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“The history of the dragon on my family’s coat of arms,” Henry said and glanced to the side. There happened to be a crest hanging on the wall, and a red dragon was depicted on it. “It’s a tale that any one of my subjects can tell you. Once upon a time, there was a red dragon living in these lands. Then, a white dragon appeared and attacked the red dragon. The dragon’s wails were miserable, and the people were suffering from the horrendous noise. The king, wanting to help his people, came up with a ploy. He dug a giant pit, filled it with mead, and got the two dragons drunk before filling in the pit, burying the two of them.

“Later, having completely forgotten the two dragons were there, a king built a castle on top of them. Well, he tried to, but every night, the castle’s foundations would be destroyed, and all progress would be lost. Someone tells the king to sacrifice a boy without a father to solve the problem, so the king finds a boy. The boy, not wanting to be sacrificed, tells the king there’s two dragons in the ground destroying the castle’s foundations. In some versions, the boy is Merlin, the greatest wizard of all time. In other versions, he’s just a well-informed boy who hasn’t forgotten about the dragons.

“So, the king listens to the boy and ignores his advisor’s advice of sacrificing the boy. He digs up the ground and discovers the dragons. The two creatures continue their fight, and the red dragon succeeds. The boy tells the king that the red dragon represents the king’s subjects, and the white dragon represents invaders. The king’s happy with the boy, so he executes his advisors. From then on, the red dragon became a symbol of the king’s country.”

After listening to the translation, Tafel frowned. “I feel like you skipped a lot of details,” she said. “How long ago did this occur? What happened to the dragon afterwards?”

Henry scratched his head and turned to the woman in his bed, who was trying to be as silent as possible. “How old is that story?”

“The story itself is newer than the time it occurred,” the woman said. “The two dragons should’ve fought over a thousand years ago?”

Henry nodded. “Right,” he said. “You heard her. It’s been about a thousand years. As for what happened to the dragon afterwards…. I’m not sure.” He shrugged. “The main characters of the story were the people, not the dragons.”

Tafel furrowed her brow. “A thousand years ago?” she muttered. She bit her lower lip and stared at the ground. Was the red dragon Prika? There was that time Exzenter teleported a dragon to another continent, but he ended up a thousand or so years in the past as well. If Prika really was that dragon from a thousand years ago, wouldn’t that mean the rest of her companions might be separated by time as well and not just distance? What if she had to wait a thousand years for Vur? She wasn’t a dragon; she’d die before then!

The guide cleared his throat. “Your Majesty? Is everything okay?”

“No,” Tafel said and raised her head. “Everything is not okay.” Were her companions really not here yet? There was only one way to find out. She waved her hand and opened a portal, but not before throwing a glowing rock into a corner of Henry’s room. The king of England froze upon seeing the portal in the air, and he let out a scream once Tafel grabbed him and tossed him through. She gestured towards the portal with her head, speaking to the two men who had accompanied her here. “Get in.”

The two men exchanged glances with each other before they walked inside. Tafel ignored the stunned woman in the bed and the advisor that brought them to Henry’s room. She hopped inside the portal and closed it behind her. Waiting for her, there was the ballroom that she had previously gathered all the nobles; however, none of them were there. So, she opened a few more portals and within thirty minutes, the ballroom was packed. Tafel cleared her throat and placed her hands on her hips. “Alright, there’s been a slight change of plan, people.” She swept her gaze over the room, making eye contact with everyone. “We’re going to conquer the world.”

No one said anything.

“No questions?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow. “Good.” She nodded. “Our goal is expansion, expansion, expansion. We’re not going to wait for the Ottomans to come to us. We’re not going to slowly build our own boats to get ready to explore the New World. We’re going to conquer the Kingdom of Hungary. We’re going to conquer Spain and take their boats to sail to the New World. Anyone who gets in our way, we’re going to conquer them too.” Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t care how you do it: you can conquer with force; you can conquer them economically; you can trick and kidnap a ruler; it doesn’t matter.”

The nobles still didn’t say anything, but they did exchange glances with each other.

“It’s great that you all understand,” Tafel said after realizing no one was going to question her decision. “Now, I have a simple task for all of you.” She smiled. “Double the size of your territory by the end of the week.”

“That’s impossible!” a few nobles shouted at the same time.

“Is it?” Tafel asked. “I’ll be assisting you all. If you need my help, just ask by boiling the weeds and adding the necklace. If you need to transport an army, I can do that. If you need food, I can send you some. If you want me to personally threaten a stubborn noble, I can do that as well. Want to break down the walls of a fortress?” She pointed at herself. “Yep, I can do that too. With my help, do you really think it’s impossible?”

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