As they got closer to the Dark Continent, the tension started to rise and everyone"s nerves were on edge. Ahri was especially anxious, she had no idea if her ill grandfather was okay or not.
Along the way, they pa.s.sed many different regions such as plains, mountains, rivers, and forests. Caesar spotted many different kinds of exotic creatures the closer they got to the dark continent.
Huge birds, weird looking tigers that have a much larger mouth, lanky elephants, and even a land crocodile… Caesar couldn"t help but feel as though these excessively large creatures were strange but to the rest, they were perfectly normal.
This strange yet comforting atmosphere carried on for two weeks, until finally while urging the horses to go further, Caesar spotted a strange divide in the road.
He concentrated on his eyes and tried to read what the roughed up signboard said, "dark continent border, checkpoint ahead" he whispered out loud as he read.
Edward, that was to the right of him smiled widely once he heard Caesar"s words… "we"ve finally made it!" he said excitedly.
"Huh, how are supposed to pa.s.s the checkpoint? Won"t they stop us?" Caesar asked curiously
"Hehe, the border guards are very corrupt, just give them a sack of coins and they won"t bat an eye… How do you think the slave business which involves selling dark continent creatures is so successful" Edward said confidently which rea.s.sured Caesar.
"I see, will you be able to lead us to where your clan is located once we enter the dark continent?" Caesar asked a separate question.
"Hmm, I should be able too…" Edward said slightly hesitantly which caused Caesar to breathe out a deep sigh.
He placed his index finger and thumb on the bridge of his nose, he shook his head wryly and forced the horses to go even faster.
"Well, we made it this far… hopefully, we get lucky" Caesar said exasperatedly.
Edward smiled widely and nodded his head enthusiastically, he was very excited to return to his clan.
*creak*
The carriage window behind him and Edward opened up and a scrunched up dwarven face presented itself.
"What"s all the ruckus about?" he asked curiously, from his tone, it was apparent he was just woken up.
"We will arrive at the dark continent in less than an hour!" Edward explained.
"Aw man, there goes my peaceful days" Joe complained, but the antic.i.p.ation in his tone betrayed his words.
*clak*
*clak*
All three of them went silent and only the sound of the horse"s hooves. .h.i.tting the ground echoed out… None of them wanted to awake Ahri, who was currently resting.
After pa.s.sing the sign on the side of the road, they continued for about 30 minutes before a ragged looking wooden gate appeared in their line of sight.
Caesar pulled the reigns and the carriage gradually stopped in front of the wooden gate, they waited there for a few seconds before a chunky guard waltzed up towards them.
"Welcome to the border" The chunky guard murmured while rubbing his sleepy eyes.
The corner of Caesar"s lips twitched, "is this capability of the guards stationed here? Why haven"t the dark continent races broken out?" Caesar contemplated to himself while the chunky guard just studied him suspiciously.
Caesar didn"t want to waste any more time here than he had to, he took out a pouch of gold coins and tossed it to the guard… He felt funny, this was something he did often in his past life.
The fat guard hastily grabbed the pouch and subtly looked inside, his eyes went wide once he saw the bright golden gleam. Slober almost came out of his mouth as he licked his wide lips.
"Hehe, I see you are men of culture" the guard laughed strangely and waddled over towards the side of the fence, he pulled out a strange insignia from a chest and brought it back to Caesar.
"Keep this with you, this will be your identification for when you want to leave," the guard said with a strange smile.
Caesar grabbed the insignia and made sure he didn"t touch the guard"s hands when he did so, he studied the pattern… It was a picture of a strange looking bull with both of its horns twisted in opposite directions.
Caesar stashed it inside of his breast pocket and nodded towards the guard, "we"ll be on our way then" he spoke in an urgent tone.
"Yes, yes, go ahead" The guard rubbed his hands together and smiled widely.
*clak*
*clak*
Caesar advanced the horses forward and soon left the ragged checkpoint in the dust, once they were a fair distance away, Caesar lifted his head and looked at Edward curiously.
"If the border guards are so pathetic, why doesn"t your clan just leave?" he asked
Edward shook his head with a complicated expression, "the fox-kin, no, all of the dark continent races are too prideful for that… None of us are willing to leave our ancestral ground" Edward replied.
"So your clan is willing to die and marry their empress over, instead of leaving? That sounds like pure idiocy to me" Caesar whispered under his breath.
"Hmm? Did you say something?" Edward looked at Caesar bewilderedly.
"Haha, nothing of importance… you should go wake up Ahri and bring her the good news" Caesar replied with a slight smile.
Edward nodded and squeezed through the small carriage window, Caesar was going to stop the carriage so he could walk through the door, but this development was more interesting.
Finally, after about 15 or so seconds, Edward made it through the window and went to go wake up Ahri.
Once Edward got through, Joe replaced him and squeezed through the window with relative ease…
"The perks of being small, am I right?" Caesar teased once Joe sat his bottom next to him.
"Hmph, I was going to have a man to man talk, but you just missed out" Joe grumbled angrily.
"But we are a man and half a man when put together, where is the other half? haha" Caesar laughed quietly and effectively eased Joe"s nerves.
"Alright, alright, enough joking around… what"s your plan, brother?" Joe"s smiling expression was replaced by a serious one as he changed the subject.
Caesar"s expression also turned serious as he understood the gravity of the matter… "it"s quite ruthless, Ahri won"t like it" Caesar spoke in a hushed tone.
"She won"t like it, but it"s necessary, right?" Joe asked suspiciously.
"She clearly trusts and loves her clan, however, from what I"ve heard… it"s full of spies, traitors, and power hungry n.o.bles" Caesar explained quietly to Joe.
Joe nodded his head, "so what are you going to do about it?" he asked.
Caesar smiled widely, "when you know a spy exists, how can you not utilize it in your favor?" Caesar asked with a chilling smile.
Joe"s spine shivered and he leaned back on the carriage, "you know, I thought the cold Caesar was gone after I saw your warm expression with that la.s.s on this trip…"
Joe paused for a second and continued.
"But it would appear, it"s only for that girl in which you can show your warmth" Joe murmured and looked towards the sky.
"being kind to your subjects is a big mistake, it"s like letting them have a chance to walk all over you..." Caesar spoke casually.
Joe offered a silent prayer to the fox-kin… how would they know about the monster that was heading straight for them… it"s their empresses lover to boot.
Caesar urged the horses to go even faster, he stroked his chin and held a contemplating expression.
"I would need to see their situation first hand if I want to fix it… But since they are a prideful race, they probably won"t listen to me easily. Sigh, this will probably be more work than I had initially thought" Caesar thought inwardly and glanced at his surroundings.
The dark continents terrain wasn"t much different from Rahvin kingdom, it was still sunny and looked clean… Caesar had expected it to be dark but was pleasantly surprised.