Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Title: Love & Betrayal 

....

-Arthur III-

As the eyes of the woman sitting in the chair opened wide. She looked at me in panic and looked at my drawn sword, then she started yelling. "GET OUT OF HERE!!" 

Maggy got out of her chair and came towards me. Intending to push me out of her shack, in response to that I just put my sword back in its sheath and grabbed the woman's hands by her wrists.

"Excuse me, my lady," I apologized to her, "I didn't mean to frighten you. I was searching for an evil witch in these parts. You wouldn't happen to know where she lives, do you?" I asked her, feigning ignorance.

Once she heard that, Maggie looked me in the eyes and I held her gaze, an unknown emotion passed her eyes before she calmed down. Since it seemed like she wasn't going to attack me, I let go of her hands.

She turned around and sat down on her chair."Well, you are looking at her boy."

As expected, magicians were also humans. There was no need to fear them, after all, they were human… meaning they could also be deceived. 

I just smiled at her gently. "That is funny my lady. But I am searching for a witch. I heard that she hunted children. Also, my lady... living here alone in the woods is not safe."

She then was about to laugh but covered her mouth with her hand. 

'That is right, be entertained you whòre. Think of me as a naive young man.' I thought but didn't show that in my face and just looked at her worried. "Are you okay my lady?"

"hehehehe," small chuckles and quiet laughs escaped her as she tried to hold back.

"Are you okay?" I asked her again, with a worried look on my face. Trying to display how naive I was.

When Maggie heard what I said that her body shook uncontrollably and she couldn't hold back any longer. "HAHAHAHAHA." She just burst out laughing. 

Then she calmed down but still with a smile on her face. "You are entertaining, pretty boy."

I had to hold my breath to force my face 

to blush a little, "Thank you for the compliment my lady but I am a knight, not a boy."

Her smirk widened even more once she heard that as she played with her hair and her hand was at the corner of her lips. 

Maggie then got up and came close to me and put one of her hands on my cheek.

I had to hold myself back from stabbing her in the throat with my knife. 

Her face got closer to mine and she whispered in my ear seductively. "Yeah but... have you ever even had a woman BOY."

She said the last word passionately. But she wasn't wrong, in the world I was still a vɨrġɨn… there were many reasons for it. The most important thing was that I didn't want a bastard yet.  That would ruin my plans. I also was not a person in my first life who can't control himself in front of women. Keeping those urges in control was easy, I just used my hand if necessary.

Anyway, now let my journey to learning magic begin.

….

….

The Defiance of Duskendale was what everyone was speaking about now. It has been a year since I and Maggie started our… friendship. I am now sixteen years old, pretty much an ȧduŀt ready for marriage on this world's terms. 

I have gotten to know Lannisport better this past year and was eating dinner at one of the high-end restaurants. As I ate some steak, my mind couldn't help but wonder about my plans and how learning from people's mistakes will be crucial to survival.

.

I was planning to stay far away from the Duskendale and the Crownlands. It's not my time to step into the spotlight yet. I didn't have enough power to do anything and only fools do things on blind hope and without thinking them through. Robb Stark won every battle he fought, but he lost terribly in the end. Why? Because he didn't think things through, he was a man who let those around him dictate what he was and what he wanted. His subordinates made him King of the North… that right there killed Robb, it's the moment he became a dead man walking. Didn't he think about Stannis? His bannermen? Who would sell him food if he isolated the North from the rest of the Realm? 

Also, why the hell would he marry some no-name girl? Was it love? Hell no! He was a teen when he got married, they could have likely grown distant years later. That was how relationships work, plus if they had survived, Robb would be under a lot of stress. War was one thing but governing a huge realm is a whole other deal.

His army was without rations, he didn't allow pillaging like the Lannisters, he wanted to keep his honor so bad. What did that honor do in the end? Kill his wife and unborn child, his mother's throat slit, his sister brutally rȧpėd by Ramsey. All that for what? 

Well, it wasn't all his fault, Ned was up there too. Raising his son to be honorable after what happened to his father and brother? Honor was what got them burned by the Mad King.

I shook my head out of these thoughts, in the show I liked the Starks quite a lot. Even admired the likes of Eddard and Robb, loved their characters. But here, when this all became reality. Yeah, it became a whole other deal.

*sigh* 

If I remember correctly, the incident of Duskendale was about how Lord Darkly of Duskendale refused to pay his taxes, Aerys resolved to deal with the problem himself without Tywin's aid and was captured like the stupid King he was because he went into the home of a desperate man to talk things out. No wonder he will get overthrown in a rebellion that bȧrėly lasts one year. The Rebellion had everything against Robert's side, if only Aerys was sane he could have crushed them. 

Well enough of boring stories that probably won't lead me anywhere. The real problem was how could I turn this Duskendale incident into something profitable.

As I racked my brains on this, I couldn't come up with something on the less dangerous side. So in the end, I decided to not take part in this. After all, Aerys could see this as me being part of the plan because of my profiting. 

Yeah… I ain't reckless enough to do something like that. The Mad King even knowing that I exist at all would be a bad idea. If something like that happened, I will be taking the fastest ship and going to Essos. Probably somewhere around Vaes Dothrak, that place would be good to lay down till the Rebellion. After all, no one can bear steel in there, and every Dothraki will be acting as my guard because as soon as someone pulls out steel they will be killed.

Damn, why am I even thinking about escape plans? Hopefully, I don't have to do something like that.

After all, during the year, I participated in any Tourney that was available in the Westerlands. They are mostly small ones with the reward being around fifty or a hundred Gold Dragons. I also won every one of them, so I got a little fame for myself. 

Of course, the winnings weren't always honest… okay, no need to lie to myself. Most of my wins weren't honest, I was good with a sword, but that's about it, I wasn't Arthur Dayne of the Kingsguard. Almost every Tourney that I took part in, my strong opponents. Like the Mountain, the man is a beast and I would never fight him in a field that would resemble a fair fight.

The last time I 'fought' him, he had enough laxatives in his body to put down five men. He fought well and got defeated even better by me. That was when people started noticing me after I easily took down the Mountain.

The serving girls will do a lot for a Gold Dragon, and I mean more than serving people under the table. No one would suspect dear Bessie to do anything like that.

Also, even the way I fight against some skilled knights plays to my advantage. The best tactic against any knight in armor, which was pretty much every knight. 

I learned that the best strategy was to throw dirt or sand at their helmet, it will get through their holes in armor that they use to see. Then they can't scratch eyes due to the helmet, but my technique doesn't end this as a kick between the legs as hard as I can. That will send even the strongest man tumbling on the ground. Now the enemy is blinded and on their knees, sure, some Knights might boast about their fearsome skills with a sword. But none of them would have a high chance of beating me in a fight, especially when I use my technique for the first time.

In the end, by using these tactics I had won every one of those Tourneys. Sometimes by secretly putting a poison that dulled the senses in my enemy's drink when I was meant to fight against an opponent I wasn't confident in winning. Having to use poison on some Tourneys that I didn't take part in were complicated phases. After all, this had to be done for no suspicion to raise about my involvement in the matter. 

The honorable Ser Arthur would never do something as dishonorable as use poison and cheat in most of his fights. – that's what I wanted people to think about me.

Also, I made quite a name for myself as a knight. They call me 'The Undefeated' Arthur Frey. More like a joke in the beginning because I kept betting on myself to win. But eventually, it started becoming a Legend.

I had a hand in the rumors too of course. After all, I never planned to risk my life for glory, rather preferred the smart way of doing things. Gold can be amazing for such things, people won't care if those rumors are true or not and they won't be able to refute them anyway so it didn't matter anyway.

Though they have a truth to them, I never lost in any melee fights or any archery tourneys. 

I haven't participated in any jousting yet. Though I was training my horse riding skills in preparation for this.

After all, I was a lover of fanatical stories. Something like being called 'The Undefeated' brings me great pŀėȧsurė. Not enough to get me hard on my success but still able to get me semi-hard.

Also, Maggy had been convinced to teach me Blood Magic in the end. Though it still took quite some time to do so and required a heavy amount of seduction. She saw magic as a burden that people hated her for. So because I 'loved' her I will bear this 'burden' together with her.

She taught me Blood Magic and even a little Divination, though the latter was like a buggy game and a double-edged sword. Knowing the future sometimes might set in in stone as your fate, and trying to avoid your fate would complete it.

Future sight sometimes doesn't even work, hell, it's also confusing as hell too like riddles and representations. As a man who doesn't believe in superstition, this branch of Magic was quite hard to change my mindset to suit it. 

Usually, I forget it after reading someone's fate, I read Maggy's once since one can't read his own fate. What I saw was a bloodied hawk tearing out her heart, but the same bloodied hawk couldn't fly anymore as it suddenly aged and was thrown in the water by an unseen bird. 

What did that mean? I have no idea, though I suspected that it showed Maggy's death. But it could mean heartbreak or something similar.

But I told Maggie a whole different thing, that I saw a frog swimming happily in the water accompanied by a lot of larvae.

I played with my food absentmindedly as my mind went into these thoughts. By now I had learned everything I could from Maggy, so it doesn't matter if she died.

Magic was pretty bad in this world, and nowhere near as useful as I hoped it would be. In battle, it didn't offer any advantage whatsoever. Plus no one must learn of it or all of my plans would be ruined, no one liked a Magic-User, not even other magic users.

Probably would get burned to death by some religious guy, or a Lord might use my possession of magic as a reason to kill me.

By now Maggy no longer had anything to teach me anymore. I could confidently say that my magic usage would be better than hers. But I use the thing very sparingly, as magic never came for free. Magic required sacrifice. Sure there might be some loopholes in Divination Magic that I could use, but in no way will I try to use them. Who knows what the repercussions of using them might be. Some more experimentation is needed to see how this thing could be used to my advantage. Because so far magic won't be too much of an advantage in anything.

I and Maggy fuċkėd a lot of times. Her husband had an 'accident', he got too drunk one night, fell on the sea and drowned. Really tragic that one, but he had to go because divorces aren't a thing in this world.

Also better to visit Maggy one last time before I had to continue with my plans. A certain little gold kitten should have visited Maggy or will visit her soon. 

The hardest thing in learning magic from Maggy is to keep people from suspecting me of knowing it or finding out about it. After all, a secret is no longer one if two people know about it.

"Would you like some ale?" A serving girl asked softly. She was smiling at me sweetly, and she had quite a pretty face and long blonde hair. This was very common in Lannisport. 

I smiled at her, "No, thank you. Water will be good enough."

She nodded, though I could see the disappointment in her eyes. Both because I didn't get the ale and never even made any signs of wanting to screw her brains out. I wouldn't mind doing so, but sėx can wait, I have more important things than my ŀust. If Maggy found out that I did something like being unfaithful to her it would ruin my plans.

Doing something like that just to get a new tight hole to fit my junk in would be the height of stupidity.

I got up and left, not waiting for the water. Still, though, I did leave a tip for the waitress. 

....

When I went back to Maggy's hut I found her as always in her chair knitting something.

She noticed that I was back and smiled lovingly at me. 

"Welcome home," she greeted me.

I just looked at her and asked. "So anything new?"

She stopped knitting. "Yeah, I am worried that I might have to move away... I told the fate of a Lannister girl. I think it was bad because she splashed me with a drink on my face and ran away."

Oh, so it was a prophecy that Maggy said but couldn't remember. 

I got close and kneeled in front of her. I gently grasp her face in my hands. "So you are not hurt, right?"

She smirked at my worried face and leaned her head on my palms, feeling safe in them. "I wouldn't mind being splashed a couple times more just to see you make this face."

I shook my head and smiled. "You are being silly, the last thing I would want is you being hurt."

Her gaze caught my eyes and a mischievous glint appeared in them. 

"Mag, you haven't told anyone about me, have you?" I asked her in a serious tone.

"Of course not," Maggy answered without missing a beat.

I then gave her a deep one-armed hug and I put my other arm behind my back. I took out a knife which I held in my lower back. And keep my arm behind my back.

"I see."

*Slash*

Then I quickly slashed her throat. 

Blood spilled out of her throat, her eyes wide as she looked at me in shock, betrayal, and sadness with a smidgen of anger... it seems like she is in shock... oh well... 

I ready my knife again.

*stab*

And I stab again in her eye socket and twist it... killing her. 

I was not going to leave any loose ends. Maybe the chance might have been low due to the love she held for me… but why take the risk?

....