"Brother Willas? What are you doing here?" Margaery asked with a surprised expression on her face as she opened the door to their carriage, only to find her Eldest brother sitting there smiling at her as if he had been waiting for her.
"I was sitting there bored in our Mansion when I heard about the commotion happening at the Port from the guards, and feeling curious, I hurried here wanting to join in the excitement," Willas replied with a somewhat sheepish shrug, as Margaery climbed up and took a seat in front of him, "Sadly though, the crowd had grown too large by the time I arrived, and seeing the entrance to the port so crowded I decided to wait for you here to save my leg some ache," he said while tapping his lame leg with a self-deprecating smile.
"Then you unfortunately missed the opportunity to see a great play, dear Grandson," snorted Olenna as she followed after Margaery and slowly took a seat next to her, "The kind that will probably never be replicated in our lifetimes."
"Is... that so? Seems a high praise coming from you, Grandmother," Willas replied with a raised eyebrow, looking a little taken aback, "Are you sure you are not just exaggerating to make me feel left out?" he asked with a wry look on his face, as that was exactly the sort of jest that the old woman liked to pull.
"She is not exaggerating at all, Brother," Margaery answered before Olenna could with a small smile on her face, "If you had been there... If you had seen it all with your own eyes... then I am sure you would have agreed with her assessment,"
"Is it really something so remarkable?" Willas asked with a doubtful look on his face, "I suppose, I did hear people on the streets discussing something about some that Jon Snow had brought for the King when I was leaving our Mansion, but for you to hold those things in such high esteem... they must be very extraordinary."
"Yes, Brother, they are far more than just impressive..." Margaery began with an excited gleam in her eyes.
'This again?' Olenna thought with narrowed eyes, 'How far has this news already spread? Does the whole of King's Landing already know about this news somehow?' she mused as Margaery enthusiastically began a detailed retelling of the spectacle that they had witnessed.
"The first one was a large, handsome Horse, but not just any common one... And then it was a chest of alcohol and spirits from all of the... And then there was Warhammer the size of a..."
Unknown to the three sitting in the moving carriage, this exact scenario of recounting was happening all across the city at the moment, as the crowd who had been present at the Harbour during the show began spreading throughout the city, and started filling in the details into the rumours about the gifts which had already been circulating far and wide.
The Men gestured wildly with their faces flushed red, embellishing and arguing with their fellows over every minute detail, making the eyes of the crowd around them rage with envy that they had missed such a grand spectacle.
From taverns to brothels, from fruit vendors to cloth merchants, no establishment in the city that served the smallfolks was left untouched, and for a few hours it felt as if anywhere you went, this was the sole topic on people's lips, even more than the upcoming Tourney.
And with every rendition of this tale, the rumour became more and more outlandish, so much so that by the end, everyone knew that it was fact that Jon Snow was a wealthier man than Lord Tywin Lannister, and that he had brought twenty large ships along with him into the city, with each of them being filled to the brim with mountains upon mountains of Gold.
"Wait! Wait! I must have heard it wrong!" Willas interrupted as he hurriedly shook his head with a bewildered expression on his face, "Did you just say a million gold dragons? T-That cannot be accurate, right?"
"No, you heard it perfectly, brother," Margaery answered with a bright smile, feeling a bit pleased to finally be on the other side, to not be the one constantly being shocked, "Jon even had documents from Braavos with their true seals to prove his claim, and even Lord Baelish, who happened to be there, verified it in front of everyone.
"But how..." Willas asked with a look of utter incomprehension on his face, "Where would one even get that kind of gold?" he asked out loud with a frown on his face, because they were talking about an individual here and not an old Noble family with assets accumulated over decades.
"Hm? Does he not have a large number of ships that trade with the Reach? Perhaps he earned it from there," Margaery suggested with a shrug. "After all, being the owner of the only fleet that can regularly travel between North and the Reach without fearing the Iron Islands must have paid off a lot of gold over the years,"
"No, not possible from that," Willas answered with a firm shake of his head.
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, because we know for sure that all essential grains that Jon purchases from our ports, he only ever sets such a price at his end that he can recover and earn a little to keep his fleet moving. And never charges high enough to make the kind of large profits you are thinking of here. That is one of the reasons our trade quantity has been so high and consistent over the years, or else we would have never been able to sell so much grain with the buying capacity of the people in the North if the cost were even a little more expensive."
"Uh, then perhaps he earned it in Essos," Margaery replied with a thoughtful frown on her face, "Trading between the free cities must be profitable, I presume, and I do not think he would have the same moral dilemma of charging high prices with the Merchants and Nobles there."
"Even then..." Willas murmured while slowly shaking his head, as no matter how he tried to run the calculations in his head, he could not come up with a plausible manner in which one could earn enough of a fortune in just a couple of years, such that even the sum of a million gold dragons would not make you baulk.
"It matters not where he got the gold from, does it? Even if it got it as a loan or stole it from some pirates somewhere," Olenna finally came out of her quite contemplation and murmured softly, "It does not change the fact that he does have a lot of gold behind him now, and by tomorrow morning, everyone and their mothers will know of the fact that the brat is walking talking chest of gold..."
"I did not think about that," Willas nodded with a contemplative look on his face, "They are all going to come for him now, aren't they?" he asked out loud, confusing his little sister very much.
"What do you mean? Who would come for him?"
"Everyone! From nobles, merchants, sellswords to even smallfolks," Willas answered with a wry smile on his face, "They would all come to take a share of his wealth... whether he is willing or not... After all, unlike us and the Lannisters, he does not exactly have a large family and an army behind him. At least not one that the people know of,"
As someone who hailed from one of the richest families in Westeros, Willas knew very well how gold can make even the strongest-willed men turn into sycophants and force even the most righteous of warriors to become greedy enough to steal and backstab.
"Will they really?" Margaery asked with a somewhat worried look in her eyes, but then the face of that cunning boy appeared in her head, and she smiled softly, "Perhaps Jon considered it already and is prepared for it."
'I hope so,' Willas thought before shaking his head and coming back to the main topic, "...But he must have asked for something in return, right? After all, he would not have gone through so much trouble and given all those treasures for nothing."
"As far as we know, he hasn't asked for anything... at least not until now," Olenna answered with a tilt of her head, "And that is what had satisfied me the most about it all," she said with a smile in her eyes.
Because if the brat had become greedy and immedaitely asked for something in return, such as clearing his bastard status and giving him the Stark name, or some land and a castle, or anything of the sort and treated it all like a transaction then Olenna would have been very disappointed, and would be left with no choice but to conclude that he was happy with the way things were, and was ready to forget his roots and settle down as a rich Lord.
Fortunately for her, the boy did not go down the path of the pig and was cunning enough to know that a vague favour that you can call out at any time was far more valuable than anything materialistic that he could get.
"Yes, you would not belive it brother, but the King was very desperate to reciprocate after seeing all those gifts, in fact, for a few moments there, he was even prepared to marry his daughter to him," Margaery explained with schadenfreude as the girl remembered that moved expression on Robert Baratheon's face as he held Jon's hands and vigorously patting his shoulders while asking, "Tell me, boy, what do you desire? Tell me and I will make it true! Today, even if you ask me for my daughter's hands, I will give it to you!" he announced loudly, while boisterously waving his hand, as if truly prepared to go through with this impulsive decision.
Unfortunately, though, to the disappointment of the nobles and commoners present there, who were desperately waiting for more drama, Jon did not jump on this once-in-a-lifetime chance, and instead simply answered that, "I am still too young to marry, your grace."
"W-What?!" Willas stammered with a stunned expression on his face, "He offered his daughter's hand in marriage?! How is that possible?" If he did not know that it would hurt him badly, the man would have jumped to his feet to express his shock, "Even if it is for a million dragons... that is just too much, right?"
The eldest Tyrell knew that King could be a simple minded brute sometimes or rather most of the times, but he did not think that even he would something so idiotic, especially considering that from what he knew of the Queen, the woman would sooner poison him in his sleep than let her daughter marry someone who a was bastard in the world's eyes, no matter how rich he was, or who his father were.
"It was not the million dragons that made him do it, otherwise our family would have already been sitting in the small council," Olenna answered with a curl of her lips, "It was the last gift from the brat. It contained something no one expected, least of all the King. And it was that which simulated the king's emotion so much that he babbled that foolish offer without thinking,"
"Yes, and while I was too far to see it clearly, I think I even saw tears in his eyes when he saw the contents of the last chest," Margaery whispered in a low voice as if sharing a secret gossip with him.
"What?!" Willas could not remember exactly how many times he had been shocked since the begining of this conversation, but never in a hundred years had he imagined that a grown man, a king like Robert Baratheon, who had been known as Demon in his youth, would ever tear up in public for any reason, "Why? What was in the last chest?" he asked hurriedly, unable to contain his burning curiosity.
"A dagger and... a necklace," Margaery answered slowly with a mysterious smile on her face, very much enjoying teasing her brother.
"A dagger and a Necklace?" Willas repeated dumbfoundedly with a look of incomprehension, "Why would baubles..." he let off with a frown on his face, thinking intensely, "Were they perhaps made out of Valyrian st—No, even if they were adorned with the most precious jewels in the world, mere trinkets shouldn't have made him emotional enough to cry, right?"
"They would, if those trinkets belonged to Steffon Baratheon and Cassana Estermont," Olenna answered before Margaery could continue with her dragged explanations, making the young maiden pout in dissatisfaction that her game was terminated prematurely.
"Seffon Bara—Are you talking about King Robert's parents?" Willas asked bewilderedly, immediately recognising the two famous names from decades ago, "But did they not—"
"Yes, they died in a shipwreck two decades ago because of a fierce storm," Olenna answered with a nod of her head, "And it is even said that it happened in full view of the castle of Storm's End, and was even witnessed in person by Robert Baratheon, who could only watch helplessly as his parents were swept by the waves and their ship sank to the bottom," Olenna continued with a thoughtful look on her face, "Perhaps that was one of the reason he he hates the Targaryen so much, and why he rebelled at the first opportunity," she murmured softly.
It was a well-known fact at that time that the Baratheon couple had reluctantly set out on this sea trip on the orders of the Mad King, who wanted them to go to the Free Cities and find a good Valyrian wife for his son.
"No wonder..." Willas murmured while repeatedly nodding his head, "His parents died right in front of his eyes, and he could not even retrieve their bodies to give them a proper burial, so it must have felt like a miracle to see their keepsakes after such a long time. No wonder he was so moved."
"What is more amusing is the identity of the one who gave it to him," Olenna snorted, imagining the look on Robert if he ever found out the boy's true heritage.
The moment she had seen what was inside the last chest, and the effect it had on Robert, Olenna had almost sighed in relief, because it was only then that it became clear to her that Jon was playing a very big game here.
After all, there were very few things that could make a man who doesn't even care about a million dragons go to such lengths to please the King.
And she had no reason to believe that the boy's intentions were anything pure...
'It seems there is another player in the game, after all,' Olenna thought as a smile slowly appeared on her face, 'I hope you are ready for it, Tywin.'
That stingy Lannister Lord had always kept a strict guard against other nobles, and except for the Iron Bank and a few Tyroshi Merchants, he had never let anyone else in, never let the Iron Throne owe anyone else other than the Lannisters.
And while that did result in him giving almost three million dragons to the Iron Throne in a bad debt, it also meant that they were the sole authority in control of the Kingdom's economy, where the King could not even host a small tourney without begging him for money.
But the boy came out of nowhere, and, ignoring the door that Tywin had been holding onto, he barged in through a small window and jumped straight into the inner circle with his large chest of gold.
While Olenna was lost in her thoughts, Willas, sitting opposite her, was still struggling to understand the one puzzling question that he could not find an answer to, no matter how hard he tried, "How does even fetch something..."
...