"Duke. Are you sure about this?"
Pulling the man back by the shoulder, Victor Del Lagos stared straight into the man's eyes so intently, he almost gazed a hole through it. After a moment of intense staring, and Hebi once again mistaking it for something more than bromance, the prince was met with a firm and reassuring voice.
"I'm sure, trust me on this one." With a confident smile stretched across his cheeks, Asai believed the prince's worry to be unfounded. Looking to Robin to see her golden eyes filled with confidence and the willingness to try whatever brilliant idea the man had next, he ignored the worried expressions upon the templar's faces.
Having successfully escaped the city, the rag-tag group now found themselves wandering lands akin to farms. Albeit, they were farms built to raise beasts of burden.
[Boreal Gon] [Boreal Gon] [Boreal Gon] [Boreal Gon] [Boreal Gon] ...
[Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] [Lake Gon] ...
Being already attuned to the wonders and strangeness of this world, Asai easily observed the domesticated beasts within the large farmhouse.
Whilst the system identified them as gons, within Asai's eyes, they appeared as if they came straight out of a dinosaur movie, looking just like a velociraptor was illustrated by modern day Earth's scientists. A dinosaur/lizard that stood on its two rear legs like a kangaroo, whilst dipping down to innocently consume their feed.
"If they are what you think they are, then why haven't we seen the dekans using them as battle mounts like we do with our horses?" Istvan scratched the top of his head as he scrutinized the strange looking creatures.
"Because, 1 food is scarce in this kingdom, just think about how much feed we have to give our horses to maintain their muscle mass. 2, the evolved dekans, the stronger of the lot are unable to ride them I guess." Having scouted the farmhouse to find it unattended, Asai began to encroach upon the dragonkin's mounts, hoping that they'd be friendly.
"God forbid, giving the common foot soldiers mounts of their own huh?" Ian casually commented before following the duke in, leaving the others in agreement of their combined analysis. As they were unable to imagine a world where the nobles and kings had to travel upon foot, whilst the farmers and cleaners had mounts to ride upon.
The group of gons all instantly shifted their eyes towards Asai, highly alert as they weren't used to seeing non-blue skinned humanoids. Fortunately, both the duke and prince had [Horsemanship] having both acquired it from a third-party, which naturally transmitted quite the soothing aura around them. The passive, in addition to the vegetables within Asai's hand, was enough to earn their trust as the humans were actually the first to be kind to them, to tenderly stroke their necks and backs. Which wasn't surprising, if the dekans treated them as pigs or chickens, breeding them just to butcher them. And with their heightened intelligence, akin to a loyal dog's, they knew full well what their fates were.
Seeing both the duke and prince easily tame the exotic beasts, the others soon joined in as Asai quickly made his way to the gate, swinging it wide open before mounting the closest gon and treating it no different than a horse.
At this point, even Robin Sol was struggling to comprehend what was going on, riding upon something she would usually instinctively kill on sight, recalling a certain someone who was also open-minded enough to treat monsters as if they were mere horses...
Regardless of their worries and thoughts, the humans now had mounts that traversed the uneven lands rapidly. And whilst it was quite a pain in the arse to sit upon scales and tough-muscles without the usual seating and stirrups, it was still preferred over marching upon foot.
Wondering whether or not he should've set fire to the whole place instead of just leaving it be, Asai shot a glance backwards as he watched dozens of gons fan out towards their own directions, sprinting away towards freedom before their captors returned or noticed their absence. As for the gons the party now rode upon, they were loyal and intelligent enough to at the very least desire to repay their saviours before carving out their own path.
When the dekans' schedule finally sent another group to restock and replenish their farm, which would last them yet another week before having to return again to the dump, they were none the wiser...
-
The boundary between Armenes & Par'Talucca
Having personally experienced a bird's eye view of the land, Asai took it upon himself to navigate and guide the group through the areas far from the many garrisons he had seen, dipping and slipping through the gaps within their defences whilst Robin maintained her heightened ability to scout, a trait of hers that was innately efficient due to having elven blood coursing through her veins, in addition to her magical archer class stat alignment.
With their combined effort, and the templars mostly focusing on riding the awkward beasts they had borrowed, the group finally escaped hostile territory, as a fulfilling breath of fresh air filled their lungs, filling them with sweetness from the morning wind, which rejuvenated their mind and soul. To everyone's joy and relief, their ability to utilize mana returned, empowering their muscles as strength, power, stamina and endurance fluttered through their cells like an elixir would. A profound feeling of reuniting with oneself overwhelmed them as they were all quick to visually ensure what they were feeling was in fact real.
With [Divinity] flushing out their systems from the natural build up of toxins, bacteria and germs that had built up during their stay in Armenes, the templars finally regained their confidence. As for Ian, who still couldn't believe it himself, that he would be lucky enough to survive, he now endorsed ideas of being promoted and rising the ranks if a new templar order were to be created.
"Asai! ~♡ You're back! Finally! I'M STARVING!"
"Pal, what happened? Our connection was suddenly cut?"
Having become accustomed to peaceful tranquillity within his own mind, to suddenly have Lemon and dwarven king Caronia shouting screams of joy into his eardrums, Asai couldn't help but shudder as he filtered through his multiple thought streams, appeasing both at the same time.
[Cotton] popped out of his shadow, wobbling over his shoulder and just staring at his favourite human, Robin Sol. As if he had just awoken from a long hibernation, there was hardly any energy within his gaze.
Plucking the strange bird off his shoulder, Victor stared directly into its eyes and failed to recognise it, in doing so, he received a middle-feather in return.
"Duke, correct me if I'm wrong, but... Isn't this a-" Before Victor had even finished half of his question, Asai had called forth the young pegasus, [Dream]. Shocking the prince into silence as he tried to recall the reports that documented Asai's history, character and achievements. "Just- Who are you?" Believing it to be easier if he directed his questions to his sister, who he theorized would have a better understanding of the man, he kept his mouth shut for now. Or well, that was until Asai cast [Summon Yokai] calling forth [Tanuki] who appeared as a young lady who had clearly inhuman ears. Being half racoon half human, she innocently glanced around her new surroundings in excitement, before catching sight of Cotton, who was quickly taken from the prince and covered in her saliva as she licked his face like a dog would.
From that point, Prince Victor Del Lagos began to worry, as Asai was proving himself to be a man of many abilities, traits and bloodline skills. The appearance of someone with so much potential for power was truly a premonition of sorts, one that took over his priorities as he would remain entirely quiet for the rest of the journey, in an attempt to recall any prophecies or records with characters of similar talent.
More concerned with the growth of his summons being sorely lacking, Asai ignored both the pegasus and bird as he tried to communicate with the new humanoid.
"Can you hear me?"
A strange sensation entered his mind and heart, as if she had transmitted her feelings to him, Asai knew exactly what she was trying to convey.
"Can't speak?"
Tanuki nodded in response. Looking closer at her features, her hair, eyes and little bushy tail were all black and grey, resembling a trash panda's. "Strange, I figured you'd be the Japanese variant, which is brown in colour. Anyway, are you fine with Tanuki as your name? Or would you like me to give you a new one?"
As if it didn't really matter to her, she simply shrugged as she fiddled around with the uniform that was much too big on her, messing around with the belts and latches in an attempt to tighten the baggy-fit. As she had open access to Asai's [Inventory] the man had to quickly lay out a few ground rules, treating her as if she was an errant daughter.
