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Ch 75 Storytime Part 1
🕑 Added 2024-12-23 16:08:41 +0000 UTC"What are you doing?" Gared asked curiously as he climbed over the plank and saw Jon leisurely lying on a rocking chair on the deck, basking in the sun with an old leather book.
It had been a few hours since they had witnessed the infamous pirate king jump to his death in a disappointing show of cowardice.
Gared had wanted them to stay there on the cliff for a while to see if Ravager somehow miraculously survived the waves and surfaced alive, but Jon had assured them in the surest of tones that the man would not live...
So Gared had just shrugged and left towards the castle with Oberyn and the Advisor, to gather their men, and tell them the news of Ravager's death, as well as to clean up after the battle.
Jon also gave them the job of emptying the castle of all the treasures and everything else valuable that they could find whether it be bags of spices, sugar, gold, alcohol, and even good furniture.
This is where the Advisor's knowledge of the castle came in handy for them as he knew everything there was to know about all the expensive things in the castle, so he was a great help in efficiently looting every single nook and cranny, which was quite fortunate as they had decided to leave the Stepstones that very same night, just to be safe.
Thankfully, Merchant Sam had timed it perfectly and had arrived at the port at that moment, with all of their ships and the rest of their men, making the job of moving things a lot easier.
And while his men worked inside the castle, Jon was out and about roaming the port with Merchant Sam.
Both of them were scouring all the pirate ships docked at the port, deciding whether any of them were in good enough condition to take with them, and how many they could actually take considering they didn't have too many sailors at hand.
But even when they were incredibly picky and only regarded the ships that were fast and in good condition, they were still left with about a dozen ships that they would be stupid to leave behind.
So, in the end, they reached the decision that they would have to make do and use some of the more experienced sellswords as dockhands until they reached the city of Tyrosh, where they could easily sell and offload a few of the ships to make some gold.
In fact, even the ship that Jon was relaxing on at the moment was formerly the flagship of Ravager's pirate fleet.
It was one of the most well-maintained among the pirate's lot, and after a few hours of clean-up led by a dozen men who threw away all the extreme things that the pirates kept down there to enjoy their various nefarious hobbies, Jon had claimed it as his own.
Not only was it one of the biggest ships Jon had seen, with plenty of rooms onboard, but it also had dozens of massive sails making it one of the fastest Galleon in its size category... which was all one could ask for in a ship.
The ship already had a name, called Reaper or something according to the Advisor, but Jon hadn't cared and decided to call it White Wolf from now on.
Back to the present, Jon slowly sat up he saw that Gared wasn't been the only one coming aboard his new ship.
"I don't know about here in Essos, Gared, but we call that... 'reading' in Westeros," Oberyn snorted in jest as he passed by the sellsword commander to take a seat on a chair near Jon, and right behind him arrived the duo of Merchant Sam and the Advisor enthusiastically talking with each other about one thing or other.
"Oh, is that what it is," Gared exclaimed with an exaggerated expression on his face, "Forgive me for my ignorance, prince," he said with an excessive bow, "I had just assumed that you nobles have people do these kinds of tiring things for you..." his snicker was barely hidden as he shot back at his new friend from Westeros.
"Huh! How did you know about that?" Oberyn stopped with an almost genuinely surprised expression on his face, "Have you really not been to Westeros?"
"What?!" Gared blurted out with a baffled expression, "Really?! Y-You people really have a person that reads things for you?"
Not even in his wildest imagination did Gared imagine that the lives of Westerosi nobles were so luxurious that they kept men around to read things for them.
"Yes, of course." Oberyn nodded with a completely straight face, "They are called Maesters,"
"So, that is what they are for," Gared breathed out with an enlightened expression before he suddenly turned towards Jon with a look of pity on his face, "But really... to not even be able to read for yourself, you nobles sure had it tough, huh,"
"Don't look at me! I am a bastard not a noble," Jon replied while rolling his eyes, too lazy to clarify his misunderstanding, that Oberyn was fooling around with him, "I, unfortunately, had no one to read my letters for me, so I had to do my own reading."
"But isn't your—"
Merchant Sam abruptly interrupted their conversation with a cough before Gared could go on, "Jon, I have had all of the loot deposited into our ships, and I also made sure that all the more expensive treasures were put into our main ships. So from my side, we are ready to sail off at any time,"
"Good work," Jon replied with a nonchalant expression while trying to shade his head from the sun.
"Why do you have such a bland expression on your face? Do you not want to check the loot for yourself?" Gared grumbled with a roll of his eyes, "I have never seen a man as unconcerned about his treasure as you,"
"Why would I be concerned? I trust all of you," Jon replied immediately with a smile, "Besides I already got the most important treasure in my palm," he said raising the diary in his hand.
"Uh..." Gared was quite confused with that so he turned to Oberyn and asked in a whisper, "Is that a noble thing? Something like, "Knowledge is power,' and all that?"
"Probably," Oberyn shrugged, "But I think—"
"Wait! That Diary!" The Advisor suddenly exclaimed with a surprised look on his face, "Is that what I think it is?"
"If you think that this is the diary that belonged to a not-so-famous Lannister, then, yes, that is what this is."
"So it was indeed that..." Advisor murmured with an amazed expression on his face, "I never thought I would see it again. Where did you even find it?"
"Just... lying around," Jon shrugged nonchalantly with his usual mysterious smile.
"Wait! Wait! What Lannister are you talking about? And what is this Diary?" Oberyn abruptly interrupted as he stood up with an intense expression on his face. The word Lannister was like a curse in his ears and had managed to instantly grab his attention.
"Hmm, you know that Tywin Lannister was the eldest of four brothers, right?"
"Of course, I do." Oberyn nodded impatiently, "Tytos Lannister beget four sons, Tywin, Kevan, Tygett and Gerion. But of the four of them, Tygett Lannister died of pox a decade ago, and Gerion Lannister also disappeared on one of his trips a few years ago, leaving the two of them,"
"That is right," Jon nodded before pointing towards the diary in his hands, "And this diary belongs to that very same, Gerion Lannister, the man who mysteriously disappeared in search of the greatest treasure known to man—"
"Uh, I do not mean to interrupt, but..." Gared said while scratching his cheek with a confused expression that was mirrored on Merchant Sam's face, "For those of us not in the know, can you explain who this man is, why he was in the free cities, and why are you showing this much interest in his diary?"
"Fine, let us start from the very beginning," Jon said before he sat up and cleared his throat as if he were about to go on a fun storytelling session that he used to do with his siblings when they were young, "You know about the Lannisters, right, one of the Great house of Westeros?"
"Of course," Gared immediately nodded, "They are rich ones, right? The ones with all the gold mines,"
"Yes, you are right. But what, you probably don't know, is that the Lannister name was not so great just a few decades ago, under the reign of one, Tytos Lannister, more commonly known as, 'Laughing Lion',"
"The Laughing Lion?"
"Yes. You see, he was known to be a jovial and amiable gentleman, one who was eager to please, slow to anger, and quick to forgive, he saw the good in everyone, great and small, but... while these sound like good qualities to have in a friend. The same could not be said of a Lord,"
"His bannerman called him a weak-willed man, the toothless lion, and openly ignored his orders, many of his Lords took massive loans from him that they never bothered to repay, his guests at his court were allowed to mock him to his face, even making a game out of it known as 'twisting the lion's tail',"
"But while Tytos Lannister could bear the taunts and the humiliation to their family name, his eldest son... couldn't. So when the old lion got old, fat, and weak, the young Tywin Lannister took over the family, and the first thing he wanted to do, was to clear away all the shame and disgrace his family had suffered over the years.
"And he did that by sending an ultimatum to all the vassals, to obediently arrive at Casterly Rock to repay all their debts. But while some saw the error in their ways and gave way, there were others who stubbornly resisted, thinking that the son was like his father, and wouldn't be able to do anything to them."
"Tywin Lannister proved them wrong in the most cruel and ruthless way possible," Jon said while looking into the eyes of his entrapped audience, "Of the two families that rebelled against them, the Tarbeck's were all burned to death with all their retainers inside their own castle, while the Reynes, who tried to hide in their mines, were buried under thousands of gallons of water and drowned to their death. He killed all of them indiscriminately whether they be man, woman or child, whether they be innocent or guilty."
"And so Tywin Lannister cemented his reputation as a brutal merciless lord, a man who would do anything to see his family name rise up, a man who would kill, betray, and trample on any number of people if it helped him get to his enemies, and a man who would cross any line as long as it helped him achieve his goal..."
