Ghost the "Pauper"

Ever since the wedding date had been set, King Aerys had hardly summoned Ghost at all. Queen Rhaella, on the other hand, took Ghost along for morning prayers every day, occasionally asking whether she had settled into life in the Red Keep.

Of course she hadn't! She simply didn't dare say so.

Every day was a cycle of praying, eating, and sleeping, repeated N times. Occasionally, she strolled through the gardens or took a bath... (Sadly, she hadn't run into Rhaegar again.)

It wasn't as though Ghost hadn't considered turning into a puppy and going to play with Rhaegar, but whenever she remembered her identity as a spy, she couldn't help feeling deflated.

Queen Rhaella lived such an austere life that it was truly hard to understand. She also kept to herself and rarely appeared in public. Every few days, the palace held small banquets, to which the king invited a few trusted associates and had Ghost and Rhaegar attend. But Queen Rhaella rarely appeared, and everyone seemed accustomed to it...

Wouldn't living such an unchanging life make someone depressed? She had only spent a few days living in the Middle Ages, and she was already so bored she was practically growing mushrooms. She couldn't leave the palace whenever she pleased, and Rhaegar was so busy all day that she never saw him. Nor were there any entertainments she could attend, such as balls, banquets, or hunts. She felt as though she was wasting time every day.

It wasn't that these activities didn't exist. On the contrary, the nobles of Westeros loved nothing more than spending their days drinking, hunting, jousting, and holding banquets. As Prince Rhaegar's fiancée, and a princess personally acknowledged by the king with lands of her own, Ghost had plenty of prestige. Ordinary nobles-and even some less ordinary ones-didn't dare invite them casually.

Unfortunately, Prince Rhaegar wasn't someone who enjoyed revelry or lively gatherings. In his free time, he preferred practicing his swordsmanship, reading, or wandering around King's Landing. He wouldn't attend events that weren't particularly important, much less think to bring Ghost along.

So Ghost was bored, terribly bored, and couldn't even find a few books to read.

Books and knowledge were precious in this era. Most of the books in the castle belonged to His Majesty's and the prince's private collections, with the rest in the Grand Maester's library.

She wanted something to do. But first, she needed to understand the rules of this court-what she could approach and what she couldn't touch. It wasn't her fault she was timid; after all, they all lived under the king's shadow.

Her maid Barbara privately told Ghost that Queen Rhaella sometimes summoned her to ask how the princess and Prince Rhaegar were getting along.

Clearly, although Queen Rhaella lived secluded in the palace, she still cared deeply about Rhaegar.

"The queen's maid asked me whether the princess lacked anything, so I told her that your clothes and jewelry were too plain." Barbara looked at Ghost uneasily.

Ghost pressed a hand to her forehead, speechless =_= . No wonder she had suddenly received a huge pile of things today.

All sorts of silks, precious dyed fabrics, ribbons, and more lay piled like mountains in the small sitting room. The cases held matching sets and pairs of jewelry dazzling enough to blind her dog eyes, along with several chests of uncut stones: diamonds, pearls, agates, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and so on... They made Ghost, squeezed off to one side, look like some nouveau riche tycoon.

She had never seen so many treasures in both her lives combined... Were they really all for her?

Here was what had happened...

Early that morning, the prince's steward had sent people over with mountains of jewels and silks. He was an elderly nobleman who spoke with affected airs, his clothing impeccably arranged, with all the presence of an old-fashioned English aristocrat's butler.

He said the prince cared greatly about his fiancée, but was simply too busy, so he had sent these over first. If they weren't enough, there was plenty more, and the princess could choose whatever she liked from the prince's private treasury at any time.

Also, the teams of tailors and jewelers were ready. When would the princess have time to summon them to attend her?

Finally, he hinted in a roundabout way that Ghost shouldn't disturb Her Majesty the Queen (P.S. by tattling).

Ghost: "..."

- -# That's not what I meant, I didn't do it, you're accusing me unjustly.

Ghost felt that there was a profound gulf between her outlook and that of these people at court.

When she came to King's Landing from Pentos, she had brought a large chest of jewelry and more than twenty dresses. She also had a spice box packed to the brim. (All spices from the Free Cities, worth a fortune.)

And the people of King's Landing still thought she was too plain. Really, they just thought she wasn't presentable, didn't they? Well, she had never had much grandeur about her anyway.

Hmph! (╯^╰) My beauty is quite enough.

As Barbara brushed Ghost's hair, she said cheerfully, "You're so beautiful, Princess. You must dress up properly to catch the prince's eye."

Ghost asked hesitantly, "Barbara, are the king and the prince very... wealthy?"

Barbara glanced furtively around, then leaned close to Ghost's ear and whispered, "You don't know, Princess, but I heard His Majesty once gave Prince Rhaegar a palace specifically for storing gold dragons, gold, and gems. They say the gold inside is piled so high and so full that it reaches the palace ceiling."

Ghost thought about the height of the castle's halls and was stunned. "Prince Rhaegar is that rich??!!"

Barbara nodded with absolute conviction. "Of course it's true. Why else would so many women throughout the kingdom like Prince Rhaegar? Besides handsome looks, wealth is naturally even more important in a man! You must keep a close eye on the prince."

Here it comes, here it comes-the signs of female rivalry and palace intrigue...

No wonder Rhaegar was so popular with women! He had money, he had looks, and he was the future king. He was unquestionably the Seven Kingdoms' diamond-tier bachelor.

Speaking of money, the Targaryen royal family's finances didn't seem as strained as she had imagined.

Lord Martin had mentioned in the original work that the kingdom prospered during King Aerys's reign, which also fell during a rare long summer. Apart from a few minor rebellions, there had been almost no warfare.

Although the king was cruel and bloodthirsty, most of the people he killed were nobles. Moreover, with Tywin serving diligently as Hand of the King for decades, the common people all had enough to eat.

And as the Seven Kingdoms' second-largest port city, King's Landing had developed and flourished. Both the state treasury and the royal family's private assets were substantial.

Although Aerys wasn't a wise king, life for the common people at the bottom of Westeros's society had genuinely been better under House Targaryen than under House Baratheon. Never mind the War of the Five Kings, when at least half the people in Westeros must have died...

Better a dog in times of peace than a person in times of war.

She remembered that in the Game of Thrones show, Robert had amassed a mountain of debt through extravagant indulgence between his accession and his death. Not only had Robert owed money, but Joffrey had too. Even House Lannister, supposedly wealthy enough to rival a kingdom, had incurred considerable debts later on because its gold mines had run dry.

Although Highgarden was rolling in money, both weddings for Little Rose's marriage alliances had been paid for with royal funds. First she married the elder brother, then the younger... Royal weddings cost an enormous sum!

(Otherwise, the Imp wouldn't have gone to Old Rose pleading poverty. Without asking her for money, the king couldn't even have gotten married!)

In the end, the Baratheon royal family's debts had reached eight million gold dragons!... As military funding, that would probably have been enough for Westeros to wage war for more than a decade.

That was getting a little off topic, but the question was-after Robert Baratheon overthrew the Targaryen Dynasty, where had the money in the state treasury, the royal family's money... all the wealth House Targaryen had accumulated over so many years, that astronomical fortune, gone??