"I just rejuvenated you a bit. Can't have you dying on us!"

Mercy says "Zamart, are you alright?"

Zamart says "I am now. In fact I feel fifty years younger!"

Mercy says "Thank you, Ash."

Zamart says "Yes, thank you, Ash!"

"No problem. After all, you can't die until the palace is re-enchanted!"

Zamart shoots me a dirty look while everyone else has a good laugh, except Leonarr. He is still kneeling and watching me with awe, I guess this is another story that will spread. Once the others are done laughing their shock is gone and they are examining me.

Mercy says "Are you really a drake or is this an illusion?"

"I am a drake, a young one anyway."

Alexa says "So, what's your plan?"

"I was thinking I would fly into the empire and start burning down everything of value to the duke."

Zamart says "You want to threaten his standing? So that even if he takes land from us he won't be able to keep it?"

"No, I want to threaten his money. If he can't pay the mercenaries they will leave. Not to mention, if all his troops are here, who is going to deal with me?"

Alexa says "Hm, that's actually not a bad idea!"

Mercy says "Except it means Ash will be taking all the danger on himself!"

Alannis says "Isn't that what he always does?"

"It's not all that dangerous. After all, who in the empire can actually hurt a drake?"

Zamart says "Some of the higher ranked mages, maybe."

"Would Sevaris have his own mages or would he have to hire them?"

Mercy says "In the empire the mages have their own guild, it is separate from the mage's guild in the rest of the kingdoms. It is directly under the emperor's control, so he would have to hire mages."

"That would be extremely expensive, right?"

Zamart says "Absolutely!"

"Then that's perfect! Besides, I will be long gone by the time he can summon mages from the capital."

Alexa says "Mercy, it's actually a decent plan."

Mercy says "I know, and that worries me even more!"

Zamart says "It is probably our best chance to avoid a full scale war."

Leonarr says "He is the Beast King, none of you have the right to stop him."

Alexa says "Could we even stop him?"

Mercy says "No, probably not. Alright, Ash, I guess you can do whatever you want."

"Don't worry. Since I will be flying I will leave Lizzy here. If Sevaris attacks before I can pull him away she will help you."

Alexa says "Is Lizzy that powerful?"

"I am not sure if I would even be able to defeat her."

Alannis says "Wow! I never expected to hear that from you!"

Zamart says "Alright, since it's decided, let me show you Sevaris' territory."

At that point Zamart pulls out a different map and starts showing me everything Sevaris owns. Starting from his capital city and then going through all his income sources. He even points out all the homes and vacation homes that Sevaris owns.

Zamart says "The people of the empire tend to be a bit more superstitious than most. If you burn down all of Sevaris' homes, the people will think he has done something to anger the gods."

Mercy says "Try not to do anything too risky, alright?"

"Don't worry this form is really powerful. I will be fine!"

After taking another long look at the map to make sure I have it memorized I start saying my goodbyes. I keep it as short as I can, after all I am not worried at all. However, when I head outside the tent, in drake form, it ends up raising quite the fuss.

Ekard says "Mama!"

Ekard flies over and lands on my back, but at the same time the soldiers start shouting. It is only when I see the soldiers panicking that I realize I should have probably dropped my drake form. Alexa and Alannis rush out of the tent and start shouting orders as they try to restore order.

Once the soldiers understand that I am the drake they laugh it off as a joke. Then I head over to Lizzy and explain to her what the current plan is, but Ekard doesn't like it. He absolutely refuses to stay here with Lizzy and instead insists on coming with me.

In the end I agree to take him with me, but only on the condition that he stays in the shadow pocket when I am fighting. Once he makes his promise I am a lot less worried and agree to take him with me. After telling Lizzy to take care of Windy I launch myself into the air and fly away.

Once I am high enough I fly across the border and officially enter the empire. Before heading deeper in I circle around and take a good look at Sevaris' forces. Some distance from his main camp I finally find what I am looking for, his beastman slaves.

Finding a comfortable spot not too far from their camp I land and settle in to wait. Ekard and I eat dinner as I wait for night to fall, then I sneak into the camp. The first thing I do is sneak up to a sleeping beastman to figure out how they are being controlled.

While I find no chains or manacles, there is a collar on the beastman and it is magical. Luckily, after examining it I find it is not going to be a big problem. It is obviously mass produced and not anything exotic, the enchants on it are very weak.

It only takes me a few minutes of examination to figure out how to undo the enchants. Before I do anything I have Ekard hide in the shadow pocket and return to my normal form. Then I send a single spike of sacred power into the collar and watch as it turns to dust.

The beastman instantly wakes up but obeys my gesture to remain silent. In the camp there seem to be over five hundred beastmen, watching over them are only thirty or so humans. Not wanting to risk the humans raising the alarm I start sneaking around the camp and killing them.

It seems they have become complacent because the beastmen can't fight the magic collars. This has led to them being lazy and not paying much attention, which makes them easy to kill. It only takes me about a half hour to kill all the human guards, then I start freeing beastmen.

It takes a couple of hours to destroy all of the slave collars, but it is worth it. Just the looks of gratitude the beastmen give me make it time well spent. Once they are all freed I lead them back towards the border, they follow me without question.

Sevaris has scouts watching the border and they are a lot more alert than the ones who were guarding the beastmen. However, a human versus a beastman at night is no contest at all. Not to mention all the beastmen with me are burning to get some payback.

So in the end I don't get to kill a single scout, the beastmen take care of all of them. When Mercy's scouts see us coming they send off messengers but otherwise don't trouble us. Soon Leonarr and a couple of dozen of my beastmen come to meet us.

Leonarr says "Your Majesty!"

"Leonarr, take good care of these guys, alright?"

Leonarr says "Of course!"

Verica says "Now that we are out of the empire, can I ask who you are and what you plan to do with us?"