Hearing Kal and Tyrion discussing this matter, Sam listened from the side in complete confusion.
He did not understand why, despite having the late King's final wish and deathbed command, Kal and Tyrion both seemed doubtful about this matter, and they even mentioned the King's two younger brothers.
With an expression full of puzzlement, he subconsciously asked, "But you have King Robert's personal recognition, do you not? You are the true lawful heir to the throne."
"Why would Lord Stannis Baratheon and Lord Renly Baratheon not acknowledge you?"
At his naïve thought, Tyrion only gave a disdainful laugh. He flicked the silver cup he had just drunk from with his fingernail, producing a crisp sound and drawing the others' attention.
Seeing Sam look over, Tyrion then "kindly" reminded him, "Yet before this, Stannis Baratheon was the first in line to inherit the Iron Throne."
Jon was startled when he heard this. He suddenly remembered that at a private family feast with Eddard Stark, he had heard the Hand express concern about this matter.
At that time, Stannis Baratheon seemed to have been pressing the Hand to support him.
And as soon as he recalled this, Jon instantly realized something, and his eyes widened at once.
"Your—Grace, could it be that Lord Stannis Baratheon—is the true murderer who killed King Robert?!"
He hardly dared to speak his thought aloud. After all, this would not merely be a quarrel between brothers caused by succession—it was already the gravest accusation simply to say someone had murdered the King.
The moment his words left his mouth, the long table fell into complete silence.
Sam, who had just recovered from his thoughts and recalled this matter, was so shocked that his mouth hung wide open.
Kal likewise could not help placing both hands on the long table, closing his eyes, and pinching the bridge of his nose.
After a moment, he finally said, "Regarding the King's heir, Stannis Baratheon indeed took the initiative to push this matter, but it was also discussed and confirmed in the royal council by the Hand. After all, according to the kingdom's laws, he is indeed the lawful heir to the Iron Throne at present."
"So from the viewpoint of conspiracy theories, he cannot be excluded from suspicion."
Yet as soon as Kal's words fell, Tyrion supplemented from the side, "I think everyone should not forget that when the King went hunting, the ones beside him were Renly Baratheon and members of the Tyrell family."
Tyrion Lannister, at the side, gave a sinister nod toward another royal brother who likewise held suspicion.
At this, Samwell finally shut his mouth. His throat moved with a gulping sound, and his eyes became blank.
He was somewhat frightened by this information.
But Tyrion did not stop there. Instead, he continued adding fuel to the fire as he watched the spectacle: "So now let us make a guess."
"Stannis Baratheon and Renly Baratheon— might they worry that once our King Kal I takes the throne, His Grace will settle accounts regarding their suspicion?"
"Or, to speak even more plainly, might they worry that King Kal will settle accounts because they still hold the most direct right of succession to our King?"
"And even further — might King Kal worry that if they truly were responsible for this matter, they might commit another shameful murder against our King?"
After hearing Tyrion lay out this undisguised and openly displayed threat theory, Jon White Wolf and Samwell Tarly both felt their scalps tingle.
In their hearts, they could only call politics terrifying.
Samwell, who already did not have much courage, was completely frightened. He shrank his neck and dared not speak.
Jon bit the inside of his cheek, swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty, yet he still felt his lips dry.
"And this means that even if it is only because of suspicion, or because of doubt and concern, they will certainly not acknowledge King Kal's right of succession."
"And even—"
Jon could not bring himself to finish the next words.
He was afraid that speaking them aloud would frighten him even more.
Maester Lawson listened to their conversation from the side, and the bitterness on his face grew even stronger.
From the moment he received the letter to Tyrion showing his wariness toward him, after a whole night of silence, he naturally realized certain problems as well.
He simply did not know some of the inside information, so he had not thought as deeply as this.
But in his subconscious, he also knew he had been forced into a political struggle.
In such circumstances, if he did not hurry and choose a side, he really would be waiting to die of a grave illness.
Tyrion had said all he wished to say, but he still did not give Kal the advice he should have.
Or rather, his advice had in fact already been given.
Kal still braced both hands on the tabletop, his fingers pressing against his forehead.
In this situation of suspicion, doubt, and mutual fear — both sides fearing each other — the confrontation between him and Stannis Baratheon and Renly Baratheon was inevitable.
And now Robert's death truly was far too strange and far too sudden.
All kinds of suspicion and conspiracy would naturally unfold one after another.
At such a time, no one could avoid maintaining doubt toward the other side.
And most importantly of all, at this moment, both sides held killing intent toward one another.
Kal even understood that if he truly chose to sit upon the throne, then the first thing he would have to do would be to eliminate these two brothers of King Robert as threats to his rule.
Even if Robert had not been killed by them, Kal would inevitably use this as an excuse to settle accounts with them.
The two sides had not even had time to establish the foundation of trust, yet they happened to be forced at such a time onto a single-plank bridge where hostility and life-and-death opposition were inevitable.
And this threat was one that could not be dispelled even if Kal publicly announced right now that he would not become King.
Kal's original plan had been to resolve this matter within ten years.
Because the coming events of the Night King and the Long Night were his best stage and opportunity.
He only needed to quietly and securely develop for these years in the Westerlands and prepare with full effort for the coming war.
Then he would go on to fight a magnificent war that would shake the ages, bringing the Long Summer fully to this world.
By that time, with dragons, with merit, and with a legend great enough, His Grace King Kal El would surely receive the most loyal fealty of the Seven Kingdoms.
This had been the most stable, least costly plan in Kal's original design — one that could accomplish many goals at once, eliminate all kinds of threats on many fronts, and secure his throne completely and firmly.
By then, let alone any surviving Targaryen remnants sweeping in, whichever lord of the Seven Kingdoms refused to submit to him, or whichever of the two Baratheon uncles coveted his throne—
By that time, let alone whether they still held disloyal thoughts.
As long as they were not punished by His Grace Kal, wise and mighty, at his celebration feast simply for placing their left foot inside his throne hall, they would already have to feel grateful.
And faced with Kal — whose lineage stood alone, who had rendered merit for all humankind, and who also possessed dragons — not raising his own banner and looking toward the far side of the Narrow Sea to reclaim the glory once held by his ancestors would already be an act of mercy from this King.
Yet all of this, in this single instant, was reduced to fantasy.
Now Robert had suddenly died, and then, before his death, had formally legitimized him as his trueborn heir and passed the lordship to him.
Was this not simply forcing him to fight a war that had absolutely no necessity, yet must be fought?
So it could already be foreseen that the Seven Kingdoms — which had only just let the smoke of war clear and regained a hard-won moment of peace — would soon erupt into an even greater war.
And this under the circumstance that the threat of the Long Night was approaching.
Even the Targaryen siblings across the Narrow Sea, and the one rumored to be Aegon Targaryen — who could say whether they might also consider this Westerosi war a good opportunity?
Thinking of the trouble he was about to face, Kal tiredly pinched the space between his eyebrows. It was as though he could already smell the scent of rekindled war and rising smoke at his nose.
And what he understood even more clearly was that this war, if fought, must either not be fought at all — or, once it began, must not end until he had thoroughly beaten every side into submission, beaten them into helplessness, and left himself without any vulnerability from which others could plot, for him to take the throne.
Otherwise his future would still remain unstable.
Because humankind had already nearly exhausted itself in this civil war. When the White Walkers arrived, what would the Seven Kingdoms do?
Place their hope on Daenerys Targaryen's three dragons that had not yet even been born?
Or would he once again be the one to turn the tide, giving up everything to completely destroy the enemy in the truest sense?
When he finally ascended the throne, what would he receive? A scorched land? Or something else?
Kal pinched the space between his eyebrows, thinking bitterly.
But every step was a situation difficult to accept.
Faced with this scene, he could not help but wonder whether there truly was a hidden hand stirring the chaos behind the scenes — or whether this was simply a man-made disaster born of the ambitions within people's hearts.
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