysterious "Knight of the Laughing Tree".

When the defeated trio sought to ransom back their former property, the knight declared his terms, that they ought to teach their rude squires honour. And the funny part of the story was that the three knights proceeded to chastise their squires sharply.

The knight attracted a lot of attention. Not only from the smallfolk but also from the Lords and Ladies and even the King himself. But to all of their dismay ... the mystery knight vanished and was nowhere to be found the next day.

I made sure to give the Lords of the Westerlands, who had attended specific tasks. And when the news of the mystery knight arrived, I immediately tasked the Lords to keep an eye on Lyanna Stark and the Prince as well. I had a suspicion that the dumb Prince would surely search for Lyanna.

I wanted to know everything that happened. And just as I predicted, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen met with Lyanna Stark ... more than once. He was trying to charm her.

The banger of the story came at the end of the Joust though. As it was supposed to be, the winner was Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and as it is custom, he had to crown one Lady as his Queen of Love and Beauty.

Now imagine the surprise of EVERYONE when the Prince didn't crown ... oh I don't know ... his WIFE, Elia Martell with whom he had two children, but Lyanna Stark.

Not only was the Prince already married and would bring great shame to her by crowning another Lady, but said Lady is already betrothed to Lord Robert Baratheon. Tensions were high after this moment and the entirety of Westeros will feel the consequences of this action soon.

"This will have consequences ...", I said.

"Indeed.", my father said. He had also been going over the reports and was thinking deeply about what this meant for Westeros and House Lannister.

"Only a deep infatuation or madness would lead someone to do that. I believe this is not the last we hear of this ... problem."

"Madness? Why do you think so? Prince Rhaegar has never shown any sign of madness ... on the contrary, he is loved by almost everyone."

Tywin had narrowed his eyes. Something he did when he wanted answers.

"Like father like son. The apple doesn't fall far from the trunk. Besides whenever multiple people say that 'everybody loves him' or 'he has no enemies' or something of the kind, I always get suspicious and I see a red flag rise."

"What are you talking about? Be clear!"

"You see there is no such thing as a human that is universally liked. Whenever someone 'appears' to be liked by everyone and no one says something bad about him then something must be fishy.

Only someone who tries to act 'good' or 'friendly' would be liked by everyone. Since he wants to appeal to everyone he has to put on an act. And because two people don't like the same thing he will have to be different for each person.

This leads me to the conclusion that the Prince must be acting to appear like the good guy, the one everyone likes and admires. Therefore it's all an act and the truth has to be something dark. Something he is trying to hide. Madness."

Tywin was thinking hard about what I said. He had a lot more life experience than me. But he didn't know that I also knew how to read people quite well in my last life. And since I was in Game of Thrones and knew that you can't trust anyone, my conclusion made a lot of sense.

Tywin looked at me. It seems he got to a similar conclusion as I did but didn't want to act on it for now.

"Then the only difference between the Prince and the King is ..."

"That the Prince is smarter and knows what the people want. He puts up an act to appear sane and get others' support when he inevitably usurps his father."

"Guesses. That's all those are. You are guessing."

"Correct, but should I be correct, we'll see the Prince doing something very stupid in the future. And I'm guessing very soon too."

Tywin decided to change the topic for now. We had other things to do.

"Let us change the topic now. What's the progress with the plan you wanted to create?"

"Ah well, it's like this ..."