[Chapter Size: 2800 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Stormlands.
...
...
The morning sun rose over King's Landing.
Damon woke beside Val's naked body, clinging to his, while she continued to rest and he yawned.
He had a restless night, and it was not only because of his activities with his spear wife, but also because he stayed up late reading the books from the castle library and the records of the kingdom's finances under Aerys, Robert, and the Lannisters who had been in power, the latter having all driven the realm into debt.
Obviously, the debt the crown had with the Lannisters would not need to be paid now, but the Iron Bank was another story. There was also a debt to the Tyrells, but they would not be a problem either, not when Damon was already planning to rid himself of that family. He himself would use their gold, or even the gold he had already stolen from the Lannisters.
There was also the matter of those families' accounts in the Iron Bank. Would the bank refuse if he took everything for himself? Damon wondered. He had the Lannisters' financial books since he took them from the vault, and there was even more gold deposited in the Iron Bank. Would the Iron Bank seize the rest for itself, even if Damon demanded it, after all he is the new lord of the Seven Kingdoms.
That was a matter he would have to settle in Braavos anyway.
He just needed to manage it carefully. He would have all the gold he needed to keep the realm stable again, without debts, without raising taxes. After all, they had just come out of a destruction never before seen in the Seven Kingdoms: kings fighting over the Iron Throne or independence, in every realm.
The North was devastated by the ironborn, along with other places on the coast. To the south, the Reach and the Westerlands had also been affected. At the same time, the war somewhat affected the Crownlands, but much more so the Riverlands, which were completely devastated by the battles and betrayals that occurred among the river lords themselves.
Jon needed to ensure that Westeros was rebuilt, and it was not by raising taxes or maintaining the absurd burden from Robert's reign that the kingdoms would stabilize again or recover something that would take decades to rebuild.
Obviously, he also had his part in this, but he would now need to conquer and stabilize the situation between the smallfolk and the nobles. He held almost all the power of a little more than half of Westeros in his hands now.
He would begin by dealing mainly with what he believed to be fundamental, even before the stability of the nobility, culture, or education. After all, all of that is rebuilt through wealth.
The financial system would be the first foundation of the Seven Kingdoms on which he would work, allowing everyone to prosper and develop their own lands within a balanced model.
In normal times, the peasant would deliver between 40% and 50% of his production to the local lord, in addition to about 10% to the Faith and small usage fees, keeping something close to half of what he produced to sustain his family. The local lord, in turn, would pass on an average of 20% of his income to the liege lord, who would send something between 10% and 15% to the Crown, keeping the remainder for defense, maintenance, and administration of his lands. It was a heavy but stable system, capable of keeping the realm functioning without completely suffocating its productive base.
Under Robert's reign, however, with the Crown deeply in debt, this balance began to crumble. To sustain debts, interest, and excessive spending, pressure increased at all levels: the peasant began to lose between 55% and 65% of his production, in addition to religious and extraordinary taxes, leaving him with little more than a third of what he harvested; local lords raised their transfers to around 30%; and the great lords came to owe between 25% and 30% of their income to the Crown, in addition to emergency contributions and forced loans. The total burden was no longer merely high — it was becoming suffocating — creating a cascading effect of hunger, debt, and instability that silently eroded the foundations of Westeros.
Robert was a terrible king, he was destined to bring hunger and financial chaos to the entire realm. If he had remained in power for ten more years, he might have caused even more deaths than the war itself. The revolts would have been unstoppable.
That made Damon think, ironically, of his own uncle. The fool always chose to blame his sister for the war and to praise his friend the king. He said he did not want war and still claimed that, which is why he preferred Robert on the throne, but the fool only knew how to see peace from a single perspective. He did not seem to realize that the realm was fragmenting entirely because of the feasts, the tournaments, and the luxurious life that Robert tried to maintain for himself.
The same could be said of the queen herself, who wanted to live in luxury all the time, even if that generated debts for the Crown through her father. After all, her father was one of the richest men and she could turn to him, which would also give even more power to the Lannisters, leaving the Crown on its knees.
Jon Arryn, the fool who failed to control this, Daemon felt disgust for this man. Perhaps he realized it, but he never did anything, not with an uncontrollable king and his position as Hand, which should have given him the feeling of controlling the Seven Kingdoms like no one else, after all the king did not even care about the realms, as long as he had food to feast on, drinks to make him drunk, and prostitutes to warm his bed.
And this would be the future of Westeros in less than a decade if Daemon had not let Robert die: people forced to work like slaves, more than they already were for the great lords; the rising cost of food; people unable to buy provisions; banditry becoming a choice for many; criminal activities beginning across the realm so they could survive and feed their own families, even if that meant killing and looting others.
Hunger would dictate how people behaved. After all, humans live through incentives.
And so the quarrels between lords would begin as well, owing and demanding money, while the Crown would be pressured. Then rebellions would begin, intense wars would arise, and the Iron Bank would not remain idle either upon seeing that Westeros could no longer pay its debts.
Robert would have an even greater problem. And how would he solve it? Simply by asking others to do something while he returned to drinking and feasting.
Not even the Targaryens, as psychopathic and mad as they had been over the centuries, had left the Crown's treasury so empty or the Crown so indebted. That would have been their end; they knew it.
Lord Stark wanted to preserve the peace, but at the same time the final result would be chaos even worse than the War of the Four Kings, than the war that followed. Instead of Balon, Renly, and Joffrey, it would change to three new kings: Damon Targaryen, Aegon Blackfyre, and Tommen Waters.
Those two stages of war would not bring the number of deaths that the future of Westeros would have with a broken financial system.
Damon threw this in Lord Stark's face the previous night. The man did not even know how to answer him. Perhaps he will have much to think about when he is at the Wall. After all, that would be his destiny, regardless of how he helped in the war.
Without a response from his uncle, Damon returned to studying the books. He still kept Lord Stark close to him nonetheless, since he had experience as Hand of the King, and asked him for some information while he searched through the ledgers.
Damon was not a good politician. In fact, he hated politics. He knew how to make others fear him and even submit to his will, but he did not possess the art of subtlety. However, he understood very well the social aspects that would shape the realm.
Perhaps he would leave that part of politics to Daenerys, as he had always planned. She would be the gentle face of the Crown and he would be the firm and relentless hand.
And other areas — such as planning the council, the new tax structure, the reallocation and removal of resources, and even the new organization of the realm, where he would take lands from the Tyrells and other houses to place them under the Targaryen name — would fall under his responsibility. He also intended to appoint new lords who would occupy the empty castles of Westeros.
In addition to staying up late after spending time with Val, he was also watching through his other eyes.
He saw Aegon Blackfyre's wedding. He saw him, coldly, simply leave his newly wedded wife to sleep with the Princess of Dorne.
He saw arrogance. He saw the sadness and jealousy in Margaery's gaze. He saw her speaking with her grandmother, frustrated. He even witnessed interesting encounters with none other than Robert's bastard, Edric Storm.
Conversations began to arise between Margaery and Edric. Both had been treated unpleasantly by Aegon Blackfyre, and that mutual frustration brought them closer. The girl wanted power, but she also wanted to feel loved, and Damon began to notice that growing closeness between them, there was desire in Edric's face, and Margaery allowed him to approach, because she was not a fool not to see how inappropriate that was.
Perhaps a possible silent revenge against her husband...
Blackfyre was coming to the North and would arrive in just over a week, but things were unfolding quickly in the South.
Arianne was with the Martells, traveling with Aegon, while sharing his bed every night. Damon saw how Aegon looked at her with disgust, as if she were a cheap prostitute, yet still accepted having her in his bed. Obviously, she wanted to become pregnant by him. Her father had probably given that order, since she lied when she said she was taking moon tea.
Even among the fools trying to claim what belonged to Daemon's family, the true Targaryens, there were betrayals and lies.
Damon was watching everything.
He also connected directly with Bran in the North through his direwolf. The boy knew, through a cue, that Damon was there to hear what he knew, what he was trying to discover about Aegon, since Bran had lately been in the green sight. Damon used Ghost when he was not with Daenerys to hear what the boy had to say.
Bran truly began to uncover Blackfyre's origin. He told how he was born, how his mother had bought Illyrio's support, become pregnant by him, having the fortune to give birth to a boy with white hair and purple eyes — a pure-looking Valyrian blood, perfect for the political coup they were trying to carry out.
He also seemed to have been shaped by the gods to challenge Daemon himself. His mother died soon after. He was raised by Illyrio for a time, then sent to the Golden Company, until they reached where they are now.
Damon coveted the sword at his waist. Aegon truly had the real Blackfyre. And soon it would be Daemon's.
The dragons were not his. None of them accepted him as a rider. He had already tried to mount them, but none truly accepted him — even so, they followed him to war.
But of all this, none of it was truly a problem. It did not matter what army Aegon had.
There was something, however, that made a glint of concern appear in Damon's eyes — perhaps for the first time since he arrived in Westeros, he had found something that truly challenged him.
Euron Greyjoy.
He had conquered one of Aegon Blackfyre's dragons through the horn he used, sacrificing more than one life for it with blood magic. And he already seemed prepared for Aegon's arrival, from what had been investigated, as if he had seen the future.
He delivered his own niece for the dragon to devour her. After that, he began to burn the entire city. While Aegon, who had been thrown off with some injuries from the fall of his dragon, was removed from the place.
Then Euron simply left the city.
After leaving it in chaos.
Now he was somewhere unknown.
Damon was sending ravens and eagles to Pyke and to all the Iron Islands, searching for clues, as well as to Dorne, but he could not find much. The problem was that Euron might simply be waiting for the right moment to strike.
With a dragon, he would be dangerous.
Damon needed to think about what to do. If the bastard decided to attack any other area in the middle of the war between Damon and Aegon, he would have the advantage. Personally, if he were to attack the North, it would be even worse.
There was a chance he would involve himself in the war and try to sacrifice both sides, Damon thought that was the best choice for him, because he himself could deal with Euron, but if he happened to attack Winterfell in the middle of the war, Damon would be divided. If he attacked Storm's End, Damon would not even care.
That was why Damon had written an urgent letter to Bran. Since he could not speak through Ghost's body at that moment, he asked him to investigate Euron's whereabouts immediately.
The letter should have arrived at dawn in Winterfell. He hoped Bran would seek him out, because his eyes could not see on any coast or sea, they were as if they had completely disappeared.
He needed to know what that bastard was planning.
In any case, Damon finally left the bed while he heard Val moan, feeling him move away and looking at him with a sleepy gaze.
She said nothing.
Damon merely gave her a smile before putting on a tunic.
He opened the window and saw the sun rising. He took a blank parchment, dipped the quill into the inkwell, and began to write.
"What are you doing?", Val asked a few minutes later, finally getting out of bed and looking at him curiously.
Damon smiled. "I am merely warning my rival that his wife may be an adulteress. After all, her meetings with Edric Storm at Storm's End are becoming increasingly intimate, while no one can see… except my eyes on the scene."
He finished writing the statement, leaving it carefully worded to greatly disturb Aegon Blackfyre when a raven went straight to him carrying the anonymous letter. Or perhaps some other lord with Aegon would recognize his handwriting, since he had sent a few letters from Winterfell to Westeros while he was in the North.
Val said nothing. She only raised an eyebrow. "You want to enrage him?", she spoke after some time in silence.
"Exactly. And I intend to succeed", Damon declared.
She watched as he finished the letter, tied it to the raven, and released it through the window. The bird surged into the sky, heading directly south. It knew exactly where it should go, with Damon guiding it through the shared mind.
Damon was merely beginning a psychological game with his rival. He wanted to see if he would not become furious upon learning that Margaery might be betraying him — which might not even be a lie. That night, which he spied on while he was sleeping with Val, the two had exchanged a kiss. It would not take long for the relationship to advance even further. Perhaps she could not have a bastard, he was certain that Margaery would make sure that did not happen, but Aegon would be a cuckold and Daemon would mock it.
All because Aegon chose to act with complete indifference toward her. Perhaps she would be queen, but she realized she could not be loved and that she should have no choice but to seek a few lovers.
And that might be one of the few times she would be able to have one, without eyes upon her there at Storm's End.
Or at least, that was what she hoped while keeping her husband's secret.
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