Chapter 31
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"I see that you have acquired a nice attire. Good, let us depart." Edelweiss rode the carriage. Even though she said at dawn, we only left the manor in the afternoon. These guys were slackers. I felt stupid to actually arrived here before the sun rose while rushing to get my clothes from the tailor, who worked all night to adjust my clothes. But, now that I think about it, there were over 200 people here, including tailfolk squires, mercenaries, servants, and fifty elven knights. It must not be easy to gather them. The supplies they carried were also significant.
"This horse is for you, Lord Lily," Lhorne said. Lily rode it just fine, even though she was initially not confident.
"Why are we riding a horse?" Lily asked while looking behind us. She eyed the carriage that was currently carrying our troops. Nora is there too.
"Lords, decarion, and scouts are given horses. It is a privilege…." Lhorne said wryly. Privilege, you said? Edelweiss was trembling on her horses there. She clearly disliked and was not very proficient with horses.
"Lily… You can ride horses?" Edelweiss stuttered.
“Yes, Lord Edelweiss. When I was a slave, I often had to raise horses. So that's why I knew horses' feelings." She said while smiling. It only took her half an hour to ride the horses at the same pace as the others.
"I-I see." Our journey was smooth. Any goblins or orcs were shot down by Lhorne.
"Awesome!" Lily remarked. "I have never seen you miss with that bow. Even when we were riding horses like these, you still hit them in the head!"
"Thank you. A lot of elves are proficient with bows. This bow was an heirloom from my father. I have practiced with it since ten years ago. It feels like when I hold this bow, my father was beside me."
"Yeah. Lhorne was the best when it came to archery. Though many of us are also proficient with it. Unfortunately, he can't use swords and thus remains a forest ranger." Edelweiss remarked.
"That's unfair. I can't use a bow, but I got promoted." Lily replied. She was trying to defend Lhorne, "Without Lhorne's bow, we wouldn't be able to defeat Silvester!"
"The test required you to hit something far and hit something close. Both Lhorne and I were lacking and thus couldn't pass the test. However, since I am a noble with a blessing, I still got promoted, even though I can't use a bow and swords. It is a cruel world, isn't it?" Edelweiss smiled sadly.
"Besides, you can use magic. That is an exception among all exceptions."
"How about we put Lhorne in charge of you, Lily? He would receive less resistance if you were the one who selected him as your first in command."
"Miss Edelweiss, I am merely a coward who ran like a rat during the expedition two years ago. I am not worthy of being a team leader." Lhorne interrupted Edelweiss. He nodded in shame but soon brightened up with a smile, "But I will take your advice to heart. When I fought together with Lily, it felt like we were connected as a real team. I knew what she was about to do and what she wanted me to do."
"Oh, that is a rare event! The stars in the sky must have aligned all of you! You definitely were born to be Lily's vassal!" Another decarion interrupted us. "My team also had that same feeling a long time ago. We have been together for over fifty years ever since!"
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"Let's rest here. The journey will take two days. My name is Joseph, by the way. I knew one of the elves you saved that day Lord Lily. I am grateful. Although you are not elves, I acknowledge you as a lord." He smiled while getting down from his horse. He then set up a tent with his men for us.
"Lord Lily! My name is Riko. Nice to meet you!" One of the tailfolk greeted us cheerfully once we disembarked in the rest camp. Lily also replied with a smile but was soon interrupted by other tailfolk.
"My name is Lily! We had the same name!" A wolfkin wagged her tail and greeted us.
"My name is Lala. I am her sister!"
Lily became famous immediately as she was swamped with tailfolk entourages. Her joy was cut short as the elves started to diss their entourage for speaking to the lord uncalled. These stuck-up elves were friendly, but their behavior differed fundamentally from ours. While Lily loved freedom, they loved order. Will her dream of creating a country be that easy?
"We haven't found dwarves yet," Lily muttered.
"Well, unlike us, the dwarves aren't refugees. So maybe they didn't like being here?"
"Oh, but we do have dwarven mercenaries in the fortress. We hired them. I must say that their personality is not comfortable. They are not evil or anything, unlike humans. It was just that they liked gloomy caves and dirty. So we tended to avoid them." Edelweiss commented on our whispers.
"Oh! I want to meet them!" Lily replied
"You will meet him regardless. He supervises the maintenance of our supplies, including our weapons, after all. Those kid-looking adults. If you were 3 years younger, maybe I could mistake you for a dwarf." Edelweiss giggled.
*yawn
"I still need to fill these stones. Hah… help me, Lily…." Edelweiss sighed as she had her servants carry a bag and then hold her in her hands. Mana was then sucked into the stones, and she moved on to the other. The process was fairly simple but took a lot of time. Unlike me, Edelweiss seemed to manipulate her mana in a steady rhythm while I forced mine into it. I was faster, but she managed to fill more than I did.
I tried to copy her method. Instead of injecting mana into the feystone, I tried to gather mana at the stone and immerse it. Hmm… It took a long time. I required more than half an hour to fill one of these stones with Edelweiss' method.
"Mages can fill these on their own, right?" Lily tried to make some small talk.
"Hmm… Yes…. they could." Edelweiss replied indifferently. Since she didn't answer our question and seemed to be concentrating on her job, we worked in silence. After she was done with the stone in her hand, she looked at me. "Wow, you can talk like usual while casting, huh? Lhorne said in the report that you could cast while sword fighting. You might be the first one to be able to do it."
"Eh?" Lily said, confused. Of course, she was able to talk like usual. I was the one that was working here. When I filled these stones, I required full imagination and complete attention to magic sense. I needed to feel the mana, then mold it with my mana to produce the desired result.
"Well, Thank you," Lily said bashfully. We spent the rest of the night filling feystones. When servants called for us, we already did more than twenty feystones. Wait, it was already midnight! Why the servant called us so late. She was your mistress, you know!
Morning came, and Edelweiss and Lily looked tired as they rode their horses. Edelweiss was worse since she swayed on her horse and almost fell down. The servant then took turns getting off the carriage and guided the horse, so Edelweiss could sleep while riding her horses.
"Is this normal?" Lily asked.
"Miss Edelweiss is vital to the empire. The feystone supply couldn't catch up with the demand…." Lhorne sighed as all the elves felt guilty for overworking their lord.
"She could sleep in the carriage…." Lily advised.
"Well, the decorum…." Lhorne replied while looking at the other Decarion.
"Let's make an exception to this case. Lord Edelweiss, Please go right here. I will prepare a place in the carriage." Joseph sighed. Other Decarion then nodded and turned their head in acknowledgment. We implicitly agreed not to mention anything about it.
Lily was still okay since she took a cat nap during our feystone filling yesterday. But we were tired regardless. Fortunately, I can rest by just not moving my tail.
"Not fair if you sleep, Shiro…." Lily protested
"I worked hard yesterday while you were sleeping because you are bored. Next time, you may sleep when I do the feystone filling, and I will sleep while you ride horses. How's that?" I suggested.
"Okay…" She went silent. She just wanted to complain. She behaved like a child sometimes. And that made her cute.