At the same time (?), Elaine opened her eyes slightly and woke up from her dream.
Or maybe he fell into another dream.
What appeared in front of him was Leobert. He looked exactly the same, but there were subtle differences between them.
But Elaine, who was sleeping in a daze, didn't think too much. She just excitedly rushed over and hugged the lion boy in front of her tightly.
"Leo?" He cried in a low voice: "Really, is it really you? Is this what I'm dreaming about? Or..."
The other party was stunned for a moment and did not answer.
"If this is a dream...it doesn't matter if it is a dream...please don't let it wake up." Elaine hugged her tighter and continued: "I miss you so much, Leo...don't leave me again."
..."
"El...Brother Elaine...well, it's so painful..." The other party finally said at this time.
The white lion boy's whole body trembled. Then he let go of his hand and took a closer look at the lion boy in front of him.
Yes, that child does look exactly like Leo, except that the color of the child's fur is a strange steel blue. And the lion boy looks like he is only seven or eight years old at best. It is impossible to be an adult no matter how you look at it.
Leoport. And Leoport cannot live and go back to being a child.
"...Bai, Bailey?" Elaine asked. There was disappointment in his tone.
"Did I do something bad?" the little fox asked in a low voice: "I used illusion to look like my big brother. I wanted to surprise my big brother who just woke up... but I made him cry...
...Yes, I'm sorry..."
"Um...No, it's okay..." Elaine wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and it turned out that he had shed two lines of tears unknowingly. Only then did he realize that the lion-man boy in front of him was actually transformed by Bailey using illusion magic.
The fox's illusion requires a reference object, and that reference object is of course Elaine. And Elaine also absorbed Leo's genetic factors to become exactly the same as Leo. So Bailey changed according to Elaine's face, and naturally transformed
The appearance of Leo - the appearance of Leo as a child.
At this time, the little fox stopped using illusions and turned back into the fox-man boy. He looked a little uncomfortable, probably feeling that he had done something bad.
"I'm sorry, big brother. I don't know who Leo you are talking about, but he must be your very important friend, right? I won't become like this in the future, because it will hurt you." He said.
Elaine was silent for a moment: "No, no, it's okay. I just... admitted my mistake for a moment. If you want to change, just change it. Don't worry about me."
"But……"
Elaine reached out and touched Bailey's head: "Well, it's better to say that. We haven't left France yet. There must be someone who knows your true identity and wants to capture you and take you back to be a prince."
Scapego. If you can use illusions to hide your identity, that's the best. It's also good to turn into a lion. Leo... will definitely be happy."
Bailey was silent for a moment, and finally activated the illusion to look like a lion-man boy. He looked like a younger version of Leoport, although his fur color was that weird steel blue...
"Yes, but promise me not to force yourself." Elaine added: "First, it will be very tiring to activate the illusion all the time, right? Disable the illusion when you are sleeping or when no one else is around."
"Yeah, I'll pay attention." The little fox replied, throwing herself into Elaine's arms and rubbing her hard.
At this time, Elaine also found that she had almost no clothes on, only a pair of underpants, sleeping in a tent. This look seemed a bit bad...
"Are you awake?" Queeg's leopard head poked in from outside the tent: "Eat something and then set off? Preferably before it gets dark."
"Ma, be here soon." Elaine pushed Bailey away and said depressedly, reaching out to get her clothes.
Queeg roasted a few sticks of buttered corn for afternoon tea, and put a lot of honey into the hot black tea. Even though Elaine couldn't taste it, she could smell the rich flavor mixed in the tea.
It tastes like honey, and it must be overly sweet - when he drank it, Elaine could feel the excess sugar burning his throat.
Bailey really liked sweets and drank them all happily.
"Does it taste good?" Queeg asked.
"It tastes good! It makes your body warm after drinking it!" the little fox replied.
"It can cure a cough," Quigg said with a smile: "Drink more. But remember to rinse your mouth to avoid tooth decay."
"Yeah!" Bailey shook his tail vigorously. It was supposed to be a fox's tail, but now it was affected by illusion and looked more like a little lion's tail.
I wonder where Queeg heard these strange folk remedies? Elaine stole a glance at the cloud-patterned leopard. No, the point is where did the honey come from. Where did the cloud-patterned leopard come from?
How many ingredients were stolen from the galleys of the two ships...
Queeg also noticed Elaine's judgmental gaze, and immediately turned away pretending to be nonchalant, clearly showing a guilty conscience.
Elaine didn't bother to blame Queeg. He ate all the roasted buttered corn quickly and prepared to hit the road. They wanted to reach a nearby village before dark to avoid spending the night in such desolate mountains. And they were taking Bailey, a child with them.
It’s not convenient to rush, so you need to allow enough time for all actions.
"Speaking of Bailey..." Elaine took a sip of black tea and asked again: "Can you only become like this, like this child? Can't you become more, um, like, like an adult?"
"Illusion is not omnipotent. It can only change the face and body. The height...cannot be changed." The little fox replied: "Illusion can be used to look like an adult, but the height will not be that high, and the head will still remain normal."
My head is at the same height. The position of my head has not changed, but my body has become taller. Wouldn’t it mean that part of the body created by the illusion sunk into the ground, which would be misleading at first glance.”
"I see, that's it..." Elaine could already imagine Bailey using illusions to transform into an adult Leoport, but with his knees sinking into the ground in a funny way.
"You can get away with walking on stilts, but the walking movements will be very awkward." The little fox added: "It's better to forget it. Of course, big brother can also lift me up high, and the two of us can use illusion to pretend to be the same person."
OK."
"Ah ha ha ha..." Elaine laughed along without saying anything. Instead of making it so troublesome, it would be better for Elaine to turn into a fox-man himself and use illusions. He has been absorbing Bailey's blood for most of the day, and now
He should already have the ability to transform into a fox, right?
Anyway, Elaine stood up from the big rock where she was working, patted her butt, and said, "Yes, it's time to set off."
"Okay, I'll be here soon." Queeg had already quickly dismantled the automatic tent and put it away, and turned around to prepare for the bonfire.
Elaine also spread out the map and studied it. They were still near the middle section of the Garonne River. Although the mountains around this mountainous area were not undulating, the terrain was a bit complicated. It would be very difficult to just cross the mountains and head west.
It’s laborious (especially now that I have a baby on the road).
Although it is not marked on the map, there are some small villages in several nearby valleys. As for towns, the only larger one nearby is Basas. Elaine wanted to avoid big towns while traveling, so he
The ultimate goal is to reach another port city in southern France, Lapuère. Although the port is not as large as Bordeaux, Lapuère should still be able to find passenger ships to Great Britain.
By the way. Elaine took out her phone and called Dr. Bordeaux in Montpellier according to the previous caller number.
"Hello, Bo, are you a doctor in Bordeaux?" He came up and asked: "I, I am Elaine. We have changed our voyage for some reasons and cannot go to Bordeaux. We are preparing to go to La Bouelle."
"Oh, no problem," the doctor on the other end of the phone replied, "Then let me send the document I mentioned before to Rabuel for you. It happened that an acquaintance of mine sent the document to the hospital over there.
I’ll just help you deal with it."
"Thank you, thank you, I've caused you trouble again." Elaine said embarrassedly.
"It's nothing." The doctor added, "I should be the one to apologize to you. The two brats you left in my clinic are also missing."
"...Huh?" Elaine thought of Pierre and Io, and a drop of sweat broke out on her forehead. One of the two brats had just completed a thoracotomy to remove the bomb from his chest; the other had just undergone a thoracotomy.
They were beaten almost to death and only received emergency medical treatment. Those two people should have been lying down for a week before they could move. How could they disappear so quickly?
"Sorry, there are only two nurses in the clinic and I, so we can't keep an eye on those two brats 24 hours a day. As a result, they ran away while I was making lunch for them, leaving only a
The note said that he was going to find you, so don’t worry about them. They may have overheard your previous phone call and knew that you were going to Bordeaux, so they are probably trying to find a way to get there now."
"Ah, this..."
"The injuries on the little kid named Pierre are not a big problem. At most, they just broke a few ribs. The situation on the werewolf kid is more worrying. After all, he has undergone major surgery like a thoracotomy..."
Bordeaux muttered.
(Wait, breaking a few ribs isn’t a big deal??)
"But since they can get out of bed, it means that their injuries have improved to the point where they can get out of bed. Dr. Elaine, your surgical skills are so high that the patient can get out of bed within a few hours just after the operation."
, is also amazing." Bordeaux continued: "Since they can get out of bed and move around, I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore, right...? Right?"
(Why does this sound like self-hypnosis?)
"Big, probably." Elaine said depressedly.
"I can't find them anyway, so I don't care..." Bordeaux said, "If the street kids in Montpellier had some skills, they would have figured out a way to sneak into the land boat by now, and even the boat would
It has already set sail. Anyway, I have no way to trace the whereabouts of those two brats. The most I can do is notify my colleagues in Bordeaux and ask them to help find them. I'm sorry."
"No, it's not your fault." Elaine said depressedly: "He, they will take care of themselves...probably."
"I hope so..." Bordeaux sighed: "I have nothing to report, for now -"
"Wait a minute," Elaine stopped and said, "I have one more thing to ask you, Doctor Bordeaux."
"oh?"
"Is there any way you can do a paternity test for me?" Elaine deliberately slowed down and walked at the back of the line, and lowered her voice and said, "I, I will provide blood samples here. I want to test two people.
Genetic factors. I will send you two blood samples as soon as I arrive in Labuel, okay?"
"You don't have to do this, Benben." But the other party said: "Wouldn't it be better to just go to a medical institution in La Boule to do this appraisal? After all, La Boule is the largest... city of prostitution in France.
."
"Huh?" Elaine was stunned for a moment.
"The quality of the girls there is very high. You may not believe it, but there are many rich people from all over Europe who go to La Buer to have fun. And of course there are also cases of people accidentally [resulting in lives]. And then...the prostitutes over there."
Women are very snobbish and will first try to [test] the child after birth. If they know that the father of the child is a rich man who has patronized him before, they will try to sell the child to the rich man to blackmail him. If the father of the child is
He is a little person with no identity, just..."
"... Just sell the children as slaves." Elaine replied in a low voice, already knowing the answer halfway through the conversation.
"That's it. The so-called most poisonous woman's heart. Thanks to that, in addition to the prosperous prostitution industry, the paternity testing industry is also very developed. You don't have to worry about finding a hospital that can do the testing." Bordeaux hummed
He smiled and said, "However, please pay attention to your safety. If you are looking for a girl to have fun, you must take precautions. If [a life is caused], a big shot like you will definitely be blackmailed... and then it will be very troublesome."
, It doesn’t matter if you want the child, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want it... Why did you suddenly ask for a paternity test? Could it be that you have already killed someone... and now you want to make sure that you are the father of the child? "
"Hahahaha, don't, don't talk nonsense." Elaine said with a pale face and a bitter smile: "I'm dead."
"Oh, take care, my father." Bordeaux said jokingly.
Elaine had veins popping out on her forehead and hung up the phone immediately.
Slave trading, whoring, prostitution...how come France is always particularly developed in these strange industries. What Elaine has glimpsed now is just the tip of the iceberg. How deep is the bottomless corruption and corruption in the depths of this crazy country?
dark……
"Brother, who are you talking to?" Bailey asked when he saw Elaine, who was walking at the end, looking pale.
"No, it's okay." Elaine made sure that the volume of the conversation just now would not be heard by the two people in front (the orcs' hearing is really terrible...), and then said: "Anyway, I have to find a village where I can spend the night tonight, so let's go quickly."
"No," Queeg pointed to the distance. A faint shadow of a village appeared on the other side of the mountain: "It has been found."