Chapter 190: Operation Kingmaker Part 1
While everyone was busy accommodating everyone from the Green Horn City, Kayn and his group secretly left the Evergreen Village through the underwater cave system.
They passed through the first cavern and made a right turn to go to the second cavern. And using the hole that Jude blew up last time, they climbed up the surface.
The instant they got to the surface, they quickly switched their clothes to the black clothes they have prepared and then covered them up with their respective disguise. After they were done, they left and made their journey to the northern region of the Slumbering Forest where Jericho's men are waiting for them.
Around two hours, they reached the Drowsy Village and by going through the south part of the Village they found a farmhouse that's being managed by a farmer who plants wheat and corn.
It wasn't any ordinary farmhouse though as the farmer who owns it is one of the loyal Executives of the Herald Guild who didn't attend the gathering a while ago because he was assigned to prepare for their operation.
"Randy, is it ready?" Jericho asked.
"Already finished an hour ago," Randy pulled away a huge cloth that was used to cover an object.
What has revealed in front of everyone was a big carriage full of corn. The size of the carriage was almost the same as an eight-wheeler truck.
"How many horses would it need to pull this huge thing?" Gilbert was curious.
"Who told you we are going to use horses?" Randy shook his head as if to mock Gilbert's ignorance. He walked to the side where another piece of cloth was covering something.
As soon as Randy pulled the cloth, what appeared in front of everyone were huge oxen. To be exact, they were a species of ox monsters, the Mountain Oxes.
"Are those monsters? You aren't crazy or something, right?"
"They are tamed," Kayn interjected. "Is this a common thing in 'The Bridge'?"
He hasn't seen anyone having a monster-drawn carriage ever since he entered 'The Bridge'. And because of the nature of their operation, they can't afford to attract needless attention. This stunt would definitely attract people.
"Only huge businesses in 'The Bridge' use this kind of thing,"
"To pull a supply of corns?"
"Of course not" Jericho shook his head. "The corn is a disguise to hide this,"
Jericho pulled a small lever and a small hole was opened that leads to a secret compartment inside the stack of corns. "We will hide inside,"
"You see, whenever huge businesses deliver important goods for auction or for big transactions in this place, they use basic commodities to hide the real valuables under them. Of course, it is possible to have horses pull this carriage, but that would take a lot of time to reach their destination. So, they would let tamed monsters do the labor first, and when they are close to the destination, they will immediately replace the tamed monsters with horses," Jericho explains the details. "I have men waiting on the road to replace these tamed monsters with normal horses. In that way, people will believe that we are really delivering corn to the village and that we have been traveling for many days. That way, we will avoid suspicion,"
"I trust you with your arrangement," Kayn nodded and quickly crawl in the entrance to the hidden compartment.
Jericho followed after to assure everyone that there was nothing wrong with it, then Gilbert, Jude, Charles, and Jadiel followed.
The instant everyone got inside, Randy pulled the pair of tamed Mountain Oxes and tied them to the front of the carriage. When he was done, he manned the carriage as it started moving in the direction of where they were going — Dazed Village. It was a village in the western region of the Slumbering Forest. The reason why they are going there is because that's the location of where the suspected base of operation of the Assembly of Freedom is located.
The majority of the report of sightings of the members of the Assembly of Freedom also came from the Dazed Village, which further solidified the possibility that the Assembly of Freedom is gathering its forces over there.
As the carriage began its journey, six men riding on horses each came up and acted as the supposed escort of the caravan. They were dressed in adventurers' attire to perfect their disguise.
"We will be arriving in the evening, so all of you can do whatever you want," Jericho informs everyone before choosing a corner for him to start sleeping.
Seeing Jericho casually sleeping at the side, Gilbert and the others also did the same.
Contrary to them, Kayn crawl out of the compartment and climbed on top of the piles of corn.
Natas was over there sitting and wandering around the surrounding with his eyes.
On the other side, Randy was peacefully manning the carriage.
"Sir Kayn?" Randy was slightly surprised to see Kayn outside.
"Don't mind me, I just want to look around,"
"Okay," Randy wasn't worried that their cover would be blown up since Kayn was wearing a disguise. He could pretend as if he was a wandering swordsman who accepted an escort mission with no trouble at all.
The others were fine sleeping in the hot compartment while only relying on Jude for cold air, but he wasn't. He wanted fresh air and a view of the sky above him.
He lay on the top of the pile of corn beside Natas as he stared at the clouds slowly passing by.
Eventually, Kayn fell asleep and the carriage continued to its destination.
As the sun set over the horizon, Kayn was woken up by the sound of the men replacing the tamed Mountain Oxes with ordinary horses.
Randy notices Kayn waking up, so he quickly informs him, "Five more kilometers and we will reach our destination,"
"Okay," Kayn looks around and immediately notices Gilbert and the others have also woken up. Without him knowing, they've replaced the five men who were originally acting as the escorts.
"Here's your horse," Gilbert pulled a horse beside the carriage.
"Is this part of the plan?" Kayn accepted the leash as he slowly got on the back of the horse.
"Yes. We will enter the Daze Village as escorts of this carriage," Jericho nodded.
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