The kitchen was now Viserys's domain, before the arrival of the servants arranged by Braavos's City Watch captain, Chessa.
Viserys Targaryen wielded a slender seafood knife on an oak plank, meticulously preparing the sea snails in his hand.
Viserys found his knife skills to be both fast and steady, truly masterful, reaching the realm of a "Snail Sage."
Then, he cooked the sea snails over a fire, sprinkling them with finely minced garlic of uniform size.
This technique, speed, and memory for preparing sea snails felt as if Viserys had repeated it thousands, tens of thousands of times—such was the power of the [God of Cuisine] talent.
Moreover, this talent also boosted Viserys's Strength and Agility attributes. With a big head and thick neck, chefs, like blacksmiths, needed to build muscle.
Viserys focused on his attribute panel: Strength and Agility were now close to 1.3, Toughness was 1.3, and Spirit was 1.4.
It seemed Viserys's combat skills had also improved with the help of his chef's talent.
More importantly, Viserys's talents were growth-oriented; as he aged, their amplification would increase.
Viserys speculated that a normal man's base value for all four attributes should be 1, and only those who specifically trained would see them rise.
Viserys's combat talent was also quite good; he just hadn't trained much in his first fourteen years, so it hadn't reached a high level.
Viserys still couldn't compare to Rhaegar. Rhaegar was a scholar who took up arms halfway through, while Viserys had a completely blank period.
His highest attribute before was Spirit, which was related to Viserys never neglecting his cultural education and the superposition of two soul powers.
After all, Viserys still planned to return as king, and an illiterate person certainly wouldn't do. However, Viserys was also unlucky, as various setbacks had caused him to neglect his martial arts.
Perhaps the Spirit attribute was also related to the currently unrecovered magical tide; in fact, magic had never truly left, it had merely dwindled.
The Children of the Forest retreated into their dens beyond the Wall, and further north was the Great Other of the Lands of Always Winter.
In another eight or nine years, magic would fully flourish.
At that time, dragon eggs would hatch, krakens would appear, the Others would march south, and even the power of sorcerers like the Red Priestesses would rapidly increase.
Thinking of this, Viserys felt he should relax a little, knowing the script for what was to come.
Although the current improvements weren't rapid, they were positive feedback. Through gluttony and training, Viserys believed his attributes would eventually reach a peak.
Once the fragrant sea snails were ready, Viserys had Daenerys and Rhaenys, the two little ones, taste them. The flavor was now completely different.
Extraordinary culinary skills were naturally out of the ordinary.
"This is too delicious!" Rhaenys Targaryen couldn't help but praise, genuinely finding the sea snails fresh and tasty, better than the previous cook's skill. "This is even better than what the cooks on Dragonstone and in the Red Keep made."
"Naturally." The value of the God of Cuisine was beyond doubt.
It was quite pitiful, really. Because Rhaegar and the Mad King were at odds, Rhaenys spent most of her time after birth living with Rhaegar and his wife on Dragonstone.
As for Daenerys, she had never eaten the food of the Red Keep and didn't know what the court cooks were like.
Viserys and Rhaenys were both remnants of the old era, having enjoyed the past glory of the Targaryen dynasty, while Daenerys was a completely new generation.
"Where did you learn this? I don't remember you having this talent." Rhaenys and Daenerys both had starry eyes.
"I'm a genius," Viserys said proudly. In truth, he wasn't a genius, but had a cheat.
After eating their fill, Viserys sent Rhaenys and Daenerys to clean up, with Rhaenys also responsible for telling stories to lull her aunt to sleep.
Previously, when Viserys was free, he would tell stories, allowing Daenerys to listen by his bed.
Now, Viserys had more important tasks and needed to focus on allocating his points.
Viserys unrolled a parchment map of Westeros, another valuable relic left by Ser Willem Darry.
King's Landing looked close on the map, but it was as far as the sky.
It was currently 290 AC. The previous year, Robert had just brutally defeated the fool Balon Greyjoy. The great alliance of the wolf, stag, trout, falcon, and lion was now at its peak, and no one could resist Robert's authority.
However, Viserys knew this alliance was full of pitfalls. Now, the Baratheons had three branches: King's Landing, Storm's End, and Dragonstone, each with its own lineage.
Add to that foolish women like Cersei and the two Tullys within the alliance, and ambitious men like Renly, and it was bound to explode sooner or later. Not to mention scoundrels like Littlefinger and Varys.
"I'm not without allies, but my allies are too weak right now." Viserys marked the forces he could consider on the map.
"Besides the Dornish, there are the Darry family of Darry in the Riverlands, the Mooton family of Maidenpool, the Goodbrook and Lychester families, the Rykker family of Duskendale in the Crownlands, and the families of Crackclaw Point in the Crownlands. The Lonmouth family of the Stormlands. Gulltown in the Vale."
Targaryen supporters were also scattered across various regions, with relatively weaker influence in the Westerlands and the North.
The Westerlands had centralized power early, and the North was too remote, plus the king and Rhaegar hadn't been good rulers.
However, these families who once supported the royalists had long lost land and troops with the Targaryen defeat, making them natural and ideal supporters.
Currently, these royalist forces were neither strong nor contiguous.
They were still very likely to support the Targaryens, provided Viserys proved his worth and had the ability to counterattack.
Viserys naturally also thought of the Connington family, but the Griffins were loyal to Rhaegar, not the Targaryens, and Viserys couldn't be bothered to bring it up.
Let him mistake him for someone else.
"The current situation isn't the time for me to intervene in Westeros. I should develop first," Viserys thought.
Viserys's immediate priority was to acquire money, build a team, and develop quickly.
He would first develop on the other side of the Narrow Sea, then contact the former royalists for a restoration. Rushing back wouldn't do any good.
Otherwise, for the three of them alone to try and retake King's Landing would be a pipe dream.
Aside from Rhaenys and Daenerys, Viserys currently had no confidants or companions.
Viserys also wondered how he had managed to get by; perhaps he had indeed been too well protected before.
According to the original timeline, until Viserys wore the molten gold crown, he didn't have one or two confidants, which was truly a major failure in life.
Perhaps he was truly rootless, with no time or money to establish a restoration organization.
Now that Viserys had managed to settle down in Braavos, he needed to accumulate funds and then develop his team.
"Every place has its own circles, and in Braavos, how should I break the ice?" Viserys pondered.
Thanks to his previous knowledge, Viserys was familiar with Braavos's power dynamics and various factions through Arya Stark's experiences there.
Braavos's upper class consisted of the Sealord's family, the bankers of the Iron Bank, the Keyholders' families, and other nobles, the Sealord's officials, military officers, and so on, as well as the religious merchants on the Isle of Gods.
Viserys had no interest in those religious merchants; he was interested in the secular nobility.
However, gaining access to valuable circles and information was not easy.
Chessa, Viserys immediately recalled the name.
This promising City Watch captain had also made overtures to him, which was a perfect match.
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