Chapter 786: Sneaking away |
ProofreadeR: M_W Miss Fierce
"How far exactly do we have to walk?" Cassandra asked in frustration.
"You guys seriously had the guts to call this an evacuation? Why not call it a journey to hell?" Elizabeth expressed her annoyance.
"Prince Elmont, is there perhaps no other way for us to arrive at our destination quickly?" Angel asked humbly, but it was pretty evident from her expression alone that she was not happy.
"Just be patient, you three. Do you think the center of the Emerald Tree Kingdom is close to the Victory Arena?" Veronica took the initiative to calm down Cassandra, Elizabeth, and Angel.
"Indeed, the walk to our destination is expected to be long," Ash supported Veronica.
At this moment, the evacuation has already been going on for more than five hours. People are slowly getting tired, and some of them are expressing their annoyance and other similar emotions.
Even a few people were left behind because they could no longer continue walking, particularly the old and feeble people.
Luckily for those people, a few men from the Evergreen Royal Family and their allies had volunteered to stay with them in order to protect them and lead them to the safe area once they fully recuperate their stamina and energy.
"Ladies, I apologize for the trouble. But we have no choice. This is the only path that will allow us to safely traverse to the center of the Emerald Tree Kingdom and without letting any members of the Naughty Elves Organization notice our movements," Elmont requested for Cassandra and the others to understand their situation. Needless to say, he naturally can't blame them for why they are annoyed and frustrated. Honestly, even he is similarly feeling the same.
Elmont was initially expecting that this secret pathway would eventually lead them towards the surface where there are no members of the Naughty Elves Organization nearby. The reason for that was that he had never experienced such a long secret pathway in his entire life. In his opinion, it's more appropriate to call this an underground tunnel instead of a secret pathway. That's because it connects two faraway places. Though, contrary to the usual underground tunnel, this tunnel was made in such a ridiculous manner since it stretches for maybe hundreds of kilometers long.
"Brother Elmont is indeed correct. Just be patient. We would eventually reach our destination," Leo calmly muttered.
"For how long?!" Cassandra exclaimed.
"Who knows?" Leo was also unsure when exactly they would arrive. But regardless, it wouldn't affect him that much. Unlike other Guilds, the Mischievous Lion Guild is fully prepared to face against the Naughty Elves Organization and retreat once he says the signal. As such, he could take his time here and wait for Elvis to report to him their findings.
Honestly, it's even better that they are still in the secret pathway since that would mean Elvis could easily reach them. Moreover, he could use this time to slowly familiarize himself with the different pathways they took for this evacuation and those pathways they had passed along the way.
With that being said, Leo didn't bother anymore with Cassandra and the others as he continued observing his surroundings.
As far as he notices, there are signs indicating where those pathways would lead, so it's pretty easy for him to familiarize them just by basing on those signs. But until now, he still hadn't seen the pathways leading towards the three libraries nor those pathways that are still left undiscovered. What's even stranger is, he hadn't even seen any of those soldiers that Elvis' had mentioned to him before.
Based on what Elvis had said, there are supposed to be plenty of people in the secret pathway as they are rushing to explore the remaining paths that haven't been explored yet. However, aside from the people who were evacuating, he hadn't seen anyone else. This could only mean two things.
Firstly, those people are in the deeper part of the secret pathways, which means to say they would see them later on once they reach a particular location.
And secondly, which is something that he preferred to believe the most, not all of those signs in front of those pathways truly indicate where they would lead. Maybe some of those pathways lead to somewhere else that those people that Elvis had mentioned are located. And the reason they put the wrong signs is to confuse people. If his guess is correct, those wrong signs should probably be in preparation in any case that the members of the Naughty Elves Organization successfully sneaked inside this place.
Naturally, all of that is nothing but his mere assumptions. That's why he plans on sneaking into one of those pathways soon to confirm his thoughts. He had already informed Cassandra and the others of his plan before. That's why they are causing trouble to Elmont and the others right now, trying to distract them, thus preventing them from noticing when he finally tries to sneak away.
Cassandra and the others long already knew that it would take a considerable amount of time to travel from the Victory Arena to the center of the Emerald Tree Kingdom. According to the calculation that Elvis had informed them about prior to this day, it would take more or less half a day's worth of time to reach their destination. So, there are still approximately six or so hours before they will arrive.
Based on that, Leo still has a lot of time to explore the secret pathway to his heart's content. Needless to say, he already has a method prepared to catch up to the others before they can reach their destination, specifically through the help of his Elementals.
"I am getting somewhat tired now, so if you guys don't mind, I will be summoning some of my Golems to ride on," Leo informed the others before he summoned three Earth Elementals disguised as Golems. He quickly hopped onto one of the Golem's backs and took out a big tent from his Storage Ring.
"Since you had this method, then why didn't you summon your Golems from the very start of the journey?!" Cassandra acted in disbelief.
"Oh, I see now. So, you only intend to use this method for yourself, right?" Elizabeth's expression slowly darkened.
"That's right! You are so selfish, Loki!" Angel exclaimed.
"Do you see other people using Golems to travel?" Leo pointed towards everyone in front of them.
"No…"
"See, no one summoned any Golems too. I was waiting for one of them to summon a Golem so that people wouldn't believe that I was being unfair or inconsiderate. But since I am already tired, they can't blame me if I want to summon a Golem since I have the right to rest, and I have the capability to do this," Leo explained. He quickly dismissed the topic and started raising his tent on the back of one of the Golems. He turned to look at Cassandra and the others and said, "What are you waiting for? Go and rest onto those two Golems as well,"
Hearing Leo's words, Cassandra and the others looked at each other for a short moment before quickly dividing themselves and building a tent on top of the two Golems.
It didn't take that long for Leo and the others to finish with their tent. As soon as they were done, they got inside their respective tents and started resting.
Seeing this, Elmont, Orcborg, and Bagley looked at each other before also quickly doing the same as Guild Leader Loki and the others from the Mischievous Lion Guild.
With Elmont, Orcborg, and Bagley summoning their Golems a short moment after Guild Leader Loki summoned his, those people who could summon Golems didn't hesitate anymore as they started summoning their own Golems.
Fortunately, because some people could summon two or more Golems, they decided to lend a helping hand to those who couldn't summon Golems. They allowed a certain number of people to hop onto their Golems to recuperate their stamina and energy. Needless to say, since not everyone can ride onto the Golems, they made an agreement to only rest for a certain amount of time before allowing the others to take their place. In such a way, everyone would be able to rest.
To make it even more convenient for everyone and so that more people would be able to rest, some people decided to attach some chairs onto the body of the Golems. Instead of getting inside the tents on top of the Golems, they simply sat on the chairs and rested.
Just when everyone thought that it was the limit of what they could achieve with the Golems, a minority of people suddenly started getting creative. For example, some people gathered four Golems together and made them carry a house made out of vines. There was also a group who made tents that were two or more stories high. To sum it all up, a lot of things were happening.
Unbeknownst to everyone, while they were busy with the Golems, no one noticed a certain someone had already sneaked away and disappeared from the evacuation.
