The Mountain of Ice and Fire

The Mountain had wisdom.

Jaime looked at Theon for a long while, without saying a word, then mounted his horse.

Theon smiled slightly and also mounted his horse.

Ahead, soldiers cleared the way.

Several horses followed Jaime, trotting along to the soldiers' shouts.

Jaime looked to his left, at the low wooden shacks built against the towering city walls, where one of his 'homes' was located.

"Ser Jaime, how long have you been in Qarth?" Theon asked.

Jaime merely glanced at Theon without answering.

"Don't you plan to return to Casterly Rock, the ancestral seat of House Lannister? It's been the foundation of the Lannister family for a thousand years!" Theon continued, full of interest.

Jaime remained expressionless, silent as ice.

"Are you afraid of His Majesty the King?"

"..." Jaime glanced sideways at Theon.

"Oh, you wouldn't be afraid of His Majesty the King. His Majesty was once a vassal of House Lannister... Your dignity and honor cannot accept the rise of House Clegane? That must be it, right!"

Jaime reined in his horse, bringing it to a stop, and the other horses had to stop as well.

"Theon, you seem to be enjoying being the Mountain's slave!"

"I am not a slave, Ser Jaime. I am the Deputy Commander of the Qartheen Navy. A slave is not qualified to hold the position of a naval deputy commander. Besides, His Majesty the King and Her Majesty Queen Daenerys have abolished slavery. The continents of Westeros and Essos no longer allow the sale of slaves."

"Being a dog is no more noble than being a slave."

"You are wrong again, Ser Jaime. I am the Deputy Commander of the Qartheen Navy, not a dog. I am a person, just like you. Are you living as a wanderer because you hate His Majesty the King? If His Majesty doesn't hold your foolishness and ignorance against you, would you kneel in submission and return to Westeros to inherit Casterly Rock?"

Theon, this Ironborn, was calling Jaime foolish and ignorant!

This made Jaime's breath catch in his throat!

The people Jaime looked down upon the most were the Ironborn. A barbaric race that lived by plundering the wealth of others. The Ironborn followed the saying 'What is taken is better than what is earned,' which was nothing more than naked banditry, the most primitive barbarism, devoid of civilization.

"Since when have bandits donned the guise of nobles to flaunt their cultivation and civilization?"

"Oh, Ser Jaime, we are no longer the Ironborn who believe in 'What is taken is better than what is earned.' Our bravest Ironborn have become Royal Navy warriors in Blackwater Bay in King's Landing. The days of piracy and raiding by my forefathers are over. Lord Gylbert Farwynd governs the Iron Islands. Iron ore, sea salt, fishing, trade, soldiering, and mercenary work are the newest ways of life for the Ironborn. We no longer take by force, but we haven't chosen to toil either. His Majesty the King led us out of a life of piracy."

Jaime's breath caught again!

He was frustrated to find that he was almost speechless in the face of this contemptible Ironborn.

This filled the extremely proud Jaime with a sense of frustration!

The Lannisters were the true great lords, while House Greyjoy of the Iron Islands was not. The Greyjoys were rebels, pirates, and treacherous villains. They gloried in baseness and lies.

"Ser Jaime, you are full of hatred for me and His Majesty the King?" Theon laughed, appearing carefree.

Jaime felt a pang in his heart.

He chose to stay away from the Mountain's forces because the Mountain had killed Tywin Lannister, and Tywin was his father.

"I heard that Tyrion Lannister, the Imp, is the governor of Braavos, which shows that His Majesty the King has no intention of exterminating the Lannister family."

Jaime snorted coldly, jerked the reins, and the warhorse continued forward.

And so, several horses moved forward together.

*

In the naval port, warships were lined up in formation, leaving the harbor at a steady speed.

The main force of the Eastern Expedition was primarily naval.

Naval warfare also emphasized tactics and fleet formations.

Asha Greyjoy trained the navy to give the Qartheen Navy the ability to fight in formation.

King Mountain personally inspected the navy. He boarded the flagship and issued orders. Amidst the wailing of horns, the naval warships set off in sequence.

Arriving at the naval port dock, Jaime saw a dense mass of warships. Looking as far as he could, the warships leaving the harbor had gone far out to sea, almost disappearing from sight.

Jaime could only witness such powerful naval strength here.

Jaime had once been a Kingsguard in the Red Keep of King's Landing, responsible for protecting the King and Queen's safety. The Royal Navy that the King and Queen possessed had no more than thirty warships.

In Qarth, the new King Mountain possessed one thousand eight hundred professional warships, excluding the merchant ships that could be converted into warships in wartime.

One thousand eight hundred warships versus the thirty Royal Navy warships of Robert's era. This disparity in strength could not be overcome by any amount of courage or bravery.

The city of Qarth was a port city and one of the most important bridges between the East and West. Its maritime trade surpassed any known port in the world, ranking first in the world. To protect this vast trade, Qarth's naval power had developed accordingly, eventually forming the most powerful naval fleet.

When the Mountain came with dragons, he conquered Qarth and took Qarth's powerful navy into his possession.

No matter how powerful a navy was, it was just a pile of oil-soaked planks in front of dragons. No matter how tall or wide this pile of planks was, it only needed a small spark.

*

The Mountain and Asha stood on the flagship, watching the naval warships leave the harbor in formation.

Theon Greyjoy and Jaime arrived at the naval port dock. An order was relayed, and the Mountain and Asha, standing on the flagship, turned around and saw the several horses and Jaime and Theon on horseback on the dock.

The flagship was not far from the dock.

The naval warships were setting sail, and the flagship was overseeing them, not leaving the harbor yet.

Soon, a messenger came over to ask Jaime and Theon to board the ship to see His Majesty the King on the flagship.

*

The Mountain looked at Jaime walking over, hardly believing his eyes.

Jaime looked very down and out.

His brilliant golden hair had turned grayish-white, as if frosted.

His face was covered in a messy, unkempt beard that looked dirty.

The leather armor Jaime wore was too old, covered in scratches.

The war boots on his feet were also badly worn, looking as if his toes would burst out with too much force.

The skin on Jaime's face was also rough, dark, and looked like dried-up wax skin dried by the sea breeze.

The Mountain watched Jaime's eyes.

Those eyes had not lost their luster, and were filled with calmness.

*

Jaime looked at the Mountain.

The Mountain seemed even more burly than he had imagined.

He wore a bright, brand-new suit of armor, with a huge two-handed sword on his back. The hilt extending from his left shoulder required two hands to barely grasp. But Jaime knew that the Mountain only needed one hand to grip that huge hilt.

The king was dressed similarly to the martial general Mountain. Although his aura was fierce and unparalleled, it did not match the noble status of a king.

A king should be a king, not a martial general. At the very least, the king did not need to personally carry his two-handed greatsword when inspecting his navy.

The Mountain was still the Mountain, a brutal and fierce guy at heart. He valued martial prowess, violence, bloodshed, and worshipped slaughter.

*

"Jaime!" The Mountain said.

"Mountain!" Jaime said, neither humble nor arrogant, and without kneeling. He wanted to maintain his precarious dignity and so-called honor.

The Mountain was just a former subject of House Lannister, a vicious dog of his father Tywin.

Jaime called the king by his 'nickname'.

This was very disrespectful. Theon, Asha, and Euron knew about Jaime and the Mountain's past and understood Jaime's arrogance, so they didn't react in any special way, but the senior naval officers of Qarth had strange expressions.

In the eyes of the Qartheen generals, His Majesty the King was supremely authoritative, inviolable, and had easily destroyed Scorpion Reef and the House of the Undying, like a god.

However, a one-armed mercenary rudely called His Majesty the King 'Mountain'. The naval generals were uneasy, worried that the king would kill the mercenary and perhaps affect them. It was normal for His Majesty the King to vent his anger by scolding his subordinates when he was in a bad mood.

*

"Connie is pregnant?" the Mountain said.

He had seen Jaime pick up the pregnant woman. If Jaime was here, then the pregnant woman was probably Connie. This sentence meant nothing to ordinary people, but it contained a threat to Jaime. Connie was his family, carrying his child, and with Connie were his other two children: Tommen and Myrcella.

Jaime himself feared nothing and had long since disregarded life and death, but his family was his weakness.

"That's not Connie."

"Oh!" The Mountain looked at the captain of the cavalry, Damian Yark. "Captain Damian, I want you to bring that pregnant woman and her two children here."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The Dothraki had long disliked Jaime. He stared at Jaime as if his arakh was staring at him. Jaime calling His Majesty the King 'Mountain' had made Captain Damian's palms itch, wanting to kill someone.

Damian Yark passed by Jaime, his expression contemptuous, and he also seemed to want to drag the pregnant woman and her children over like dogs.

Damian Yark had been ordered to find the pregnant woman, gave her a bag of coins, and delivered the king's wishes for the safety of the mother and child. But Damian did not expect that the pregnant woman's husband, this one-armed mercenary, would be so disrespectful to His Majesty the King.

His Majesty the King did not make things difficult for the woman and children, and also sent money, but this man was so rude to the king, which made Damian feel indignant.

The Dothraki were very barbaric, but if he swore allegiance to someone, he could not tolerate others disrespecting his leader.

Jaime saw threat and cruelty in Damian's eyes.

He knew that he could not resist the Mountain.

He was not afraid of death at all, so he was not afraid of the Mountain at all, but Connie and Tommen and Myrcella were innocent.

"Your Majesty!" Jaime knelt on one knee. He finally bent his heroic knee. "Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella are innocent. Take my head, please spare them."

"Your head?" The Mountain looked at Jaime. "Your head is worthless. I have no interest in it."

"Your Majesty, please, for the sake of our fathers' past relationship, spare Tommen and Myrcella."

A strange light flashed in the Mountain's eyes. "Jaime, why do you assume that I would make things difficult for Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella?"

Jaime was speechless and could not say anything.

He could not say the reason. He just instinctively believed that the Mountain would make things difficult for them.

The Mountain said to Damian Yark, who was walking down the spiral staircase, "Damian, please invite Ms. Connie and her two children to be guests here. Tell Connie and the two children that I have something to say to them."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Damian stared at Jaime through the gaps in the stairs as he answered. When Jaime met his gaze, Damian's eyes were filled with sharp fighting intent.

Jaime was first arrogant, not kneeling when he saw the king, nor calling him His Majesty the King, but calling him Mountain. But his cold, calm, and hardened shell was pierced by the king's light sentence 'Connie is pregnant'.

Everyone saw Jaime's hostility, and the generals could also see that Jaime was not afraid of death at all, but such a tough guy, in front of His Majesty the King, was forced to kneel by the mercenary with just a few words, without raising his voice or using harsh words. Many times, the power of words surpassed that of swords.

"Jaime, stand up," the Mountain said.

Jaime stood up.

"You can go now."

Jaime was stunned.

"You don't have to participate in my conversation with Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella. You will meet Damian Yark when you go back. Don't fight with him. In the name and honor of the king, I want you to understand that I will not make things difficult for Connie and Tommen, and Myrcella. Go."

Jaime couldn't figure out what the Mountain wanted to say and do to Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella. He wanted to stay, but the Mountain wanted him to leave.

"Your Majesty will definitely not make things difficult for Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella?"

"Absolutely not. The gods are watching in the sky, and my generals are here to witness. A king's word is as heavy as a mountain."

"Okay, I'll wait at home for Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella to come back."

"They may not necessarily come back."

Jaime's expression tightened!

"Your Majesty just said..."

"I said that I wouldn't make things difficult for them, but if they are willing to follow me back to Westeros, I won't refuse."

"They will never follow Your Majesty back to Westeros."

"Is that so? Maybe we can make a bet," the Mountain said lightly, his tone confident.

Jaime opened his mouth, but hesitated. After a long while, he looked at the Mountain: "Your Majesty, if you coerce them..."

"Jaime, your words are a desecration of my honor. If I wanted to make things difficult for you and Connie, Tommen, and Myrcella, what could you do? You are powerless! I have already said that I will absolutely not make things difficult for them. If you still doubt me, you don't deserve to be called Jaime Lannister. Don't let me lose the last bit of respect I have for you. We fought side by side in the icy and snowy lands of the North, Ser Jaime."