It had been nearly an hour since Emma and her friends had entered the Skyte forest, and they were making great progress.
“Th-There really aren’t as many monsters as I expected...” Francesca had been trembling and shifting her gaze all around since they’d started, but they hadn’t spotted a single monster the whole time they’d been in the forest, so she could breathe a sigh of relief.
“Everyone’ll be just fine as long as you stay close to Kongming!” Emma gave Francesca, who was walking alongside Kongming, a smile from atop the cat. Any monster with even the slightest amount of smarts would know not to get too close to Kongming.
“Be sure to watch your step and keep your eyes forward, everyone!” While there weren’t any monsters that would be charging them from the front, there had been a few crafty types that tried to attack from behind. However, Kongming swiped them away with her tail with the same effort one might swat away flies. Emma deliberately told them all to keep their eyes forward so they wouldn’t see such terrifying monsters.
Some things were best left in the dark. Ignorance was bliss, after all.
Because her father and the others had been sneaking into the forest to hunt monsters since the field trip began, the forest had a path that was relatively easy enough for noblewomen to walk. They hadn’t said anything to the Skyte hunters when they made it, so it would be a huge pain if they were to find it. The king and the others who’d set off before used the path that the Skyte hunters normally used, so it appeared that they still hadn’t gotten caught. They’d been walking along that path up until it came to an end, where her family had deliberately stopped it so it wouldn’t overlap with the official path.
“I thought we’d have caught up with them by now, but...” Emma was starting to get worried by how far Kongming was going when she started comparing the map of the forest to the path George had told her they’d be taking in her head. Apparently, they’d all gone a lot deeper in the forest than she’d thought. Going any further with amateur hunters would have been very dangerous. The closer one got to the barrier, which was located deep in the forest, the more likely monsters were to appear. They’d already long passed the area that Emma had estimated her father and uncle would have allowed amateurs to tread. It was hard to imagine her father allowing them to go any farther, so something must have happened. While Emma was usually the one who caused problems in the family, to put it bluntly, the apple didn’t fall all that far from the tree.
“I really wonder what that emergency letter to the king is, Catherine!”
“Me too! I really wonder what that emergency letter to the king is, Caitlyn!”
The twins, who were walking on either side of Kongming, looked up at Hugh, voicing their curiosity. Hugh was walking ahead of Kongming to find any traps that William had set and undoing them so the girls didn’t accidentally set them off.
This was an emergency that the king had to know about. Every noble in the kingdom knew that the queen was more well-versed in government matters than the king. The twins couldn’t imagine what sort of situation would have the queen sending a message to the king all the way in Skyte using a little boy like this.
“I don’t care how cute you both are, I can’t tell you what this is about. I’ve got a duty to...uh...confidentiality!” Hugh said, disarming a trap that made a horrific clanging sound. He’d been strictly ordered by the queen to keep it secret.
“Myah!”
“Hmm? Did you find the king, Kongming?”
“Mrowr!”
Kongming nodded as she sniffed the air.
“Mroooowr!” (The king’s getting further and further away, so we’ve gotta hurry!) Kongming cried.
“He’s still going further in? Lady Catherine, Lady Caitlyn, we’re gonna need to go a little faster, so come up on Kongming, please.” Emma had Kongming loaf on the ground for the twins. Unlike Marion, who had trained long and hard to become a knight, and Francesca, who was an adept dancer, the twins were already showing signs that they were getting worn out.
“Is that okay with you, Kongming? Do you think it’ll be okay, Caitlyn?”
“Are you sure we won’t be too heavy, Catherine?”
Catherine and Caitlyn both worriedly checked in with Kongming. They wouldn’t put three people on a horse, after all. Marion and Francesca both exchanged looks at the twins talking to the cat like it was nothing and shrugged. Apparently, if they were going to continue interacting with the Stewart family, they would have to learn to be that flexible.
“Myah!” Kongming responded to the twins, still loafed on the ground.
“Kongming said it’s totally fine! After all, she’s carried my father and his trusty hammer around, and that’s way heavier than you all!”
“Wait... She said all that with a single meow?” Francesca asked, walking alongside them. She couldn’t comment on the fact her friend was translating for a cat anymore.
“Interesting... Come to think of it, I seem to recall the count’s sledgehammer did have 100t written on it...” As Marion helped the twins onto Kongming’s back, she recalled the inscription on Leonard’s trusty sledgehammer when he’d shown it to her earlier. She’d heard that it was a weapon specially made for fighting monsters (unlike the swords the knights used), but she’d secretly been wondering if it was even possible for a human to swing something that weighed a hundred tons.
“Hee hee. Well, it definitely doesn’t actually weigh that much. It’s just a staple of the genre that sledgehammers have that written on them. It’s more about the form than the function, here.” Emma giggled. “Me and my brothers originally made it as a birthday gift for our mother to use if our father ever cheated on her...but y’know, he’d never do that, so...”
“Myah myah!”
“Hee hee. You’ve got me there! I guess a hundred ton hammer isn’t much good for a country hunter, huh?” Emma giggled with Kongming, complimenting her on her zinger.
“Do you understand that joke, Caitlyn?”
“Do you understand that joke, Catherine?”
Caitlyn wrapped her arms around Catherine’s waist as both of them wondered what kind of inside joke Emma and Kongming were laughing about. It was perfectly normal for nobles in the capital to take mistresses, so Francesca was wondering if maybe things were different in the countryside.
“Myah!” Kongming slowly stood up and meowed to let them know she was ready to take off.
“Make sure you hold on tight so you don’t fall off, you two! Kongming says the king’s not the only one ahead. There’s some monsters there to boot!”
“Huh?!”