Chapter 34: Mentoring is not Grooming

113 AC

Royal Apartments, Maegor's Holdfast

Red Keep, King's Landing

"Alright then, let us go to the next situation," I said as I continued my class on 'how-not-to-get-killed-and-to-rule-well' for Rhaenyra who cutely huffed and pouted but didn't protest, she knew how to be a good student.

"You have captured the capital city from the pretender though regretfully, he has escaped your grasp, the rest of the realm is divided between yourself and the pretender, and your forces are off fighting for you, unfortunately, the enemy has made off with the treasury which means that you have no money to fund your war effort and in their retreat, the enemy has burnt the granaries and the fields and with winter soon approaching, the situation in the city is dire and rationing is instituted and all this leads to widespread discontent and anger, what do you do?" I posed a question in front of her which was a carbon copy of what she had to face in the OTL, hopefully, this will lead her to make better decisions provided I weed out the bad ones.

Before she can open her mouth, I close one of her options beforehand, "And no using dragons, learn to solve problems without dragons."

She is put out with that obstruction of her powers but other than the appropriate protest she thinks hard on the matter before saying, "I could raise taxes to fund the war effort," I cut her off before she can continue on that horrendous path.

"The people do not like your new taxes, they rise in rebellion, overpower your guards, lynch you, and hand the city over to the pretender on a silver platter," I bluntly tell her which leads to a face of utter shock. "Try again and better yet what will you do when the populace starts to riot and remember, no dragons," I tell her, picking an apple from the fruit bowl.

She hesitantly begins, "I could order reinforcements from my forces in the field."

"What if they don't reach on time? And this hoping that there are forces that are available to come to your aid." I question back before taking a bite from the apple which causes her to sigh in frustration.

"I could flee the city and go to a loyalists stronghold and link up with my forces before taking back the city," She replies cautiously after thinking for some time.

"And what if your retinue is caught fleeing the city by the rioters or worse by the pretender's supporters outside the city before you reach safety, they will send your head to the pretender and your cause will fall apart then and there," I nonchalantly answer before leaning back on my chair.

She gets even more frustrated by the situation before her and she exasperatedly blurts out, "And what will you do better if you are in my situation?"

"Well for starters I wouldn't be in such a situation in the first place," I replied putting the apple down. Before she could explode at me I asked, "What is the first step you take when you are fighting a war?"

"Assemble your allies and marshal your armies? She replies doubtfully as if it is the obvious thing.

"Wrong, you won't do any of that first, the first thing you do is to approach a bank and get a loan for the war effort, it doesn't matter if your coffers are full, for in a war anything unexpected can happen and nobody knows for how long a war can last and for that having extra money is useful because unless you have Casterly Rock inside your pocket, you will be at a disadvantage sooner or later because the money will run out eventually, having someone willing to loan you money is necessary for the war."

"What about paying the loan back? Surely it must be a massive amount by the end of the war," Rhaenyra raises the question of repayment to which I nod.

"True, you will have to pay it back but you don't have to pay it back in a single installment nor do you have to pay it immediately, once the war is over and the winter passes and spring and summer roll around, the economy recovers and the treasury starts to be filled yet again, and when it comes to banks and monarchs, the loans are paid off monthly or maybe yearly, depends on how you have negotiated and no bank would want a monarch to pay off their loans in a single installment anyway, for they would prefer to keep a king or queen in their pockets for as long as possible." Rhaenyra nods in understanding, she may have learned the basics of administration from her time in the Small Council but the finesse of statecraft and economics is yet to kick in.

I went back to the original question after I finished my apple, "After I capture the city, I will make it a point to hunt down every single would-be troublemaker and place their heads on spikes, and when I say every troublemaker I don't mean every man woman, or child who dares to breathe resistance but rather those who are capable of manipulating the crowd, those who can start riots by riling up the crowd, the ones who might be the pretender's contacts inside the city, they can be crazed holy men, dissatisfied merchants, brothel madams, sellswords and hedge knights who have been bought by the pretender for his cause and seek to undermine you."

"But how will I know who is a threat and since when did brothel madams become dangerous?" Rhaenyra asked bemused, she was puzzled that I named brothel madams in the danger list.

"You will be surprised by what influence a brothel madam can wield over the mindless men led by their cocks, and to find out who is a threat you need to have an efficient spy network, start by hiring an informant and then expand the number to make a chain of informants inside the city and following that a web across the city and after that, you branch out like branches of a tree out of the city and into the outside world and if you have someone whom you trust adequately for such a secretive task then put them in charge of it provided they are capable of doing so, but make no mistake those informants that you may have hired will also be hired by others who may or may not be your allies, some informants love having many masters as it means more avenues for money, so use their information carefully, don't disregard it but also don't wholly believe it."

I do not doubt that a good number of my informants work for Larys at the same time and a good number of informants that work for Otto happen to work for me whilst Larys' informants are paid to report to Otto. Otto may not be in King's Landing but he sure did leave his informants here and kept the hotline running.

As Rhaenyra ponders the concept of starting a spy network on her own I finish my apple and throw away what's left before turning back to her and then she asks me, "Why don't you ever allow me to use dragons in the situations you have placed before me? Most of these problems like the commoners rioting can be taken care of by the threat of a dragon the presence of the Dragonpit with its dragons must be more than enough to deter people from rioting."

I gave out a sigh before I replied "And what if the people decide that they would rather die by a dragon's flames rather than by the starvation that you have imposed upon them," Rhaenyra remains silent, with no reply forthcoming I continue, "The last person who thought that dragon was a deterrent was Maegor the Cruel and we all know how that turned out."

I reached forward and held Rhaenyra's hands in mine, "Nyra, you will be the first ever Queen regnant of Westeros, not a consort, every action that you take will be sharply criticized by one person or the other as proof of your inability to rule, any decision you take must be well thought-out and must be well executed, and as Queen you do not have the luxury to make impulsive decisions, and problems must not be solved by the maws of a dragon, dragons are to be used as a last resort, not the first choice."

She scoffed, "Said by the man who destroyed Myr as a first strike, you didn't even bother to send an emissary to the Triarchy before attacking, how is that not the first choice."

I shook my head, "I destroyed Myr because that was the safest option, the only other option was to get into a protracted war with the Triarchy which would result in bleeding the Seven Kingdoms dry in blood and gold and the Triarchy knew that they were pulling the dragon's tail."

She was still unconvinced so I continued, "There is a fine balance to be maintained, the balance of brutality and mercy, and with dragonriders, knowing when to burn down a city and when to spare a city is the greatest gift of all, my grandsire and Aegon the Conqueror knew that and they kept a proper balance but the exact opposite can be said of Maegor and Aenys, one was spineless coward while the other was an unceasing brute. You must be feared Rhaenyra, it is true but you must never be hated, the punishment should never exceed the threshold where instead of fear people start to hate."

"People in the Riverlands fear me that is true, from the highest lord to lowest beggar, they all fear, yet at the same time I am not hated, I am respected for I have brought peace, plenty, and prosperity to the Riverlands and Fairmarket. And remember this Rhaenyra, when your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you." I say copying Tywin Lannister, the man was a cunt and made more than a few mistakes but he was right about that.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, I asked her "Do you know why the Triarchy got so bold as to extract such ruinous tolls in the Stepstones despite knowing that Dragons ruled the Seven Kingdoms?"

Rhaenyra shook her head, "Back when the Triarchy conquered the Stepstones in the year 96 AC, the toll was a respectable one, the Triarchy wouldn't have dared to antagonize the Seven Kingdoms whilst my sire and grandsire were alive, and rode dragons, everyone knew what my father did in Tarth and what the two of them did during the War of the Hundred Candles. The Triarchy began to raise their tolls after the Great Council."

"In the eyes of the delegates from the Triarchy do you know what they saw in House Targaryen when they came to the Great Council?" Rhaenyra didn't interrupt as I continued, "They saw a family divided amongst itself, where one of the richest men of the Realm and the man who controlled half of the Royal Fleet in bitter disagreement with the King and the other half of the family, they saw an amiable and pliable man who didn't ride a dragon become chosen to become the future king, and they saw two hotheaded young men who were more likely start wars within the realm itself rather than bother the East."

"And finally they saw a once powerful king, be devoid of his wits and his strength, they believed that they could do whatever they wanted with the tolls now, they never believed that Daemon and I would do anything as long as Viserys, a man famous for avoiding conflict was king, your father failed in keeping the balance and it fell on me to bring the fear of the dragon back into the hearts and minds of the Essosi who had grown complacent."