Chapter 3

Robert 1

King's Landing - 296 AC

King Robert Baratheon, first of his name, smiled when he arrived at the courtyard where training duels are held. At his side, Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Mandon Moore walked in silence.

Robert spotted his son Joffrey sparring against Sandor Clegane in the courtyard with Ser Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Loras Tyrell, and Renly watching at the side, and he decides to announce his presence.

"Halt you two!" said Robert with a big grin on his face. "Sandor, you are dismissed, I wish to knew if the rumors about my son's prowess are valid, or this particular Kingsguard of mine (Robert pointing on Ser Mandon Moore) is rusted enough to end up being shitty duelist against something that could be mistaken as toys."

"Father." said Joffrey, giving King Robert a slight nod while stopping twirling his handle-less-double flails. "What an honor."

"Remember boy, those weapons of yours are definitely not toys. While they are dangerous to your enemy, they still best suited for pretty tricks, and as they could be unpredictable, they could give you grievous self harm." Robert said while maintaining his smile on his face. "That said, Jon Arryn also told me the same when I picked the Warhammer to be my favorite weapon of choice, so let me test your skill with that, personally."

Joffrey looks back at his father and both of them shared a mutual knowing look in their face. "The time is come to test my progress eh? Father?"

"I will fight with padded training hammer this time, can't risk your shrieking mother bitch me more about hurting you with steel." said Robert while Joffrey smirked at his remark.

"Should I use my wooden clackers too?" said Joffrey. "Ser Mandon told me to use the real stuffs yesterday as he wanted to prove that he could cut the rope with a real sword. Isn't that right Ser?"

Ser Mandon Moore just look down in shame while unconsciously caressed the ball shaped deep purple bruises on his face, well, there goes where a Kingsguard end up knocked unconscious by a literal ten years old.

"Well, while I do prefer to have my face unmolested by your balls. I'm still confident enough with my prowess and personal strength" said Robert while raising his padded training warhammer to do some practice blows. "I might be not in my prime anymore, but I still packed a lot of power. I use the padded training hammer to not giving you too many injuries. Fight to surrender or knockout, as usual."

"Alright? so..." said Joffrey while he started clacking his steel ball flails again. "Really father? To put yourself in such disadvantage? Just ask uncle Jaime or uncle Renly, if not Sandor who are my usual training companion, they already said I'm far more than ready to fight a training battle with real weapons."

"Enough talking boy, let's fight." said Robert while moving to the ring and flexed his muscles under his fat.

"Standard rule?" said Joffrey again soon after he entered the ring with his two pairs of flails clacking in both of his hands.

"Dual wielding your weapons, hmm?" said Robert while keeping a ready position. "Ser Barristan, you might be the referee."

As both of the combatants started in their respective corner, Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard give them the sign to start the fight. Robert thought himself to start out easy so he raised his hands to just start with easy-to-avoid blow.

"Really father? You just brought yourself wide open. Please took me more seriously, I warned you." said Joffrey, but Robert just smirked, confident of himself that he could dodge whatever his son used to attack him, and there are glaring weakness of such short ranged weapons of him, despite Joffrey actually dual wield them.

"Just get in and..." said Robert while Joffrey simply thrown one end of his steel flails against the wooden handle of said training hammer and pull the other ball with his hand. Robert thought that Joffrey might want to just mischievously took the hammer so he pulls back in effort to disarm his son, but then.

*CRACK*

Robert's jaw dropped at how his son basically effortlessly broke the wooden head of the padded training hammer with ease, and how he is now effectively just wielding a wooden stick.

"Next?" asked Joffrey with a smirk. "Told you to use steel weapon against me. This thing could easily break weak wooden parts with simple pull, or disarm unsuspecting opponents with ease."

"That trick would never worked twice with me boy." said Robert with a small laugh in his voice. "Alright, you wanted it then, Moore, bring me my hammer."

And as King Robert get his warhammer, he could see that the Kingslayer and Renly apparently betting something between them. Robert grinned and made sure his grip on the warhammer is good, and he put himself into more defensive position to start the fight.

"Ready?" asked Ser Barristan while giving the combatants the sign, and at the mark, Robert moves to ensnare Joffrey's flail with the steel handle, expecting Joffrey to pull out something similar, but much to his confusion, Joffrey merely ducked a bit to the left.

And before Robert could understand what happened, he feels something tripped his left foot as he moved his right, before long, the King faceplanted with his legs ensnared by those damned steel balls' cord.

Ser Jaime Lannister, Renly and Loras Tyrell tried to hide their amusement with little success, Tyrion Lannister chortled a laugh, while Ser Barristan and Ser Mandon Moore frowned, only Sandor Clegane remained impassive, but his eyes do glint with slight amusement as well.

"Dammit Joffrey, your weapon do have a lot of tricks!" shouted Robert in annoyance but then he himself laughed as if nothing worse happened. "I will take your more seriously now, so..."

"Again father?" said Joffrey with a smirk. "Try not to make obvious moves, I'm not your average ten years old squire, you know."

"Yeah, again." said Robert with a smile. "Where did you learned the trick, is that Renly's or the Lannister's?" Robert laid accusing glances toward his brother and Ser Jaime Lannister. "Or maybe no throwing your weapons this time, and fight like real men."

"Alright." said Joffrey while get himself back ready in his corner, waiting for Robert to stand up while untangling said steel flails from his feet.

"Ready?" asked Ser Barristan again, this time with worried face to both combatants.

As soon as Ser Barristan gave the sign, Robert roared while dropping his warhammer. Robert internally smirked as he formed a simple strategy to took Joffrey off guard this time. He deduces correctly that Joffrey's weapons is indeed some sort of trick weapons, and the best way to negate them are often simple matter of absorbing a blow or two and wrestle them by force. He was proud of his son's cunning sense, but still, he must prove himself as superior, so...

Robert felt a hard blow impacting his helmet, and he falls to the ground realizing that Joffrey actually jumped and deliver a flying KICK to his head, of all things.

"Damn son... fighting you indeed like guessing a mummer's trick." said Robert with annoyance while Joffrey offered his hand to help his father raise from the ground. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Your next line would be, 'Am I really THAT SLOW?'" said Joffrey with a sly smile.

"Am I really THAT SLOW?" Robert said to nobody in particular before gasped and frowned. "Am I too easy to read?"

Ser Barristan coughed politely and King Robert knowing that the old knight might wanted to have a word or two regarding this.

"Your grace, Prince Joffrey is honestly one of the best fighters in the Red Keep. As you can see, he is clearly so far above the other ten years old squires, and when we observe his training fights with Sandor Clegane, Lord Renly, Ser Loras, and Ser Jaime, their fighting styles clearly stressing speed over raw powers." said Barristan politely. "And we must admit that Your Grace do need to be in a better shape to keep up with Prince Joffrey's speed."

"I know..." said Robert with his smile back on his face. "I'm proud of you, My son!"

"Why? Thank you father." said Joffrey politely.

"Ah why not? Even if your fighting style is the opposite of me, I'm glad that you are not some fussy weakling." said Robert with an even bigger grin. "Now I could tell your mother to shut up every time she heard you fighting and bitching about how her poor Prince Jojo should be at her side and learning finer arts instead of fighting like some dumb brutes."

"Oh yeah, mother..." said Joffrey while rolling his eyes. "She obviously dislikes the sight of me fighting, even just on the training ground. I knew tougher women than her with regard to fighting, to be honest."

"Yeah right." said Robert with amusement. "Tonight we feast in your honor, son."

...

As Robert leave the courtyard and let Joffrey returned to his regular training (even if the sight of him jumping around is quite unorthodox to most warriors), he smiled in satisfaction. But then, some spoilsport arrives as his Hand, Jon Arryn walked with thoughtful frown sketched on his face.

"What happened Jon?" asked Robert.

"You let your son made a fool out of you, Your Grace." said Jon Arryn with a frown. "I do understand that you might just want your son to be a good fighter, but he IS your son, and he must show respect to his King, after all."

"So what? I do underestimated his prowess and get humiliated in a friendly spar, but that wasn't a big deal right? Losing a training spar against a prodigy like him only proves that my son is indeed a prodigy, so..." said Robert.

"He had bad influences around him, Your Grace... you know..." said Jon Arryn in a serious tone.

"Hah, I do knew Renly must wrecked Joffrey's sense of fashion, and The Lannister Imp only honed his inherited instinct to leer on pretty women around. Still, no real harm done at all, so what?" Robert is mildly annoyed with Jon Arryn now.

"I didn't wish to sound as if I want to play factions and favorites around the King and the Crown Prince, but the Lannister and Tyrell influences are starting to appear. We just get into some interesting informations that Lord Mace Tyrell will come to King's Landing with his household in tow next month, apparently to pay Your Grace a visit of fealty as well as discussing some recent border spat with Dorne. Still, their intentions is too transparent, as Loras Tyrell is one of Prince Joffrey's close companions, we could safely bet that they would try to formally introduce Margeary Tyrell to Prince Joffrey." said Jon Arryn softly. "That would estrange your brother Stannis even more."

"What? No, I mean, fuck Stannis and his tender feelings, but why the hell they wanted to bind Joffrey this early?" said Robert. "My son need to knew the freedom of being a man without commitment, as... wait, I do promised Ned about a betrothal and..."

Jon Arryn facepalmed while Robert end up more confused with himself. "You promised Ned a betrothal between Prince Joffrey and his daughter? This soon?" asked Jon Arryn.

"Oh well Jon, for once, I do wish to join my family with Ned's, still..."

"All while you knew Prince Joffrey is exactly the same with you when it comes to ogling girls around? When he gets his manhood grown, I would bet that he would eventually rival you in your under-the-pants department, unless we tried to rein him something, so..."

"What's wrong with that Jon?"

"Everything Your Grace... EVERYTHING."