Chapter 264
Sorry, I thought it was a common cold, but it has become more and more serious these two days, and I can't write many words. Please bear with me, and I will make it up as soon as possible in the next few days.Thanks.

"Didn't I tell you?" said the Hound, "This is a fight between mosquitoes and flies."

The king was getting bored, and Sansa tensed up, so she lowered her eyes and decided to keep quiet no matter what happened.When Joffrey Baratheon was in a bad mood, any unintentional word could set him off into a rage.

"Lothor Brune, a freerider who serves under Lord Baelish!" the master of ceremonies shouted, "Ser Dontos, the red knight of House Hollard!"

Immediately the Freerider appeared to the west of the arena, a small man in dented armor with no ornamentation, but his opponent was nowhere to be seen.After waiting for a while, at last a chestnut-colored horse ran out, all dressed in crimson silk fluttering in the wind, but Ser Dontos was not on it.A little while longer came Ser Dontos, stumbling along, cursing and chasing his horse, naked save for his breastplate and plumed helm.His legs were pale and thin, and they rocked back and forth disgustingly.The audience immediately booed.Ser Dontos grabbed the bridle of his horse and tried to mount it, but the horse would not stand still, and the knight was too drunk to get his bare feet into the stirrups.

At this time, the audience was already shaking with laughter... except for the king.Joffrey saw the look in Joffrey's eyes that day when he sentenced Lord Eddard Stark to death in front of the Great Sept of Baelor.Ser Dontos, the red knight below, finally decided to give up, sat heavily in the mud, and took off his feathered helmet. "I give up!" he yelled. "Give me some wine!"

The king stood up abruptly, "Go and fetch a bucket from the cellar! I want to see him drown in it."

Sansa gasped, "No! You can't do this!"

Joffrey turned his head, "What did you say?"

Sansa could hardly believe what she had just said.Is she crazy?To say "no" to him in front of all the courtiers?She hadn't meant to, but... Ser Dontos meant no harm, though he was drunk and stupid and useless.

"You say I'm 'no'? Is that what you say?"

"I..." said Sansa, "I just think... that if you kill someone on your name day... it will bring bad luck, Your Majesty."

"You liar," said Joffrey, "if you care so much about him, I'll let you both drown together!"

"Your Majesty, I don't care about him," the words poured out of her mouth desperately, "You can drown him or chop off his head, but... if you really want to kill him, please kill him tomorrow... but you can't kill him." Don't do it today, today is your name day. I can't bear to see you bring bad luck...Even the king, doing this will bring bad luck...Singers say so..."

Joffrey frowned.She could see that he knew he was lying, and that another disaster seemed inevitable.

"The girl is right," said the Hound gruffly. "As the saying goes, a seed sown on a name day will bear fruit throughout the year." His tone was flat, as if he was not at all worried about whether the king would believe it or not.Is it true?Sansa hadn't actually heard of it at all, she was just talking nonsense to avoid punishment.

Joffrey shifted sullenly in his chair, and waved Ser Dontos. "Take him away! I'll kill him tomorrow, idiot."

"He's a fool indeed," said Sansa. "You're so wise and wise, you can see it at a glance. That kind of stupidity should be taken as a jester, not a knight, isn't it? You should dress him Clown pretend, tell him to do tricks, he doesn't deserve to die clean."

The king looked at her for a while, "Perhaps you are not as stupid as your mother said." He raised his voice, "Dantos, did you hear what the lady said? From today, you are my new jester, and you can change into a clown costume." , to sleep with Yuetong."

Sir Dontos had just brushed shoulders with death, and when he was sober, he got up from the ground: "Thank you, Your Majesty. And you, miss, thank you."

Two Lannister guards took him down, and the ceremonial officer entered the box. "Your Majesty," he asked, "would you like me to call a new opponent to fight Brun, or to replace them?"

"Not at all. These people are mosquitoes, not knights. If today is my name day, I will kill them all. This is the end of the tourney, let them all get out of my sight!"

The ceremonial officer listened and bowed respectfully, but Tommen was not so obedient. "I was going to fight the Scarecrow!"

"We'll talk about it another day."

"But I want to play!"

"I don't care what you want."

"Mom said I could play!"

"She said so." Princess Myrcella also echoed.

"'Mama said,'" said the king, imitating his younger brother, "less boyish!"

"We are children," Myrcella said confidently, "we are supposed to be children."

The Hound laughed, "Now you can't argue with her."

Joffrey gave in. "Well, my brother is no worse than those fellows anyway. Come, get the butt out, Tommen can't wait to be a gnat."

Tommen gave a yelp of joy and ran off on his fat feet to get dressed. "Good luck!" Sansa said to him.

So they set up a spear-butt at the other end of the tournament ring, and made saddles for the Prince's pony.Tommen's opponent was a child-height leather warrior stuffed with straw, standing on a spinning axis with a shield in one hand and a cloth-cushioned mace in the other.Someone also tied a pair of antlers to the dummy's head.Sansa remembered that Joffrey's father, the late King Robert, had two antlers on his helmet...and so did Joffrey's uncle, Lord Renly, Robert's younger brother, now a traitor and claiming his own king.

The two squires helped the prince into his little silver-red armor, ornately carved, with a tuft of red feathers on the top of the helmet, and Lannister's roaring lion and Baratheon's crowned stag frolicking on the shield.As the squire helped him to his horse, Ser Alan Santagar, Master of the Red Keep, stepped forward and handed Tommen a blunt silver longsword with a leaf-shaped blade and a hilt specially made for the palm of an eight-year-old boy.

Tommen raised his sword aloft. "Long live Casterly Rock!" he yelled in a childish voice, and with his feet under the horse's belly, he ran across the hard dirt toward the spear target.Countess Tanda and Earl Gales applauded unevenly, and Sansa also joined in.The king was sulking to himself.

Tommen urged the pony to run, and as he passed the dummy, he swung his sword heroically, hitting the dummy rider's shield solidly.The spear-target spun around, and the cloth-cushioned mace circled back and struck the Prince hard on the back of the head.Tommen flew from his horse and fell heavily to the ground, his new armor rattling like a sack of scrap metal.He dropped his sword, and the pony left him, running across the city walls.All around laughed, and King Joffrey's laugh was not only the loudest, but the longest.

(End of this chapter)

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