Ned Stark was the most steady Stark of his generation. He had responsibly followed his father's instructions, safely escorting Prince Viserys all the way to The Westerlands. Unaccustomed to such southern climes, he wasn't used to the excessive heat, and he found the dense population overwhelming. The sparsely populated North had shaped his aesthetic habits; he even thought the green trees grew too quickly in the summer here. In the South, it never snowed in summer, and the wheat could be harvested crop after crop without worrying about famine.
He was concerned about the harvest in the North and had no interest in sightseeing. Although Tyrion tried to persuade him to stay, Ned, not long after, set off for the North with gifts, leading his retinue.
As he had just passed through Golden Tooth and the vast forests to the northeast, arriving in The Riverlands, at The Kneeling Stockade, the site where the Starks' ancestors had knelt to Aegon the Conqueror, a troop of Lannister light cavalry intercepted him, asking him to halt his journey. That same night, the Gold Cloaks also arrived, their faces serious, but their attitude was still polite, asking him to go to King's Landing.
What had happened? Ned was puzzled.
On the way north, Kevan Lannister, who was staying at Casterly Rock, also caught up and joined the team heading to King's Landing. Ned then learned that on the day he departed, the young Prince Viserys, who had seen him off, and Tyrion, the youngest son of Tywin, had both disappeared!! Their whereabouts were unknown to this day!!
Kevan had searched for three days and, out of desperation, sent out a raven. Upon learning of this, King Aerys was furious! All who were involved had to go to The Red Keep to explain what had happened and find out where the prince and the others had gone.
Kevan, riding on horseback, looked at the road ahead on the King's Road with worry. He didn't tell Ned that there were actually two other people missing. One was a poor girl he had received a letter from Tywin to deal with. The other was Sandor, the new head of House Clegane, the younger brother of Gregor.
In addition, he had inventoried the property in Casterly Rock and found that Tyrion's small treasury had been emptied. According to the servants' description, on the day Ned left, Tyrion had Sandor drive a carriage to deliver three large boxes, under the pretense of giving farewell gifts to the Northerners.
A planned disappearance.
Kevan already knew the basic answer to what had happened. But it was an undeniable scandal. With Cersei on track to become the Crown Princess, the truth could not be revealed. The Crown Princess couldn't have a lowly sister-in-law!
However, the missing people couldn't be hidden forever. The Prince was gone, the Lannister dwarf was gone, the Clegane patriarch was gone, and so was a farm girl who had been associating with them recently. Even a laundry worker from the inn had vanished. As a result, magical rumors began to circulate in the Lannister harbor beneath Casterly Rock. The first version was the most widespread, saying that Prince Viserys had taken a liking to a pretty girl presented by Tyrion. The Targaryen family's legacy of love had awakened! He had eloped with her, along with a group of people including Ser Clegane! They had even secretly married at some location. They had a priest tie silk ribbons around their wrists! Tyrion and Clegane were responsible for the wedding night shenanigans—
This version nearly choked Rhaegar, who was anxiously waiting in the Red Keep. It was absurd, absolutely impossible. The Crown Prince gripped the hilt of his Valyrian Steel Sword and ordered that anyone spreading rumors in King's Landing that damaged his brother's reputation would be severely punished.
The second rumor, which came later, said that Ser Clegane had tried to rape the farm girl, but the young prince had stopped him. Clegane, in a rage, killed the young prince, buried the body in the mountains, and fled. Tyrion was either killed by him or captured, waiting for a ransom.
This version clearly confused the former Gregor Clegane with the current Sandor Clegane. Gregor Clegane was capable of such things.
Then there was a third version, the most popular in the taverns: Ser Clegane had fallen in love with the farm girl, and the farm girl was infatuated with the handsome Prince Viserys. Clegane and Prince Viserys were dueling, with Tyrion acting as the referee, so they were currently dueling somewhere!
None of the versions considered that a dwarf could also find true love. The prince would persuade others to run towards freedom with him, taking a little of their rightful property for expenses. And Clegane, who had just become a knight not long ago, would abandon his family and prospects, following his long-determined master towards a new land.
Ned arrived in King's Landing completely in the dark. King Aerys had flown into a rage, demanding the imprisonment and interrogation of everyone involved. Prince Rhaegar had desperately tried to stop his father – perhaps because the young prince's whereabouts were unknown, and he had become the sole heir again. Some of the ministers, not wanting to offend Rhaegar and Tywin, wisely didn't support the King. In the end, the King ordered the Prince and the Hand of the King, Tywin, to jointly investigate during the Small Council.
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Inside the heavily guarded and tense Red Keep, Ned met Rhaegar once more. The Prince and the Hand were seated in the small council chamber. Tywin Lannister's face was ashen. The King's Hand's necklace and brooch gleamed sharply on his red velvet, gold-threaded robe. The Prince, on the other hand, appeared much gentler. He had seats arranged for Kevan and Ned, seemingly intending a conversation rather than an interrogation.
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He gazed at Ned. "Please recall if Prince Viserys mentioned any places he was interested in during your journey south?"
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Ned thought for a moment and answered truthfully, "The young prince said he'd heard Highgarden was the most beautiful, the most abundant. He – he said he wanted to go with you in the future. He said that even the most beautiful roses in Highgarden, a hundred kinds of flowers placed together, couldn't compare to your brilliance... He also said he wanted to let the people of Highgarden see what the most handsome man in the Seven Kingdoms looked like..."
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Ned had listened to Viserys praise Rhaegar all along the way. It should have been a bit embarrassing to repeat the original words in front of the person being praised, but seeing him up close like this, Ned found Rhaegar to be undeniably handsome – if not for his melancholic eyes, he was indeed perfectly unearthly.
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A ripple of light appeared in the Prince's purple eyes. He nodded slowly and then asked Ned about what happened after he arrived at Casterly Rock.
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Ned recalled that Viserys and Tyrion were very close. The two had a lot to say, and they avoided others most of the time. He only overheard some of their conversation once, not intentionally. Ned spoke cautiously, glancing at the Hand.
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Tywin indicated that he wanted him to speak directly.
Ned continued, "Prince Viserys told Tyrion that he understood Tywin's dislike for women of low birth. The Duke's anger stemmed from his experiences in his youth. It was a pity that the candle merchant's daughter, whom Lord Tytos had chosen, was a shallow, ignorant, and arrogant fool. To brazenly wear the clothes and jewels of the late Duchess, Tywin's mother, was something no one could tolerate. If it were him, he would have had the woman bound and thrown into the vilest brothel on Silk Street."
Hearing this, Tywin's blue eyes seemed to hold a blade of ice, his anger blazing. He was furious that the shameful history of his family was being exposed again, that his father was so foolish and weak.
"If your father, Tywin, had been a bit softer back then, there would be no Lannisters as they are now," the little prince said. "It was everything he experienced that made him who he is."
Tywin listened to the recounting, his fingers clenching. Rhaegar, however, judged that Viserys wasn't making these remarks to Tyrion for no reason! He was trying to persuade Tyrion to understand Tywin's hatred for commoners who sought to climb into nobility. What was the motivation? It couldn't be that Viserys needed Tywin's permission to be with a woman!
Viserys only needed to seek his opinion. Rhaegar thought decisively. Combined with the information he had received, the first version of the rumors, the truth was already emerging in his mind: it was Tyrion. He was the one in love with the commoner, and it was only him who could have eloped with the girl!
He exhaled softly, his posture relaxing slightly. Turning to Tywin, he knew that the Hand of the King would never admit that Tyrion was the core of the missing person's case, but he would also never compromise on his brother's reputation.
"So, my brother is trying to persuade Tyrion to reconcile with the Duke. Because of some family matter, father and son are unhappy, is that right?"
Tywin understood the implication. He nodded slowly. "Indeed, it's a family matter. Your Royal Highness, we must find out where they've gone." The old lion looked at Kevan, signaling him to speak.
Kevan said that since the disappearance, he had sent riders to track the King's Road north and south, but to no avail. Inquiries at the Lannister harbor docks had also turned up nothing about a child with silver-purple eyes or a dwarf boarding any ship. During this process, he had inventoried Casterly Rock's assets and discovered that three boxes of gold ingots mined from the mines were missing. They were worth about thirty thousand Gold Dragons.
"It's impossible to take so much gold out of the city without going through the gate guards. They said that the gifts Tyrion sent to the Stark family weren't carefully inspected. It was Ser Sandor, his personal attendant, who drove the carriage."
Kevan dared not associate the missing gold with the little prince in any way.
Everyone looked at Ned again. The Northerner said he had indeed received the gifts from Tyrion, and the boxes hadn't been opened. If it was indeed gold, he wouldn't mind returning it.
Rhaegar tapped his slender fingers on the table, silently waiting for the results. Soon, Casterly Rock's attendants reported that the gifts were all normal, including Highgarden wine, Myrish Lace, deep-sea salted fish, and coral ornaments. The only problem was that they weren't packed in the boxes bearing the Lannister sigil that had been used to transport them out. Those boxes were just ordinary wooden crates from the Lannister harbor.
The Crown Princess frowned and asked if the gifts could all be bought at the Lannister harbor.
The answer was affirmative. The trading port had many merchant ships, and these things were not rare in The Westerlands.
The Crown Prince then asked Ned where he had gone the day before he left.
"So, the Lannister port…" Ned Stark said. Tyrion had shown him around at the end, and gifted the North several crates of presents.
The truth was obvious: gold, hidden in boxes bearing the Lannister sigil, beneath the gifts, and smuggled out of the city. Under the guise of seeing Ned off, these "gifts" were sent to the port, likely loaded onto a ship. The plan was to buy similar gifts at the port beforehand, pack them in ordinary boxes, and give them to the Northerners while seeing Ned off… The port was bustling, with many people and ships. Loading and unloading cargo was normal, and having someone carry a few Lannister family boxes wouldn't raise any eyebrows.
After seeing Ned off, Tyrion, Prince Viserys, and Ser Sandor didn't return to Casterly Rock that day, nor did they appear the next. Only then did the Lannister family begin to search.
"They must have boarded a ship and taken the sea route." Rhaegar rubbed his forehead, melancholy evident in his expression. "Both my brother and Tyrion are clever. If they were trying to conceal their tracks, my brother would hide his hair, and Tyrion, I imagine, would probably pretend to be a child, letting Sandor carry him. And it is said that a girl is also missing…"
He looked at Tywin. "With the girl, they couldn't travel entirely on horseback; they'd have to use a carriage. But a carriage carrying boxes weighing thirty thousand gold dragons—even if it could pull them—would be extremely slow. Only a sea route could solve all the problems."
"All ships that left the Lannister port that day should have records with customs and port authorities. Investigate whether a group of three, with a 'child,' boarded any of them." Rhaegar decided, not understanding why his brother would be so secretive about his travels, unless—he didn't want him to know where he was going.
That answer made him both angry, and anxious.
Not long after, a letter in Viserys's handwriting was delivered, which finally eased the tense search.
He admitted that he enjoyed sailing with his friends. He had embarked on a true journey, "But no matter where I go, I miss the Red Keep and the fragrant Godswood with its Dragon's Breath. My name is Targaryen, and I will definitely return home as soon as possible, to be with the people I love."
He took into account that the letter would be made public, so he didn't pour out his love for his brother. Rhaegar also understood, but—clutching the letter, he was still unwilling: Viserys clearly longed to travel with him the most, yet he hadn't been able to fulfill it even once.
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Thanks to the little angels who voted for me with their "king of the bombs" or irrigated nutrient solution between 2020-07-14 15:08:37 and 2020-07-15 22:00:59!
Thanks to the little angels who threw mines: century egg and lean meat porridge, He Yan 2; Ao Ao Xiu 1;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Primrose 2 bottles;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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"Game of Thrones: Dragon Prince"
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(End Chapter)