Mommy Wolf: Raise A Cub, Claimed By His Beast Daddy-Chapter 221: Ignite the War (I)

"I don’t need any protection. I alone am enough to protect both my mistress and my son," Kael claimed proudly.

However, that claim wasn’t without its weight. The Beast King’s prowess was well known across Roc Forest at this point, and nobody doubted that he could protect his beloved ones with ease.

The soldiers were mostly for scouting and formality, since having a king leaving the kingdom without any guard would paint a bad picture to the general masses.

"This is a private trip. I don’t want anyone to see my family while we are relaxing," Kael said before he got up and left the throne room, leaving the beastmen inside the room scrambling to think of a way to maintain the kingdom without the Beast King’s presence.

Naturally, they would put all responsibility for bureaucracy in Vestor’s hands. But he had proven himself to be incapable of leading.

Vestor was a great bureaucrat, but a terrible leader.

Grishaw was also quite well known and wiser than Vestor, but he was not as charismatic as the Beast King—well, to be as charismatic as the king was simply impossible—but they really needed someone whom everyone would listen to when their king wasn’t around.

There was discord within the throne room, but Kael couldn’t care less about that as he was more worried about what would happen in the near future.

Once Jojo’s eyes had been cured, would that mean there was no more future for the three of them? Was it really worth sacrificing the happiness of their small family of three for Jojo’s vision?

...

Kael kept repeating that question in his head because he felt conflicted. On top of that, he couldn’t just force Sisi to stay, because just like what Vestor said—the wife’s happiness is crucial for the entire family.

’Then what about my curse? Is it really true that I’m going to die alone and in agony? Is there no way out?’

***

"Ugh, boss, why do we have to dress up in rags like this? It’s already humiliating enough to hide our beastman features," Leah complained as she held the torn sleeve that hung loosely on her arm.

"We have to look convincing," Marik said coldly while wearing equally torn clothing. In fact, he made it even worse by inflicting himself with various wounds, as if he had just been attacked by a ferocious creature.

To make sure their plan would come to fruition, Marik went all out on their appearance. He had traveled a lot since he was young and knew the ins and outs of Roc Forest.

Thus, he gained knowledge from a lizard tribe in Jing Forest on how to create a potion that would temporarily hide their beastman features, such as their ears, claws, tails, feathers, and even fangs.

This potion was concocted using all the plants found only in Jing Forest, so Marik had to go to Jing Forest first after Sisi helped him escape from Kael in order to gather the ingredients.

He had already formed this plan right after he ran away, because he never intended to leave Sisi and Jojo alone.

Even if he had to do some heinous things, none of that mattered once he got his hands on Jojo and Sisi.

Meanwhile, Leah could only grumble as they faked their limping walk when they entered a human village outside of Roc Forest.

The first human they met was an elderly lady collecting herbs at the edge of the forest, and she almost had a heart attack seeing the sorry state of Leah and Marik.

"Help... help us..." Leah acted weakly as she dragged herself. She looked so brittle as if she could die the next second while being supported by her "husband," Marik.

"Oh no! W-what happened?!" the elderly lady panicked as she approached them. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"We... we are merchants from the far east. We just... we just got raided by a bunch of beastmen..." Marik replied with a hoarse voice.

Their appearance escalated the matter until the entire village learned about their situation. They were brought to the village chief’s house and were treated properly.

But their wounds were severe, especially Marik’s, that the villagers were worried they might die if not treated properly.

"We have to bring them to the city before they die, chief!" a young man said after inspecting the wounds.

"Yes, yes! Besides, they said that they are merchants from the far east. Didn’t our king say that he would open a trade route between Barion Kingdom and Jing Empire across the entire Roc Forest soon? If they know that Roc Forest isn’t safe enough, then no kingdom will dare to send their merchants anymore!"

The village chief thought about it for a moment. Their village was located right at the entrance of Roc Forest. If the trade route between Barion Kingdom and Jing Empire was built soon, their village would prosper because it was part of the route.

Thus, thinking of the future, the village chief nodded. "Alright, bring them to the capital. I’ll write an official letter to the palace mentioning this problem. The Crown Prince or the King should visit them personally because I heard from the last chief meeting that they will start to build the trade route by mid-spring."

Thus, with the village chief’s letter, Leah and Marik were escorted in a rush to the capital city, which took about four hours by carriage to reach.

Leah couldn’t believe that everything went so smoothly. She wondered whether it was Marik’s cleverness, a stroke of pure luck, or even a combination of both that they were now resting inside the best hospital in the capital city of Barion Kingdom, the biggest human kingdom bordering Roc Forest.

They were treated with the best care humans could provide, and Leah had to admit that their medicine was far more advanced than the beastmen’s. Even in the Beast Kingdom, physicians and doctors were using herbal medicine and various sharp tools that hurt like hell.

But here, their treatment felt comfortable and gentle. It made Leah wonder why that idiot Sisi would leave human civilization when everything was just better here.