Chương 61: a party to remember VI

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Friedrich Wilhelm POV

286 AC third moon

''Luckily this whole negotiation thing is over, I don't like to act arrogant, but if we showed interest maybe Olenna would try to improve on what I offered her'' I said as I relaxed in my chair.

''That woman is dangerous, my king, she controls her son as if he were a puppet, he could hardly do anything without her approval, it is one thing to read it in letters about how she told him how to proceed, it is quite another to see it in person'' Friedrich said staring at me.

''A born politician, she had no problem in giving us her grandchildren as long as her dynasty lasts, she knows that, if she did nothing, the tyrell would become just a minor house in time and would lose the prestige they had achieved by being the supreme lords of the reach, in a sense she just saved her house'' I told Friedrich

''Shall I tell Aleksanteri to put spies after her?'', asked Friedrich.

''Yes, if possible the most discreet ones, we can't look like we don't trust them, make preparations for the sons of mace to start serving me, armor and tabard and start training with me and Charles'' I said as I got up from my chair

''Yes my king, I will make your will be done, you need something else'' said Friedrich putting his fist on his chest.

''Not for the moment, I will have to announce the engagement, probably tomorrow, so once and for all that walder Frey will stop sending me letters about marrying one of his daughters or granddaughters'' I said somewhat annoyed

''Yes very insistent that man, but he is a bastard without honor, I would trust Leyton more than that frey'' said Friedrich, quite annoyed too.

''Well, I'm going back to the banquet'' I said as I left my hall.

After that, I returned to the great hall where the banquet was taking place, I was accompanying my guests, until the night began to arrive, and the guests began to retire to their rooms to rest from this long day.

Like everyone else I also decided to go to sleep because tomorrow will be a long day even more annoying than this one, there will be a lot of intrigues and politics when they find out about my new engagement.

Waking up from my sleep, the first thing I did was to look at my watch to see what time it was.

6:00 am, a good time to start the day

The first thing I do to start the day is to drink abundant water, to follow later with a bath with water at room temperature.

A very important thing in these medieval societies is the appearance, since having good hygiene makes you look healthier, obviously with good hygiene I will not get many diseases, but with a constant care to the skin and especially the teeth, since they are the letter of presentation of all diplomacy.

Most of the lords of the seven kingdoms have a terrible dental hygiene to say that almost nonexistent, it is very common to have yellow teeth and very bad breath because they rarely brush their teeth.

It is only a matter of seeing their daily meals, foods extremely rich in sugars, perfect places for the creation of cavities and worse when a tooth rots they have to extract it by force, only those with access to a master could use the milk of poppy or other element based on opioids.

For my part I use a brush made of wood and bone with pig hair fibers to brush my teeth and a paste made of some ground plants including mint to leave a good smell in the breath, something quite common in the social circles of the Prussian nobles and has become popular among the commoners.

Luckily, this was much more advanced than the ancient technique used by the Romans, which consisted in using human or animal urine to brush their teeth, it must have sucked to have white teeth in those days

After rinsing my mouth and looking at my teeth in a silver mirror, I began to prepare myself to continue the festivities.

Lord Arryn had already departed back to the capital, unfortunately he had many duties that still needed to be settled, a pity, as he left the trouble of looking after Robert to me.

Luckily, Robert was behaving much better than before, he hasn't gotten drunk, but if he is eating a lot yesterday he ate almost a whole pig and 2 chickens in the course of the day, today shouldn't be much different, anyway this banquet should be quite expensive for the amount of guests.

I put on my clothes and went to the kitchen to check that all the preparations were going well.

Today we would try more seasoned food, making use of the large reserves of spices that I decided to keep for the use of the kitchens and to give exoticism to the food if at some point special guests came.

''My king needs something'' said the busy Friedrich von Roon.

I just came to check that everything is ready for the banquet'' I said calmly.

''Almost everything is in order, but the shipment of eggs that should have arrived yesterday was delayed and arrived a little while ago, and we were working on getting the cakes ready, but only that the rest we are fine and right on schedule, we have the cellars full and the animals are being slaughtered to serve fresh food'' said Friedrich looking at his notebook.

''Right, I need you to set another table close to mine, that's where the tyrells will sit, I thought about moving them to a closer position, but that would leave them facing Lord Tarly and we both know how that man hates the Tyrell especially Olenna'' I said looking at Friedrich

''Understood, I will speak to the servants to make preparations'' Friedrich said, returning to his work.

I stayed watching the food preparations, not that it is necessary because there is a group of Teutonic knights that keep watching at all times how the food is prepared to make sure that nobody tries to add something that should not be added to the food, since the great majority of the servants in the kitchen are not Prussian, I had to hire locals because there are extremely few Prussian cooks available.

Several hours had already passed, and I decided to go to the great hall and be ready to start the banquet, as time went by the guests began to arrive and sit in their places.

When the great hall was full and with the most important guests in their seats, I called everyone's attention to give the opening speech

''My esteemed guests, once again we are here to continue celebrating, but I must give some news, I want to announce in front of everyone my engagement to Margaery tyrell, daughter of mace tyrell, former paramount lord of the reach intending to heal the rift that has generated our abrupt appearance in these lands, that said, please join me on this joyous day that ends the conflict of our cultures'' I said raising a glass.

Mace stood up and with a big smile showed his glass to all present.

I gave the order and my men opened the door for the servants to begin bringing food.

I sat back down next to Robert, and this time his younger brother Renly was with us.

''I understand why you changed your cup bearer Friedrich, I thought you were mad to change a loyal knight for a 13 name day old boy as cup bearer'' said Robert as he smiled

''Now they are family and must have important positions in my government'' I said looking at Willas who was dressed in a tabard with my heraldry on it

''I understand I too am surrounded by Lannister they are a pain in the ass because all the time they ask for more and more positions to fill the royal court'' said Robert taking his glass putting it to Willas to fill it for him

''By the way lord Renly, how goes your rule over the Stormlands'' i said kindly

''Everything is fine, I have won the friendship of most of my banner men with my parties'' said Renly smiling

''That's very good to hear, I have a question for the Baratheon brothers, why does Stannis look at me with that serious look, although he doesn't show it feelings, it's very obvious that he has some problem with me'' I said asking the 2 Baratheons

''Well Stannis, that's his normal look, but I think it's because of Robert that he looks at you like that'' said Renly laughing as he looked at Robert

''In what way did Robert manage to generate trouble for me with Stannis?'', I said questioningly.

Renly looked at his brother and as Robert looked like he didn't want to talk, Renly continued talking to me

''What happens is that you delivered 100 war galleys to the royal fleet and Stannis said it would take almost 2 more years to complete that order, and you completed it in 2 moons keeping your word, but Robert took the opportunity to bother Stannis'' said Renly laughing as he saw Robert hiding behind the food.

''Robert'' I said, looking at him

''Friedrich, are you going to participate in the jousting tournament today?'', said Robert

Renly and I laughed at how Robert was trying to change the conversation.

''Ha,ha,ha I'm not going to participate in my tournament'' I said laughing

''Why not? You are a very good rider, said Robert''

''Because it might look like I am trying to win my own prize and that I do not possess the gold to pay for it, something I do not wish to be talked about, as the tournament prize is assured, I have made enough gold from the trade with the summer islands'' I said, excusing myself.

''Ah yes, my wife has been furious ever since she heard that the Lannisters are no longer the richest house in the seven kingdoms, I imagine her father must be the same'' said Robert smiling

''Let's hope we don't create more conflicts with one of the most powerful houses in the kingdom, if you'll excuse me, I must make sure everything is all right'' I said as I stood up from my chair.

I went to check my guests, at the reach table everything was normal except that Leyton was extremely angry with the new news.

Lord Hoster was enjoying the meal with his bannermen the freys were still excluded from the group.

All was normal at the table of the lords of the vale.

Lord tywin was in a normal mood I suppose because it's hard to know what the man is feeling.

The storm lords were relaxed and drinking heavily but Stannis decided to speak to me.

''Lord Hohenzollern, I need to speak with you,'' Stannis said with a straight face.

''How can I help you Lord Stannis'' I said smiling.

''I need to see your arsenal, I want to see your construction techniques'' said Stannis staring at me.

''I'm afraid that's impossible, only Prussians are allowed in the arsenal'' I said calmly.

''But you may make an exception for the master of ships of the seven kingdoms'' said Stannis.

''I'm afraid I can't, the rules are to ensure the safety of our building techniques and ship schemes, there are no exceptions for anyone'' I said seriously.

Stannis just stared at me and pursed his lips and sat back down at his post.

Well, with this, I have just buried any chance of having neutral relations with Stannis.

After I made sure that everything was in order, the banquet continued for hours until we went to the jousting grounds.

Everything was the same as yesterday, only this time I was surrounded by the Tyrells who surrounded me in all directions, Robert wanted to participate again, but I reminded him that his nose was not healed yet, and it could get worse.

Luckily, it seems that the blow Charles gave him reduced his desire to fight because Robert stopped insisting after a few minutes about his participation.

For a couple of hours we watched as the knights constantly hit each other with spears, Robert's royal guard had done well.

Jaime Lannister had withstood eight spears against Charles before he was defeated at the ninth spear.

Barristan Selmy withstood five spears against a Teutonic knight until he was defeated.

To my surprise Charles was defeated by his knight, apparently Charles' stirrup broke which caused him to fall off his horse when the spears clashed.

The prize of the crown of flowers was for my knight, but as he had no one to give it to, he decided to give it to my young betrothed, probably the youngest woman to receive the crown of Queen of love and beauty.

Mace had a huge smile on her face and puffed out her chest with pride at the award given to her daughter.

After the tournament was over, we returned to the banquet.

This process was repeated without interruption until the week of festivities was over, at the end of the feast I took care of saying goodbye to all my guests who were retiring to their homes.

The tyrells would now live in the city, I doubt that lord Leyton would treat them in the same way for having ruined his plan, now I will have to deal with the fact that I have two young squires who, due to their grandmother's influence, will do everything possible to keep me in a good mood.

But everything ended up according to plan I got a betrothed and I got rid of the problem of the marriage that the lords of the seven kingdoms were more and more insistent about it.

Robert enjoyed the banquet and said he was looking forward to next year to enjoy again the good treatment he had received.

Luckily, my worst nightmare did not come true, Robert left my castle, as soon as the banquets were over, I was afraid I could not expel him from my home.

''Finally this shit is over'' said Aleksanteri playing with his knife.

''I thought you enjoyed this, you were able to humiliate many lords with your archery skills'' I said to the Finn.

''Yes I enjoyed it, but that spider was inside my hunting zone and I couldn't touch a hair on his bald head, but luckily, he didn't get any information, no matter how many times he visited taverns, talked to merchants and tried to bribe guards'' said Aleksanteri smiling.

''And what information was he looking for'' I asked Aleksanteri.

''He was looking for information about the men lothar took to essos'' said Aleksanteri.

''And what do they know'' I asked again.

''Little or nothing, they know that soldiers disappeared, but they don't know where they are, and I doubt they will know until next year with how slow news is coming from essos, unless lothar does something impressive, the information will not reach the capital'' Aleksanteri said while cleaning his nails.

''Anything else I should know'', I said, looking at the finn.

''Hmm, the eunuch tried to enter the arsenal 5 times, but in all of them he was stopped and the introduction of spies among the tyrell servants is already underway, I placed 2 of my guys who have a beautiful reach accent who are pretending to be local cooks professing the faith of the seven'' Aleksanteri said smiling

''Keep me informed of anything'' I said as I went back to looking at my books.

''Understood, but she is happy with the improvement in their social situation because they lived by playing Leyton's game, but now they live much better than in old town'' said Aleksanteri as he left my room

Hopefully, the tyrell will not cause any problems, I would be very surprised if mace did the job wrong, the chain maintenance work was already done before and mace should just take the credit, hopefully everything will be fine.

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