Chapter 200: The Alliance of Four
Maidenpool
"Arm your wildlings? No, my father would never agree to such a condition." Jaime Lannister flatly rejected Otis's proposal. "My father will give you a chest of gold as a reward for saving me, but he would never send weapons, armor, and provisions to arm a bunch of wildlings when war is imminent!"
"Free Folk," Otis corrected.
"Whatever you call them, they are just a rabble!" Jaime paused, but didn't soften his seemingly extreme words. "You say you have an army of a hundred thousand, and I'll believe it.
But I can tell you, even if you have a million, I only need two thousand knights to charge across the plains and wipe you out."
Otis's skinchanging ability was only at the intermediate level. Two hundred kilometers was the limit of distance he and his eagle could simultaneously maintain control. Therefore, he hadn't overheard his ally's conversation with Tyrion. Otherwise, he would have been astonished by Tyrion's understanding of Jaime.
He merely frowned, expressing his dissatisfaction with Jaime's answer.
Otis knew Jaime was telling the truth. Just like in the original timeline when Stannis's cavalry arrived beyond the Wall, the wildlings, numbering a hundred thousand, were instantly terrified at the mere mention of approaching cavalry, offering no resistance whatsoever to Stannis's mounted forces. Furthermore, the heavy horse of the Westerlands were far more elite than Stannis's sellsword cavalry.
Otis and his men planned to select only one to two thousand wildlings as their main force, training them effectively, while the rest would serve as cannon fodder.
Therefore, this deal—or rather, this cooperation—with the Lannister family was crucial for their conquest of the North.
At Casterly Rock
Tywin Lannister ordered his squire, "Summon all the lords here immediately," as he burned a letter in the fire.
"Have you decided to go to war? We still haven't heard from Jaime and the others," Tywin's brother Kevan reminded him.
"Jaime has arrived in Maidenpool, and the maesters of House Mooton have sent ravens." Tywin pointed to the ashes in the fireplace. "Tyrion wasn't lying in his letter from beyond the Wall. The wildlings really did send my son back."
"Should we agree to the wildlings' terms?"
"I can't say for certain right now," Tywin shook his head. "Tyrion painted a very rosy picture in his letter, but he's always been prone to embellishment. Once Jaime returns to Casterly Rock, I plan to speak with the wildling who sent him back first, and assess their capabilities."
"Moreover," Tywin paused, "if Robert dies, we'll need a new king. Joffrey and Tommen are both in the wildlings' hands."
Less than five minutes later, a group of high-ranking nobles from the Westerlands gathered in Tywin's council chamber.
"Lord Terrence Kenning, you and Lord Lewys Lydden will lead two thousand men to Deep Den and secure the passage to the Gold Road. Make sure no army from the Reach enters the Westerlands from there." Tywin didn't explain further and began issuing orders directly.
"Yes, my lord." Lord Terrence Kenning and Lord Lewys Lydden quickly accepted the order and left.
"Stafford Lannister, you will immediately take six thousand men to Sarsfield and join Lord Roland Crakehall's forces. You will monitor the Ocean Road, and if you spot the main Reach forces, report to Casterly Rock immediately."
"Yes, my lord." Stafford Lannister also accepted the order and left.
"And you, Kevan, will go to the Golden Tooth. I will have Jaime join you later."
"We are responsible for preventing the Riverlands army from attacking?"
"No, you will gather all our remaining forces and launch a direct eastward offensive into the Riverlands. Before the Royalist army can assemble, wipe out the Tully family's standing forces and turn the Riverlands into scorched earth." Tywin coldly ordered.
Winterfell
The North hadn't been this crowded in many years.
At Eddard Stark's command, almost every lord of the North, except for those from the Rills, the Marshlands, and White Harbor who would rendezvous on the Kingsroad in the south, had gathered here with their forces.
Colorful banners fluttered in the camps outside Winterfell: the Karstark banner of a white sun on black, the Glover banner of a silver fist on scarlet, the black bear of Lady Mormont, the flayed man of Lord Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort, the moose of House Hornwood, the battle-axe of House Cerwyn, the three sentinels of House Tallhart, and the fearsome broken chains and roaring giant of House Umber.
Even excluding the forces of the southern lords, the Northern army gathered outside Winterfell numbered eighteen thousand, a full six thousand more than the twelve thousand Robb Stark had gathered from his vassals after Eddard's capture in the original timeline.
This made Loran (the player) sigh. Even the Northmen, known for their honor and unwavering loyalty to the Starks, harbored some self-interest when summoned by young lords.
Lyanna had already gone to White Harbor with Robert. From there, they would sail south to King's Landing to rally the royal forces from the south.
Loran learned from Eddard Stark that Riverrun, Storm's End, and Highgarden had already begun responding to the call. Only the Eyrie and Sunspear had not yet responded.
Eddard Stark judged that Lysa Arryn was in the midst of immense grief, and given time to recover, she would surely send the Knights of the Vale to war. As for Dorne, in a sense, he believed they were dispensable in this war.
Eddard Stark was overly optimistic.
To be precise, everyone was overly optimistic about this war.
In a war with five against one or even six against one, Loran could not secure enough merit to take Casterly Rock. He needed to weaken the royal coalition to make himself crucial in the subsequent war.
In a sense, they had already accomplished half of that.
The Tyrells of Highgarden were not Robert's allies during Robert's Rebellion. As former loyalists of the Targaryen dynasty, they had never been able to break into the inner circle of power during Robert's reign.
This time, their eagerness—even responding to Robert and beginning to gather troops before Riverrun and Storm's End—was because they finally saw an opportunity.
Cersei Lannister was dead, leaving the position of Queen of Westeros vacant, and Robert's three most important allies—the Starks, Tullys, and Arryns—had no daughters of marriageable age. This was the Tyrells' chance.
They wanted to use this war of loyalty to place Margaery on Robert's throne, thus formally integrating Highgarden into the core of the new dynasty.
Loran could imagine how furious Mace Tyrell would be when he heard Robert had brought back a 'Lyanna' from the North, and how furious the Queen of Thorns would be.
Robert was willing to marry a girl from a minor Northern noble house rather than form an alliance with the Tyrell family—this was a blatant insult.
Of course, this alone wouldn't be enough to force Highgarden to withdraw from the war.
Therefore, the rest would be left to the other two allies. They would attack from beyond the Wall, forcing the North to withdraw first. This way, Highgarden, whose marriage alliance was rebuffed, and Lady Lysa of the Eyrie, controlled by Littlefinger, would naturally begin to give lip service to the Iron Throne while dragging their feet.
Oh, and he'd almost forgotten—they were a four-man alliance.
While they couldn't all trust one person completely, giving them points and then distributing the spoils, they could maintain mutual trust. In other words, their plan was to leave only two members in the alliance at the end, collect the grand prize, and then have the two victors distribute the spoils to their allies.
This sounded unbelievable, but it was precisely because players found it hard to believe that a four-person alliance could exist that they were able to use a combination of misdirection and deception to eliminate the other players who came to Winterfell and become the victors there.
(End of Chapter)
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