Az still looked like he had just gone through a war as I happily trotted over to my kids and said. “We’re going on a road trip boys! Stuff your faces with goblin and let's get a move on. I gave each of them a hug and then walked back over to Az. His two companions had joined him and they shared the same horrified look.

They turned towards me as I said. “Alright, it’s nice to meet my subjects. Before we start I just want to introduce myself.” I was about to say my name when I realized I didn’t have a name. Should I just say I’m the king? But would that just confuse them?

I sighed as I said. “I’m Aya, Queen of the mud flats. The richest person in the world! If you are loyal to me then you will live a life of bliss and satisfaction. Bow down and praise the divine for the simple fact that you get to exist in my presence!”

One of the bruisers vomited while the other just collapsed breaking into tears. Az looked thoughtful as he stared at me for a second and asked. “Are you sincere in your desire to claim all of the unclaimed? You will be hated by the other queens.”

I just smiled and said. “It’s hard to hate the person responsible for whether or not you get to eat.” Az looked me up and down before saying. “My siblings and I accept. I’ll explain the situaiton. If you truly plan on doing this it will provide us more rights and benefits than ever before. Unclaimed are abused by many. If you manage to claim all of the farmers and villagers you might manage to create your own faction.”

I nodded completely ignoring hte fact that I had no idea what a faction was in this context. I just smiled and said. “I’ll take over the entire city state if I have to.” This was the perfect way to protect my kids! I could keep them in a village away from possible political enemies while still being surrounded by my loyal servants.

I turned to Az and asked. “How many unclaimed would you say there are?” He looked deep in thought as he muttered to himself a few times before answering “Twenty thousand? Maybe closer to thirty thousand. All I know is there's a lot.”

Thirty thousand? Thirty thousand peasants swearing loyalty to me? “How is that even possible? Don’t Queens have to birth all skinks?” Az nodded and said. “Four of the queens are broodmothers. They birth twenty five mud skinks every week. However the broodmothers only keep the most talented mud skinks. The rest are spread throughout the farms and towns so the food production does not go down.”

I nodded and asked. “How does farming goblins go?” Az perked up when I asked and he began to explain. “Goblins are one of the most prolific races in the world. They are pregnant for a day and their young mature in about three days. I have thousands of them on my farm. They eat grass and rocks. They are the perfect livestock. The ones you have been fighting are the border tribe I employ. In exchange for making none of my livestock escape I don’t eat them. But unfortunately I’ll have to form a new tribe. You killed the leader and the majority of their soldiers.”

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I shrugged unapologetically and said. “They attacked me, all I did was eat some of them. Also do you know about the ants that live around here? Nasty little shits.” Az nodded and said. “They’re a problem sometimes but they mostly keep to themselves. They eat stone so they don’t really have any reason to attack me.”

How did so many creatures just eat stone and dirt? How does that even work nutritionally? Maybe it's magic dirt. I smiled and said. “Alright, I’m gonna explain what's going on to my kids. Pick which one of your helpers will be acting as my guide. I’ll send him back once I’ve gained a few more followers.”

He smiled and said. “Thank you, My Queen. I don’t think you truly understand what you’re doing. But it helps me, so I’m okay with it.” I smiled and said. “Of course I don’t! If you spend too much time planning stuff out you won’t do anything! Any advice or warnings?”

Az nodded and said. “Try not to kill any mud skinks. Especially if they’ve sworn loyalty to you. Also I want to make sure you realize that we all have jobs. We are not an army, we are a civilization.” I nodded and said. “I assume some of you are soldiers though? I will need some, otherwise the queens within the city could just attack and take all the food.”

Az shrugged and said. “I’m sure you could get at least a thousand as soldiers. And a couple hundred more from the next round of births. It’s too bad you chose the worst evolution for having kids.”

I stared at him questioningly as he explained. “You do lay eight eggs but only once every three months.” I stared at him in shock before smiling and saying. “So? I’ll have a lot in a few years. And I’m not about to turn my kids into an army. I’ll hopefully get them set up as nobles in a few months.”

Az just nodded and walked towards his brothers. “Very well My Queen.” He bowed and walked away as I stumbled over to the cave. I had acted confident but honestly I was still reeling. Tens of thousands of mud skinks? An entire society with dozens of others? How does no one know about this? Why don't humans know? Do they know?

I was about to walk away when a final thought stopped me. Do I really know enough about this nation to take it over? “Az, scratch that. Sometimes planning is important. I want your brother to take me to the city. I wanna see it first hand and get as much information as possible.” He frowned and said “Very well, but please remember that you promised to lead us to a life of bliss and happiness. We will not have that life if we continue to be exploited by the city state.”

I nodded and walked over to my kids who were playing inside the cave. We had only lived here for a few days but I still felt slightly sad having to leave. I would be abandoning the graves of my unborn kids. Although I could always come back. And the most important thing was making sure my current kids have a good life.

I walked over to them and said. “Kids, we are going to be joining a big group of our people. We’ll be leaving this area to join a big city. We also might take over that city, don’t really know what we’re gonna do. All I know is it’s gonna be safer and we won’t have to worry about random monster attacks.”

Actually maybe I can leave my kids there for a week, most likely with one of Az’s siblings. That would give me time to level up and eventually evolve. I don’t how highly evolved the queens in Tiat are but being stronger can’t hurt.

I smiled to myself and said. “Ready for an adventure kids?” They all nodded excitedly as I smiled and motioned for them to hop onto my back. I carefully picked them up and placed them on my back before wrapping my tail around them.

I effectively made a small fence in the area on my back. There wasn’t that much space as my tail wasn’t that long but they weren’t packed in like sardines. Time to go to our new, hopefully permanent home.