“Would you mind hurrying a bit? I still have work to do.” Cain told Lexi as he sat on Sebas’s desk, Alice earlier left them to talk because he told her to do so with [Message]. Taking some time alone with the maids is leaving a bad impression on the girls besides Selena.
“Well…where should I start…” Lexi struggled to find the words. From her face, Cain could tell she was either scared to talk or about to ask for something big.
“Fine, think about it slowly and then tell me the sum of it. You find me an explanation tonight after I finish my work.” Cain still had to go to work, if she was to say something here, she better do it quick.
Lexi struggled to think for a moment, she then took a deep breath and started to talk slowly. “My family lives in a secluded village to the west, they sent me a letter about a new bandit group that is taxing them heavily…”
Cain’s face turned serious, this might be his mistake. Jack’s bandits were the ones dominating Furberg’s domain, but now that he wiped them out a new group might be trying to settle in. They did face some bandit when returning from Morena’s fight but Cain thought they were just remnants from Jack’s band, this is going to be a problem.
The major problem was that surviving the winter without starving or freezing to death was a task in itself, now if that group pushed the village too far they might not survive the winter.
Lexi had come to him, which means the village is a bit far away for The city to move soldiers in the snow. She looked fine yesterday so she must have gotten the letter this morning, “How far is your village?”
“About…two days away…” The look on her face wasn’t good, her village have been under the bandit for over two days. “How did they manage to send the letter?”
“A traveling caravan has stayed at the village, my little sister gave them the letter in secret. The bandits didn’t show themselves as the caravan was well guarded and the caravan did try and interfere as they didn’t have enough manpower to dive the bandits.” Lexi handed the letter her sister wrote to Cain, it was poorly written as he expected, the fact that it was written in the first place meant that the little girl was smarter than her age.
Cain sighed, he wanted to work but now they have this. He can’t ignore that this may be a plot by Morena to drag him out and he can’t ignore that it might be his fault. There was also a matter of time, a traveling caravan march slowly so instead of two days, the letter might be a week old.
‘This is bad, who knows if they were still alive or have died long ago.’ If Cain wanted to help, he has to move quickly.
Cain stood from his chair and sighed, “I’m going to help, but I need you to cooperate with me, is that alright.”
Lexi nodded energetically, she had expected a lot of ways she could pay him for agreeing to help so she got herself ready for anything he might try.
“Alice, go tell Leon that I’m putting work on hold for a couple of days. If he asked why tell him that he needs to send an armed group to every village. “Consider it done,” Alice replied from behind the door.
Lexi’s face flushed red knowing that Alice was listening to their conversation all the time. “Then you go get ready, we’re going to your village immediately. But remember that on the whole trip, I need you to do what I say without questions. I tell you to jump from a cliff, you do it immediately, understood?” She knows the village and will be able to smooth the talk between them. With that, it will also make him look good. He did intend to take over Ourals after they kill it’s a lord so it was good to gain the people’s trust first.
“Truly thank you…” She bowed deeply. Cain wanted her to obey him blindly on the trip because she did not know how to act in some situations. “Stop and jump,” Cain said as he saw her turn around to leave. She immediately stopped and jumped.
“Nice, you seem to be doing well.” Cain smiled at her, he wouldn’t want her to fall into a trap because she hesitated for a moment.
Cain then walked outside to the garden where Zaleria. was training with Selena and Sofia. “Zaleria, can you do me a favor?”
They immediately stopped their training as they heard him. “Cain, wasn’t you supposed to be working?” Sofia wiped the sweat from her face with a towel as she approached him.
“Yeah, a new matter raised, go get ready for a trip quickly if you can,” Cain explained the situation to them, “Then how do you expect to get there so quickly? I don’t think you humans can traverse such a distance quickly.” Zaleria said with her hand on her waist, she was awaiting Cain to pull some weird spell or something.
“Yeah, but we have an inhuman flying thing on our side, right?” Cain looked at her. “You don’t mean…” She took a step back. “Yep, can you fly us there?”
“You know how rude is to ask me to do that?” She growled at him. Dragons were prideful creatures that didn’t allow anyone to sit on their back. Imagine it like asking a woman to allow you to hide under her skirt.
“Oh please, I know that. But do you mind flying me alone?” Cain asked her even though he knew the answer, she couldn’t refuse him after all the seals he gave her. “If it’s you alone then I guess I can allow it.” She forced the words out of her mouth.
“Then carry us all there, you can do that!” Cain said with a passive tone, “I still haven’t enchanted your toes yet…” That was a threat. With how much stronger his seal had made her she was ready to go through the pain to acquire them.
“Grandmother, please listen to him.” Sofia poked her at the side. Giving her the eyes of a lost kitten.
“Even if you looked at me like that, I still can’t.” Zaleria keeps her stance. She will allow him on her back as she wanted him to become a dragon rider, she will also let Sofia as she is her granddaughter. She was also comfortable with Gracie on her back as the girl was strong enough to withstand her presence. But the rest were definitely a no-go.
Cain sighed, he didn’t want to resort to his trump card but now he had no choice. “So I will tell you a little secret. Do you remember witch tattoos, to inscribe them both the drawer and the witch receiving them must be on the same arcane wavelength? There are two ways to achieve that, the first is the extremely painful way and is to implant a jewel inside the target body. And the fun way which is you know…” Cain did the motion with his fingers. “When that time comes, you will need their agreement.” Cain pointed toward Sofia and Selena.
Sofia gave Cain a sharp glare for a moment before opening her mouth, “I would never allow you to lay in the same bed as Cain, but I guess I can look the other way if you accepted.” Sofia was only repeating what Cain told her through [Message]
After a few minutes of argument, Zaleria finally gave up, she would carry Cain, Sofia, Selena, Alice, and Gracie on her back.
“I did not agree with her,” Zaleria said as she saw Lexi walking in with a small bag. Cain was getting a bit annoyed so he grabbed her by the head. “Would…You…Mind…doing it?” Even though Zaleria was a dragon she felt a chill down her spine from his words, it was probably due to the severe pain she had gone through his hands.
“Fine, I won’t say anything else.” She agreed. Lexi didn’t understand what they were talking about so she just followed them to the forest without saying a word.
…”Now, Lexi come here!” Cain called her to stand in front of him, “I’m going to put you to sleep, do you have a problem with that?” Cain asked her, it was bad if he just knocked her out without saying anything.
“Why is that?” Lexi asked, they were in the middle of nowhere and she was surrounded by him Zaleria, Gracie, Sofia, Alice, and Selena. “You have to trust me on that, you better be asleep when I use my magic.”
“I understand, I’m in your hands.” She didn’t want to argue with him. the fact that he asked her was proof he didn’t have any bad intentions. She then immediately drifted to sleep…