Chapter 25: The Reach

After some time I finished all of this sh*t with Jon Arryn and showed my face as participating in the war… yeah that is enough for me. I just resupplied and went away while telling Jon Arryn that I will help the rebellion around Westeros by making use of my advantage, the huge amounts of ships I have. 

My sellswords are a little upset that they couldn't r*pe and loot some more but… during the sack of Gulltown they lost some of their people, so now they are outnumbered by my soldiers who I pay way too much for them to even dream of betraying me.

Plus with some of their members dead they didn't have a lot of room to bother me… because might makes right... also I will have anyone that they love killed and all that…

Anyway better go and get me some Reach ships.

 I already have everything in place and the Reach's army should go and hold siege Storms End and Stannis. And I will just have a little excursion around their territories… and maybe have some side adventures in there.

…. 

( Two Months Later )

And just like that a couple of months passed, I spent this time going from Westeros to Braavos, armies need weapons and food to keep up, and I can provide both… for a price that is. War is truly a profitable business, for me that is...

My success in this war has been amazing. I even made way more money than calculated, which is good. Since I have been investing it all to make me even more ships, good ships, way better than the Westerosi ships.

I now have 900 ships, I have been doing business all around Essos and Westeros during these times of war, I must say again… the war has been good on me.

Even recruited some more men, now I have 15.000 sellswords made up of different smaller sellswords companies, I also now have 20.000 soldiers.

That brings up the army to 35.000 soldiers, with that amount of soldiers I feel confident to enter some battles. It also allows me to have HUGE impact on the rebellion. 

Also the mercenaries following me have started seeing things my way… when we departed from Gulltown they were unsatisfied but now, we have been together for so long and with the huge amount of ships that I have… I made some ships so called… brothel ships, for tired soldiers. And in the great capitalism way…

I own the brothels so the money I give my soldiers mostly comes back to me. Some kids have been born here and there but we just put them in one of my orphanages in Braavos. Since the kids who are born, it is impossible to tell who the father would even be, since each of my whores fu*ks dozens of men a day… I love a monopoly like this.

As I am contemplating all of this, I am in my cabin in the main ship, my cabin is pretty decorated, with stuffed bears, lions and some fake plants all around the room. There were also some fruits on my table, where I played with my hawk.

I just throw some grapes mid air and the little guy catches them. Currently I and my 900 ships are travelling to the Reach. I heard from my spies that the Tyrells have Storm's End in siege, they have 100.000 men holding that siege and Stannis Baratheon is inside the castle with a handful of people, the reports say that they already have some food shortages. 

But since they haven't started eating their dogs and horses, I am not going to give them any food. After all, if I want to leave a larger impact I will need them to starve first and then I will be their saviour. After all that would leave a larger impact, saving them while they are starving is way more beneficial to me than saving them when they are only a little hungry.

...

And just like that another week passed, we finally reached Arbor, an island which is ruled by House Redwyne, currently ruled by Paxter Redwyne, who is currently away in war… or more specifically he is feasting together with his cousin Mace Tyrell. 

As my ships closed in I obviously used my hawk to look over the island, I also skin changed with it and saw from its eyes. What I saw was around a thousand soldiers defending the castle, they obviously have already noticed my giant fleet of ships. Well they seemed like they wanted to put up some resistance, they are reinforcing the walls and all that.

That is good since my men are hungry for battle, that is also one of the minor reasons why I came here, to dampen their bloodlust. I also need to bloody the men and get them used to battles. 

….

[ General POV ]

The people of the Arbor Island were terrified when they saw the fleet of ships that completely surrounded their island. They would have no way to escape. Their fleet was away, holding the siege at Storm's End. The meager fleet that was left behind was sent to at least hold back the enemy but it was destroyed in an instant, it was simply riddled with so many arrows that it sunk by itself.

The difference in numbers already showed it all… 35 to 1… that was undeniably the definition of 0% chance of victory.

Inside of the Redwyne castle there were knights advising a young boy who was sitting on a round table with his advisors all around. He is the boy lord Horas Redwyne he is in charge, since his father was away to war.

His mother was actually the one pulling the shots here. She was the only female sitting on the round table meeting, there were also four other men, the maester, the men at arms, and a couple of other advisers. 

"We should immediately surrender my lord, we have no way of winning this battle. If we surrender the enemies might spare your life and your family's lives my lord." Said one of them.

"My lord, we shouldn't show weakness in front of our enemy. We should wait in the castle for reinforcement." Said another.

"We can last at least six months with the provisions we have. But with the influx of small folk that will be coming in here, we could last around a month." Said the maester, an old man with a short white trimmed beard.

"That is why my lord, we should take precautions and open the gates. Our enemies wouldn't be dreary enough to kill us and rape our women if they didn't get their blood high."

And just like that, they all continued conversing and arguing with each other. None of them noticed the hawk, that was in the ceiling just looking at them all, with a strangely intelligent look in it's eyes. 

...

When the meeting is finished, the one who was advising the little lord to surrender, he was your average black haired chubby man. He had a worried look in his eyes. After all from his view, he didn't understand why would anyone even try to anger their enemy who has an absolute advantage. The worst was that he and his family couldn't even escape from here. This was bad… really bad…

He could feel his heart start beating too fast, he was panicking, not knowing what to do, he even started sweating. To calm himself down he started walking towards the walls. He was down in the reads and he took a shortcut to one of the empty alleys.

That is when strangely a hawk made a piercing cry. He instinctively looked towards the noise. He saw a hawk fly towards him and… land in front of him. 

The strange thing was that the hawk had a letter attached to its leg. The man didn't know what to do. But he still decided to try and pick up the letter, while he was still on guard against the hawk, he didn't want to be bitten by it. 

When he finally got the letter he curiously read it and his eyes widened. 

'N -No way…'

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We see that the MC is expanding his power, he hasn't gotten in any battle where he has a chance to lose. He is very careful in choosing his battles. He is in the Reach now, but why is he there and what is he planning. We will find out soon...

Ps: please throw some Power Stones :)

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