Chapter 35: Military Mind

Arthur smiles as he sees the carnage in front of him. All of the Reach's ships were completely obliterated. This is the perfect result he likes, he hates fighting enemies, he would rather f*ck them, because that is what he is good at. 

Arthur looks at Davos and says. "Go and take some men and capture every single survivor. Kill any who don't comply. Spare no life… and be careful. You are worth 10,000 men to me Davos. Someone as able and as loyal is you is hard to come by."

Davos nods at this, glad that he decided to accept Arthur's offer many years ago. He doesn't know what Artur saw in him, but it seems like he has absolute trust in him. 

….

[ Olenna Tyrell POV ]

As I am sitting on the lord's chair, I can't help but be glad that I was born a woman. I have no need to go to war or prove myself as a warrior. 

I do not know what that little boy, Arthur Fray is planning, but one thing is sure. He is acting recklessly, his actions erratic. One day he attacks and the next he decides to retreat. 

Though it was the correct action, how did he know? Is it his spies? Doubtful, after all, keeping up a spy network when he is in an unfamiliar ground is not as easy as it seems. Even the spider would have difficulty doing so.

But what is most worrisome about him is his charisma.

He can turn our own people against us. Every battle he has fought against the Reach, he has easily won. But why is even fighting against us at all?

It is an illogical action, he is supposed to have gathered some wealth in Braavos as a merchant. Merchant's are supposed to not anger anyone too much like he is doing with the Reach.

Even if the Stag sits down on the throne, our losses would be insignificant.

That is until this green boy decided to make an enemy out of me. I have outlived many men smarter than him… and so I will outlive him too.

Let's see how your story will end... little hawk.

…

[ Tywin Lannister POV ]

I look at the map of Westeros in front of me, it is spread on the table and it shows all of the routes and territories. There are wooden carvings of wolves, stags, roses, dragons, etc. 

But I look at the new piece that I had added recently. A red hawk, that man… I wonder what is he even doing? He is terrorizing the reach, completely destroying them in every single fight.

I got news that he just retreated from the Reach when he had all of his troops already in Old Town. He completely took over a city that has almost never been taken over in all of its years of existence. 

But truly, his actions might seem random, but he is definitely making every single right call in every situation. I can definitely see that he is definitely a military genius.

Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thornes, she might be good at politicking, but she has no idea in a man's job. She has no idea about war, troop morale, and such. For she is a woman and hasn't been in a war in all her life.

The Reach would fall to its knees in front of the Redhawk if they didn't have a large army. The man used his naval advantage and completely rap*d the Reach like a common whore.

But it also shows his guts, when he is doing something like this. He is definitely sending it like a message… a message to the undecided houses who are neutral, he is showing them what happens to even the strongest Targaryen supporters.

I see now, so he isn't really among to keep the Reach occupied, he is more or less trying to lower the morale of the troops. 

Hmmm… he is definitely something. Well, this just makes my decision clearer then, I will sack King's Landing for the new Stag who will sit on the throne.

Suddenly I stop a little and come up to a conclusion. Is that little hawk just sending a message to me? Telling me to take action as he has the Reach occupied so I can go to King's Landing. 

I can't help but smile a little at this. 

This is smart of him. 

Knock! Knock!

As I was thinking that, I heard a knock on the door. 

"Come in." I immediately give them permission to enter.

Immediately I see the old maester enter. I just nod at him, acknowledging his presence. He doesn't need any more respect, I already give him enough respect by not having him killed when he sends his little 'secret' letters to the Citadel.

Maesters really are not just some old man scholars with balls dropping to the ground. They are the best information organization in the world, which has a monopoly over information.

But they are not as smart as they think. I already have some men on the inside of the organization, I will put all of their heads on a pile if they even dare do something against house Lannister as they did to the Targaryens.

Though the death of dragons happened only because of a small group of maesters that worked separately from the organization, I don't care, they better keep their maesters in check or I will burn their little citadel to the ground.

"There is a letter for you my lord." Says the old maester. As he hands me a letter.

I take it from his hands and say to him. "Okay, you can go back to your room now maester Cullin."

The old man nods and starts wimplingly walking away from here. I should have this one killed, that way I can get a new one. One that has forged his chain in Warcraft and Trade. That way it will be more useful than this junk of half rotting old man.

….

[ General POV ]

Next day the news spreads that Arthur Redhaws had obliterated the Reach Fleet and is asking a lot of gold from the Reach in order to release them. At least these were the rumors going around. Some of the important lords will be ransomed off first before negotiations begin about some landed knights and such.

...

And during this time on the Island of Arbor, who was surrounded by a thousand ships, making an impenetrable defense to the island.

 In Redwyne keep. Inside the dungeons, there is a middle-aged man in chains. He is Randyll Tarly, he is a bald man with a short-cut beard. His only source of light is a small torch in the hallway in front of his cell, and the torch too is almost out of light.

Now usually captured lords are treated good enough, but that is not the case with Arthur. He keeps every one of his prisoners in the same condition, some other lords and some lord's son complained.

They got their throats cut by the guards for that. So everyone here is now quiet, even though most of the people at this level are lords, no one is talking and it's deathly quiet.

No one talks about escaping or anything like that.

That is when suddenly some steps are heard, and then they all hear a voice say. "Well hello, there lords of the Reach."

Immediately they all recognize who this is. It is Arthur as he walls around and continues saying. "I am in a happy mood today. Your houses agreed to pay millions of Gold Dragons for your releases.

Now that is amazing, so today you are getting an extra porridge meal. Don't worry, the Reach will send the food, after all, I have already made it clear that as soon as the Reach tries to close our supplies routes, the first one to starve will be you."

Arthur looks around and when he sees that no one says anything he with a smile still on his face says. "Well… tough crowd. Anyway, onto the main business of today and why I came to this sh*t hole-... I mean the dungeons."

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