Caesar raised his eyes and inspected the large, rectangular wooden box resting in Musashi"s arms, the top was held down by a few metal straps located on each corner of the box, and overall, looked quite st.u.r.dy.Noticing Caesar"s inspection, Musashi walked a tad bit closer and sat the wooden box on the table, he undid the straps and pulled off the lid, revealing a few refined ingots, they gleamed with a lime green color and looked similar to jade, however, they were clearly much firmer than Jade was on earth.
Caesar stood up from his chair and walked closer to the ingots, he reached inside the box and grabbed one of the bars, bringing it closer to his eyes. It was relatively heavy, but nothing too drastic, its most breathtaking feature was its cold touch.
He fiddled with the green ingot for a few moments before lifting his head and smiling toward Musashi, "Joe merely requested a few needles, such a large amount of materials is unnecessary, thus, I will only take one of these, and return the unused Aronian steel back" Caesar said after a moment of contemplation.
Even if Caesar didn"t say anything, Musashi himself didn"t believe that Caesar would use all of it, as the only thing that would require such a vast amount of resources would be a large weapon, alas, Caesar already had his scythe, which was made with the finest of ore.
Thinking to here, Musashi returned Caesar"s smile, "there is no need to thank me, as you are essentially apart of our clan now. You do not need to act polite, nor be formal with me… and besides, you are practically my son in law" Musashi replied whilst resealing the rectangular box.
Caesar nodded his head in response, "it is only good manners to thank someone for doing you a favor, please do not be offended, it"s merely me just attempting to be more cordial" Caesar replied and stashed the 7-inch ingot inside of his storage ring.
Afterword, he walked towards the meeting room doors and opened them, before stepping out, he glanced behind him, "shall we go and meet Joe together?" Caesar asked whilst winking, subtly hinting at something else entirely
Musashi"s brows furrowed as he nodded his head, "very well, I need some fresh air myself, setting up the upcoming tournament has truly tired me out" he replied and they soon walked out of the room together.
Their rhythmic and steady steps echoed throughout the halls, the wooden floors would creak with every step they made, "how is Ahri"s progress with the clan heads?" Caesar asked while walking.
"Thus far, she has spoken to the clan head of archery, hunting, and cavalry, however, none of them seemed suspicious, in fact, she didn"t even need to get them drunk for them to reveal some of their darker secrets" Musashi replied, he had been in a nearby room when Ahri was seducing these few clan heads, as to make sure no mishaps occurred.
Hearing his reply, Caesar nodded his head in understanding, "excellent, try telling her to quicken the pace, I want to know if any of the clan heads are indeed, spies, or if there are multiple, which ones they are," Caesar said, although it seemed as though everything was relatively peaceful and calm, this was merely the calm before the storm. Musashi"s deteriorating appearance was apparent even to the pedestrians in the fox-kin stronghold. Let alone, the enemy trolls, if Caesar didn"t get enough supplies, troops, and weapons before their inevitable siege, then they would be in a dire situation.
Musashi, of course, understood why Caesar was rushing, even he, himself, who knew his health better than anyone, intended to rush for an heir. That was the main purpose of the tournament, after all.
"Speaking of quickening the pace, the tournament should reach the preliminary rounds tomorrow, we have 500 entrees, 250 of them will be knocked out tomorrow. All of those who are seeded high have no need to fight, however, since you are not a clan head, you are required to fight tomorrow" Musashi said after being reminded of this important detail.
This, was indeed, in Caesar"s calculations, if he, a man without fox-kin bloodline, although respected, was seeded for no apparent reason, he could already imagine the anger of the clan heads, thus, this was an appropriate decision made by Musashi. Though Caesar couldn"t deny that he was slightly annoyed that he had to fight mere foot soldiers.
However, Caesar"s annoyance didn"t appear on his face, and instead, his lips curled, "very well, I will arrive at the training grounds tomorrow, at noon. I a.s.sume you and the other clan heads will be spectating?" Caesar asked to which Musashi just nodded his head in confirmation.
While they were in the middle of their deep discussion, they soon arrived at the inner gates. The guards saluted towards Musashi and didn"t hesitate to immediately open the gates, allowing pa.s.sage without much ha.s.sle.
Caesar couldn"t help but feel disgruntled at the different treatment received by him and Musashi, alas, it was only natural, as Musashi was the clan leader… that is, for now.
Once they exited the inner gates, Caesar led Musashi to the western wing, although Joe had to repair the outer gates, he figured he would have already completed the task as the hole in the wall was a simple fix for a dwarf.
Thinking to here, the large number of gnomish tents soon appeared in their line of sight, the aftermaths of last nights party seemed to have been cleaned up. The flasks, horns, and other trash were no longer on the ground.
As Caesar and Musashi got closer, the gnomes easily caught sight of them and approached, with Magni in the lead, "C-clan leader, and Caesar, we humbly greet you!" they said whilst bowing, none of them had seen or met Musashi yet, however, they were told many stories about him, thus, they were filled with respect and admiration toward a figure that hadn"t even spoken to yet.
"Hoho, be at ease, I"m merely here to greet our new allies as well as take a nice afternoon stroll" Musashi greeted back and waved his hands as to put the gnomes at ease, he didn"t enjoy when others held themselves back with formalities.
Once his words entered into the gnomes ears, all of them straightened their backs and smiled widely.
"How old are you?" one of the gnomish men asked.
"Are you married?" one of the females inquired.
"If so, how old is your wife, and do you have a daughter?" a middle-aged man asked.
Soon, a load of questions was hurled at Musashi all at once, though the gnomes were slightly shy. When they started talking, they seemed to never stop.
Musashi, who was slightly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of questions being asked, tried to answer each and every one of them, creating a strange spectacle of what looked to be, an old man catering to a batch of children.
This continued for a few minutes until finally, a somewhat short and stout figure appeared on the horizon, his muscles drenched with sweat and his expression carrying anguish, this was, of course, Joe.
His abrupt appearance would"ve looked similar to the entrance of the main character in a movie or novel, however, his sweat filled body and his remorseful expression quickly discarded any great features Joe could have possibly had.
Joe was slowly walking towards Caesar and Musashi whilst gnashing his teeth, he was glaring at Caesar with a look that screamed "I want revenge" alas, Caesar just ignored it and greeted him with a smile, "did you fix the wall, Joe?" he asked once Joe made it closer to them.
Without replying, Joe kicked off the ground and hurled a right fist toward Caesar, "you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! it was you who made the hole!" he said while in mid-motion, however, Caesar responded by gracefully raising his right palm and stopping the fist with ease.
He gripped Joe"s hand and took out the ingot in his storage ring, putting it directly in front of Joe, "alright, alright, I"ll give you something in return later, for now, I have acquired the steel you needed" Caesar said, resulting in Joe calming down and inspecting the piece of steel in Caesar"s left hand.
"Aronian steel!?!?" Joe said in a startled voice.