Tinkering With Life (GoT SI)

Chapter 18: Chapter - 18



As much as I wanted to blame my hormones for my lack of control, I couldn't really lie to myself. I could have easily used my powers to control my urges and stop myself, but ever since I landed in this world, I had been so focused on figuring out my powers and making myself unkillable that my dry spell had finally caused a lapse in judgment.

It wasn't a complete mess though because I had been smart enough to have some contingencies in place to look out for eavesdroppers in case I was doing something I should not be doing in my room, like, you know, fucking the Queen.

The Red Keep was filled with spies, and I had sent out a command to my rats to knock out anyone eavesdropping on my room, and thank god I did that because Cersei was certainly very loud.

While I couldn't really alter people's memories without turning their brains into soup, I could knock them out and wake them up later thinking they had only zoned out. That's also how I managed to sneak Cersei back into her room without any of the guards noticing. She was still passed out when I dumped her on her bed because I didn't really want to deal with her at the moment. I gave her body one last scan to make sure all the changes I had made had stuck while also making sure that she wasn't pregnant, 'cause that is how shit like this normally comes to bite people back in the ass.

And I still wasn't sure how she had snuck out in the first place because I doubt her brother would have been very pleased about her plan of seducing me, so maybe the Kingsguard who was standing outside her room was one of the idiotic ones. I don't really care anymore.

I still had to wake up the tongueless kids, maids, or whores (I'm not really sure which) who were lurking around my room. They might suspect something had happened, but they wouldn't know what had happened.

After I made sure I had removed all the evidence of what had happened in my room the night before, I began to pack everything as I had to leave soon. On my way to the dining room to have breakfast before I left, I ran into Littlefinger again. I looked at his face and immediately noticed that his usual fake smile was absent and there was a scowl on his face, indicating panic.

He noticed me and tried to put on his smile again, but it just made his face look constipated. His expression brought a smile to my face as I figured out what had happened. The Hand had definitely not confronted him yet, or he would have been on the run already, so he must have noticed that his vast wealth was missing.

I realized that now would be a good time to mess with him, and I couldn't just let him run away with my fun. "Ah, Lord Baelish, good morning. I was on my way to have breakfast. Would you care to join me?"

"Ser Healer, I would love to join you, but I have some urgent matters to attend to," he stammered, trying to get out of the situation. But I wasn't going to let him off that easily.

"What a shame. I wanted to discuss the business proposition that you were trying to talk to me about yesterday, but I was pretty drunk to conduct business at that moment. Now that we've run into each other at a better time, how about we sit down for a talk before I leave the city?"

I saw him pause, and I knew he was hooked. There was no way someone who had just found out that the majority of his stolen wealth was missing would miss out on trying to discuss a very profitable business venture. Not that I was going to give him anything remotely useful.

"I might be able to make some time," he conceded.

"Excellent," I replied with a smile. "Let's eat first. I am starving, and then we can talk about it."

Littlefinger hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. We made our way to the dining room and sat down at a table. As a maid brought us some food, I could sense Littlefinger's unease.

After a few moments of awkward silence, I decided to break the ice. "So, Lord Baelish, what was this business proposition that you came to me with? I don't remember much from last night."

Littlefinger cleared his throat before replying, not doing a good job of hiding the greed in his voice. "Well, as you know, the epidemic has been spreading in a lot of the major cities. If you could make the cure or even give me the recipe, then with my connections, we would be able to spread the cure all across the realm and help save the lives of a lot of people while making some coins for us both."

Raising an eyebrow, I wondered whether he underestimated my intelligence or assumed that I had no interest in money and only cared about helping people. I feigned interest and replied, "It does sound intriguing, but I'm afraid the recipe is not something I can share. Besides, I've already made a deal with Lord Stark for the distribution of the cure, and it should be shipping by now. I'm making a decent profit out of it."

I could sense his frustration, stemming from his bitter rivalry with the man who had not only stolen his love but also the fortune that should have been his.

Nevertheless, he persisted. "Trust me, I can make you much more coin than what you're making in the isolated North. With my vast connections, I can even spread the cure to Essos."

Observing his desperation, I pretended to be intrigued. "I'll need to consider your offer, Lord Baelish."

But my lack of enthusiasm was evident, and he realized it. He glanced around for any eavesdroppers before approaching me with a different proposition.

"By the way, I might have some information that could interest you."

Now curious, I asked as I leaned in, "What is it?"

"There are rumors that the Queen is plotting to assassinate you," he disclosed, looking serious.

I suppressed a laugh and put on a convincing surprised expression. "Really?"

He seemed to have taken the bait. "Yes, it's said that the Queen convinced the High Septon and his followers to carry out the deed."

I pretended to look worried for a moment before replying, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Lord Baelish. I'll be sure to keep my guard up even though I'll be leaving the city after my meal."

He nodded, clearly satisfied that he had succeeded in gaining my trust. "Of course, Ser Healer. I always have everyone's best interests at heart."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his patronizing tone. "I won't keep you any longer, Lord Baelish. I'll let you know if I decide to take you up on your offer."

He gave a nod and made his way out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

As soon as he left, I allowed myself a small smile. Littlefinger may be shrewd, but he was not nearly as clever as he thought he was.

After watching Littlefinger squirm, I decided it was time to leave. Anyone important that I needed to say goodbye to was either passed out or hungover, so I figured they wouldn't mind.

I soon reached the stables where Fenrir was waiting for me. We were going to leave King's Landing and head back north, but unlike my journey here, I had planned to make a few stops along the way.

It was time for me to properly figure out magic. I had already figured out some of the basic theories behind Valyrian magic, but to test my findings, I needed to be far away from the population. I couldn't hold in my urge to do magic before reaching the North, so I planned to find a dense enough forest in the Riverlands and spend some time conducting some simple experiments to start with.

Most of the Valyrian magic involved either sacrificial rituals or fire. I'm not sure whether that was because I had extracted the information from dragon DNA or if that was all they were interested in.

My main issue was that my powers gave me access to the information about the end product. By that, I mean that if I wanted to breathe fire, I could just make an exact replica of the dragon's fire-breathing organ and scale it down. However, if I wanted to shoot blue fire, I had no clue how to do that.

It was like doing math in reverse. If someone told you the answer was 2, the question could be as simple as 1+1 or some form of nightmarish integration.

If I needed to figure out the ritual part of the magic, I would need to grab a shovel and travel to Valyria to start digging. I would probably have to do that eventually.

But that didn't mean I couldn't do anything at the moment. First, I needed to make my body capable of using magic, which meant I had to create a dragon heart and somehow make it compatible with my non-magical body.

Once I had the heart, I could start building the flamethrowers. While I could put one in my throat, it would not be very practical, so I would have to put one on each of my palms instead. The process would take time, but it was the first step if I wanted to be able to use magic.

Then, I could actually start using magic to figure out how this works because I was pretty sure that the Valyrian's solution to magic not working was to just sacrifice more slaves.

As Fenrir and I rode off into the distance, leaving King's Landing behind us, the only thought I had in my mind was, 'I hope the Riverlands has a lot of bandits because I was going to need a lot of test subjects...…..' I never said I wasn't a hypocrite.


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