Grimgar says “She is from the lynx tribe. Supposedly, they are the weakest of the cat tribes. Yet she beat tigers and lions to win the tournament.”

  “Alright, that is fairly impressive, but I still don’t see why I should meet her.”

  Grimgar says “My apologies, I was under the impression from your wives that you were looking for candidates. I just thought that she might fit the bill.”

  “Myria!”

  Myria says “We just wanted to find a beastwoman in case you ended up needing to marry another human. We agreed that you would need another to maintain the balance. However, we are just looking for prospects, we are not encouraging anyone. Just trying to be prepared if it becomes necessary.”

  “Was this under Lin’s orders?”

  Myria says “Yes.”

  “Alright, then I will let it drop. However, I don’t need to meet this lynx until it becomes necessary.”

  Grimgar says “Sorry, I wasn’t aware.”

  “No problem. I’m sure Myria and the others will keep an eye on her.”

  Myria says “Yes, that was already the plan. Mercy is handling it.”

  “Alright, enough said. Anything else that we need to discuss?”

  Grimgar says “Not on my end. Although, I would appreciate a gate back to the lands of my clan if you don’t mind. I still need to meet with the other clan leaders and try to brow beat them into moving.”

  “I thought you didn’t want to do that?”

  Grimgar says “I am going to do what my wife told me to! By the fact that you are still around, I am guessing that you also know that is the smart thing to do!”

  “Well, I can’t argue with you there!”

  Myria says “You don’t do what we tell you! You argue all the time!”

  “Only because arguing with you is fun! Besides, I normally end up doing what you want me to do anyway.”

  Grimgar says “Well, then I envy you that! Lenora is not fun to argue with!”

  “Speaking of Lenora, did you ask her about the giant essence?”

  Grimgar says “I haven’t had a chance yet. I will ask her when I see her.”

  “Alright.”

  Since he doesn’t have anything else to talk about, Grimgar and I jump out of the carriage. I open a gate for him to return to his clan’s lands and then run to catch up to the carriage. As soon as I am inside, Myria glues herself to my side again, so I give her some attention.

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  I keep it mild since Asuna is still in the carriage with us, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Not that Asuna hasn’t seen it before, but I still try to keep things mostly child friendly. Myria knows that and doesn’t try to go for more or complain about it, she will wait for later.

  She spends the time filling me in on everything that has happened on the peninsula. I already know most of it, but I let her tell me again and just enjoy listening to her. It takes her until we stop for lunch to finish and then I start telling her what I’ve been up to.

  Of course, she already knows most of what I am telling her, but it is a good way to pass the time. We finish lunch and get back on the road, but I have finished talking by then. Luckily, Kirito is wide awake and we spend some time playing with him and Asuna.

  When he finally takes a nap, I switch to giving Asuna attention and chatting with Myria. A huge city comes into sight just as the sun is starting to set, our destination for the night. Once again, Amn has rented out a massive hotel for all of us to stay at and gives us two suites.

  It is too late to wander the entire city, but I do take the three of them for a short walk around. If nothing else, it will help everyone work up an appetite, as long as we avoid the street vendors. The city has a lot of shops of every sort imaginable and even just a short walk is enough to see lots of them.

  A few questions is enough to find out that this city is one of the major stops for people visiting the Magic Kingdom. As such, it attracts merchants from all over the eastern side of the continent. Normally, we would be going northwest from here to use the Magic Kingdom’s east gate.

  However, because Amn is with us we have to circle down and use the southern gate. It is tradition that the two empires come in from their respective gates and leave most of their guards outside. This is to try and make conflicts between the troops of the two empires less likely.

  Technically, as the ruler of the third empire, I should circle around and use the western gate. However, since this is my first visit and I don’t have any troops, I’m not going to bother. Besides, if things play out the way that I expect, I will need to have Amn with me.

  Any attack on me can be considered an act of war against my empire and I will need witnesses. Having a group of rulers to act as witnesses will be something no one can argue against. While I am still hoping everything will go smoothly, I have to plan for the worst and everything in between.

  Tomorrow I will finally get to satisfy my curiosity and find out what this whole trip has been about. Although, even if it ends up being nothing, the trip has been worth the time spent. Just finding Kirito is enough to make me not have any regrets about escorting Amn.

  Thinking of that, while we are sitting down to dinner, I explain the soulscape to Kirito. He seems like he understands, but I won’t know for sure until later when I invite him. I hope he does, he has a lot of siblings to get to know and play with and the soulscape will be his first chance to do so.

  It will also be pretty entertaining for the rest of us to watch and I am looking forward to it. However, that is going to have to wait until later, I have to take care of Myria first. Not that I won’t enjoy doing so, in fact I can guarantee that I am going to really enjoy it.

  However, I still take the time to play with Asuna and Kirito after we are done eating. When they finally get worn out and leave, Myria pounces on me the second the door closes. We have several rounds of fun throughout all the rooms of the suite until she is exhausted.

  After she is asleep I take a look around, looks like I am going to need to leave another large tip. On the other hand, it is just gold and I have plenty, besides it was totally worth it. Now that Myria is asleep, I open the soulscape and invite just Kirito at first.

  He shows up almost right away and I start teaching him how the soulscape works. After the basic tutorial, I start inviting the others, but I invite them one by one. I want Kirito to have a chance to meet each of them without being overwhelmed.