After that I summon Maximus and try to find my way back to the original market I found. I was hoping to look for Argannon to buy more materials, but I can’t find the market. Even after wandering around for hours, I can’t even find a similar area.

  Eventually I give up and just look for a materials store, which turns out to be all over the place. I choose one at random and head inside to take a look at what I can afford. After browsing around for a while I find a material that gives three feet of space for twenty thousand coins.

  By this point, I am tired of shopping so I just buy two of them and then leave the city. That leaves me with just under ten thousand soul coins, not enough to bother with. I head into the soul palace and use the two materials, which makes the place a little roomier.

  I then give Maximus a good brushing and feed him a couple of soul crystals before I leave. I exit my meditation and head upstairs to see if anyone is around, but the castle is quiet. So, I head outside and ask the first soldier I see to have Leonarr report to me.

  Leonarr says “You ask for me, Your Majesty?”

  “Yes, I’ve been occupied and wanted an update on the situation.”

  Leonarr says “Things are going better than expected. We received some unexpected support from within the empire.”

  “Oh? From who?”

  Leonarr says “Mercenaries in the empire are suddenly rebelling against the local nobles and turning their territories over to us.”

  “I seem to remember hiring them to help rescue beastmen, but I never said anything about taking territory.”

  Leonarr says “Should we refuse it then?”

  “No. Go ahead and take it. If they are going to offer it, we may as well. Even if they want to be paid later, I can afford it.”

  Leonarr says “They have also been helping to get beastmen out of areas that we cannot easily enter.”

  “That’s good. Freeing our people is still our top priority.”

  Leonarr says “Understood!”

  “Any other changes?”

  Leonarr says “Not really. We have been moving against the bandits, as you ordered, and have eliminated several thousand already.”

  “Good. I am going to be flying around inside the empire for a bit looking for demons. Are there any problem areas that I should deal with while I am there?”

  Leonarr says “Well, there is one that I am not sure what to do with.”

  “What’s the situation?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Leonarr says “The northern duke has gathered all the beastmen slaves in the north to his capital. So far he hasn’t done anything with them, but the city is heavily fortified and the distance our forces would need to cross is immense.”

  “Alright, I will take a look.”

  Leonarr says “Muyaun headed there to see if she could figure out what the northern duke was up to.”

  “In that case I will look for her before I make a move.”

  Leonarr says “Understood. Any new orders for me?”

  “Not really. You are doing good work. Keep it up and make your own choices.”

  Leonarr says “Yes, My King!”

  Before leaving, I check a map so that I know where the northern capital is so that I can find it. The imperial capital is closer, so I plan to fly there first and check for strong demons. Once I am sure of my directions, I take to the air and start flying at high speed.

  My flying speed is much higher than it used to be, I can cover miles every minute. It is dark out, but with my vision I have no problem seeing the ground and the landmarks that I need. After flying about an hour I come across the first major city and I start circling it.

  I circle it several times, casting the detection spell repeatedly until I am sure I have covered the entire city. There is not a single demon in the city, so I continue on towards the next city. I reach the next city just as the sun is coming up and I again stop to scan the city.

  This time I do detect a single demon, but it is a weak one that isn’t really worth my time. My soldiers could easily deal with it, so I ignore it and continue flying towards the capital. I am only really worried about demons that are rank five or higher, lower ones are worthless.

  There is one more city for me to check, it is close to the imperial city and should be under the emperor’s control. However, when the city comes into sight, half of it is burning and there is fighting in the streets. As I get closer, I can spot more details, it looks like the city is in the midst of falling.

  The attackers are a mixed bunch, some soldiers, but most of them look like common people. However, they are pushing the defenders, who look like the imperial army, back easily. Surprisingly, aside from the fires, it doesn’t look like the attackers are looting or pillaging.

  Not that it really matters to me, but I still do fly around the city and scan for demons. I don’t find any demons in the city, but when I fly over the retreating army I find a bunch. One of them seems decently strong, so I dive down and attack the entire group.

  The demons are paying attention to the army chasing them, so my attack comes as a complete surprise. I attack with my breath right before I physically attack and there are humans in the blast radius. However, since they serve the emperor, I already consider them enemies so I don’t spare them.

  The strongest demon survives the lightning blast, but it doesn’t have time to react before I land on it. It even manages to survive that, but it ends up pinned beneath me and helpless. I don’t bother with anything fancy, I just lean down and bite its head off.

  11 Demons defeated! 105,000 Exp gained!

  29 Humans defeated! 22,500 Exp gained!

  The surrounding humans all run away as I collect the cores from the demons. This means that a lot less of them escape from the pursuing army, but that isn’t my problem. I store away the cores and then return to the sky to continue towards the imperial capital.

  The demon that I just killed might have been the leader of the demons in the empire. However, I still plan to check for more, just in case there is another one as strong or stronger. The capital is not currently under attack, but from the looks of it it won’t be long until it is.

  I am not sure which faction is attacking, but they are obviously winning the war. Controlling the capital and the throne will be important, so this probably won’t be the last time it is attacked. I am guessing that it is the forces of the eastern duke, he should be the one the closest to the capital.