I Own A Brothel In Another World (Ch. 1-196)

Chapter 194 - A King's Abode

For a little while, Shino trots to join Paul and the rest of the Heroes as their main strategist calls for a quick briefing. I do the same, retreating to Ressia and the girls. The commanding wolfgirl is overseeing her subordinates as they bring in and prepare horses, loading a few things into the saddle packs.

As I stop next to her, she tries not to show any reaction on her fierce face, acting like the proper, undistracted captain, but naturally fails to fully get a hold of her swishing tail. I hold back my smirk so as not to jeopardise her efforts and watch the swinging appendage only from the corner of my eye. It's way too cute not to, in the end.

With everything ready, Yuru the pure-blood Leopardkin brings me my own horse and the ladies gather for our quick pre-journey meeting too. I'm not surprised that all the animals are more or less the same colour, dark grey in this case. Save for mine.

Yeah. They couldn't just simply get me the same, could they?

So, I end up with a pure black steed and accept their gift respectfully, showing my appreciation to the short beastgirl through the gentle ruffling of her fluffy hair and ears. A few other women stare at me with longing gazes, even though the vast majority of the squad is missing such special features atop their heads.

I might have been spoiling them too much with my pats recently.

But hey, when you are surrounded by so many Beastkin girls it kind of becomes a habit. One that I'm not regretting.

Ressia gives me a glance and I nod at her. I'm here mostly to observe so she should assume most if not all responsibilities of the leader during this expedition. In the end, I won't be accompanying them every single time. I might try whenever I'm able to, of course, but there are plenty of other things to take care of. Anything related to my lovely wives takes priority.

Therefore, I listen to the short speech my canine second-in-command gives, admiring her attempts at motivating the others. It's not like she needs to do that as they are all fired up to prove themselves, but she still seems to hit a few good notes when addressing each person, showing that they are a tightly-knit family already. They have gotten quite close during training and it was time to show just how much in real situations.

Paul's group is done around the same time as us and we all jump on our respective horses. Shino takes a regretful peek at me and I show her a warm smile. There's no doubt she wanted to join me in the saddle but the others must have talked her out of it, most likely to keep the professional appearance. She has her group while I have mine.

As for our formation, we mix our members to achieve the best result.

Kamil, Marcia, Yuru and Catherine take the front in a chevron whenever possible. Natalie, Paul, Fullen, Suna, Ressia, and Shino stay in the centre as the core of the team. Then, Oniri, Besfi and Vanessa take the back with me. That way, there's a tank on both sides while the ranged and support members are safe and sound.

Naturally, this might change depending on the road or path we will take, tightening the formation a little as a result. But, everyone knows their role and things should be fine. Paul can spot most of the dangers and threats from the middle thanks to his sharp eyes while I spread my senses from the backline. I'm technically the highest Tier here, additionally boosted by a great number of great ladies, so I'm kind of a jack-of-all-trades amongst them.

Without delaying too much, we move out and ride at a decently fast pace. Thanks to Natalie's Symphony of Wind and Besfi's healing spells, our horses can comfortably push themselves close to their limits without straining their strength and stamina. To the onlookers, we might be dashing like mad, but we know that it's nowhere close to what we can achieve if the ladies really put their all into making us go fast.