CHAPTER 16 - Life In Two years

Daemon POV

269 AC

Two years have passed since I became Tywin's cupbearer and boy was it amazing. Just the number of things that I have learned about how a kingdom works is much more than what a book could have taught me. Still, he is a hard taskmaster and gives me work that no other five-year-old could do. Plus one thing that immensely helps me is the fact that I get to know all the information regarding the kingdom and the various houses. Just last year Lord Luthor Tyrell passed away which made his young son Mace Tyrell the new Lord Paramount of the Reach and The Warden of the South.

Seeing this as an opportunity to make new connections, I sent a letter to him giving my condolences and imagine my surprise when I got a letter from him expressing his gratitude although In hindsight It would be a great insult if he did not reply to the prince. The letter that he sent was worded in such a way that made me think that It was The Queen of Thorns who wrote it rather than her son. Both of us send each other letter's in which he tells me about how beautiful the Reach is and I tell him about what a shit-show Kingslanding is.

But when he started writing about his interest in Cyvasse that an idea struck me, Why not create a similar board game which was widely popular in my previous world? It was then that I got into it and started my work on it. I had to be secretive about it but my being a prince made it so that it would not work. So I went to ask my slave-driver, I meant my kind father whose head would get chopped if aery's ever got to know about whose child I ever was. Surprisingly he did not raise an eyebrow when I told him about how I needed a carpenter and a jeweler. He did not even ask me why I need that. It seemed as If he was interested in what I wanted to do.

On the other hand, I still was deemed too young to start martial training since I was still too young. I know It would harm my body if I rushed things but still it pissed me off seeing the rooster always smirking when he beat boys his age. The attention-needy kid always tried to spend as much time as possible with Rhaegar and since he rarely visited the training yard if not for me dragging him made the rooster angry since only I was able to make him come out of his shell or the library. The kid would come to the library all the time and would start boasting to Rhaegar about how he beat the boys in the training yard and Rhaegar would give his melancholic smile which irritated me to no end. I once threw a book on my brother's head when he was off looking into the distance. "You're not a damn shonen protagonist idiot", I said which made the chicken come to his friend's defense and we started a book fight but soon I lost because of both Rhaegar and the rooster joining forces. Damn, I hate my small body. The three of us were shit scared when mother and Pycelle came to kindly tell us not to behave like idiots. I swear that Pycelle was about to burst a vein on his forehead when he saw the state the library was in after our fight.

It took a week for the carpenter to make the board while the pieces made by the jeweler also was made. I had written the rule book too for the game and now was on my way to show it to Tywin. It was pretty comical seeing me lift the box which was my size. Barry would constantly ask me to let him carry it but I was still pissed off that he complained to mom when I asked him to teach me in secret.

As I reached the Tower of the Hand, I bumped into a man. Already lifting the damn thing was annoying but then bumping into an idiot servant who could not see pissed me off. "You idiot can't you see that the prince is carrying an invention that will make him rich?", I said in an angry tone. I slowly put the box down and was about to blast the servant when I noticed that the servant had blonde hair and green eyes. "Fuck". Did I just insult Tywin?

Before I could apologize his voice cut in," Whatever you have made better be good my prince otherwise I will have to increase your workload. Hearing that I started sweating bullets. He slowly bent down and picked up the box and started walking to his office with me right behind him. I was nervous as fuck. It made me wonder If this is how It felt going into "Shark Tank".

Tywin put the box on the table and sat down while I stood on the tool and started arranging the pieces. I gave him the rule book and as he started reading I could not make out what he thought about this. Finally, after reading he looked at me dead straight and said," Every time I think that you cannot outdo your previous attempts, and every time I am proven wrong". I became red after hearing such high praise coming from Tywin.

"What is the name of this game, Daemon?", Tywin asks. The moment has come to reveal the name which will put my name forever in the history books. "It's Daemon's Chess", I say with an air of confidence.

Then I start explaining how I came up with the game and the various pieces, not noticing that Tywin was smiling at me. As I was in the middle of my explanation he got up and ruffled my hair and gave me a pat on the back. Just then there was a knock on the door and a servant came with a sealed parchment and gave it to Tywin. As he opened the seal I saw that the stamp of wax was that of a stag. Oh shit, just thinking about the possibilities of the letter started making me dizzy.

"Daemon, It seems your uncle is coming from the Stormlands with your cousins". I just nod my head absentmindedly while thinking about the headache that Robert "whoremonger" Baratheon would give me.

Fuck my life.