Mufasa's heart skipped a beat.
"Aunt, what are you saying! Joffrey and I are cousins, of course we don't look alike!" Mufasa said.
"Alright, go on! Go play with Joffrey and Myrcella!" Cersei waved her hand, signaling that Mufasa could leave.
After leaving Cersei's chambers, Mufasa headed straight for Joffrey's palace.
After he left, Cersei still stared blankly in the direction he had gone.
"Do you think Mufasa and Joffrey look alike?" Cersei asked her handmaidens.
A few handmaidens cautiously replied,
"Your Majesty, Prince Joffrey and Mufasa are cousins, so it might be normal for them not to look alike!"
When Mufasa arrived at Joffrey's palace, he found him training his little lion cub.
"Mufasa, you're here, perfect! I named him Storm. What do you think?"
Joffrey pointed at his lion cub. A distinctive feature of this lion was its unruly fur; simply put, it was frizzy.
No amount of combing worked. Mufasa had even washed it with soap from Myr once, but once it dried, it would still frizz up.
"You might as well name him Razz! His fur might be affected by static electricity."
"Storm, come here!" Joffrey called, and the lion came to his side, rubbing against his leg, then against Mufasa.
"Myrcella named her lion Joanna. Mother was very unhappy at first, but later, for some reason, she agreed. As for Tommen, he named his lion Curlytail, because his lion's tail curls up."
"Those are all quite distinctive names!" Mufasa said.
He didn't know how big the Stark siblings' direwolves were by now, but they probably couldn't grow larger than lions.
Beyond the Wall, direwolves are comparable to shadowcats, which are mountain lions, and are smaller than savanna lions.
"Oh, right, Father said we're going to the North in a few days. I heard it's really cool there, we can have a snowball fight! I don't think I've ever seen snow before!" Joffrey said.
"Going to the North, huh! Did King Robert say why?" Mufasa asked.
"It seems to be for the Hand's vacancy; he plans to ask his good friend, Lord Eddard Stark, to be the Hand."
"But Uncle Stannis seems to have had a big argument with him, and I heard he's preparing to leave King's Landing."
"Is Stannis leaving? Without Melisandre's help this time, he'll just be a clown!" Mufasa thought, then stopped paying attention to Stannis.
Mufasa and Joffrey found Myrcella and Tommen, and the four of them went to play in the royal gardens together.
After dark, they all attended the royal dinner.
At the dinner, many people were missing.
Jon Arryn was dead, Stannis had left, and Lady Lysa had taken little Robert back to the Vale.
Robert was a bit sullen today, drinking alone.
Then he heard the sound of bones being chewed.
"Who brought a dog in?" Robert asked.
"Cough, cough, Your Majesty, I've been here the whole time!"
A tall guard behind Joffrey spoke. He was the Hound, the Mountain's brother, with a childhood burn scar on his face, given to him by his brother. Because of this, he greatly feared fire and hated the Mountain.
"I wasn't talking about you, what's eating bones?" Robert asked again.
"It's my lion, Father! I call him Storm." Joffrey said.
His little lion cub was at his feet. He gave it all the leftover bones from his meal.
"Storm, does he laugh? You know, our House Baratheon had a Laughing Storm in its history." Robert said.
"Father, he doesn't laugh! But he roars!" Joffrey said.
"Little Joff, why don't you keep a deer, why a lion?" King Robert asked.
"This is a gift from Mufasa!" he said.
"Mufasa, as King, why didn't you give me a deer? You made a lot of money on this trip. Even Jaime's sword has been replaced with Valyrian steel." King Robert said, a bit sourly.
"Your Majesty! It is said that before the Dance of the Dragons, Princess Rhaenyra of the Black faction saw a white hart, and though she was a Targaryen princess, she still gained the white hart's approval."
"And a lion is the king of beasts. Little Joff has the blood of a lion flowing in him, so it's quite normal for him to have a lion companion." Mufasa said.
Joffrey agreed wholeheartedly, nodding in praise.
King Robert turned away and said no more.
Across from them, Renly looked somewhat lonely. He saw so many Lannisters, and he was all alone on his side.
"Ser Mufasa, where did you hear that Rhaenyra saw a white hart and gained its approval?" Renly asked.
"Lord Renly, haven't you read 'The Targaryen Chronicles: Blood and Fire'?" Mufasa asked.
"That was written by Maester Gyldayn, but unfortunately, there's only one volume. What a pity."
At this point, Tyrion asked,
"I haven't seen it either. Is there really such a book? Is it a unique copy? Who is Maester Gyldayn? Is he still alive?"
"He's a plump maester with a big beard who loves to drink!" Mufasa said.
At the very end of the dinner, King Robert announced that he would go to Winterfell to ask Eddard Stark to be the Hand.
Cersei's expression immediately changed.
"My father is the most suitable candidate for Hand."
"Ned is the man I trust most." Robert said.
This statement indicated that he didn't trust anyone else present, including Renly.
It was a good thing Stannis had left early, otherwise he might have overturned the table! Mufasa thought.
"I am the King, what I say goes!" Robert said.
Cersei dared not talk back anymore and could only eat in silence.
After dinner, Robert went to a brothel to enjoy himself. Cersei took the opportunity to summon Jaime, and the two of them exacted their revenge on Robert.
Lying in bed, the twins began to whisper.
"Jaime, is Mufasa really your son? I don't think he looks like Joffrey!"
Jaime was also startled and stopped his movements.
"He's blond and green-eyed, how could he not be my son?"
"But his face doesn't look like ours when we were little!" Cersei said again.
Joffrey looked like Cersei and Jaime when he was young, but since they were twins, they looked identical as children, and no one else thought anything was amiss.
However, Mufasa looked nothing like young Jaime, apart from his blond hair and green eyes.
"His identity has been recognized by the King, Father has also acknowledged his status, and in King's Landing, he is loved by children and old people, and followed by some Lannister soldiers." Jaime said.
"He is my son. Joffrey will be King, and Mufasa will be Warden of the West and Lord of Casterly Rock. They are both my sons."
Jaime was admitting that Joffrey was his son. It was a good thing only the two of them were there.
Otherwise, if Robert found out, things would be disastrous.
Late at night, Mufasa, dressed in a black robe, arrived at Grand Maester Pycelle's residence.
"Ser Mufasa, why have you come so late?"
"I want to know why Jon Arryn died. Was it you, Grand Maester?"
Mufasa's emerald-like eyes seemed to shoot out two cold rays, scaring Grand Maester Pycelle almost to paralysis.
"No, no, no, it wasn't me. He truly died of poison, I didn't do it."
He kept waving his hands, indicating he was not involved.
"Then who did it, do you know?"
"Well, it might have been the Queen!" Grand Maester Pycelle said.
"Do you really think so?" Mufasa asked.
Even the cunning old Pycelle thought Cersei killed Jon Arryn, which showed how cleverly Baelish had acted. Without a trace, he made everyone believe the Lannisters were responsible for the Hand's death.
"Isn't that right?" Pycelle asked.
"The waters run deep in King's Landing, Grand Maester. Though you are a veteran of four reigns, you haven't touched the deepest game, the game of thrones. You are not a top player."
Mufasa said.
"Did Jon Arryn have any other contact with you before he died?"
"He came to me to borrow a book."
"Give me that book."
Soon, Grand Maester Pycelle found the book, "The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms." This book contained many descriptions of lords, ladies, and their children.
After Mufasa got the book, he prepared to leave. Before going, he reminded Grand Maester Pycelle,
"This book, just say it got lost, after all, it's an outdated book!" Mufasa said.
Pycelle immediately understood and nodded in agreement.
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