Journey 2
About 5 days pa.s.sed since the beginning of their journey. At their pace, it would still take a few days to reach the Garudina Great Forest. At any rate, because Georg was spoiling Ferris, they idled about on the way there. In the first place, since they were wandering around, it would have been suspicious if they were going straight.
However, Georg believed this was something necessary. From now on he would probably have to take care of many beast people, but if all of those beast people were in situations similar to Ferris when he first met her, it would be considerably difficult to open their hearts and convince them to live for themselves. He certainly couldn’t use the same method he used on Ferris on all the beast people. Even if he could, using the same words he said to Ferris too often would make them meaningless.
For that reason, he used Ferris-spoiling tactics.
He would convince her to trust him from the bottom of her heart and think “the existence known as Georg will protect and guide beast people like me.” It would be much easier to persuade them through Ferris than by himself. This way, they would slowly increase the number of people and get closer to their objective.
He felt a bit guilty that he was using the lovable family member he came across in this world, but it was all for the sake of his dream, the future of the beast people, and Ferris. He would push on, believing that these actions would bring lots of happiness in the future.
It was easy to treasure Ferris alone, but it wouldn’t lead to her happiness in the near future. If their journey continued hereafter and she saw a beast person in similar circ.u.mstances to her own, this kind young girl would definitely say this.
“Please save him/her too.”
It would be fine with just the first few people. But what if it continued to happen?
There is a limit to the number of people they can bring on the journey. Not to mention, if the number of people increased greatly, it would be difficult to hide, humans would notice, and it would be difficult to reach and protect everyone.
Such a future was easy to imagine.
As for the plan, they would first cut trees near the forest interior’s lake, then prepare the soil. Ca.n.a.ls and walls, similar to the ones in the previous village, would be built, with water from the lake flowing into the ca.n.a.l. The walls would contain fields, houses, and orchards, with dairy farms and metal production planned to be implemented someday.
Even so, he had no hesitation to realize it. Since it was for the sake of fluffiness, er, for the sake of the beast people.
“Ah, nii-san, there! There! Foxes!! There are also kids!!”
“Nn?…Oh you’re right. How rare for them to approach this close without running.”
“Now that you say it…even though nii-san is here…I’m going to look for a bit!”
“Ou, be careful. Animals with children are bad-tempered.”
Today, like always, they slowly drew near their destination while straying from the side roads. This peaceful, tranquil scene was a moment of happiness for Georg. Of course, he hoped it was the same for Ferris.
He would normally use this time to think, but recently he would be surprised and interrupted by Ferris’ actions before he could find a solution.
“Nii-san!! This child has an injured leg!!”
While saying this, Ferris, who was carrying the injured fox cub, bore many scratch marks on the exposed parts of her face and arms, probably from a violent fight against the parent fox trying to protect her child. As of right now, the parent fox was biting onto Ferris’ leg. There was no damage due to the dragonhide clothing.
“Seriously…here, I’ll heal and fix it so come this way.”
“Hai!!”
“Ahh, under your foot, under your foot!! Are you trying to injure the adult!!”
“Kyaa!! S-s-s-s-sorry, did it hurt? Are you okay?”
He felt that this little, tiger-eared girl was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with curiosity. At first, she was holding back with regard to Georg and was relatively docile. However, since the day before yesterday, she had gradually started showing interest in her surroundings, and now charged boldly at objects she was interested in, just like today.
Georg didn’t feel like scolding himself for accepting this. It was clear to anyone looking that it was because of his concern for her. No matter what happened, he shouldn’t worry as long as he properly looked after her. He believed this was his duty as a brother.
“Nii-sa~n…it bit my finger with all its strength~…”
“…It certainly caused a lot of bleeding.”
Georg thought that as he treated Ferris and the fox.
Even though it had just started, it seemed that it would be a long journey.