Thanks to Preier for Beta reading this chapter.

After my adventure in the mines, things returned to normal or as normal as they could be. Without the constant threat of bandit attack hanging over our heads and hoping the increase the morale of people, my father had decided to throw a tourney upon my return as a way of showing people that the Lannisters still stood strong.

Also, another cause for celebration was that Brightroar was officially returned to House Lannister. The cover story was one of my father's cousins journeyed as near as he could to the Ruins of Valyria. There he found the shipwreck of King Tommen II Lannister's ship which never made it to Valyria.

The man in question is about my father's age, with no family of his own. He happily agreed to take credit in exchange for spending the rest of his life in a luxurious mansion in Lannisport with Red Cloaks guarding him. For his safety.

As for the crew? He would claim to have hired them in Essos and that none came back to Westeros with him.

The whole nobility of the West was invited to the Tourney, along with important houses from neighboring realms. This was going to be a rather big and particularly expensive affair. The winner of the Joust was going to get 5000 gold dragons while the runner-up gets 2500 gold dragons and the winner of the melee will also get the same amount while 1000 golden dragons were allotted to the winner of the Archery competition. All in all the whole Tourney was going to cost around 20000 gold dragons.

The prizes, while not as high as they were in the Hand's Tourney from the books, were still rather significant. If Robert Baratheon held tourneys like that every year it was no surprise that he left the Kingdoms in debt.

But, back on topic, another reason this Tourney was important was because it was going to be the first one held by that the Lannisters in nearly more than a decade. And in that time the Lady of Casterly Rock had disappeared, both eldest sons of the Warden of West died, the second-strongest house in the West rose in rebellion then got crushed, and we nearly had a smallfolk rebellion. So some appearances needed to be maintained.

"You are still not done?" my wife asked me as she entered my solar.

"I will be, soon," I said while glaring at the pile of papers in front of me.

Paperwork is truly the bane of existence for all those in power. While most of these documents only required my seal I still had to go through all of them. My father never had to deal with this much paperwork. In a way, it was my fault.

The personal demesne of Lord of Casterly Rock had doubled in the past decade. The Lannisters of Lannisport had ruled not only over the city but also most of its surrounding lands. All of whom now owed their fealty to Casterly Rock. And while a good chunk of the lands previously ruled by the Reynes had been divided among loyal bannermen, Castamere and all of its surrounding lands were now governed directly by the Warden of West.

"Ahem." I looked towards Jeyne, who was now sitting in front and me. She looked rather amused by the way I was glaring at all these reports.

"The Maester was on his way to you when I met with him. A raven came. The Crakehalls will arrive in two days and they are not coming alone." Jeyne spoke.

I leaned back taking a well-earned break as I replied, " Let me guess. The Rowans, Cranes, and Oakharts decided to accept my invitation."

The relationship between Lannisters and Rowans was not good, to be frank. It has not been good since my dear brother decided to break his betrothal with Lord Nestor Rowan's daughter, who was also the niece of current Lord Oakhart and the same girl who later married the current Lord Crane.

This meant that most of North-Western Reach was not a big fan of my family. They showed that by levying high tolls on all the goods that came from the Westerlands by land. While these tolls were not high enough to cause a major problem, they were still troublesome.

"So how do you plan to deal with them?" Jeyne asked.

"Oh you know, the usual. Sharing some pleasantries, bribing them with expensive gifts, and buttering them. And then I will remind them that Tion is dead and the Reynes are gone, and it is far past time that this petty little feud ends."

"And what if they still don't change their mind."

"They will." my words left no room for more questions. I shuffled through papers on my desk until I came upon what I was looking for.

"And they are not going to be the only unexpected guests," I told Jeyne as I passed her the letter.

"The invitation sent to him was just a courtesy. You said that it was unlikely that he would come." She said after reading the letter.

"I thought so. I wonder what made him accept?" After all we had no formal alliance with the Tullys right now and neither were Lord Paramounts as connected to each other as they were by the time of Robert's Rebellion.

"Isn't his heir the same age as Cerenna? Do you think that is the reason he is coming here?" Jeyne wondered.

" No. From what I have heard he is planning on betrothing his heir to Lord Whent's daughter. The Tullys need a foothold in Eastern Riverlands. Especially after recent events."

" Maybe he just wants better relations," Jeyne said

But I had this feeling it was about much more than that.

( SCENE BREAK )

The Tourney has been going surprisingly smoothly so far. Jeyne had done great work in planning all this.

Like I had said all the nobility of the West was present. So must of my time was spent mingling with my future bannermen seeing as I did not participate in any of the events. While I was decent with a sword and on a horse, I did not fancy my chances in either Tourney or Melee. I had a feeling that seeing their future Lord Paramount biting the dust might not inspire confidence among my future vassals.

Also since I was known as the Slayer of Bittersteel, I did not need to prove my martial ability so I played that card whenever someone questioned me on why I wasn't participating.

The way my father and I were working together to solve any problems they brought to our attention also dispelled most of the rumors of me usurping him or keeping him captive. The Rowans and their friends were dealt with on the first day of the Tourney. Jeyne spent some time with them, complimenting them and then bribing them with some expensive gifts like jewelry for women and armors for men. Of course she made a passing remark about Ellyn and how neither she nor I got along well with her.

Then I came and talked with the Lords and in the end we all agreed to let bygones be bygones and acquiesced to a much more reasonable toll rate.

Brightroar, in its scabbard, was currently located on my left hip. The announcement of its return had caused quite a bit of excitement but thankfully everyone believed the story about its return.

Today was going to be the last day of Tourney and I was currently walking the grounds with my unexpected guest.

Lucas Tully stood a five foot ten with shoulder-length auburn hair and with dark blue eyes. A few years my elder he seemed like a jovial man with an easygoing attitude. But that did not change the fact that the man was probably one of the most cut-throat politicians of Westeros.

"And while I agree that your former squire has done an admirable job for his first Tourney, I don't think he will make it to finals." The Lord of Riverrun was saying.

"While Gerold Hightower is a formidable opponent, I won't count Adrian out just yet," I said.

And wasn't that a shock. Yes, I was indeed talking about that Gerold Hightower, The White Bull. Though he was not a Kingsguard right now but a young knight trying to make a name for himself. He was representing his older brother, Lord Damon Hightower, and had already won the Melee.

"While I enjoy talking to you, Lord Lucas, I don't think you came all this way for a trade deal," I said, finally getting to the point.

The mentioned trade deal was that instead of sending goods around Westeros, the Tullys would transport these goods through Tumbleton and the Red Fork to Saltpans through barges. It was a beneficial deal but I could not overlook the fact that he was going to use this deal to attract trade to Saltpans and away from Maidenpool and the Mootons.

The politics of Riverlands was a can of worms I did not want to open. It had been the same story since the Conquest. Every few decades one of the Riverlords would start gathering influence and questioning the Tully's authority, thinking they were more deserving of the title of Lord Paramount of Trident.

Sometime it would be the Mootons, the richest house in Riverlands, others maybe the Darrys, who ruled over one of the most fertile lands in the Seven Kingdoms, or the Strongs, who had the Royal Favour, and so on.

For the past few decades, it had been the Blackwoods. When most adult male Tullys died during the Great Spring Sickness, the Blackwoods did not hesitate to use their relationship with the new Hand of the King Brynden Waters, a Blackwood bastard, to become Regents for eight-year-old Steffon Tully.

It was well known back then that when Steffon Tully came of age, he would be married to a Blackwood. But alas, at the age of five and ten, he impregnated the daughter of Lord Piper and married her. And since the betrothal between him and Blackwoods was never made official, there was nothing Lord of Raventree hall could do.

But there was another twist.

At the age of eight and ten, Steffon Tully died during the Third Blackfyre Rebellion leaving behind his three-year-old son Lucas and six months old daughter Celia.

Due to the return of Maekar Targaryen to the Red Keep, who had not been to King's Landing since his brother's coronation, Bloodraven could no longer afford to favor his Blackwood kin so openly. After all, if there was anyone who could complain to King Aerys about his Hand and make him do something about it was his brother.

So the Blackwoods could not get the Regency again but it didn't stop them from gathering as much power as they could while the Mootons and Darrys did the same. And, for the next twelve-year, the Riverlands had four overlords.

But then Lucas Tully happened. I genuinely believe Littlefinger found his journal or diary because the man used chaos to keep his vassals in line. He made sure all of them were so busy quarreling with each other that they had no time to plot against their Liege Lord. Case in point, the Mootons and Darrys had been at each other's throat for the past few years.

The Blackwoods were isolated, as the Mallisters, Rygers, Vances, and Bracken got closer to Tullys. All these Lords ruled over lands surrounding the demesne of Blackwoods.

That all had changed recently.

Upon hearing my word, the Lord Paramount of Trident stilled for a moment before he fished out a document from his doublet.

"I heard that you had a pest problem, I thought this would help." He said as he handed me that paper.

I carefully looked over the papers, trying to hide my frown as I went over its contents.

"This could be nothing," I said after going through it for the third time.

"Or it could be a solution to your problem." The auburn-haired man said with a grin. I did not like that grin.

"Do not pretend that you are doing me a favor, Lord Tully. You have as much reason to hate these so-called bandits as me. Didn't Lord Blackwood publicly question your abilities to deal with them in front of the King." I told him.

The Rat, The Hawk, and The Pig had destroyed much of Tully's work. The Darrys and Mootons had stopped fighting to deal with them together while the Blackwoods managed to gather some like-minded Lords and rushed to King's Landing to complain about their Liege Lord.

The father of Hoster Tully looked at me in anger before he sighed and said, "Aye, they have given me plenty of a headache. That upjumped bastard Blackwood did not help. There were even rumors that Targaryen was thinking about giving Blackwood command to deal with these pests," He nearly spat the name 'Targaryen'

Though I do admit he had a good reason to be not fond of the Royal family. When the children of Aegon broke their betrothals, the Baratheons were given a royal bride in recompense while the Tyrells got a royal squire. Meanwhile the Tullys only received a half-hearted apology.

"I don't think His Grace would have done it." I didn't.

"Mayhaps not, but didn't King Aegon do the same to your father when the Reynes rebelled. He did not back the same Lord Paramount who had helped him get the Iron throne. Tell me, How many Lords were bribed with Lannister gold during the Great Council? If he did that to your father, why would he spare me." He replied.

And then his voice got low as he said, "You Lannisters are always going on and on about paying your debts. I wonder, when will you pay back your debts to House Targaryen?" And with that he stormed off, leaving me with my thoughts.

Glad that this didn't take 7 months. Thanks for reading.