Flexing the muscles

Dragon's Teeth Mountains

The next morning, they continued their journey towards the mountains. Eliz often looked out of the carriage window because it really was a sight worth looking at again and again.

Her gaze wandered up to the sharp edges of the mountain tops, and she wondered if she would ever be able to climb up there. Certainly not now, but if she could get to Rank 3 or Rank 4, she certainly could. Eliz was tempted and made a mental note to herself that she had to climb up there someday.

As Eliz looked around along the way, she saw that there wasn't a single house, building, village anywhere, just wildlife everywhere. This was something new to Eliz, as even in her normal life, she had never been anywhere that was just... nothing. But she was also a little worried. This was a deserted place, so there had to be a higher amount of monsters.

Eliz had no desire to be further delayed. She wanted to settle this quickly and leave for the Blue Rose Estate. She couldn't disappear for too long, or her parents would go crazy. It was clear her family would scour the entire continent just to find her.

They continued driving for a few more hours before they reached the base of the mountain just before noon, surrounded by a thick green forest.

The two carriages pulled a short distance off the road, where they stopped, and everyone got out. Gradually, they gathered together and gazed at the forest before them. Eliz shivered a little and pulled her cloak tighter around her.

"Are you sure this is the place, Eliz?" Fraril asked.

Eliz took in the forest, which didn't look like it had any official entrance. The path continued on, going around the entire mountain, but Eliz had information from Shannon, who, given how desperate she was to lure her to come, certainly wouldn't lie to her. "Definitely. Well... we'll just have to go inside. I guess it was too much to hope for a sign with an arrow saying 'This way to the World Tree,'" Eliz joked.

"Haha," Raiana laughed, and Holm scratched behind her ear. "So we're going to have to search the entire forest to find an elven hermit?" He didn't sound twice as enthusiastic.

"Grash, couldn't you sense something? Your instincts are sharper, after all." Eliz turned to her feline slave, who had fully recovered during the journey but claimed his shoulder still hurt. Eliz didn't believe him, but she let it go. Once she tried letting him do some chores when they stopped for the night.

Eliz found the guy was useless. She didn't understand how he could survive so long when he couldn't wash dishes in the river without breaking anything. "Am I a dog?" Grash protested, wagging his tail in offense.

"Yes. You're my dog," Eliz replied calmly, glaring at him. She couldn't tell Fraril. He was a companion, not a subordinate, and he was also a man of an older age. How could she ask him to 'sniff out' anything for her?

Grash lowered his ears and mumbled something. Eliz knew it was something about her, but he finally answered. "I can try. But the forest isn't exactly a place I'd be familiar with. I'm a city boy."

Eliz waved her hand. "All you have to do is try. I'm not going to punish you for not being good at something." She was forgiving.

*****

Eliz decided to leave Mimic with the carriages, firstly to protect them and secondly because she didn't want to drag such a big monster around the forest. That would have caused more trouble than good, and that way, no one had to stay with the carriages.

Everyone got ready and headed into the forest.

Greenery surrounded them, and Eliz found herself encircled by the Boulder team. Raiana positioned herself behind, Holm in front, Alarr on her right side, and even though Fraril wasn't part of the team, he covered her left side. In the middle with Eliz was Alobela, and at the front was Grash, who was attempting to "sniff out" some clue about where to look for the perv... ahem, Hermit.

They hadn't gone a few yards before it seemed like they were deep in the forest; many of the trees were huge and old. Their crowns obscured the sky, allowing rays of sunlight through and turning the surroundings into a magical green fairy tale. The sounds of forest life—the calls of birds, the buzzing of insects, the rustling of leaves, and the creaking of wood—brushed against their ears.

After walking for some time, Grash called out, "I've found the trail!" He sounded proud.

Eliz looked and noticed that a forest path had suddenly emerged from the greenery, occasionally interrupted by a few stone stairs. This suggested that the path wasn't used by animals but rather by humans or elves.

"Well done," Eliz dryly complimented Grash, although she doubted they found it solely because of his efforts. They probably would have stumbled upon it on their own, but she decided to give him some credit.

Despite the path, their formation didn't break up, and they continued on, with Eliz leaving the others to guard while she enjoyed the view. After a few minutes of walking, Grash suddenly stopped in front and was looking at something. When they reached him, they all turned their heads in the direction Grash was looking.

Beside the path lay a large flat rock on which sat a strange creature. The creature had an elongated body and was shaped like a sausage, with four short legs. Its entire body was green, covered with scales and tiny leaves between which grew tiny orange flowers. On its head, it had orange sharp ears bent forward, large orange eyes on the sides of its head with green pupils, large nostrils, and a cute puffy mouth.

The creature looked at them, turning its head from side to side as it peered first with one eye and then the other. Eliz thought the thing was incredibly cute but wasn't about to go near it. This was an alien forest, and even in their world, there was a rule that the more colorful something was in the forest, the more poisonous it was.

"Does anyone know what this is?" Eliz asked after a moment.

To her surprise, no one knew. Eliz looked at the animal again, wondering if she had read something about it in the story, but nothing matched the description. Of course, that could just mean that she had been affected again by not finishing the story, or that because she had stepped out of the script, the world around her was already taking on a life of its own.

"We should let it go and move on," Alarr growled. Eliz hadn't even noticed, but he was already holding his greatsword, ready to slam the thing.

Eliz shuddered and nodded. They stepped out again, and she had to look back a moment later, the creature glancing in their direction for a moment before briskly following them. Eliz shivered again. Not that she was worried, but she had to hold back her natural instincts. Despite not being very ladylike even in her original life, Eliz had one thing that almost all women in the world shared.

She loved cute animals. And this green thing was very adorable in her eyes! Eliz turned away, letting out a little shaky breath as she suppressed an adorable cry at the creature's cute movements. She noticed that Alarr was looking at her curiously, so she quickly pretended that nothing was wrong.

They followed the trail, ignoring the creature that moved slowly behind them. Alarr, however, remained alert and sent menacing glares at the creature, never letting his sword leave his hand. He wasn't going to neglect any danger; any wild animal or monster could be dangerous, no matter how big it was.

Altogether, they wandered through the forest for about three hours without any mishap. Except for a strange green sausage that followed them, they saw nothing and nobody. Eliz wondered if they were just lucky or if the fact that this was Light Elf territory meant they didn't have any aggressive monsters.

However, she also couldn't help but wonder if they had accidentally walked into some sort of trap. No sooner had she begun to think about it than Grash called out from the front again. "There's a building ahead!" His voice sounded increasingly proud. Eliz rolled her eyes; why was he proud? Obviously, the path led them to the house and not him!

The trail stopped climbing, and they found themselves on a flat area where the trail led to a two-story overgrown structure that, judging by all the vegetation and moss, had been there for quite some time. The trail ended right at the foot of the stone steps that led to a covered porch where a simple rocking chair stood. From the looks of it, it seemed like a few more years or so, and the house would blend in completely with the rest of the vegetation.

"Could this be the hermit's house?" Eliz wondered aloud as they approached.

"Maybe a hunting lodge?" Raiana suggested.

"From what we've seen so far, there's not much to hunt," Holm remarked.

They all paused as a green creature suddenly waddled past them, peering at them with one side eye. Without hesitation, it came to the staircase and began to roll its body upwards, settling itself in front of the door of the house.

"Hm. So it's not a wild animal after all... but a pet?" Eliz couldn't take her eyes off the cuteness for a moment.

After a moment's hesitation, they began to approach the house, the Boulder team on alert, watching for any possible dangers.

They didn't see any movement anywhere until they got to the porch. At that moment, the sounds of panting and huffing started coming from behind the house. It almost sounded like someone was in pain, so they all made their way around the house to see what was going on.

They had barely rounded the corner of the house when they saw a neatly manicured yard that didn't match what Eliz imagined it would look like. Her chin dropped in amazement.

The lot behind the house was set up as an improvised gym. She saw a trapeze for lifting, benches with weights made from large pieces of chipped rocks, a leather punching bag, loading weights—everything a home gym needed. In the middle of it stood a tall elf. Just by his height of a little over two meters, blond hair, and pointed ears, it was clear that he was a light elf, for whom blond hair was typical most of the time.

What was striking, though, was how muscular the man was. He stood there half undressed, sweat rolling down his skin, and his muscles bulging as he lifted the weights.

Eliz ran her eyes over him before she blinked and... "Pffff!" She started laughing. She never expected that this so-called perverted hermit of the Light Elf race would actually be a bodybuilder!

The Elf paused and dropped the weights to look for the sound, so focused on his training that he hadn't noticed that such a large group had appeared. "Oh! Welcome, visitors!" He said in a strong, cheerful voice, his green eyes lighting up excitedly at the sight of the ladies and even more so at the sight of the strong men.

"Gentlemen! Wrestle with me!" He raised his arms and flexed his muscles.

"Pffuu hahaha!" Eliz couldn't contain herself and was already guffawing loudly, especially when she saw the stunned expressions of Holm, Grash, and the grim expression of Alarr.

*****

Capital - Mercenary Guild

Chad completed the registration and immediately accepted the private mission Gray had arranged for him. The mission was simple: go to the Blue Rose estate and protect Lady Elizabeth Von Roseblood for six months.

Chad carefully saved the contract before he left the guild. Finally, everything was ready, and he was prepared to go. In fact, he was rather looking forward to it. He was eager to be freed from military service for a while and, most importantly, to escape the tension that had been constantly escalating in their home.

The older sister was at a time when she was trying to establish her authority as the future head of the family, and the elders weren't making it too easy for her. Chad wanted no part of the family drama, especially when the elders were trying to manipulate him into their machinations and create a rivalry between the siblings.

If Chad had been a little more ambitious, he might have given in, but he had no interest in leading the family and didn't want to be on the knife's edge with his family. Unfortunately, his sister was becoming increasingly stressed, and her suspiciousness about everything was escalating. This was a good opportunity for Chad to clear out, and hopefully, his absence would calm his sister down.

Frankly, Chad had been rather worried, especially since his sister had shown up in person after the attack at the Festival of Lights. While it seemed like she was just worried, Chad had a small suspicion that she may have even hoped a bit that he had died in the attack. That made him more cautious, so when Gray came up with that nonsense about Elizabeth, he quickly grabbed it like a drowning man grabbing a stalk of grass.

He went out and untied his horse, which was already loaded for the journey. He mounted and rode out of the capital. Chad would rather serve six months under Elizabeth than constantly look over his shoulder for his own sister.

*****

Capital - House of Lords

Donovan was in the House of Lords at the same time. The House of Lords was a place where prominent aristocrats, mostly members of Parliament, met to discuss various matters, albeit unofficially.

Here, they could talk, argue, and exchange information without anything being officially decided. In the past, however, many laws were made here, which were later presented in Parliament.

Donovan sat here with his father, who, although not an official member of Parliament, was heavily involved in the military as the Director of the Military Academy. For this reason, he attended such meetings to keep abreast of the kingdom's situation for his work.

And since Donovan was intelligent and an excellent speaker, his father had taken him along several times to gradually build up his reputation among prominent members of Parliament.

The gentlemen sat in comfortable chairs and lounges, sipping wine, eating delicacies, and discussing the state of the kingdom, the continent, other kingdoms, economics, taxes, and other matters.

Donovan didn't get too involved in these discussions, sitting with a glass of wine and sometimes just listening to the men talk with his eyes closed. He was listening to Sir Riewenn, who held a high position for foreign affairs.

"The Festival of Light was a disaster for foreign affairs. My hand still hurts from signing all those letters of apology and statements," he complained, rubbing the wrist of his hand.

"Does it have much impact?" someone asked, but Sir Riewenn shook his head. "No, not that big again. But I'm afraid some countries will raise taxes on us, and it's possible that trade conditions will be worse for some time."

"That's not so bad. Fortunately, most of the other kingdoms understand that the disaster in the form of the Dark Mages is unpredictable," someone else sighed.

"Hm. Mostly, but a few diplomats went back to their countries after the incident. The River Kingdom didn't even leave any of their representatives behind," Riewenn sighed.

"They withdrew from our kingdom completely? I mean... I understand that they don't feel safe right now, but that's a bit of an exaggeration," someone said displeasedly.

Donovan had a feeling that he might start to fall asleep in a moment, but someone else in the room became alert at the mention of the words "River Kingdom."

"Is the River Kingdom the only one that has withdrawn from our kingdom completely?" asked the spy deployed by the Crime Syndicate.

Riewenn pondered the question. "No. Two other kingdoms have called their diplomats back home."

"Two more? Which ones?" the spy continued to question.

Donovan frowned and opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the gentleman who was asking about the kingdoms that had withdrawn from their lands. He had to wonder why the man was interested. Something in the man's voice told him that something was going on in the background.