Justice 4

The intense scene that had just unfolded left the entire hall in dead silence. Everyone present realized that the situation today had reached a complete impasse.

Just as the standoff held, an aged, steady, yet commanding female voice suddenly rang out.

"Your Majesty."

Rhaenys Targaryen, the "Uncrowned Queen," stepped slowly from the back of the Blacks' camp.

She was no longer young; time had carved its marks into her black-and-white hair and the lines at the corners of her eyes. She wore a solemn, deep red gown—a color that had always been her favorite.

She was the wife of the "Sea Snake" Corlys Velaryon, and more importantly, the rightful princess who had been stripped of her inheritance at the Great Council due to the male-preference succession laws.

Her very existence was a silent indictment of the cousin sitting upon the throne.

"Perhaps," she said, coming to a halt. Her gaze swept calmly over the ashen-faced Viserys on the throne, flickered over the restrained Aemond, and finally settled back on the King.

"We could try... a different approach."

Her voice was not loud, yet it compelled both the Blacks and the Greens to listen closely.

"Let us both take a step back."

"Rhaenys, speak," Viserys said, with the desperation of a drowning man clutching at a piece of driftwood.

He was in dire need of a solution that could break the current deadlock.

Rhaenys nodded slightly, her words clear and distinct: "To continue bickering over who is right and who is wrong tonight is like tearing at a wound that has already reached the bone; it will only make us bleed more deeply."

"Therefore," she paused, "we, House Velaryon, and I, representing Rhaenyra, can promise here and now that we will no longer pursue any accountability regarding the rights or wrongs of this matter."

She turned her gaze toward Aemond, who was being held by the Kingsguard, and swept over the scar on his left cheek: "Including the ownership of Vhagar."

Having said this, Rhaenys sighed.

"Consider this my compensation."

As soon as these words were spoken, a slight ripple of murmurs spread through the hall.

Many wore expressions of confusion. Had the Velaryons truly given up on seeking justice and the dispute over the dragon so easily? And what exactly did she mean by compensation?

King Viserys, sitting on his throne, felt a flash of complex emotions in his eyes.

He understood the meaning behind this "compensation." It was an old grudge from decades ago, involving the theft of a dragon.

Back then, after the death of the two brothers' mother, Aelysa Targaryen, her dragon, the "Red Queen" Meleys, should have been inherited by the brothers first.

However, their thirteen-year-old cousin, Rhaenys Targaryen, had snuck into the Dragonpit and claimed Meleys for herself.

Back then, a young Viserys and Daemon had also angrily accused her of theft.

But in the end, the dispute was settled by the ruling of Jaehaerys the Conciliator.

Now, times had changed, and the roles were reversed.

The passage of time and the cycle of karma contained within this irony left those in the know with a complicated mix of emotions.

Prince Daemon, standing among the Blacks, felt even more conflicted. The dragon left behind by his mother, Aleysa, had been stolen, and now, the dragon his late wife had left for their daughters had been stolen as well.

Yet, Daemon remained silent. If Aemond did not die, Vhagar would essentially be out of reach for his daughters.

The plan his cousin Rhaenys had quietly discussed with him just moments ago might be better. By using this incident with Jae, they could force the Greens into a position where they could neither refuse nor oppose that other matter...

Daemon glanced at Rhaenyra in the center. If his brother Viserys had agreed to his proposal to marry his daughter Rhaenyra back then, perhaps none of this mess would have happened...

"A dragon only acknowledges its own rider," Rhaenys continued, her voice tinged with melancholy. "Since Vhagar has made its choice, we have nothing to say regarding it belonging to Prince Aemond."

"Correspondingly, we will no longer pursue the matter of the Prince's unauthorized dragon-taming."

Viserys listened to these concessions, but instead of feeling relieved, his heart grew heavier.

The more that was given, the heavier the price would inevitably be.

Sure enough, Rhaenys slowly raised her right hand, holding up two fingers, her eyes filled with an irrefutable resolve.

"However, Your Majesty," her voice suddenly deepened, "rifts must be mended. Tonight, children have already shed blood and lost their sight."

"We require two forms of compensation. It is not much, but it must be granted."

Viserys closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. "...Speak plainly, Rhaenys."

He knew the time to pay the price had arrived.

"First," Rhaenys said clearly, "for the sake of true reconciliation and peace for the decades to come."

"I have just discussed this with Prince Daemon: we are to annul the betrothal between Jacaerys and Baela."

Viserys fell into silence, and even the ever-composed Otto's expression shifted.

"Now, I would like to ask Your Majesty to betroth Princess Helaena to my grandson, Jacaerys Velaryon."

"A marriage alliance is the best way to mend the wounds between both sides, and the strongest bond to solidify them."

Rhaenys turned her gaze toward the pale, slender Princess Helaena in the corner.

"No!!"

A shrill cry rang out.

Queen Alicent looked like a doe pierced through the heart by an arrow, her face deathly pale, leaving only resentment and those reddened eye sockets.

"I will never agree to this!" She trembled all over, every word bursting from her teeth, "I will never marry my pure and flawless Helaena to Rhaenyra's bas...!"

"Never! Don't you even think about it!"

She turned around and lunged toward her father as if clutching at a final straw, her hands grabbing Lord Hand Otto's sleeves, her fingernails digging into his clothes.

Her eyes were filled with pleading.

"Father! Father, say something!"

"You cannot let them do this to Helaena! Say something!"

Lord Hand Otto's expression was somewhat unsightly.

Helaena could marry any nobleman, but she absolutely could not be wed in an alliance to Rhaenyra's bastard...

"Alicent! Mind your status and your words!" The anger, grievance, and powerlessness that Viserys had bottled up all night finally found a vent at this moment.

He barked sharply at his crumbling wife, "Look at yourself now!"

"Where is the grace and decorum of a Queen!"

"I am her mother! I gave birth to her! I raised her! I have loved her for thirteen years!"

"Of course I have the right to decide her future!" Alicent cried out at the King, her voice hoarse and broken.

"Viserys, you cannot... you cannot do this to us..."

"Your Majesty, I will not accept this marriage alliance," Lord Hand Otto said.

"If the Queen and the Hand insist on opposing this proposal for reconciliation..." Rhaenyra's icy voice cut in.

She had already stood up from the floor, brushed the dust off her skirts, and assumed that condescending posture: "Then, we can also keep it simple and return to the original, most primitive method."

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"Ancient and fair."

Lord Hand Otto looked at Rhaenys, the Sea Snake, Daemon, Rhaenyra, and the rest of the Blacks; he knew very well what they were trying to do.

"Mmph." Aemond, who had been gagged, let out a roar from his throat, his suppressed body erupting with astonishing strength as he struggled and twisted.

He actually caused the arm muscles of several sturdy Kingsguard to bulge, nearly breaking free from their grip.

The guards could not help but be astonished by the power currently bursting from within the Prince.

"Hand, this is my family matter," Viserys said. He was still quite satisfied with Otto, the Hand who had served him faithfully for many years.

But this time, Otto could not hold back: "Your Majesty, Helaena also carries the blood of our House Hightower."

Seeing Otto so unyielding and refusing to back down, Viserys said coldly: "Am I the King? Am I unable to even decide the marriage of my own daughter?"

"Or are you saying that from now on, you should be the one to decide all my family affairs?"

Faced with the King's piercing words, Otto had no choice but to lower his head and say: "I would not dare. Your Majesty has the right to decide your own family affairs."

Perhaps His Majesty also understood what Helaena marrying Jacaerys would mean...

Once Helaena married Jacaerys, it would greatly strengthen the legitimacy of this bastard.

And those three bastard sons of Rhaenyra were already being questioned by the nobility of the Seven Kingdoms regarding their status as bastards.

This marriage alliance would be a signal to the lords of the Seven Kingdoms that the Greens were bowing to the Blacks.

It would also signify that the Greens acknowledged Jacaerys's legitimate status, rather than the rumored status of a Strong bastard that everyone questioned.

This was also what Rhaenyra had always wanted...

Otto was extremely annoyed; it was clear that Viserys was far too biased toward Rhaenyra.

Viserys rubbed his throbbing temples, exhausted to the extreme.

The King no longer looked at his wife, who was on the verge of a breakdown, but instead looked directly at the young princess who had been cowering at the edge of the Greens' group.

"Helaena."

This daughter of his was always as quiet as a shadow.

"Father respects your wishes," he said with a gentle tone: "Your own heart is what matters most."

"Tell Father, do you... wish to accept this betrothal?"

The eyes of everyone in the hall turned toward Helaena Targaryen.

Helaena felt those gazes like red-hot needles, causing her waves of pain.

She looked at her mother, who was being supported, weeping, and watching her.

She looked at her grandfather, Otto, standing in silence.

Finally, her gaze swept past everyone and landed on Aemond, who was shaking his head at her from the floor.

She closed her eyes.

Her long eyelashes trembled like butterfly wings.

After a long while, a weak but clear answer came:

"I... am willing, Father."

Hearing her daughter forced to agree, Queen Alicent's face grew even more desperate.

"Very well," Viserys said, hammering the final nail into the decision.