Chapter 66: ASOIAF 9

The dark tunnel that Carl passed through was quite cramped and showed evidence of long usage. He noticed various alcoves that corresponded to rooms throughout the Red Keep. After a bit of poking around, he discovered spy holes that allowed him to hear anything going on in the rooms.

Apparently the paranoia of Aerys II wasn't just a recent thing. Kings in the past had been keeping a surreptitious eye and ear on anyone that stayed in their keep.

The noise from the raucous victory party drifted in through those listening posts for Carl to hear as he silently passed by. More than a few of the Lords and nobles seemed to be celebrating with various pretty young servants.

Carl wouldn't be surprised if a whole slew of bastards were born in 9 months time after this night.

He was also somewhat impressed at the sheer amount of secret tunnels that were fitted into the Red Keep and the city around it. It was no wonder that Varys, the so called Master of Whisperers, was able to get around so easily and have his spies check in with him unobserved.

Carl followed the secret passage as it exited the grounds of the Red Keep, under the streets of Kings Landing. Even discounting his excellent memory and magical abilities, his VIs had already completely mapped out the tunnels underneath the Red Keep and Kings Landing, so there was no chance of him getting lost.

After walking through empty tunnels for a quarter hour, he arrived at a particular set of stairs that rose up to a cleverly concealed exit inside a building located in the market street of the city. Carl used his magic to keep from being noticed by the single occupant of the room when he entered the room and sat down.

The bald and pale effeminate man was busy reading various reports from his spies while sitting at a large desk. Carl smirked at the man's overconfidence in his own security arrangements.

Varys seemed to see himself as a great intellect and manipulator that was indispensible to those in power. As such, he knew that he would be of use even to the new regime, who would welcome him back with open arms in order to be of use in strengthening their rule.

He was also confident that no one else knew the secret tunnels and passages like he did, which led to his absolute confidence that no one could find him unless he chose to let them. While the city was in the chaos of subjugation, he would wait it out while continuing to receive reports.

Once things settled down, he planned to emerge and make himself indispensible to King Rhaegar as his new Master of Whispers.

From where Carl had seated himself, he appraised the man in front of him without allowing Varys to become aware of his presence. What he saw as he delved into Varys' mind wasn't very promising.

The eunuch had come to Kings Landing only five years ago, in 278 AC. In such a short time he had gained the trust of the king, expanded his intelligence network from what he already had built overseas, and worked hard to make himself indispensable to those in power.

From the gossip Carl had heard about Varys from various sources, the spymaster had been known to very vocally proclaim himself to be a proponent of "order, stability, and peace in the realm".

From what Carl was reading from the eunuch's mind, what the eunuch vocally stated was far from the truth. Varys was in it for the money and power. He had found that King Aerys II's paranoia allowed him free reign to grow his powerbase as he pleased, as long as he continued feeding the King's paranoia and producing enemies for the King to "take care of".

And the Mad King's extreme paranoia was easy for Varys to feed and grow, making the king's reliance on his spy master even greater. Varys didn't care about who he threw to the King's nonexistent mercy at the slightest need to appease the ruler. He didn't care about the chaos he caused when he set up different factions to fight each other, as long as Varys stayed in power and profited off the conflict.

What Carl then learned from Varys' mind itself about how he trained the little children that he used as his spies really angered him. The system of abuse, starvation, and rewards Varys used to motivate the children he and his men trained for spying was monstrous. And once the little children that he abused and treated as his own property grew up enough to not be quite as useful in spying, he used them as broodmares or studs to provide him with even more little spies to train.

Even before coming to the Seven Kingdoms, Varys had been setting up his intelligence network among the Free Cities. He had moved to the Seven Kingdoms in order to expand his influence, power, and wealth.

Looking at the despicable face of the pale eunuch, Carl decided that he didn't need to keep the man alive for anything. While he still had a somewhat uncomfortable feeling over some of the expedient measures he employed to avoid even more conflict, war, and loss of life, Carl had long since come to realize that sometimes distasteful things needed to be done to accomplish his goals.

The morality and teachings of his childhood continued to cause Carl to question himself anytime he did anything "expedient". He felt it was a necessary series of checks and balances in his mind so that he didn't fall into being a completely amoral monster. He would make exceptions to "how things should be done" in order to stop the monstrously inhuman actions of evil people, but he never wanted to make it his default actions.

Carl paused for a moment to examine those thoughts. He thought through his time in the Jump Chain and realized that he had only started second guessing himself and his actions after he had gotten quite powerful.

When he first started out on this crazy adventure, he felt quite threatened by all the crazy powerful forces that were a huge threat around him. It wasn't even a question of if ambushing and killing certain threats was morally right or wrong. It was survival, cause he knew they would try to kill him and his people.

But now that Carl was powerful enough that he felt confident in being able to easily handle most threats, he actually had the ability and metaphorical space to think on concepts of morality and character.

'Which is where all this second guessing of my motives and what not comes from, I guess. Now that I'm powerful enough to mostly control the board in a world like this, I have the ability to leisurely think about concepts like "fairness" in my actions.'

Carl rubbed his chin in thought while staring at the bald eunuch that was reviewing reports and making plans. Varys was so focused and enamored with power that he would trample anyone in his quest.

As he sat there thinking, Carl began comparing his actions as objectively as he could with the various peoples he had met in his travels. Some of them were the protagonists of their stories. Some were the villains of the piece.

As he reviewed his actions, Carl began pondering just where these feelings of guilt or doubt in his actions came from. Why was he constantly second guessing himself and feeling bad when he did bad things to bad people?

'It seems like kernels of doubt were instilled in me when I lived with the masters of Ryozanpaku.' Carl realized. 'That was my fourth world. I had already killed in my first two worlds, and spent my time in the third hunting all kinds of animals. But in the HSDK world, my masters lived by the no killing rule. They felt that if they had to resort to killing, than they had lost.'

Carl, feeling a bit antsy as he was thinking through the topic got up and paced back and forth in Varys' chamber.

'I really looked up to those masters of mine. They put in an extraordinary amount of time and effort training me. At the time I only had some magic skills. Granted they were still some kick ass magic skills. But after living through a world of demons that could physically tear me apart as easily as tissue paper, then living in the world of Pokemon where they could also physically tear me apart as easily as tissue paper, I definitely felt vulnerable.'

'And then the Masters of Ryozanpaku came along and gave me the key to protecting myself. It would be weird if I didn't idolize them a bit in my mind and want to follow their ideals.'

'But as I think of it, their no killing rule should only be applied to the competition between martial artists. Don't resort to a killing move in order to beat your opponent. That takes less skill. It's a pride thing. Pride in your hard earned skills and power.'

'But that doesn't really apply to the majority of people. Most people don't have those power or skills; and they can't afford to have that pride when failure means death. In a life and death struggle, they must take hold of every opportunity to live. Especially when they have something to protect that means more than their life to them. Like family.'

Carl's right fist pounded into his left hand at that thought.

'I think that's when the seeds were planted of me starting to worry more about some idealized morality than the actual results of what I was doing.' Carl realized. 'Even when I was in a cultivation world full of murder hobos, I was very hesitant to take whatever actions were necessary against my enemies. I wanted to hold to some kind of morality when my enemies were willing to completely wipe out even the family of their opponents.'

'Even now I'm doubting myself and my motives when I'm in the midst of trying to make this kingdom a better place.' Carl sarcastically snorted at his overly complicated mental gymnastics. 'Well, I'm done with that. If after all this time I can't trust myself, who can I trust?'

Once Carl had made that decision, he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his thoughts. He felt more free than he had in some time.

Even his magic, ki, and profound energy seemed to flow more easily through him. It felt really damn good!

It was only then that he realized he had somehow been holding himself back. His mental state had been hindering his own progress. It was good that he finally got over that mental block!

Carl looked over at the bald eunuch. Varys wasn't a good man, and deserved none of his consideration. He was an enslaver and abuser of children for his own profit. That's the kind of man that Carl could enslave and mentally torment without feeling bad about it. The eunuch's own actions had damned him.

But Carl didn't require a spymaster at all, let alone one who operated like Varys did, so he wouldn't be putting him under the slave seal. He had his own ways to gather intelligence, so he had no need to employ and make use of the so called Master of Whisperers who enslaved kids, cutting their tongues out so they couldn't speak, and used them to spy on everyone.

Carl only kept from killing the half man immediately so he could gather all the information needed to find all the "little birds", which was what Varys called his spies. Carl mentally fed the information on Varys' spy network to the Yamato, along with orders to begin rounding up everyone in Varys' "employ", including his friend and business partner Illyrio Mopatis.

Illyrio was currently a wealthy magister based in Pentos. He and Varys had gained their initial wealth by running cons on the nobles and merchants. Varys would steal their items, then Illyrio, who was a sell sword at the time, would be hired to retrieve their goods.

And the thing that put Illyrio on Carl's radar of those needing to be ended was that he was one of those who helped procure and train the child spies of Varys.

Carl didn't want any child slavers running around free. It would irritate the hell out of him. So he would end the threat of the two of them and their associates.

He was hopeful that most of the young children could be saved and redeemed from the life that Varys made them live. At the very least, he could heal and restore the children's tongues that Varys had cut out so the children could once more talk and have a normal life.

After having seen what a waste of flesh that Varys was, Carl didn't bother talking to the man. He had already gotten all the information needed from the eunuch. Pulling on his profound energy, he shaped his Golden Crow flames into a small crow shape that glided slowly towards the pale man.

Varys's saw the light from Carl's fire suddenly appear, and only had time to draw in a breath to shout, his features morphing to one of fear, before the crow shaped flames landed on him. His body burned to ashes in moments, not even giving him time to scream.

Carl then vanished the ashes left behind. Looking around the room at the paperwork, Carl ordered the VIs to gather all of Varys' documents and scan them into the system. He casually walked out the front door while flashes of white light indicated that all the documents Varys left behind were being teleported out.

Outside the building, Carl saw plenty fighting men entering various taverns, getting drunk and celebrating their victory over the Mad King's forces. He was originally intending to have a night walk back to the Red Keep, but he paused when he saw the busy parties still going on.

Carl smirked a bit as he saw how much fun the army men seemed to be having, spending all their gold on wine and women. Instead of joining in the revelry, Carl faded into the background, using magic to make sure no one paid attention to him. He changed his mind on what he was going to do that night.

A moment later with a flash of light, Carl was gone from the streets of Kings Landing.

Far to the north, in the North, there was a modest fortified manor that was the home of the minor nobles of House Moss. Carl appeared in the air above the ground. Looking around the land in the night, Carl spotted the manor.

He stretched out his senses and sent a mental message. A moment later, with a flash of light, Lyanna appeared in the air next to him.

"Oh dear. Look what the wolf dragged in." Lyanna smirked as she floated in the air next to him, assessing his mood that had him come in the middle of the night to her.

Carl took in Lyanna's gorgeous appearance. She was dressed in yoga pants and a loose shirt that accentuated her curves beautifully. Ever since Carl had introduced many of the marvels of technology and modern living to her, she had been obsessed with many of the comfort items that the society of Westeros couldn't produce.

And she knew what seeing her in those yoga pants did to Carl.

Carl flew closer to her and enveloped her in his arms, mock growling as he nuzzled her neck.

"You are such a tease." Carl accused her.

"No, never a tease." Lyanna laughed. "I would never leave you…frustrated." She moaned as Carl planted kisses along her neck.

It was a good thing it was night time, or everyone down below would have gotten quite the eyeful as the two made love in the air above the manor. Even without their profound cultivation, they made enough heat between the two to warm them up in the cold air of the North.

A few hours later, Carl and Lyanna were laying in bed onboard the Yamato as Carl told Lyanna about his day and finding out the horrible things Varys had done to the children he took.

"…and so I burned him to death." Carl finished narrating his evening before he sought out Lyanna's company.

"Good. He deserved it." Lyanna declared. And for her, it was that simple. "So, what are you going to do with the kids?"

"I thought I'd heal them and set up a school. Maybe something to overthrow the Maesters one day." Carl idly said.

"Hmm. A good idea. I'd like to be a part of helping those children adjust." She calmly said.

"Oh? What are you thinking of doing with them?" Carl asked. She never seemed the bookish type. He was surprised she seemed to want to be involved in a school.

"I'm thinking you don't want to be stuck in the Riverlands for the next 9 years doing paperwork." Lyanna laughed at Carl's expression. "And while I know time in the world is supposed to be frozen when you leave, it doesn't hurt to prepare for the future. Having a group of loyal and talented people that could work to increase the industry and economy in our lands can only be a good thing."

Carl hummed in thought. They already had plans to train their family and guards in Ki so they could protect their family better. He wasn't going to do like he had in the Stargate universe, where he ran many 10 year long time compression training sessions over and over. But they were going to start training their people in martial arts so they could be the best force to guard their family and lands.

A magical contract to ensure betrayal didn't happen would naturally be implemented before the training took place.

Training up the children in a profession and allowing them to live their lives in their lands while building up an industry seemed like it would hit two birds with one stone. The children got a new life to live where they could be in charge of themselves and gain wealth, while at the same time they built up the economy of their two families, which would help them maintain their status over all the Lords that had designs to take them down a peg.

After thinking about it for a time, Carl realized that the organization he builds here on Westeros didn't need to be as massive as the one he had created in the Stargate world. It just needed to keep track of things in Westeros and protect their interests on one planet, not several galaxies.

"That could work." He allowed with a smile as he fully relaxed back into bed with his girl in his arms. He would have to get up in a short time to return to Kings Landing, but for now, he would enjoy the moment.

The coronation of the new king, Rhaegar, didn't take very long, but there were endless negotiations and meetings in the following month.

If there was one thing that held true no matter where, it was that in chaotic times there were many who sought to profit and strengthen their position. Hoster Tully, Carl's father in this life, wasn't any different.

It really would be irresponsible of him to not seek out the most benefits for his family and lands as he could wrangle.

As his father's heir, Carl spent his fair share of time sitting in meetings and watching his father work. It was meant to teach him what he needed to know in the future for when he took on the role.

Despite his father's intent of helping Carl learn to manage their lands and the Lords in it, he felt it was mostly a waste of his time. He had been through many political meetings in the past two worlds, and he really didn't need the beginner lessons here.

So he spent some effort trying to stay out of as many of the meetings as he could. He was by no means immune to the common condition of humans, the need to fight for resources and position. But with his powers and the technology he commanded, the scrabble for the paltry resources of the Seven Kingdoms hardly interested him.

His possession of a Philosopher's stone alone could see to making him the richest man in Westeros in a very short time.

Let alone the technology he could employ to create technology beyond the imagination of the people of the Seven Kingdoms.

So he spent more of his time with the people around him than jockeying for position and power. He had plenty of fun in continuing to work with young Tyrion on his education and training. The young boy was as intelligent as he had heard people say he was, so it was fun to put ever more complex puzzles and problems in front of the young boy.

Carl spent plenty of time in the practice yard, training his young charge and getting to know the various heirs and knights that were still spending their time in Kings Landing. Networking was a useful skill to have no matter where one went in human society.

And of course, Carl spent his nights with his Northern girl. They talked about where they would begin travelling after they were married in two years. Those two years would also give them plenty of time to build up their family's guard forces with some Ki training so that they would not have to worry about things going wrong while they were out traveling.

Despite Carl's rocky start in the world and finding himself more emotionally invested than he had expected, he was still determined to simply enjoy the next ten years as a vacation time. Lyanna didn't completely share his desire to vacation, since she hadn't been world jumping like he had. She was 26 mentally, but only 16 physically, and she still had a lot of things she wanted to do to improve life for her people in The North.

Carl gave Lyanna complete access to the technology so she could run her projects and accomplish her goals while they were traveling. It was easy enough to teleport where she needed to get something done, or send an HFR to be her representative.

So while all the negotiating was going on, Carl continued to train and work with his people during the day, and sneak away at night to spend time with his girl in the North.

A few weeks after the Coronation and change in leadership, most of the army was sent back to their homes, since they weren't needed at present, and they were getting more restless and rowdy. Not to mention the enormous food expense they were incurring in the city was straining the cash reserves and supply chain.

Carl jumped at the chance to leave the city with the Tully men in order to avoid more meetings.

He was quite happy to avoid the long tedious negotiations. It was always good to avoid temptation. Temptation to use confounding and compulsion spells just because he didn't have the patience to sit through the long and boring blatherings of blowhards. He would rather speed read a summary made by his representative than to sit in on the meeting himself.

Besides, what was the point of enslaving a King if he was just going to torture himself with endless talks and politics? Rhaegar was supposed to be his buffer to keep the horrors of administrative duties out of his life!

Strangely enough, King Rhaegar assigned Lord Hoster Tully to be the Master of Coin on his Small Council of advisors. This would require Hoster Tully to spend a great deal of his time in Kings Landing, leaving most of the administration of the Riverlands to Carl Tully for the next few years.

No one expected that assignment, since Hoster wasn't generally known for his great mercantile skills. Carl made sure Hoster had a few able assistants in some HFRs that would do a great deal of the work for him. They were quite able to follow the money and find corruption and tax evasion.

As far as Carl could tell, his Tully father felt quite honored to be given the position, which suited him just fine. It allowed him more freedom from his father's supervision and at the same time put more people Carl could trust into positions of authority to assist his puppet King ensure his rule was stable over the Seven Kingdoms.

Once Carl left the city with his new little foster brother Tyrion, time seemed to fly by quite quickly. They soon arrived back in Riverrun where he introduced Tyrion to Edmure, Catylen, and Lysa.

Due to their previous experience with Petyr Baelish, Carl's siblings seemed to be a bit standoffish at first, but soon warmed up to the lad with Carl's reassurances. Since he was the one who was perceptive enough to see through Baelish's façade, his siblings have been putting a great deal of weight in his judgments.

And speaking of Baelish, Carl spent a few moments observing him in his jail cell from afar. His father had still not been able or willing to pay the ransom to free him. Carl smirked a bit at seeing how pitiful the prisoner was. Baelish could stay in prison all his life, for all Carl cared. The moment he was released was the day he died, since Carl wouldn't allow such an enemy to roam free while plotting revenge against him and his family.

Carl made an order for his VIs to keep an eye on the Baelish bastard and to alert him if he ever got free. It wouldn't do to lose track of him.

A few weeks later it was time to depart for Brandon and Catylen's wedding. He had rarely seen his sister so happy as when she was preparing for the event.

With the war over, there was no reason to have a rushed wedding to cement alliances. And since Catelyn would be joining Brandon in the North, it was necessary to travel up to Winterfell to have the wedding.

The preparations for the trip was ruled over by Catelyn, since she wanted everything perfect. She was often seen, with Lysa by her side, hovering over the servants as she directed their work and what to pack and prepare.

Even Hoster stayed out of Catelyn's way as she prepared. Carl just chuckled at his sister's excitement. If it made her happy, then he was happy to indulge her on her precious day. His family was in a good mood, which made him happy.

During the few weeks before they left for Winterfell, Carl started training Edmure and Tyrion both in the important lessons they needed to rule their lands. While Edmure was the spare rather than the heir, Carl didn't intend to have his brother be a landless knight. Even if Edmure never took over ruling the Riverlands permanently, he still had to have experience governing his own lands.

And Carl thought that with Jaime's lack of skill for politics and business, it would be a good thing to have his younger brother capable of managing the Westerlands for him in the future, if he didn't want their family to eventually fall in to ruin.

Carl planned to have the 14 year old Edmure get some practical experience governing Riverrun in the next couple years. And once he turned 18, he would start having him work on running the Riverlands by himself. With a little bit of guidance, Carl could then be completely free to wander around the world while his younger brother held the fort at home, with a bit of HFR help, no doubt.

The large group of people departing Riverrun for a wedding was quite a sight. There was a sizeable guard contingent, many wagons full of goods, and plenty of nobles that were traveling with them.

The lazy and meandering pace they set as they traveled north was a vast difference from when Carl had taken the same route on his way to take care of Walder Frey and join up with the Starks during the little civil war that had just happened.

When Hoster Tully was shocked at the cheap, practically free, price of passage through the Twins, Carl smirked a bit in amusement. It hadn't been hard to intimidate the new Lord Frey into giving them preferential treatment for the next 30 years. Carl saw it as simply making up for the years of ruinously high passage fees that old Walder Frey had levied against House Tully in his time as Lord Frey.

The travel went smoothly, with no unexpected bandit ambushes, or Iron Island pirates, or disgruntled lords attacking their enemies when they least expected it. Carl made sure the passage was clear. He didn't want his sister's good mood to be ruined by a bit of bloodshed.

Once they arrived in Winterfell, the seat of House Stark and the Lord Paramount of the North, they were met by the Starks. After the greeting, they were assigned rooms, the wagons were unpacked, and preparations continued for the wedding.

For the next several days many other nobles and Lords came trickling into the city to celebrate the wedding. Mostly it was those from the North and the Riverlands. Each of the Lords of the Great Houses also sent relatives to represent them at the wedding.

It was a curious thing that many of those from further south didn't really like traveling to the North. So even though the Lords should have shown up in person to the wedding of the Heir of the Lord Paramount, they begged off by sending a member of their family to attend.

After the wedding ceremony there was a huge feast and party all through the city. Inside the keep of Winterfell only the nobles and Lords could attend, while the rest of the commoners took the opportunity to party in the streets.

There was dancing, music, many foods at the feast, and troupe performances. Carl had a dance with each of his sisters, before spending the rest of his time with Lyanna. He kept an eye out for his younger sister, to be sure that she wasn't taken advantage of by overly amorous men who were drunken on wine.

Carl did take notice of the few young men that caught Lysa's attention. He mentally ordered his VIs to keep track of them to research if they would make decent matches as his younger sister's husband.

While he would like all members of his family to gain the strength to protect themselves, he recognized that his two girly sisters were too wedded to their idea of a woman's place to seek out strength and martial skill unless they were put in such horrible positions that they had no choice.

He found he couldn't bring himself to force them to live through such horrible experiences that they would change enough to desire martial skills. They would probably have to experience their entire family being slaughtered in front of them to reach that point. That would be a shitty thing for a brother to do to his sisters, even if it was just an illusion.

And since there really wasn't anything that would threaten his family during his time here, he shelved the idea of forcing his sisters to do something they would be completely against.

So, Carl was rethinking his approach. At least they were in minimal danger of actually dying in the 9 years he would be in the world. When he came back to the world later, he would work a plan to get them and their family to join him.

And if they ultimately refused to leave their life behind, then he would have to respect that that was their choice in how to live and let them go. At least he would know that they were happy in their life.

But for the time being Carl put those thoughts away and focused on spending his time dancing with his girl, Lyanna. Damn that girl's moves fired him up.

As was usual in such a feast with entitled asshole nobles, plenty of drunken and randy louts tried to muscle in on his territory and proposition his woman. Tried being the key word. Some of them seemed to have an urgent need for the privy, which caused a great deal of laughter at their expense when they pissed or shit their pants.

Others found their feet all tangled together as they tried to walk, constantly landing on their noses. Even their servants couldn't seem to keep them upright as they seemed to throw themselves face first into the ground.

And some of them seemed incapable of holding their drink and needed some servants to carry them to their rooms after they passed out. Lightweights.

Eventually the newly wedded couple were escorted to their rooms for the night. Carl and Lyanna escaped the feast before it wound down to spend some quality time together.

After the wedding, Hoster, Lysa, Edmure, Carl, and Tyrion returned to Riverrun. Carl continued his normal routine of training Edmure and Tyrion, spending time with his sister Lysa, and spending his nights with his fiery Northern girl.

His father stayed at Riverrun for a week to make sure Carl was up to the job of administering the lands before he departed for Kings Landing to take up the job of Master of Coins.

On the surface not much was different from how his life was before the big war that deposed a Mad King. But strangely enough, many of the Houses of the Riverlands were suffering from an unusual run of bad luck.

House Darry for example had to work very hard to protect any shipments of goods that traveled to or from their territory. For some reason a band of bandits had established themselves in the area around the Trident and were very good at evading the patrols of House Darry's guards.

Carl smirked every time Lord Darry came complaining to him about his lost shipments and demand that more guards from House Tully be sent to help patrol the area. He especially enjoyed the look on his face when he threw Lord Darry's own words from several years ago back in his face.

Back then it had been House Tully's goods that were stolen by bandits, and they were asking for help from the various Lords that were oath bound to them. But since House Tully was stretched thin between the various Houses that were attacking them, they didn't have any leverage necessary to force compliance.

"My guards are stretched far too thin as it is. I'm afraid you'll have to raise the levies yourself. It is your own lands, how can you not have control over them? It wouldn't be right for me to interfere in the governance of your own lands, after all. You seem to be a bit stressed out, Lord Darry. Are you sure you're up to the responsibilities of your station?" Carl insincerely asked with great concern for Lord Darry, silently laughing at the sound of grinding teeth as he was assured that he was just fine.

After interrogating those Darry men that had attacked him and Lyanna when they were on the way back from Harrenhal before the war broke out, Carl had discovered that House Darry had been quietly supporting groups of "bandits". The guards leaked the information that the bandits were really Darry guardsmen, ordered to steal Tully goods in order to damage their finances and weaken House Tully.

Needless to say, Carl wasn't very pleased with the underhanded methods House Darry had taken to undermine the Tully's position as Lord Paramount of the Trident. Just because House Darry was located on the Trident, they felt they were the ones who deserved the Lord Paramount of the Trident title, so they had been doing everything they could to undermine and overthrow House Tully.

Once Carl had found out the duplicitous actions of House Darry, aside from sponsoring his own "bandit campaign" in retaliation, he had launched an investigation into which houses of the Riverlands were actively undermining House Tully. The five houses that were actively acting against the Tullys were Darry, Goodbrook, Lychester, Mooton, and Ryger.

Riverrun, the seat of House Tully, was located along the Red Fork in the west, near the border with the Westerlands. Their location along the Red Fork gave them a good position to engage in shipping and trade. But their goods inevitably ended up going through many other house's lands before arriving at their destinations, which made them vulnerable to banditry and "passage fees".

House Darry was located to the east of Riverrun, at the Trident where the Red, Blue, and Green Forks met. Their central location in shipping gave them massive profits and also an inflated pride and ego.

House Goodbrook was located to the south east of Riverrun, near the God's Eye Lake, where the Isle of Faces was located. A tributary of the Blackwater Rush River runs from the southern part of the lake to the Blackwater Rush River, which runs east to Blackwater Bay, and west through The Reach and The Westerlands. They have plenty of options for shipping that allows them to earn plenty of gold crowns.

House Lychester was located east and a little north of Riverrun, in between the Red and Blue Forks. The Blue Fork runs northwest up to Ironman's bay, and south east to the Trident and on to the Bay of Crabs. They too have plenty of opportunity for profit in the shipping business.

House Mooton is located at the far east of the Riverlands on the Bay of Crabs near the border with the Crownlands. Their position on the ocean gave them access to shipping and easy access to the many goods that came out of Essos, the land that was on the other side of The Narrow Sea.

And House Ryger was located in the Willow Wood that was in the south of the Riverlands near the Goldroad that runs from King's landing in the Crownlands west through the Riverlands, and all the way through the Westerlands to Casterly Rock, the seat of House Lannister, which overlooked the harbor of Lannisport on the Sunset Sea.

Each of these houses that were working to undermine and replace House Tully were located in very strategic locations for shipping concerns, and their greed and pride drove them to desire to replace House Tully as the preeminent House of the Riverlands.

Once Carl was aware of the undercurrents and economic fighting over shipping that caused these Houses to undermine and attack his own House, he was more than able to direct his forces to counterattack effectively.

So anytime one of the Lords of these five Houses came to complain to Carl, he felt quite happy at their "misfortune". He also felt immense contempt for them. These hypocritical Lords were doing everything they could to attack and destroy House Tully, but when it happened to them they immediately came crying for help from the very House they wanted to destroy.

Carl was betting with Lyanna whether five years was enough to completely bankrupt these Lords and force them to accept direct supervision of House Tully's men to make sure their shipping could actually get to the destination, or if they would need more than five years to do so.

Meanwhile in the North, Lyanna was doing wonders for the loyal Lords and Bannermen of House Stark. She had "found" old tomes and books that described amazing farming techniques that enabled the North to begin producing surpluses of food. This allowed them to save enormous amounts of gold, since they could stockpile enough food to last through the winters that usually lasted for years, instead of relying on the shipments of food from other lands. The Reach was the biggest culprit of those who charged an arm and a leg for food during the winter, which allowed them to get rich at The North's expense.

The Stark's bannermen honored their Lord's daughter Lyanna for providing a way for them to tell be able to be independent and be able to tell the greedy southerners of The Reach to go fuck themselves.

During these two years Carl also corresponded with Jason Mallister, the heir of House Mallister of Seagard. House Mallister and House Tully were quite close, and Jason Mallister was a good and honorable man and talented knight. Carl had gotten close to him in the past, and their friendship had grown while they were working together during the war to depose the Mad King.

Now that things had calmed down, Carl was working with Jason to build up a fleet that would be based in Seagard that would patrol Ironman's Bay, keeping the Ironborn in check and protecting their shipping interests. Carl provided plenty of gold so they could build up enough ships and hire enough sailors and marines to make it happen.

Since the Mallisters were true to their oaths to House Tully, Carl was more than happy to see the House prosper and grow stronger, since they would be a strong support for his House.

Of course there were many people who were not happy with the changes that were happening in the Riverlands.

A weak House Tully that wasn't capable of taking charge of the Riverlands meant that the various Houses in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms were free to exploit the Riverlands and plunder them for all the gold they could.

The ones making the most profit off of exploiting The Riverlands were The Iron Islands, the Westerlands, The Reach, and The Crownlands. So the various Houses that were seeing a lessening of the amount of gold they could bleed the Riverlands of were all quite unhappy.

Not that Carl cared. Anytime those Houses sent a noble to complain, or wrote a strongly worded letter, it was music to his ears. It meant he was doing right by his own House, Lords, and bannermen. And he had no intention of stopping.

And anytime mysterious groups of "bandits" appeared anywhere near his lands or shipping concerns, they were swiftly dealt with in a brutal manner to serve as a warning.

His own oathbound and loyal guards were coming along quite well in their Ki training, which meant they could decimate any other force that crossed them. They were doing quite a good job of protecting his own House's interests while damaging the various Houses that were trying to exploit him.

Carl expected things to heat up in the next few years as the economic warfare escalated. He wasn't worried by anything the enemy Houses might do to attack him, since he would come out ahead.

But at the moment, he had other things to focus on. Both Lyanna and Lysa had turned 18. His wedding was going to be held in the next week, and a month later his sister Lysa would be wed to Lord Stefen Corbray. He was a relatively young Lord of the Vale of Arryn whose seat was located at Heart's Home, on the Bay of the Narrow Sea.

Carl had done an in depth investigation and scanned the young man's mind and found that he was a decent Lord that would treat his little sister right. And his sister seemed to be quite smitten with the young Lord, so it was a good match. He would definitely ensure that Stefen Corbray's economic situation continued to improve so that he could provide a good life for Lysa.

And now that Edmure was 16, Carl had convinced Hoster to give him the same chance at training that he had given Carl in how to govern Riverrun and The Riverlands. It was Carl's sneaky way of passing off his work to his younger brother and prepare him to rule his own lands.

One of the things that surprised Carl at first was that Lyanna had wanted King Rhaegar to come to their wedding. Something about showing the bastard just what he was missing out on so that he would be tormented more, thinking of how far he had fallen, and would never have her, and other such cruel things.

Carl just laughingly agreed. If she wanted to torment the crazy prophecy seeking Targaryen, he didn't mind. Even if Rhaegar ended up going crazy and becoming useless as a puppet king, there were plenty of others to sit on the Iron Throne in his place.

In the beginning of 284 AC Daenerys Targaryen had been born to Rhaella Targaryen. With the addition of the little Princess, there were now three children of the Mad King. Rhaegar, Viserys (who was 8 this year), and Daenerys (just born this year).

Rhaegar had two children of his own. Little Princess Rhaenys who was 4, and Little Prince Aegon who was 2.

Carl had arranged for the servants and tutors of the younger members of the Royal family to be HFRs that would teach the young ones well so that they wouldn't grow up to be mad incestuous crazies that he would have to do something about.

Viserys, at the beginning of the war, was only a 6 year old entitled little shit. He had tried hard to complain to his mother, his brother via letter, and anyone who would listen about the HFR servants that dared to tell him "no" or discipline him when he did something wrong.

Carl would laugh and laugh when he saw the reports about the little brat's whining. Eventually, after a year of discipline and ordered lessons, the little entitled prince was finally learning to grow out of it. Since no one ever took his complaints seriously, he had finally begun accepting his new reality. He was finally learning the lessons he needed to, attending the martial practice yard, and working to be a Lord that would do right by his people.

Of course those weren't his motivations at first. At first it was only to avoid being disciplined. But now, especially with the stories of admirable Lords and Knights that had livened up his life, Viserys had a goal to work towards. And he was shaping up into a decent human being.

Riverrun was lively the day of his wedding. The Starks had come down from The North to attend. Carl got to spend some time with his newly born nephew, Robb Stark, the fussy little wolf cub.

When Catelyn had given birth to the young Stark Heir and named him Robb, Carl was thinking that the world plot was still trying to arrange certain things the same as it would be in the original story. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but he would have to keep an eye out for random people trying to fill in the place of Varys or Baelish, since he had made sure those two players were out of the game.

So while his two sisters were enthusiastically organizing his wedding decorations and dressing his future wife up in finery, Carl's bride was simply tolerating her new goodsisters with good humor. In the past two years as Lyanna spent time with Catelyn and Lysa, she had come to enjoy their company, even if she didn't hardly share anything in common with them. They were family and that was the important thing.

Finally the wedding ceremony was held. The hall was filled with Carl's family, extended family, friends, and allies. Lord Hoster Tully stood on one side with Lord Rickard Stark. Brandon and Catelyn stood by with their son, Robb. Eddard Stark and his newly wed wife Ashara Stark nee Dayne seemed to not be capable of seeing anything but each other's eyes, if the way they gazed soulfully at each other was any indication.

Lysa Tully and her fiancé Stefen Corbray looked like they fit together quite well. Edmure Tully, Tyrion Lannister, and Benjen Stark stood together, whispering and eyeing the pretty ladies present.

Even Robert Baratheon had managed to show up to offer his honest respects. Carl could see a hint of regret in his eyes when the man looked toward Lyanna, but it was overshadowed by his friendliness and well wishes. Carl could only be happy that cp purchased perks seemed to work so well. From what he gathered, even 15 years later Robert would have still been mourning Lyanna in the original storyline. The fact that Carl could change so much of the people's lives here, and hopefully make his family and friend's lives better, was a source of comfort for him.

Carl smiled to see his beautiful bride walking up the aisle towards him. Lyanna really was a treasure to him. He had lived for quite a few years by this point. Seeing how fresh and enthusiastic Lyanna was about everything she learned was something that helped rekindle that sense of amazement and awe in the wonder of magic and technology in Carl.

Not to mention the fact that he had so many family members and friends present made Carl feel a pocket of warmth glow in his heart. This was a special time for them.

Soon the ceremony was complete and the feast and party begun. Aside from saving a dance each for his sisters, Carl only danced with Lyanna, as was proper as a newlywed man.

Later on some of the drunk young men in the feast called out for the bedding ceremony. It was a rowdy tradition where the men would pick up the new bride and strip her as they carried her to the bed chambers. The women would do the same for the groom.

But to the surprise of everyone there, and to the intense disappointment of the drunk young men, no one could find the bride and groom to carry out the bedding tradition.

Unseen to anyone there, in a corner of the banquet hall, Carl was hugging Lyanna from behind while they were under an S.E.P. field.

"None of them deserve to see my delectable wife on our wedding night." Carl possessively growled while he began kissing Lyanna's neck.

"Oh, is that so? And you think I would let any of those sows near my man?" Lyanna challengingly stated.

"They can only dream. My Northern Wolf will chase them away for me, won't she?"

Lyanna's response was decidedly non-verbal, which caused Carl to waste no more time in teleporting the two of them to their bed for a long night of showing each other how much they loved each other. How much they very enthusiastically loved each other. All night long.