Tyrion Lannister, who in the original story acted like a useless advisor after joining Daenerys, was essentially someone who achieved nothing besides smooth-talking and eventual betrayal.
At this very moment, he was actually trying to play such a low-level stalling tactic in front of him; did he really take him for one of those brainless fools he used to face?
Viserys thought to himself while tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table, the regular thudding sound echoing as the air in the tent seemed to freeze under his grim expression.
The excitement on Tyrion's face hadn't fully faded before he keenly sensed the change in atmosphere; he looked at Viserys, his heart tightening as he thought, this is bad.
"A week? Tyrion, do you think I'm easy to fool, or do you think this story you've cooked up is particularly believable?" Viserys slowly raised his eyes to stare at him, the emotion in those purple eyes making Tyrion shudder with fear.
"Or do you think I'm the kind of fool who would give an enemy plenty of time to prepare a counterattack?"
Tyrion's heart clenched, but he maintained a forced calm, attempting to explain, "Your Majesty, taking King's Landing without shedding blood requires precise arrangements—the sentiment of the people in the city, the redeployment of guards, the control of key nodes, and most crucially, Cersei's attention. All of these take time. A week is already the shortest possible timeframe."
"Enough." Viserys interrupted him, standing up and looking down at him. "Everything you just said—about betraying your family, about helping me take King's Landing—is all nonsense. What you want is to stall for time, waiting for your father Tywin's army to return as reinforcements, or hoping that useless Renly can extricate himself from the Stormlands. You think I can't see through you?"
Tyrion's expression changed; he opened his mouth to continue defending himself, but Viserys gave him no chance.
"How many battles did I fight in Essos, how many city-states did I destroy? What do you think I relied on to win?" Viserys said with a cold sneer, "Tyrion Lannister, you indeed have some cleverness, but your cleverness is being used in the wrong place."
Tyrion took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Your Majesty, you misunderstand..."
"Shut up." Viserys interrupted him, his tone laced with impatience. He looked at Tyrion's frightened state and suddenly smiled, but that smile was more chilling than no smile at all.
"You know, Tyrion, I actually admired you a bit and really wanted to give you a chance. A little dwarf, surviving in a family like the Lannisters until now and even making it to the position of hand of the king—it's truly not easy. That's why I was willing to play along with this act just now, to see what interesting things you could come up with."
He paused, his tone suddenly becoming dangerous as he continued, "But you've disappointed me. From beginning to end, all you've thought about is how to save the Lannisters, how to save that family that treats you as a disgrace. It's truly pathetic."
Tyrion's face turned pale, but a flicker of stubbornness flashed in his mismatched eyes.
He opened his mouth to explain, "Your Majesty, I'm not doing this for the Lannisters; I just don't want to see hundreds of thousands of people die because of war."
"For hundreds of thousands of people?" Viserys burst out laughing, a laugh filled with irony.
"When you stood on the towers of Red Keep, you saw my dragons fly over your head with your own eyes. If you were truly doing this for those hundreds of thousands of people, you should have opened the city gates and surrendered right then. But you didn't; instead, you went around the city giving speeches, painting a rosy picture for them, telling them reinforcements would come."
Tyrion's composure completely collapsed; he opened his mouth but could say nothing. Every word Viserys spoke struck his truest thoughts.
He indeed wanted to stall for time, wait for Tywin's reinforcements, and save the Lannisters. As for the commoners, perhaps there was a tiny bit of concern, but they were mostly treated as bargaining chips and tools for negotiation.
Viserys paused and continued, "Furthermore, I know that if I let you go back, you would use this week to reinforce the city's defenses and arrange that wildfire even more densely."
Hearing the news about the wildfire, Tyrion turned completely bloodless.
"And if I were stupid enough to wait for a week, wait for Tywin to withdraw his troops from the The Riverlands, and wait for Renly's fifty thousand men to arrive from Storms End... then you would hypocritically open the gates, lure me into the city, and ignite that wildfire on the Blackwater Rush and the main streets of King's Landing, blowing my fleet and army to the sky together. Am I right, Lord Tyrion? Do you dare say that arranging that wildfire was for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of commoners in King's Landing?"
Tyrion's lips trembled slightly, his mismatched eyes filled with disbelief.
How did he know? He had only mentioned the wildfire to Podrick, and those few Alchemists had been under his constant surveillance; there was no way they could have betrayed him.
But Viserys's purple eyes just watched him quietly, as if watching a poorly performing actor.
"You... how did you..." Tyrion's voice sounded incredibly dry.
"How did I know about the wildfire?"
Viserys finished the sentence for him. "Tyrion, you thought you hid it well, but how could anything happening in King's Landing be hidden from Varys, The Spider? And those Alchemists—you think they are truly loyal to you? That Hallyne Waters already sent someone out of the city to contact me a few days ago. He told me you intended to use wildfire against me."
Tyrion's face looked very bad as he couldn't help thinking. Hallyne? That fanatical Alchemist who had vowed before him to serve the Lannisters with wildfire?
Watching the changes in Tyrion's expression, the corner of Viserys's mouth curled into a cold arc. "You think you're the first to think of wildfire? Tyrion, don't forget, wildfire is a specialty of the House Targaryen; those Alchemists are more willing to be loyal to us. Besides, after all these years in Essos, what schemes and intrigues haven't I seen? Your so-called 'trap' was a joke from the very beginning."
Tyrion fell silent.
He lowered his head, a flash of self-mockery in his mismatched eyes. So that was it. He thought he was scheming against others, yet he didn't know he had long since been schemed against. That old man Hallyne had been loyal on the surface while already finding a new master behind his back.
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