Ben's trip into the Varene Dynasty originally began like it was another one of his conquests. He had romantic dreams of sneaking into the dynasty and wooing a new woman in each town.
Now that he had spent a week with Silvana he began to realize how childish he acted. He began to enjoy his time he spent with Silvana each day, but he also felt guilty he was in disguise.
Ben wanted Silvana to like him for who he was and not the altered version of himself. They worked the fields together during the day and shared a bed as lovers during the night. The two of them ate and drank like kings and queens while the neighbors continued to grow jealous.
It was getting to the point where the other women could not understand why Ben would not visit them as well. Their society is based upon polygamy without marriage. A male was expected to have multiple female partners even if they normally prefered to pursue their career over pursuing women.
These Varene women would not get jealous or upset if a man slept around, but they would if he continued to favor one woman while avoiding them. It did not make sense to them why Ben would only spend time with Silvana. If he was a man who enjoyed the company of a woman than why wouldn't he spend some time with them as well?
It began to reach the point after near two weeks when Ben felt he would have to leave, or he would be forced into being a rutting bull for the small farming community around Silvana's home.
Before he left Ben sat her down and told her the truth about him. Even if, she hated him afterward he did not want to leave without telling her the truth.
Ben dropped his disguise spell and showed her his true appearance which was only a change in the color of his hair and eyes. He also told her how he was a king and how he had recently conquered the neighboring Rodara Kingdom.
Silvana appeared to be upset, and he wasn't sure if she believed everything he told her. Ben made a promise that he would return again soon and allow her some time to think about everything he told her.
He even went as far to invite her to come and see his kingdom and to meet little Mythia. Ben had hopes of one day having her leave this small farming settlement to move to Dragonshome with him and would even bring along her mother if she agreed, but he knew she needed time to think. It was a lot all at once and he only hoped she wouldn't hate him for it.
Ben said goodbye to her and cast his Zoom spell to return to Dragonshome to see what had all happened in the past few weeks he was away.
When he entered the royal official's offices located on the spot of his old keep, Ben was quickly asked to follow the receptionist to Rayner's office once he made his appearance.
When Ben entered Rayner's office he looked up with a look of relief, "Thank the gods you have returned your majesty! An official from the Rodara region came over using the palace teleport formation with alarming news!"
Ben frowned, and said, "Calm down Rayner and tell me what happened."
Rayner took a deep breath and said, "Apparently the northern kingdoms of Botodor, Aithereal, and Lunia have decided to invade the Rodara region with over sixty thousand troops and that isn't including the cultivators they brought!"
Ben scowled and replied, "Sixty thousand troops?! I almost expected them to do something along these lines since we did not give in to their demands. Sixty thousand troops is a little more than I bargained for though."
"These are rough troop estimates sire there could be even more. It appears while you were away a massive joint army invaded Rodara from the Aithereal Kingdom. They surrounded three towns and the capital city Rodwynne. Each town is surrounded with approximately five thousand troops. The remaining forty-five thousand troops went on to surround Rodwynne."
"When did they invade, and have they made any attempts to breach the town or city walls yet?" Ben asked while trying to get a better read on the situation.
"They only came across the border three days ago. They have not made any attempts to attack the towns or capital thanks to the defenses. Between the moats, magical towers and garrisons of our troops they have been able to prevent them from getting too close to the walls without taking heavy losses. They have sent messengers to the city walls and claimed they would siege the town and capital until they ran out of food and starved if we do not submit to their terms."
Ben sighed and said, "It is a good thing I came home when I did. I still have some time to recruit troops. Having to deal with an enemy force this large I am going to have to get creative with my recruits. I think it is time to introduce this world to a few new creatures and races that will leave them up sleepless for many nights to come."
Rayner wasn't sure what Ben meant by this, but when he thought about the Half-Giants he could only visibly shiver.
'If the Half-Giants are not enough to leave our enemies up all night with nightmares I am afraid to see what the king has planned next!' Rayner thought as he watched Ben turn and leave his office.
Before Ben could close the door Rayner suddenly remembered something, he had almost forgotten about it due to this crisis.
"Ah, sire, before you go the Aregard King, sent a message for you a week ago. I'm sorry I only remembered just now."
Rayner picked up a wax sealed letter on his desk and passed it over to Ben.
"Thanks, Rayner keep up the great work!" Ben gave Rayner a quick smile as he left his office and went outside.
Ben crossed the busy street and sat in the Obelisk park on a bench and opened the letter.
Apparently, the northwestern mines in Aregard were no longer providing them with enough gold. The king explained for some reason that the gold coins of his kingdom kept vanishing to never return to their treasury. They had been continuously restamping new coins to replace those vanishing, but it was a losing war now. They needed gold ore badly or the economy of the kingdom would crash soon.
'Oh crap! This is must be a result of my businesses! I made so many successful businesses in Goldcrest that the kingdom can no longer replace the coins my system is gobbling up!'
'I guess it is the same as when a country back on earth had to replace lost or destroyed money only they use paper and not gold coins. This is bad I can see this happening to every kingdom I have placed my businesses in and especially those who do not have gold mines. I need to fix this and learn from this mistake. In the future, I need to spread out my businesses throughout the different kingdoms without bleeding them dry!'
At first Ben was thinking of selling his gold ore to the Aregard Kingdom but then realized this would only be putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. If he sold them the ore it would cost them money to make the coins he was destroying and still continue to put them into debt.
The good thing is this wouldn't be a problem for the kingdoms he had previously conquered. His resources and logistics offices arranged by Rayner and his other officials took care of shipping any needed supplies to his outlying regions.
The current problem was with the Aregard and Ciral Kingdom's who did not have access to his gold ore.
Ben went back into Rayner office and sat down with him. He told Rayner to have a team go over all his business books from the capital cities of Goldcrest and Wolfmere.
He still had businesses in the western kingdoms of Yardom, Gilaith, and Ferrama, but they had chosen to officially break off all communication with the Avalon and Eastern Kingdoms.
Ben secretly ran his stores in their capital city's still, only traveling there once a month to collect his profits. He figured even if he reached out a helping hand toward them they would more than likely slap it away. This led him to the decision to leave them alone. If they needed help, he would wait for them to make the first move.
Once they had figured out how much gold Ben was pulling out of Aregard and Ciral he wanted to begin shipping enough gold ore to them to replace it. Of course, he would have to supply it to them for free, with an apology that he is the main cause for this problem.
They would tell the two kingdoms Ben has been shipping their gold coins off the continent and this was why they have been vanishing.
This was a problem that never had to be dealt with until today. The original eight kingdoms were all isolated from the rest of the world and their kingdom's money would eventually return to them or be replaced with other kingdoms gold. It wasn't a problem for them to trade home currency for home currency whenever another kingdom requested it.
Ben also informed Rayner he would build a secure warehouse on the borders of Aregard and Ciral near the fortifications which defended the roads. This warehouse would hold the gold ore which would be sent to the Allied Kingdoms.
He would also need to design a new carriage that could handle the weight of the heavy gold ore and was secure enough to keep bandits from breaking into it if the shipments were ambushed during delivery.
This kept him busy for the next couple of days. He did not want to waste too much time on other things when there was an enemy army occupying the lands in the Rodara region. Ben was sure they were eating the food from the Rodara farmlands and sending the remainder of it back to their kingdoms while they sat blocking the towns and cities from leaving their walls.
He just hoped they wouldn't harm those people who lived in the small farming settlements around the Rodara region.
These smaller villages did not have the luxury of fortifications to defend them from the invaders. They only had a handful of guards who helped keep the peace. If the enemy wanted they could easily wipe each of them out within minutes.
'I need to begin planning for this battle and introduce a few new races to help mop up these large numbers of enemy troops. I might want to bring along a portion of the upper ranks from my Spiritual Summit Sect'
Ben used Zoom to teleport near to a centrally located town in the Rodara region which wasn't surrounded by enemy forces. He avoided the town and began to travel off into the wilderness far from any settlements or traveled areas.