Chương 79: Chapter 67. Farther North

Once we arrived back at the mansion the Town Lord was the first to greet us." King Warrick, Marquess Matthew! Welcome back." I assumed he wanted to speak to Warrick, so I went to leave." No wait!" / Thud! / The Lord stopped me. I simply waited to see what he wanted. He dropped to his knees and began to apologize to me." Marquess Matthew! I am so sorry for the attitude I have previously showed you!" Warrick simply nodded his head to the Town Lord's apology. I wasn't particularly moved either."

Whether or not I forgive you, is a matter for another day. What do you want from me?" The lord began to speak to me after rising to his feet." I want you to heal me as well. I have a Family and I am worried that I may infect them if you don't heal me." The Lord didn't seem to be lying, so I granted his wish. Before long, everyone had heard that Warrick and I were back and we were greeted by everybody. Once Sarah and Anna saw me, they refused to leave my side for the night.

We ate together, outside, near the stables. Before the meal started, I turned to Sarah and began to speak." Sarah, is it okay for you to eat here?"" Yes, my Parents are covering for me. Also, the town lord owes us now. If he makes some noise, we can silence him."" Do we have to punish him that severely?"" Only if he tries to keep me from you." With that, we enjoyed a meal prepared by Anna. After that, we slept in the carriage together again. The morning came and went without much fanfare.

I noticed that Cynthia, Asha and Sharon all seemed sad during the morning, I didn't get the chance to ask why that was. Anna was my partner for the day it seemed. She spoke to me as we began to leave the Town Lord's mansion.

"Master, I hope we have a safe journey today."

"I'm sure we will, Anna. I hope you don't get too bored with me during the traveling today." I would never, Master!" Anna responded to me with a serious answer. I suppose she thinks this whole conversation partner thing is major business. We should be able to have a good time, I think at least. When we left, the town gathered around our traveling party. I assumed they wanted to see the Royal Family off, to my surprise, they were all thanking me. Well, thanking " Matthew". I waved to the crowd, and they all cheered.

The kids from yesterday all walked around my horse. A green skinned little boy with red eyes and 6 arms spoke to me." Mr. Matthew, thank you for saving me and my Friends! Also, I apologize for my Mother!" I was surprised to hear a child apologizing for his mother." Don't worry about it, kid. It just goes to show how much you mean to your mom. Take good care of her. Tell your Friends the same thing if they want to repay me."" We plan to!" Seems our conversation was being listened in on." Fufufu...

you have their attention, Master." Anna seems to agree with me." It's nice not to have them looking at me like I shouldn't be here, I can admit that." Anna and I smiled at each other. The kids must have read the mood and left us be. After a time, the town was far behind us as our horses walked. When I was thinking about how far we had already gotten, I noticed that Anna was staring at me. I looked back at her and began to speak to her." Anna, what's the matter?"

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Anna looked away from me when I asked. Like I do whenever she gets like this, I wait and see what it is she wants to say. She took glances at me, trying to work up the courage to speak. In time she did." I was just wondering... How many children we might have..."

"...." I was not expecting that from Anna. We just stared at each other for what seemed like hours. I was able to regain some composure and think of an answer. I looked at Anna and began to tell her my thoughts." If I had to be honest with you, Anna, I've been so focused on so many different things for so long, that I haven't thought about my future. But when it comes to something like children... I think I will be willing to raise as many children as you'd like.

Having said that, do you know how many children that you want to have?"

"////" Grip... Seems she wasn't expecting me to turn the question to her. In time, she was able to put her thoughts together. Before speaking, she had her horse come side by side with mine and began to hold my hand. She spoke softly to me while looking me in the eyes with her cheeks dyed red." I don't know. But I feel like I'll only know the answer when we eventually reach it!"" Seems like we'll be busy in the future then. I guess the only thing I can say is, please take care of me moving forward, Anna."

"!"

"?" Kiss. Anna opened all the eyes on her body and used them to look around. Once she was satisfied with whatever she was doing, she leaned in close to me and kissed me on my lips." John, I will always be by your side to take care of you. But also, I hope you will take care of me as well! As for the children.... Yes, I suppose we both will be quite busy in time. Let's enjoy the time we have together until then, okay?"" Anna, did you use your eyes to search the perimeter just to see if you could kiss me?"

Anna nodded to my question." I see." Lean. Kiss. I leaned in and kissed her as well." Master!"" What? You can, but I can't?"" No.... I just would like a bit of warning is all..." Pat... Pet... She looked so adorable that I couldn't help but start to pet her on her head. Time passed in that fashion and before long, we arrived at the last town before we arrived at the Northern Border. It was more militarized than the last 3 towns. Big walls, watch towers and Soldiers atop them.

I turned to Anna to ask the name of the place." Anna, do you know what this town is called?" Anna turned back at me and began to inform me of this new place." This town is called Northern Riposte. There is a town for each Border. They are known as the 4 Ripostes. They are named that because historically, when an enemy breaks through one of the Borders, they have not expected such strong militarized towns after breaking through our well-defended Borders."" How many times have the borders been broken though?"

Anna placed her hand on her chin and began to think for a few seconds." From what I recall, Master, I believe the Borders have only been broken through 3 times."" Was it all from Humans?"" No, the closest any Human has come to breaking through our Borders was the Dark Sentinel event. We were successfully invaded by the Beastkin twice and once by the Elves."" Hmm. I almost feel bad for Promethia. From the way it was described to me, I thought the Heros from the past have been able to invade.""

Well, to be fair to Promethia. If not for the fact that the Demon Kings of the times the Heroes invaded sacrificed their lives to defeat the Heroes in battle, the Heroes would have been most likely able to."" I see." I just sat and tried to put what Anna had said to memory. Also, I had a thought as well." You know, we moved from the Capital to the last town before the Border in 4 days. Is Diablos really not that big?" Anna listened to my question and responded calmly." No, not really.

You see usually it would take about 2 months to make it to any of the 4 borders from Blackstone city."" Then why are we here so quickly already?"

"The reason is known as the" King's Road" For some reason, the land will answer to a King's Will and allow a secret road to form in the Country to expedite travel. When we leave the Capital to my home for instance, it will take about 3 weeks to travel not even a quarter of the distance we've already made, Master."" Wow, that's convenient. I guess it makes sense, if a King needs to travel, it usually means something important is happening, I suppose." Anna nodded to my words.

We continued on horseback to the center of the town. Military men were standing guard all around us and followed as our horses walked. While we walked, I saw women and children also walking around and looking at us as if we were a parade." Anna, why are there so many kids and women around? Aren't they in danger?"" The men choose to keep their Families here for one reason or another, I suppose."" The Military allows that?"" Well, yes. Most Demons have some level of Fighting Ability. We aren't like Humans after all."

I nodded to Anna's statement, thinking back on all the strong Demon Women I have run into these past 3 months, it seems plausible. While I was reflecting on my 3 months here, we made it to the center building of Northern Riposte. What seemed like a high-ranking military man was greeting Warrick, Aqua, Sarah and Cynthia. At times like this, I think I might be grateful that I'm disregarded by the people of Diablos. For a change of pace, I was given a room to sleep in, which was nice. Anna and I had dinner together.

Once we were both ready for bed, Sarah had entered the room through my window. I couldn't help but comment." Sarah, you know you could use the door instead of the window, right?"" I could, but I kind of like doing it like this. Did I miss anything tonight, Anna?"" There is nothing to report other than the stares he usually receives, Sarah."" Hmm. I see! Well let's get to bed!" The bed that I was provided was a little bigger than a single size mattress from my world.

Safe to say, to fit 3 people, especially the heights of Sarah and Anna, was quite the spectacle. Eventually, we got comfortable and drifted to sleep. I thought about the day that had passed and thought about the coming days and what we would all be doing.