Game of Thrones: I Created the Magic Web

Chapter 269
Please bear with me, I will try my best to make it up before the end of the month.Thanks.

Immediately after he left, Sansa fell limp on the straw mat again, staring at the wall in a daze until two maids timidly entered the room. "I need a bath, please prepare me hot water." She told them, "and perfume, and makeup powder, so that the bruises can be covered." The right half of her face was swollen and painful, but she knew that Joe Foley wanted her to look good.

The hot water, which reminded her of Winterfell, strengthened her a little.She hadn't showered since her father's death, and was amazed at how dirty the water had become.The maid washed the blood off her face, brushed the dust off her back, and combed her starched hair into thick auburn curls.Sansa didn't talk to them except to order: they were Lannister servants, not her own, and she didn't trust them.When she was getting dressed, she specially chose the green silk dress, which was exactly the one she wore on the day of the tournament.She remembered how courteous Joffrey had been to her that night at dinner, and if she had put on this dress, it might remind him to be gentle with her.

When she was dressed, she sat and waited, drinking a glass of buttermilk and nibbling a few sugar biscuits to stop the churning in her stomach for a while.It was noon when Ser Meryn came to see her.He put on a full suit of pure white armor: finely wrought gold-wire white scales, a high golden sun-helmet, knee-guards, gauntlets, and boots of gleaming iron, and a heavy woolen cloak trimmed with gold. Lion buckle.His helmet had its visor removed, revealing a stern face; two big bags under the eyes, a wide and surly mouth, rusty hair mixed with a little gray. "Miss," he bowed, as if he didn't remember beating her bloody face three hours ago. "Your Majesty ordered me to escort you to court."

"If I refuse, did he tell you to hit me?"

"Miss, are you refusing?" He looked at her with emotionless eyes, indifferent to the bruise he had caused earlier.

Sansa suddenly understood that he didn't hate her, he didn't love her, he didn't feel anything for her at all.To him, she was just a... thing. "No," she said and stood up, wanting to get mad and beat him up, just like he beat her, and she wanted to warn him that when she became queen, if he dared to touch a single hair of her, he would be punished. Banish him forever... But she still remembered the Hound's words in her heart, so she just said: "I will obey His Majesty's will."

"Me too," he replied.

"Yes...but, Sir Meryn, you are not a real knight."

Sansa knew Sandor Clegane would laugh at that.Others might have cursed at her, might have warned her to shut up, or even begged her to forgive, but Ser Meryn Tran did nothing, because he didn't care.

Except for Sansa, the audience balcony was empty.She lowered her head, fighting back tears, watching Joffrey sitting on the Iron Throne below, adjudicating the affairs of state with justice.Out of the ten cases, he found nine of them boring, so he handed them all over to the imperial council, while he moved restlessly on the throne.Lord Baelish, Grand Maester Pycelle, and Queen Cersei had their hands full, but when the king occasionally decided to go out himself, not even his lord mother could dictate the situation.

A thief was dragged up, and he told Ser Ilyn to chop off his hand right there in the throne room.Two knights had a dispute over a certain piece of land, and the court asked him to settle it, but he ordered them to duel tomorrow to settle it, and added: "Until death." The head of the man who was beheaded. She said she loved him very much and hoped that he could be buried whole. "You love a traitor, so you are a traitor too," Joffrey said, and two gold cloaks dragged her into the dungeon.

At the end of the council table sat the frog-faced Lord Slynt, clad in black velvet and shining gold cloak, nodding to each of the king's verdicts.Sansa looked at his ugly face carefully, remembering how he pushed her father to the ground and let Ser Ilyn beheaded for public display, and she only hoped to get revenge on him severely, hoping that some hero could bring "him" down too On the ground, beheaded for public display.But in her heart, a voice whispered: There are no heroes anymore.She recalled what Lord Petyr had said to her in this hall before, "Little sweetie, life is no more than a ballad," he told her, "One day, you may be disappointed." It seems that in real life, the monster often wins , she said to herself, and then the hound's cold hiss like metal rubbing against stone echoed in her ears: "Little sister, for your own good, do as he wants."

The defendant in the last case was a fat tavern singer who was accused of composing music to mock the late King Robert.Joffrey sent for his woodharp, and ordered him to play it there for all to hear.The singer burst into tears and vowed never to sing the song again, but the king insisted.The lyrics are actually quite interesting, roughly describing the fight between Robert and the pig.Sansa knew that the pig was the boar that killed the king, but some lines in the song seemed to be alluding to the queen.After the song was over, Joffrey announced that he was going to make an exception. The singer could choose to keep his fingers or his tongue, and he had a day to decide.Janos Slynt nodded approvingly.

Sansa was relieved that the afternoon's court affairs were finally over, but her ordeal was not over.After the master of ceremonies announced her retreat, she hurriedly fled from the audience stand. Unexpectedly, Joffrey was waiting for her at the bottom of the winding stairs, with the Hound and Ser Meryn beside him.The young king examined her carefully from top to bottom. "You look much prettier than ever."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your compliment," Sansa said.Although it was against his will, he nodded and smiled when he heard it.

"Walk with me," Joffrey ordered, holding out his hand, and she had no choice but to take his.In the past, touching his hand would make her tremble, but now she has goose bumps all over her body. "My name day is coming," said Joffrey as they left the back of the throne room. "We will have a great feast, and I will have many presents from people. What will you give me?"

"I...I haven't decided what to give, my lord."

"Your Majesty," he said sharply, "you're a stupid girl, aren't you? Mother told me so."

"She really said that?" After these days of experience, she thought his words had lost the power to hurt her, but they didn't.The queen has always been kind to her.

"Oh, of course it is true, and she was worried that our children might be as stupid as you, but I told her not to worry." The king gestured, and Ser Meryn opened the door for them.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," she murmured.The Hound was right, she thought, I am a little bird who repeats what I am taught.The sun had set on the western walls, and the masonry of the Red Keep was as dark as blood in the twilight.

(End of this chapter)