The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 40: Peerless Beauty

(First bonus chapter for the first Helmsman of this book, 'Ai Lubao'. 1 more chapter will be added after dinner)

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Cliffrock is north of Casterly Rock, about three hundred miles away, and is also a seaside city.

The sigil of House Westerling is six white seashells on a yellow sand field. The six seashells are arranged in a triangle, one seashell in the front row, two seashells in the second row, and three seashells in the third row.

The sand and shells represent Cliffrock's location on the shores of the Sunset Sea.

The words of House Westerling are 'Honor, Not Honors'.

The Westerlings are a noble and ancient house in the Westerlands, descendants of the First Men, with an old and noble bloodline. However, as generations of Westerlings passed, the gold and silver mines within their lands were exhausted early on, and their fiefdoms were constantly shrinking due to the pressure from the surrounding powerful nobles. By the time it came to Gawen Westerling, the family's strength had completely declined, except for the ancient bloodline that could still bring some empty fame and glory to the family.

For many generations, their economic income had to rely mainly on seafood, rather than gold and silver mines.

Outside the territory of Cliffrock, there was a large area rich in gold mines, but it had nothing to do with House Westerling. To this day, that treasure land full of gold mines remains barren, and it has two names that chill the hearts of the Westerland nobles: Castamere and Tarbeck Hall.

The fief of House Reyne, the most powerful vassal of the Westerlands, was Castamere, and the territory of the great House Tarbeck was in Tarbeck Hall. Because the gold mines in their territories were too abundant, House Reyne and House Tarbeck grew stronger day by day, and their strength gradually became comparable to that of their liege lord, House Lannister. Because Duke Tywin's father was weak, House Reyne and House Tarbeck thought they had an opportunity and no longer took House Lannister seriously.

The two families, unaware of the immensity of the heavens and the earth, finally seriously offended House Lannister. So, in 261 AC, Tywin Lannister, at the young age of nineteen, led thousands of family warriors to completely eliminate the two families.

Men, women, and children of both families were all killed, leaving no one alive. In order to deter other nobles in the Westerlands, Castamere and Tarbeck Hall remain barren to this day, and Tywin has not yet enfeoffed Castamere and Tarbeck Hall to any of his vassals.

The famous song 'The Rains of Castamere', which is sung throughout the Seven Kingdoms, originated from this battle.

When Tywin was unable to break through the underground city of Castamere, he dug open the canals and flooded it, drowning everyone in Castamere. The meaning of the 'rains' in the song refers to the flooding of Castamere.

Outside the Westerling family's territory were Castamere and Tarbeck Hall, which could be described as gold everywhere, but the family did not dare to take it, watching the gold all over the ground and the family declining year after year.

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A year ago, Gregor had seen Jeyne Westerling, the eldest daughter of House Westerling, in Casterly Rock.

At that time, her beauty and demeanor shocked Casterly Rock.

Gregor, who had transmigrated, knew that Jeyne Westerling's beauty was far more beautiful than the actress in the TV series.

Jeyne came to Casterly Rock with her father, Lord Gawen Westerling. Her father, Gawen Westerling, brought his carefully cultivated eldest daughter, full of confidence, to propose marriage to House Lannister.

Tywin Lannister had a brother named Kevan Lannister, who had always been Tywin's assistant and admirer. Kevan Lannister had a son named Lancel Lannister, who was born in the same year as Jeyne Westerling. Both of them were born in 283 AC.

Lancel was handsome and worked in the royal palace as King Robert Baratheon's personal wine server. Gregor knew that Lancel was the handsome young man in the TV series who was always standing next to Robert holding a wine jug.

Jeyne was born beautiful and graceful. After the Westerling family's careful training, she became even more elegant and talented. The purpose of the great effort that Lord Gawen's family spent in cultivating their eldest daughter was to hope that the family could climb up to a great noble through her, and from then on, revitalize the family's prosperity with the wealth of their daughter.

However, Kevan Lannister was a secular nobleman who only valued wealth, which was very similar to Tywin Lannister. Jeyne's beauty and talent were impeccable, but the Westerling family was too poor and their family was too declining. It would be easy to agree to this marriage, but Lord Gawen would inevitably make constant 'assistance' requests to House Lannister because of this marriage.

Kevan Lannister, who became more stingy the more money he had, rejected the marriage.

This caused Lord Gawen to lose face and suffer a blow to his dignity. Faced with the powerful House Lannister, Lord Gawen had to take his eldest daughter Jeyne back to his Cliffrock in disgrace.

At the same time as the news of Lord Gawen's failure to marry into House Lannister spread, Jeyne Westerling's beauty and elegance also spread simultaneously throughout the Westerlands. Westerland nobles went to propose marriage one after another, but these nobles did not catch Lord Gawen's eye and were all rejected by Lord Gawen.

Jeyne Westerling was sixteen years old (by Westerosi reckoning) and had not yet married or been betrothed. In this world, she was already considered an older girl.

The reason why Jeyne was 'older' and still did not have a marriage partner was very simple. The Westerling family was an old and noble great house, and Lord Gawen Westerling looked down on ordinary nobles, but the truly powerful and wealthy great nobles looked down on the Jeyne Westerling family for being too poor.

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For Ser Gregor Clegane to want to marry Jeyne Westerling, as the number one villain in the Westerlands and the number one scoundrel in the Seven Kingdoms, was purely a fool's dream.

That was absolutely impossible!

With Lord Gawen's high aspirations and paper-thin fate, it was estimated that he would faint from anger upon hearing of this marriage.

Although the centurions, knights, and serjeants in the great training yard thought that Gregor's proposal to marry into the Westerling family was too ridiculous, no one dared to laugh out loud.

Duke Tywin said, "Ser Gregor, since you have already begun to raise your own family soldiers, then I approve you to publicly sell snow salt in the Westerlands, but you must not evade taxes. As for marriage, I will keep an eye out for suitable women from other noble families for you."

In the Seven Kingdoms, only great dukes and the king were qualified to operate salt businesses.

In this world, salt was almost as valuable as gold to ordinary families.

On this continent, salt was monopolized by the great dukes and the king. Although King Robert's laws were lenient and the handling of private salt sales was not strict, turning a blind eye to it, leading to the rampant operation of private salt, it was unbelievable to publicly grant a baronet the right to operate salt, to publicly sell it and legally.

The centurions, knights, serjeants, soldiers, and servants in the great training yard all thought they had heard wrong.

Maester Vorter was completely stunned in surprise.

"No, my lord, I only want to marry Jeyne Westerling, I am not interested in anything else," Gregor said resolutely.

He had always been impolite in his speech and was a rude person. Duke Tywin was used to it. But only Gregor dared to speak so loudly in front of Duke Tywin.