The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 36: The Debt

A/N: If the harem is the A Plot for this arc, then we can consider the Crown's debt to be the B Plot~

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"So… against all odds and despite you telling me we'd be lucky to get even one of them, both Sansa Stark and Arianne Martell have agreed to come to King's Landing to meet with me."

Axel grins cheekily at Jon as he leans back in his chair.

"What do you think it is that's attracted them? My devilish good looks or my prowess in battle?"

Giving him a long suffering look, Jon sighs and shakes his head.

"I think, my King, that you remind me more and more of your father with every passing day. You know full well that Sansa Stark is only coming because I convinced her father to send for her. As for the Princess of Dorne… I will admit, the letter announcing her imminent arrival surprised even me. It worries me as well."

Smile dropping, Axel gets a little bit more serious, his brow furrowing at that.

"What has you worried, Jon? Why even send the invitation in the first place if you didn't think she and I would make a good match?"

The Lord Hand grimaces, falling silent for a moment.

"… The Dornish have a certain reputation in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. I do not want to necessarily prejudice you against the Princess, but Dorne has a long, storied history of using poison and other underhanded and dishonorable methods to get their way. They, of course, would claim it to be good tactics and point to their unique position on Westeros as proof that their ways work, but that doesn't change the facts."

Axel frowns. The mention of poison admittedly gives him pause. He's not so foolish that he rushes to point out that he's immune to poison and therefore has nothing to fear from such things. He IS immune to poisons, as Cersei Lannister had helped him prove all throughout his life… but that doesn't mean the danger isn't real all the same.

After all, the rest of the inhabitants of the Red Keep are decidedly not immune to poison… and neither is Sansa Stark unless there's something about her that nobody knows.

He doesn't want to believe that Princess Arianne would resort to such tactics just to secure her place at his side or anything like that, but at the same time…

"Double the amount of taste testers we have in Red Keep now, before the arrival of our guests. None can complain if it's a policy that's been in place for weeks before they showed up, right?"

Jon looks surprised for a moment and then pleased, smiling and bobbing his head in Axel's direction.

"It will be done, my King. A wise and prudent course of action… and well-reasoned too."

Grinning again, Axel chuckles.

"Well, I'm not all muscle. I do have a mind to me as well, one that you've been helping nurture since long before I was King. I don't know which of these two women shall be my Queen, but I certainly won't have one gaining the position at the expense of the other's life."

That, he would be sure of. He was already tired enough of the games played in his court. Axel was coming to realize that Renly's war had honestly been something of a blessing in disguise, for all that it had ended with a single seven on seven duel rather than glorious battles and massive amounts of bloodshed.

While he'd been facing Renly, the nobles in his court had been relatively quiet, no doubt recognizing that now was not the time to irritate him. But with Renly defeated and the Realm at peace, Axel now found himself dealing with so many petty problems that it was enough to make his head swim!

For fuck's sake, just the other day he'd been called to render judgment on a minor dispute between two merchants here in King's Landing over an exotic pet of all things. One merchant claimed the animal, called a 'monkey', was his. But the other merchant also claimed to be the true owner. In the end, under Jon's advice and having listened to the two men argue for over an hour, Axel had proclaimed that he would cut the monkey in two and give each of them half.

This had caused one merchant to agree to the judgment while the other dropped to his knees and begged Axel not to do so, even saying to just give the other man the whole monkey if it meant the creature would keep his life.

That, of course, was the whole point of the test from the very beginning. The first man was arrested and fined for stealing and then doubly fined for wasting the court's time with his lies. The second man had his pet monkey returned to him. It was Jon's wisdom admittedly, but Axel was already being lauded as exceptionally wise for 'thinking of it'. Truth be told… it all just seemed so silly.

But not everything about ruling was so silly. And as Jon gives Axel a serious look, the younger man has a feeling he's not going to like what he's about to hear.

"… I've been consolidating documents and tracking down the sources of all the Crown's various debts, my King. What we managed to get from Lord Tywin was quite the coup and a huge victory for us… but the situation is still quite dire."

Axel's lips thin out and he slowly nods, listening carefully. While he did know his numbers… he didn't have the head for the complex stuff, not really. Apparently, he got that from his father. According to Jon, Robert had called it 'counting coppers' and considered it utterly beneath him to care.

After all, he was King of the Seven Kingdoms. He didn't need to care about money, he was rich… right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Axel's father had bankrupted the Realm half a dozen times over. At least six million dragons of debt. Jon was right, getting two million forgiven for the cost of one crazed Lannister woman was quite the coup. And it represented a huge amount of the Crown's debt as well. Yet…

Axel growls, clenching his hand into a fist and placing it on the table. He does not slam it down because if he did, it would break the table in two. Still, he's not happy.

"What do we do about it, Jon? How do we even start paying back such a monumental sum? I refuse to leave a single copper of debt behind for my children so please tell me you have any way for us to pay it all off in a reasonable amount of time."

Jon lets out another sigh, the older man looking quite weary.

"In my lifetime? Not a chance. But in yours? If you are frugal and careful, perhaps. I can help you set things up before I'm gone, but it will be up to you and whoever comes after me to make sure the debt continues to shrink."

Setting his jaw, Axel nods, determination blazing in his eyes.

"Then that's what we'll have to do. You don't have to worry about me after you're gone, Jon. I won't stray from the path you set me on. So… where do we begin?"

The Hand of the King smiles slightly.

"Admittedly, we've already taken the first step in that direction by sending Janos Slynt to the Wall. His corruption and greed were second to none here in King's Landing, and the City Watch mimicked his behavior. With him gone and the worst of it gone with him, we can finally start cleaning up the Goldcloaks and weeding out the other bad influences. That said, for where to go next…"

Jon hesitates before finally nodding decisively.

"Braavos, I should think. The other half of the Crown's debt, the half not owed to House Lannister, is a mixture of loans from the Iron Bank of Braavos, the Faith of the Seven, and some trading cartels based out of Tyrosh."

That was already more than Axel had known before, but as previously mentioned, he didn't have a head for numbers. Still, where his father might have gotten frustrated and told Jon to just 'deal with it', Axel knew he didn't have the same luxury. Lord Arryn wouldn't last forever, and Axel needed to at least know who the fuck his creditors were if nothing else. So he listens closely and he listens well, brow furrowed in concentration.

"However, the vast majority of that debt, some two million golden dragons and then some, is owed solely to the Iron Bank. The Faith and the Tyroshi Cartels combine to make up the majority of the last million, with much smaller loans to other individuals making up the rest. All of that pales in comparison to what we owe the Iron Bank. And with their reputation…"

Right. 'The Iron Bank will have its due'. Even Axel knew those words and he'd been raised in isolation as little more than a bastard up in the Vale all his life.

"Although…"

Axel blinks as Jon suddenly sounds troubled, his brow furrowing in consternation as he looks lost for a moment. Tilting his head to the side, the young King raps the table to pull his Hand out of his thoughts.

"What is it, Jon?"

Jolting, Jon looks up and then settles again, letting out yet another sigh.

"The numbers aren't all adding up among the smaller loans, I'm afraid. I've spoken with the Faith and some other lenders here in King's Landing and the numbers they have on their books don't quite match the numbers I have on mine. Some of them say we owe more, while still others say we owe less, strangely enough."

What? More he could understand. It could be as simple as base greed or them thinking they could get one over on him because he was a brand new King. But less? How could they possibly owe less than what they thought they did? That… that smacked of gross incompetence on someone's part and Axel's mind immediately leaps to one man in particular.

"Have you spoken to Baelish about this? What does he have to say for himself?"

Jon chuckles at that.

"Now, now Axel. I know Petyr is… well, I know he can rub someone like you the wrong way. But he's not necessarily to blame here."

Axel raises an eyebrow, baffled as to who else could be to blame.

"He's the Master of Coin, is he not?"

Inclining his head, Jon acknowledges that fact… but then also shakes his head a moment later.

"He is… but one man cannot keep track of everything, especially not large sums of money like this. Even I couldn't keep track of it all. Petyr has dozens if not hundreds of people working under him or under his direct subordinates, from clerks to auditors to tax collectors."

Axel still doesn't fully understand.

"He's still in charge of our coin though, right? He should know something about all of this!"

Here, Jon grimaces again.

"… I fear this might partially be my fault for not reigning in your father's excesses years ago, Axel. Petyr… he's done the best he could with a rather difficult situation. A King like Robert spending so damn much… and a Hand like me not doing enough to stop him. Between bringing in taxes from across Westeros and securing new lines of credit to fund Robert's expensive habits and hobbies, I imagine Petyr has more than had his work cut out for him."

Huh. That was… fair, perhaps. Was Axel giving the weaselly Master of Coin too little credit? He'd never liked the man, not from the moment that he'd met him, but Jon made it sound like that was just a vibe Petyr gave off, and that he was still good at his job all the same.

Axel could acknowledge that he was biased in this regard, so he was willing to give Jon the benefit of the doubt in regard to the other man. And at least Jon's next words made it clear that he wasn't letting Petyr completely off the hook.

"Still, you're correct that he's the Master of Coin. I intend to pair with him in the coming days to see if we can untangle this mess together and figure out just who we owe what to. In the meantime though, I would like your permission to call for the Iron Bank to send a representative here to King's Landing so that we can discuss the large sum we owe them in particular and begin making a plan to repay it in a timely manner."

He's nodding before Jon is even done speaking.

"Of course. Hell, I'll sit in on the meeting if you need me to, just so we can show the Iron Bank that we're taking this seriously. I don't intend to be my father, Jon."

Jon smiles sadly, and Axel knows that some of that sadness comes from the older man having truly loved Robert Baratheon. And yet, even someone who loved Axel's father can't deny the harm that Robert caused even with his largely 'peaceful' reign.

"I know, Axel, that probably won't be necessary though. Still, you have done nothing but make me proud so far, my King."

Axel raises his cup at that and Jon does the same, both of them taking a drink before Jon speaks up again.

"Ah, there was one other thing. Our resident Spymaster apparently has something he wants to share with us at the next Small Council Meeting. He's asked me to make sure you attend."

That catches Axel by surprise, but to be fair he only really ever attends such meetings if he's asked to, so it makes sense. He comforts himself with the knowledge that that's still more than his father had been capable of.

"Alright then. Did he say what it was about?"

Here, a shadow falls over Jon's face and he looks somewhat grim.

"Yes, I'm afraid. He mentioned that it pertains to the movements of the last Targaryens…"

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A/N: Dun dun DUUUUUUN!!!

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