The farmers called for us to join them in their lunch. They lay the food on a pot over the grassland under the shelter of a huge tree at the edge of the farmland.
The farmers were scattered throughout the area, some of them were stationed at the far part of the farmland, that’s why most of them couldn’t join us. The only ones who were with us were the farmers who were stationed in the nearby tomato farm, there were about 30 of them.
“Lady Tanya, Lord Casimir, try the food I brought, my wife cooked it, this is the best food you would taste in this town, maybe only second to Lady Karoon’s cooking.”
“The only food that tastes good for you is your wife’s cooking, Kemon. Although I agree, your wife’s cooking is quite good.” Tanya responded as she sat on the grass.
The farmers with us laughed out while laying down their pots at the center.
Kemon chuckled. “Minda would be very grateful when she heard that praise coming from you, Lady Tanya.”
Tanya grabbed 2 wooden plates and handed one to me.
“Here, serve yourself.”
“Thanks.”
While eating, the farmers were quite chatty with us about the success of the farm of this season while I and Tanya just listened to their stories and laughed at their funny jokes.
After eating lunch with them, we decided to leave and go to our next destination for the day.
“What do you think about it?” She stared at me while leaning her chin on her hands over her legs.
“It’s impressive.”
She smiled and nodded.
“Those people, they really like you, don’t they?”
“That’s fairly expected, they’re just showing their gratitude to me for helping them.”
“Maybe? But I can see that they’re genuine to you, I think it’s amazing.”
Half of her lips rose. “Are you trying to get on my good side, Casimir?”
I slowly shrugged. “No, I’m just stating what I observed about you.”
She veered her gaze at the window. “I see.”
The next destination we arrived at was the ranches where the livestock was coming from. She showed me the abundance of poultry with chicken, turkeys, and even ducks. There were also several pig farms and farmsteads for different kinds of animals like cattle and sheep.
The gigantic ranch was located at the very top edge of the town and was protected by the forest and massive wall beside it.
If the farmland is huge, this ranch is immeasurable in size. We spent the whole afternoon circling around it just to get a glimpse of every farm it has.
I wandered my eyes throughout the estate while leaning my hand on the metal barrier separating me from the huge equestrian facility in front of us. From afar, I could see countless horses running through the field with their equestrians.
“How can you manage all of these?”
“I can’t, I appointed people so they can do the hard work for me. Similar to what you did to us 3.” She answered while crossing her hands.
She knew! Of course, she knew!
“Ah, I see… by the way, can you ride a horse?”
She shook her head. “I don’t need to.” She walked back to the carriage. “I’m already tired, should we go home now?”
“I will be more surprised if you aren’t. You just toured me inside a cave system, harvested a tomato farm, and walked around this huge ranch.” I followed her.
Not to mention that you did all of it while wearing that cute dress of yours.
We proceeded to travel back to the mansion, finally ending our touring session around the spriggan faction’s facilities.
There’s still a lot of the facilities I haven’t seen yet, but we could still do it on another day.
“How about you join us for dinner?”
“That would be a good idea.”
A free meal is a free meal, am I right?
As we arrived at the mansion, the loud sounds outside could be heard, I heard screaming and loud laughter.
I think there’s a lot of people outside the carriage.
Tanya narrowed her eyes.
“What’s happening?”
She opened the door and walked out. “You have some visitors.”
“Visitors?”
I walked out and got greeted by the crowd of people gathered in front of the mansion. Their cheering thundered the moment they saw me come out of the carriage.
“There he is! Boss! Where have you been?” Leo walked towards me with a big smile on his face.
“What’s happening here?”
“Are you the one who brought them here?” Tanya asked with audible irritation in her voice.
Leo immediately shook his head. “No. They were already here when I arrived. I’ve come to visit boss but the hyperactive girl said that Tanya brought you to her faction’s facilities. You are together all day, boss?”
“Yeah, that’s what we did all day. You didn’t answer my question though, why are there a lot of people here?”
Leo tapped my shoulder 3 times and slowly shook his head while looking at me with such pity on his face.
As if I just experienced something extremely terrible that is worth being sorry for.
“Think about the bright side, boss. At least it’s finally over.”
I narrowed my eyes. “It’s a facility tour, not a torture session.”
“Casimir!” A loud baritone voice resonated throughout the area along with the cheering of the crowd. “I have come to crush you to pieces!”
“And oh, a meathead wants to challenge you,” Leo announced while pointing at the person behind him using his thumb.
I tilted my head to get a view of the challenger and found a masculine gorilla man flexing his massive arms in front of the gate, his entire body was covered in black fur. If he didn’t scream my name, I would definitely think that he’s a real gorilla.
“Right, I need to take it.”
Tanya exhaled and walked towards the gate and stopped right in front of the gorilla man. “I’ll go first, just make it quick.”
I nodded. “Sure.”
Tanya covered her nose and faced the gorilla man staring at her with confusion.
“Goodness, take a bath or something.”
Tanya went inside the gate and left the crowd in awkward silence and the gorilla man with mouth wide opened and enlarged eyes.
Yep, he’s already dead before the battle begins.
“I have someone waiting for me inside, so let’s get this started so we can end this quickly.” I walked towards the gorilla man. “By the way, Leo, where’s Misha?”
“He’s with Gareth having a tea party.”
The gorilla man in front of me slammed his chest using his fist as he prepared to attack.
I chuckled. “Really? She really loves that game, doesn’t she?”
“Don’t underestimate me, Casimir!” The raging gorilla rushed towards me and threw his arms.
I activated my Earth magic and created a solid rock from the ground and smashed his chin with it, instantly knocking him down. He fell to the cemented floor without even knowing what hit him.
I looked back at Leo. “Are you going inside?”
“Sure, but I won’t take long, Mehrad is looking for me everywhere.” He said as he passed through the gorilla man.
I opened the gate. “I see, running off again, huh?”
“Just give me a break!”
We walked inside the mansion and left the large crowd outside just looking at us with such disbelief.
“How’re the slaves?”
“I already sent them, they will probably reach the boundary of the kingdom of Inizio in about 10 days. I sent them with food supplies so I think they would be fine.”
“I see.”
I shifted my gaze towards the stone patio in the middle of the grassland and found 2 people sitting there. It’s Misha and Gareth, both of them were holding a teacup and slowly sipping the tea.
I walked towards them and Misha’s eyes immediately darted to me.
“Yo!”
She instantly left the table and ran towards me with the most adorable smile flashing on her face.
“Big bro Casimir!”
I squatted, she hugged my neck and I responded by hugging her back.
Yup, this is definitely what it feels like every time my dad’s coming home after a tiring day and I and Irina would run towards him to give him a warm hug.
“How’s your day without me?”
She didn’t answer and just shook her head on my neck.
Yup, it feels like home.
Maybe I no longer have sympathy and I don’t know when it will come back or if it will even come back, however… I still have a heart. Misha became the very thing I have lost.
Now, I am already too afraid to ask, what could probably happen if I didn’t meet Misha that day? What kind of person would I become?
If I don’t have something I want to protect, would I settle to destroy instead?
I don’t want to know.
