Koko’s sudden return interrupts the avalanche of questions I was being hit with. Or more accurately, her prisoner is the one that draws everyone’s attention away from me. Unfortunately, even though he has been roughed up, Koko didn’t gag the fool.

  As soon as he spots Mavabel, he ignores the rest of us and his situation and starts spouting crap. It is all about how they are fated to be together and soon her mother will be out of the way. The scariest part is he seems to have convinced himself that what he is saying is actually true.

  Mavabel says “Don’t touch me! I would sooner die than be touched by the likes of you!”

  Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop him, in fact he doesn’t show any signs of having heard her. Even worse, Mavabel uses the act of moving away from him to get closer to me. That is a complication I don’t want to deal with so I quickly use mana to silence Lyle.

  “Mavel, what do you want to do with him?”

  Queen Mavel says “Well, I should hold him and then put him on trial. The public needs to see that I am not just executing him for no reason.”

  “No way! We are not dragging him along all the way to the Magic Kingdom! If I have to hear one more word from him I am just going to kill him myself.”

  Queen Mavel says “I can’t just order the execution of a marquis! My nobles would throw a fit! I have enough trouble keeping my throne without giving them an excuse. Unfortunately, my kingdom is nowhere near as stable as Amn’s empire.”

  “That’s easy. Just write up an execution order with the charge being attempted rebellion. After all, this ambush was designed to kill you, he just admitted as much before three royal witnesses. That sure sounds like an attempted rebellion to me. The rest of your nobles will be so busy trying to prove that they weren’t involved to worry about him.”

  Emperor Amn says “I agree, it looked like an attempted rebellion to me.”

  King Gremshow says “True, I heard him admit that Queen Mavel was the target.”

  “Besides, that charge should be enough to strip his family of their title, if any of them survived. Then you can give that title to someone who supports you. The best way to counter the nobles who want you gone is to build and strengthen a faction that supports you. If you do it well enough there should be no issues with one of your daughters inheriting the throne.”

  Emperor Amn says “As much as you say you hate politics, Ash, you are really good at them!”

  “I am only good at the planning part of them. If I actually have to deal with the people I quickly lose patience and just eat them.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Amn chuckles at my statement, but the others look worried and that was the point. I don’t want them trying to get closer to me, especially Mavabel, doubly so now that I know she isn’t really married.

  Queen Mavel says “I am going to do things exactly as you suggested. Thank you for the advice. You can go ahead and kill him.”

  Mavabel says “I know it isn’t nice, but if you could make him suffer a little for all the trouble he has caused me I would appreciate it.

  Seeing it as a chance to scare her off, I slowly reach out and touch Lyle and use Drain Touch on him. However, I only use it at half power so that it takes longer to drain him to death. That is about as far as I am willing to go to make him suffer, but it is still a horrible way to die.

  Watching Mavabel’s reaction I am sure that she already regrets asking, but she doesn’t look away. She might just be made of sterner stuff than I was giving her credit for, not that I am going to change my mind. I would consider Shiro for a political marriage before Mavabel, her kingdom is just too far away.

  Mavabel may be more attractive than Shiro, but that isn’t as important as personality and intelligence. No one seems to be in the mood to talk once he is dead and servants have taken away the body. So, after a minute I excuse myself to go wait for Myria’s return to get away from them.

  They aren’t back yet and I didn’t expect them to be, but I wanted out of that conversation. After scaring Mavabel, sticking around would have reduced the fear and I don’t want that. The only reason I haven’t tried to scare Leylisha is that she hasn’t shown any interest in me.

  In fact, other than being grateful to me, most of her attention is focused on Lizzy. That is kind of a relief, although I would more seriously consider Leylisha as a potential wife since she is a beastwoman. However, since she isn’t interested, that means that I don’t have to worry about it.

  So, now that I am alone, I open up a tiny gate back to the last platform I placed. Once it is open, I cast the spell to make the changes and then watch to make sure it works. There ends up being a small problem in how the spell applies the changes, but the changes work fine.

  Once I fix the problem with the spell I quickly open more gates to fix the other platforms. I have to work my way back, platform by platform, until I get to the peninsula. Each gate costs more mana, but when mine runs out I just use a crystal to recharge.

  However, even with doing that, I only manage to fix a dozen platforms before Lizzy returns. My first sight of Lizzy has me reaching into my pouch for the cleaning stone. Because unless she has somehow evolved, she isn’t supposed to be a red lizard.

  Lizzy rushes straight to me and skids to a stop right in front of me allowing me to touch the stone to her. She instantly returns to her normal color as all the blood and other things are removed. However, I am not done, both Myria and Leylisha are also completely covered.

  Myria says “Thank you, but I still feel dirty. I don’t suppose you could add a bath to the carriage?”

  “No, not this one anyway. I would need to build a new one from scratch, but I have been thinking about doing that anyway. Before that, I assume that it is safe for the caravan to proceed?”

  Myria says “Well, the enemies are all dead, but I am not sure you are going to want everyone seeing the site of the fight.”

  “I’m guessing from the state of you that Lizzy made a mess? It’s fine, it might actually help things if the other rulers are a little scared of you.”

  Myria says “I guess so, but it isn’t exactly a good place for us to camp anymore.”

  “Good point. I will go talk to Amn.”