Emperor Amn says “Not when the nobles’ families do everything they can to suppress the stories to preserve their reputations.”

  “Oh, good point. Maybe if I had gone south instead of north I would have encountered it sooner. You are right though, I definitely want to prevent the spread of the drug to the peninsula if I can. Maybe I can create a way to detect the drugs. Is there anything unique about it aside from being made from beast materials?”

  Emperor Amn says “Honestly, I am not sure. We have confiscated plenty of the drug, but we have never found the creator. My specialists have been unable to analyze the composition of the drug.”

  “If you have a sample I could give it a try?”

  Emperor Amn says “I don’t have any samples here, but the researchers should still have some. I will have them sent over. My only request is that if you do manage to make a detector you make me a couple. I would love to end the drug industry.”

  “While you can probably curtail it, ending it probably isn’t possible while there is a profit to be made from it. Unless the creator has kept the recipe a secret, in that case killing him would end it for a while. Eventually, someone else will figure it out as long as there is a demand to be met.”

  Emperor Amn says “Considering that there are different grades of the drug, I doubt that it is still a secret.”

  “Not necessarily, that might just be the merchants cutting the drug with something to increase their profits.”

  Emperor Amn says “I hadn’t thought of that, but it could well be. I have learned to never underestimate the greed of merchants.”

  “Either that, or someone else got the recipe but doesn’t have the skill to follow it properly. Whatever the case may be, if I can figure out how to make them, I will make you some detectors.”

  Emperor Amn says “That would be great. Even if I can’t end the drug trade, I want to keep it out of my empire as much as possible. Nobles going crazy and killing commoners isn’t good for anyone.”

  “True enough. Let me know when the sample gets here. Hopefully there is something unique about it that I can use for the detector.”

  Emperor Amn says “The research center is in another city so it will take a day. Are you going to be staying here?”

  “No, probably not. We will stick around long enough to have dinner, but there are too many things waiting for me to do.”

  Emperor Amn says “Understood. Believe me, I know exactly how that goes. It is hard to get some family time without someone interrupting. That is with me inheriting a fully functioning empire, I can’t imagine how much worse building a government from scratch would be.”

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  “Well, it isn’t so bad right now since there isn’t much government to bug me, but it will probably get worse as I build it. I am going to be depending on my two queens to keep me from going crazy and killing them all.”

  That makes Amn laugh loudly, which just happens to be when the women come back into the room. Of course, his wife wants to know what he found so funny, so he tells them what I said. Shiro and Atesh get a laugh as well, but Lin gives me a fairly grumpy look.

  What worries me is that Lin is the one carrying the baby when they enter the room. Considering our recent conversations, I am worried that she is going to get what my world called baby fever. I still don’t think that having kids would be a good idea, but if she really wants a kid I would try.

  Although, I admit that I am secretly hoping the baby will puke on her and lessen her interest. However, so far the baby seems amazingly well behaved, at least compared to stories I heard. Having never had kids myself, stories and movies are all I really have to go off of.

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t catch the little guy’s name?”

  Empress Atesh says “He doesn’t have a name yet. It is tradition to not name our children until the naming ceremony two weeks after the birth. It is an old tradition from our past when infants died a lot more often. As if not naming them made the loss easier somehow.”

  Shiro says “The name may have already been chosen, but to honor the tradition we won’t mention it until this weekend.”

  “So, we won’t be setting up the gate until next week?”

  Emperor Amn says “Correct. In fact, it would be better to wait a little long than that so I can get some measures in place. Besides, if we place the gate right after the noble family is killed it will be highly suspicious.”

  “Alright. I was thinking it would be sooner, but I guess that will be fine. It was just a random idea that I came up with. It will give me time to start setting up my government and work on a few other projects that I have been putting off. We will stay for dinner, but leave after that. I will come back in a couple of days to take a look at that sample.”

  Lin says “Sample? Sample of what?”

  “A sample of a drug that is popular among nobles. I will be trying to make a detector for it. Your help would be appreciated, if you have the time? In fact, there are a couple of spells I would like your help with.”

  Lin says “Of course I will help. It will just have to be between the times I am helping Bella train apprentices.”

  “That should be fine. Most of my time is going to be taken by crafting and setting up the government. The spells will be a secondary thing.”

  Emperor Amn says “If you need help with spells, I have an entire order of mages that can help you. If they can’t help, maybe their library can.”

  Lin says “Library?! You will give me access to their library?!”

  Emperor Amn says “Well, I can’t force them to give you access to everything, but most of it, yes.”

  Lin says “That would be amazing!”

  “You just became her favorite person! There is nothing she likes more than getting access to new books.”

  Shiro says “Isn’t that knowledge the reason that you want her help?”

  “It absolutely is, but it also means that she will vanish into the library for days or even weeks depending on how many new books she finds.”

  Lin says “It won’t be that bad. Didn’t you just say it will be two weeks before you place the gate? That is plenty of time!”

  “What about helping Bella?”

  Lin says “I can help her afterwards. Training a bunch of apprentices will take more than a couple of weeks. I will explain it to her, I’m sure she will understand.”