After spending some time with the wounded, I head over to the command area to talk to Leonarr. By now, he should have the final numbers from the battle and be ready to report. Not surprisingly, when I find Leonarr, Muyaun is with him and is also going over the numbers.

  When I join them I find out that they have split the information, Leonarr is going over the military numbers and Muyaun is going over the slaves. When I ask, she explains that she is looking for freed slaves with the skills to become scouts or spies. Since I asked her to expand her operations, she needs to find new people to recruit and train.

  Leonarr doesn’t need to look for recruits, they come to him, he just has to sort them. Around eighty percent of the freed slaves have already expressed an interest in joining the army. While that in and of itself isn’t a surprise, it happened a lot faster than I was expecting it to.

  For them to have signed up so fast, they would have had to have signed up as soon as they came through the gate. Considering the condition they were in, the fact that they moved so fast is impressive. It means that they really, really want to join the army and it also means that they will be loyal.

  The army and the rescue have made a huge impact on them and it is the kind of thing that will last the rest of their lives. As I was walking around checking on things, many of them came up to thank me. They were all genuinely grateful and they treated me like I was some kind of god.

  To be honest, I didn’t really like the feeling, I don’t want to be worshiped like that. It is really uncomfortable to see that look in their eyes and have it being directed at me. That is the kind of look that should be directed towards the goddesses, not a mortal like me.

  Although, considering I am responsible for them being saved and freed, it is understandable. I just hope that it fades after some time passes and they stop looking at me like that. Some of the stories that are probably going around about me should help it to fade.

  After all, the stories of some of the crazy things I have done should convince them that I am not a god. Gods don’t tend to have their plans go wrong constantly and always end up in trouble. At least, none of the gods that I know of do, but this world has a lot of them, so it’s possible.

  There should be plenty of beastmen who will work to convince them that I am not a god. Anyway, as long as I don’t interact with them directly for a while, they should calm down. Since I plan to leave soon for my trip, that shouldn’t be a problem, I will be gone for a while.

  I listen to their reports on everything and congratulate them on a job well done, especially Leonarr. Then I leave them to continue their work and head to the castle to get some food. I happen to run into the kids so I eat with them and as we are eating I tell them that I will be gone for a while.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Since they are still helping out here and there, I decide that I will leave the castle here for them to use. By the time I am done eating and talking to the kids my mana pool has recovered enough. So, I open a gate to the ship and head through, but as soon as I arrive I realize that the ship is moving.

  I was not expecting that, I thought that it would take a lot longer before the ship would be ready. It looks like Pol is working even harder than I expected to have a crew ready already. I barely have a chance to look around my cabin before the door opens and Athena enters.

  Athena says “Welcome, master!”

  “Hello, Athena. Where are we?”

  Athena says “We are currently sailing north along the coast of the peninsula. Pol thought it would be best to let the crew get some actual experience before we set off for the main continent. He also thought that allowing me to map the coast could come in handy at some point.”

  “That’s not a bad idea. Just be careful along the empire’s coasts, they are definitely hostile to us right now. Although, I haven’t really heard about them having much of a navy.”

  Athena says “Actually, we are hoping that they try something so that the crew can get some combat experience.”

  “Ah, I see. Well, that is fine too. Are you just sailing along the coast or is there a destination in mind?”

  Athena says “We are going around the peninsula to the ports of the kingdom to do some trading. Then we will return and after that we will set off for the main continent. Or at least that is the current plan. Unless you have different orders for us?”

  “No, I don’t. I came by because I need a new crystal and have a few issues to discuss with Pol.”

  Athena says “Pol is currently in his cabin. If you will follow me, I will take you to him.”

  “Alright, thank you.”

  Before following Athena out of the cabin, I shapeshift into my beastman form. Mainly because it will be easier to move around the ship in a smaller form, my normal form is a bit big at this point. As we move through the ship I take a look around at the crew, but the number of crew seems a bit light.

  It looks like Pol wasn’t able to find enough people willing to be sailors to fill the crew. I should probably check amongst the slaves we have freed that didn’t join the army to see if any are interested. Because while Athena can run most of the ship herself, it is still better to have crew to help her.

  There probably won’t be many among the beastmen who are interested, but there are also the humans. If we are lucky, there might even be ones with sailing experience among them. When I get back, I will ask Muyaun to take a look since she was collecting information on the non-soldiers.

  For now the ship should be fine, but sailing through areas where demon attacks are likely is a different story. I would prefer it if the ship is properly crewed before that, just to be on the safe side. I will be really upset if something happens to Athena before I make her fly.

  Just one more thing to try and remember, my list never seems to get any shorter. Athena finally leads me into a cabin where I find Pol and Annya, luckily it doesn’t look like we are interrupting anything. Or at least, Annya doesn’t give me a dirty look when she sees me, which is a good indication.

  Pol says “Your Majesty, I wasn’t expecting you!”