As I flew, I did the math in my head. Gusts of wind brushed past my ears, but all I could hear was the number crunching going on in Chagrin's brain.

  That raised its own questions- were my thoughts influenced by me? By Chagrin? What was my sense of self anymore? Was Chagrin's soul really gone? Had my brain repced his? I had his memories, didn't I?

  I could question it all ter.

  Initially, our trip was going to be 4 to 5 days long. We reached the shrine at about the 2.5-day mark and stayed there for another 2 days or so. We left this morning and are now in the air.

  Now I can take the straightest path and fly even longer, with a lower risk of exhaustion. The weather appeared fine, the wind was good, and the clouds were minimal. No worry about temperature or enemies, save for (hopefully) no air elementals.

  I estimated that if I flew for another 8 or so hours, I'd reach the town tonight. I would be a bit tired, but I didn't think it was anything I couldn't handle. This was not unsurprising- this was part of the reason so many DMs back when I used to py would ban flying races like Aarokokra. It just made parties of those damned birds far too mobile and removed much of the fun of journeying on the ground, including the decisions about where to go and what to deal with. Go through the caves in a dungeon crawl, or go through enemy territory and deal with mass combats, stuff like that.

  It was redeeming. Even if we had only made it out of there with just the belongings of the padin, we would've been far better off than when we entered. The only thing that was bugging me in the back of my mind was the fact that so much money was buried with the devil, and for what must have been a terribly, terribly long time. I could only assume many individuals would be upset that so much money was taken from something they believed was rightfully dangerous. Individuals in power, no less.

  I could only let the thoughts pass as I continued to fp my wings through the sky, hours passing as the sun continued overhead. I saw my shadow cascade along the trees as I flew by, the air loud in my ears.

  Still the most freeing experience I'd ever had. Was this what it felt like to be a bird of prey? Soaring above it all unrestrained, tethered to nothing- anywhere, anytime, any which way I wanted. I had the world at my fingertips.

  Ahead, I could see the edges of the forest pulling into view, and beyond that, the mountain range I assumed Baduadua to be located in. I could see rge stone and even iron-reinforced buildings poking just above the treeline, small pilrs of smoke steadily rising into the sky as the hours passed. Even from this distance, the smell of coal burning and the faint sounds of hammers on metal ring out into the distance. As the sun rose higher, the world got busier.

  I continued my flight. What could I think about, now that the journey was easier? I had the time, didn't I?

  When we got to the town, finding the man with the anvil would be straightforward: just scan the town with Locate Object and confront the man once we found him. Perhaps he had sold it off, perhaps he was still in possession of it. I tried to recall the legal systems in this kingdom and whether violence was justified in recovering stolen property.

  From what I understood from Chagrin's memories and knowledge base:

  The Kingdom of Lndre reigns over the entirety of the continent of Abegralia, with its capital city, aptly named Lndre, located just off-center of the ndmass. Why it was off center was due to geographical reasons I couldn't care less about. Abegralia is ndlocked and spans a vast area. Comparing it to anything on Earth is difficult, but it is approximately as rge as the combined ndmasses of Canada, the United States (Including Aska and Hawaii), Mexico, and the entirety of South America. It is fully ocean-locked, with no known neighboring countries within miles and miles of its shores, let alone any isnds, which creeped me out in hindsight.

  Some attempts have been made to send ships, mages capable of flight and teleportation, and even some magical flying vehicles to other continents, but none have been successful. Any ships entering the shores of the continent are either unreported, or none ever make it.

  The government system is a Centralized Martial Matriarchy, led by Queen Jespelt, an adventurer turned conqueror. Before her time as queen, various kingdoms, nations, and empires tore the nd apart with war. She recruited thousands upon thousands of soldiers, widows and widowers, mercenaries, and other adventurers, including her husband (now the current King Undebal), and began a war against every other government at the time. With her exceptional leadership abilities, backing of every wronged citizen on the continent, and other circumstances now lost to current history, she established Lndre, named after a terribly close, fallen adventuring companion of hers.

  Agrebalia itself, for context, is an ancient ndscape that has seen ruler after ruler rise and fall, with civilizations past buried, lost to time, or consumed by the ever-shifting and growing, monster-infested wilds. It is rich in resources- either due to the proximity to other pnes, hundreds of hidden portals, or the high density of mana-infused leylines running across the continent, the kingdom is rarely cking in resources. What it cks is enough warriors to defend against the monsters and creatures that riddle the nd. Towns, vilges, and even some cities are almost always under some monstrous threat, and much of the kingdom's budget is spent defending these towns and vilges from such threats.

  The kingdom itself runs less on taxation and more on the expansion of territory. Due to the aforementioned difficulties, the acquisition of resources and new nds generates enough revenue to sustain the government, so taxing the middle and lower csses is almost unnecessary. The only taxation is property taxation. The more children you have, the less you are taxed- the more expensive and expansive the property, the higher the property taxes. For example, a noble's small castle or fort will be taxed far more than a wooden home of three stories housing a farmer's 10 children, even if the noble has something like 5 sons. Nobles with the courtesy of a higher standard of living and less physical bor are taxed more than those who legitimately support the kingdom through the production of food, goods, and other textiles.

  As a whole, Lndre is a kingdom founded on conquest and sustains itself through the venture and further conquest of the massive continent it rests on.

  The Royal family, for further context, is led by the aforementioned Queen Jespelt, a renowned warrior and combatant who staked her throne through war and carnage. Her husband, the king, and the closest advisor, Undebal, are a sorcerer of incredible renown, but often stay out of the public eye due to closely guarded magical secrets. They have 3 children- setting the standard for most couples in the kingdom to have at least 3. Two sons and a daughter, born in that order, mark their inheritors. The two sons are groomed in strategic and arcane arts, intended to become the close advisors to their younger sister, trained in martial combat like her mother, and destined to become the next ruling queen.

  The noble structure is categorized into two lines- The Regals, those blood reted to the current queen, and The Endowed, those who either earned their titles as nobles through the early years of the revolution with the queen, or who have, in more recent years, bought rights to conquer distant nds and establish towns, vilges, and so on. Regals receive conquered nd by royal decree, command parts of the royal army, receive initial support from the royal family, and are the most politically entrenched. Their main responsibility, being closest to the center of the continent, is to ensure that the civilian popuce is well cared for and protected, and that the kingdom as a whole runs smoothly.

  The Endowed, again, often purchase or earn their noble status. It is not uncommon for successful adventurers and expeditionists to become Endowed. They often raise their own private armies, expeditionary groups, hire adventurers, or mercenary bor, to assist them in conquering distant nds. Being on the frontlines between the kingdom and the monstrously infested nds, they mark the main defense between the inner kingdom and the outer reaches. They cim abandoned nds, castles, forts, or other key logistical locations, such as rivers or kes, and establish settlements from scratch, often taking in refugees, migrants, or travelers from other vilges. In exchange for the license to do these things, or in exchange for the title to the nd, they pay rge lump sums to the royal family. The main incentive, aside from building generational wealth as a noble, is premier access to possibly rare resources or monster-hunting grounds.

  The middle css comprises guild leaders, alchemists, artificers, licensed adventurers, merchants, spellwrights, and upper-echelon guards or military leaders. Benefiting the most from the monster-based economy, they are what the nobility and upper css intend to keep content. Constant flow of resources and work, good living conditions, low or no taxes, and improved quality of life.

  The lower css is composed of new adventurers, baseline militants, borers, farmers, miners, hunters, craftsmen, servants, maids, butlers, and other menial workers. They are respected and the backbone of the economy- without them, everything else crumbles, and as such, anyone in such positions is often well cared for through a ck of taxes and other regutions on their bor. Working conditions are kept as safe as possible, their families are often subsidized, and they are the target market of the queen herself- having been in this css as a girl, the queen mandates many celebrations and festivals, often with personal visits to various towns, in order to build a strong sense of nationality among the people.

  The biggest threats, as far as I could understand, to the royal family were either disastrous monster raids by creatures like a Tarrasque or other enormous elementals, demonic or devilish incursions, or corruption/feuding within the royal family. That, and any possible revolutions from any of the csses beneath them.

  To the upper css, the rgest threats were the csses beneath them, and the royal family- the royal family could always tax them more heavily or establish new taxes on specific noble families, or outright exile them and remove them from their noble status. Any middle- or lower-css groups; the upper css couldn't keep control, could always be overthrown, which has happened a number of times in history. This, in particur, is what happened to Chagrin's noble family.

  The middle css was most vulnerable to themselves; competition from other tradesmen and merchants was the biggest threat to their livelihoods. With no taxes on trade, bartering, or sales, it was a free-flowing economy, which meant the greatest opportunities for subterfuge, scams, schemes, fake products, and sabotage.

  The lower css was the most susceptible to monster attacks on the outskirts, where it was generally cheapest to live and where the majority of the natural resources were to work. Unless you were a farmer close to the inner kingdom, monster threats were very real.

  I hadn't had much need to pay attention to all of this, as I was exiled from my noble family here, removed from my title, and banished by my own family. Chagrin had been living between vilges and the wilderness for some time, far more focused on survival than on returning to luxury and study. When I entered his body, I was in the same shoes, with the same desire to accrue power.

  I suppose the next step in a political sense, with all this in mind, would either be to marry into a noble family or become one myself. The issue was that I was a tiefling, and I, as well as many other races, were not treated very well in the governmental system due to a series of issues the queen experienced in her history, before, during, and after the revolution.

  Law-wise, what I needed to worry about for retrieving the anvil was that revenge, self-defense, the taking back of stolen property, and other such things could realistically only be punished at worst, depending on the exact circumstances, if it ever made it to trial in the first pce. If a murder went unreported, the kingdom didn't want to spare the resources to do a complete investigation, top-to-bottom, in order to find it. They had a legal system and courts, although these were separated by the noble and royal courts. They had some parallels, but certain ws may apply only to certain towns, as with state and federal courts. Punishments included executions, maiming, branding, bor camps, fines, limb removal, and public humiliation, just to name a few, which only seemed fitting, all of which, of course, varied based on the noble's nd or if it was in a royal court.

  My people, and again, almost any other monstrous race you could name, faced trade barriers, social isotion, disgust, hatred, or heavy bias, were often denied guild membership, occasionally expelled or exiled, and were often given more dire punishments for any crimes committed. Something to note about the justice system was that the queen had a rather surprising network of spies, according to rumor, who monitored noble families, regardless of status, to track how they managed their territories. The queen, who often praises justice, has also been rumored to have instructed her spies to ignore the unfair treatment of these people. My own opinions on it all aside, and without going into too much further detail on aspects like their military or what trade was like between towns, I knew Bucket and I should be retively fine if we were to take her anvil back from the druegar who stole it, so long as we didn't attract an unreasonable amount of attention.

  As I pondered all this, I knew we would probably need to either ruthlessly hide our identities or be forced into registering with the adventurer's guild. This was a country-spanning organization, with its own ranking system and reporting requirements from adventuring groups. Highly documented, highly involved with the royal family and nobles, and often with even greater discrimination due to racial bonuses. Adventuring is often where monstrous races made the most ground in terms of establishing themselves, much to others' disdain. Monstrous races generally came with more powerful, and often more useful, adventuring traits, giving them an advantage at lower ranks and drawing the ire of other adventurers and middle- to upper-css individuals alike. If we were to enter the guild, odds were we'd have targets on our backs almost immediately for reporting where we got all of our equipment, money, and items from.

  If we could, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

  As Baduadua came into view, and the sun began to set on the horizon again, I opened the Bag of Holding with Bucket inside it to alert her.

  "Hey, we're nearing Baduadua. Get ready." I said calmly. I was confident she could still hear the undertone of nervousness in my voice.

  "We're already there? Yes! I can't wait to-"

  I closed the bag and looked back at the town.

  I'd just killed an Ice Devil at level 3, bumped myself to level 7, and had more magical items than I'd ever anticipated. I had spells that could essentially rework matter, and I could exert a degree of control over time itself.

  And yet, the thing I was most worried about was whether or not a random child on the street pointed out my horns a little too loudly.