Hearing their pleas, Yasmine glanced at Vritra though he said nothing so she came to an answer on her own.

"Alright, I will deal with him." Yasmine nodded, they were at the demi-god rank, so just one thought was enough to kill a few lords.

Although she won’t be babysitting them, but helping once was fine.

Most of the dragons had always supported her too, so Yasmine made up her mind.

"Let’s first just go meet him then." Vritra said, he didn’t need to interfere in this matter, he was sure she could easily handle it.

"E- Empress, be careful, there are several lords around him, they are all very powerful!" the guards warned, they knew how powerful Yasmine was but weren’t sure if she could directly fight them all.

"Just lead us to him, I will handle the rest." Yasmine said, her tone emotionless.

She seemed completely different from how she was with Vritra or other family members.

Like a true empress.

The dragon guards nodded and quickly flew away, the blood cart followed behind them.

...

In the market, a man with a big belly which seemed as if he had been pregnant for 3 years with at least 5 kids, was walking around.

He was on a regular round to make sure that the public was not trying to steal the tax money.

This was Piku, a member of the beast race and a powerful lord, who had recently become the right-hand man of the dragon emperor.

Unlike his short name he was rather large with a face that resembled a hippo, his jaw certainly had a powerful biting force.

"Get out here, and pay your daily taxes. 70% of whatever you earned and 10% additional as your thanks to the emperor, 5% for me since I am going door to door collecting it, instead of making you all go there."

Piku shouted, his loud voice reverberated throughout the market.

The people groaned in annoyance, yet none dared to raise their voice.

They were all dragons but they could do nothing against these outsiders and the emperor.

That bastard Omega had dared to let the outsiders infiltrate their kingdom, all of them hated him.

Of course, the outsiders would try to get as much of it as possible. The free labour and all the treasures, it was just too beneficial.

"Hmm you little one, come here and pay the small amount of tax, you can add 5% extra if the amount is lower than the mentioned one." He added.

The people had no choice but to comply, a man walked out limply and gave most of what he had earned the previous day.

"Hmph just this much?" Piku raised his leg which was like a horse’s and shouted: "Take Piku’s tax kick, Tax Shot!"

The man was thrown back, he was a dragon so he didn’t receive life-threatening injuries but that was still a kick from a lord.

The sound of his ribs breaking rang out, as he coughed blood.

The others were frightened, but what could they even do. If all people are poor then who is even going to spend money?

Then they would just end up with less money, and earn less, it was a loop and they were all stuck in it.

Quite a few were following behind Piku, all of them looking quite arrogant.

"Look, sir what’s that up there?! Are we getting attacked?" someone suddenly pointed to the sky in shock.

Piku looked up, his eyes narrowing.

Who dared to come attack his land? Someone had a death wish it seemed.

He saw a flying cart going straight towards the castle where the emperor is, someone actually had the guts to not greet him first before meeting the emperor?

Or were they really here to attack? Who could be so stupid?

In any case, these people weren’t welcomed here, and Piku would make sure of it.

He took out a spear from a storage glyph and aimed at the quickly moving blood cart, then with all his might he shot it up.

"Go destroy it my special, Tax Spear Bullet!!"

WHOOSH

The spear shot up with very high speed, powerful enough to kill most of the dragons, ripping them apart.

All the dragons in the market looked up pitifully, and hoped that the cart contained someone important.

Someone, who proves that it was Piku’s life’s greatest mistake to attack it.

They all looked up hopefully.

Only after throwing the spear did Piku notice the guards who were leading the cart, and he hesitated a bit.

’But it is my race that has supported him the most, even if it offends someone important. Omega won’t blame me right?’

After a moment, he regained his composure and shouted: "No one should fly above me, everyone needs to go from below me. Who allowed them to fly here?"

THUD

The spear struck the blood cart but unlike what they all expected it didn’t explode, instead the spear blasted to pieces.

The guards were shocked, they looked down and then smiled.

"Kekeke you fat piece of Piku the ass eater, did you enjoy making a pillar of tax money and shoving it into you?" one of the guards shouted angrily.

Finally, they could let out their frustrations, they had been beaten by that fat pig so many times.

"W- What?!!" Piku was shocked by two things and he didn’t know whether to look at the cart or the guards.

"You bastards- huh? That spear- wait, how dare you fuckers!!" Piku stuttered and didn’t even know what to say.

That looked like a frail cart, how did it survive? In fact he was afraid, he had just accidentally attacked someone important.

Yasmine glanced down, the people on the ground all had strong senses that they were able to see her face.

"Empress!!" several of them exclaimed at once, instantly a wave of happiness rose.

They all began to chant the same thing, some even kneeling and thanking the heavens.

Piku frowned as he saw the face of the extremely beautiful redhead, for a moment he was dazed.

But then returned to his senses upon hearing the shouts of all the people around him.

’Empress? Is she Yasmine? She is back?!!’ just hearing that name, Piku shivered.

She was dangerous, far too dangerous. Even before she was able to kill several lords like him without much difficulty.

His legs trembled and he almost fell, but trying to act tough and knowing there was a big backup, he shouted:

"So it is you, Y- Yasmine, how d- dare you b- break the laws of this kingdom. No one except the emperor or his special unit is a- allowed to fly h- here."

He was literally stuttering at every word, fearing she might attack. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

But she must have also heard how much power Omega holds, so no way she would attack right?

’Oh right, she also knew Vritra- but hadn’t he died? So I just need to worry about her.’

The news of Vritra’s return hadn’t spread, after all most of the ones who saw it were already dead.

"And you are?" Yasmine asked, her cold tone made Piku even more fearful, he tried to reply but Yasmine interrupted.

"Forget it, that’s not important. Come along to the palace."

Then a large hand of dust rose, and then shot towards Piku, suddenly grasping him tightly.

❖❖❖

Thanks for reading...