"Just what have you been bribing him with, Sarah?"

Sarah says "Just some cookies."

"What kind of cookies? When I told him the bribes were cut off he started crying!"

Borrik says "I was not crying!"

Sarah says "Ash, did you ever have Girl Scout thin mints?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Sarah says "The recipe I use is pretty close to that."

"In that case, can I have some too?"

Sarah laughs and says "Sure, I will make a few extra for you!"

"Great! I can't wait to taste them!"

Borrik says "Be careful you don't get addicted! Otherwise you will find yourself running errands for Sarah!"

Sarah just turns and looks at Borrik, but he takes the hint and leaves quickly. As he does I can hear him singing to himself about getting a box of cookies. It makes me laugh, until Sarah turns that look on me, then I head back to the tower where it is safe.

When I return to the tower I find that Kitara has joined us for dinner, she is sitting with Myria. Throughout dinner the two of them talk about the knight mage training non-stop. Since I have gone through it as well, I am able to throw out a word or two.

It makes for a lively dinner with lots of conversation, which is a nice change of pace. Dinner passes quickly, but even after dinner is finished, Kitara and Myria keep talking. In fact they are still at it when I head to bed with the kids.

In the morning, after breakfast, Yui presents me with two completed rituals. Then Nived and I take them and head to the military building in Illium. The clerics arrive shortly after we do and help us set up the rituals.

The automated ritual takes longer than doing it myself, it takes about two hours. Once we have five rituals going at once, that will be five beastmen every two hours. Right now I can barely do three in two hours, so this way will be much faster.

Nived scares the clerics at first, but they soon calm down, especially since I don't react. Throughout the day I make sure all five of them are fully capable of running the procedure. Since all they have to do is manipulate the life force at the beginning, it is fairly easy for them.

In fact, if they are staggered each cleric can run more than one procedure. After watching the procedure done by the ritual I think that each cleric can handle three at once. After discussing it with Nived, he agrees to run things and bring in the rituals.

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This will free me to work on other things while also speeding up the conversion of the beastmen. It will also give Nived something to do while at the same time allowing him to continue his studies. It also gets him out of the tower and gives the people in Illium a chance to start getting used to him.

"Nived, have you thought about what you want to do after you are done studying in the tower?"

Nived says "I haven't thought about it. I just planned to do whatever you needed me to do."

"Well, there are several options. First, you could travel with me and the rest of the group. Second, you could work with the army."

Nived says "What would I be doing with the army?"

"The main thing the beastmen lack is mages. If you choose that path I would ask you to slowly build up a mage corp."

Nived says "I will think about it. Both sound like they would be interesting."

"That's fine. If you think of something else you want to do, let me know."

Nived says "Alright."

After our conversation I leave Nived with the clerics and head back to the inn. It isn't dinner time quite yet but I ask Sarah to send food over for Nived and the clerics. Then I head through to the tower and fill Yui in on the current plan.

Since it is Nived, she has no problem with him being in charge of the rituals. At least until some of the guards are up to taking over, which should only be a couple of weeks at most. Meanwhile, I need to decide what I want to work on next now that I am free to do so.

Probably the best thing for me to focus on would be getting more tribes to submit. Unifying the tribes will take the longest amount of time so the sooner I start the better. Even once they have all submitted to me there will be a lot of work to get them to actually cooperate.

I will need to talk to White, since I am going to need to borrow her clerics long term. Just with the army, outcasts, and tribes under me currently we are talking tens of thousands of people. That number will only grow as more tribes submit, so it will take a long time.

Since there is still some time before dinner I decide to go take a look at the training. Myria and Kitara are sparring, or at least trying to, they are trying to use the knight mage blade. The problem is that they can't keep the blades steady, they keep fading in and out.

Seeing that I interrupt the training, planning to give them some pointers. When Kitara sees that she asks me to wait while she gathers the rest of the guards. Once everyone is gathered I give a lesson on the mage knight blade and how to control it.

Based on some of the responses from everyone I end up also giving a lesson on meditation. It turns out none of them really knows how to focus and use proper concentration. When I went through the knight mage training I had already taught myself a lot of things that made the training easier.

The lesson lasts until Yui informs us that dinner is ready, so we all head off to eat. Again Kitara joins us in the main dining hall so that she can keep asking me questions. She doesn't stop until I promise to set aside some time to continue the lessons.

Myria says "You need to teach us well, so that we can teach the next group."

"You have a point. Alright, I will put off my other plans for a couple of days and help you out."

Kitara says "Good! It is much easier learning from someone who already knows how to do something!"

Myria says "How many beastmen are you planning to train as mage knights?"

"I actually haven't decided yet. Secrecy is the main concern, since we can only train mage knights in the tower."

Kitara says "The other concern being how hard it is to actually learn it?"

"Yes, it is not something everyone can manage."

Myria says "But you are planning on giving all beastmen a mage core?"

"Yes, if I can manage to. That is more for the future of the race rather than for the war."

Yui says "I might be able to help with the secrecy concern."

"Oh, what do you have in mind?"

Yui says "I can create a detached area, like the library for the church, and move the knight mage training there. Then they need not know about the tower at all."