After Lancelot returned to his room, he first fed his cat, Kate, some dried fish, then opened the book.
He searched for all the marriage records between House Lannister and House Baratheon.
"Sure enough, their blonde hair is just too conspicuous, isn't it?"
Lancelot thought.
However, his eyes inadvertently drifted a few lines below Tommen's entry, where he saw a record about himself.
> Lancelot Waters. Blonde hair, green eyes.
Then Lancelot saw a name: Visenya Waters.
"Is she my mother?"
Lancelot honestly didn't remember his mother's name; she had died when he was only three.
But why would someone of such humble status appear in this book?
In Lancelot's fragmented memories, he recalled that his mother seemed to have white hair and blue eyes.
"White hair, blue eyes!"
"Silver-white hair, indigo eyes... could my biological mother's identity be unusual? Is it possible she was of Targaryen royal blood?"
Lancelot formed a bold hypothesis about his origins.
According to his memory, during the Dance of the Dragons, Helaena Targaryen—King Aegon II's wife—was supposedly sent to a brothel by Rhaenyra as punishment. Could it be that from that time on, dragon blood had remained in the brothels of King's Landing?
Deciding not to dwell too much on his origins—after all, he already had an identity: Lancelot Lannister—he went to sleep.
---
Early the next morning, King Robert announced that he was going north to Winterfell to ask his brother, Ned Stark, to be his Hand.
During his absence from King's Landing, Baelish, Pycelle, Varys, Renly, and Barristan would jointly manage the affairs of the city and the Crownlands.
Leading a retinue of nearly three hundred people, King Robert began his grand procession along the Kingsroad toward Winterfell.
He traveled slowly. In this regard, Robert was similar to Mace Tyrell: a small feast every three days, a grand banquet every five.
Whenever they entered a lord's territory, he made the local lord spend a fortune to host them.
It was safe to say this trip was costing a tremendous amount.
On the road, Lancelot grew bored. He started missing the games from his past life. Video games were impossible to replicate.
However, other tabletop games were well within his ability to recreate.
To fit the theme of Westeros—or rather, the "national conditions" of this world—Lancelot decided to invent playing cards.
"Brother Lancelot, what are you making?"
Taking advantage of a rest stop, Lancelot began crafting the deck.
Myrcella peeked over his shoulder. Beside her was her lioness, Joanna.
Joanna was a common name among noblewomen; many Duchesses of House Lannister bore this name, including Cersei's mother.
"I'm making a game that four people, or even more, can play together. Look."
Lancelot showed her the cards he had already made.
Myrcella looked at the different colors, shapes, and letters.
"King, Queen! Jack! Joker!"
"What are these? How do you play?" she asked.
"Look at these four Kings. They have different faces drawn on them."
Lancelot used four famous kings from this world to represent the four King cards.
King of Clubs: Aegon the Conqueror
King of Spades: Jaehaerys the Conciliator
King of Hearts: R'hllor, the Lord of Light
King of Diamonds: Robert the Usurper
"This face looks like Father," Myrcella said, pointing to the King of Diamonds.
"That's right, it's him! The Club King is Aegon the Conqueror, the Spade King is Jaehaerys the Conciliator, the Heart King is the Lord of Light, and with King Robert, they are the highest cards of the four suits."
Next were the four Queens.
Lancelot chose:
Queen of Clubs: Visenya Targaryen (Aegon's sister-wife)
Queen of Spades: Alysanne Targaryen (Jaehaerys's wife)
Queen of Hearts: Nymeria (Warrior Queen of the Rhoynar)
Queen of Diamonds: Cersei Lannister
Then came the four Jacks.
For these, Lancelot used four famous lords.
Jack of Clubs: Orys Baratheon (rumored bastard brother of Aegon and the first Hand of the King)
Jack of Spades: Cregan Stark (the Lord who settled the realm after the Dance of the Dragons)
Jack of Hearts: Corlys Velaryon (the Sea Snake of the Dance era)
Jack of Diamonds: Tywin Lannister (Warden of the West, Lord of Casterly Rock)
For the other cards from Ace to 10, Lancelot didn't add specific characters. However, for the two Joker cards, he used the legendary Night King.
Once the deck was ready, Lancelot immediately called Joffrey and Tommen over, and the four of them started playing.
"Three with one!"
"Four with two!"
"Airplane! Bomb!"
"Rocket incoming!"
"Spring!"
They quickly picked up the rules of the card game (which seemed suspiciously like Dou Dizhu / Fight the Landlord).
The noise attracted the attention of others nearby.
King Robert, Queen Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion, and others gathered around.
"What are you doing?"
Tyrion, being the smallest, squeezed through the crowd easily.
"What game is this? It looks fun!" he asked.
"Poker cards! Many ways to play! Anytime, anywhere, just play!" Lancelot explained.
Lancelot then introduced the cards to them.
Hearing that he was one of the four Kings, Robert grinned.
"Lancelot! I didn't expect you to rank me alongside Aegon the Conqueror, Jaehaerys the Conciliator, and the Lord of Light. Am I really that outstanding?" Robert asked.
"Your Grace, you are no ordinary man! The Demon of the Trident! When we get to Winterfell, Ned Stark's sons will surely look at you with worship in their eyes!" Lancelot said.
If Robert still had the physique he had ten years ago, Robb Stark and the others would definitely worship him. As for now... well!
"Hahaha, good lad, you sure know how to talk."
"There are four Targaryens in this deck! Are you trying to declare your stance and allegiance, Lancelot?" Cersei asked coldly.
Although no one knew why she was suddenly angry, Myrcella intervened.
"Mother, look! You're a Queen! You're ranked right alongside Visenya, Alysanne, and Nymeria! What's bad about that?" Myrcella took her hand.
"Cersei, it's just a game. What does it matter?" Jaime chimed in. He didn't understand why Cersei would suddenly flare up either.
"Lancelot, I think you should put famous knights of the realm on the cards too, so more people can know them. I know every knight in the White Book," Jaime continued.
"Like Duncan the Tall! The Sword of the Morning! The White Bull, Gerold Hightower! Criston Cole the Kingmaker! Trust me, if you put them all in, the game will be even more fun!"
Jaime seemed very eager. Lancelot sensed that Jaime probably wanted his own name on a card too.
After all, he was the youngest knight ever to join the Kingsguard!
"That's a troublesome task. It will take a lot of time to select the characters," Lancelot said.
"We have plenty of time right now," Jaime replied.
And so, they began the busy work of assigning suitable characters to the entire deck of cards as they traveled.
Many people in the caravan learned how to play.
Tyrion, meanwhile, realized this was a new avenue for making money.
He found Lancelot and wanted to discuss opening a card parlor once they returned to King's Landing.