Caesar and the fox-kins" relatively smooth journey continued for another month or so. Due to the huge number of people present, the number of stops was innumerable. The children needed to used the restroom while the women and men needed to bathe and groom themselves.As such, the journey took a little while longer than expected, however, at the very least, no mishaps occurred. They easily dodged the locations of where human civilization resided, albeit, they still came across some adventurers and farmers every now and then.
However, due to the relatively normal appearance of the fox-kin, they simply greeted them with a smile and carried on. They refilled their water supply at lakes and other bodies of waters, whilst also cleaning their clothes and caring for the horses.
This peaceful journey continued for another month until they reached the large mountains where Joe"s past family resided. Fortunately, instead of going inside, Caesar directed them through the tight pa.s.sage and they pa.s.sed by the belt of mountains quite easily.
Joe was a bit awkward at first, however, with the presence of Caesar and Ahri constantly cheering him up, he quickly got over it. The strong winds were a bit too powerful for the children, as such, they were forced to stay inside of the carriages while the adults stayed out.
Once they pa.s.sed by the mountains, they were finally a bit closer to Ravhin kingdom. The sky and terrain were finally started to feel familiar to Caesar, and a smile unintentionally crawled on to his lips. Even Ahri was in a better mood, her time at Rahvin kingdom had brought her much happiness, and it was all slowly coming back to her.
The friendly citizens, tough knights, and, of course, Elizabeth. All of which were things worth returning to, however, she felt even more excited about showing them to her clan. They were all weary of war, and peace was something they had never experienced before.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to rush perfection, and they would need to wait until they reached Rahvin kingdom. Even the curious children were beginning to grow tired of the long trip, refusing to even leave the carriages.
Thankfully, this problem was easily taken care of as Caesar introduced a few simples games to them, such as marbles, hide and seek, freeze tag, chess, and rugby. He was quite reluctant to teach them rugby, but seeing as how st.u.r.dy the fox-kin bodies were, he figured it would be fun for them.
Thus, the children once again ran along the carriages playing all sorts of simple games, causing the parents to watch over them kindly. However, the rugby game intrigued even the adult men, some of then not even hesitating to play with the children.
"Haha, Akito, your son fell over at the mere touch of my hand!" a muscular fox-kin male roared out in laughter after tackling a poor boy at the tender age of 12. Tragically, no one seemed to care and Akito then tackled the man"s son for revenge.
Similar scenes were occurring all over the place and the tigresses could only scold their respective husbands harshly. Soon, the adults were only allowed to play with each other, granted, if the young teens wanted to, they could also play with the adult men.
While the boys seemed to take enjoyment in hurting themselves, the more intelligent young girls played sophisticated games such as marbles, checkers, and even chess. Of course, the rivalries were just as strong as some of the young la.s.ses refused to lose to each other.
As the instigator of all this, Caesar couldn"t help but smile wryly. He wanted to deliver some games that would expand the fox-kins horizons, while also training their minds. Alas, the men were more interested in the physical games, while the women were much more inclined to play the intelligence expanding games.
"I had expected something similar, but to such an extent… those men are truly blockheads" Caesar whispered, and the spectators could only silently nod their heads in agreement. Their short pause whilst on the road soon ended and they once again continued on their way.
If no misfortunes occurred, they would reach Rahvin kingdom in around a month, which was perfect timing. With this in mind, Caesar couldn"t help but wonder about the progress of the knights, and the military school.
***
At Rahvin kingdom, Crowley was currently sitting at one end of the table whilst an awkward atmosphere surrounding the entire throne room. A large a.s.sortment of sweets and tea were laid out on the table and two young girls were feverishly talking with each other.
However, the topic was somewhat unethical. "Hehe, trust me Elizabeth, I"ve been around plenty of men, they are all disgusting wretches… I"m merely 10 and a half years old, but those geezers always tried groping me!" a red-haired girl called out to the more calm Elizabeth as they bit into a piece of delicious sponge cake.
"I agree with you, but my grandpa and dad are not bad men… my daddy has never looked at me with those eyes before!" Elizabeth replied whilst angrily biting down on her fork. The frustration in her voice evident.
"Hmph, your dad has clearly abandoned you… he hasn"t been back for months, you should probably forget about hi-" Before Ginger could finish her sentence, two small streams of tears fell from Elizabeths eyes.
"Daddy wouldn"t lie to me! He said he would come back!" Elizabeth retorted, but her confidence had drastically taken a blow. Even Crowley couldn"t sooth the young la.s.s, even he sometimes wondered if Caesar would ever return.
Ginger didn"t expect to make Elizabeth cry so she hurriedly changed the topic, "I"m kidding, I"m kidding, tell me more about your father!" she insisted as she pulled her chair closer. To which, Elizabeth sniffled her nose and a smile formed on her lips as she spoke about Caesar.
Crowley observed all of this from afar and couldn"t help but sigh deeply. Although he wanted to hide Elizabeth from the small girl, it was inevitable that they met each other. Fortunately, the young la.s.s wasn"t evil, nor did she cause problems.
"But… she"s a bad influence!" Crowley whispered under his breath. Ginger constantly told Elizabeth stories about vile men, slowly corroding her image of him. Such a thing was unacceptable, so he hired a few maids to talk grandly about him.
Thinking to here, Crowley giggled out loud and caught the attention of the two young girls. His expression was weird and both Elizabeth and Ginger couldn"t help but shiver strangely hearing his laughter.
"I told you so, all men are weird…" Ginger whispered confidently, to which Elizabeth reluctantly nodded her head.