Chapter 28: Dawn

Tyler watched as almost all the adult residents of the Red ogre settlement as they went to work on their preparations to migrate. The sun hadn’t even risen yet and they were already almost done with their preparations. It seemed they had heard from the chief of the situation surrounding the two strangers that had saved their lives and were in a hurry, so they could make it back to their companion in time.

This sight was actually quite impressive to Tyler, just like before he hadn’t fallen asleep last night and felt almost no fatigue. It was like his body was overflowing with energy and didn’t know what to do with it. He watched the town folks party all night as they sang and danced, eating and drinking to their hearts content. He had joined them in eating mainly because he wanted the alcohol but had painfully found out it had no effects on him. He wasn’t disappointed or sad about that fact though, it would save him from a nasty hangover.

The ogres had brought out 11 large carriages, they were quite lucky that most of their stables were not destroyed by the flames of the lesser Basilisks. The carriages were large enough to fit about 50 fully grown adults, they were made of wood but was lined with Orids, one of the most common metals in the demon continent, it had similar properties as steel but had undergone fundamental changes due to the high density of Mana in the demon continent, they were more flexible and had a higher density.

One of the carriages was used to carry all their supplies, foods, clothes, weapons, and so on. Azar had told Tyler that they only had two small spatial storage box in the settlement and they were only used for their most valuable items, what’s more both of these boxes had been given to them by Albert.

A small spatial storage box was the most common dimensional storage item in this world and had a dimensional space of about 100 cubic meters with the medium and large spatial storage box being varying due to the massive influence of the magic runes used in it’s creation process.

Albert had a medium spatial storage ring himself, he usually handed it to Erin as he didn’t want any extra weight on his hands when he was fighting. They stored all their belongings and to his surprise Albert had shown him everything he owned, he was really acting like he worked for him and Tyler didn’t know how to react. Albert had quite the collection of weapons in his storage ring, there were mostly swords but, there were different types of swords that even Tyler hadn’t heard of, ranging from the katana to the great sword, no matter the size or shape, as long as it was a sword Albert had it.

These weapons weren’t ordinary ones at that, he could tell that every single sword in the ring was at the very least made from an high level beast core, some were even magic artifacts. He told Tyler that the weapons now rightfully belonged to him and even offered him the ring but Tyler promptly refused, it felt like he would be making a dangerous commitment if he accepted it, so he told Albert to keep it and if he ever needed a weapon he would borrow one like last time. Albert reluctantly agreed, he had been standing next to Tyler since then, just like a loyal Butler which was a bit awkward for Tyler.

Albert also didn’t need sleep, he was a demon noble and could go months without one. Tyler felt awkward with him just standing beside him quietly and decided to get some more information out of this.

.

He asked about the 77 regions in the continent and found out quite a bit, he tried his best not to ask questions that made him look like a fool, and just focused on general topics. For instance the regions surrounding this one were the Sentro region, the Rantre Lahoured Region, the Denminatre Region, the Taine Ze Region and the Mounta Region.

Each of these regions belonged to one of the five Great families, they had made sure to expand their regions in a way it brought them closer to the Darknar Region. The closest region right now was the Sentro region, he hadn’t asked for anything specific but when he found out the five families were keeping a close eye on the demon king’s castle he was hit with a massive headache.

‘Maybe going back there in such numbers isn’t the brightest idea.’ He might’ve been lucky in the past, and had not gotten noticed because he was alone, but going there with hundreds of people felt like he was courting death. He thought about what to say to the ogres in other to have them wait for him and Liz somewhere far from the castle but nothing came to him, in the end going back to the castle like this would give him a time limit on how long he could stay before they came for him.

Thinking about this logically though, it was impossible for the five Great families to monitor the castle constantly for 1000 years, they would be more wary about each other than a stationary building. At most they would have some scouts some distance away from the castle. This was mostly to keep themselves in check. it wasn’t a perfect plan as they could still try to move in secret, but, they would have some underhanded solutions for that as well.

After arriving at this conclusion, he had a sigh of relief, as long as he wasn’t that unlucky, there was no reason why the five Great families would pay attention to a settlement of ogres, migrating through the darknar region.

••••••

As the sun began it’s rise, Liz and some of the kids woke up, she was very pretty so some of the female kids had ran to talk to her last night, they seemed to remind her of something which cheered her up a bit, they had all fallen asleep around her and she did the same, it was quite a lovely sight to see. Erin seemed to be popular in her own rights, as all the other kids and even the adult female ogress sat around her, she wasn’t smiling but she didn’t seem to be bothered by it, they all had fun last night in one way or another.

Tyler just sat there watching the ogres ready 5 six-eyed bulls, these were large wild bulls that, as the name suggest, they had six eyes, they were just Tier 2 beasts but were not only faster than most steads but had more stamina and durability. They could travel for days without food or water and had a little bit of battle strength, they were almost 6ft tall and had dark grey hair.

Liz got up with some of the kids and they showed her were to wash up, they had also provided her with better clothing and a cloak. Tyler thought she looked like a cute assassin but wouldn’t say a word. Erin wore her usual dark purple robe with the hood and Albert now had a full set of Raven black leather armor, armed with his Miao Dao, he looked very formidable, the armor he had worn previously was based on speed but this was a more well balance suite with a few metal vambraces and greaves.

He had also offered Tyler some of his other sets of armors but he refused, he only accepted a change of clothes, now wearing a white shirt, black pants and a pair of black beast boots. These were made of white hoppers cores, these creature were only found in the North, they had a passive effect that improves the users movement speed in cold areas.

The effects was a little interesting but he had only chosen these because they were the only ones that fit, equipment made of beast cores or magic crystals could not be adjusted by magic. Soon they were done with everything, some of the kids boarded a single carriage and the others spit between the rest, Liz and Erin had been pressured into entering the kids carriage and they were unable to refuse, Tyler felt a little annoyed that the kids were practically ignoring him and even flat out avoiding him, not realizing his disposition was scaring them off.

Through out the night he had a nagging feeling that he was being watched, he even patrolled the town several times but didn’t see or sense anything, the whole time he had a serious expression on his face which the kids had noticed. Albert had noticed this as well, he had also stayed up all night with him and escorted him around the town, they didn’t exchange any more words with each other after he had finished his questioning.

Ones chief Azar came to inform him of their departure, he soon boarded the carriage as well, ever since Albert announced his intentions of serving him with his life, the chief had been more polite towards him, treating him like he was someone of high authority in the town. whilst his attitude towards him was in no way rude before, there was a clear difference between now and then.

Azar and Albert each drove a carriage, while Jarret, an Ogress named Gail and a beastgirl named Nadine drove the last three, Nadine had tanned skin, a pair of dog ears and a fluffy looking tail, she wore silver armor on her chest, legs and arms opting to wear a super revealing outfit everywhere else. With her childlike appearance it made Tyler feel very uncomfortable looking at her. Gail on the other hand hid behind a cloak a walked listlessly so Tyler didn’t get a good look at her.

Each of the carriages were linked another except the one driven by jarret which was linked to two extras. Nadine had an argument with Jarret about them treating her like a child and only giving her the one with only two carriages, she was quite loud and ended up switching with Jarret who wasn’t in a mood for games.

Without further delays Azar levelled their formal home with a single swing of his large blade, he commanded and all four six-eyed bulls kicked off in the direction of the demon king’s castle.

••••••

About 30 minutes later, in the now desolated Red ogre settlement, a figure appeared out from the shadows, it was an handsome man with short white hair, he wore dark speed based armor and had two golden daggers strapped to his waist. He had bright golden eyes with a vertical slit. Looking around he frowned slightly, his eyes glowed slightly and he walked around the ruins of the town as if he was searching for something.

The man soon crouched down in an empty space and he sighed. “Nothing.” he raised his head and looked around one more time but soon shook his head, “Well, this is a first, if only i had been able to place a soul curse on one of them this would’ve been easier, who the hell was that guy.”

He had spent all night trying to approach the town and place a soul curse on one of the residents, but every time he got a little closer, someone had noticed him. He would stare at his direction for a long time and even move around, trying to find him and he had also moved around looking for a way in. They had repeated this circle several times with him unable to get any closer.

This was a first for him, as it didn’t matter how strong his opponent was, as long he he approached them without any malice or killing intent, his shadow movements wouldn’t be noticed, especially in the dead of night.

He stayed there for a few more minutes before standing up and walking in the direction of the demon castle. “I guess I’ll have to do this the old fashion way then, this is not going to be easy, they already erased their tracks as they left.” He smiled slightly and licked his lips. “I can’t wait to be done with this so i can return to lady Izabel, maybe she’ll step on me this time.” His face got a little red as he said that he was fidgeting weirdly and soon disappeared from sight, the sun had just fully risen to the sky bringing in the full beauty of dawn.