Ser Brandon was Earl Mondon's cousin; they grew up together and had a close relationship, able to trust each other on the battlefield.
Hearing Jacaerys' words, he lowered his head to hide the hatred in his eyes,
and replied in a fawning tone: "Your Majesty Jacaerys, I am willing to bring House Hightower's full support to you!
Although our house is somewhat lacking in warfare, we are very confident in areas such as trade and technological improvement.
Oh, Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon are now being falsely accused of regicide and kinslaying.
I can also send ravens to all the lords in the Seven Kingdoms through the Citadel.
With the prestige of the Citadel leading the way, many lords will surely respond and refute this absurd charge."
Clap!
As soon as Earl Mondon finished speaking, Jacaerys jumped from Womax's back onto the severely tilted deck.
He paced forward and picked up vigilance, the Valyrian steel longsword in Earl Mondon's hand,
looking it up and down as he spoke: "Tsk tsk, controlling trade, technology, and public opinion.
No wonder your House Hightower has always been one of the wealthiest houses in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years.
Since you have always controlled the Citadel, you must know a lot of information!
Besides my parents being slandered as regicides and kinslayers just now, do you have any other news about them?"
Seeing that Jacaerys was very interested in what he said, Earl Mondon thought for a moment,
and replied: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I only know that Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon successfully escaped from the Red Keep half a month ago.
King's Landing was sealed off for ten days of searching at that time, but there were no results.
Although it has been unsealed now, the inspections for leaving the city are still strict, and the area near the Dragonpit has been designated as a restricted zone.
I speculate that they should still be within King's Landing. Perhaps they are trying to find a way to reclaim their dragons."
Not getting detailed news about his parents, Jacaerys frowned and asked: "Is that all you know?"
Seeing Jacaerys' displeased expression, Earl Mondon gritted his teeth to prove that he still had value,
and hesitantly replied: "Scholars have written to say that besides Prince Lucerys, your other three brothers have all been taken to King's Landing.
Among them, Prince Joffrey was... was cruelly gouged out of his left eye by Aemond..."
Swish!
Thump thump thump!
The hard, light, yet sharp vigilance flashed past its former owner's neck.
The next second, Earl Mondon's head, with a look of horror frozen on his face, fell onto the tilted deck and rolled towards the lower end.
Bang!
Sensing his master's anger, Womax raised his pair of webbed dragon claws high, then slammed them down heavily.
More than a dozen Hightower soldiers who had knelt in surrender were crushed into meat patties before they could react.
"All enemies, leave none alive!
Remember, gouge out all their eyes completely for me!"
Jacaerys, whose forehead was bulging with veins due to anger, turned and roared at Stone and the others, then picked up vigilance and charged into the surrendered soldiers, beginning a massacre.
"Yes, sir!"
Hearing this, Stone immediately led the Unsullied beside him to join the slaughter.
Rien on the other side of the deck opened his mouth to stop them, but then remembered Earl Corliss' dying words.
He finally waved his hand helplessly, signaling his Valyrian soldiers to act, but he himself stood still and watched silently.
Clatter!
The oldtown glory was already smashed into a 'V' shape when Womax landed, and now it couldn't withstand the dragon's violent movements at all.
Waves of seawater poured into the lowest cabins, and the oldtown glory began to sink slowly.
After quickly slaughtering the remaining Hightower soldiers and collecting their eyeballs,
Stone and Rien and others immediately retreated to their warships and relayed their king's command.
Covered in blood, Jacaerys, holding the heads of Earl Mondon and Ser Brandon, coldly scanned the area, ensuring no one survived.
He then returned to Womax's back and took off again, heading towards Tarth to the northeast.
Bang!
The oldtown glory, which was only sinking slowly, broke into two halves from the middle the moment Womax took off, and then quickly sank into the dark seabed.
About two thousand of the remaining one-third of the Hightower Fleet that surrendered were left.
When these disarmed and surrendered soldiers saw the oldtown glory break and sink, they immediately realized something was wrong.
But how could they, unarmed, be a match for the fully armed soldiers of the Conqueror Fleet.
Rip, rip!
Ah!!!
Piercing screams echoed endlessly in Shipbreaker Bay, and this one-sided massacre quickly ended.
A small number of heavily wounded Hightower soldiers who had fallen to the ground and were still breathing, were even gouged out of their eyes while still alive.
When Stone returned to the Conqueror, he found that Korman was already in full swing arranging his soldiers to collect spoils of war, tally casualties, and other post-battle tasks.
He immediately understood that Korman was trying hard to prove himself, attempting to make up for his serious dereliction of duty in Tyrosh.
Stone did not get involved with him, but seriously completed the tasks assigned by Jacaerys.
Not long after, blood-soaked eyeballs were sent to the Conqueror from all directions.
These eyeballs, only two or three centimeters in diameter, eventually filled a large box that Stone had someone find, which was originally used to store weapons.
Whoosh, whoosh!
A sound of dragon wings breaking the air came, and Lucerys, standing on the beach of Tarth, immediately looked up.
Seeing that it was Womax, he knew that his brother must have won this war.
So he excitedly jumped up and down while waving his hands towards Womax.
Bang!
Womax landed heavily on the beach, and Jacaerys, covered in blood, jumped off the dragon saddle with a gloomy face.
He frowned, looking at the golden-scaled dragon still breathing next to Lucerys, and asked: "Lucerys, did you pull it out?"
"Yes, brother.
I wanted... wanted to exchange Aegon and it for Mother and Joffrey, who might have been captured."
Seeing Jacaerys angry, Lucerys immediately replied somewhat timidly.
"Lucerys, you are still too kind!
Aegon and Aemond are our enemies, and if we can kill them, we must not show mercy.
Sunfyre is Aegon's dragon. You rescued it and let it go back alive.
Do you know how many of our soldiers will be killed in the future?"
Jacaerys, who knew his brother's character well, shook his head, then pondered for a moment, and continued,
"Originally, I didn't want to tell you, but I'm afraid you will be harmed by your kindness in the future.
Do you know? Joffrey had his left eye gouged out by Aemond."
"What!!!"
Lucerys was stunned for half a minute upon hearing this, then said with tears streaming down his face,
"Waaah, it's all my fault for not protecting them.
I was wrong, I shouldn't have left Dragonstone at that time."
"We are all wrong...
Wrong in not being strong enough!"
Jacaerys reached out and patted Lucerys' shoulder, and continued,
"Lucerys, move aside. I'll deal with this hidden danger."
Rustle, rustle!
As if sensing something, Sunfyre, who had been in a coma, struggled to get up.
When it saw Womax behind Jacaerys and his brother, it immediately opened its dragon mouth, brewing dragonfire.
That fatal crisis before seemed to have triggered a switch, causing Womax to instinctively unleash its dragon might.
And now this has become a special skill of its own, which can be controlled at will.
Womax's dragon pupils suddenly dilated, and the invisible dragon might spread outwards from it as the center.
Arrax, who had been obediently staying by the side, trembled all over, and then, as if surrendering, pressed his head to the beach.
The dragonfire brewing in Sunfyre's mouth gradually faded, and a hint of human-like struggle appeared in those golden dragon pupils.
But in the end, it also pressed its dragon head tightly to the ground like Arrax.
Hmm?
Jacaerys, who was shielding Lucerys behind him, showed a surprised expression when he saw this scene.
It is well known that dragons with dragonriders cannot be tamed by others!
But the current submissive behavior of Sunfyre and Arrax seems to have broken this iron rule.
Jacaerys' mind flashed back to the scene where Vhagar and Aemond and others were stunned and absent-minded.
Special trait, Divine Dragon, Dragon Might!
With a flash of inspiration, he immediately thought of the most likely reason.
With Womax's current dragon might, it is not enough to make a dragon of Vhagar's level surrender, only to cause the opponent to be briefly stunned and absent-minded.
But young dragons like Arrax, and the severely injured and dying Sunfyre, cannot withstand its dragon might at all.
Rustle rustle rustle!
Jacaerys walked onto the beach to Sunfyre's side, and then slowly reached out towards its lowered golden head.
Without any resistance or hostility, Sunfyre let Jacaerys stroke it like this.
After confirming his guess, Jacaerys directly dismissed the idea of killing Sunfyre.
Although Sunfyre, tamed by Womax's dragon might, cannot fly, it has lost its most important aerial suppression ability.
But a dragon with broken wings is still a dragon.
Since it has lost air supremacy, it might as well dominate the ground.
After the battle of Shipbreaker Bay, the Conqueror Fleet has essentially gained control of the sea off the eastern coast of Westeros.
But relying solely on the fleet is not enough to conquer the Seven Kingdoms; ground troops are definitely needed to attack the Green Party's strongholds.
Build Sunfyre a thick steel armor and let it directly serve as a heavy tank, mobile flamethrower, and other roles.
Taking cities and conquering territories will be too simple then!
Even if Sunfyre is useless, it can still serve as reserve material for Womax's next meal.
After making the decision, Jacaerys had Womax grab Sunfyre with its strong hind legs.
Then he flew back with Lucerys to rendezvous with the Conqueror Fleet.
When Jacaerys returned to the Conqueror Fleet, they had already completed most of the post-battle work.
However, due to the entire surface of Shipbreaker Bay being covered with bodies and ship wreckage, navigation was difficult.
Jacaerys simply had the entire fleet find a nearby coast to anchor and rest, waiting for the ocean currents to disperse the wreckage before continuing their voyage.
To prevent Sunfyre from being smart enough to feign surrender, he had Stone specifically find iron chains as thick as a wrist to lock Sunfyre up.
Only after ensuring safety did he have Stone feed it meat to help it recover from its injuries as quickly as possible.
After doing all this, seeing that it was still early, Jacaerys prepared to ride Womax out for a trip.
Seeing this, Lucerys immediately stepped forward to ask where he was going.
Jacaerys smiled and told him that he was going out to deliver something!
...
In the training yard of the Red Keep's inner city, the ratcatcher nicknamed Cheese was pulling a fat rat out of his rat cage.
After clearing this area, he carried his numerous spoils and walked towards the inner castle.
As he walked, he constantly grumbled about the Hand of the King who had sealed off the secret passages of the Red Keep.
The task that he could originally complete in half a day through the secret passages now took a full day.
"Dragon! There's a dragon!"
"In the southeast direction!"
"Quickly adjust the scorpion crossbow!"
Suddenly, a commotion came from the inner city wall.
Cheese looked up at the sound and saw people surging on the city wall, and a new type of ballista, over three meters high and five meters long, began to adjust its direction.
He had heard the royal guards talking about it when he passed by these days. This new type of ballista not only has a long range and greater power, but the specially made armor-piercing bolts also have several rows of barbs.
Once a dragon is hit, it is very difficult to pull out, and the entire piece of flesh at the injured area needs to be cut off.
Bang bang bang!
As the sound of bowstrings rang out, the armor-piercing bolts shot from the scorpion crossbow flew out at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye.
In the southwestern sky, the huge, dark green dragon dodged this armor-piercing bolt with an extremely Agile flight path.
But there was more than just this one scorpion crossbow deployed on the inner and outer city walls of the Red Keep.
Bang bang bang!
Loud bowstring sounds rang out one after another, and the dark green dragon in the sky tumbled left and right, completely avoiding them.
As it approached the Red Keep, the dark green dragon released its dragon claws, and a dark shadow immediately fell into the inner city at an extremely fast speed.
Crash!
Rumble ~
The dark shadow landed right in front of Cheese.
He looked closely and found that the dark shadow was a huge weapon box.
Due to falling from a high altitude, this weapon box was now completely broken apart.
Blood-soaked eyeballs rolled out of the weapon box, covering the Stone pavement in front of Cheese.
Among them were also two heads with expressions of horror still on their faces, each with a rolled-up parchment stuffed in their mouths.
The dark green dragon did not seem to be attacking the Red Keep; after dropping the weapon box, it quickly disappeared into the southeastern sky.
Swish swish swish!
A group of royal guards ran over, picked up the two heads with parchment in their mouths, and sent them to Maegor's Holdfast.
And Cheese was roughly driven out of the Red Keep by them.
Alas, I haven't been paid for today, how am I going to pay off my debts!
Oh, this incident just now should count as a piece of information, right?
Cheese, who had left the Red Keep, was worrying about his gambling debts, but with a turn of his head, he immediately hurried towards a place that would buy information for money.
Thump thump thump!
After walking through the complex and narrow Flea Bottom for a while, Cheese knocked on an unremarkable door.
The door opened quietly, and he slipped inside.
A moment later, Cheese walked out with a small jingling money bag, a smile on his face.
In the basement of this room, a young woman with skin as pale as milk smiled and said: "Prince Daemon, Princess Rhaenyra.
Congratulations, it seems your eldest son has won the battle!"
Regarding yesterday's discussion about the gods, it was indeed my fault for not meeting everyone's expectations.
I thought about it for a long time today, and everyone should have felt a sense of disparity.
In Essos, they were only dealing with ordinary humans.
After getting rid of their anti-air equipment, they could be killed like stepping on ants.
But Westeros is different, it has dragons which are also top-tier combat power.
After half a year of development, Womax can now easily tear apart Sunfyre, can make Vhagar flee everywhere, and dare not engage in close combat.
If it could swallow Vhagar in one bite now, then the combat power would definitely be broken.
I explained the issue with Aegon in the chapter notes, so I won't repeat it.
PS: Monday is quite busy at work, plus I was a bit hesitant to write today. So there is only one chapter of 4000 characters.
I will adjust my state tonight and make up for what I missed today tomorrow.
Oh, the first episode of House of the Dragon Season 2 came out today, you can go watch it