Chapter 71: Redhawk

[ Oliver POV ]

As the war, if it could even be called that, was over, I and Arianne fucked in the bedroom of the previous ruler. Now I knew she was a little sad and all that, but I needed a child from her soon. Or else she would start outliving her usefulness and I didn't want to have to kill the only link I had with Dorne. 

But I knew she still had ties with some of her cousins, the Sand Snakes. While currently, their conversations are mostly about normal things, I knew that it had the potential to develop into something more. I don't want a viper in my bed.

Looking at her naked body laying on the bed I contemplated killing her. I could just use a body double and have a child with her. It wasn't like people of this age could do DNA testing. As long as my child had slightly dornish looks then it should be okay.

But no, that would be taking unnecessary risk. I will wait till the end of the year for Arianne to get pregnant. If she doesn't… Well, Noble Ladies slip off the stairs and break their necks all the time.

I closed my eyes and shared the vision with my hawk, which was following Robert's army that had just arrived. I already knew about the war order being a fake one, but I didn't know who sabotaged me. But in the end, it didn't matter too much to me.

Because of the fake order, I had been able to start a war and had the King's 'permission' it wasn't my fault the King was incompetent. Everyone knew that it wasn't my fault and I doubt Robert would do anything too drastic as I was Arthur's son.

My previous self had a pretty good relationship with Robert and he was someone Robert respected deeply.

...

I was sitting on the Three Sisters' leader seat in his castle. With a helmet on my head to hide my silver hair, I waited.

Robert and his army came through not even a minute later and with Jamie next to him, the King looked at me with a serious look. "I heard you went and fought against the Three Sisters' Pirates, is that true?"

I nodded, knowing that Robert didn't like scheming people so I had to make sure I didn't appear like one of them in front of him. "Yes, your grace. I already have the confirmation from you."

Taking out a paper, I got up from my chair. I walked up to him, stood straight, and looked Robert in the eyes while showing him the document. He didn't say anything and just looked at me. I had made sure to hide my silver hair so it didn't trigger any memories of Rhaegar. But who knew how this fat drunk might act.

"I am not mad at you," he said softly. "You have your father's eyes, how could I be mad at you. You even gaze at everyone the same way, with the confidence that you could beat everyone in the room."

I smiled at that. "It isn't just confidence, my grace. He knew he could beat everyone in the room."

"Puhahahaha!!" Robert wheezed as he laughed. "You are damn right! Even if Arthur was in front of a Dragon and he wouldn't budge. That damn fool, he just went and died before me. He always said I drank too much. No one dared refute me when I became King, but he just didn't seem to care."

Well, I didn't care at the time about his authority so he was right on that one. As Arthur, I had a lot of influence, he was known as the Undefeated for a reason. Never lost a fight, whether with a sword or in war.

I had wanted to still have that body even when the canon story came around, but sadly things didn't play out like that at all. Still, though, it wasn't that bad and I now at least knew that my spell worked. 

"Father was quite a lot of things, everyone close to father told him to not go in the Greyjoy Rebellion, his body was failing him and he was sick," well it was due to overusing Magic and losing a huge chunk of lifespan. But no one needed to know that, so I painted his actions in better scenery.

"But he refused to run away from a fight. That pride and loyalty killed him."

Robert looked on with emotional eyes, but he stopped any tears from coming out. "Yes, Arthur was always loyal. He died because of my orders, I shouldn't have summoned him at the time. And I won't punish his son for such silly things."

He took the paper off my hand and ripped it apart. "Oliver Redhawk, you should be rewarded for taking care of the pirates living so close to us." 

In the end, the relationship I had cultivated as Arthur with Robert wasn't for nothing. But still, though, there was another thing bothering me. Someone was after me and I didn't know who it was. My spy network didn't know either.

"These lands, since a lot of men died here. I would like to have a part of these lands." I said to Robert directly. "At least build a port, from which the income will go to their families."

The king smiled. "You can just not pay them."

I could see the mischievous look in his eyes. He was testing me. "Those men died for me, I will do everything in my power to compensate their families and their children to at least get the opportunities they need."

That was all a big lie, I didn't even know their families, so how could I pay them? Unless they were some knight or Noble, no one knew where they even came from. Even if I did, I am not wasting money on them. Because if I start compensating for one, then everyone will start wanting that money. Plus there will be some scammers amongst them.

Yeah, no way I was doing any of that. It just sounded like a lot of trouble.

But Robert's smile couldn't get any wider as he put a hand on my shoulder. "Good, you manage them. They were just some pirate islands after all."

They technically were under Jon Arryn of the Vale, but I wasn't going to correct him. I doubted the drunk Kong knew just whose land was where, especially with little places like this. Jon Arryn wasn't here to correct him here either.

So I decided to keep quiet. In reality, I would have been okay with just one of the islands. At worst I wanted a port in the islands, but… well, this was why you shouldn't choose someone to be a King just because he can hit hard. Or else you get incompetent ones like these.

I got on one knee. "I am thankful for your generosity, your grace."

"Heh, you're thankful to me? I am just telling you to take care of the islands in my place because it would be too annoying to deal with them." He said amusingly, turning around and declaring. "In the name of Robert Baratheon, I declare the Three Sister islands as territory of House Redhawk and they will be managed by Oliver Redhawk, his son after him, his grandson, and so on."

Just how drunk was this guy? I don't think you were even supposed to go around saying things like that. A King's words hold a lot of weight around here. 

I think he was just caught in the moment. Arthur had been pretty badass, like beating people when he was drunk… though I wasn't drunk at the time. So reality isn't anywhere near as impressive. 

In reality, I had just pummeled some drunk guys who were so hammered they could barely stand up.

Still though, now that wasn't too important. Instead, I had to find out who went and tried to sabotage me. Having unknown enemies would get me killed if I wasn't careful.

...

 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

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