We move inside. From as soon as she entered the gates everyone had been staring her down. I guess the few gnolls that were their for the battles with the bandits remember her. They might have attacked her if I wasn't the one who found her. I head inside grabbing all the generals I come across and sending Pokodo to get the rest. We wait until everyone has gathered before I allow her to talk.

“What I did was wrong. I know that. You all know that. Lets just put that aside for now. I came here to ask for help on killing my sister.”

What a weird request. What does this have to do with anything? I have to hear more information because right now it just sounds like a crazy person talking.

“My sister is one of the few people who has made my life as it is right now. She was the pirate queen for the pirate army. Not only is she ruthless but she's also a master tactician. She's aligned herself with another country and has plans on invading within the next 3 years with the other region. She betrothed me to the bandit king I was married too. I may be useless for fighting but my sister saw my beauty as an asset to gain more support for when she invades. The army you destroyed was focused on expanding and within another 3 years, they'd have pushed towards Shienta to overthrow it and meet up with the pirate army.”

Why is she telling all this too me? I barely beat the misfit group of bandits she was allied too. With a competent leader and an army a much larger size than mine. I wouldn't stand a chance against the pirate queen. She's also a master tactician, so she might see through some of my plans and turn them against me… It just seems too dangerous. The bandit queen interrupts my thought process.

“What I'm saying is she's not going to stop just because the bandit fort was overrun… So where is she going to be in three years? INVADING SHIENTA!”

SHIT! I understand now, of course no one would believe her. She was arrested and everyone would see her as trying to make excuses for her freedom. I know better. She's just afraid for her life like the normal bandit scum she is. She wasn't sad being made the bandit queen of a small army. It was a bonus for her that I destroyed. If what she said was true than it wouldn't matter to her because she would just flee Shienta before it was attacked…

So this is most likely a trap to get me killed. She assumes her sister is better than me and will destroy my army. If what she's telling is the truth though our country could be in danger of being overwhelmed. After thinking it over I've decided a plan of action.

“Take her away for now. Put her in one of the storage rooms. I need to confirm her story is the truth and there is only one way to do that. I need to make a mind control collar.”

Her eyes widen in fear. She's dragged off kicking and screaming to the storage room. Thinking about it now I need to make a few jail cells to hold prisoners in. I plan on making that mind control collar sooner rather than later I guess. I copy the tinkerers idea and make another two enchanting tables. The gold it costs to make it, is worth the speed increase of enchanting. We'll be able to enchant twenty four papers now all at once. Cutting the time it takes to make a single rare drastically. We easily finish the mind control collar by the next day.

When we wake her up the next day she struggles until I get it around her neck. This is only a mind control collar so I can remove it afterwords and it shouldn't leave any negative effects on her. She's still struggling but I yell.

“Stop! Every time you move, you feel immense pain.”

She stops completely… To the point she's not breathing!

“Except for breathing! Now from here out, you'll be put through immense pain whenever you lie to me. The pain will be unbearable. You can't lie without me being able to tell… So you better not lie. Nod your head if you understand.”

She nods her head but when she moves she still feels pain from the first order I gave her… I'm really bad at this interrogating stuff.

“Alright from here on out, you'll be allowed to move and speak but if I yell to stop. If you don't, immense pain again. Do you understand? Nod your head.”

She nods her head, this time she isn't put through pain. Maybe I should offer an incentive to answer correctly? Like giving her freedom... No I think the pain is a big enough threat for her to not try it.

“Alright so first question. Is everything you said previously about your sister the truth?”

She looks at me with some fear in her eyes and responds.

“Yes.”

After she said it her face crumbled from the pain she went through. Well that gets the hard part out of the way at the beginning. I doubt she'll lie from here on out.

“Whatever you lied about tell me or you'll be in twice as much pain from lying as you just were.”

She answered quickly.

“I didn't care about the city! I only wanted you to fight her so she would kill you!”

As expected, she didn't mention anything about the attack in three years though…

“Is what you said about the pirates and enemy nation invading within three years true?”

Without any hesitation in her words.

“Yes… And I hope they kill everyone in this whole fucking country.”

I need to warn everyone about this at once! It's the beginning of a new day so my generals and myself head towards the city. Hilda pulls me aside while we walk to talk.

“What did she do that you would have to put her through such inhumane treatment?”

We keep walking… I don't know how to answer that to someone who wasn't there during the fight at the bandit fort… I still think of an answer.

“Have you ever bathed with Ashley? Did you see the scars on her back? Have you ever heard of the story about the bandits trying to cripple Lance? This woman is a snake in the grass. She can't be treated as a human when it comes to other people. She'll lie, cheat and steal her way to whatever she's trying to accomplish.”

We keep walking… In silence now, after I put my feelings into that speech. I don't think Hilda will question my reasons, at least for now. The collar is extremely helpful, I put rules on her that said she can't take the collar off. She can't try to escape. And she can't try to injure us without being put through immense pain. Enough pain that would stop any attempt at whatever she would do. The first place we head is towards the mayors office.

Entering the office, my ragtag bunch of three gnolls a hobgoblin a child (me) and two extremely attractive women are all being eyeballed by everyone in the building… I forgot how many secretaries the mayor had… And how much attention Gobber drew from the opposite sex… They're almost eating him with their eyes. I ask a question.

“Where's the mayor?”

The head secretary pulls me aside.

“What might this be pertaining Kite the little wonder boy?”

I quickly answer. “We have information pertaining an imminent invasion from another country, also the potential destruction of the city by an army of pirates.”

She looks at the bandit queen then back at me smirking.

“Oh? And where did you get this information from? I hope it's from a reliable source.”

I feel like she's mocking me. Thinking I'd believe anything I hear without questioning it. I guess a demonstration is in order.

“It was obtained through the usage of a mind control collar.”

I need to prove my point I guess. I turn towards the bandit queen.

“HEY! Bark or feel pain!”

It's a few seconds of quite before I hear cries of pain shortly followed by the barks of women. Mimicking a dog. This was enough for the secretary to rush out of the room to fetch the mayor.

We waited for a minute... Than another minute... Than after another minute I told the bandit queen to stop barking... Around ten minutes later the mayor rushes into the room.

 “KITE! What's this about the city being attacked by pirates!?”

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Food smearing his face, dripping with sweat from the short run to his office. He would have finished eating even if the pirates were at the gates to the city. He looks over at the bandit queen then his eyes look towards her angrily first. Than towards me angrily. I guess his secretary didn't explain it properly.

“Do I have to reiterate again? Can you bark like a dog for me again please?”

Within seconds of saying it this time the queen started barking before she was put through pain. Tears coming down her face... I guess what I asked was very embarrassing. The mayor looked confused at first… Until he seen the collar she had on. Then he spoke in fear.

“You mean she was telling the truth this whole time!? We'll be invaded soon by pirates?”

I knew he wouldn't understand, than panic as soon as he did. I calmly state.

“Well three years isn't soon but yes. You need to send scouts to the capital to warn them. I would also like a detachment of guards to protect me as I take this bandit to the capital. I'd suggest sending envoys to the magic academy and boot camp to have them militarize their students. I can have my gnolls set up within the city to help with advanced preparations for the war when it comes. Fortifying the city should be your first priority right now.”

While he looks confused over everything I just told him to do he quickly set everything off with his secretaries.

“You heard Kite! This is a matter of life or death here. Everyone needs to being doing something!”

I doubt he'll even remember everything I said by the time we leave towards the capital. I'll leave Gobber and Hilda here to oversee the operations. With Gobber leading the gnolls, no one should bother them. Hilda has enough experience with building that she should be able to make improvements to the defenses of the city.

It would be nice to have some of the bricks enchanted with shielding magic or something similar. Also my own designed giant crossbows mounted on guard towers should help in the event of an invasion. I'll leave the gnoll generals here as well. Me Pokodo and Sock should be fine traveling to the city with the guard the mayor puts on us.

It might be too soon to be building up defenses against a force we're not positive will even come. Still every preparation now is one less chance the people I've grown to care about to die in this stupid war. It is over land that won't matter in a hundred years anyways. Everyone who fought in the war will be dead. I doubt we'll be attacked before we can warn the king but he might not even believe my story.

Heading towards the capital of Merideth. The guard we have includes four warrior/knights. A black/white mage and an archer/bard. It's a pretty decent group... Too stacked for my liking but I doubt it will have any problems in the future, handling almost any situation. With us having a guard detachment. I doubt we'll be attacked by bandits.

We're a week into the trip. Zero problems so far. A few of the guards were weary of Pokodo at first since she can talk. While walking near a cliff one of the knights fell off, dieing… It seems that the guards protecting us might not be all that great. The white mage who is traveling with us is fairly useless. Not only has he not been very helpful. He spends most of his time sleeping in the carriage the group is using.

I brought my tent plus my bag. Through experimenting I found that Aegis could stay inside the tent without exploding. I figured this out by throwing him into the tent then running away and waiting a few hours. With no explosion I assumed it was fine. Aegis said it was because he could control the mana from rubbing against him so their was no mana disruption... Then he yelled at me for throwing him. 

We all have enough room to sleep in. The first time the guards seen the inside of the tent they were shocked that it was bigger. I guess it is a rare so having one would be unusual. I asked if any had rares on them and none did. I assumed as much but I would rather not have an explosion happen to me while I'm sleeping. 

Through testing it seems to take around three hours of rares touching for them to explode... The damage is big enough to leave a crater in the ground where it happened. Which would likely kill anyone inside the tent if anyone had a rare... I realize this is like sleeping inside of a bomb.

Enchanting isn't a very common job. A few reasons being it is very hard to learn. Just acquiring enchanting would mean learning from a teacher or spending months, if not years reading books on it. The magic academy is also a recent establishment. So out of the all the time it's been active, only a few dozen enchanters have come from it. Sometimes I don't even realize how lucky I am to have a class that lets me learn things so easily that others would struggle with.

We push onwards. The last stretch of land we need to pass through to make it to the capital. It is a road leading between two mountains. The enemies in this area should be harder but nothing the guards can't handle. After we make it through the mountains we should easily be able to make it to the capital with no problems. 

The bandit queen has been quite this whole trip… The rules I put on her shouldn't restrict her speaking. I have to see if she's still sane.

“Hey bandit queen, you still alive?”

She looks at me. Her eyes are dull, it looks like she might be giving up on life a little. With everything that happened I guess I understand that. I continue to ask her questions until she gets angry and snaps.

“I HAVE A NAME YOU KNOW!”

Huh I didn't realize I've never even bothered to learn her name... I do that more then I'd like to admit. It takes up to much memory remembering peoples names that aren't important though... Like what good would knowing the other villagers name from Leafs village be to me now?  I guess she's one of those people who don't like to be called nicknames like bandit queen.

“Well? What is it? I ask.

She sits down, she only stood up to yell than, then sat immediately back down… She's not going to answer me.

“You know I can force you to answer me, right?”

It looks like that might have helped her become more talkative.

“It's Gem… My father named me after his favorite thing in the whole world… Which was gems.”

Sounds pretty pirate like to me. I doubt she'll ever be normal with parents like hers.

“I guess your sisters name is something similar?”

“Yea, she's named Gold, for my fathers second favorite thing… I think being named that made my sister resent me. Seeing as I was the first favorite she always had to look up to me… Until she became a pirate captain. Out leveling me things started to shift very quickly… I know it sounds messed up… Even after all this, I still love my little sister… Even through all the shit she's put me through intentionally...”

She looks down grabbing the collar and getting pierced by self inflicted pain. She talks again.

“And unintentionally… Still though, it could always be worse. I could have been born when my grandfather was alive… From what I hear from the few times my father wasn't completely drunk. He was an even worse parent than him. He had a scar on his face from his father cutting him for touching his gold…”

Shit! Memories come flooding back into my head. Memories from my past. Being a thief on the seas, many of my children ended up being pirates… I remember having a boy, a boy who had been stealing my MONEY! I had gotten so mad at him I was about to kill him but managed to hold back enough to just cut him… I was an awful person in my previous life. Just thinking about it makes my greedy trait want to reactivate. Seriously hurting my own child... What the hell was wrong with past life me?

This entire situation... My village being burned to the ground... Me capturing Gem, all of it was caused by myself… Well the past version of myself. That means I'm Gems grandpa. I laugh internally at the situation. We're still talking when I hear the guard yell from in front.