Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 58

Everyone woke up bright and early the next morning. After eating a quick meal, they left Wakefield and continued their journey according to Maddison's directions.

Wakefield was at the very edge of the Ruudon Province and the Atlantia Province, which bordered Helheim and the Sacred Forest where Fas Sheras resided. Because it was up north, the air had turned arid and cold. The ground, unsuitable for sustaining many crops, did not possess a lot of farms. What few farms existed grew fields of hardier vegetables like spinach, leeks, kale, and parsnips.

Maddison was now in control of the carriage. She drove along the dirt road for a couple of kilometers after leaving wakefield, and then steered the land dragons off the beaten path and onto a rugged ground.

The ground was covered in a layer of snow, not enough to hinder their progress, but enough to let Caspian and Elincia know how cold it was. They were already bundled up inside of a thick quilt blanket. Christo had also sneakily used this opportunity to share a blanket with Cassidy, who blushed heavily but still accepted the young man's advances. Even Sylvia had wrapped a blanket around herself.

"It's so cooooold!" Christo complained in a loud voice that made everyone wince.

"Eeek! Christo! Don't wrap you arms around my waist like that! You're body is freezing!" Cassidy complained.

"I can't help it! I need someone to warm me up, and Caspian is snuggling with Elincia!" Christo said as he hugged the maid, who squirmed and blushed at his advances.

"There's no way in this life or the next that I will ever share my body heat with you," Caspian said to Christo as he wrapped his arms tighter around Elinica. "That said, if you're going to sexually harass Cassidy, I am going to hit you."

"Urk! That's harsh! That, sir, is in violation of the bro code!" Christo complained.

"I've never heard of this bro code before. I'm pretty sure you just made it up."

"Cassidy," Elincia suddenly said, "is Christo bothering you?"

Everyone remained quiet as their eyes locked onto Cassidy, who suddenly flushed an even deeper shade of red when she realized the entire party was paying attention to her. She glanced at the bright-eyed and grinning young man. Then she looked at the others. Slowly, she settled down and looked like she was trying to hide inside of the quilt.

"He's not... bothering me really. I was just... shocked..."

While Caspian and Elincia accepted that, Erica looked at Christo with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you trying to court my maid?" she asked.

"M-Mistress Erica!" Cassidy shouted.

"Yes, I am!" Christo said with exuberance lacing his voice.

"CHRISTO!" Cassidy's shout was even louder this time.

Sylvia watched all this with a complicated expression on her face before, slowly, she shook her head and looked back out the carriage window.

Maddison had led the carriage all the way to a small mountain. Of course, small was a relative term. It was still large compared to them, with an elevation of somewhere around 825 meters at least. It was covered in a thin layer of snow and featured no paths through which the carriage could pass. As she led the carriage around the mountain, they reached a small cave that was just large enough to fit the carriage and land dragons inside.

"We'll keep the carriage here for now," Maddison said as she hopped off the driver's seat. Everyone else disembarked as the woman looked at them, hands on her hips. "My place is up about halfway up this mountain. There's no path to walk up, so we'll have to climb part of the way."