Mary entered the capital the moment the gates opened. The beastkin tribe started their day early, they wanted to arrive at a certain camping spot and would have to hurry.
The journey through the capital took an hour, a good deal of that time was spent riding through the fifth district. Even though she only rode along the main road she couldn't help but pity the poor people that had to live in these conditions, knowing that she didn't even see the worst of it.
After arriving at her home she took care of both horses she went to her room to refresh herself. A quick shower later she arrived in front of her dad’s study.
He was already at work, planning some new trade route or something, whatever he made up as an excuse this time. After a brief hug she sat down opposite to him and waited for him to speak up.
“How was your visit to your friends clan?” He initiated the conversation.
“Quite pleasant, her dad is really powerful, he could give you a run for your money. The rest of them were really friendly too, they treated me as family the moment I was introduced as Tai’s friend.”
“That's good to hear, I will have someone accompany the next time you visit, getting a tribe to trade with you is incredibly hard.”
“Sure. So, why did you want to talk to me?”
“Now that you are getting older and actually have some experience I think it’s time.”
“Time for what, telling me what you really do the whole day?”
“It’s a part, yes. Do you know why I lost my title?”
“That's easy. You got too powerful to remain in your position. The emperor probably feared you’d start a rebellion or something like that.”
“That's a part of it, but not all. Every generation has a few nobles that will rise far above their peer but they are usually bound to the imperial family, or the empire, without removing them from power. Contairy, the emperor try their best to make sure they remain in their position.”
“Yes, but so far none have been a grand duke.” She grinned. “There are rumors about treacherous tendencies too. That's stupid of course, you are just very interested in trade deals!”
“Huh. You noticed something.”
Mary snorted. “Please dad, I'm not stupid. You have hundreds of merchants in your employee, official or unofficial and you don't hesitate to use experts in for other things, there is no way you actually would take care of those yourself.”
“You are too smart for your own good.”
“It took me longer to notice something than I would like to admit. I only thought there could be something amiss when I started talking to other nobles in the academy.”
“So what do you think I'm planning?”
“I have no clue, nothing I came up with short of planning a real rebellion actually takes as much time as you are spending, but I don't think you are stupid. Declaring independence needs a dragon and joining another kingdom doesn't make sense.”
“You didn't even consider I planned something smaller?”
“You don't plan small!”
“That's certainly true, though that you came up with that so easily is concerning.”
“Not really, few people know you as I do. So, what did you actually plan?”
“I don't plan a rebellion. I have to warn you, what I'm about to tell you will be considered high treason should it ever come to light! You, like all my children, get a chance to live your life without my political ambitious. Do you really want to join my cause? Agreeing to hear about my plans requires that!”
Mary pondered about that for a short while, but in the end she never had any patriotic feelings for the empire as she knew she was only treated as good as she was because she looked human while her father didn't care about such things. Further she was who she was thinks to him, he deserved a bit preemptive loyalty.
“I do, the empire doesn't deserve my loyalty!” She agreed.
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“That's a relief, settle down, that will take a while.”
“Stop teasing me dad, I want to know!” She whined.
“Are you sure, last chance to opt out.”
“I am!” She replied, a little louder than necessary.
“I plan to found a new kingdom, far from any civilisation.”
“You’d need a dragon to support you if you ever want to be acknowledged by other kingdoms.”
“That is of secondary concern. If I find one fine, if not that's not important.”
“What people? Assuming you don't have a dragon there are few that would want to join such an undertaking.”
“Everyone that is able to abide by the rules set, every intelligent being willing to do so is welcomed.”
“That doesn't explain why you want your own kingdom, you never struck me as power hungry?”
“I don't care about power! I care about civilisation!” He said, passion creeping in his voice.
“I don't want to found a kingdom for more power, I had plenty of that as a grand duke! No I have to ensure the survival of civilisation!”
Mary did not see what would be able to endanger civilisation as a whole, humans, elves, dwarves, lizard- and beastkin were spread over several continents.
“I don't see that happening, civilisation is spread over several continents, even a swarm of true dragons wouldn't be able to do much against kingdoms across the ocean.”
“That's where you are wrong, the empire and its surroundings are an exception, we are all far more advanced than any other kingdom you will see.”
“And how does that contribute to me being wrong, saying the empire is the greatest civilisation on the continent while simultaneously fearing for it? I fail to connect the two.” She asked, slightly irritated.
“Compare the empire to something like Qildorth, a civilisation far above ours. They were in control of an entire continent and had settlements on a few others, yet we still don't know what caused their annihilation.”
“They were destroyed by an internal struggle, a magic experiment gone wrong, could be anything.” She said.
“Did you know there is proof of older civilisations spread throughout the continent?”
That took her by surprise. “I thought Quildorth was the first human civilisation?” She asked, intrigued.
“They were, these ruins were not built for someone with human proportions.”
“So there were monster civilisations before us?” She asked.
“Yes, don't act too surprised, you know you are smarter than most if not all humans, its actually incredible we are the most powerful race in the world.”
Mary raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
“It’s actually quite the surprise that we are if you think about it, goblins built tribes long before we had our first settlements, there are numerous examples of monsters that should have it easier to build a civilisation. If you look at Oqueron you will notice there are no humans there. If you think about it than its really pure luck that made humans the being we are now.”
“So let's assume there is some mysterious force that will wipe out all civilisation every few millennia, what would founding your own kingdom do against that?”
“We will search for a way to survive it of course. If my guess is correct than that will not happen in a long time and if I manage to convince enough people to join than there should be some results once it happens. Getting as many races to work on that as possible is important as well, we function differently so we can check each other's results.
“If you want people and monsters living together you will have to do quite some work, and probably be far from any other civilisation.” Mary said.
“That is the plan yes, I have about a dozen teams travelling the world to search for a possible location. You are wrong though, my people don't have anything against working with monsters, the north is hard to survive without killing anything intelligent.”
“What do you want me to do then?” She asked, he knew his people better than she did. “I doubt you will want me to sit on that knowledge without acting.”
“Nothing for now, it’s important you finish your academy. Once you have, well my plans will need a decade or two so you can just help the exploration, you will have to leave the civilized lands to truly advance as an adventurer.” He said, shrugging. “If you do find a dragon that wants to found a kingdom that's a bonus.”
“Oh, you should consider to try and get something as far inland as possible.” She said.
“Why is that?”
“Well, I'm pretty sure more powerful monsters would rather join you if they felt comfortable living there and the higher ambient mana will make sure of that.” She explained.
“How do you know that?”
“It’s the same for me, I feel quite uncomfortable now that I was in a location with higher ambient mana, I think the more powerful a monster the more ambient mana it wants, I'm not sure why humans are different but you wouldn't get the really powerful things to leave their homes for something like the capital.”
“Anything that can be done about that?” He asked with a sigh.
“Yeah, I had one of the students enchant me something that increases ambient mana, sleeping with it is really relaxing.”
“So even the academies surroundings aren't good enough?” He asked, surprised.
“Yep.”
“Huh, it seems your parents were far more powerful than I gave them credit for, I will have to search for more inland kingdoms than.”
“Anything else?” She asked.
“There are a few things, but none need immediate attention, I'm sure you have enough to think about as it is.” That was certainly true, she was sure she would have a lot of questions once she had the time. She was relieved though, she had feared he actually planned to overthrow the emperor, not something that any sane person would try, but something that needed a lot of planning.
Founding his own kingdom, she could get behind that cause, her dad was a lot better than the emperor.