Chapter 131

Chapter 131 Rumors

Northern Territory, Winterfell.

  After Duchess Catelyn Tully heard the news brought by the maid, she immediately ran towards the room of her son Bran Stark.

  Then, she saw her son, who had been in a coma for half a month, miraculously woke up!

  "Bran..." Catelyn said the word, and tears welled up in her eyes.

  "Mother." Bran looked weakly towards the door, where his little wolf was huddled on the bed, licking his cheek passionately with its hot tongue.

  This warm feeling made Bran's heart move, and he said, "I've thought of the little wolf's name, I want to call it Summer."

  Catelyn finally threw herself on her son and burst into tears.

  It took a long time for her to regain her composure. At the same time, her eldest son, Robb Stark, rushed over to see her talking to his brother.

  "How did you fall, Bran?" Robb asked.

  "I don't know...I don't remember anything..."

  "Bran, think again." Catelyn helped her son wipe his face, "I know, you've never missed a step before."

  " I..." Bran's brows were tightly knit together, as if he was trying his best to remember, after a long while, he uttered a word, "Golden." "Golden?"

  Robb leaned forward, "Brother, what is golden?" "

  "I don't know, I just remember... I seem to see gold."

  Catelyn looked at her weak son and said distressedly, "Okay, Bran, don't think about it anymore if you can't remember it, have a good rest."

  "Yeah."

  After covering Bran with the quilt, Catelyn pulled the eldest son out of the bedroom.

  After going out, Robb said, "Mother, do you suspect that Bran didn't accidentally fall?"

  "Bran has never missed a step." Caitlin emphasized again.

  "Did someone push Bran? But what does gold... mean?"

  Catelyn eyes flickered: "I checked carefully later. On the day Bran fell off the tower, your father accompanied the king to hunt but the queen didn't go."

  Robb was startled, and blurted out: "The queen has blond hair! Is that what Bran meant by Gold?"

  Caitlin probably thought of this, and her body trembled slightly.

  Robb said again: "But mother, why did the queen push Bran down the tower? He is just a child, and he didn't offend her."

"I'm afraid Bran accidentally heard something he shouldn't, so she wanted to kill him !" Catelyn gritted her teeth.

  After a while, she calmed down and said,

  "No, I'm going to King's Landing and tell your father about it!"

  "Mother, you don't have to go in person, I'll send someone..."

  "No." Catelyn interrupted her son, "This matter is of great importance. I don't trust others, and as the acting castellan of Winterfell, you can't leave at will, so I'm the only one to go." Robb hesitated, and said: "Okay, I'll send more guards to escort you."

  "No, too many people will attract unnecessary attention, I will go quietly this time, and I will only take Sir Rodrik with me."

"Okay, then be careful along the way."

  —— ————————

  The king's convoy finally arrived at King's Landing smoothly.

  However, the weather was not good, and it was pouring rain, so there was no welcoming ceremony, and the nobles went straight to the Red Keep in a bit of embarrassment.

  Duke Ned finally calmed down his two crying daughters, and he just wanted to take a quiet hot bath alone, but he didn't expect the head of the council to come to his door:

  "Lord Ned, today council meeting will be held. After the master's learned that you have arrived, they specially sent me to invite you to attend." Duke Ned really wanted to tell the visitor that he was not in the mood to attend any council meeting.

But the words turned into:

  "Okay, please give me a few minutes to change."

  "Yes, my lord."

  When Duke Ned finished dressing , he dragged his tired body to the meeting hall, he saw several masters present, the intelligence chief Varys "The spider ", who he disliked the most, greeted him with a smile: " Lord Ed , welcome to King's Landing!"

 "Lord Varys."

  Observing along , Duke Eddard saw Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, the master of coins, and Grand Maester Pycelle.

  After greeting them one by one, Duke Eddard came to the long table and saw the crowned stag of the Baratheon family embroidered with gold thread on the back of the first seat. This is the exclusive seat of the king, but obviously, I'm afraid the number of times His Majesty sat here can be counted on fingers.

  Duke Ned took a seat on the right side of the king's seat: "I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

  He looked around, only to realize that there were only four people including himself.

  But in a normal council meeting, counting the king, there should be eight people.

  He knew that Lord Renly, the Minister of Justice, had gone to Eyrie to pick up Lysa's mother and son, so he definitely couldn't come, but the other three...

  "Should we wait for His Majesty and Ser Barristan to join us before starting?" Duke Eddard suggested. .

  "Then we don't know how long we have to wait." Petyr showed a faint mocking smile.

  "Our honorable Majesty the King has too many things to worry about, so leave these trivial matters to us to deal with." Varys explained.

  Duke Eddard shook his head secretly, and asked again: "What about Lord Stannis ?"

  Varys smiled: "After Lord Stannis learned that you were about to be the Hand of the King, he left King's Landing and returned to Dragonstone Island.."

  Duke Ned frowned, thinking that he had not offended the eldest brother of the king.

  Seeing this, Varys added: "Don't get him wrong, Lord Stannis is not targeting you. He would not be satisfied with anyone, as long as it is not him, sitting in that seat."

Only then did Duke Eddard understood that Lord Stannis wanted to be Hand of the King himself.

  Unexpectedly, he had just arrived in King's Landing, and without doing anything, he had already offended an important official of the kingdom.

  Oh, more than one.

  the queen...

  "In that case, let's start." Duke Ned announced, pulling himself together.

  "As you wish." Varys smiled sweetly, and at the same time took out a piece of parchment from his wide sleeve and handed it to Duke Ned, "Master Ned, this is His Majesty message sent by a messenger back on the way home the day before yesterday, and he ordered this errand for us needs to be done as soon as possible."

  Duke Eddard took the parchment, first confirmed the king's seal and Robert's signature on it, and then began to read the content.

  As a result, the more he read, the tighter his frown became.

  It turned out that the king wanted to hold a tourney to celebrate the new hand of the king .

  Duke Ned knew that the time when this order was issued should be right after he had a conflict with the queen. Obviously, Robert felt that he had done something wrong to his good brother in that matter, so he wanted to use this method to make up for it.

  But Duke Ned didn't want such a compensation at all.

  Looking at the bonuses for the winners of the tourney competition written on it, he felt a burst of disbelief—

the champion of the long spear competition was 40,000 gold dragons, the runner-up was 20,000 gold dragons, the team melee champion was 20,000 gold dragons, and the archery champion was 10,000 gold dragons...

  In addition to other expenses, this is definitely an extremely large number.

  "How much money is left in the treasury?" Duke Ned asked.

  "The treasury ?" Petyr, the treasurer, spread his hands, "Lord Ned, the treasury has been empty for many years."

"The daily expenses of the royal family..."

  "Borrow it." Petyr shrugged, "The expenses of tourney's was always like this. Anyway, we already owe Lord Tywin more than three million gold dragons, so what's the hesitation to borrow a few hundred thousand more."

"Three million?" Duke Ed was shocked

   "You mean, the royal family owes the Lannister family three million golden dragons?"

"Counting Iron Bank and others the sum totals up to about six million."

  Duke Ned opened his mouth wide, he didn't know what to say anymore.

  After a while, he said dumbly , "How could this be?"

  "We have a generous Majesty." Petyr chuckled.

  "Didn't you persuade him?" Duke Ned asked.

  Pycelle shook his head: "Even Lord Jon can't persuade His Majesty."

  "Yes." Varys also echoed, "Our Majesty loves tourney's , hunting, food, wine... and what he hates the most is, is 'counting copper coins'."

  "I see. I will talk to His Majesty." Duke Ned said in a deep voice, feeling more and more heavy in his heart.

  "It would be best if you could persuade His Majesty to be frugal, but let's make a plan first for this tournament,." Petyr suggested.

  "I'll talk about it after I talk to His Majesty." Duke Ned ended the topic.

  Petyr saw that Duke Eddard was planning to persuade His Majesty not to hold a tournament, and secretly couldn't help laughing at his naivety.

  Next, several people discussed several other matters.

  After the meeting ended, Petyr walked out of the meeting room, only to see Varys follow him again.

  "Lord Varys, can i help ?"

  "Lord Petyr, my little birds have heard some rumors about you in the city recently."

  Seeing the gloating smile on the other party's face, Petyr couldn't help but felt annoyed for a while, but still asked patiently:

  "What rumors?"

  "Rumors about you and Jon Arryn's widow, Lady Lysa." Varys looked at Petyr with a smile, as if very Looking forward to his next expression.

  Petyr froze, but he still tried to keep calm: "How can someone bring me together with Lady Lysa?"

  "It's a bit strange. However, there are rumors that you have always secretly admired Lady Lysa, just that , you have been restraining your emotions since she was married Duke Jon, and now that Duke Jon has passed away, you are going to propose to Lady Lysa..."

  "Ridiculous!" Petyr tried his best to control his emotions, but still failed "This is an intolerable slander!"

  "Maybe." Varys shrugged, "However, fortunately, this rumor has only appeared in the last two weeks, and it has not been completely spread. If you don't want it to spoil you and Lady Lysa's reputation, I suggest you clarify it as soon as possible."

  "Can you find out the source of the rumor?" Petyr asked .

  "I'm afraid this can't be helped." Varys looked embarrassed, "There are too many people in King's Landing, and even my little birds can't find who spread such a humble rumor. However, I think this rumor is no big deal, which noble lord doesn't have some scandals. Those commoners just like to discuss these things."

  After speaking, Varys left with a weird smile.

  Petyr was left alone standing there, not moving for a while.

[END]