While Daemon left defeated and Criston Cole was getting all the applauses, plus a wreath from Rhaenyra... Ronan watched on with a very happy smile.
From after and in the midst of the crowd, his smile was quite obvious and very telling of how positively joyous he is.
Granted that it's not because he wanted his deadbeat father to get his just deserts... but more on how lucrative it was for him to have the unknown Cole take the win.
He's not some attention seeking kid with weird daddy issues, after all.
He was just someone who was going to be claiming hefty benefits from his father taking the L.
Cause yeah... Ronan kind of wagered his prize coins in favor of the future oathbreaking Kingsguard... currently still a dark horse that's rising through the ranks.
Debts truly be damned when you have the capability to double and even triple your money.
And he didn't even need to break a sweat by participating and whatnot, cause why should he?
It also helped that the odds of him losing out was almost zero when he already knew the results of the match.
Perks that came from being a watcher of the show. Betting on Cole all the way until he is to fight Daemon... because that's as far as the show showed.
Thankfully, he didn't butterfly effect enough to change the outcome... or else, it would have been such a monumental loss.
So, a happy smile was what he had. Even itching to count those coins and coins of gold dragons already.
Of course, besides him, his mother was smiling even happier.
Though her satisfaction was the one that actually stemmed from Daemon's downfall... a vengeful vendetta, of sorts.
Quite unlike his own, which was more pure. Pure financial gain.
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Unfortunately, life just has its way of balancing things out.
If you're happy as can be at the moment... then expect that it will most likely be sad and somber in the next. Sooner or later.
And as that tourney sort of wrapped up in its own way... the news broke... that Queen Aemma has died... and the newborn prince Baelon didn't make it that long.
Then again, Ronan was not invited to the funeral.
So, he can only imagine sad people being present there on a large green field, gathered for Aemma and Baelon's funeral... near rocky shores.
Both being wrapped in cloth on pyres.
Syrax sits on a hill at the edge of the field... waiting for her bonded rider's command.
Alas, Milly was still grief-stricken and Paddy just numb... prompting Matt to walk over to her and whisper in her ear.
Probably saying something along the lines of how everyone was waiting for her and she's wondering whether his father finally found happiness when her baby brother lived.
Matt would say she is needed more than ever by her father, while she just points out that she's a girl and will never be the son he wants.
Ronan was only going with what he knew and remembered from the show though and not at all the personal viewing that he expected to witness.
In any case, to continue assuming by that script... Rhaenyra would eventually step forward... with Syrax watching her intently.
Waiting for her as she mournfully orders. "Dracarys."
Then the dragon will crawl forward from its post... and light the funeral pyres along with the bodies of the queen and babe.
Bathing them in flames to inevitably turn to ash.
As that probably went on... Ronan could only let out a sigh from his room on his big ship.
Because this was one of the eventualities that he was actually hoping to change.
The Cole betting was about taking advantage, but trying to prevent this birthing tragedy was more so to help out.
Actively interfering for the good of others... more so the good of the probably kind "aunt" and the innocent baby cousin.
Aunt and cousin of both him and Jeyne.
Unfortunately, those gift trinkets of weirwood branchlets he runed with "labor" and "health" had not taken effect as intended.
Or the queen and her attendants may have misplaced those trinkets to anywhere else but her birthing chambers.
After all, he was just the unimportant non-relative that was giving among the many other givers of gifts to the expecting Queen.
Then again, those were new runes that he just tried out during the ongoing trip. Maybe "labor" was more on energizing workers while "health" is wealth.
So, maybe the two of them were just fated to go down the afterlife route and nothing he can do will change that.
Ronan chewed on that possibility and could only sigh that the Dance is probably still set to happen by all this logic.
Had he been recognized then, he would have been motivated to act more... but at this point, it's not worth the trouble.
Still, it's such a shame about what happened to the Queen and the princeling.
For he could have foregone with the runic mysticism that was easily dismissed and aided more proactively.
But he doubts that his medical knowledge stuck in first-aids can even do anything substantial... against a breech birth and a rudimentary cesarean.
Nor could he do anything about whatever struggles that the baby Baelon went through as a result of those prior complications. Which is fluid build-up in the lungs, probably…
Those all the more just pushed Ronan to really do his due diligence on those issues and hope that Heaven still rewards him with knowledge that the women and babies of this world needs.
Admittedly, Ronan wasn't that much of a saint and he didn't really owe anything to the ashened mother and son to do so.
But yeah... the field of medicine and the science of healing should be quite interesting to tackle.
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Soon enough, some time passed... and the succeeding events were more dramatic than the next.
And Ronan could only remain as someone who continued to hear the rumors and murmurs of it.
Fortunately, there's still his meta-know-hows from watching the show.
Like how a quick council should have been called just after a few hours of mourning by the next morning... to finalize who is to be heir to the throne, with Baelon not being there for the King to count on.
Prince Daemon was the previous and most obvious choice… but not many really wanted the second coming of Maegor the Cruel to rule.
The princess Rhaenyra was an option but that just had as much deniers as the nomination of Princess Rhaenys.
So, Daemon it should have been.
Alas, it didn't help that Ronan's biological father was mourning in the most stupidest way possible.
"The Heir for a Day" was not a comment that the King liked... and that got the man who just got an L to get another L.
To be shooed away and stripped off his status as heir.
And so... the running was down to just Rhaenyra.
With Rhaenys and her line out of the count, cause the king probably didn't like that Corlys attitude that Corlys had.
Making Ronan already guess what was about to happen next.
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And as of now and present, Rhaenyra could be seen upfront... gazing upon the enthroned King Viserys as he declared.
"I, Viserys Targaryen, first of his name…"
"King of the Andals, and the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm, do hereby name…"
"Rhaenyra Targaryen, the Princess of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne."
Prompting all of those assembled in the Great Hall to bow their heads.
Having just bent their knees and given their oaths... with this Kingly order officially finalizing it.
Ronan was among them... near his mother who served as representative to the Liege Lady of the Vale.
He was neither happy nor sad... just a participating spectator, even though he could have been a contender.
Then again, he also felt weirded out...
Cause Rhaenyra who just looked back to the crowd... was looking at him very intently, specifically out of all those present in front of her.
And he could only wonder what the heck that is about.
She really should just be looking straight at the camera and the credits should be rolling right after.