There were two more carriages in front of Nick’s group which had to be inspected before them, but he already started nagging loudly in a creepy voice at ‘her son’ for ruining the trade today and that they will have to find a way to explain themselves after returning home. Clayton continuously mumbled words of apology, but the more he apologized, the angrier his ‘mother’ became.
Ali was listening to all of this in shock – didn’t they have to keep a low profile? What just happened to the two fake parents of his sisters and everything currently transpiring in the wagon was against his natural instincts of a thief. He was happy, his sisters were already safe, but the commotion Nick made seemed way too much.
“You are my only hope!” Nick saw the boy getting anxious and caressed his head, “You are the only good thing that came out of her! Your father should have married Aila, but no, he decided to pick this one because of her big jugs! What a waste!”
At this moment it was already their turn for the inspection and Kate was embarrassed to the bone from those words.
Already back at the inn Nick made her somehow elevate the position of her ‘natural gifts’ and even chose a cheap looking and a bit torn linen dress showing a large cleavage. For her, the daughter from aristocratic Evans family, it was unimaginable to show her intimate body parts like this, but she very well understood his logic.
And it was proven in the real life when as soon as her ‘jugs’ were mentioned, the inspecting guards immediately sent the carriage in front of them away and stared at her chest while almost salivating. Indeed, it looked like her ample breasts could tear the linen dress apart at any moment and dangerously bounced every time the wagon’s wheels hit a bigger rock on the street.
Kate was blushed in dark red and, with the make up Nick put on her to look more similar to Clayton’s age, she seemed even more mature, but for some reason more alluring as well. Her two ‘boys’ in the back were blushed just from what they heard and the straw hats barely could cover their awkward expressions.
Kate knew her main task and despite the deep shame and embarrassment kept her shoulders pulled back accentuating the ‘view’ on the cleavage and Clayton kept apologizing to his ‘mother’ with his head hanging low, obviously feeling guilty.
“My dear grandson, learn from your father’s mistakes and never choose your wife like he did!” Nick continued to nag.
While the guards with open mouths let his wagon through without inspecting and kept staring at Kate’s back, Nick jumped down from his mule, picked up a tree branch from the roadside and started whipping Clayton, complaining about ‘her’ biggest disappointment in life.
The whole scene produced a loud laughter from all around them, with everyone in the wagon besides Nick blushing red and, of course, onlookers thought it was because of the shameful actions of this old woman. Tired and bored guards laughed till tears fell down their cheeks and finally started to inspect next wagons and carriages while Nick and company were already fifteen – twenty meters away.
“Continue playing for two more days.” Nick whispered to Ali, who almost was jumping from joy, and then started to caress his head mumbling some nonsense while trying to keep the boy calm.
Everyone in the group understood they were safe for now, but it was not over yet. During the past months they discussed multiple scenarios on different situations and how to behave in those, thus even if everyone wanted to cheer and hug each other, they knew this play was scheduled to continue for quite some time.
‘How did he think of this? And this quickly as well?’ YunYun was pondering as the city gates got further and further, ‘Could I play the grandmother’s role if I was told to?’
She jumped off the carriage and started to walk at the side of her ‘grandma’ while throwing glances at ‘her’ from time to time. For some reason it felt her fiance’s talents had no boundaries.
They set up a small camp at the roadside when it was already dark. After making sure there were no onlookers, Nick went over to the beggar couple and checked on the girls. They were currently soundly sleeping and it looked like both young ‘parents’ were doing a good job by taking care of them.
Already at the inn Steven stored away in his ring the medicine and fresh provisions Nick gave him, therefore he only had to put his hand in the ‘magic bag’ to take out anything the small family needed.
The night was a bit chill so they squeezed together for the girls to keep warm and this way they could rest better as well. Steven closed his eyes for a few hours while Nick was around and took over the guard shift. Similarly Clayton and YunYun switched their guard duty during the night, although for a regular onlooker it would seem like the peddler family was soundly sleeping in full force.
The next morning Ali wanted to run over to his sisters, but Nick managed to hold him back, promising that from the following evening all of them will play one family and he had no reason to worry. The boy was still anxious and calmed down only when after the sunset his ‘kind grandmother’ invited the poor couple over to join for dinner. From that day on they continued on their way together.
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It might seem that all this charade was unnecessary, but the coastal road was full of peddlers like them who unwillingly took notice of the surrounding events and got acquainted with the fellow travelers. The days were long and boring therefore everyone was able to notice the actions of others and the group had to remain careful.
Two days later they reached a small town and, after staying there for an extra day, the family was ‘restructured’ with Conny becoming Nick’s oldest granddaughter. There were no more incidents after that. The group purchased two more mules and proceeded towards the north.
There were not many options left and they had to find a way to leave this continent from Berin and their trip basically formed a quadrangle around the northern and middle parts of the Nestri continent. Luckily the road from Ulum to Berin was only a bit longer than half of the road from Beliz to Ulum and was also more popular. There were thousands of peddlers like them on the way all day long, traveling past fishermen villages and towns.
After few more days in a bigger coastal town they exchanged their wagon for a larger carriage and the mules for horses and finally could increase their speed. Now they went almost at the double speed of their former caravan and the difference was quite noticeable.
During the days girls happily took care of the two sisters while Ali tried to persuade Nick to take him as his student. Of course, there was no chance of that happening, because contrary to Ali’s expectations Nick didn’t have any real thief skills. The three children felt so comfortable with the newfound family, Ali even forgot about their deal and simply enjoyed the pleasant trip. For the first time in months he could feel like a child again and sleep soundly at night.
The biggest downside for the trip was that they couldn’t actively train and every single one of them missed it. Thus they could only practice Qi while riding the carriage and short sixteen days later they finally arrived at Berin.
To avoid any unnecessary incidents, Nick went to investigate while the others set a small camp a couple kilometers from the city.
Nick couldn’t claim he knew Berin like the back of his hand, but he did manage to find the port quickly enough and then sat on the docks while nostalgically staring at the distant ships. Of course, him dressed as an old lady didn’t draw any suspicions even for the few men who went by in the already familiar black clothing.
The inspection at the city gates was not as strict as it was when they left Ulum, but every departing vessel was thoroughly searched and there was no way for a big group like theirs to slip through.
Nick decided to not look for the old man in the Mercenary guild because they couldn’t be certain where his alliances lie and if there was a reward promised for their heads to provoke greed in a previously trusted person.
Feeling down he returned to the rest and, while having lunch, they discussed their options. No one had any reasonable idea and the atmosphere worsened by minute. Children also felt it, albeit didn’t understand why the grownups were getting gloomier and gloomier – they were safe, weren’t they?
“If we have to stay here for a year or two, so be it.” Steven murmured at some point, “At least all of us are still alive and sooner or later we’ll be able to leave.”
“Sigh, we trained so hard to become stronger just to get stranded here in the end.” Conny said in deep regret.
Nick’s eyes suddenly lit up. That’s right! They all have become stronger!
“Clayton, what is the smallest ship you need to get us back home?” He asked.
“I don’t care, just give me any two masted barque or schooner and, if we avoid any disastrous storms, we could be home in no time.” The sailor grumbled while punching ground angrily.
“And how many men you need to navigate such ship successfully? The very minimum.” Nick grinned.
“Well … five? But they would have to work their asses off.” Clayton was still confused.
“So if we have seven, we are set, right?” Nick’s face was all smiles now.
“I know what you are thinking, but where can we get a ship? It’s not like a carriage you can simply purchase on the streets.”
“Correct, but I think I know where to get one and I bet you could guess it as well.” Nick stood up, “The first who guesses correctly will get extra snake meat in their stew tonight!”
The group sat with confused faces for few minutes until Clayton’s expression changed.
“Don’t tell me … but it might really work!” He finally understood what Nick had in mind and it was a genius idea and simple at the same time.
“Alright, you won! Let’s go to city, the rest will stay here and relax, we’ll have some exhausting times ahead of us.” Nick grinned again and they both left.
“Hmpf, acting all mysteriously!” Kate was unhappy.
“I think I know the answer as well.” Steven smiled, “He had the right to tease us – think, what place has ships where all seven of us have been before?”
The rest soon understood and started to laugh. They never expected to willingly return to the Paradise city again. Even the fact that some pirates might have returned didn’t scare them at all. Battling hillbillies and wolves on the road was not much scarier than a bunch of drunken pirates, especially when Nick already killed their real leaders.
On their way Nick and Clayton agreed to fool around again, just a bit for their own amusement and maybe safety. After entering the city, they changed their clothing to more expensive and proceeded towards the harbor while Nick still looked as an old lady while Clayton played her son. There they approached few owners of smaller sailboats and Nick tried to buy a boat while Clayton kept persuading him against the idea.
“I want this one!” Nick pointed at a random boat and said it like he was a ten year old capricious girl.
“Mom, that is not a good one.” Clayton argued.
“Then I’ll take this!”
“That will be too expensive.”
“Your father left me the money and I will spend it as I want to!”
“But we don’t even need a boat!”
“I don’t care, I want one!”