I know that dogs in my world would open their eyes in the first week or two after birth. However, it varied greatly between breeds and I know nothing about this breed. What’s worse, I have no idea how him being a beast might affect that, it might take longer or be shorter.

  Beasts tend to mature quickly in order to survive, but there is no way for me to know if that will be the case. I will just have to keep taking care of him until he opens his eyes, even if it takes a month. I just can’t wait to see what he is going to be and what kind of personality he will have.

  Once he is done eating, he play wrestles with my hand for a while until he runs out of energy. Then he curls up in my hand to take a little nap, but I don’t get a chance to work on the spell form. All the moving around of the puppy has woken Lin up and she quickly claims my attention.

  She takes advantage of the fact that I can’t move my arm without disturbing the puppy. We play a fun little game and we manage it all without disturbing the puppy. When we are done, I move the puppy to his nest and carry it out and set it on the table.

  Asuna quickly takes over watching him, which reminds me that I never checked my messages. When I check, I do indeed have a reply from Muyaun, but she tells me not to worry. This is basically Asuna practicing, I have a long time to wait before she hits that age.

  That is quite the relief and it allows me to sit and enjoy my breakfast with the others. However, when Victoria leaves her room to join us I get quite the surprise. It seems she has absorbed all of the cores because she now looks to be eighteen or nineteen.

  Her wings are now full sized, well her original two sets are, a third set has just started forming. They give her a little trouble when she goes to sit down at the table and join us. She quickly sorts it out and we start eating breakfast, we need to get moving soon.

  When we finish eating, we head outside to the courtyard to find the caravan preparing. It seems that King Vex is not adding a carriage of his own, he will ride with Amn. He is however adding his guards to the caravan, bringing it to nearly three hundred guards.

  The chances of bandits attacking this many troops is practically zero, which is a little boring. Still, I shouldn’t let my guard down, there might still be someone stupid enough to try. Although, it is more likely for one of the kingdoms to try to attack us than bandits.

  This many rulers gathered together would make a fairly tempting target for neighboring kingdoms. Or it could even be nobles within the allied kingdoms who would want their ruler out of the way. I don’t think an attack like that is likely, but it serves to remind me to not get complacent.

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  While everything else is still being prepared, I take Victoria over and introduce her to Lizzy and Leylisha. When we enter the carriage, we find a sleeping Koko, who I haven’t seen in a while. In fact, the last time I saw her was when I figured out how to detect her when she was hiding.

  I have no idea what she might have been up to and I don’t intend to ask her about it. As far as I am concerned, she is just a passenger traveling with us, she is not a part of my group. She hasn’t shown any interest in joining us and I won’t do anything until she does.

  As far as I know, she is still part of Justin’s group and will return to them after this trip. She just came out here because she was bored, not because she was looking for a new group. However, it quickly becomes apparent that she and Victoria do not like each other.

  I am not sure why, they barely even say a few words to each other before Koko runs off. It must be some sort of female thing that I will never understand and I am not even going to try. Koko will either come back, or run off and do her own thing, it matters not to me.

  Victoria gets along just fine with Lizzy and Leylisha, which is more important. Leylisha isn’t exactly a part of the group, mainly because we haven’t discussed it. However, with as close as she has gotten with Lizzy, she may as well be part of the group.

  She has also gotten along with the rest of our group that she has met, which is important. I really should find a time to talk to Lizzy about transferring the bond to Leylisha. That would make her an official part of the group and I think they would be good for each other.

  Asuna and Victoria ride in the carriage with Lin and I, chatting and taking care of the puppy. Lin and I cuddle on the opposite side of the carriage and I check the rest of my messages. I have quite a few built up, but they are mostly reports on progress and updates on situations.

  Luckily, this time it is daytime so I can actually chat with the people that I need to talk to. Things at home are going well, the war is progressing and we control almost half the empire. Things on the civil side are even better, there have been far less problems than I expected.

  Trade with the empire is flourishing and I have apparently made even more money. Or to be more precise, Pol’s people have made a lot of money for the empire. It is technically my money, but I don’t need it, it is better if the empire uses it to grow and expand.

  All the lands we are taking are going to need money to rebuild and our infrastructure still needs work. Besides, the more money we have, the more likely the Free Union will submit without a fight. That will put me a lot closer to unifying the peninsula and completing that quest.

  Come to think of it, the reward for the quest is increasing my soul levels, but ten is supposed to be the max. Does that mean the quest reward will fail, or will it be able to raise my level above the max? Now that I have thought of it, I am really curious what will happen if I complete the quest.

  I definitely need to get my soul level to max before I complete the quest so I can see what happens. Although, maybe I should ask someone before I do that, it may do something I don’t like. For instance, what if going over the max soul level makes me into a divine being.

  That would definitely be a problem and one I am not sure that I could fix after it happened. This seems like something that I should discuss with Everburn, he should know something about it. Then again, his knowledge of souls may be limited since his isn’t separate from his body.