As I stood on the Soul Platform, reading the chants from this old and dusty book, letting the harsh cold wind whip my body, and ignoring the gazes of the curious dwarf onlookers, I thought of only one thing: What does it mean to be a Queen?

It was such a simple question, but which in every Kingdom and Empire in this world held a different answer to it.

For the humans, the Queen was the legal wife of the King, bound to him through a political marriage, and holding the duty of giving birth to an heir to the throne as well as princesses that may be later used as political bargaining chips. For the elves, the Queen was their all-knowing mother, she who held their entire country together. For the dragons, she was the Supreme Matriarch, the dragoness who ruled them all and used her King as the sword that cut through country’s foes.

The Audience Room of the Emperor was supposed to be imposing, and the noble dwarfs who had gathered here to watch over this ceremony were supposed to be intimidating. The Royal Guards gave off a strength that should have frightened a simple peasant, and the stare of the Emperor himself was piercing and filled with a heavy pressure that could silence even a rowdy noble.

In such a place, I was supposed to feel humble, maybe even frightened, but there was no such thing. I, for one, felt no different than simply walking into a crowded bar. There were a few gazes which hinted of danger, but nothing I could not handle.

There were no other ships in this port except for ours. The piers were flooded with curious onlookers and the Princess was currently talking with one of the dwarf representatives. Wary of the rule mentioned centuries ago, none of us stepped on the wooden platform so as to not upset them.

While the negotiations for our permission to come ashore were being discussed, I waited by the rail and watched the far-off lands of the Dwarf Continent. The snow made it hard for me to see too far inland, but from what I could tell, the nearby area was a plain mostly used for animal husbandry and probably the cultivation of special vegetables that could grow in these harsh conditions.

“Is it just me or does this journey feels a bit longer than it should? King of Hearts.” I said as I place a card on the table.

“It isn’t just you, Seryanna, we’re all feeling this. Besides, it’s raining buckets outside. Three of Hearts.” Kataryna said as she placed a card on the table.

“Do you remember how it was when we arrived at the Dwarf Continent? Queen of Spades.” Princess Elleyzabelle asked.

“Of course I do... Joker. I take half of your armies as my own.” I said as I placed the card on the table.

The Black Company merchant was dead, the adventurers who acted as his guards were killed too. The three mercenaries who could have otherwise posed a threat to us were sent running with their tails between their legs. With the carriages themselves turned to nothing but a hot smoldering pile of nothing, we were left on our own.

“Well, this quest is definitely marked as failed!” I declared with a smile.

“Why are you proud of it?” asked Kalderan with a raised eyebrow.

“Erm... Because we managed to save Tamara! That’s a plus, right?” I replied.

“And you avenged Sofia.” he showed me a small smile.

Tamara was such a sweet and innocent child! I could not believe that monster of a human wanted to skin her alive and then sell her as some stuffed statue to some creepy nobleman. The very thought of this made my blood boil, and I was not one to forgive the sins of such a monster too quickly.

The moment I laid my eyes on the Black Company’s merchant, I released my killing intent and let it pierce that foolish man’s body. Feeling that his life was in danger, he screamed in panic and looked around for someone to help him. His eyes fell on Kalderan, who was still recovery from the battle, and quickly ran towards him, half naked as he was.

“Hiii! You! You! Kalderan, right? Bugah-!” he asked as he fell face first on the dirt at his feet.

On our way from Lineas Village to Orhiga Village, I couldn’t shake off the bad feeling I had. I kept seeing that moment when the merchant entered after those two chained up women. There was also that furry tail which may have belonged to a relliar.

There’s something wrong... I can feel it. I thought.

“Is everything alright?” Kalderan asked me when he saw me frowning.

“Hm? Yes, why?” I asked.

“The goblin who kept attacking you gave up and ran away.” he said.

“Huh? What goblin?” I blinked surprised.

The following day, we departed early in the morning, and we were told to fight any and all monsters that came our way. The other two groups did not move a finger to help us, but the woman, Risha, seemed to be the only one worried about this, or to be more precise, about the fact that we might end up snatching kills that could be counted towards the success of the team as a whole.

On the other hand, it did not bother me in the slightest the fact that we were tasked to kill all of these monsters. While I was practicing how to hold back my strength, Kalderan was gaining levels and combat experience.

I stood on the bridge of the Scorpion Dream Galleon, the same one that took us on our journey towards the far away continents. With the breeze of the ocean washing over me, I came to remember the time when I met Shelly, of her kidnapping and then her rescue.

It saddened me back then to leave her behind after such a traumatic event, and I knew that my words might not have been the most appropriate ones to give to a child. Back then, all I wished for was to let the young relliar know that she was strong enough not to let such an experience force her in a world filled with fear.

I flew straight towards Sagar, stopping for nothing on the way. Tanarotte was right behind me, and I was surprised to see that she was able to keep up with me. Within my arms I carried the sleeping Shelly, who was covered in a warm blanket. Her bleeding had stopped thanks to the potion she was given, but she was still in dire need of healer. My own healing spells were far too weak and far too dangerous to use when I did not know what her actual condition was.

As I carried her like this, a frightening thought crossed my mind: What if instead of Shelly it was my own child? What if at that time I would have no healers around me to help me take care of his or her wounds?

As the night grew closer, and the sun was about to set over the horizon, I spotted something shining in the distance. If I had blinked, I would have missed it.

My wings spread wide, and I stopped in midair. Squinting my eyes at those feeble scattered rays of light, I spotted some sort of tower. For a moment, I wondered if it was a relliar outpost or maybe a small village, but I highly doubted it to be so. This could only be the hideout of the humans, but even if by some far-off chance I was wrong about this, I could ask those living there for directions.

Thus, I flew towards it at my usual speed.

In my half-beast form, I flew through the clear sky, flapping my wings as I gained speed and with each passing moment, I got closer to Mashat Town. It was not long before the relliar settlement was in view, but if I had decided to travel here by carriage, I would have reached it in two days at best.

The bastards who took my fluffy ball of cuteness had probably already left this place, but I was not here to extend a courtesy call to the Akutan Empire. No, my goal was simple: find the human hideout, burn it to the ground, and rip the information out of the bastards who dared to kidnap the cute relliars of this country.

Obtaining proof to use against the human delegates was going to be tricky, but as it was with any big city in the world, there were always those with the needed information who would be willing to talk for a certain price.

Although as a dragoness I had often been called to be a bit hotheaded, this did not mean that I did not understand the fact that these bastards already had a couple of days head start. In the little time I had left to spend in the capital of the Sarakus Kingdom, I had to make sure I obtained all the information I needed to incriminate them before I launched an attack on their group. As such, I decided to pursue the idea that not only did they had the means to kidnap the princess, but they also had accomplices here in the capital willing to take such a risky mission.

The King couldn’t risk having us dragons in the same room as the humans, so our negotiations were postponed for until they decided to leave the capital. This did not mean that Princess Elleyzabelle couldn’t go to the Palace and try to engage in casual talk with the various nobles who could be found here. On the contrary, she used this opportunity to get to know the various political faces in the Sarakus Kingdom. If she could gain their support, then the King would be more inclined towards signing the treaties.

“Found you!” the fluffy princess said as she grabbed the tip of my tail.

I was hiding inside the castle behind one of the velvet window curtains. I intentionally allowed myself to get found by this cute little golden furball because she was just too cute when she pounced around and smiled brightly.

“So you did!” I replied with a smile as I pulled the curtain away.

“Ehehe!” she showed me a bright smile that warmed me up completely, and I could not abstain myself from picking her up in my arms and snuggling her.

We safely dropped anchor in the Knitkat Port of the Sarakus Kingdom. The most excited one to see land again was Tanarotte. She has proven herself to be a true bundle of energy, most notably by constantly trying to find some way to get close to the silver-scaled dragoness. Because of this, I had to stop Kataryna several times already from throwing her off the ship or turning her into an ice cube.

Leaving that part of our journey aside, Princess Elleyzabelle was also glad to see land again. Despite her putting up a strong front she suffered from sea sickness for a while until she got used to the rocking of the ship.

The soft breeze of the Zarvarea Ocean washed over me as I took a deep breath in and listened to the waves below crushing into the hull of the Scorpion Dream Galleon. The crew moved about the deck, taking care of their daily chores, but for me, they were nothing but mere background noise I let fade away in the back of my mind.

As I sat here on the quarter deck, leaning on the rail, Kataryna walked up to me and said “If I didn’t know any better, I would say our duchess here was trying to seduce the sailors.”

The good part about Soldra Town was the fact that even though the monsters around it weren’t that powerful, there were countless things we could do here. The Quest Board never seemed to go empty with requests as there was always someone in need of something. Most adventurers around here weren’t as excited about completing them as I was, they were waiting for that big fish to pop up.

While going on these quests and running through town, I learned the local language little by little. Thanks to my skill [Dictionary of Turnips], I could make good progress and by the end of the week, my knowledge about this language allowed me to understand it for the most part and hold a simple sentence conversation.

We set up camp in a spot Kalderan found suitable. I was curious about how he managed to survive in this world for so many years despite being such a low level and only those weapons of his, although, what made me curious was the actual process with which he managed to make them.

If the people of this world got a hold of gunpowder technology and modern weapons, then the next best thing to do was to find a way to protect ourselves against them and also a way to use them in combat against monsters.

We set up camp in a spot Kalderan found suitable. I was curious about how he managed to survive in this world for so many years despite being such a low level and only those weapons of his, although, what made me curious was the actual process with which he managed to make them.

If the people of this world got a hold of gunpowder technology and modern weapons, then the next best thing to do was to find a way to protect ourselves against them and also a way to use them in combat against monsters. I was not of the type to think that modern tech was bad, after all, I was a walking nuke launcher... What modern weapon could be worse than this? Biological ones could not even be made without the proper equipment and there were things like the Cure All plant, which basically made a lot of diseases and viruses not to be a threat anymore.