Trouble began to stir

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In the gardens of the Red Keep, Robert had, for once, not gone hunting or visiting whores. Instead, he sat chatting with his queen.

Three blond, green-eyed children played and tussled on the lawn, creating a harmonious scene of family bliss.

Just then, a solemn-faced Eddard Stark walked straight toward him. A Hand-shaped Silver Brooch fastened his cloak at the chest of his black robes; clearly, he had officially assumed office.

"Oh, look who's here. Isn't this my new Hand?"

Robert, who had already been growing impatient, quickly rose to welcome Eddard with a smile.

Whatever he said, this sharp-tongued woman immediately snapped back, and for every sentence he spoke, Cersei could choke him with ten.

Making him sit with Cersei truly made every day feel like a year.

And for some reason, watching his three children with their flowing blond hair always left Robert with an indescribable feeling.

"Good morning, Your Grace, Your Majesty."

Eddard, who placed immense importance on protocol, first bowed respectfully to them both, then held out the rolled-up documents in his hand to Robert.

"I think we made a mistake, Robert."

Eddard got straight to the point, making no attempt to avoid the subject despite Cersei's presence:

"Publicly dismissing Arthas as Commander of the City Watch as soon as we returned was somewhat hasty."

"Between last night and this morning, over a hundred violent incidents occurred in King's Landing, along with at least fifteen large-scale public demonstrations in the streets."

"Outside the Red Keep, everything is now in chaos. Law and order in King's Landing have almost completely collapsed."

"Quite a few nobles have even had their homes stormed by angry commoners, though fortunately, we have yet to receive reports of any nobles dying as a result."

As Eddard delivered his report, Robert's brows gradually drew together again, just as tightly as his.

Cersei, meanwhile, casually swirled her wineglass, barely concealed amusement showing in her green eyes.

She utterly detested both Robert and Arthas, those two men who treated her beauty as though it did not exist.

Now that the two people she hated most were at each other's throats, merely refraining from sitting there clutching her stomach in laughter was already showing Robert considerable respect.

Robert ignored Cersei's mocking smile and looked at his close friend, who had faced life and death alongside him for years. The dark circles beneath his eyes were heavy; clearly, he had probably not slept at all last night.

It was not that he had never considered the consequences of dismissing Arthas. According to Varys's intelligence, the man's prestige in King's Landing had reached its zenith, after all. But he had never expected the consequences to be this severe.

He took a small sip of wine, suppressing his slight irritation, and this once-valiant king finally recovered a little of his former bearing:

"What about the Gold Cloaks?"

"With so many riots breaking out overnight, were those bastards all sound asleep?"

"After dismissing Arthas, you never formally appointed a Commander of the City Watch, and as Hand of the King, I cannot overstep my authority and command them directly."

Eddard answered with righteous conviction. His regard for rules and honor bordered on inflexibility:

"I could only order the Commander's deputy, Arthas Lannister's cousin, Lancel Lannister, to send out the Watch to suppress the riots."

"Although he agreed readily and acted very quickly, as far as I could see, the Gold Cloaks merely stood on either side of the streets and watched without intervening. They were not even carrying weapons."

Shaking his head helplessly, Eddard felt his head throbbing after a sleepless night. Arthas had truly presented him with a difficult problem.

He had never expected to encounter such enormous trouble just after arriving in King's Landing, before he had even warmed his seat as Hand of the King.

"Fuck!"

Robert leaped to his feet in fury and hurled his wineglass to the ground. The commotion instantly drew the eyes of the three children at play.

Cersei, who doted endlessly on her children, glared at him, then quickly stood and called them away, leaving only Robert and Eddard behind.

"Those damned bastards! They take the king's wages, yet they're so utterly devoted to serving the Lannisters!"

Once Cersei had left with the children, Robert forced down his anger and dropped back into his chair, cursing in a low voice:

"This is no time for anger, Robert."

Compared with the furious Robert, Eddard was much more composed. Though somewhat exhausted in body and mind, he still dutifully reminded the king:

"Our most urgent task is to appoint a Commander who can bring the City Watch under control."

"I understand."

Taking several deep breaths to settle his restless feelings, Robert closed his eyes and carefully considered a solution:

"Go to the dungeons and bring Janos out."

After a long while, unable to find any better solution, he could only make a desperate attempt:

"That man commanded the Gold Cloaks for so many years, and nothing ever went wrong. He should still have at least a few trustworthy men under him."

"But Janos's corruption and abuse of the law are facts. He has already been sentenced to take the black and go to the North!"

Eddard refused to yield to his brother-in-arms and close friend, who was grasping at any remedy in desperation.

His adherence to rules and honor would not allow him to release a man already found guilty, much less restore him to office.

"The trial procedure was unlawful, Eddard!"

Looking helplessly at this Hand of the King, who was every bit as rigid as his foster father Jon Arryn, Robert could only use a loophole in the rules to persuade him:

"Since the trial procedure was unlawful, the verdict is invalid."

"In other words, Janos is still innocent."

"Even if we are to try him for violating the kingdom's laws, it must wait until after the riots in King's Landing have been suppressed!"

A flicker of disappointment crossed Eddard's eyes as he listened to Robert's shameless words.

Although he knew that the man had long since changed over all these years, his conduct kept pushing Eddard's understanding of how low he could sink.

His lips moved several times, but in the end, he could not voice his objections.

After all, the situation in King's Landing could brook no delay, and there were indeed unreasonable aspects to Janos's trial procedure.

"Only this once."

With a soft sigh, Eddard finally relented beneath Robert's gaze, which mingled determination with pleading.

Turning toward the dungeons, the man of the North still held firm to his bottom line:

"After this matter is over, no matter what happens, I will try Janos for his crimes again before the Seven."

"There will be no room for negotiation."

"You don't seem the least bit worried, Lord Arthas."

At Arthas's residence, Margaery Tyrell, dressed in a thin green gauze gown and holding a wineglass, watched the blond youth eating breakfast with amusement in her eyes.

Her soft brown curls were neatly arranged, and her long lashes fluttered open and shut. Together with her equally brown eyes, they gave her a distinctly playful look.

Over the past few days, Arthas had been busy with the purge of King's Landing and had no time to spare for her.

After learning yesterday that the king had dismissed him, this thorny rose had followed the scent of breakfast over first thing in the morning.

"Drinking so early in the morning is bad for your stomach."

Arthas continued eating without even raising his head, merely offering a brief reminder to Margaery, who had not touched the food before her.

After he had frightened this intensely curious young woman last time, she had not restrained herself at all. Instead, she clung to him even more stubbornly, like sticky candy.

Had Arthas not used his busy workload as an excuse and had Lancel repeatedly turn her away, she would probably have driven him mad long ago.

"What an unromantic man."

Rolling her eyes at him, Margaery deliberately shifted her body and tugged down the neckline of her gown, revealing a broad expanse of snow-white skin.

The relentless rebuffs of the past few days had driven her curiosity about Arthas to a feverish breaking point.

Even witnessing what seemed to be supernatural power here with Arthas that day could not stop her from behaving like a moth flying into a flame.

"Things outside are in complete chaos, my dear Commander."

Swaying her slender waist, she walked slowly up to Arthas and unabashedly settled her rounded, upturned bottom on the table beside his arm.

She leaned down close to Arthas's ear, perfectly displaying her voluptuous figure through her neckline. Their posture was intensely intimate:

"Facing such a 'tense' situation, are you truly as untroubled inside as you appear?"

Faced with Margaery's renewed teasing, Arthas put down his utensils and swept her into his arms, leaving only the narrowest gap between their noses.

"Of course, Lady Margaery."

Margaery, who had thought he was finally about to lose control, showed a flicker of triumph in her eyes. But on closer inspection, Arthas's golden eyes remained just as clear, without any particular emotion in them:

"Ever since coming to this world, I have never done anything I was not confident of."

As though holding a kitten, he lifted Margaery by the waist and placed her in the seat he had just occupied, seemingly without the slightest lingering attachment to this radiant young woman's lovely body.

Then he took a steak from the table, elegantly cut it into small pieces, and lifted one to her lips with a fork, his voice filled with unquestionable firmness:

"This steak is in my hands now. Whether I want to eat it or not, no one else has any right to covet it."

"But when I want someone to eat it, they must eat it!"

His utterly domineering words made Margaery tremble all over, as though something were slowly trickling down from beneath her skirt.

The young woman gazed with desire at the handsome, commanding youth before her and obediently parted her red lips, taking the piece of steak into her mouth.