172 Chapter 172: Journey

After the advisor left the throne room and an unknown period of time passed, Crowley approached the seated girl. Her raven black hair rested on her shoulders and her Pheonix eyes fluttered ever so slightly as she played with the dolls in her hands.

Even a fool would be capable of understanding how beautiful the lass would be when she grew up. This caused Crowley an endless amount of frustration as the number of marriage proposals that reached his quarters increased by the day.

"Elizabeth, some very important guests are going to be here today… I need you to wait in your room and be a good girl, okay?" Crowley said soothingly as he crouched down in front of Elizabeth. Even though he was a king, he still didn't hesitate to crouch down in front of the young girl and beg, such a sight would surely cause others to nearly laugh out loud.

Elizabeth raised her head and gazed at Crowley whilst stashing her dolls behind her back, "why must I wait in a room all by myself…? Are you embarrassed by me?" Elizabeth asked innocently as tears formed in her eyes.

However, a wise man would be capable of easily discerning that the young lass was faking it. A clever ruse that young girls were only capable of using at a tender age. Unfortunately, Crowley was unable to argue with Elizabeth when she became like this.

"I'm not embarrassed by you, I'm merely worried…" Crowley paused for a moment as he tapped his chin in contemplation, "I'll tell you what, I'll let you go to that baron household located at the edge of the kingdom, where that young Selena girl lives" he spoke after a moment of deliberation, and Elizabeth's expression lit up instantaneously.

"Mmhm, thank you grandpa!" she replied cutely and hopped off of her chair, presumably to go and prepare herself for a slumber party at her friend's house. As she left the room, Crowley could only shake his head with a wry smile and reseat himself on the throne.

This exchange was, of course, captured by a few of the royal guards, however, they had long become accustomed to such a thing. Nearly everyone in the kingdom was aware of how much Crowley doted on his newly acquired granddaughter.

Seeing this, Crowley glared at the royal guards and snorted, "open the gates and let the group of crusaders in after the banquet has been prepared… oh, and inform baron Howard that Elizabeth will be paying him a visit in the evening" he ordered and slumped his shoulders in the chair, visually exhausted.

***

As Rahvin kingdom was currently preparing for visitors, Caesar had ordered the fox-kin to prepare their belongings for evacuation. Many of them were curious as to where they would go, however, none of them dared to disobey Caesar's orders.

As such, the citizens quickly packed their belongings in the excess amount of carriages that happened to be left being at the troll kingdom. They packed their dried meat, clothes, blankets, weapons, armor, and other valuables. Since they had procured a surplus of supplies that the trolls left behind, they were capable of begetting a luxurious journey.

The main issue that persisted was the lack of horses. Although the trolls possessed an abnormal number of carriages, there was a pitiful number of horses left. However, Caesar would simply order a few of the stronger warriors to take turns and pull some of the carriages.

Once the citizens and warriors alike were packed, Caesar organized them to form a relatively simple line. He was quite reluctant to have them travel shoulder to shoulder, which would basically announce to the whole world a large group was traveling… especially since they were going to be leaving the dark continent.

After the citizens formed an excellent line, they waited for Faust and Soka to return. Their eagerness to move had greatly surprised Caesar, so he sped up his initial plans and decided to move early.

Like this, a few hours went by and the sight of fox-kin warriors finally appeared under the horizon. Their armor was dyed in blood and their expressions were cold as they marched back into the troll-kingdom.

Once Faust reached Caesar's carriage, he knelt down, "I made sure to eliminate the remnant trolls, their race should be now extinct" Faust spoke curtly and stripped his armor down, to join in with the others. He and the Warriors weren't in need of an explanation as to why so many carriages were present.

All of them had wanted to leave the troll kingdom sooner than later. How could they bare living in the homes of their mortal enemy? Thus, they quickly prepared themselves for the journey and Caesar directed a few of the stronger warriors to pull the lighter carriages.

Once he was finished giving out orders, Caesar situated the warriors on the sides of the line while making sure the citizens remained in the middle, protected. He rode at the forefront while most of the clan heads were stationed toward the back, resulting in a perfect balance.

"Onward!" Caesar roared and pulled the reigns of his horses, following which, the others did the same. To his right, Ebisu, who was riding on a lone horse, steered in closer to Caesar's sitting figure. "Pardon my intrusion, however, I am quite curious as to where we are currently headed to?" he asked, hesitantly.

In response, Caesar glanced at the vast amount of fox-kin behind him before smiling slyly, "we'll be heading toward a place much greener than this one, with much more opportunities for survival, and, of course, peace" Caesar replied vaguely and wrapped his arms around Ahri's shoulders.

They would finally be returning to Rahvin kingdom, where Caesar could finally spread his wings without being chained down by promises or survival. Even just the thought caused Caesar to smile with anticipation… he could finally do what he was best at, business.

Although there were many secrets unraveled, such as the assassins who attempted to kill Ahri, or why the church was assisting the trolls. Such things would be slowly uncovered by Caesar in the future, as he was currently not capable of doing so.

***

Crowley sat on his throne whilst a large, grand table was spread out before him. It was blanketed with delicious looking delicacies and wine placed in sparkling glasses. Sitting around the table were a dozen or so important looking figures.

Surprisingly, however, they were relatively young and possessed striking features, each one was a beauty in their own right. They ate with the utmost respect and utilized their knife and fork with perfection. Even Crowley, a past duke, and the king couldn't find a flaw with their current courteous behavior.

"Sir Crowley, we've recently been investigating the destruction of the northern forest, as well as the assassination of one of the heroes, Richard. We have heard many rumors and have, at last, reached this place… do you perhaps know anything?" a young and beautiful woman wiped her mouth with a piece of cloth and asked curiously. She was a blonde beauty and adorned a white dress, similar to a gown, that accentuated her voluptuous breasts.

Fortunately, after being around Ahri and his late wife, he had long been used to striking beauty. Thus, he smiled calmly, "The elves located in the northern forest had been assassinating our merchants as they passed through. As such, we laid siege and formed a small command post there" he replied with half-truths quite eloquently.

His words paused for a moment, "as we were battling, however, an evil demon looking creature appeared and fought with a short brown-haired man, killing him in the process. This demon also happened to kill the elf saintess in the midst of his attack" Crowley spoke with a straight face and lied through his teeth.

The blonde woman squinted her eyes, "and this so-called demon just happened to let your soldiers live? I find that quite hard to believe," she asked whilst scrutinizing Crowley's figure atop the throne.

In response, Crowley coughed into his hands and smiled, "After killing the brown-haired man and beautiful elf, he left, as if that was his sole mission… I apologize for not being able to elaborate on the matter, even I was confused" Crowley, once again, eloquently lied and the paladins could only enter into deep contemplation.

Perhaps, if they were the ranking of archbishop or respectable deacon, they could see through Crowley's lies, alas, they were unable to. Their large army waited outside of Rahvin kingdom, and they highly doubted such a small kingdom would dare lie to them.

"Very well, thank you for your honesty" The blonde woman replied and sat back down on the cair, her brows still furrowed. The other four paladins were also quite confused, but one of them in particular, a man with short red hair squinted his eyes deviously.

"Then you wouldn't mind if we stayed here for a little longer? We are quite weary from our long trip and our crusaders need to rest for a bit" he said with a tilt of his head, a strange smile plastered on his face.

"Sigh, I suppose…" Crowley sighed and reluctantly agreed, there wasn't much he could do in front of the mighty church. If he dared to resist, his kingdom would be reduced to ashes overnight.