When one of those local high-ranking men heard his subordinate asking that and stepping forward to Ice, he turned red and shouted. "Are you crazy? That's Lothur's fox! Do you want to cause trouble for the whole family?"
The others in the surrounding area looked at that man with curious expressions, seeing that this person was crazy enough to want to provoke Lothur like that.
Lothur was not a monster who would scare people of their level, at least not when they were his allies, not enemies. But still, everyone knew that young Ritter had some special abilities and was not easy to deal with.
So coming to his house and threatening his fox was a terrible way to meet him!
That individual turned red with embarrassment as he took that correction, retreating behind his leader to get out of the spotlight of everyone's attention.
Meanwhile, Ice was watching them cautiously, with its tail pointed high, as it watched these individuals getting in the way of Lothur's breeding moment.
For beasts, this was a time of utmost importance when they did not want to be disturbed, whatever the problems.
Moreover, breeding was a time of vulnerability for some of them. As such, that creature was naturally more defensive towards Lothur after hearing that fellow's previous minutes with Elke.
"Au! Au!" It howled, trying to tell those humans to leave the area and that they were not welcome.
"What does it want?" Hilda asked, thinking this beast was a bit confused about standing against them.
"Hmm, it's hard to say... Unfortunately, we have no beast tamer to do the translation." Gomeric said, not knowing that if there were someone like that there, he would end up finding out about things he would not like.
But luckily for those individuals and for Ice trying to threaten them, soon after hearing its howls, Lothur had dressed and set off for the door of his house.
He had already seen those individuals through the walls, so he went to stop his traveling companion from unnecessarily attacking those people.
"Lothur!" Viktoria's father, who was already there, saw this fellow open a part of the gate of that house and smiled, seeing that his son-in-law was still alive.
"Hmm, good evening, everyone." Lothur waved to those people while gesturing to Ice that everything was fine and it should go rest.
Ice looked at Lothur and made a disappointed expression, upset that this individual had stopped his ritual to deal with these people.
'I'm still too weak! I can't go home alone, and I still can't even defend Lothur's territory while he is reproducing...' It jumped back inside that estate, somewhat saddened.
Lothur and the others did not know what was in that white creature's head, and soon each party greeted each other, with all of them very pleased.
They had been doing business for the Ritter Motor Company for the past few weeks. So now that Lothur had returned well from his disappearance, everyone was relieved, with only the great future ahead of them on their minds.
"Lothur, it's good to see that you're okay!" Gomeric commented as he clapped one of his hands on one of the young Ritter's shoulders, having already accepted the idea of his daughter having a relationship with this married fellow.
"Hmm, will you tell us what happened? Your disappearance was quite sudden, and we even thought you had died." After they all entered that estate, August Klossner said as Lothur closed the gate.
There were formations there capable of keeping things spoken secret, so Lothur did not take long to answer them, speaking a little of the truth but without explaining everything. "I was taken to the Three Great Lakes Region, and in that place, I got someone to kill the demon I took from the Finn Mountains there."
"Luckily, I got a tradeable item and traded it with that beast for the Soul Bone generated by that demon. Eventually, I absorbed it and started my journey back."
"Three Great Lakes Region?"
"You managed to make a trade with a beast?"
Some of those people questioned in low voices, feeling it was all rather fantastic.
"What did you trade for the Soul Bone? I heard that demon was pretty smart..." Viktoria and Annaliese's father questioned in curiosity.
"I don't really know. It looked like a tooth, except it was about the same size as me." He said, trying to sound ignorant concerning the Dragon Tooth.
The people there tried to think about what kind of being would have such a large tooth, but none came to the right conclusion.
There were several beasts in Concordia with such significant body sizes for one of them to have such a large tooth. Hence, it was not easy to guess this just from the hint that Lothur had given them.
Then one of the members of the local bourgeoisie asked. "Did you get this fox in that place?"
"Hmm, it and I have fought side by side in a few situations, so the beast with whom I traded that tooth for the Soul Bone allowed me to bring it with me, with the promise that one day I would return it." He improvised a bit.
"So that was it..."
"Anyway, I'm back, and I don't intend to leave Peters City until we start production of the first Ritter Motor Company vehicles."
Hearing Lothur's sweet words made everyone there feel better until one of them, the Teusen patriarch, said. "We will be able to start that by the end of the month. We already have several formation masters standing by to start production."
"Hmm, that's also true for the carpenters." Someone in charge of such a group said that.
"Very well," Lothur said. "When we have everything ready to start, I will begin developing the first models alongside these men. Then, once we get the final version of each model, we will start mass production."
"By that time, the driving school, the transportation company, the paving company, and the first of our stores have to be ready, or we won't be able to get the business off to the best possible start."
"Yes, we are aware." Some of them commented.
Minos said. "I want the first of our vehicles to be driving around the streets of Peters City by the start of the Secret Realm. Then I expect none of you to be late in your responsibilities."
'Secret Realm?' Everyone there knew when that was, and as close as it was, they did not despair as there was enough time to do their respective responsibilities.
With that talked over, some of them stayed around for a while longer, even getting a chance to see Elke after she finished her advancement to level 10 and congratulate her on it.
But most soon left that residence, with Lothur keeping only the most powerful of his alliance behind to talk.
Among them, August was standing next to Gomeric, Hilda, and Aiken.
The coroner then asked the young Ritter as he sat in the living room along with the others. "Lothur, I heard about your experience leaving Peters City days ago... Is what you told the local leaders true? Do you intend to forget about past problems regarding those who stop bothering you?"
...