Game of Thrones: I Created the Magic Web

Chapter 10 The Boy in the Throne Hall
After lunch, Joffrey wandered into the throne room near the main entrance of the Red Keep.

Seeing the petitioners gathered outside the door, he suddenly became interested, and immediately let the hounds clear the way and pass through the dense crowd.

Generally speaking, the king should be sitting on the Iron Throne in the Throne Hall at this time, listening to the petitions and appeals of the people, administering justice, and announcing the verdict.

King Robert was clearly not one of them.

The hunting activities in the royal forest on the other side of the river took up most of the king's time, and such trivial matters were represented by Jon Arryn, Prime Minister of the "Hand of the King" on a daily basis.

Stepping into the gate of the Throne Hall, the ferocious and terrifying Iron Throne on the high platform immediately occupied Joffrey's vision.

Nearly 300 years ago, Aegon the Conqueror of House Targaryen first unified the Seven Kingdoms.

The giant dragon "Black Death" Balerion under him breathed out dragon flames, melting all the blades offered by the subjects in the war of conquest.

The Iron Throne, which is full of spikes, sharp horns, and twisted metal, symbolizes the majesty of the king, was born.

Aegon the Dragon also left a famous saying because of this-"A king should not sit easy."

Sounds cool.But facing the throne, Joffrey suddenly understood the pain of those Targaryen kings.

You can't lean on the back of the chair, and you must always be careful of the sharp knives on the front, back, left, and right. It's a punishment.

Joffrey will not wrong himself.How could the king's throne be such a thing?Change it sooner or later!

After appreciating the elegance of the Iron Throne, Joffrey met everyone's eyes and walked straight forward stepping on the fire-breathing dragon pattern on the two rows of floor tiles in the center of the hall.

At this time, the Throne Hall is resting, and the next batch of petitioners are still waiting to be summoned.

Jon Arryn sat on the Iron Throne.

The Kingsguard Mandon Moore and Maryn Tran stood on both sides of the dais.

At the conference table under the throne stairs sat the five former ministers in turn - Renly Baratheon, Minister of Justice, Stannis Baratheon, Minister of Sea Affairs, Petyr Baelish, Minister of Exchequer, Grand Maester Pycelle, Head of Intelligence Varys.

The dragon skulls that once hung high on the high walls along the way have long been replaced by tapestry depicting King Robert's hunting scenes.

Under the tapestry stood hundreds of knights, nobles and ladies.

The people watching the ceremony stood in the inner corridors on both sides.On the innermost side are two rows of "golden robes" to maintain order, all of them are fully armed and wear golden cloaks on their shoulders, which is very majestic.

Varys asked questions for everyone knowingly, "His Royal Highness, why are you free to come here today for inspection?"

Joffrey kept a decent smile.Usually personable, stupid and cruel, this is the typical "he".

"It's nothing, I just want to see the petition all of a sudden, let's learn in advance."

His day on the Iron Throne will come much sooner than expected.

Joffrey glanced at the people in front of him indifferently.

The prime minister who is old and strong has no expression on his face, the bald second uncle Stannis has sharp eyes, and the attitudes of the others seem to be friendly.

The Prime Minister and Second Uncle are undeniable enemies, but nothing else is trustworthy.

"My lords, is there a seat for me here? You can't let the majestic crown prince stand."

Joffrey behaved politely, and it would have been better if he hadn't added the last sentence.The complexions of all the people standing there inevitably changed.

Jon Arryn spoke, "Prepare a seat for His Royal Highness, the one with the crowned stag embroidered."

King's stag, what a pity you are not, Joffrey Weirwater?

The illegitimate children born in the king's land are uniformly given the surname of Weishui, but the indecent products of the twin siblings are not included, Jon Arryn is not clear.

He could only tell himself silently that now was not the time.

Although Joffrey's life experience has been confirmed and he has chosen to support Stannis as the heir to the Iron Throne, Jon still has to do his best.

Prime Minister Jon suppressed his disgust as best he could.

As long as conclusive evidence is found and Robert's emotions and the Lannister family are properly dealt with, the kingdom can get rid of the dirty blood and get back on track.

He secretly prayed, hoping that the literature he would consult tomorrow would be helpful.

Joffrey sat alone between the Iron Throne and the council table, and watched as a nonvoting delegate.This seems to imply that he cannot express his opinion here.

The messenger announced loudly, "The petition continues."

Several people who looked like businessmen came in and knelt humbly before the Iron Throne.

"Hand of the King, my lords, the five of us are representatives of the steel street arms merchants, recently..."

Joffrey paid no attention to these.

Most of the time, the Throne Hall only plays the role of the government affairs center of King's Landing City, handling the affairs of tens of thousands of people, which is far from the image of the national center in his mind.

The reason why he came in was mainly because he wanted to see the performance of his future opponents on formal occasions before leaving King's Landing.

After listening to the petition, the Minister of Finance, Littlefinger, spoke first, with a lazy and playful tone.

"The price of pig iron has doubled. It doesn't seem to be blamed on the Iron Throne, right? Or do you expect the treasury to subsidize it?"

The leading businessman quickly shook his head, "How dare you? It's just that the market has been very stable recently, and suddenly it's like this. There may be someone behind it making trouble."

Minister of Justice Renly chuckled, "Varys, it's your turn, does your little bird know this secret?"

The eunuch stroked the smooth sea-blue silk on his body, and responded casually, "Perhaps our Lord Petyr can also give the answer."

Joffrey's mouth twitched.It's interesting that Littlefinger was sued.

But Littlefinger didn't seem to understand Varys' hint at all, "This is strange, how can I be more informed than 'Octospider'?"

Now no one speaks.

After a brief silence, the Hand of the King on the Iron Throne stood up.

"All right. In the king's name, Petyr is charged with bringing the price of pig iron back to normal within two weeks. Who has an objection?"

Lord Petyr bowed to his command.

"Follow the instructions. The subordinates will do their best to find out who is behind the scenes and return the steel market to a satisfactory business environment."

The businessmen couldn't say anything, so they had to leave thankfully.

Joffrey saw it clearly.

The Throne Hall was just a formality, and the outcome of the weapons dealers' complaint had already been decided. As long as Littlefinger didn't fall, this trivial matter was just a deadline for him to stop.

The businessmen couldn't see the situation clearly, and the people here were not their backers, so they had to suffer a bit.

In the ensuing petition, Joffrey watched with cold eyes, and had a good experience of the interest entanglements and open and secret struggles in the feudal era.

Disagreement over the boundaries of farmland between farmers outside the city, compensation issues for tavern fights, knights who thought they had been humiliated demanded severe punishment, and two small lords in the king's land accused each other of encroaching on the land...

Until the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled on the bright red floor tiles of the throne room.

The last petition team enters.

"My lords, it's up to you," a middle-aged woman in gorgeous clothes knelt down and cried.

"It's all this little bastard and his old bitch!" She pointed excitedly at the pair of mother and son hugging each other.

"Everyone understands the principle of killing for life. Originally, there was no need to bother you noble adults, but this bastard actually threatened with a knife, and he insisted on being judged by the Iron Throne before he gave up."

"He still wants to bring the knife into the court!"

The affairs officer at the discussion table explained the whole story to the ministers.

The slain Sir Alf Rawlingford was the husband of the petitioning woman.

Alf died in the room of the prostitute Lorraine while visiting a brothel, and was killed with a knife.She has already admitted that she did it because she couldn't stand Alf's torture.

It is rumored that Sir Alf does have some unspeakable special hobbies.

Joffrey looked at the mother and child.

The mother's color faded, her skin was dull, and her thin linen clothes were covered with bruises and scars.

Although she was accused of murder, she seemed to be talking in a flat manner, and she seemed to be a person with a story.

The son who was holding his mother's arm tightly was a teenager, with a gloomy and numb face, and strong hope in his cloudy eyes.

Varys groaned.

"Oh, such a tragedy, it's a pity that the law is inhumane, alas, how can people bear it. What does the national teacher think?"

The 80-year-old bachelor Paischer lowered his head very deeply, as if he couldn't bear the heavy weight of the bachelor's necklace strung together from 24 kinds of metal pieces around his neck, and seemed to be asleep.

"Well, it is true, it is stated in the law. This situation, ah, probably is no exception. However, it still depends on Lord Renly's attitude."

The grand maester is errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, whether he is sober enough.

Minister of Justice Renly frowned, and said hesitantly: "The law is strict, but the reasons for it are complicated. Perhaps, Rowling can be made a lifetime of hard labor to avoid more suffering."

The boy kneeling on the ground looked up at his benefactor, with more hope in his eyes.

Handsome and magnanimous, Renly was a young King Robert, always endearing.

Stannis had never been used to Renly's indulgence in legal matters.

"The law is the law! Evil deeds cannot be undone, and the murderer must pay with his life. Besides, isn't that what a prostitute does, so killing people doesn't deserve mercy at all!"

The boy turned his head to stare at Stannis stiffly, and as soon as he opened his mouth, his mother wrapped him in her arms.

"My good lords, I plead guilty. Just forgive my poor son, he was just too scared to hurt anyone with a knife."

Renly made no further pleas.

After a few breaths, the Hand of the King stood up.

"The guards stepped forward. In the name of the king, sentence the murderer Lorraine to death and execute immediately."

"Today's petition ends here."

Joffrey saw the mother whisper something in her son's ear, and followed the execution guards out of the throne room without struggling, towards the outer wall of the Red Keep.

A busy day is over.

The crowd gradually dispersed.

Renly sighed and walked out, not forgetting to throw a golden dragon to the helpless boy.

The upright Stannis only gave him a snort.

Whores and illegitimate children should not exist.The law is the law, and I am Robert's rightful heir, not the son of the gods!

Joffrey walked steadily.

He calmly passed by the curled up motionless figure of the young man.

Maybe add another layer of insurance.

(End of this chapter)