My council was awaiting my arrival. It was time to select who was going to be at my meeting in the kingdom. I didn’t want to go alone this time since it had been stressful not having support in dealing with the nobles. I would ask for volunteers, but really I at least wanted Firth, Highthorn and Kobric.

Firth was needed as he was a realistic and level-headed leader with many connections to both the kingdom and the corporations. He had kept Astraville running well before I was there and, from the sounds of it, had made the place better. Highthorn both calmed me and knew a lot of the nobles as well as the king. Even if he didn’t interact with them, he had heard the whispers of the land. Lastly, Kobric to help me handle my public image since that was needed now more than ever.

“Since we are going to the kingdom soon, I was wondering who would like to come.” 

Everyone immediately volunteered. I thought they would have been more worried, but I was wrong, which left me unable to decide who else to bring. I didn’t want too many people at once, even if they did know how to handle themselves. There wasn’t really a need for anyone else other than the three I already wanted. When I looked at Lian, I realized it would be fun to bring her along and be mischievous.

“I am happy that all of you want to come with me, but I don’t want too many people. I do plan on making more trips in the future, and your specialized help will be needed for those visits. For now, though, I want Firth, Highthorn, and Kobrick I do want to bring Lian, but not for any ambassadorial reasons, rather to mess with the nobles who will see her, especially her parents who abandoned her.” I turned and looked directly at her. “Would you be okay with that?”

A grin came across her face, “Thank you for the opportunity. I won’t cause you any problems.” She seemed more excited than I expected.

“As long as you don’t lash out, it will be good.” I saw Firth rolling his eyes.

Her nose instantly crinkled, and her lips pressed together as she sneered at him, like a bratty child being scolded. I was glad he voiced it, though; they seemed to be getting along better.

“Firth, what do you have for the meeting?”

“We have everything in place for the corporate deal. We are getting some much-needed food processing machines, healing stones, and gem crafting supplies. Of course, they are also supplying you with books. As for the trade for Donna, the King said he will announce his trade at the meeting. It is unusual, but he normally isn’t unreasonable. He sounded tired and disappointed about Donna’s actions and asks that we not harm her, even if it is deserved. The Valrecks’ wishes have also been met.”

“I don’t like surprises, but if Firth says there will be a fair trade, then I would trust it. It’s good that he recognizes the gravity of her actions. Have the corpos bring the supplies in front of the conference hall. I will teleport them back here upon arrival. If they don’t like it, they can deal with it. They are the ones that attacked me. I didn’t break my word, unlike the kingdom and the at.”

“That is fine. I am sure they won’t say anything. This is likely to become a political nightmare for them with the church and other domes. I will warn them not to try and twist the story.”

The thought of them spreading misinformation hadn’t really occurred to me. “If they really do attempt to play dirty, then I will expose every dirty secret they have.” I turned to Kobrik. “Please make a speech about remaining honest and keeping the peace. Feel free to use any necessary warning. I have a trick where I can read out the writer’s intention if I cast a spell on it from ‘Public Speaking For The Busy Wizard’ by Averin Dully.”

“That’s amazing. I will get right on crafting that,” he said while scribbling notes down. I was sure he was already jotting down ideas.

{And for you, Highthorn, please stay by my side. This is going to be extremely stressful.}

He nodded to me while the others were unaware of the mental thought I had sent to him.

“As for security, since I will be with you all, I plan on having my own barriers on you so there isn’t a repeat of last time. I don’t think they will attempt that again, but I didn’t think they would the first time either.”

{Highthorn, please look into setting up a spy network with some of your old trusted colleagues. We can start paying them as soon as we have money coming in. I don’t want to engage in mass surveillance; I just want to know the most important information that is going on.}

I was sure it looked pretty weird with me staying quiet for no reason while I didn’t have mental communications. So I decided I would bring my book up to my face, and if questioned, just say that I was at a good part. Fienna’s book was really good. I really did need to finish it next so that we could talk about it. Maybe I would do that tonight before we left in the morning.

“As far as transportation goes, I plan on teleporting directly into the conference hall using a combination of a ‘far sight’ spell to check the area, then a ‘low mass teleportation’ spell to get there. It will be a show of my capabilities and stop any possible attacks along the way.”

No one disagreed with my methods since we were all weary of what they might do next. It was times like this that I thought about using future sight magic, but that sort of spell was a real headache to deal with and was really costly. It would force all possibilities into your head for all things nearby. So in a massive area, it would really be taxing on the brain. I only used it for boss fights inside the lower levels of the dungeon.

“Then we have to move on to a very important part, her outfit,” Kobrick said to the room.

That shouldn’t be much of an issue? A moment later, there was a whirl of chatter, ranging from what I was currently wearing to dresses, skirts, business attire, swaying, and corporate attire. It kept going on and on in loops. They don’t even get this argumentative when I am deciding the future of their lives!

The conversation had gone on for an hour and had various scraps of paper all over the room with outfit designs. I had mostly been ignoring it, as it gave me time to read Fienna’s book. AWWWWW, IT ENDED WITH A PROPOSAL AND A KISS OF TRUE LOVE!!! Fiena is such a romantic!

That had been going on long enough, and I already knew what I needed to wear. I cast ‘Quick Change,’ which allowed me to swap out my clothes for anything I had in a local dimensional storage. I swapped into my deep blue robes with ornate golden trim. I had seen these robes in several paintings while touring the kingdom, so it would make it easier to remember who I was.

The room fell silent, as I had suspected it would. “So, are these good enough? It’s not that I am averse to new clothing, but something more classic will make them think twice before questioning me.”

“Yes, that fits well with that aesthetic, but I worry that it won’t be believed due to several other impostors using it,” Kobrick said.

Finally, they openly disagreed with me! “That is a good point. Maybe I could leak out some of my power, like create some sort of spectacle.”

Everyone grimaced, remembering how I had let out a small fraction of my power the previous day due to Donna’s villainous butt.

“That would be good, but maybe also open the library as a backdrop. It would be good if some of the bears of myth came by as well,” Kobrick said.

“They would go for that, I may be able to convince them to come out as well.” Everyone seemed oddly jealous. Then I realized not all of them would get to meet the bears if I was only bringing a limited entourage. “We may want to do a trial run here with a limited audience.” Everyone seemed excited except for me, internally hoping one of them would be willing to come out.

“With that sorted out, the only thing left would be your speech. I was thinking of focusing on something about unity, reform, and a stronger future,” Kobrick said.

“I agree with that, but add something alluding to divine punishment being a thing. There is too much wrong going on, and I am leaning toward figuring out how righteous I should be. Then again, I could just toss people into my dungeon.”

“That can be done, but there are people who want to go into your dungeon. There are a lot of stories about your delving.”

I really need to get a handle on what is out there about me!

“It is not a fun place. The first few levels are relatively docile, but after that, everything wants you dead because of what is hidden. I can’t explain enough how unfun it is. The deeper you go, the more you have to change to deal with the challenges. I mean don’t get me wrong, there are some fantastic books in there but you morph a lot to get a good grasp of them.”

“I think that is good enough for now. We should handle the finer points while Lady Astrid prepares herself,” Firth said, changing the topic.

“Don’t talk for too long; we all need to prepare,” I said as I left the room. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew it included reading. Oh, a snack! I headed down to the mushroom farm to see if there were any new meals to try out.

Along the way, people seemed to be looking at me with more reverence. It’s not like I have a new perfume on. It was something I was getting used to, but it still strained my chest. I needed to somehow accept it, maybe use it.

When entering the mushroom farm, I made my way straight to the food line. As usual, they tried to clear the way for me, but I shooed them back into the order we were in. I didn’t want the special treatment; also, the wait built up the climax of eating something yummy. They were stacking calamity meat between mushrooms.

I overheard some of my people chatting in line

“If only we could get cheese.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice? But it’s only something for the nobility or the corpos.”

“They got the moss to taste like pepper and garlic.”

“We are still missing the mustard and mayonnaise, though. It’s great we have the mushrooms as buns now, since we can’t get bread out here.”

“It’s still not the same as a real burger without all the ingredients.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be good?” They all gave a long, heaving sigh of enjoyment that almost made my own stomach growl. They had convinced me of the idea.

While I waited in line, I went into my memobrary and recruited Bookstrid to help me find the needed creation spells. Flipping through various produce production books and other ingredients, we quickly located what was needed. However, something was missing if I wanted everyone to enjoy it for a while.

That was when I realized I would also need something to keep them cool. I went and snagged a book I had used when I upgraded the cafe in the library. It was called “Tatty’s Way of Home Making,” and it had a nice selection of enchantments for making the upkeep of one’s house easier. One of them included not having to throw away food. It had a series of enchantments to create a chilled environment with air circulation and a freezing room as well.

“So, Chef, do you mind if I modify this place to have a cold room setup?” I asked when I got to the front of the line.

“By all means!” he replied, lifting up the counter entrance and ushering me in.

I got to work carving out the required space and putting up a sealed door to prevent air from escaping. While I could charge the mana lines to last a long time, they would wear out more quickly if the air was leaking out unnecessarily. Recharging them in the future would be easy enough for others; however, they wouldn’t be able to redraw them due to the curse. Most of my magic definitely had intent. Though recently, I wondered if I was out of that category, the divine and alike had magic that worked a bit differently. 

Setting up the shelving and adding some lighting was straightforward. Then, I filled the room with the ingredients I wanted the chef to use, as well as a few other staples I noticed were missing while going through the ingredient books. I invited the chef back in, and his jaw dropped.

“This is enough to make a ‘Real Burger,’ right?”

“Ye, yes Goddess, we can do a lot more with all of this and the room as well. Thank you for the gift.”

“It’s for all of us, including me. I want one of those ‘real burgers’ people mentioned.”

“Yes, by all means, I will get started right away,” he said, getting to work as I stepped out of the kitchen area. I watched him work his skills.

The chef picked up a mixing bowl and added ground calamity meat, diced mushrooms, mustard, minced garlic moss, ground pepper moss, and a dollop of mayonnaise. He combined the ingredients, ensuring they were distributed evenly.

Cutting through the air, the sizzle of a frying pan echoed as she heated it over medium-high heat. He added a splash of oil, allowing it to shimmer before gently placing the meat mixture onto the pan, shaping it into a thick patty. The aromas hit my nose and started to make my mouth water.

As the burger cooked, he grabbed two large mushrooms that were bigger than my hands and threw them onto another pan to lightly toast them. It was an interesting use of mushrooms. Simple ingredients could be infinitely worked on, just like magic primals.

While the patty sizzled, the chef grabbed a hunk of creamy looking cheese. He sliced a huge portion and crumbled it onto the cooked side of the burger, allowing the heat to slightly melt it.

After a few minutes, he flipped the burger, revealing a nifty seared crust. The smells in the area were making it hard for me to keep my stomach from groaning. He then spread a thin layer of mayo on the toasted mushroom buns, adding a tangy flavor to complement the richness of the meat.

Using a spatula, he placed the cheese-topped patty onto the bottom bun and topped it with a handful of fresh lettuce. He placed the top bun on, allowing it to rest for a moment for the flavors to combine.

He then handed it to me on a plate. “Here’s your real mushroom burger.”

I snatched it from him and quickly found a table where I couldn’t wait to devour it. I cast an illusion barrier with a silence spell, ensuring that no one would know what I was doing.

I took a large bite and could feel my eyes and taste buds lighting up as the juicy flavors exploded in my mouth. The combination of earthy, savory, tangy, pungent, and creamy flavors created a grand-level magic spell in my mouth.

I savored every bit, but it filled me right up. Out of my pocket dimension, I pulled out a blue fizzy drink to wash it all down. After I dropped the barrier, I went to the chef.

“Thank you, it was so delicious.”

“I don’t need the praise; you have already given me so much by rewarding me with a cold room.”

With food out of the way, I headed back to the library to do research. On my way out, I noticed everyone had gotten back in line for another. Luckily for me, I could just duplicate it.