When we reach the palace, the guards and the others that accompanied us are all dismissed. However, instead of entering the palace, I start looking around outside the palace.

  Mercy says “Ash, what are you doing?”

  “Trying to pick a spot to put a large obelisk. Do you have a preference for where it should be placed?”

  Mercy says “Well, is it going to be ornamental or plain like the smaller ones?”

  “When I create it, it will be plain, but I can add an extra covering of stone that can be carved if you want me to.”

  Mercy says “Yes, please. In that case, put it over there, in the middle of the square. I was planning a memorial for all those that died for the rebellion. An obelisk will do nicely.”

  “Alright, sounds good.”

  Since I have permission, I head over to the spot she indicated and start raising an obelisk. I make it the size I need and then add a couple of extra inches of stone to the outside. That should be enough for her craftsmen to carve whatever designs she has in mind.

  I am no artist, so I am going to keep my nose out of that and leave it to Mercy. If she wants to have some kind of ceremony once it is finished, I will attend if at all possible. For now, getting the obelisk up and the network covering the city is my priority.

  Luckily, the enchantments only take me a few minutes and then I head inside with Mercy. We first meet with the people Mercy assigned to write down the details of the new system. We go over everything, doing our best to make sure there are no loopholes the nobles can use.

  We also flush out as many of the details as we can since this will be the new rule for the empire. Copies will be handed to the nobles at the end of the afternoon court and at that point changes will be difficult. Adding more later will be possible, but changing the existing rules will become complicated.

  While Mercy’s people are copying out the finished rules, I take a sheet of paper and test it. I find that it has just enough capacity for a single, simple enchantment. So, I quickly develop an enchantment that will prevent the paper and what’s on it from being modified.

  The paper is fragile enough that it will be destroyed by anyone attempting to alter my enchantment. This way, the document should be practically tamper proof, at least I hope it will. It at least should be enough to keep the nobles from trying any tricks, unless they manage to hire a mage as skilled as I am.

  That should be pretty close to impossible for them, at least as things stand right now. I don’t know how skilled the mages of the southern empire are, but any that are that skilled should be hard to hire. I wouldn’t put it past the nobles to go that far to try and get around my rules, but I doubt they could keep it secret.

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  Muyaun will be keeping an eye on things in the southern empire as well, so she would probably hear about it. It’s doubtful that any of the nobles are that resourceful, I am probably just being paranoid. However, that doesn’t stop me from enchanting all the copies that Mercy’s people make.

  If nothing else, this will at least make it easy to tell if a document is the original or a forgery. I will have to do the same thing to any copies Stillwater makes, or have Lin do it. She is the only one currently with the skills to do such a delicate enchantment.

  Then again, I have no idea how the skills of the elven mages are doing, or the beast mages. Come to think of it, I was supposed to get them into the tower so that Yui could start training them. I wonder if someone took care of that for me, I will have to ask Lin about it later.

  Actually, no, if I put it off I will forget about it, so I send her a message through the network. Lin responds right away and informs me that she took care of it and they are using the tower. At least, those deemed to have enough potential are being allowed to access the tower.

  The humans with potential from the mage guild in Illium are being treated the same way. No matter the race, the mages of the peninsula will be getting a lot stronger in the near future. I don’t know if it will be soon enough to affect the war, but I hope for at least some support.

  It will depend on how long we have before the war with the demons actually begins. I have this unsettling feeling that the war is going to start sooner rather than later. I hope that I am wrong, I need more time to get all of my plans in motion and get things prepared.

  When the documents are all done and enchanted, Mercy and I have a nice quiet lunch. We finish eating and still have a few minutes to relax and cuddle before we have to attend the court. However, when the court begins it doesn’t go at all as I had planned for it to.

  Instead of whining about their normal complaints, the nobles only want more details about the new system. So, instead of handing them the documents after court is over, we hand them out early. Then I spend the rest of the court answering the nobles' questions about the documents.

  It is quite a bit less annoying than their normal whining, so I am actually happy with the change. Their questions could all be answered if they actually read the document, but that is still less annoying. Court actually passes quickly, or at least it seems to, which is a pleasant surprise.

  It means that I have some free time, so I track down the kids to spend some time with them. Kechara and Mulan are still running around with Mericel when I finally catch up with them. I spend the rest of the time until dinner hanging out and chatting with the three of them.

  We rejoin Mercy in the palace and have a nice family dinner with just the five of us. Well, that is if you don’t count the servants who bring the food and then wait around in case we need anything. Still, the food is excellent and the company is too, but I don’t enjoy it as much as I should.

  My mind is still stuck on the thought of the war starting before I am ready for it. It makes me feel like sitting here enjoying a meal is wasting valuable time I could be using to get ready. I know it is just my mind playing tricks on me, but it makes it hard to relax and enjoy it.

  Luckily, none of them seem to notice that I am distracted, either that or they are used to it. To be fair, me being distracted or having other things on my mind isn’t really a rare occurrence. They have all probably gotten used to me only being somewhat present at any given time.