King's Landing

Sunlight spilled over the streets and alleys of King's Landing, the sky as clear and blue as a sapphire. Yet this bright weather stood in stark contrast to the city's grim atmosphere.

Bzz!

More and more Gold Cloaks, clad in black chainmail and pointed helmets, appeared in the streets, causing no small amount of unrest among the crowds hurrying home.

"Get back inside your own homes!"

"No lingering in the streets!"

A little over two hours ago, they had still been enthusiastically watching Cersei Lannister's parade, but now... everyone was afraid, terrified of being implicated.

The unexpected disaster had struck without warning. Cersei Lannister, who had been paraded under the Faith's escort, was now neither confirmed alive nor dead...

After some time, even the children of King's Landing were playing a game called "One Hundred Thousand Marigolds Enter the King's City."

And... everyone in King's Landing knew that the master of that hundred-thousand-strong army was Gryn Crabb—the man once called the Bloody Earl.

At this moment, those who had not joined in the spectacle felt especially fortunate—particularly the people of the Queens Quarter, who had personally witnessed heads rolling beneath Crabb's blade (Chapter 34).

Rumor had it that in that appointed battle in the Vale... seventy-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven Vale knights had died. Of them, the Bloody Earl had personally cut off seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven heads, and had swallowed seven hundred and seventy-seven still-beating hearts whole, one bite at a time...

All kinds of lurid stories about Gryn and Cersei had long circulated through King's Landing... It was said that when Cersei had been carried back to the Red Keep by the Kingsguard, blood had dripped all the way... Her "secret" lover had suffered such a bloody tragedy. Would that lord, who had not