Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 164: The Last Road Through Velen
King Robert knew his old friend well enough to brace himself for catastrophe.
But a man, and especially a king, could not simply prepare himself and remain calm before hearing such things.
Lannor was the one who had pieced together the entire chain of events most clearly, yet he had no desire whatsoever to be the one who told Robert.
Some words, spoken by a brother, became comfort. Spoken by an outsider, they became mockery.
Lannor considered himself an outsider.
Eddard slowed his horse and turned to ride beside Robert. He took a moment to steady his breathing after the hard gallop.
“Robert, we need somewhere quiet to speak. At the very least, back to your carriage.”
The King narrowed his eyes atop that broad, fleshy face of his, but unlike before, he did not immediately explode with curses about how a man ought to remain in the saddle.
Instead, he sounded strangely calm.
“I was just attacked, Eddard. At least a hundred men saw me stabbed, and a thousand more are wondering how badly I’m hurt. I can’t crawl back into a carriage now like I’m too weak to ride.”
Eddard’s breath caught. He looked at his old friend.
Robert still looked rough and fearless, but something in his gaze no longer resembled the ale-soaked dullness he had carried these past months.
The sight stirred an ache of nostalgia in Eddard’s chest.
Brushing against death had dragged something old back out of Robert Baratheon.
“Then we speak quietly.”
Without another word, Eddard and Robert nudged their mounts ahead, widening the distance between themselves and the retinue behind.
“How many men in King’s Landing can you still command against the Lannisters?”
Eddard opened with the question like a sword thrust.
Robert lowered the wineskin halfway to his mouth and stared.
“Probably just the Gold Cloaks. Gods know half my Kingsguard are little more than Lannister lapdogs. Who doesn’t love gold? And the Lannisters have mountains of it.”
“But why are you talking about fighting Lannisters? Have you lost your mind, Eddard? I hate that bitch Cersei as much as anyone, but if we kill her then the realm will...”
“The realm will fall into chaos, yes, I know!” Eddard snapped back, voice rough with strain. “But listen to me, Robert. The realm is already falling apart!”
Then Eddard laid out everything Robert had not known.
The resistance he had faced from the first day he became Hand of the King. Jon Arryn’s unnatural death. The investigation into the great houses and their bloodlines.
The moment Robert heard that the man who had raised them both might have been murdered, his hand crushed the leather wineskin until it creaked like it would burst.
By the time Eddard reached the matter of the royal children’s parentage, Robert’s jaw muscles had swollen hard beneath his beard.
For any man, such a thing was humiliation.
For a king who had taken the throne through war, it was humiliation sharp enough to shake the throne itself.
Better a clean wound than rot.
Eddard took the tome from Lannor’s hands and opened it to the marked pages.
There, line after line, were records of marriages between House Baratheon and House Lannister.
Whether the Baratheon was male or female, the children had all been black-haired.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Robert suddenly roared, loud enough to shake the carriage beside them. His red, swollen face looked like molten iron fresh from the forge.
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