Once I am done, I shrink the carriage, pick it up, and head over to where Amn is. I hand the carriage over to him and explain how everything works and what the command words are.

  Emperor Amn says “That’s great, but as much as I want it, I don’t think I can afford it. I don’t want to put my empire into debt.”

  “Honestly, I don’t really need gold. Although, now that I think about it, I might need some crystal coins. Assuming I get a chance to spend them.”

  Emperor Amn says “Do you really think things are going to be that bad?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if I get attacked on sight. If they have put the clues together and figured out who I am, they will see me as an enemy.”

  Emperor Amn says “I doubt that they will be willing to start a war over whatever you did.”

  “We will just have to wait and see.”

  Emperor Amn says “Fair enough. I can do without going shopping. All the crystal coins that I have are yours.”

  “Alright. If things don’t go well, we can always figure something else out.”

  I chat with Amn a bit longer and then leave him to play with his new carriage. I head back to mine and find that Lizzy is still busy playing with it, but that’s fine. I still have some crafting to do, so I take out the stone from my ring and start building the foundation.

  Mercy says “I thought you were done with the carriage?”

  “I am.”

  Mercy says “Then what are you making now?”

  “A portable hut. Or at least it will look like a hut from the outside.”

  Mercy says “So, something like the castle?”

  “Yes, but not as big. Originally I intended to have the castle with me at all times, but that hasn’t worked so well. I didn’t really plan on everyone going around doing their own thing. So, now the castle is the home everyone goes back to. The hut will just be a comfortable and secure place to sleep. It won’t be anywhere near as fancy as the castle is.”

  Mercy says “Isn’t that something that the new carriage can do?”

  “In a way, but Lizzy won’t always be with me and the new carriage is bound to her. So, better to have my own little hut to camp out in when I need to.”

  Mercy says “I’m guessing it won’t be so little on the inside?”

  “It won’t be too big, just a bedroom for me and a couple extra. The only reason I plan to make it as big as I am going to is that I need to be able to fit through the door in my normal form.”

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  Mercy says “Wouldn’t that make it more the size of a barn?”

  “Ha ha. Very funny. Unfortunately, not that far from the truth.”

  Mercy says “Can’t you just enchant the door to shrink you to fit through it?”

  “Um, yeah, I guess I could do that. That’s a really good idea, thanks!”

  Mercy says “You’re welcome. How long will this take?”

  “Not long. I should be done before dinner. It is a lot simpler than the carriage.”

  Mercy says “So we can try it out tonight?”

  “That was the plan, yes.”

  Mercy smiles at me and just keeps watching as I shape the wood to build the hut. Since this should be my last project for a while, I use all of the remaining materials. It ends up too big to look like a hut, so I shape it to look like a small log cabin.

  How it looks on the outside isn’t really important, it is the inside that I care about. Building the cabin only takes me a few minutes and then I start doing the enchantments. Setting the internal walls to make the rooms is part of the enchantments.

  I can only do that after the enchantment to make the inside of the cabin bigger. I only plan to build the bed for the main bedroom, the rest of the furniture I can buy later. In fact, I am pretty sure that Mercy would love to help me do some shopping.

  I think that can wait, we can go shopping in the cities we are going to pass through once we leave the desert. It is just furniture and decorations, I don’t need to go anywhere special for those. Besides, Mercy should definitely enjoy exploring a brand new city with me.

  Thinking about furniture, I realize that I need to put in some fireplaces and chimneys. I am glad that I thought of that before I finished, it would have been a pain to add in later. As promised, I manage to finish the enchanting of the cabin before dinner.

  With a single command, the cabin shrinks down to the point that it will fit in the palm of a human hand. I toss it into my pouch and then have dinner with Mercy, I will set it back up later. Once we are done eating, I take her with me for a walk around the camp to see if I missed anything.

  It turns out that the remaining beastmen left with a native guide while I was busy. They are headed north to try and find a way back to their people, they are no longer my responsibility. That just leaves the few humans that are from the kingdom ahead of us.

  They shouldn’t slow us down too much, but even if they do, we can make it up after dropping them off. A few delays aren’t enough to make me abandon them, not after all that they have been through. I just hope that the king of their kingdom will take them in and take proper care of them.

  If not, then I will just offer them a place in my empire, we can easily handle a few more refugees. I will just wait and see how that goes, but for now there is nothing that needs my attention. So, I take Mercy back to the carriage, set the cabin back up, and take her inside to show her around.

  Mercy says “It’s great, but it’s a little plain. Where is the rest of the furniture?”

  “I didn’t feel like crafting it. I figured I would just buy some in the cities we are going to pass through. Would you like to help me shop?”

  Mercy says “I would love to!”

  “Good, then that is the plan.”

  Mercy says “Wait, is this going to count as my date?”

  “No. This will be a few quick shopping trips. The date will be a full day thing.”

  Mercy says “Okay, good. Just want to make sure we are keeping things fair.”

  She looked like she was about to say more, but then she notices that I have shapeshifted into human form. After that, there aren’t any more words, just actions to show our affection for each other. Mercy falls asleep after we have thoroughly tested out the new bed and I also try to get some sleep.

  However, I am still wide awake, so I open a soulscape and do the normal stuff. After that, I open a second to spend some time with the goddesses and see if Seronia is still mad at me. She is, but that doesn’t last long once I start showing her some affection.