I sleep deeply and dreamlessly, but for once Mercy wakes up before I do and she then wakes me up. She starts a round of morning fun, which wakes up Lin who then joins in. Luckily, we are finished with our fun when Asuna comes pounding at the door because the puppy is freaking out.

  I rush out to see what’s wrong, but the puppy calms down as soon as I am close enough for him to smell me. It seems that leaving him with Asuna all night didn’t work as well as I was hoping. I feed the puppy while everyone else eats breakfast, then let him lay in my lap while I eat.

  After everyone has eaten, we head outside to the courtyard that is going to be used. Surprisingly, the rulers are all already awake and there waiting with their people. I get asked if it would be possible to keep the gates open long enough for the rulers to check in.

  Since I have to open a gate to their capitals anyway to send people home, I agree to the request. It doesn’t really matter to King Cecil and Queen Estel since they haven’t been gone long. King Gremshow and Queen Mavel on the other hand have been gone for a while.

  I decide to test out something and try to open multiple gates at the same time and keep them open. It turns out that I can, but three at once is my limit, but luckily Lin is here to help. I open the gates to the three kingdoms and she opens one to the empire for Amn.

  He trusts Atesh to have things well in hand, but he doesn’t pass up the chance to visit her. The rulers head through with the people I saved that are from their kingdoms. King Cecil and Queen Estel are only gone for ten minutes before they return and I am able to close their gate.

  Now only maintaining two gates, it is much less stressful and I am able to give Mercy some attention. She will be leaving with the people who chose to move to the peninsula, so she is somewhat sad. I give her as much affection as I can to try and cheer her up, but I am only partially successful.

  Queen Mavel returns after about half an hour, but she looks worried when she does. She looks around, but doesn’t seem to see who she is looking for and instead comes to me. She asks where Amn is and I explain that he also took a short trip home to check on things.

  Queen Mavel says “Then he is probably going to get the same news that I just got.”

  “What would that be? Anything wrong?”

  Queen Mavel says “I was informed that there is increased activity in the living desert. My people are seeing more beasts than ever before.”

  “Are the beasts directly attacking to take back lost ground? Or are they just appearing more often and in bigger groups?”

  Queen Mavel says “They are not attacking, but that is all I can tell you. I was hoping that Amn would have more detailed information.”

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  “Maybe he will when he gets back.”

  Queen Mavel says “He should, he has a much stronger military presence on the living desert. He also has a better intelligence network than I do.”

  “It might just be the desert reacting to the recent loss of territory.”

  Queen Mavel says “I know we call it the living desert, but do you really think it is alive and can react to things?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but if not then I expect there is something controlling the desert. At the least, since there are ants there would have to be a queen.”

  Queen Mavel says “That would make sense. It would be good to know for sure.”

  “We will wait and see what Amn says and I guess Gremshow as well.”

  Queen Mavel says “I wouldn’t expect much from him.”

  “I don’t, but it is polite to ask even though I don’t want to.”

  Queen Mavel says “I completely understand that!”

  Mercy says “It must be tough having him as the king of the neighboring kingdom.”

  Queen Mavel says “You have no idea! At one point he actually suggested that I marry my oldest daughter to him!”

  “From the way he talked, I didn’t think his wife would be willing to share him?”

  Queen Mavel says “Oh, she absolutely wouldn’t! He wanted to arrange an accident for her so that he could marry my daughter.”

  Mercy says “That makes me feel sorry for his wife!”

  “Me too! Maybe we should arrange for him to have an accident instead!”

  Queen Mavel says “That would be fine by me! His wife and I actually get along fairly well. She would make a decent ruler. She spends most of her time trying to fix all the disasters he creates.”

  Mercy says “It would have to look like an accident. Anything else would cause a massive political nightmare. We should also discuss it with Amn before we do anything.”

  “Don’t worry, I was planning to. I wouldn’t kill an ally of his without his permission. No matter how annoying.”

  Mercy says “Tell me you are not planning to kill him just because he has annoyed you a few times?”

  “No, of course not! It will help Mavel and make the alliance more secure.”

  Mercy says “Those sound like excuses! I won’t be around to stop you, but you better get Lin’s permission before you do anything.”

  “Don’t worry. I am not going to rush into this. I won’t do anything without both Amn and Lin’s permission. Until I get that, this is just idle talk.”

  Queen Mavel says “Yes, it is, but it is pleasant idle chatter!”

  Mercy says “Then my part in this is done. I will leave it to Lin to keep you out of trouble. Just promise me that you will be careful when you reach the Magic Kingdom. They are not likely to welcome you.”

  “I promise to be as careful as I can be. I hope that will be enough, but you know me. With my luck, I doubt it will be a peaceful visit.”

  Mercy says “All I ask is that you try your best. In return, I will do my best not to worry too much. I will also work on building a firm foundation for your empire.”

  By this point in the conversation, Mavel has moved away so I can kiss Mercy properly. We make out for the next few minutes and only stop when Amn returns through Lin’s portal. Lin has Victoria with her and has been explaining things and answering her questions.

  Asuna is off to the side with the puppy, who so far is remaining nice and calm. I actually expected him to freak out with so many people moving around, but he hasn’t made a peep. It makes me wonder if his sense of smell is good enough that he can tell I am close by.

  Every minute or so, I see his nose swing in my direction, so maybe it is that good. If so, then that just makes me even more curious about what breed of beast he is. I get the feeling that he is something special since he was able to absorb holy energy.