As the sun had just risen from the east, the Red Keep in King's Landing suddenly 'came alive'.
Servants were busy setting up tables, chairs, benches, ribbons, and flowers in the inner city training ground below the royal garden.
Although these servants were working up a sweat, their faces were beaming with genuine smiles.
This was because last night, the benevolent and generous king Jacaerys had rewarded each of them with three silver stags.
One must know that their monthly salary was only one and a half silver stags.
So, when the sun reached a forty-five-degree angle in the sky, this group of invigorated servants had already prepared the venue for today's maiden's ball and wiped it spotlessly clean.
Creak!
When the sun reached a forty-five-degree angle in the sky, the main gate of the Red Keep's outer city was opened, and fully armed Unsullied troops filed out.
Maintaining order for such a large-scale event with numerous attendees naturally fell to Rudy and the The Unsullied Legion, who were deeply trusted by Jacaerys.
After this period of bloody cleansing of Flea Bottom and strict rectification of public order in King's Landing, the infamous reputation of 'eunuch butcher' Rudy had become increasingly widespread.
Jacaerys, who had just returned to King's Landing two days ago, burst into laughter when Stone told him about Rudy's new nickname.
Rudy's nickname was indeed a bit ambiguous; after all, his more than two thousand Unsullied were all eunuchs, so wouldn't their Commander have to be one too?
But infamy has its pros and cons!
For example, some of the restless and noisy minor and medium lords of the Seven Kingdoms immediately shut up and lined up properly after seeing Rudy appear, waiting to enter the Red Keep.
As for the great lords of the caliber of duke jason, Duke Essenba arryn, and Lord Forrester frey.
They could directly enter through the specially designated VIP passage.
After nearly a month of layered screening, there were still nearly five thousand beautiful maidens who had finally qualified to enter the maiden's ball.
One day was certainly not enough to select them all, so Jacaerys had Stone assign numbers to them.
He planned to select one thousand beautiful maidens each day, taking five days to choose the other one hundred and eighteen wives he favored.
Duke jason and Lord Forrester, who were among the first to pass inspection and enter the Red Keep, chatted as they were guided by attendants towards the inner city training ground.
Along the way, every few meters stood a Black Three-Headed Dragon banner, flanked by four fully armed, expressionless Unsullied.
Under the gaze of these cold-eyed Unsullied, duke jason and the others unconsciously lowered their voices.
But as soon as they passed through the inner city gate, they felt as if they had arrived at a lively atmosphere like a festival.
In the vast inner city training ground, colorful canopies were erected, and under the canopies were placed long tables and wide benches specially used for banquets.
These long tables were not only filled with various dishes consisting of meat, vegetables, and fruits, but also decorations such as red candle holders, flowers, and feather ornaments.
In addition to these, circus performers who had been invited in advance saw that guests had arrived.
They began performing acrobatics and juggling in a designated area, such as fire-breathing, riding unicycles and tossing balls, and walking tightropes upside down.
Duke jason and the others walked through to the main guest platform at the front and immediately saw that the main guest platform was already full of people.
Jacaerys and Baela sat in the very center, which now made it almost clear to everyone that the position of queen would definitely belong to her.
To the right of the king and queen were the two princes, Lucerys and Joffrey, while Tissara and Serella sat on the left.
After duke jason and the others stepped forward to salute and greet their king, they were arranged by servants to sit in the area on the right below the main guest platform.
After taking their seats in the front row of this area, Lord Forrester and Duke Essenba quietly congratulated duke jason.
It was clear to anyone with eyes that, besides Baela, the House Lannister sisters were also considered to have two queen consort positions internally decided.
Duke jason could not completely hide the smile at the corner of his mouth at this moment, and he secretly praised his wise decision to send out a pair of daughters early.
Before long, more and more lords from the Seven Kingdoms came to the inner training ground.
Since Stone had already allocated their entry times and positions in advance according to their titles, family power, and size of their territories.
Therefore, unlike the chaotic lord gatherings of the past, this maiden's ball was orderly.
When the area to the right below the main guest platform was full, Jacaerys, as the host, stood up to give a speech.
Amidst a round of applause, he announced that the maiden's ball had officially begun.
However, although this king's selection of consorts was called a ball, Jacaerys could not dance with all the beautiful maidens.
Just like the KTVs of his previous life, Stone arranged the pre-numbered beautiful maidens in groups of fifty,
Each walking to Jacaerys's front to curtsy and announce their name and family lineage.
Of course, this numbering had a purpose.
The daughters of the lords of the Seven Kingdoms, the daughters of the governors of Pentos and the wealthy merchants of Braavos were all ranked before the commoner maidens.
Moreover, compared to the commoner maidens who had passed the test based on true ability, the vast majority of these noble daughters were let in by Stone for political correctness.
Jacaerys also agreed with his approach, after all, this bit of face had to be given to these lords who considered themselves superior.
Anyway, he liked to save the delicious parts for later, and whether to choose or not was up to him.
Maiden number one, patricia redwyne, the younger daughter of earl redwyne.
Besides the Conqueror Fleet and the iron fleet, the third most powerful fleet in Westeros at present is the redwyne fleet of Arbor.
The redwyne family must have seen something from the previous policy of expanding laurel town to replace Oldtown.
Now, sending their younger daughter to participate in the maiden's ball is considered a signal of goodwill.
So Jacaerys directly stood up and went to dance a song with this miss redwyne, who had an above-average appearance and a commendable figure.
Then, he invited the blushing patricia to sit in the empty area on the left.
Next, as long as they were not noble daughters solely for political correctness, Jacaerys would graciously go down and dance a short song with them, and then send them to the area on the left.
As for the noble daughters who were not selected, they sat under the canopies next to the performance area with gloomy faces, enjoying the buffet.
This was not a TV show from his previous life after all; noble daughters were not all stunningly beautiful with proud figures.
Among the first fifty noble daughters, only seven were able to sit in the left area.
Then came the second batch, the third batch...
As more and more noble daughters were selected by Jacaerys, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms gradually discovered that the new king's aesthetic taste was somewhat different.
For example, the selected noble maidens all had no freckles.
In their aesthetic view, freckles were a sign blessed by the seven gods, representing future blessings, wealth, and so on.
As long as the freckles were not excessively numerous, they would make the maidens appear more playful and the women more sensual.
Some maidens with flawless skin would even draw freckles on themselves.
Another example is their preference for distinct facial features with sharp angles and lines (similar to angelina jolie's face shape).
While king Jacaerys chose some round faces like goose eggs (similar to joyce wang's face shape).
These lords of the Seven Kingdoms might currently think that Jacaerys's aesthetic is not very good.
When the beautiful maidens of the Seven Kingdoms later deliberately change their appearance to match his aesthetic in order to gain his favor, the entire aesthetic view of Westeros will change.
This is the influence that power brings!
Getting back to the main point!
A morning passed quickly, and only thirty-eight out of more than four hundred noble daughters from the Seven Kingdoms were seated in the left seats.
Just as Jacaerys was starting to feel sleepy from selecting consorts, Stone led a group of exotic beautiful maidens into the arena, and he immediately felt wide awake.
These exotic beautiful maidens with strong Essos characteristics were all high in appearance, and some of them could even rival the House Lannister sisters.
After all, they were tools used by the governors of Pentos for marriage alliances, so they were indeed the best of the best.
And the first one, miss madora from Pentos, shocked the entire audience.
She came to the main guest platform, smiled sweetly, and then directly tore off the robe wrapped around her body.
Beneath the robe was a green transparent silk dress and a jeweled belt tied around her waist.
This transparent silk dress could not hide her curvaceous figure at all, and all the men present had a feast for their eyes.
Her behavior directly caused a commotion on the scene, and Jacaerys, who was watching with great interest on the stage, even heard Baela, who was next to him, mutter insults about her being shameless.
As an upright young man who was irreconcilable with gambling and prostitution, Jacaerys waved his hand and told Stone to take her under the canopy.
This was for his own good; he didn't want to have a patch of green grassland on his head.
With miss madora as an example, the subsequent exotic beautiful maidens were all well-behaved.
Jacaerys also graced the stage to dance a song with them.
But unlike the previous noble maidens, these exotic beautiful maidens were very skilled in the art of seduction.
During the dance, they not only deliberately let Jacaerys take advantage of them, but their deliberate heavy breathing also made people's hearts itch.
However, Jacaerys was an old hand with decades of experience in his previous life, so how could he lose his composure so easily?
As soon as the dance ended, he withdrew, and the disappointed exotic beautiful maidens could only stomp their feet helplessly and then walk to the left area to sit down.
When about half of the exotic beautiful maiden group had appeared, a beautiful maiden with a sweet appearance that made Jacaerys's eyes light up entered.
niah zaynin, she is a member of the very prominent zaynin family of Braavos.
When the other party extended a hand to invite him to the main guest platform, Jacaerys routinely stood up and went down to dance with her.
Roar!!!
He had just walked to the front of the main guest platform when a huge roar like thunder came from the royal garden above.
This was Womax's warning!
And almost at the moment the dragon's roar sounded, the sweet-looking niah, like a leopard, quickly rushed towards Jacaerys.
No time to draw the sword, then...
Jacaerys, who had been repeatedly assassinated, did not panic at all, and his mind quickly assessed the situation.
He clenched his right fist and punched out fiercely, preparing to use Dragon Power to directly blast this assassin, who was very likely a Faceless One in disguise, into slag.
But the other party did not dodge or evade, and rushed straight towards his fist, as if deliberately seeking death.
This person... is suspicious!
Seeing this, Jacaerys's vigilance was immediately heightened.
He forcibly changed the direction of the straight punch he had thrown, turning to hit the ground of the training ground below.
Bang!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
With the blessing of Dragon Power, Jacaerys's unrestrained punch directly smashed a large pit in the ground.
A large amount of Stone fragments immediately splashed in all directions under the strong impact.
Jacaerys had the defense bonus from the attribute entry, so these Stone fragments could not harm him.
However, the assassin, tentatively called niah, was hit by these Stone fragments on her body, and her explosive momentum immediately paused.
Clang!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Jacaerys's blackfyre at his waist was unsheathed.
The cold light-emitting Valyrian steel longsword was swung out fiercely, and niah's hands, which were reaching out to Jacaerys again, were cut off at the elbows.
Ah!!!
After letting out a mournful scream, niah actually charged directly at Jacaerys with her head, trying to have close contact with him.
Jacaerys lightly sidestepped to avoid the other party's hasty headbutt, and blackfyre followed with a downward slash, cutting off niah's legs from behind as well.
Niah, with blood spraying from her limbs, struggled on the ground, like a giant caterpillar, stubbornly crawling towards Jacaerys.
"Don't use your hands! Use spears to nail her to the ground for me!"
Seeing Rudy leading the Unsullied charging forward, Jacaerys immediately ordered loudly.
It was clear that niah's desperate attempt to make contact with him just now had made Jacaerys vigilant.
Puff, puff!
Under Rudy's command, four Unsullied used their spears to nail niah's remaining half-limbs to the ground.
This cruel scene naturally caused a commotion on the scene, but Womax's monstrous dragon head, like a heavy truck, stretched down from above.
The lords and beautiful maidens of the Seven Kingdoms, stared at by the cold dragon eyes of this top predator, immediately froze in place as if petrified.
Rip, rip!
The sharp blackfyre cut open niah's already sparse clothing, but Jacaerys did not find any suspicious items.
Indeed, let alone these exotic beautiful maidens.
Even great lords of the Seven Kingdoms like duke jason underwent a full body search by the Unsullied when entering the Red Keep.
It was basically impossible to hide any dangerous items.
If it wasn't an external object, then it should be a problem with her herself.
Jacaerys's thoughts moved, and he immediately began to examine niah's body.
Sure enough, he found a piece of skin the size of a fist at the root of niah's left thigh, covered with black and gray mottled scales.
In such a private area, the Unsullied indeed couldn't check.
Looking at this somewhat familiar black and gray scaly skin, Jacaerys, who couldn't recall what it was for a moment, called for Archmaester Mukun.
These scholars were like a Westeros encyclopedia; they knew most things.
Archmaester Mukun walked trembling to Jacaerys's side, but when he saw the black and gray scaly skin on niah's left thigh, he retreated several times faster.
At the same time, he pointed at niah with a trembling hand and shouted with a face full of fear: "grey, grey grey, Greyscale!!!
Your majesty, quickly, quickly burn her to ashes with fire.
Anyone who has come into contact with her should have the contact area cut off with an axe, and as soon as someone with this kind of black and gray scales appears, immediately burn them with fire."
Yes, this thing is called Greyscale, a terrifying infectious disease unique to the Game of Thrones World.
The rats of Essos couldn't defeat me in a normal way, so they resorted to this kind of biochemical assassination!
Jacaerys, whose face turned pale as he recalled the horror of Greyscale upon hearing the sound, turned to Stone and Rudy and ordered: "Stone, order the entire city to be sealed off!
Rudy, you take people to arrest everyone niah zaynin has come into contact with since she arrived in King's Landing.
Remember to have your men wear gloves!"