(Petyr POV)
On our way back, I created a plan on what I should do, now that I am the Lord of a minor noble house of the Vale. I have no interest in fighting in the war, but it might be beneficial for me to do so. Now, that I have these powers, there is not much I am afraid of. I can reflect and bounce any damage and attack coming towards me. This also includes poison or anything of the sort. Poison is as much an attack as getting shot with an arrow or cut with a sword. But that is not yet what I think about.
I'm thinking about what to do with the small village I have on the few acres of stony land, I own. There is not much I can do, if I think about it. Although there might be a chance to specialise in one aspect. Maybe I could make them specialise in shipbuilding or blacksmithing. That way, I would gain a lot of money since I have a limitless manpower glitch. Actually, I have a limitless everything glitch, so blacksmithing might be a good idea. I have already acquired a few pictures after looking for someone who could paint very well and asked for many things to be done.
A ship will be easy to make now. But the docks will still have to be built. I noticed that when I clone a person, he has the same skills as the original. This is of course perfect for me. I will go to Essos first. The Free City of Braavos will be my best bet. There I will clone a very skilled shipbuilder, a dockworker, an architect, a merchant and a blacksmith and then come back. Why would I do the work, if someone else can do it for me? But first I need to reach home.
.
Finally, we reached Baelish Keep. I have some of the memories of this place, but I still can't help but be appalled at what I am seeing. This is embarrassing, to say the least. A small tower and a small village that has been left to its own devices. It is time I change this miserable keep and turn House Baelish into the secretly most powerful House in Westeros.
[Picture]
I don't have that much time anymore to do much. I heard from my clones back in Riverrun, which I placed there to be informed of the most important things that take place. I walk around with some glass so that my clones and I can communicate at a moment's notice. I have revolutionised the information distribution. This will make me invincible in battle. But the clone told me that Brandon Stark had just left Riverrun to join his father Rickard Stark's wedding party, coming down from the north. So I have a few days before Brandon and his father Rickard are executed and then a few more until Jon Arryn calls the Banners and the rebellion begins. If I want to contribute, I will need the docks to be built fast and the village has to be manned and protected as well. Thankfully, I am a nobody in the eyes of the realm and therefore no one will care about me.
I walk into the tower with the 12 mercenaries and look around. There is almost nothing of value here except one Gold Dragon, in the hidden compartment my father told me about. One Gold Dragon, the value of our noble House. Perfect, this way I don't have to steal it.
"Alright, I want you all to go around my land and check everything out. Look for potential improvements we could make and see about the needs of the villagers. I want everything mapped out and ready for my plans. Tell the people that I have returned and give each and every one of them one Silver Stag. Tell them, that it is for a brighter future. By giving that much away, they will have to believe that I am skilled at what I do and start to trust me eventually."
"Yes.", they say and leave my tower.
Now that I am alone, it is time for me to do my part. I create a clone of myself. Since he is loyal to me and has my abilities, except being able to clone himself, he will be able to take care of the first improvements here, while I go and visit Braavos and get the things I need from there.
With one final nod, I dive into the piece of glass on the table and leave the tower. Travelling through the mirror is like travelling through a separate dimension. The feeling is marvellous for me and I should have done that sooner. I can't imagine how OP this ability is in a medieval setting such as this one. Infiltration will be so easy now. No one will be safe from me and my spy network, which is what I have already planned. But sadly, I will need more training for that.
I travel through this marvellous dimension and appear off the coast on the water again. I reach into the water and pull out the picture of the big boat I had someone draw for me. I told him how it should look and he painted it that way.
[Picture]
The ship was already one of the best if not the best available in this world. I replaced the canons with ballista and polybolos.
After I make my way on the ship, I dress up to hide my face. This is important for the next step. After I dress up, I start to clone myself en masse. More and more clones of mine appear and soon I have enough men to sail towards Braavos. Thanks to spending some time travelling with the mercenaries, I have the skills required to sail this boat. We start our journey.
.
.
- A few days later -
"We are approaching Agron now, sir.", my clone tells me.
"Good."
...
"Wait, did you just say Argon?"
"Haha."
I see the titan of Braavos as we sail between his legs and dock. The ship is very big, but Braavos has a very big dock as well, so it works. After taking care of everything here, I make my way to the marketplace. I gather a lot of attention, but that's alright with me. While this is going on, my clones are jumping from one reflective surface to another, searching for anything that could be of value to me. I want to get information about anything as information is power. After a while, I find the man who will be my leading merchant in the future. Without anyone noticing I disappear and appear at the place where the merchant is located.
He is currently inside an inn, drinking something with his friends. So I decide to wait, while my clones continue looking for others who I will need. A shipbuilder, a dockworker, an architect, a merchant and a blacksmith, that's what I came here for. A merchant has just been found, and now I only need to wait for my clones to find everyone or anything else of value.
As time passes, I find all the people who will help me in my endeavour of making House Baelish rise to power and wealth. I only need one of each, as numbers will never be a problem again. I make my way towards each one of the men I chose, silently clone them and then kill the original. To get rid of the body, I transfer them through the mirror dimension and dump them into the sea. This way no one will ever find them.
Just when I have gotten hold of the last person, one of my clones finds something else of value. I disappear from the valley and move through the mirror dimension. I appear inside a room, that has only very faint light with a few torches burning on the wall. Gold ... the entire room is filled with massive amounts of gold. I have found one of the safes of the Iron Bank of Braavos most likely. What wealth. To think that all of this is just lying here. It would be a shame if someone would just ... I don't know, take all of this gold, right?
I make my way back to the ship. Everyone needs to see me and how I go back on my ship and sail away. I sent my clones to buy as much food and seeds as they could. This will be important in the future. Acquired fish and other seafood, fruit, meats and vegetables. The money we spent here was roughly 100 gold dragons. This is not that much, but I only bought some of everything, so that I didn't appear suspicious. Now I am ready to leave and do so under the eyes of hundreds of people. The ship I chose to use for my first time in Braavos was not the biggest one, but it was very large still and would be remembered by everyone. In the future, when I come to sell goods here, the people will remember me when they see the boat and my name will be associated with both wealth, amazing goods and large ships.
I depart from Braavos and prepare for the attack which is bound to arrive as soon as I am far enough away from the port. Wealth attracts pirates. Too bad for them, that I have prepared for such an attack and have infinite men and infinite ammo.
As we are sailing for a few hours, I hear the shout about pirates coming.
"Pirates! From the south!"
"Mann your battle stations! Let us welcome our guests.", I tell everyone.
Before the pirate ship has reached a distance close enough to board our vessel, which is much bigger than theirs, we attack them using our ballistas that have been ignited beforehand. A barrage of shots are fired that are powerful enough to punch a hole through the hull of their ship.
In satisfaction, I watch as the pirates fall into a state of chaos. Their sails have caught fire and their ship is broken beyond repair. All of them will drown at sea and it's their own fault.
"Sir, the pirate ship has stopped following us as their ship is completely broken. Should we disengage?"
"No. Destroy them fully. That is the price they pay for attacking us."
"Aye."
.
After a few days at sea, we arrive back at the smallest Finger in the Vale. I can see the embarrassing tower in the distance and we anchor the boat way off the coast. We take the food, which isn't very good anymore and get it ashore. I have already prepared all the paintings of the food and grain I will need and hung them on the walls. This way, I can start sailing whenever I please.
Everyone moves to shore through the mirror dimension and I start giving out orders to the workers I got. The woodworker, dockworker and the architect will be the most important right now.
"I want you to create a very large port here. I will have a need for many different types of vessels in the future. There will be an armada under my banner and for that purpose I want you to build a port large enough to manage that. If you need other material, I can get you that. Cement or any type of metal to make it more sturdy. So just ask and I'll get that for you.
The Blacksmith and your fellow clones will start construction of a factory where we will 'create' many things and prepare for the city I have planned. The Merchant will start cataloguing where we can get what product and how much money we can charge them to still earn money, but make almost no profit."
Everyone nods their head in understanding. After we are finished, I start making many more clones so that the work on the port can finally start. I have all the workers hide their faces, to not be recongisable and then start walking towards the small village to distribute the food. It is important for my people to know my face and associate it with prosperity.