Chapter 98 Enemies (Seventh)
"His Royal Highness."
Samwell smiled and said, "Princess Arianne is resting in her room. Don't worry, Her Royal Highness is enjoying the most honorable treatment here."
"I want to see her." Prince Oberyn said in an unquestionable tone.
"Of course." Samwell summoned a guard and gave some instructions.
Afterwards, Prince Oberyn followed the guards and left without saying hello to the nobles of the Riverbend present, as if these people were not worth his time.
"How rude!" Horace Redwyne swore.
However, Samwell noticed that he purposely waited for Prince Oberyn to walk out the door before making a sound.
"Okay." Samwell said with a smile, "Let the uncle and nephew have a good talk, let's continue."
"Yes." Mark Mullendall nodded quickly, "Is it time for the Dane family to pay war reparations?"
This young knight from Highland City seemed eager to take the money and leave immediately.
Natalie was taken aback when she saw everyone's eyes turned, and she nodded timidly after a long while: "Of course, we'll go get the money now."
"good!"
…
Prince Oberyn pushed open the door, and saw Princess Arianne sitting on a chaise longue by the window, holding a bottle of summer red wine in her hand, pouring it directly into her mouth without a glass.
Hearing the movement, she turned her head, her **** eyes were full of confusion, and it took her a while to recognize who it was.
"Uncle? Why are you here?"
Prince Oberyn closed the door behind him, walked towards Arianne, and said:
"If I don't come, will the people of Hewan let you go?"
"If you don't let it go, you won't let it go." Princess Arianne said drunkenly, "I just follow to the river bend, so I won't go back to Sunspear and annoy you."
Prince Oberyn stepped forward to **** the wine bottle from his niece, took a big gulp himself, and then smiled with a relaxed expression on his face:
"Why did you go to Hewan? Do you really think you are a princess everywhere?"
Princess Arianne reached out to ask for a wine bottle, but unfortunately her uncle refused to give it to her, so she drank it by herself.
She turned over in anger, turned her back to her uncle, and said in a muffled voice:
"What kind of princess am I in Sunspear? Everyone treats me like a child! And my father..."
"You are just a child." Prince Oberyn drank the wine in the bottle in a few sips, and then threw it out of the window, "What happened to your father?"
"I'm not a child!" Arianne sat up straight suddenly, sticking out her chest proudly, "I'm already twenty-one years old! I've been an adult for five years!"
"Yeah, you are so big in a blink of an eye." Prince Oberyn restrained his smile, and his tone became serious, "You can make thousands of Dornishmen die for you."
"I..." Arianne was speechless.
These days, she has been using alcohol to numb herself, but she just doesn't want to recall that nightmarish evening.
But now, her uncle's words mercilessly opened up her scars.
Prince Oberyn took a step forward, squatted down beside the chair, and looked at his niece:
"You also know that you have been an adult for five years, so do you know what I did when I first became an adult?"
"I **** Lord Edgar Yronwood's lover, and then the old thing asked me for a duel, and I accepted it, and sent him to the Seven Gods."
Of course Arianne knew this story, and also knew that her uncle's nickname "Red Viper" was derived from it.
Before the duel, the two had agreed to stop the blood immediately, because Earl Edgar believed that they were both noble, and there was no need to fight to the death for a lover.
Unfortunately, Prince Oberyn doesn't think so.
He just wanted Earl Edgar to die.
So he poisoned the sword, and the poor count festered and died.
"Look," said Prince Oberyn, "I'm good at killing people in the tournament field, so I've never been afraid of a duel. But I've never wanted to play chess with your father. Do you know why?"
"You can't beat him." Princess Arianne said. She knew that the favorite thing for her father, Prince Doran, was to play cyvasse against herself alone, because no one had ever played him except himself.
"That's right." Prince Oberyn stared into his niece's eyes, and his tone became serious. "I like to fight, and your father likes to play chess. We are both good at the game we play, and we are both sure to win. What about you, Arianne, do you know the game you play? Are you good at it? Are you sure you can beat your opponent? Randyll Tarly, Allerken Florent, and that Samwell Caesar, you participate in this Have you thought about it before playing the game?"
Arianne's face gradually turned pale, and she finally realized how reckless and willful she was.
Thinking of those Dornish warriors who died tragically for this, she bowed her head in shame.
But Prince Oberyn pinched his niece's chin, raised her head, and forced her to look at him:
"You have to remember, we are playing the Game of Thrones, not a drunkard throwing dice. Any negligence and carelessness will lead to extremely serious consequences!"
"I see." Arianne's eyes sparkled, "I was wrong."
Prince Oberyn let go of her chin, and took out a silk scarf from his bosom for her.
Princess Arianne took the silk scarf and wiped away her tears, but she couldn't help but said:
"But uncle, don't you think father is too weak? If I don't do something, I'm afraid everyone will think that the Martell family is easy to bully!"
"Do you really think your father is weak?"
"Isn't it?" Arianne said angrily, "Uncle, you killed Earl Edgar in a duel, and the Yronwood family almost started a civil war in Dorne, but how did father deal with it? The anger of the Yronwood family exiled you to the other side of the Narrow Sea, and gave you your son as an adopted son. Isn’t this weakness?”
"Then if you were the ruler of Dorne, what would you do? Summon the vassals and the Yronwood family for a Dorne civil war?"
"That's at least better than what my father did!" Arianne vented all the resentment she had accumulated for a long time, "What he did has shamed the Martell family! This time I issued a call-up order, you know How many people did the Yronwood family send? Thirty. Thirty people! They are still willing to listen to the call of the blazing sun halberd!"
"It's not their fault. Yronwood City is too far away from Starfall City, and it's impossible to fully support this war." Seeing that his niece was not convinced, Prince Oberyn said again, "And Earl Anders Yronwood You are already considered an honest man, I am afraid you don’t know how arrogant his grandfather Earl Edgar was! He was so arrogant that even your father can no longer tolerate him!”
Hearing this, Arianne froze for a moment.
Although she was reckless, she was not stupid, and immediately heard what her uncle meant: "Uncle, did you..."
"That's right." Prince Oberyn showed a cold smile, "How do you think the duel between me and Earl Edgar happened? His lover was more than twenty years older than me, and the space between his legs was as dry as The desert of Dorne, why should I seduce her when I have nothing to do?"
"So you deliberately seduced her to anger Earl Edgar and let him fight you..."
"Yes." Prince Oberyn admitted frankly, "And if you think about your father's subsequent handling methods, is it really weak? The heirs of the Martell family have always needed to travel across the narrow sea when they grow up, right? My exile was nothing more than to follow the trend.
As for your brother, what happened to him being an adopted son of the Yronwood family? You see, he has become Earl Anders' attendant now, and he will be canonized as a knight by him in the future. This is the way a nobleman should grow up, and the Yronwood family will be closer to us because of this. In fact, our Martel family has lost nothing, but we have eliminated a great enemy! "
Princess Arianne fell into deep thought, and only then did she realize that her father was not as weak as she thought, but he hid his edge very well.
"And the Yronwoods aren't our worst enemies. Not even the people of the Reach."
"Then who is our greatest enemy?" Arianne asked subconsciously.
Afterwards, she saw jumping flames from her uncle's eyes.
"It's Clegane, it's Lannister, it's Baratheon..." Prince Oberyn nearly gritted his teeth, "It's the snatchers who killed your aunt, and her children them!"
(end of this chapter)