"This woman you speak of is currently commanding hundreds of warships, advancing towards us, and we have no solution whatsoever!" Elin Oakhart glared at the dissenter and said, "Next time you speak, use your brain first and consider if you have the right to disdain others? Your words just now not only insult yourself but also insult us!" With that, he turned to the crowd and said, "Our only question now is whether to fight or surrender."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Elin Oakhart suggested, "Since we cannot reach a conclusion, and Balon is dead, then let's decide according to the old tradition."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
So, they asked the Steward of Pyke to make preparations, then left the hall and went outside the castle. Each found a stone representing their opinion, and upon returning to the hall, placed their stone into the box prepared by the Steward.
As the last person placed their stone into the box, the Steward of Pyke opened the lid and poured all the stones onto the ground. The result was clear at a glance: there were only a few sharp broken rocks, representing the desire for war, while all the others were smooth pebbles, representing the desire for surrender.
Since the result was out, the lords no longer hesitated and left one after another, returning to their respective territories to prepare for the arrival of the new Lord of the Iron Islands. At the same time, they also sent people to Asha's fleet to make contact and avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
However, just as all the lords were leaving, Victarion, who was imprisoned in Pyke's dungeon, saw someone who should not have been in Pyke.
"Euron! How are you here?" Looking at Euron Greyjoy on the other side of the cell bars, Victarion's face was filled with surprise, mixed with a hint of fear and panic.
"Pyke is my home, why can't I be here?" Euron revealed his characteristic evil and charming smile. His blue lips made him look somewhat strange, and even stranger were his eyes.
He had now removed the eye patch from his left eye, revealing an eyeball as black as ink, making everyone who saw it feel as if that blackness was like the bottom of a deep sea where light could not penetrate. And the bizarre condition of his right eyeball was no less strange than his left; the silver-blue eyeball emitted a faint glow, as if it were ice.
"Your eyes…" Victarion felt an inexplicable chill looking at Euron's eyes.
"Instead of worrying about my eyes, you should worry more about your own situation!" Euron looked at Victarion and said, "Kinslayer Victarion, do you think our niece will spare you, the enemy who killed her father?"
"No, I didn't kill…" Victarion snapped out of his surprise at Euron's eyes and quickly tried to explain, but he soon realized something and pointed at Euron with a shocked expression, saying, "It was you! You killed Balon!"
"You're not entirely foolish." Euron admitted Victarion's guess without any concealment and said, "After being captured by Robert back then, Balon should have chosen suicide. At least he could have died with dignity like a king, but he chose to live on. The true Balon died then; what survived was just a cowardly old man. If it were in the past, he could have easily blocked my attack and slit my throat, but now I only needed a small dagger to end his life. What a pathetic fellow!"
Victarion stared at Euron for a long time, unable to speak.
"We don't need to keep discussing a dead man now; we should focus more on the current situation." Euron said in a deep voice, "My time is running out. I need to leave here before Asha seals off the sea. I don't want to be hunted by her again. What about you? Are you planning to wait here for death, or leave with me?"
Victarion had no desire to stay with Euron and directly shook his head, refusing, "Asha won't kill me; I didn't kill Balon!"
Euron scoffed and said, "You are truly foolish. Whether Asha wants to kill you, whether you killed Balon—none of that matters. What matters is that Asha wants to take the position of Lord of the Iron Islands, and she must kill you, otherwise she cannot subdue those lords." With that, he turned to leave, saying, "Since you've made your choice, then I can only wish you good luck."
"Wait!" Just as Euron was about to walk out of the cell, Victarion suddenly called out to him and said, "I'll leave with you."
Euron stopped, a smile appeared on his face, and he turned to look at Victarion, saying, "You've made the right choice."
After speaking, he gestured to the guards standing at the door to release Victarion.
Although Euron had been away from the Iron Islands for many years, he still had some loyal followers on Pyke, and this time he made good use of them.
Victarion stretched his bound arms, took the axe handed to him by a guard, and said, "We can't just leave like this. Take me to the Iron Fleet. I can't leave the Iron Fleet's ships to that girl Asha."
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Euron looked at Victarion with a hint of deeper meaning and nodded.
He knew very well that Victarion wanted to take the Iron Fleet, not for the reason he stated, but to use the Iron Fleet to suppress him.
Euron didn't care about this, because in his view, he would soon be able to subdue Victarion's fleet, and the final outcome would be the same.
It's unclear whether the Steward of Pyke overlooked it, or if it was because Victarion had already been imprisoned and there was no need to specifically send someone to inform the Iron Fleet of the situation. In any case, when Victarion and Euron arrived at the Iron Fleet, the people of the Iron Fleet knew nothing about what had happened in Pyke and still regarded Victarion as the Commander of the Iron Fleet.
And the final result was that when the Steward of Pyke sent people to the Iron Fleet, the entire Iron Fleet had already been taken away by Victarion, and only then did he discover that Victarion had escaped.
At this time, Asha was unaware of what had happened in Pyke. She was currently conducting the final battle simulation with Bale Blackteas. As the two confirmed there were no omissions and began issuing orders to the various fleets, the envoys sent by those lords had already arrived in front of her fleet.
At first, Asha thought what the envoys said was merely a trick to make her lower her guard, but when she heard that the dagger used to kill Balon was a gift Balon had given her years ago, she immediately realized this was not a trick; it was real. And she also knew who had killed Balon, because that dagger was the one she had stabbed into Euron during their battle, and he had taken it with him. Only Euron could have silently infiltrated Pyke and killed Balon.
Although Asha wanted to return to Pyke immediately at that moment, she still suppressed the urge and had the fleet steadily advance towards Pyke. After entering the waters of Pyke, she stopped there and then issued a summons to the lords of all the islands of the Iron Islands, gathering them on her ship for negotiations.
The final outcome held no surprises. Old Wyk and Saltcliffe had already decided to surrender, and there was no opposition from Blacktyde or Great Wyk. Asha Greyjoy smoothly became the Lord of the Iron Islands.
And her first command as Lord of the Iron Islands was to issue a warrant for Euron and Victarion, declaring that they had killed Balon and rebelled with the Iron Fleet.
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