The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Amber was humming a merry melody as she walked by my side, holding my arm. Irene and Luna were right behind us and I was wondering what exactly made this day so special. We went outside the Palace and right there a large, incredibly beautiful royal carriage was waiting for us. Near it were Bjorn, Ragnar, Verni and Ian, who were grinning at us widely. The carriage was painted in a mesmerising shade of blue that I could swear had an incredible metallic gloss to it, and its details were made of gold, or more probably, were gold painted. The large crest of Avalon was painted on its side, clearly telling everyone whose carriage this belonged to. It has three axles, two in the rear and one in front, connected to the shaft, and it was much larger than a typical carriage I remembered from Earth. To be fair, I only remembered those tourist attraction carriages that carried people around areas in Europe. This one, however, was pulled by six majestic snow-white war-horses. On the conveniently covered driver’s bench was sitting a very high-level slime butler. On the rear of the carriage, atop the special platforms on both sides, were standing ten Praetorians in full battle gear. I walked around the carriage, admiring its incredible lines. In short, it was simply amazing.

"Do you like it, my King?" Ian opened the doors inside.

"Very much. It's incredible, guys!" I smiled back and helped Amber, Irene and Luna get inside. My gesture was more out of courtesy than necessity, since the stairs inside popped out the moment Ian opened the door.

The inside was much larger than the outside- the travel compartment was big enough for ten people to sit in the extremely comfortable sofas near the convenient oval table that could be folded flush with the floor. On the opposite side of the carriage were a second set of doors, but where we were standing was a quite wide path leading towards the third set of doors. I opened them and saw a bedroom with a large bed. The next door led to a functional and fairly big bathroom. The entirety of the space was brightly lit by the magic lamps and large windows in the travel compartment. When we sat down comfortably, and after inspecting this magnificent carriage, I smiled at my incredible master craftsmen and asked them to sit down as well.

"I am absolutely impressed. It's incredible!"

"Thank you, your Highness! We thought about it for some time now and after the population of Avalon increased significantly, we decided to finish it as soon as possible." Ian bowed his head.

"Yes, your Highnesses! It's out of the question that you could travel around Avalon on foot now. You are the shining stars of Avalon, my Queens, and you, King Theon, we believe you are the most powerful of all kings. That's why we prepared this carriage for your use!" Bjorn bowed and smiled.

"This is a royal gift. Thank you! But why a bedroom?" Amber smiled and looked confused at them.

"Well... We created it in case you ever want to take a longer trip outside of Avalon, my Lady," Verni slowly replied. However, after seeing how disturbed they were at the very idea, he quickly continued. "This carriage is effectively a moving mansion, my Ladies. It has a living room, bedroom and bathroom. It also has a kitchen and small servants' quarters where up to twenty slime maids or butlers can accompany you."

"But we couldn't just leave it be that way. The Royal Carriage has room for a full company of Praetorians, who can instantaneously protect you if ever needed. This entire carriage, as you already noticed, is full of pocket dimensions of various sizes and purposes." Ragnar quickly came to the rescue of Verni. "The shields and defensive capabilities of this carriage would be enough to be classified as a fortress. With this, you can safely travel around your Kingdom."

"Thank you, Ragnar. It will be very useful," Luna smiled, breaking the Queens’s awkward silence.

They still couldn't imagine leaving Avalon even for a moment and I won't pretend that I even wanted them to go anywhere. However, sooner or later, a carriage like this really might be useful. I put my hand on the table and looked in shock at Ragnar.

"Ragnar... This carriage is more like a tank, or you would call it a siege engine! Its firepower and defensive capabilities are amazing!" I shook my head in disbelief. "It also has mana storage?!"

The mana capacity of this carriage was an insane ten million mana. I looked over the runes and enchantments it had equipped; multiple active and passive barriers, and active and passive defence systems. God! It even had a magic cannon! This thing could easily fight and probably win against a small army! Hmmm... The possibilities were very interesting...

"Yes, my Lord!" He smiled but quickly got serious. "After learning about the spell that almost killed Lanka, we decided to make this carriage as protected as possible. In your report after the battle in the Shadow Land, my King, you said that your shield consumed two million mana points just to protect you from the Incubus spell. That's why we decided it was better to overdo this... But we are still not comfortable with the theoretical five-shot barrier, so this is everything we can do for now."

"I almost forgot about that..." I leaned back on the sofa and looked above at the ornate ceiling. "I feel like it was a few years ago."

"You do remember that you have prisoners from back then, right?" Amber looked at me inquisitively.

"I do, but recently we had a few more things to do..." I checked reports from Dahlia and Auburn about the succubus and lesser devilkins captured back then regularly, but I didn't think they were ready to be questioned yet. "Ekhem... Anyway! Ragnar, would it be possible to build a smaller version of a carriage like this?"

"Technically... But it's not cheap. It will also take weeks or even months!"

"Hmmm... I have a few ideas so we could talk about that later." I won't give up so easily on the tank battalion.

Luna and Irene were looking outside on the busy streets of Avalon, where for the first time in history, so many people were walking. It was a strange feeling to look at this place teeming with life, where just three days ago, almost complete silence once ruled. We left behind the new guild hall that was overlooking the gate to the Palace and the main square of the Middle Castle, in front of which a long line of people wanting to register as adventurers were waiting. But the people were smiling, and children were running around in small groups towards various parks or playgrounds. Adults were walking around looking into shops or just standing in small groups, talking. People stopped to look at our carriage when we passed nearby, and some children waved and smiled when Luna or Irene waved them back.

"I can't believe they accepted this so fast..." I mused, still looking outside the big window at the smiling faces.

"They don't harbour any grudges, my Lord, on the contrary..." Verni replied, slowly looking at the pedestrians outside and taking a deep breath. "...they are amazed. For a long time, the people of Everlight suspected that you could be something more than just a man with an exceptional bond with the dungeon. But when they swore their loyalty and became your residents, they learned who you truly are. Once they realised you are the dungeon, all their fears disappeared."

"I was talking about the people of Girsion or survivors of Crissna."

"Yes... You see, my Lord, they all expected to die." Ragnar looked at me. "As you should know by now, to be captured by the denizens of a dungeon always meant death. While I still didn't make a report, Nathaniel Drake informed me that you actually saved Girsion. He received the order to take the entire city garrison and all food supplies from the city and prepare the logistics centre for the army that was going to attack Avalon. Little to say, it meant death for Girsion’s civilians. We told people about that..."

"What about Ban's soldiers?" I wasn't surprised to hear that, since what was just one city to Josla? Over ten thousand people were cast away, worthless for a ruler of a country of twenty-five million souls.

"They will follow Ban to the gates of hell just to spit straight into the eye of the devil." Ian smiled with a vicious smile. "They were no one, expendable in other regiments, so their commanders sent them to man the most dangerous post in the entire kingdom. The colonel made sure they had the proper equipment and never sent anyone on suicide missions. They had much better living conditions compared to the rest of the people, so they quickly became more loyal to him than the Cridian Royal Family. Most of them should have retired a long time ago, but they had nowhere to go."

"What? That's surprising." I looked at Ian, who just shrugged.

"The conscripts taken by the army are usually the youngest sons, who couldn't hope to inherit anything, anyway. The army conscript healers as well, but Crissna, of course, had mostly washouts who left the service as fast as possible with only a few exceptions. The healers, on the other hand, benefited from training provided by the army the most and quickly leveled up to level 20. After the service period, they were begged to stay wherever they ventured, as a healer in the town or city is a very sought out person, as well as a profitable profession." Ian chuckled. "Some of the healers expected to be treated better than other soldiers. Their shock after they met Lanka was priceless!"

I smiled as well. I heard about that blunder. Some healers refused to help some people in need after relocation, and Lanka intervened. She cast one of her mass healing spells, healing everyone in the field hospital instantly. Later that day, I received a report that most of the new healers felt obsolete and useless.

"So they don't have a home to return to. But they don't want to return to their families?" Irene asked with curiosity.

"No. The only families they had forcefully sent them to the army. None of them were interested in starting their own family, and what for? To make their children suffer the same fate they had?" Ian, who spent the last two days with Ban's soldiers as their accommodation coordinator, smiled faintly. "But it's different now. They look forward with moderate optimism."

"We have a war to win," I reminded him.

"Oh, they know. That's why they are preparing." Ian pointed outside, where a group of Ban's soldiers were jogging through the street. "They took their oath seriously, my King. They are training very hard to supplement Legions of Avalon."

I looked at this sight in silence, and Ian gave me a moment to think. A long column of people of various races was running at a steady pace with very heavy-looking rucksacks, their faces were bright despite them being tired. I gave the mental command to the butler, who stopped the carriage.

"Please, wait here. I want to talk with them." I looked at my wives who nodded back in agreement while Ian followed me like a shadow.

The soldiers stopped as well, seeing the door’s to the carriage open, and they turned towards me in perfect unison, standing at attention. Two Praetorians were waiting for me near the doors, but I mentally ordered them to stay there. I saluted back to soldiers and looked at their Cridian uniforms with torn-off heraldry. Their captain stepped up and announced his unit with the voice known by every soldier in history.

"At ease. What are you doing, soldiers?" I asked with a neutral facial expression.

"Captain Thiule of the 3rd division 5th company with the full company, at your service, my King! We are training endurance!"

"You still want to be soldiers? You don't want to rest after all these long years of service?" I asked slowly, walking along their line and I looked straight into their eyes. I liked what I saw there. This scenery awoke some... Hints of my memories. The same memories I thought were stolen or erased by Lord Dickhead.

"This is everything we know, my Lord." Replied Captain Thiule, who was walking near Ian, a half step behind me.

I used my resident contract ability to read their stats and names as I walked in front of them. I stopped after a few dozen steps from the carriage and looked straight into the eyes of a young Elf. "You don't mind fighting against your former brother-in-arms, soldier E'Dvir? Against the Cridian army?"

"No, my King! We are now soldiers of Avalon!" He replied sincerely, surprising me when the Truth Seeker confirmed his honesty.

"Why?" I asked puzzled, and I saw their smiles that somehow were full of respect.

"The Gods are with you! And..." He hesitated, but after a quick rethinking, he quickly added. "...and because we learnt what you have done so far, my King!"

Now I was even more puzzled. I looked at Ian and Thiule, who avoided my gaze, obviously to encourage me to question and interact with the soldiers more. I smiled at that and looked at the other soldier, a big but skinny wolfkin. Well... Now when I look at them, they all look a bit malnourished.

"What I did so far, soldier Dawrra?"

"You saved so many people left to their own devices, my King! I am proud I can serve a King like you!" He straightened as he replied, saluting me.

"That's it?" With a soft smile, I saluted him back and looked at someone in the second line. "Soldier Ji?"

"You are fighting those filthy slavers, who should have never been allowed in this Kingdom, my King!" a young Human replied without hesitation.

I asked the same question to eight more soldiers. Each one of them immediately gave me another reason: that the people living in Avalon are safe, that I care for the people under my protection, that I fought against the winter beasts, that my legions can't be defeated, that people living here are free, that I am a dungeon, or even just that the food was amazing. Each one of them had their reason, but when I asked the same question to the eighth soldier, they decided to surprise me, and the entire company yelled in unison.

"Because only you can fix this world, our King!"

I looked at them and at their captain, who rightfully was standing proudly near his soldiers, and I couldn't help but smile. They were excellent soldiers.

"Sir! We want to serve you!" The captain straightened himself.

"I'm afraid it's impossible, Captain," I replied and saw their surprise. "You can't serve me without proper uniforms! Captain, take your company and head to the warehouse, where you will obtain the proper gear worthy of Avalon and its new guardsmen!"

They cheered me all the way back to the carriage, during which I replied with a never-ending salute. When we sat down, the carriage once again set off, leaving the cheering soldiers behind.

"Why?" I asked Ian.

"It's customary for surrendering forces to be enslaved by the winning side, my Lord. They were sure they would die." Ian shrugged, knowing exactly what I wanted to know.

I pondered on that for a moment and sighed heavily. The ease with which they switched sides was insanely alarming, but really, could I blame them? Since the day they were born, they were destined to be given away as a tithe to the uncaring kingdom. They were never loved, or at least they don't remember any love from their families and they even managed to rationalise that. "It was easier for them to give us away as well as for us to leave them behind." The customs of this world were a far cry from what I believed and valued, but it doesn't matter. I am the King. I can change things in my kingdom as I see fit.

I kind of resigned myself to the idea that I had to sometimes call the people of this world mortals, but I made sure to always do it with proper respect. Take, for example, the soldiers who were training now to be as useful as possible to me. My mortal soldiers would be a very important asset. They still had a few days to decide if they want to stay soldiers or retire, but so far, twenty thousand of them confirmed their readiness to serve me. Galahad was working with Ban and Drake to maximise their potential and starting today, the first groups would begin combat training and power leveling. I planned to use them to even further reinforce the Avalon garrison, which ‌would allow me to use Legio Aegis elsewhere.

We passed the gate into Everlight, which never was that busy before, and the carriage headed towards the town square. Everlight had shrunk to its previous size, and with surprise, I discovered that I could sell back the land I bought for that expansion. While I ultimately kept the land, the knowledge that I could sell it, of course, for 1/3 of the buying price was an interesting piece of information...

"Ian... Are our farms enough to feed all these people?" I looked at him after I checked the warehouse status.