Chapter 507 Dangers To The East
Remi wasn't sure why the Minotaurs kept equating the Lizardmen with Naga. They were entirely different species. The lizardmen weren't even aquatic like the Crocolisk species were. All they had in common was scales. Karl took note of the old man's attitude on the other species before asking more questions. "Have there been any recent troubles with the nomadic Orcs or Demons?" Nôv(el)B\\jnn
The farmer shook his head. "The demons all went west, intending to claim a city for themselves. I haven't seen any sign of them in months. The Orcs passed by here just a week or two ago, but they were in a good mood. We had a short fight, and then they traded us some steel in exchange for food."
Karl chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like them. As long as they're not on a warpath, we should be alright, then."
Karl saw Lotus sneak the younger Minotaurs inside the house a small bag of rice and beans, along with a bag of seeds that he couldn't immediately identify. Then she came back out with her typical happy smile.
"We're all finished with the healing. Did you finish your trades?" She asked.
"Yeah, we're all done. We can head out as soon as everyone is back in the wagon."
Lotus held out her arms, and Karl laughed as he grabbed her by the hips to put her back in the wagon.
Ophelia rolled her eyes as she climbed up the ladder into the wagon, but Dana mimicked Lotus, holding out her arms. Karl grabbed her behind the legs for a one-armed princess carry and hopped up onto his seat.
The farmer laughed at her shocked expression, and Karl waved his free hand as he got Thor moving.
Dana thumped him on the head as she wiggled out of his hold to sit beside him on the bench, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
There were a few other farms to the East, but Hawk didn't spot any more trouble. In fact, the rest of the morning was quiet as they travelled.
"Do you think that we reached the edge of the spawn area? When we went on missions, we would have reached a group at least twice an hour at this pace, but there isn't much of anything here." Ophelia noted as they travelled across the open grassland.
Tessa took out the map and looked at the area in front of them, which was basically one large blank spot on the map.
"Going by this, it's going to take us a week just to get back on the road, and close to a month to get to the border with the beastkin nation. When we set the schedule, we greatly overestimated how fast you can travel without breaking a wagon.
It's faster than having us mere mortals on foot, but compared to having us ride Thor and the rest of you jogging, we're less than a quarter of our daily travel distance, maybe even an eighth." Tessa sighed.
Ophelia nodded. "That is true. But it is what it is, and we're not under any sort of set deadline to get back."
Dana nodded, then smiled as she made a realization. "You know, this is as close as we've gotten to a vacation since we started at the Academy. We can just travel at our own pace and there is nobody to tell us otherwise.
We might have to do something that pleases the Red Dragon eventually, but we can find a way, I'm certain."
Ophelia smiled. "The gods have a way of making sure that we have the opportunity to make the right choices. That's probably a red flag, but maybe it will be cute orphans again."
Lotus laughed. "We do have good luck with orphans. It's like small creatures are attracted to us."
Tessa smirked at Ophelia, and Lotus stuck her tongue out at them. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."
She could protest all she wanted, but she was one of the small creatures.
"Do we have any major landmarks along the way?" Karl asked, with a gesture at the map in Tessa's hands.
"Nothing. We're heading straight east, and not following the river as it bends northeast, but we're only going to end up a hundred kilometres from where the ones following the road will end up. But if we go a bit south of true east, we would end up following the road for quite a while. That might be safer if there are more incidents along the way, but according to the Dragon, the road route is the safer route.
It's after we reach the road again that we will have to decide to follow it southeast or go cross-country for a thousand kilometres to get closer to the Beastkin Nation."
Karl frowned at the huge gaps on the map with no marked population centres. It didn't make sense for there to be nobody living there, but if there were no established roads, the Divine Beast Nation might have not bothered to fill it all in.