[Chapter Size: 2700 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Westeros.
...
...
Five years had passed since the end of the war.
During that time, all the distrust toward the king disappeared much faster than anyone had imagined. The sight of Daemon facing the Night King contributed enormously to that. In the eyes of the people, he had become a true hero, and everyone was far more willing to accept his rule.
In addition, he prepared for the post-war winter by purchasing a vast amount of food from Essos, allowing him to donate large quantities to the kingdoms that needed it the most.
In any case, many changes had taken place in Westeros after so many years. The winter had ended a year ago.
The first of them was the complete reconstruction of the realm after years of war. Daemon had to create an enormous task force, focused primarily on reforming the entire financial system of Westeros. It was practically necessary to rebuild it from scratch.
Using all the knowledge he possessed and gathering suggestions from the men who worked on the project, along with one more man to take charge of the kingdom's entire financial system, they managed to develop a completely new tax collection system, which had been implemented about three years earlier.
The results began to appear the previous year, with the end of winter, but it also allowed the problems that were expected to come with the snow to be managed far better than under the old system.
The new system benefited both the nobles and, most importantly, the common people, who now paid far fewer taxes. Of course, some problems arose. Many lords continued charging more than what was permitted, but everyone who was caught received severe punishments.
It took nearly two years for the system to begin functioning properly. During that period, Daemon had to deal with many arrogant and miserly nobles.
Touching the money stored in their vaults was, to them, practically the same as tearing away their own daughters... Perhaps, for some of them, it was even worse.
In the end, however, most of them ended up expressing their gratitude. With more money circulating among the people, the economy naturally grew. That circulation meant greater wealth for both the nobles and the Royal Treasury.
In his first year as king, Daemon ended up hiring a man from Essos to serve as Master of Coin. For ten moons, he searched for someone in Westeros capable of implementing the financial system he had already been developing with his advisors, but he found no one truly qualified.
Rago Nestoris was his name. The man came from Braavos and was Tycho Nestoris's nephew. He was exceptionally intelligent and was about to join the Iron Bank when Daemon made him an offer. He accepted immediately after hearing it.
After fifty moons of work, Daemon was completely satisfied with his performance. Ever since then, he had been doing an outstanding job.
His golden aura had already caught Daemon's attention from their very first meeting. The king immediately recognized that the man possessed an uncommon talent for handling finances.
Of course, he could have chosen someone from Westeros, which would have been politically preferable. There were people with golden auras and great loyalty to the realm, but none of them possessed the same aptitude for the field that the man from Braavos demonstrated.
That was why Daemon chose to hire him, despite the dissatisfaction of part of the nobility.
The study of auras had also advanced significantly during those years.
Now, Daemon could even distinguish the intensity of each golden aura, identifying each person's specific potential. The man from Braavos, for example, possessed extraordinary talent for administration and finance, something he would hardly find in anyone else.
There was some commotion over hiring a man from Essos for such a position, but Daemon was at the height of his reign. No one would dare challenge the king.
The people hailed him as a hero, while the nobles preferred not to contradict him, especially when there was always one, two, or even three dragons flying over King's Landing.
House Targaryen had regained the strength it possessed when all of Westeros was united under its rule. As long as they maintained stability alongside the dragons, the other vassal Houses would naturally remain loyal, without Daemon himself needing to be the primary reason for that unity.
The very history of Westeros proved it. During the reign of King Jaehaerys I, the realm enjoyed nearly fifty years of stability. All because the man possessed enough political skill and power to prevent any conflict. The problems only began after his death, when poorly resolved successions and disputes among the nobles gave rise to new branches of House Targaryen, culminating in the struggle between the Greens and the Blacks—in other words, the Dance of the Dragons.
In the end, the true power of the dynasty had always been the dragons. When they disappeared, conflicts, wars, and kings taking the Iron Throne one after another soon followed.
Now, the dragons had returned. All they needed to do was keep the Royal Family united and avoid internal conflicts. As long as dragons existed, it would be extremely difficult for any major rebellion outside the House to succeed. After all, all they had to do was fly over an army to reduce it to ashes.
Daemon was not worried about his own reign. His concern was for the future. For his descendants.
He did not want to lose everything he had fought for and rebuilt because of some fool who might occupy the Iron Throne in the coming decades, centuries, or even millennia. He hoped his dynasty would endure far longer than a mere three centuries.
In any case, the dragons were far from disappearing. Three years earlier, new eggs had begun to appear.
Winter, the female dragon, laid three eggs of countless different colors. Daemon believed Viridrax himself was the father, as the two dragons were always together.
Nix, on the other hand, remained somewhat lonely. Daenerys was even somewhat concerned about him, but there was not much that could be done. There was no other female dragon.
The eggs were placed in specially designed incubators.
A new order of Dragonkeepers was also established. Daemon used the preserved studies from the Citadel, along with everything that had been recovered from the ancient knowledge of the Targaryens, to rebuild a specialized force dedicated to caring for the dragons.
These Dragonkeepers served both on Dragonstone and in the Dragonpit, which had been completely rebuilt over the past two years. Daemon invested an enormous amount of gold into the project, creating a proper place to house the dragons near the capital.
The incubation system was also improved.
The eggs remained in heated chambers. However, two of them showed a much greater affinity for ice and cold, and were eventually transferred to less heated chambers.
With the help of the city's surviving alchemists, Daemon helped them develop a system capable of better absorbing and retaining cold, allowing one chamber to maintain temperatures far lower than would normally be possible. It was not the same as incubating them naturally in the frozen lands of the North, but it was the best they could do.
Even so, the eggs remained remarkably well preserved.
Another major change in King's Landing involved the alchemists themselves. For three years, Daemon worked alongside them during his free time, teaching them part of the alchemical knowledge he had learned in Skyrim.
Instead of producing only wildfire, Daemon taught the alchemists how to brew potions. The maesters of the Citadel also began attending these lessons. After the order was restructured and the king himself took control of the information circulating within it, in addition to executing at least sixteen more maesters involved in corruption throughout the realm, no one else dared oppose him.
Thus, Daemon passed on his knowledge to both the maesters and the alchemists, who began working on the production of potions, the development of special metals, and many other fields.
Medicinal herbs began to be cultivated on a large scale over the past few years, even with snow covering the fields. Daemon used the entire Reach and transformed part of it into enormous farms dedicated to growing plants used in alchemy, creating more than two thousand jobs for the common people.
Immediately, potions capable of treating countless diseases that had previously been fought only with limited effectiveness began to be mass-produced, significantly reducing their cost.
Daemon not only taught them how to brew potions, but also explained the origins of many of the diseases considered incurable in that world. Using the knowledge he had brought from Skyrim, he developed treatments for many of them, teaching every procedure in detail.
The greatest example of this was the Velaryon boy himself. He had gone from a twelve-year-old child on the brink of death to a strong and healthy young man, capable of leading House Velaryon. He was now a married man.
Furthermore, the young man also became something of an apprentice to Daemon in military and governmental affairs, with no father left to guide him. He spent the last three years in King's Landing learning directly from the king, while traveling through the ports and the principal Free Cities of Essos and the major cities of Westeros to better understand commerce. After all, he would need to negotiate on behalf of House Velaryon and rebuild the commercial influence his family had lost during the wars. He was already married and had a child expected to be born in six moons.
Another major change in King's Landing was the enormous statue of Meridia that Daemon had commissioned.
He personally removed the Dawnbreaker and placed it on display directly beneath the statue. The sculpture depicted Meridia with her arms outstretched, her palms facing forward, gazing over all of King's Landing. The Dawnbreaker remained embedded in a stone pedestal at her feet, radiating a constant golden glow.
It immediately caught everyone's attention. Countless people tried to remove the sword, but no one succeeded.
No matter the method. Thieves tried to steal it during the night, men used ropes, horses, and even mechanisms to pull it free, but the sword never moved a single inch.
That was because Meridia herself had asked Daemon to do it years earlier. The Dawnbreaker would no longer be used. After all, it had fulfilled its purpose by defeating the dead.
Leaving it there would only strengthen its legend.
Daemon suspected that Meridia had planned all of this from the very moment she showed his battle against the Night King to all of Westeros.
In a way, it was an excellent way to immortalize the achievement of her champion.
Now, anyone could behold the sword of the hero who had faced the Night King in single combat and emerged victorious in his Dragon Aspect.
At the base of the statue was a single inscription: "When the world is shrouded in darkness, the true hero shall raise this sword... and fight to overcome evil."
With the Night King and the White Walkers destroyed, it was highly unlikely that a similar darkness would ever arise again. Even so, the enchantment remained upon the sword. If humanity ever truly needed a new light, it could be drawn only by someone truly worthy.
It was not only the statue that became unlike anything ever seen before in King's Landing.
The sword itself became a tourist attraction. Thousands of people, coming from every corner of Westeros and even Essos, visited King's Landing solely to behold it. Many touched its hilt, felt its warmth, and admired the golden radiance that never faded.
Naturally, this began attracting countless followers to that unknown goddess. Exactly as Meridia had requested.
A new religion was beginning to emerge. This did not please the septons in the slightest. Even so, some people began converting. Before long, the first followers appeared claiming they had received visions and had even spoken with the goddess herself.
Meridia truly had begun maintaining contact with certain mortals. She needed followers. Daemon would never establish an official religion to favor her. That had not been part of their agreement; he would help her, and the statue had already been an enormous success for the goddess.
But the first priests began to appear, and little by little, Meridia's words started being carried to the mortals of that world. They were teachings of light, compassion, forgiveness, and hope in the face of darkness.
This also ended up benefiting the king himself. After all, Daemon was known as the champion of that new goddess.
The other Daedric Princes were certainly far from pleased to realize that Meridia was gradually beginning to establish her influence in that world.
Even so, Daemon preferred that it be her. Far better Meridia than any of the others.
It was only the beginning.
Over the following years, Meridia's followers spread rapidly throughout Westeros. More and more people swore that the goddess had contacted them through dreams, prayers, or visions.
That made Daemon wonder what exactly Meridia was planning. She was practically plunging the Seven Kingdoms into a new religious conflict, something that would likely give him headaches for many decades to come.
His greatest concern was preventing the followers of the Seven from going to war against the adherents of Meridia's new faith, now known as the Goddess of Light.
That was another headache, because many had already begun comparing her directly to the Red God worshipped by the priests of R'hllor as well. The red priests were complaining that this goddess had been given the same title as theirs...
In any case, this period was marked by Daemon having to receive countless septons and even the High Septon, who demanded that he stop the growth of this new faith. He simply refused every request.
Meridia's greatest advantage over Westeros was precisely that. She could truly make contact with mortals, granting blessings, visions, and miracles that left her followers completely convinced of her existence.
For a world that, only a few years earlier, had been plunged into war, famine, suffering, and prejudice, Daemon believed the Daedric Princess could offer a new path.
The common people deserved to be treated better, bastards deserved to be treated better, and Meridia could be a solution to the cruelty of that world, or at least a way to lessen it.
The red priests also began trying to expand their religion throughout Westeros. That would certainly bring him many more headaches. They wished to venerate Daemon as the champion of the Red God, claiming that it had been R'hllor who granted him the strength to defeat the Night King, not the new goddess.
Some even went so far as to claim that the Dawnbreaker itself belonged to the Red God, insisting that the sword was actually a blessing bestowed by R'hllor.
Daemon was forced to expel them. In a way, he did not forbid them from remaining in Westeros, but he certainly would not allow them to spread their religion freely, much less attempt to claim credit for the Dawnbreaker.
The sword would remain exactly where it was. Only Daemon could draw it. Not even the red priests were able to move it. Some even tried to remove it to take it to their temples, claiming that it rightfully belonged to the Red God.
It was at that moment that Daemon lost his patience. He had them all expelled immediately, making it clear that they were free to worship whomever they wished, but they would never lay a hand on that sword again.
Even when they offered Daemon a vast amount of gold, and despite the kingdom's finances having greatly improved and its debts largely resolved, he refused. The Dawnbreaker would remain exactly where it had always stood.
Daemon did not even grant the request of his eldest son, Aegon.
The boy wanted, somehow, to hold the sword. He had already visited the enormous statue countless times to admire the weapon with which his father, according to the history books, had defeated the Night King.
Even so, he was unable to lift it. Naturally.
When he returned home and asked his father to remove the sword just so he could hold it, the king refused.
At times, his son behaved like any other spoiled child. But above all, Daemon was his father. And he knew how to be firm when necessary, whether as a father... or as a king.
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