章節 66: Struggle for survival I

I'm back, I wanted to do a short chapter about Olenna's integration into the Prussians court and Aleksanteri scaring her, but it got out of control, and I'm already at 6000 words.

If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.

I may have more errors than usual as I am returning to writing in English again.

Olenna tyrell POV

The ancient and prestigious house tyrell, the largest food producers in the kingdom, one could say the richest house after the Lannister and all their gold in their mountains and that would have continued to be so if it were not for the abrupt arrival of the Prussians.

We had a plan during Robert's rebellion, and they smashed it, the plan was very simple, not to commit ourselves to any side, even if the victory was obvious it was not idiotic, if the Targaryen continued on the throne, that would prevent the madness of Aerys to continue, so we just expelled Robert from his lands and did not pursue them waiting for the outcome of the war.

If Robert won they would only punish us, we were doing our duty as loyal vassals and most likely they would not try to do anything to us, since we had the largest army in the seven kingdoms anyway, if the Targaryen won we were the ones who defeated Robert and besieged his ancestral home and the bodies of Robert's younger brothers would go a long way to please the mad king

But we were defeated by an almost unstoppable force, the Prussian army was the best prepared war machine anyone had ever faced before, an army of veterans of years of bloody warfare.

Our defeat and weakening after the battle of ashford left king Robert and his king's hand complete freedom to take our titles from us and hand them over to foreign invaders.

I awkwardly believed that like most young kings, he would try something stupid, which would lead to his downfall, some diplomatic problem, trouble with some other lords or that the conflict with the faith of the seven would continue to grow.

But somehow that young man was wiser than I could foresee, where I saw a king Daeron Targaryen, where it would all be over soon, he showed himself to be one of the most competent administrator that ever lived in westeros.

My decision to wait for his mistake turned out to be futile, with only a little time, he managed to juggle the internal situation of the reach until he managed to stabilize the whole region under his command.

It is just a matter of seeing how the small folks have forgotten their former overlords and accept and even love being under the rule of the Prussians

leading to the terrible situation facing house tyrell, we had been reduced to a second rate house barely able to support ourselves depending on our marital connections with the other lords who managed to keep their lordships out of the long and steady hands of the Prussians.

And this was not something I was going to allow, and I decided to do everything possible to win the good favor of the Prussians by giving them a queen and faithful subjects using my grandchildren, no matter how angry my son and his wife were to give their children to a foreigner it was the only possible option we had, since due to our conditions, no other house would be interested in allying with us, but the Prussian king needed something very important legitimacy, and he would obtain it by marrying a tyrell.

Our conversation with the young king in Prussia went quite well considering that he could refuse and laugh in our face as his most trusted man von Roon had done, we had obtained a mansion in the fortress of Neu danzing and a monthly allowance of 2000 golden dragons.

With this, we had escaped from the Hightower, most probably lord Leyton must be furious about our actions, since he had a similar plan to try to make the enormous debt his house has with the Hohenzollern's disappear, although considering the result we had in these conversations I doubt that the king in Prussia would have condoned the debt of the Hightower just because he married Leyton's daughter.

But now we have new problems to solve, many of our relatives are willing to move in with us mainly, as most of them lived near the Hightower's domain or even worked for Leyton and will most probably be taking it out on them for our move.

The mansion given to us by Friedrich Wilhelm is large, but for our family it is a fair size, if we were to accept Mace's cousins and other relatives we would be cramped in this home.

Without considering that the gold that is given to us is barely enough to maintain a lifestyle that we were used to, even with all my attempts to regulate our spending, it is difficult to change the habits of my family that had become accustomed to frequently eating luxury food and wearing the best clothes, in this city there are things that are extremely cheap like food and clothes made from the cotton fabrics that are produced in these lands

But the luxury items that represent nobility are extremely expensive, silk, spices, liquors, watches and jewelry, without considering the new obsession in the city with chocolate that is being produced and has become a food of the Prussian nobility and the nobility of the reach, all of that is extremely expensive and barely enough with our small monthly income.

Although I had managed to buy some ships from the shipyards to engage in the lucrative trade, only 3 ships do not produce enough to help us in this situation.

''Mother what is wrong with you, you seem very stressed'' said my daughter Janna

It's nothing dear, I'm just thinking about how to solve the problem about our relatives, we have no room in this place between us our knights, servants, we have nowhere to accommodate our relatives'' I said, a little worried.

''We could talk to the king in Prussia, he can't let us live so tightly together with our relatives'' said Janna calmly.

''it is not easy to get a meeting with him, he is very busy with one of his projects he is usually doing, in any case, I asked Willas if it was possible to get us an audience with the king'' I said serenely

''I don't understand why we can't live in his fortress, and he makes us live here, it may be a luxurious place, but we should be with him, not so far away, he is going to marry Margaery'' said Janna annoyed

''We are not accepted in the Prussian court Janna, his nobles despise us, our customs are extremely different, Prussian nobles have a strict dress code, no bright colors, no silk, no perfumes, and they hate intrigues, it's completely understandable that the king trying to protect us by keeping us away, but at the same time close enough to protect us'' I said a little annoyed.

''is Mace going to do something to bring us closer to the Prussians or is he just going to keep eating that Prussians chocolate'' said Janna angrily.

''Mace is a simple-minded idiot, asking him to do more than he does is almost impossible, for all I know, he has the Prussian admiral's son taking over his job of checking the port chain if it wasn't for that Karl the chain would probably have rusted by now'' I said looking at alerie who was looking out the window

''Let's hope Willas can get something this can't go on like this'' said janna sitting in her chair waiting for the food

We waited for another 10 minutes until we felt a knock on the door.

alerie quickly got up from her chair to open the door to greet her sons, who had returned from their service in the Prussian fortress.

''WILLAS WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?'' shouted Alerie very frightened.

Willas had a huge bruise on one of his cheeks, and the first thing he did was to look at Garlan.

Garlan hit me at fencing practice today'' said Willas, looking at his mother.

''that's not true it was an accident, I was trying to hit August, but he was too fast and managed to dodge my blow and I ended up hitting Willas, who ended up in a bad position because he tried to hit August'' said Garlan looking at his mother.

''Who is that August is not the knight that should be training you'' said Alerie very angry.

One of the king's knight bodyguards, Charles, was busy today, and he left us the best swordsman the Prussians have for our training'' said Garlan very excited.

''Yes one of the best swordsmen, no doubt, sometimes I think how something so big and heavy is so fast, he was practically dancing around us while deflecting our blows and making us crash into each other'' said Willas scratching his face and sitting on the chair in front of me.

''Any luck with what I asked for, young man?'' I said looking at my grandson.

''No grandmother, the king has given us an audience for 2 more moons, he is very busy with government matters and the creation of the city guard'' said Willas, looking at the table a little scared.

''and this city guard, is there any chance we can get some positions in it, for example your aunt janna's husband?'' I said, looking at Willas.

''no, they already elected the commanding officer of the guard, and he's in charge of selecting the captains'' said Garlan while eating a muffin.

''so another missed opportunity'' I said, looking at my family as I relaxed in my chair.

''grandma.... A strange man came up to me today...he was very strange and gave me a letter that was specifically for you'' said Willas, a little scared.

''who was that man?'', I said, looking at the frightened Willas.

''I don't know no one knew his name, and he wears an outfit that covers his whole body and face only showing his eyes and everyone just looked at him with fear and hate, some servants told me that the best thing I could do was to obey him or bad things could happen'' said Willas handing over a letter

everyone was looking at Willas with frightened eyes I quickly took the letter, broke the seal and read it

(tomorrow, near the king's quarters, little escort.

Sincerely a friend)

''what does it say, mother'' said Janna frightened.

Alerie was hugging her son and looked at me with wide eyes.

''it's a meeting, but it doesn't say who it is or what for, only that I must go'' I said, looking at my family.

''You should go all the nobles and servants I spoke to, they said that man was not the type to take offenses lightly, and he is dangerous'' said Willas, hugging his mother.

After this letter, mace arrived, and we had dinner, although the tension was very obvious. Everyone was nervous about the letter and the mysterious man who sent it.

The next day, I decided I had to go see the mystery man, who is the worst thing that could happen.

Accompanied by my personal guards Erryk and Arryk, twins that usually accompany me in this kind of situation.

After traveling by carriage for a few minutes, we arrived at the entrance of the fortress and, with the help of my guards, we arrived at the gate, but we were stopped by the Teutonic knights that guard the castle.

''Declare your intentions'' said the knight as he placed his hand on his mace.

''We have a meeting in this castle, although I don't know with whom'' I said, looking at the guards and handing over the letter.

The guard looked at the letter and I could see his eyes widen as much as he could.

''This is the handwriting of ....'' said the guard as he showed the letter to his companion.

'' is his handwriting, you may pass,'' said the guard as he made way to continue our journey.

The other guard handed the letter back to me and also stepped aside.

We entered the fortress and began to move to the room where the king works, and again we were stopped by more guards.

''Hand over your swords'' said the guard while pointing to Erryk and Arryk's swords.

''We are not going to have a meeting with the king, we have a meeting with someone else'' I said with a calm tone

''Excuse me, my lady, did I speak to you in German? Hand over the swords now I don't give a shit if you come to see someone else, no weapons near the king'' said the knight with an unpleasant tone.

Erryk and Arryk stiffened and stood there waiting for my answer.

''come on, I've tried to break the teeth of an idiot who doesn't follow the rules'' said the knight looking at my guards.

''left, right, hand over your swords we didn't come here to seek conflict with the king's guards'' I said looking at my bodyguards.

They obeyed quickly, leaving the knight seeking conflict rather disappointed.

Then we were allowed to pass, and we waited in some seats, and we saw the huge line of nobles, merchants and peasants who had an audience with the king.

For 20 minutes, we waited and watched as people came in and out of the king's chambers

Until finally, we saw someone dressed from head to toe in white, with a piece of cloth covering his face and only letting us see his eyes.