Gregor tested the ropes. They didn't budge. The three men had tied him tightly and securely.
He was quite satisfied.
"Get out. Close the door. No matter what happens, do not come in," Gregor growled.
"Yes, milord!" came the unified reply.
Raff the Sweetling, the Executioner Dunsen, and the brain-dead loyalist Polliver turned and left, shutting the door behind them.
Gregor's men appreciated his foul temper and crude orders. He hadn't attracted followers who spoke like courtly lords, they were scum, and they liked it raw and simple.
Gregor sighed inwardly.
For the sake of his health, he had to take extreme measures.
He was burdened with what might be the most despicable past imaginable.
But a transmigrant doesn't get to choose the life they wake up in. All he could do was accept it.
The man who now lived in Gregor's body, a former engineering student from Earth, felt sick recalling the original owner's bloody and abhorrent deeds. His cruelty was beyond redemption.
When Gregor Clegane was a child, he once caught a fever. The pain and headaches were unbearable. His father, then serving as a retainer to Tywin Lannister, asked the maester for milk of the poppy. Seven-year-old Gregor had his first taste, and loved it. The carefully prepared dose was surprisingly palatable, and the relief was immediate. The fever broke. The pain vanished.
From then on, little Gregor craved it. Like a modern child tasting candy for the first time, he was hooked. A few days later, he told his father he had a headache again. Despite taking other medicines, nothing worked, until a new bowl of poppy milk arrived. He downed it all in one go. And, of course, the "headache" disappeared.
But it had all been a lie. He wasn't in pain. He just wanted more.
The original Gregor had no idea how dangerous poppy milk really was. But the transmigrant, the man from Earth, knew all too well.
Poppies, the source of opiates like morphine, thebaine, and codeine, are also used in the creation of dangerous narcotics. Known by many names, sleep lotus among them, this seemingly beautiful plant is a flower of evil. Even though its natural levels of morphine are low, some individuals are extremely sensitive to its effects. Long-term use leads to chronic poisoning and eventual addiction.
Gregor was one of those highly sensitive individuals. It didn't take long before he was fully dependent.
In the world he came from, growing more than 500 poppy plants would earn you a criminal charge for illegal cultivation of drug-producing flora.
But here, in the brutal world of Ice and Fire, every part of the poppy was considered a gift. Milk of the poppy was the most widely used and accessible medicine in all Seven Kingdoms. Contrary to its name, it wasn't made from petals, but from the poppy pods, boiled and brewed. Maesters used it to treat everything from fevers and wounds to insomnia and grief. Whatever the ailment, a bowl of poppy milk was the universal answer.
The medical knowledge here was primitive, and their overreliance on poppy milk bordered on fanaticism.
Gregor's addiction grew quickly. A regular bowl was no longer enough. He needed a special copper basin to hold his doses, over seven times what an average man could tolerate. Most drank it as medicine. He drank it like wine or tea, out of habit and compulsion. If he didn't have it, he would grow restless, sweating, and racked with migraines.
These were classic signs of deep opiate poisoning. But Gregor's body was different, inhumanly strong, muscular, and resilient. He could endure the damage. At twelve, he was already taller than grown men, stronger than most knights.
But his personality had begun to twist.
Violent outbursts became more frequent. At twelve, he saw his seven-year-old brother Sandor playing with an old wooden toy soldier. In a sudden fit of rage, Gregor slammed Sandor's face into a blazing brazier. Half his brother's face melted; skin, scalp, and part of his neck. It took several guards to pull Gregor away. To save face, their father lied, claiming Sandor had been burned in a bed fire.
From that day forward, Sandor harbored a deep-seated fear of fire, and an even deeper hatred for his brother.
A year later, Gregor's father mysteriously died in the family grove, his neck broken. Only Gregor and his father had been there.
Eight-year-old Sandor went to Tywin Lannister in secret, claiming Gregor had gone mad and murdered their father after being scolded.
It was a scandalous accusation. Kinslaying was a grave sin in the Seven Kingdoms, believed to draw the wrath of the Seven Gods.
But Tywin didn't believe him. No one did.
After their father's death, Tywin took young Sandor in as a page, allowing him to train with Lannister armsmasters, keeping him safely away from Gregor.
A year later, tragedy struck again. Gregor's little sister was found dead in the woods near their home, mutilated beyond recognition. An official investigation concluded she had fallen victim to a shadowcat attack.
But nine-year-old Sandor was certain: it was Gregor again.
The man now in Gregor's body had absorbed his memories. He knew the truth. The real Gregor had killed his sister after she talked back. Before it happened, he had downed a massive dose of poppy milk, his mind warped by hallucinations.
At the age of fourteen, Gregor's talent for martial arts was revealed. In the annual internal knight tournament in the West, the fourteen-year-old Gregor won every battle, whether it was spearmanship, swordsmanship, horsemanship or team mixed combat. In the final, he defeated four of the West's top spearmanship masters in a row and won the championship of the West Tournament.
As his martial talent became more and more powerful, his size grew, and his reputation for cruelty and murder grew. In the following two years, he won the Westerland Tournament Championship. Except for archery, no one could beat Gregor in other tournament events.
At the age of sixteen, Gregor Clegane was knighted by Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen on the recommendation of Tywin Lannister.
A year later, Gregor Clegane, 17 years old, followed Tywin to trick the gates of King's Landing open. Under Tywin's orders, he and Ser Amory Lorch massacred the Red Keep. Gregor broke into the royal nursery, grabbed Rhaegar's infant son, Prince Aegon Targaryen, and smashed him against the wall. Before the child's blood and brains had dried, he raped and killed Aegon's mother, Princess Elia Martell.
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