111: Chapter 111 Seven Bell Rings

Morning. King's Landing. Flea Bottom.

Dawn had just broken—grayish-white morning light leaked through the cracks in the crooked roofs.

The sound of a bell suddenly rang out.

It was not the bell of the Great Sept of Baelor—that bell had been blown to pieces by wildfire, and the remains of the bell tower still tilted beside the ruins.

It was the bell of the sept inside the Red Keep.

Cast of bronze, its sound was sharper and higher than the bell of the Great Sept of Baelor, like a knife scraping across the sky over King's Landing.

It tolled seven times in succession.

The traditional signal for the royal family of Westeros to announce a major wedding—by the grace of the Seven, seven tolls of the bell.

The bell echoed through the narrow alleys of Flea Bottom, startling the pigeons on the roofs into flight.

The commoners of Flea Bottom poked their heads out from doors and windows.

An old fishmonger set down her basket, wiped her hands on her apron, and gazed toward the Red Keep—she was still clutching a scaling knife in her hand.

A barefoot child stopped running at the alley entrance, looked up at the sky, as if waiting for something to fall from above.

Drogon opened his eyes abruptly in the attic room of the Anvil and Bed inn.

He had slept for less than two hours after finalizing the plan with Tyrion last night.

The bell sound woke him completely—not just a noise, but the kind of waking up like being stabbed in the back with a knife.

He rolled out of bed, spread the map of King's Landing on the table, and quickly marked the source of the bell sound with a charcoal pencil—the Red Keep.

System pop-up.

"Seven tolls of the Red Keep's sept bell—royal wedding announcement. According to Varys's intelligence, this wedding announcement is highly likely to be the marriage between Sansa Stark and some cadet branch of the Lannister family.

The wedding date is usually three to five days after the announcement.

The time window for the host to dismantle the main wildfire tanks has been compressed to—at the latest, tomorrow late night.

Cersei will definitely strengthen the defenses of the Red Keep before the wedding, and the secret passages may be additionally sealed.

Also—after the wedding announcement, the entire city will enter a celebratory period, and the patrol density of the Gold Cloaks will increase by at least double."

"Dismantle the main tanks tomorrow late night.

Tonight, survey the secret passage entrance with the Tyrell miners—how deep the rubble is, whether it can be cleared within four hours, must be determined tonight.

Tell Tyrion—the plan is advanced. Can't wait any longer."

He was about to go out when the apprentice from the blacksmith shop downstairs suddenly ran upstairs.

His footsteps thudded on the wooden stairs, each step sounding like a drum beat.

He handed him a tiny folded note—the note was sealed with the golden rose wax seal of House Tyrell.

It was an urgent letter from Margaery.

He unfolded it. Missandei code, system automatically translated.

"The wedding announcement has been issued. The bride is not me—it is Sansa Stark. The groom is Tyrion's cousin. Joffrey has declared within the Red Keep—he wants to use Sansa at the wedding as a symbol of 'the traitorous House Stark submitting to the iron throne'.

Sansa's handmaid told me she did not leave her room this morning. I am forbidden from approaching her. Cersei's order. Please, as soon as possible. This is more urgent than the wildfire."

2

Drogon clutched the note in his palm.

His knuckles turned slightly white from excessive force—in full human form, muscle strength is suppressed, and his grip is much weaker than normal, but the note was still crumpled into a small ball, its edges piercing into his palm.

He took a deep breath and brought the paper ball close to the flame of the candle stub on the table.

The note curled, blackened, and turned to ash in the flame—the golden rose wax seal flashed with a golden light in the fire, then vanished.

Then he put on his cloak and tightened the spare dagger he had taken from the Tyrell Mansion at his waist.

It was not valyrian steel, but it had been poisoned.

This was a habit of the Dothraki.

White Mane had taught him—outside the city of Yunkai, she had used this very dagger to cut her own reins.

System pop-up. Yellow text.

"Warning. Detected that the host's murderous intent toward Joffrey Baratheon has risen sharply.

Destructive desire has risen from twenty percent to—thirty-one percent.

In full human form, destructive desire is suppressed by half, but the current value has exceeded the suppression threshold for full human form.

The host's tail is at risk of automatically lifting the suppression—risk index: high.

Suggestion: Before seeing Joffrey, do not approach the Red Keep."

"I will not see him. I will wait until tomorrow night.

After dismantling the main wildfire tanks tomorrow night—all fifty-six tanks of wildfire under the Red Keep will be depressurized.

Then I will go to save people. If I run into him while saving people—System, can you calculate the pros and cons of killing him for the plan."

"The death of Joffrey Baratheon will cause the maximum political blow to Cersei—but it will also cause her to fall into a completely unpredictable state of madness.

If Joffrey dies before the wildfire is dismantled, Cersei is highly likely to detonate the wildfire early or impose martial law on King's Landing, causing the dismantling plan to be impossible to execute.

If Joffrey dies after the wildfire is dismantled but before Sansa escapes—the Red Keep will enter the highest level of martial law before the wedding, and Sansa's escape window will be completely closed.

Optimal solution: Joffrey dies after Sansa escapes and when the siege begins.

At that time, his death will maximize the blow to the morale of the Lannister army—and the host can legally kill him during the siege.

After killing him, you can also legally confiscate his personal property—according to system detection, Joffrey's personal property includes a decorative valyrian steel dagger, authentic, inlaid with rubies, once used at Robert Baratheon's coronation ceremony.

Its value is roughly equivalent to an entire chest of gold coins in the host's Meereen treasury."

"...Are you using the greed instinct to soothe my destructive desire?"

"Yes. Is it effective?"

"...A little."

He retied the dagger.

He took a deep breath, pushing that urge to rush into the Red Keep right now and tear Joffrey apart back into the deepest part of his chest—that is where the destructive desire and the greed instinct live together.

The two of them are currently consuming each other, like two trapped beasts biting at each other in the same cage.

He turned around, pushed open the door, and walked toward Flea Bottom.