"Vice-Captain," the Captain's voice had turned steely. "Explain. Now."

"Captain! This criminal—"

"That's not a criminal, you absolute buffoon!" The Captain was already moving, closing the distance with quick strides. "That's—" His eyes locked on Theodore, then past him to the carriage where Juliana was looking at them. "Your Highnesses. I—Captain of the City Guard, at your service!"

He grabbed the Vice-Captain by the collar, hauling him to his feet. "You idiot! Do you know who you just attacked?!"

"But—but he said—Jeffery said—"

"I don't care what Jeffery said!" The Captain's face had gone red. "That's Prince Theodore! And that—" he pointed at the carriage "—is Princess Juliana! You attacked members of the royal family!"

The Vice-Captain's mouth opened, closed, opened again. No sound came out. Then his eyes clouded.

"I tried to tell him," Theodore said mildly.

The Captain rounded on Jeffery, who was trying to crawl away. "You. What did you do?"

"I—someone told me—they said—"

"Someone told you to attack royalty?"

"They said he was a criminal! Said he was impersonating—"

The Captain's boot found Jeffery's ribs. Not hard enough to break anything. Just hard enough to shut him up. "Your Highness, I cannot apologize enough. This is—I don't even have words—"

"It's fine," Theodore said. "Well, not fine. But I understand someone put him up to it."

"That's no excuse! The procedures, the verification protocols, these idiots ignored everything!" The Captain looked like he wanted to kick Jeffery again. "Rest assured, there will be a full investigation. Everyone involved will be—"

"Captain." Theodore held up a hand. "What I need right now is to continue to Valemont. We have a ship to catch."

"Of course! Of course! I'll personally escort you, clear the way, anything you need—"

"Just our replacement papers would be good. He destroyed the originals."

The Captain went, if possible, even paler. "He what?"

"Tore them up. Said they were forgeries."

Theodore thought the Captain might actually explode. The man's hand went to his sword, and for a second Theodore wondered if he'd be executing his own Vice-Captain on the spot. Theodore didn’t want that, for that would delay things even more.

"Captain," Theodore said firmly. "Papers. Please."

"Yes. Yes, of course. Right away." The Captain spun on his heel, barking orders. Guards scrambled to obey. "Get the authenticated seals! Royal passage documents! Move like your lives depend on it because they do!"

The Vice-Captain had found his voice again. "But—the charges—he assaulted—"

"Shut. Your. Mouth." The Captain's voice could've frozen fire, and he slammed his fist into the man's face. "You're under arrest. Both of you. Attacking royalty, accepting bribes, gross incompetence, the list goes on." He looked at Theodore. "Unless Your Highness wishes to handle this personally?"

Theodore shook his head. "You seem to have it under control. Though I am curious who paid them off."

"We'll find out," the Captain promised. "I'll oversee the interrogation personally. They'll be hanged for this."

Guards were already moving to arrest Jeffery and the Vice-Captain. Neither resisted. Jeffery just kept mumbling about someone telling him, someone promising him riches. The Vice-Captain stared at nothing, probably contemplating how his life had just ended.

"Your Highness." A guard appeared with fresh documents, properly sealed and authenticated. "Your papers."

Theodore took them, checked them over. Everything was in order. "Thank you."

"Is there anything else you require?" The Captain asked. "Escort to the city? Refreshments?"

"Nothing. We'll continue on our own. But Captain? You might want to increase security. If someone's bold enough to try this at a checkpoint..."

"Already considered, Your Highness. I'll have men stationed along your route. Discreetly, of course."

"Appreciated."

Theodore got back to the carriage, staring at Roland dryly. The man was sitting there, looking at him in amusement.

"What?" he said. "You had it under control."

Theodore didn't reply to the man, and climbed back into the carriage. Freya immediately burst out with, "That was amazing! The way you just—and then they—and he was all 'kneel' and you were like 'nah' and—"

"Freya."

"Right. Shutting up."

Juliana gave him a look. "You could have handled that better."

"Where's the fun in that? I have been hella bored."

"Ha!" Freya chortled.

"Fun. Right." Juliana closed her eyes again.

The carriage started rolling. Through the window, Theodore could see the Captain organizing the cleanup. Guards being healed, arrests being made, order being restored. In an hour, it'd be like nothing happened.

"I'm gonna sleep for a bit." Theodore said, and shifted clones.

***

Back in Holden, Theodore stood at the edge of his bathhouse, watching another group of fancy carriages roll up. Third one today. The place was getting ridiculous. What had started as a simple bathhouse for the locals had turned into... this. Whatever this was. A destination? An attraction? Some kind of noble pilgrimage site?

He'd counted at least fifteen different family crests in the past week. Not just from surrounding villages either. These people were coming from actual cities. Days of travel just to soak in some hot water. It was insane.

But profitable. Very profitable.

Smart move, buying up all that land around the bathhouse when he'd first gotten here. At the time it'd seemed like overkill. Who needed that much property for a bathhouse? Turned out, everyone. Because now those properties were packed with stalls, shops, little restaurants. A whole damn marketplace had sprouted up like mushrooms after rain.

And the people were happy. That was the important part. He liked that. The happiness. Made all the headaches worth it.

Speaking of headaches...

"My lord!" A breathless servant appeared at his elbow. "The nobl—"

"Tell them they can all share," Theodore said. "Or they can leave. I don't care which."

The servant blinked. "My lord?"

"You heard me. It's a bathhouse, not a royal palace. They want to act like children, they can be treated like children."

Theodore walked away after the servant bowed and left. He had better things to do than manage noble drama. Like figuring out what the hell was wrong with that contaminated soil.

Inside his workshop, the soil spread across three different containers. All of it came from the same corrupted area outside town. Black, twisted stuff that killed anything planted in it. The kind of corruption that shouldn't exist naturally. Someone had definitely done this on purpose.

Theodore picked up a handful from the first container. Felt the wrongness in it. Like death given physical form. His life affinity recoiled from it, which was saying something. Usually life mana was pretty adaptable.

But that was the thing. Over the past few weeks, he'd been practicing. Pushing his life affinity harder than he ever had before. And finally, finally, he'd had a breakthrough.

Theodore channeled life mana into his palm. He held it, let it build into an orb of condensed life mana. Fed more and more energy into it until his hand was practically glowing green.

Then he pressed it into the soil.

The effect was immediate. The black, twisted earth began to lighten. The death-stench faded. Given his latest experiments it'd last for hours.

Then it would revert. The life mana would dissipate, and the corruption would creep back in like smoke.

The problem wasn't his life affinity anymore. He could inject the mana. Could make it stick around. What he couldn't do was make it permanent. Something kept pulling the life energy out, feeding on it. So he knew the solution was more related to death mana than anything.

A knock on the workshop door interrupted his thoughts.

"Come in."

Cedric stepped inside, followed by a man covered in road dust, looking exhausted.

"My lord," Cedric said.

The man stepped forward. "Greetings, my lord. The shipment you requested."

"About time. What took so long? You were supposed to be here long ago."

The man grimaced and answered. "Complications, my lord. Unfortunate circumstances. We had to... make an unscheduled return trip."

Theodore set down the soil sample. "What kind of complications?"

"Monsters, my lord. They're migrating."

That got Theodore's attention. "Migrating where?"

"South, mostly. But not in any organized way. They're scattered, confused. Moving in packs we've never seen before. Normally a merchant train like ours wouldn't have any trouble. Stay on the main roads, avoid known lairs, standard precautions."

"But?"

"But they're not in their usual places. We ran into a pack of direwolves two days out from the Baron's lands. Direwolves, my lord. In broad daylight. On the King's Highway."

Theodore frowned. Direwolves were nocturnal. Deep forest creatures. They didn't travel in packs, and they sure as hell didn't attack merchant caravans on major roads unless something had forced them out of their territory.

"How many did you lose?"

"Three guards. Could've been worse. We managed to fight them off, but lost most of our initial supplies in the process. Had to go back, restock, take a longer route." The man rubbed his eyes. "Saw more on the way. Razorback boars miles from any known territory. A flight of wyverns that should've been hibernating. Something's got them all stirred up."

"Any idea what?"

"None, my lord. Baron Montague sends his regards, by the way. He's dealing with similar issues on his lands. Asked me to tell you he'll be increasing patrols, but he recommends extra caution for any travel."

Theodore nodded. This was concerning. Monsters didn't just migrate randomly. Sure, it was winter, and it was normal for them to migrate now, but from what he could understand from the man's words, the scale was far bigger this year than any year prior. Something big was happening. Something that was scaring creatures that usually feared nothing.

"Well, you made it here safely. That's what matters." Theodore gestured toward the bathhouse. "Tell your men they're welcome to use the facilities. Food, rest, whatever you need. You've earned it."

The man's face lit up. "Thank you, my lord. The men will appreciate that. It's been a hard journey."

"I'm sure it has. Take as much time as you need."

After the man left, Theodore sat back down with his soil samples. But his mind wasn't on the corruption anymore. Migrating monsters. Unusual behavior. Creatures abandoning their territories en masse.

That suggested something was moving. Something big enough and dangerous enough to displace entire ecosystems. The question was what.

He spent another hour working with the samples, but his heart wasn't in it. Too many questions bouncing around his head. By the time the sun started setting, he'd accomplished nothing useful.

Time to head home. Maybe get some actual sleep for once.

The manor was quiet when he arrived. Servants moving about their evening routines. Everything normal and peaceful. Theodore headed straight for his room, already looking forward to unconsciousness. Except he wouldn't get unconsciousness. Not really. Just a shift back to his other self. Theodore flopped onto his bed and closed his eyes. The familiar sensation of switching perspectives washed over him. His consciousness slipped away from Holden.

***

Back in the carriage, Theodore's eyes snapped open to Freya's cheerful voice.

"Good morning, Princess! Sleep well?"

Theodore groaned internally. Sleep well? He hadn't slept at all. His brain felt like mush.

But he looked around, noting their surroundings had changed dramatically. No more forest roads. No more small towns. They were approaching something much bigger. Valemont, finally. And sandships.

"We're here," he said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Finally!" Freya bounced in her seat. "I was starting to think we'd be traveling forever."

Theodore sat up straighter, peering out the window. The city of Valemont spread out before them. Massive buildings, bustling streets, and most importantly, ships. Lots of ships. Including what had to be their transport to the capital.

About time.

The carriage rolled to a stop near the city entrance. Entering, they checked into a hotel. They wanted some rest, especially Theodore. The hotel was near the ship area, so there were lots of huge ships to see. They were marvels of this world. It was interesting to see how differently this world's technology had evolved given their distinct problems. Through the window, Theodore could see their ship. A massive vessel. Theodore allowed himself a small smile.