Tap, tap, tap!
Dressed in a gorgeous, classic trailing gown and wearing a pair of thin high heels from Myr, Baela was walking slowly down the top-floor corridor of Maegor's Holdfast.
Behind her, two White Knights followed closely.
Whoosh!
Feeling awkward all over, Baela stopped with a displeased look, wanting to throw away these thin high heels that were completely unsuitable for walking.
But she remembered the letter her sister Rhaenyra had sent. Finally, after exhaling heavily, she continued forward.
Things were different now!
Earl Corlys was dead, Daemon and Rhaenys had gone far to Essos, and the family fleet had been incorporated into the Conqueror Fleet.
Prince Lucerys had also not yet inherited the titles of Lord of the Tides and Earl of Driftmark.
House Velaryon seemed to have reached a dangerous edge.
Therefore, Rhaenyra requested in her letter that her sister Baela must ascend to the position of queen as soon as possible to stabilize the situation for the family.
Creak!
Just as she arrived near the King's private chambers, Stone, wearing the Hand of the King brooch on his chest and holding a pile of parchment, happened to come out from inside.
Seeing this, Stone quickly closed the door to the chambers with one hand, then turned and bowed to Baela, saying, "Queen Baela, the King is busy dealing with state affairs..."
Just as he was speaking, a sound like a wildcat's cry came from within the King's chambers, and the atmosphere in the corridor immediately became somewhat awkward.
Stone turned his head to look beside him. Ser Dario, who was on duty, kept his eyes straight ahead, like an emotionless wooden man.
"Hand, I am not the queen right now.
Please don't make that mistake again next time!"
Just as Stone was thinking about how to smooth things over, Baela spoke up, addressing his earlier mistake in address.
From her appearance, she wasn't at all angry about the cries coming from the chambers.
"Yes, yes, yes, it was indeed my mistake.
I will be sure to keep your words in mind, Queen Baela!"
After all, Stone had grown up with Jacaerys and Baela since childhood. How could he not know Baela's personality?
He apologized repeatedly, but his form of address remained unchanged.
"Never mind, you go on with your work!"
Hearing this, a barely noticeable smile appeared on Baela's lips, and she directly pushed the door open and entered the chambers.
Pfft!
After she entered the chambers, Ser Dario immediately stepped forward to close the door, then couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Stone gave him a glare, turned, and headed towards his Tower of the Hand.
The King's chambers were naturally very spacious. Outside was a reception hall, and inside was the bedroom with a large feather bed.
Baela ignored the wildcat cries coming from within, first went to the wine cabinet in the hall, poured four cups of Jinse wine, then carried them in on a tray.
On the feather bed in the bedroom, the older sister was enduring Jacaerys's true dragon's impact alone.
Meanwhile, the younger sister, like the green snake tempting Fahai in a past-life movie, was lying on his back and whispering softly.
Oh dear!
The House Lannister sisters looked at Baela, who had walked into the bedroom carrying a tray, and immediately shrieked.
A few minutes later, the House Lannister sisters hurriedly left the chambers, looking panicked and flustered.
They looked like little stray cats caught by the original owner in a past life.
Inside the bedroom, Jacaerys thanked Baela for presenting the tray, then lowered his head and took a sip of the fine wine.
"Baela, you look very beautiful today.
But this doesn't suit you, so don't force yourself.
My queen doesn't need to act like a lady in front of lords and commoners, just be yourself!"
Hearing Jacaerys's words, Baela immediately happily kicked off the thin high heels she was wearing.
"Jacaerys, you are the best to me!
Oh, it's because Rhaenyra wrote asking me to dress like this to please you, so I can get the position of queen sooner."
Baela had no intention of hiding anything and directly told him the contents of her sister's letter.
"Hmm, I understand.
I've already asked Stone to start preparing for our wedding.
But you know... I might slightly modify the King's marriage system."
Seeing how well-behaved Baela was, Jacaerys reached out and ruffled her silver hair before speaking.
"Okay! I'll listen to everything you say, Your Majesty!"
Baela smiled sweetly at the words and nodded in reply.
In fact, when she first returned to King's Landing for their intense reunion, Jacaerys had already told her about sleeping with the sisters.
It was impossible for Baela not to feel a little jealous; after all, she was a woman.
But she was very smart and knew that such things would happen sooner or later.
Publicly, after the Blood Dragon Dance war, the Targaryen bloodline was dwindling.
Only Daemon and Jacaerys, the three brothers, remained.
So propagating the true dragon bloodline was already the duty of this new king.
Moreover, Duke Jason of the Westerlands publicly stated in the Throne Room that the transport convoy bringing gold, sheep, and grain supplies to King's Landing was already on the way and would arrive soon.
He believed that once his daughter had a formal status, her support for Jacaerys would greatly increase.
Privately, Jacaerys's extremely strong physique had already made Baela unable to bear it.
For example, last night, she was so tired that she fainted but still couldn't satisfy her King.
This was also one of the important reasons, besides the long dress and high heels, why she was uncomfortable walking today.
Jacaerys, who was satisfied today, stayed with Baela afterwards, discussing the various details of their wedding.
But while the two of them were happily enjoying lunch, Earl Samwell Blackwood came to request an audience.
After a set of etiquette between ruler and subject, Jacaerys directly asked, "Earl Samwell, what do you need from me?"
"Your Majesty, I patrol the Blackwater River port every day during this time.
I heard a piece of news from the captains of many merchant ships coming to King's Landing from Seagull Town and White Harbor."
Hearing Earl Samwell's words, Jacaerys was wondering why he would patrol the Blackwater River port for no reason.
But then he suddenly remembered that this was the nominal Minister of Maritime Affairs he had appointed.
And indeed, although Earl Samwell knew nothing about maritime affairs, he was quite conscientious and responsible.
"So... what kind of news made you come to me?"
"Someone saw a yellow-scaled giant dragon in a cave entrance on a cliff face north of Dragonstone, perhaps Queen Mother Rhaenyra's Syrax."
Clang!
Hearing this, Jacaerys, who was enjoying his meal, immediately dropped the knife and fork in his hand.
He walked a few steps to Earl Samwell, frowned, and asked, "Is this news definitely true?
It's not that those sailors are deliberately bragging to attract others' attention, is it?"
"To Your Majesty, it's mostly true.
The reason I'm reporting it today is that I specifically went to verify it first.
At least eight merchant ships from the North saw the figure of the yellow-scaled giant dragon."
Earl Samwell replied immediately with a serious face.
"Nesting on the cliff face north of Dragonstone? No wonder we couldn't find it on Dragon Mountain."
Jacaerys muttered to himself, then ordered Earl Samwell,
"Find an eyewitness who has seen Syrax, I want to go to Dragonstone immediately!"
Syrax was a very precious and prolific female dragon, and also the dragon of his deceased mother.
Jacaerys would never let it roam outside and become a wild dragon, or be conquered by other bastards.
Seeing this, Baela wanted to ask Ela to cast supportive magic on her and go together by dragon.
But she was forcibly kept in the Red Keep by Jacaerys's King's command.
...
The cliff face north of Dragonstone, this was already considered outside the range of Dragon Mountain.
Rustle, rustle!
The head of a yellow-scaled giant dragon, slightly larger than Seasmoke, poked out from the cave entrance in the middle of the cliff face.
It tilted its head in a very human-like manner and looked around the environment outside the cave with its dragon eyes. Only after confirming it was safe did it cautiously crawl out.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Swish!
Syrax, who was about to go hunting, had just flapped its wings and flown above the cliff face when a huge blood-red dragon shadow crashed into it with lightning speed.
It directly carried it and fell diagonally into the pile of rubble above the cliff face.
Hiss, roar, hiss, roar!!!
Attacked, Syrax shrieked in panic a couple of times, raising its head wanting to breathe dragonfire at the target.
But a large, inky-black dragon claw stepped on its dragon neck, and the immense force made it unable to lift its dragon head at all.
The dragonfire Syrax breathed exploded in the pile of rubble, charring a large pile of Stones.
Whoosh, whoosh!
A sound of dragon wings breaking the air came from the sky, and three giant dragons of different colors circled above them.
The intelligent Syrax seemed to know that resistance was useless, so it stopped struggling.
And the giant dragon, three times larger than Syrax, shed its blood-red color, revealing its true form.
Jacaerys on the dragon saddle frowned as he looked at Syrax, who was being stepped on by Womax.
Although it had been well fed by Rhaenyra before and didn't have much combat experience, it was too weak.
Could it be that the injuries it sustained before hadn't healed?
That shouldn't be!
With the terrifying recovery ability of giant dragons, as long as it wasn't missing a limb, it must have fully recovered long ago.
Could it be that...
A thought flashed in his mind, and Jacaerys immediately conveyed to Womax to summon the three dragon servants to escort Syrax back to the Dragonpit in King's Landing.
He himself would ride the dragon to check the cliff cave below.
Womax's size prevented it from entering the cave, so Jacaerys directly jumped from its dragon back.
As soon as he landed, Jacaerys felt a hot air constantly blowing out from the cave.
So, this is a geothermal vent that split off from Dragon Mountain?
Stepping on the gravel on the ground, the further he walked into the cave, the higher the temperature became.
Of course, Jacaerys, who possessed Blood and Fire, only felt increasingly warm and comfortable.
Plop!
As he walked, Jacaerys suddenly felt himself step on a soft patch of ground.
He looked down and saw that he was stepping on... a pile of oval-shaped soft Stones?
Sniff, sniff!
Bending down and smelling the strange odor emanating from the oval-shaped Stone, Jacaerys immediately confirmed that he had stepped in dragon dung.
But he had raised Womax since he was a child and knew that dragon dung usually shouldn't be this shape.
A thought flashed in his mind, and he immediately squatted down and reached his hands, wearing dragon-riding gloves, into the oval-shaped dragon dung.
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
A wave of high-temperature heat rose from the oval-shaped dragon dung whose surface had been forcibly torn open.
Jacaerys then pulled out a dragon egg, green with gold speckles, from it.
Just as expected!
Syrax had indeed laid dragon eggs again, no wonder it was so weak and had no power to resist in front of Womax.
Giant dragons lay more than one egg each time. Jacaerys first placed this dragon egg back into the high-temperature dragon dung to keep it warm.
Then he continued to explore further into the cave.
After some searching, Jacaerys found the three dragon eggs Syrax had laid this time.
After inspecting the cave again to make sure nothing was missed, he wrapped the three dragon eggs in the Black Three-Headed Dragon cloak on his back and returned to King's Landing.
Adding the five dragon eggs previously plundered back to the Dragonpit in King's Landing by Aemond, Jacaerys now had a total of eight.
If they could all hatch, the dozen or so giant dragons under his command would be enough to form an aerial force that would be feared by all powers in Essos.
But the hatching of dragon eggs completely depended on luck. For example, Aemond's and Rhaenyra's dragon eggs had not successfully hatched.
Womax carried Jacaerys back to King's Landing at the fastest speed.
When he arrived at the Dragonpit, the Dragon Guard were comforting Syrax.
The mother dragon, who had lost her eggs, was originally restless, but after seeing Womax, she immediately became quiet.
As Womax's size exceeded a hundred meters, even without using the King of Dragons' might,
Ordinary wild dragons and semi-wild dragons no longer dared to offend it.
Jacaerys handed the three dragon eggs to the Dragon Guard, asking them to store and keep them in a special Holding furnace (insulating furnace), then returned to the Red Keep.
As a result, Ela, who somehow got the information, directly grabbed Jacaerys and pestered him, wanting to conduct experiments on hatching the dragon eggs using magic.
Naturally, he would not agree to hand over such important dragon resources to Ela, who was completely obsessed with studying magic.
But Ela, who had already figured out Jacaerys, simply said a light sentence that made him begin to waver.
"Your Majesty, do you know why the Valyrian Freehold valued Blood Wizards so much?
That's because Blood Wizards can increase the hatching rate of dragon eggs, shorten the hatching time of dragon eggs.
They can even greatly increase the growth rate of the hatched hatchlings!"
Hearing this, Jacaerys said with suspicion, "If there was such a method, Aegon the Conqueror would have frantically searched for Blood Wizards in Asshai to help him back then.
So, either what you said is false. Or, the Blood Wizard's method has huge side effects."
Seeing that Jacaerys had hit the nail on the head, Ela laughed awkwardly and replied, "Hehe, Your Majesty is truly wise!
I didn't have time to finish what I was saying just now. The life potential of the giant dragons hatched by the Blood Wizard's secret method is overdrawn.
Their lifespan will be greatly reduced, just like Sunfyre.
But please rest assured, I have already come up with a solution.
If life gems can be used during the process of hatching with the secret method, the power of blood in the life gems will compensate for the life potential consumed by the dragon eggs.
After that, even if the lifespan of the hatched hatchlings does not reach the level of normal giant dragons, it will be much longer than Sunfyre's!"
Hearing this, Jacaerys was immediately moved. Dragon eggs placed there were of no use to him.
But if they successfully hatched, even hatchlings could form a fighting force.
As for consuming the power of blood in the life gems, that was completely fine.
"Ela, I will give you three dragon eggs to conduct this secret method hatching experiment."
"Really? That's great!
Your Majesty, I will definitely give you..."
Hearing this, Ela immediately happily turned and ran back to her magic laboratory to prepare in advance.
Looking at her receding back as she ran further and further away, Jacaerys shook his head helplessly,
He muttered to himself, "It seems the Valyrian Freehold's rampant expansion and capture of a large number of slaves back then
were very likely for the convenience of Blood Wizards to obtain the power of blood.
No, I can't just indulge in pleasure in the land of tenderness!
I need to find a way to improve the living standards of the Seven Kingdoms and also enact some laws to encourage population growth!"