A Good King - A Joffrey Baratheon Insert

The Aftermath

After speaking to the City Watch commander I called an emergency council meeting to discuss what had just happened.

As soon as everyone had sat down I immediately started.

"How the fucking hell was that allowed to happen?" I raged.

"Steward Lannister, how could you allow that to happen, your wreckless actions have led to the deaths of at least thousands of innocent people! Why did you not check for potential hazards before you started blasting away regions of the fucking city?" I shouted, I knew it was unfair to put the blame on him but I just needed someone to scream at. I was angry, mostly at myself for managing to forget that there was fucking wildfire spread across the city. It was a death bomb just waiting to take innocent lives.

"Your Grace, forgive me but did you expect me to check just in case there was a batch of wildfire underneath someone's house?" He replied in quite a calm manner.

"Of course not you bastard!" I screamed, standing up, I felt like punching something and so I did, I turned around and punched the wall. Hard. I immediately regretted it as pain jolted up my arm. But somehow I felt so much better for it.

"I apologise, uncle. I mean not what I said. It is just..." I sighed cradling my arm. "All these people have lost their lives and here I am a crown on my head and I remain completely unaffected by this travesty."

"Your Grace your words did not offend we should however at least find out who is responsible for this." He said.

"The answer is clear." I said sternly. "Only the Alchemists' Guild know how to create wildfire, anyone who wanted it must go through them, I have ordered the arrest of all of them. They currently are awaiting their punishment in the Black Cells."

"Your Grace," this time it was Varys who spoke, "surely we should question them before they are punished? They may have more information."

"Quite so, I will get Ser Illyn on it immediately." I answered. "Now that that is out of the way, uncle, how bad is the damage?" I asked.

"Very serious, Your Grace, whilst some of the damage comes within the area zoned for destruction most of it is outside of that, we are talking about miles of destruction in each direction, a good quarter of the city has been destroyed." He spoke solemnly, it was clear that he was also affected by the destruction the wildfire has caused.

"Do we have an estimate for how much it will cost to fix the damage?" I asked, knowing I would not like the answer.

Everyone looked at each other, either they were scared to reveal the answer or no one knew the price of the restoration.

It was the Grand Maester who spoke up. "While we do not know the exact figure, Your Grace, I would estimate that the cost would be in the hundreds of thousands of gold dragons."

"If not millions," Stannis added gravely.

I took a sharp inhale of breath, this was not money that the Crown had and I told them just that.

"There is another problem, Your Grace." Lord Tarly now, adding more problems to the ever growing list.

Why on Earth did I ever want to be King?

"If the Reach does rebel, as seems likely, then there will be a severe lack of food for the people of the city, considering we get most of the food from the Reach."

Before this whole thing kicked off I had thought of building Greenhouses (like the kind they had in the North) to try and make King's Landing more independent where crops were concerned, this is why I wasn't much bothered by the concession I made to the Lannisters - where they didn't have to pay the grain tax to the Crown for the duration of the treaty.- This plan was part of the rebuilding project however, I hadn't forseen Renly being stupid (or smart depending on how you look at it) enough to rebel. If he did, this would be a disaster. Plans had changed.

"Steward Lannister," I started, "You were in the North, while you were there did you see the glasshouses that they had, to build crops that they otherwise wouldn't be able to grow?"

"Yes, Your Grace they are quite ingenious." He replied.

"Take as much money as we have in surplus and build as many as you can, once they are done hire some people to look after them, if we can get some food growing then we may be able to at least sustain some of the population, we may have to ration it out but at least they'll be fed." I ordered before continuing, "I understand that at least for now the Reach are still sending food?" I received nods of agreement. "Then take a portion of what they send, the highly nutritional foods, and keep it separate from the other stores, then plant them and this is what we will grow."

I just hope it will be enough.

After finishing up other minor matters I ended the meeting and went to Ser Illyn's chambers where I told him to start the process of 'extracting information' from the members of the Alchemists' Guild, I of course ordered him to start with finding out how long they had been members of the Guild and then move on to who had ordered the pots of wildfire to be scattered around the city. I also ordered him to start with the oldest first, and only to move to more extreme measures if they started to be less than forthcoming. I wanted information but I was above being cruel to them just for cruelty's sake; especially now that I've calmed down a bit. My slightly blue knuckles were a testament to my previous wrath. Just to make sure he stuck to my orders I sent one of the more honourable of the City Watch with Ser Illyn.

I would get the answers, and I would separate the guilty from the innocent.

Now that my rage had subsided I realised that executing innocents was not the best policy, not the best thing in the world really...

After sorting things out with Ser Illyn I headed to one of the many private dining rooms set out for the Royal Family. I knew that Tommen, Myrcella and mother would be there and it was high time that I spent some time with them; I had been neglecting them recently; getting sidetracked with other matters and it wasn't really fair.

I arrived at the dining room to see my brother, sister and mother talking quietly while eating. Cersei saw me first as she was facing the entrance (I'm sure she did it so she could see any potential threats that were coming to harm her cubs, just like a real lioness.) She smiled at me and that caused Tommen and Myrcella to turn around. They both yelled "Joffrey!" before they jumped out of their chairs and ran towards me. I hugged them both before herding them both back towards the table and then sitting down myself.

"What was that explosion earlier?" Myrcella asked, ever curious.

"There was just a fire in the city, darling, nothing you need to worry about." Cersei interceded.

"But the fire was green!" Tommen exclaimed, seemingly excited by the prospect of green flames.

"Someone, we don't know who yet, put wildfire across the city, when your uncle Tyrion's men were digging away at parts of the city to rebuild it the wildfire was disturbed and it exploded." I explained. Cersei shot me a glance, she obviously was trying to shield them, but soon they would need to know these things, they're in King's Landing, they are the King's siblings, they can't stay innocent forever, they too must learn to play the Game of Thrones.

"Was anyone hurt?" Tommen asked.

"A lot of people died Tom." I said in a melancholy tone.

"Oh." He murmured. He was still as adverse to people being hurt as ever, even without the old Joffrey in his life.

"Don't worry," Cersei soothed, leaning over and rubbing his arm. "Your brother will catch who did this.

"Yes." I said in quite a firm tone. "Yes I will."

A/N

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