Lizzy wakes up shortly after I do and I offer her breakfast, but she is still full from all the beasts. Amn invites me to join him and his daughter for breakfast once it is ready. It probably won’t be as much food as I need, but I will go ahead and accept to be polite.

  After breakfast we get back on the road, but I end up eating more while riding Lizzy. I chat with Lizzy as we ride alongside the carriage and tell her everything I have learned. I don’t expect her to be all that interested in essence, but it helps me to organize my thoughts.

  She listens intently and even asks a few questions here and there as we continue along the road. If nothing else, it helps to pass the time and just as it is getting to be lunch time we arrive in a decent sized town. We stop and have lunch at an inn where we try all of the local specialties, some of which are quite good.

  As usual, for the best of them I order a second serving and add it to my food pouch. I should be able to add quite a few new dishes to the pouch on this trip if I am lucky. Everyone would be quite disappointed if I didn’t bring back new foods for them to try.

  After lunch, we continue on and stop to set up camp once it starts to get dark. Lizzy and I spend a few hours searching the surroundings, but we don’t find any strong beasts. I am guessing that we are too deep into the kingdom and the area has been cleared of them.

  The essence of the few beasts we do come across gets fed to the spider essence, but it isn’t enough to make a difference. At least, not a visible difference which is all I am worried about right now. Now that I know more, I really want some essences from stronger beasts so that I can study them.

  We should reach the capital tomorrow to pick up our first king and then we will be heading north. That will bring us closer to the center of the continent where the stronger beasts are. Hopefully, I will be able to get the essence I need on that part of the trip.

  I will just have to wait and see how things go, but for now I open up a soulscape. The only difference this time is that I have Mulan act as basically a teacher’s assistant instead of a student. It turns out that she is much more knowledgeable than me when it comes to attacks and defenses.

  However, that isn’t really surprising since she has lived a lot longer than I have. In fact, I have no idea how long she has lived between all of her lives, or how many lives for that matter. It is quickly apparent that she has done a lot more soul combat than I have and I even learn a few things from her.

  Before long, it is Mulan doing the teaching while I assist her, but I have fun doing it. The only advantage I have over Mulan’s knowledge is the ideas from my old world. Mulan has watched a lot of anime, but I still know a lot more about the technology of my world than she does.

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  Although, when I use that knowledge in attacks or defenses, she picks it up really quickly. If my wives and the other kids can get to her level of knowledge, then I would be fine with them entering the hallway. That isn’t going to happen quickly, but it is nice to have a goal to give the kids.

  After training and playing with the kids, I spend some time with my wives and then end the soulscape. I sleep for a few hours, have breakfast with Amn, and then we get back on the road. We reach the capital a little before lunch, but since we are ahead of schedule the king isn’t ready.

  The plan is to have lunch here with the king and then to head out afterwards. Luckily, that gives me enough time to head into the city and look for the glass that I need. While I am at it, I take out a gate platform and sink it under the road, deep enough that it shouldn’t be found.

  A single question to a street vendor quickly leads me to the only glassmaker in the city. Since I don’t need finished products, I end up buying an entire barrel of broken and failed projects. It is stuff they would have melted down and attempted to reuse, but they happily sell it to me for a single gold.

  It is enough glass for me to make at least a dozen jars, probably more. It should be more than enough for what I need, so I put it away and head back to the castle. There is still a bit of time before the meeting, so I head to the stables to fix the king’s carriage.

  The king will be bringing just the one carriage and ten guards to join our group. I am not sure if he is just confident in his men, his kingdom is that weak, or he trusts Amn to keep him safe. Whatever the case, at least it means we shouldn’t be slowed down much.

  I do have some trouble getting the servants to let me touch the king’s carriage, but Amn takes care of it. He seems to be quite well known here and the servants stop arguing as soon as he speaks up. I manage to get the carriage enchanted just in time for us to be called in to meet the king.

  As we head into the castle, I walk beside Amn which gets me odd looks from everyone we pass. Once we are inside the castle we are guided off to a side hallway instead of the main one. I am guessing that leads to the throne room, but since we are having lunch we won’t be going there.

  The side hallway leads to a smaller dining room, one that is overly opulent. There are guards all along the walls inside the room with servants standing between them. What draws my eyes the most is the table, which is covered in gold, at least I hope it is just covered.

  Whether it is solid gold or just coated in it, either way it is a massive waste of money. The rest of the room isn’t as bad, but it is still overly decorated and designed to show off the king’s wealth. As I am looking around, the king enters, he looks to be in his forties and is rather heavyset.

  Emperor Amn says “There he is. Ash, this is King Gremshow. Gremshow, this is Emperor Ash.”

  King Gremshow says “Nice to meet you, but what are you the emperor of?”

  “The Britannian Empire.”

  King Gremshow says “Forgive me, but I have only ever heard of the two empires.”

  Emperor Amn says “His empire is to the west of mine and he is my ally.”

  King Gremshow says “The west? Is he a demon?!”

  Emperor Amn says “No. His empire is farther west than the demon lands.”

  King Gremshow says “Farther west? I had no idea there was anything beyond the demon lands!”