A predetermined outcome

Wickenden

As the city that housed the continent's oldest library, it welcomed many people who came seeking knowledge every day.

Books were its greatest wealth.

Wickenden consisted of towering stone walls and towers, with numerous rooms and corridors inside, a rich collection of books, and a tranquil atmosphere.

Wickenden was managed by monks and scholars known as the Keepers, who protected and maintained the city's books and knowledge. The family that led them was called the House of Wickenden Clan-House Waxley!

This family's lineage was ancient too!

Wickenden held a vast collection of books covering history, magic, medicine, and many other fields of knowledge. It was a sacred destination for knowledge seekers and scholars.

Strict rules governed entry into Wickenden. Visitors were usually required to donate a book or offer some other form of knowledge in exchange for permission to enter.

That raised the question: why had the lord of Wickenden moved against House Royce?

Was it merely to pledge allegiance to Jon Arryn behind the scenes and eliminate a political rival? Or was there some other conspiracy?

Clearly not. It would hardly make sense for a group of monks and scholars to specifically target a family for destruction over a political struggle.

As the heartland of the Andals, most nobles in the Vale worshipped the Seven.

Even the people living on the lands of House Royce, heirs to the bronze bloodline, had all sorts of strange beliefs.

Beatrice Mormont worshipped the Old Gods, and Yaron did too! Delia worshipped the Crone of the Seven, though she now worshipped the Dragon God!

Even within Gulltown's territory, many people worshipped sea gods such as the Drowned God because they had previously lived by the sea. But there were different kinds of sea gods, and the sea god worshipped here certainly differed from the one in the Iron Islands.

Although Gulltown and Runestone had now both begun worshipping the Dragon God, the nobles who had witnessed defensive magic began placing their hopes in the Dragon God because of magic. Legend said it had made the Valyrians immortal-the ultimate pursuit of human desire!

It made perfect sense!

Under these circumstances, it was extremely unwise for Wickenden, a noble town composed of scholars and monks, to show hostility toward Runestone Territory!

They publicly claimed to be an ancient family equal in standing to House Hightower of the Hightower in Oldtown!

Why, exactly?

Wickenden, Wickenden Monastery

As the main cathedral of the Faith of the Seven in the Kingdom of the Vale, its bishops were all cardinals.

Apart from serving the gods, the bishops had another important duty.

Eradicating heretics!

They might be witches! They might be evil warlocks worshipping evil gods! Or they might be other people.

The bishops' task was to pass judgment on these heretics! Of course, that included handling certain matters concerning noble marriages!

The Faith of the Seven permitted only one lawful wife! Except for a certain white-haired family!

A retreat room in the monastery

Three men in white monastic robes emerged from the retreat room, laughing and chatting as though the war about to erupt outside had nothing to do with them.

Outside the retreat room stood two nuns in black monastic robes. Once the clerics had finished, they needed to go inside and attend to the young nuns.

The two old nuns entered the room and saw two fair-skinned nuns lying on the disheveled bed.

The nuns were pale and completely naked. One lay sprawled in a daze, while the other lay on her side, weeping. They were nuns who had only just entered the monastery that year.

They had only just reached thirteen or fourteen. Their families had run short of food, and rural monks had recommended them to the monastery for religious study.

The rural monks had said that work at the monastery mainly involved caring for patients and clerics, or looking after travelers.

They had come to the monastery to survive. They knew their families had abandoned them.

Only then did they understand what the one gold coin the rural monks had given their parents meant! They had been sold to these beasts!

At first, they resisted!

But to their despair, resistance only excited these things that were neither human nor ghost even more!

Later, they could only conceal their bodies' instinctive arousal and pretend to be blocks of wood as they endured the abuse!

There were nobles like this in Gull Territory too, but Su Qin strictly forbade the violation of these pitiful women!

The first to do this and be beheaded were nobles with a history of abusing these women!

Were there members of the three noble families among them?

Yes!

But what could they say?

Su Qin now had great strength and the people's support, so he could dispose of the nobles within his territory as he pleased. That was power!

Once their heads were cut off, that was that. If you dared object, your entire family would be exterminated for rebelling against your lord! If the lesser nobles could accept being won over, fine. If not, there were plenty of other methods!

Nor could any descendants be left alive to cause trouble for him later!

In truth, the cruel thing was that,

throughout history and across the world,

the wise choice had always been to exterminate the entire family!

The whole point was to save trouble!

Grass several meters tall had long since grown over the graves of the merciful!

After all, gratitude went against the human instinct to pursue profit alone. Such a virtue pointed straight toward divinity!

So-called divinity meant moving toward order!

Demonic nature meant moving toward chaos!

Who was right, and who was wrong?

There was no right or wrong!

Only differing positions!

So do not pursue absolute materialism, which would plunge us into a frenzy of self-interest and desire; nor should you embrace absolute idealism, which would plunge us into nihilism.

Everything in just the right measure! A stable balance of yin and yang was the best path!

Survival and desire!

Those few words were the essence of the game of thrones!

The scene shifted back to the retreat room in Wickenden Monastery.

The old nuns numbly wiped the young nuns' bodies clean. Once they were clean, if some new lord or scholar took a fancy to their bodies,

they might get a meal with meat that night.

The old nuns cleaned up the aftermath without emotion, because the young nuns would eventually become like them, in an endless cycle!

They felt no envy, disgust, or pity... This was their work, nothing more!

Unfortunately, such things existed throughout the Faith of the Seven across the country.

This was a transaction!

The church did not feed idle mouths. This was a true portrayal of certain churches in the feudal Middle Ages!

Kindhearted devils!

The ugly ones actually fared somewhat better, spared the double burden on mind and body!

Those who suffered most were the pretty ones with good figures!

Who knew who was "comforting" these people at night! How many things neither human nor ghost were doing the comforting!

Those who submitted might be given the title of some saintess, while those who refused might be branded heretics and burned to death.

Were there good monks?

Yes! And there were many!

But most met miserable ends! Those with desires mostly occupied high positions! Such was the feudal moral order!

Within Wickenden

In the monastery's church of the Seven, Cardinal Maer prayed with his eyes closed beneath the statues of the Seven at the center of the church.

A cleric entered and whispered a few words in his ear.

After speaking, he knelt behind the bishop.

Bishop Maer continued praying.

Half an hourglass later,

after finishing his prayers, the bishop slowly rose and said darkly, "Go pack up. We return to King's Landing tomorrow night!"

He thought to himself, Damn House Hightower. He gave them a shipload of corn to study, and they started favoring that Baron of Gulltown! Where has your faith in the gods gone? Back during the Dance of the Dragons, you should have... Hmph!

In Wickenden Castle, Andar Waxley, head of the House of Wickenden Clan, furiously tore a letter to pieces.

"Jon Arryn, you're a despicable man who never keeps his word!"

Andar was furious. He had considered that House Stark, which had been friendly with House Royce for generations, might intervene, but Jon would still back him up in the end! House Waxley had a task to complete!

He had never expected Jon to yield after all!

House Stark had gone all out to protect House Royce!

After all these years, they were still so stubborn!

Where was your nobility, Starks?

Where was your honor, Starks?

Where exactly did you stand? Hadn't we agreed to rebel against House Targaryen together?

Without Jon secretly providing military support, how would he and House Strongstone of Strongstone Beach dare confront House Royce head-on? They were an old, established First Men family!

He would have to send his military minister to resist them first while he packed his valuables! At worst, he could cede the earldom of Strongstone Beach, to which House Royce had originally held a weak claim!

The funny thing was that, before a war had even begun, its outcome had already...

been predetermined by the highest nobles seated in their lofty halls!

You certainly knew how to play the game of thrones!