-Chapter 53-
-POV MC-
I smiled as I saw two letters in front of me and handed them to Cersei, who looked at me skeptically.
Without saying anything, I gestured for her to take them, as I didn't want to spoil the surprise.
She read the letters one after the other, not fully understanding, and when she was done, she raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Seeing that she hadn't understood, I searched through my desk for the two other letters that translated the coded message, and her eyes grew wider as she read the translation.
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*Letter 1:*
*Griffon King,*
*The mountains sing your glory.*
*The trout no longer breathes, and the little falcon rests under the bronze wing.*
*The cub has chosen, and the falcon has changed its plumage for a bluer sky.*
*The mountain clans grow restless, their bellies empty of battles.*
(Translation: In the Vale, everything is going according to plan. Lysa Arryn is dead, and Robin is under the protection of Lord Yohn Royce. Harrold Hardyng is now the Lord of the Eyrie. The mountain tribes are ready for battle.)
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*Letter 2:*
*Griffon King,*
*The North stirs according to your wishes.*
*The squids danced on the island of three melodies, each at its own pace.*
*The little squid hid, its elder followed, but the great squid king and his offspring charged White Harbor, unleashing a storm of fire and swords.*
(Translation: In the North, everything is going even better than expected. The Iron Fleet has arrived at the Three Sisters. Theon Greyjoy hid with a few ships, Victarion Greyjoy did the same, but King Balon Greyjoy and his daughter directly attacked White Harbor, causing significant damage.)
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After I handed her the two other letters containing the translations, she slowly realized what I had accomplished. She was speechless before bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha… hahaha, oh my god, and people say I'm cruel," she said, sitting down in front of me.
I rolled my eyes and said, searching for another way to describe what I had just done:
"It's not cruel, just…"
"Simply cruel," Cersei interrupted.
I shrugged, and she added:
"I didn't understand why you sent the mountain clans armed to the teeth with the best weapons and armor your forges could produce."
Then she pointed to the letter and said:
"But this, honestly, is pure genius. Killing Lysa Tully to break the blood ties between the North, the Riverlands, and the Vale, then arming those savages to incite a civil war in the Vale, all while sending Balon Greyjoy's fleet along the eastern coast of the North to ravage the largest port in the North and gain access to the White Knife…"
I raised my eyebrows and said:
"Killing our enemies without them even knowing it was us and without losing a single soldier is the best way to win a war. I sold 200 anti-dragon scorpions to Volantis, 200 more to the defiant slavers of Slaver's Bay, 300 more to New Ghis, and 300 to Qarth."
"Enough to seriously destabilize the power of the Targaryen girl in the Narrow Sea," she said, pouring herself a glass of wine, which I took from her.
Cersei had her little habits: either drinking wine for a happy event or for a sad one. But being pregnant, I had completely forbidden her to drink; I wasn't going to let her poison our child just because her poor little queenly life was too unbearable to live without alcohol.
She glared at me, but seeing that it had no effect on me, she slid into my arms and nestled there, pouting.
'Good, little kitten,' I thought, running a hand through her hair.
"How is her conquest of Slaver's Bay progressing?" she asked as I lovingly placed my hands on her belly.
"Badly, very badly. New Ghis is playing the long game like us, but they're funding Meereen and Yunkai, which have formed an alliance against her and are using the Dothraki as a spearhead," I said while she placed her hands on mine and intertwined them.
"How can anyone be so stupid and believe such rumors?" she said, seriously pondering how my rumors had painted a demonic picture of the Queen of Astapor.
"Even though I don't like underestimating my enemies, the Dothraki are really stupid. For them, Robert would have made the greatest leader of their tribes and would have been praised for countless generations," I said, thinking back to the fat king who was only interested in three things: women, battles, and wine.
She burst out laughing, and I knew it because jokes about Robert always had that effect on her since I've known her.
"He could have been a great Khal, on that we agree. But more seriously, I don't understand how you come up with so many schemes?" she asked, studying me.
Honestly, I had the advantage.
Having seen the series, I knew a bit about each character's personality, their desires, their fears, their aspirations, and most importantly, I knew what was going to happen in the future.
Any master spy worth his salt could have about 90% of the overall picture that I had, but not people like Cersei, nor any of the great lords of Westeros, because most of the time, they remain blind to the world around them.
I smiled at my beautiful 34-year-old wife who didn't look a day over 25 and said:
"You know, one day will come when you'll have the same view of the world as I do."
Seeing her look at me with a skeptical expression as if to say, 'You won't get me with sweet words,' I smiled and continued:
"You may not realize it, but you've changed a lot over time. Robert's queen, bitter, aggressive, and unhappy, has been dead for a long time. You've become a true lioness."
At that moment, I saw a rare light in her eyes, and her skeptical look quickly melted away, replaced by a slight shyness, hidden behind her slightly arrogant expression, which I could only discern by the vulnerability deep in her gaze:
"You think and care about what your subordinates do in their lives and their little problems. Whether it's to win their loyalty or something else, it doesn't matter because your—no, our—servants are even beginning to genuinely enjoy their lives in the Red Keep, which wasn't a given."
"I only did that because you asked me to," she said, burying her head in my arms.
I smiled and said, "And it paid off, didn't it?"
"Yes," she said before adding, "as always."