“You sure that was okay? The king had sent orders down to find the princess. What if she is on one of these wagons.” One of the other guards was worried that they may have made a mistake just now.

“What else can I do? Start a war with the beastmen? Did you not see his insignia? He was part of the royal family!” The guard who had spoken to Claine yelled out. He was not happy either. He had to actually back down from a dirty beastman! “I can’t wait until this war starts, then we can finally teach these beastmen that they should bow down to their masters!”

A few hours later and many kilometers away from the border, the wagon train came to a full stop. “Here you ladies go. Are you sure you want to get out here?” Claine asked.

“Yeah, here is good. We want to see the Rural Kingdom bit by bit as we travel.” Ceilie politely declined. She didn’t want to get anyone else involved with their issue.

“Alright, then, ladies. You three, be careful. I am sure we will see each other again soon. Take this for your journey.” Claine waved his hand, and three packs were handed over to Kana, Princess Tilia, and Ceilie. “This is just to help you out during your journey. I wish you all well.”

“Likewise, safe journeys! And thank you!” Ceilie thanked Claine and bowed her head to show her gratitude.

“Yes, thank you!” Kana gave a wave goodbye while Princess Tilia kept her head lowered, not saying a word. They watched as the wagon caravan made its way down the dusty road.

“Alright, let’s head east to the mountains. We should be able to make it before tomorrow night.” Ceilie stated as she looked out past the meadow to the destined mountain range.

“Umm… Can I take these ears and tail off now?” Princess Tilia suddenly spoke up.

“No! You need to keep them on while we are out in the open. When we find a cave to settle into, you can then take them off, and we will make a new one for you when we head towards the capital.” Ceilie did not want to take any chances. So although she felt bad for making Princess Tilia wear the ears and tail of a dead horned rabbit, it was the only disguise they had at this time to keep her from being spotted easily.

“Ngh…” Princess Tilia whined. The horned rabbit ears smelled of blood and were making her feel sick. Just knowing she had to wear them even longer made her feel depressed.

As the girls gathered their things and began walking off into the distance. Claine sat at the head of one of his wagons when a man with cat ears appeared at his side. “What did you find?”

“The humans seemed to be up to something. The Yuthia Theocracy has been moving around the human territories as of late. Also, this is just news, but they also seem to be searching for the missing princess of the Elurean Kingdom. The second princess, Princess Tilia Elurean.” The cat man reported.

Claine rubbed his chin and nodded. “Begin mobilizing the Dark Squad. The list of human names I gave you earlier, investigate them all and kill those who wish to see beastkin enslaved. If I am not wrong, the Princess they are searching for will be heading to the capital. My guess is she has information on what is going on.”

“Sire, why do you say that?” The cat man asked.

“Let’s just call it a hunch.” Claine said no more. He thought about the silent rabbit girl being guarded by the cat sith and a dragon. “Just a hunch in deed….”

“Sire?” The cat Man was confused as to what his master was talking about.

“It’s nothing. Go do what I asked.” Claine shooed the cat man away and snapped the reins to push his scaled horse faster. He wanted to get back as soon as possible.

—

In the cold icy mountains of the Stone Hammer Kingdom, a shiny majestic object could be seen protruding out of the side of one of the mountains. Large pillows of smoke rose into the air from these tall smoke stacks on top of the object. At first glance, one would think such a place was some kind of factory, but this was not the case at all. The entire building was the entrance to the Dwarven Kingdoms capital city Rockguard, located deep within the mountain.

Inside a small shop deep inside the mountain, a tall man with pointy ears stood over a hot furnace with a pair of tongs in his hands, holding a slab of metal inside. “Almost. Almost…”

“Creige! Hey, Creige! Damn it; this fucking guy doesn’t hear shit when he is working!” A short, stout man with a long red beard entered the shop and yelled out. He furrowed his brows and walked to the back room that was hotter than hell itself. Even with all his slamming about as he walked into the room, the tall man never turned around once. “Hey, Creige!”

Startled by the sound from behind him, the tall man finally turned his head to see the short, stout man standing there. “Baldswin, when did you get here?”

“What do you mean when did I get here? I have been fucking yelling your name for five minutes now. Just how into smithing are you? This is why you can’t find a woman. Everyone I introduced you to runs away crying because you ignore them. I mean, what the fuck was with the last one? You took her back to your shop and started working on a sword and completely forgot she was even here. The damn girl thought you were going to poke her, so she even stripped right in front of you, but you still ignored her. She ended up running out of the shop with tears in her eyes. I mean shit, you got the looks, a great body, and from what I have seen, a big D, but when it comes to women, you do not know jack shit! This is why you are still a virgin!”