The sky had turned dark and Cecil alongside his travel companions was now at the edge of the forest with Eli and the rest seeing them off."Looks like this is where we part guys..."
The rest of Little Kings looked saddened at their departure. Fina, Velicia, and Eli came over to hug both Serilla and Lucia. Lucius and Ainz only stood next to Cecil while they stared at the girls" moving farewell silently.
"I ain"t giving you guys no hug," Cecil jokingly said.
"Pfftt, it"s not like we"re asking for one, you brat!" Ainz replied with a chuckle. "Anyways, take care of Lucia and Serilla...as well as yourself, Cecil."
"Thanks for everything, Cecil...take care now."
"Yeah! You guys too! Remember, I expect a better fight when I come back some time in the future!"
"You betcha, next time, I"ll be the one standing!"
"Hehe!"
Cecil lifted his fist and urged the two boys to do the same. He then gave each of them a fist b.u.mp.
Over at the girls" side Fina had already burst into tears and Velicia was desperately holding hers back. Only Eli was not tearing up, but her voice was cracking whenever she spoke.
"Hey~ no tears, alright?"
"Like you"re one to talk! You"re crying too Lulu!"
"I know!"
"Ahahaha!"
"Hihihi~"
The boys couldn"t understand the girls. One second they were crying, now they were laughing.
"Take care on the road."
"Yeah."
"I probably won"t have to worry about you two since you both have Cecil and Silver to protect you...actually, what I"m wondering about is why Yuna is also going with you guys..."
"Oh...that...well..."
Yuna sighed and shrugged her shoulders. Mist began pouring out of her body and it enveloped her. When the mist subsided, a coiling oriental dragon was what greeted everyone.
"W-woah!"
"A serpent?!"
"No...I"m an ancient dragon."
"Y-Yuna?!"
When the voice of their friend began ringing inside their heads, the girls once again looked back at the dragon. Ainz and Lucius were also surprised seeing this.
"I"m Lucia"s contracted beast...we"re in a pact..."
"You"re a contracted beast? Woah!"
"Ah! Now I see why you"re going with them!"
Seeing how their friend Yuna was actually Lucia"s contracted beast came as a shock, but it now all made sense why the girl was actually much more knowledgeable than what her appearance let on.
Her backstory of being a childhood friend of Lucia"s from the same village was a little suspicious since she seemed much wiser than everyone else. Now that the party knew she was actually a 100 plus year old monster, it all made sense.
"Alright, let"s get going," Cecil said towards Lucia and the rest. He turned towards the rest of his party and continued.
"I"ll be leaving our carriage with you guys! Remember, that"s the Little Kings" carriage, so take good care of it!"
"Right!"
"Okay...see you guys...sometime in the future?" Velicia asked while trying her best to restrain from bawling out.
"Definitely!" Lucia replied.
"Alright, let"s get going~" Serilla looked at Eli and said, "Tell my mom that I"ll be going on a journe—actually, tell her I"m eloping with my hubby~"
"Eh?"
"What?! Serilla, be serious now!" Cecil blushed in embarra.s.sment when he heard the girl"s declaration.
"What~ but I"m serious y"know~"
"Jeez...alright, see ya guys in the future."
"Okay!"
"See ya later, brats!"
"Bye!"
"Take care!"
Cecil took a step into the forest and remembered something.
"Guys...back in the trials; I was shown a vision by the World Tree. Those monsters that you all fought in the last trial, they were going to invade someday and lay waste to the land..."
"Huh?"
"I"m not sure if it was a prophecy or some future vision, heck, it might have just been an illusion placed for my trial, but at least I"ll tell you all this just to prepare yourselves. Don"t let up on training. If this threat is real, then I want every one of you to be prepared."
"H-hey, what"re you saying all of a sudden Cecil?!"
"Just listen. I"m not sure if it was real or not, but just be prepared okay. Also, I left a little something with my foster mother, so be sure to ask her about it. Alright, it"s about time we get going."
Cecil walked over in between Serilla and Lucia and wrapped his arms around their waists.
"Eh?"
"Cel?"
"Silv, take Yuna."
"Wafu!"
Silver wrapped his tail around humanoid-form Yuna and placed her gently onto his back.
"Alright, see ya!"
In the next instant, Cecil and Silver both disappeared from their spots. The rest of Little Kings could see their silhouettes flashing deeper and deeper into the forest.
"W-wait..."
"Did that idiot..."
"Just drop a bomb on us again?"
"...seems like it..."
"That brat...it"s just like him to do that to us!"
The Little Kings could only stand there with their heads beginning to ache at Cecil"s last words. Instead of leaving them behind with a peace of mind, he instead throws a bomb at them.
******
Deep inside the forest, Cecil and the rest were now sitting on top of Silver"s back as they shot through the forest at high speeds. Lucia couldn"t help but ask about Cecil"s earlier words that he left behind for their friends.
"Cel...was what you said earlier true?"
"...yeah, I didn"t announce it back then because I wasn"t sure about the vision, even now I"m still unsure about it...but, it doesn"t hurt to have our friends stay vigilant, right?"
"Y-yeah...but...that wasn"t something you should have told them as a farewell..."
"Ahaha~"
The two girls behind the boy could only smile helplessly at his uncaring att.i.tude. He just dropped some important news before the boy just up and left them. It was a serious case of irresponsibility no matter how they looked at it.
He didn"t even give them a proper explanation before he bolted out of there!
"Well, it doesn"t matter to us since we"ll be focused on something else...but it"s not like we won"t be growing any stronger during our journey...in fact, we"ll probably grow much, much stronger!"
"...how optimistic~"
"It"s just a fact!"
It didn"t take long for the group to arrive at the other end of the forest. From here on out, the party would be stepping into Orca Empire lands, beastmen territory.
"Lulu, if you"ll do us the honors?"
"Yes, yes~"
Lucia waved her hands and immediately everyone in the party began to transform. Cecil and Lucia"s face grew out and fur began to sprout all over their bodies. Their nails began to grow out and turned into claws and their teeth grew into fangs. The multiple tails on their rumps combined together to form one big, bushy tail.
Cecil looked towards Lucia and literally saw a bipedal white fox with golden eyes. He turned to the side and saw a pink furred were-rabbit looking straight back at him.
When he thought about it, 2 foxes and a rabbit...it was pretty ironic.
Looking further behind, a light blue scaled dragonewt with antlers on her head was now sitting at the back staring back at him.
"...I don"t think I like this..." Cecil immediately voiced out. This was followed by Serilla and Lucia"s opinions as well.
"Me too..."
"Y-yeah...I feel weird..."
The 3 felt really uncomfortable transforming into beastmen. It wasn"t because of their previous experience and encounters with the beastmen, but more like it just utterly felt wrong to them.
"...let"s hurry and find the humans..."
"Yeah, I agree..."
"Mhm...I wanna change out of this appearance quickly...Cel looks more frightening than handsome in this form..."
"Ugh...is that really the problem here?"
"Yes!" The two girls replied in unison.
Anyhow, with their forms completely changed, Cecil and the group boldly walked into the Orca Empire"s lands.
Lucia had also cast a transformation spell on Silver. His white fur had turned into a pitch black and this made him look like he was in his black form.
Even though Silver did have the option to change into his black form, but the side-effects of doing so wouldn"t be too welcoming for the party.
"Okay, our first destination should be the beastman border town called...Urub...alright Silv, take us away!"
"Rah!"
Silver sped up and quickly dashed in the direction Cecil pointed out.
Cecil, Lucia, and Silver had once again start out on another new adventure, this time they were accompanied by two new people, Serilla and Yuna. Their first objective was to find the humans, and their first destination was Urub.
"Okay, first stop, Border Town Urub!"
"Hahaha~ you"re repeating yourself Cel~"
"I know! Hahahaha!"