The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Tywin Lannister had, of course, long heard of the witch woman's reputation.

But the witch woman did not give prophecies easily, and many nobles who sought her out were turned away.

Lord Tywin had never been fond of blood mages.

The witch woman was a blood mage.

Her prophecies came from the blood of those who sought them.

The Duke's twenty years as Hand and sixteen years of iron-fisted rule over the Westerlands made him lean more towards the science of maesters and his own strategies.

However, there was no harm in asking the witch woman about things that were unpredictable.

Those chosen by the gods and who studied the mysteries, aside from a few charlatans, each possessed unique and arcane abilities.

Even if Lord Tywin didn't take it seriously, he understood this clearly.

There were many who used the mysteries to deceive, but the witch woman was definitely not one of them.

She came from the East and was a true witch.

Her deceased husband was a spice merchant, a wealthy Westerlands merchant, who had encountered the witch woman while doing business in Essos when he was young, and, captivated by her beauty, spent a fortune to bring her back, settling in Lannisport and marrying her.

Because of the passage of time, the witch woman's real name was no longer known; the Mountain had asked his maternal grandmother, but whether the witch woman herself refused to say or had forgotten, she did not reveal her real name from her youth.

Since becoming a witch, a person's name had been offered to the gods, and the witch woman's name had also been offered to the gods; it was normal to not recall or to refuse to recall.

After buying five ships of iron ore at the original price, the Duke kindly comforted the young Gran Goodbrother, who had been threatened with death, and asked him to tell his father, Gorold Goodbrother, that if the iron ore price didn't rise again, they would still be good friends. If the iron ore continued to rise in price, the Duke would cut off the Westerlands' supply of various necessities to the Iron Islands and inform the coastal lords through the King, so that everyone would uniformly raise the prices of necessities sold to the Iron Islands.

In short, the price of iron ore from the Iron Islands should stop here and never rise again. Otherwise, Lord Tywin would never agree.

Gran Goodbrother agreed.

The Ironborn who came this time were completely without arrogance, and three Ironborn were killed at the port docks of Casterly Rock by an ordinary civilian in the Westerlands with some mental instability at an unbelievable speed.

This was a blatant humiliation to the Ironborn.

This was also a very strong signal from the Westerlands to the Ironborn.

Lord Tywin was not a weak man; on the contrary, his character was as hard as the black rock of Casterly Rock.

Since the Mountain and his brothers had created a justifiable 'killing' incident, the Duke went along with it, and after denouncing the Ironborn's lawlessness, bought five ships of iron ore and offered a few false words of comfort to the teenage boy. Gran Goodbrother was the youngest of Gorold Goodbrother's triplet sons. His character was not as fierce as his two older brothers, but he was more rational.

However, in the eyes of the Ironborn, rationality was weakness.

However, they couldn't be strong either; even if they were all beaten to death, it was because they had first harassed the women of the Westerlands.

After this incident, after the Mountain's repeated persuasion, three days later, Lord Tywin, with his five hundred elite cavalry, arrived at Clegane village in a mighty procession with the Mountain.

Naturally, the Duke's archmaester, Pycelle, was also in attendance.

Baelon Butterwell, the sword instructor of Casterly Rock—Sandor Clegane, the Hound's sword teacher, and also Gregor Clegane's sword enlightenment teacher—led five centurions, and the five centurions led five hundred elite cavalry.

The Duke hadn't traveled in a long time, so he took it as an opportunity to go out for a walk and relax.

Since his eldest daughter, Cersei Lannister, had married into the royal palace, and his most hopeful son, Jaime Lannister, had also entered the royal palace, sixteen years had passed in the blink of an eye, and Jaime Lannister was still doing that damn Kingsguard.

The Duke had always had a feeling of depression in his heart, which was that Casterly Rock in the Westerlands had no successor.

Jaime was the best candidate, but that handsome boy made it clear that he would never return to inherit Casterly Rock; he would be a Kingsguard for life.

Being a Kingsguard meant not being able to marry, not being able to have children, not being able to inherit, not being able to own land, not being able to possess personal wealth, and not being able to enjoy all the prosperity of the world, just like an ascetic monk; the only thing they possessed was the highest honor among knights: glory and dedication, loyalty and iron blood.

A knight was the highest honor that all warriors longed to obtain, and the Kingsguard was the highest honor that all knights longed to obtain.

Only the most outstanding knights were qualified to become Kingsguard.

Jaime gave up the right of inheritance for that damn honor, which became a hidden wound in Tywin's heart, which had never healed, and the wound deepened year by year.

The only antidote was to persuade Jaime to abandon the honor of that damn Kingsguard and return to Casterly Rock to accept the inheritance.

Although the Kingsguard was a lifetime position, being dismissed by the King was the greatest humiliation to a knight, but for Lord Tywin, as long as he could get Jaime back, he could accept even greater humiliation. Moreover, this so-called humiliation was worthless in the Duke's eyes.

Lord Tywin had not smiled for twenty-five years, and there were quite a few unresolved matters piled up in his heart.

In this accompanying team, his eldest younger brother, Kevan Lannister, the Minister of Salt, was also present.

Snow salt production had formed a factory and assembly line operation, and began to supply the entire Westerlands. Snow salt was sent out, and coins flowed back; this was Gregor Clegane's contribution.

When the snow salt production in the Westerlands increased, Tywin's second step was to sell it at a high price to the other side of the Narrow Sea, and not to any other place in the country. The trade routes of Lannisport could easily solve this sales problem.

This greatly reduced Tywin's anxiety about the disappearance of the gold mine.

This was also Gregor Clegane's contribution. Tywin knew this very well, but he would never praise him even a single word in front of the Mountain.

The Mountain could not be praised; he was already arrogant enough, the most unruly of all the nobles in the Westerlands, so the Duke believed that he could only be severely reprimanded and rigorously disciplined.

*

Although the Clegane's sept was much smaller than the sept of Casterly Rock, it had everything it should have.

The Duke sat down in front of the witch woman.

The witch woman did not wait for the Duke in front of the statues of the Seven Gods; instead, after the Duke and the maester, Kevan, Baelon, and the five centurions paid their respects to the statues of the Seven Gods, they came to the witch woman's room and requested an audience.

On this point, Cersei sixteen years ago was more domineering and fierce than the Duke; she directly broke into the witch woman's room, threatening that if the witch woman did not give her a prophecy, she would have her family's guards hang the witch woman.

The Duke was greeted inside by the witch woman's assistant.

The witch woman's assistant was named Jeyne Westerling.

The newly married Jeyne returned to Clegane village and became her maternal grandmother's apothecary assistant and a student of mystical research, but Jeyne herself did not know. She thought that until her maternal grandmother found a student, she was just helping her maternal grandmother with some trivial matters within her ability.