CHAPTER 50 Keith Is Going on a Date

Keith

Keith gently pushed the knife point away from his throat. "I told you; I'm not cursed. I already checked!"

"Exactly what someone who is cursed would say," Julia tsked. "[Identify] him, Chloe."

Chloe already had her hands up casting the spell. Behind them, Rufus was doubled over trying to hold in laughter. After this, Keith was going to find the most boring problem under the dark moon and send Rufus to go fix it.

"Don't fight it," Chloe ordered her king. "Or we'll have to resort to drastic measures."

"Yes, yes, just get on with it already."

Chloe cast [Identify] and then [Dispel] and then [Soul Link] and Keith let her. In the back of his mind, he was actually relieved to have secondary confirmation that he wasn't under some kind of spell.

He passed all the tests, but Julia still looked unconvinced. "Maybe we should also test for poison?"

"Julia, he's not cursed." Rufus finally stepped forward. "Keith is going on a date."

Awareness dawned. "With whom?"

"Princess Henrietta of Drendil," Keith cut in. "And if I'm going, it's now. So would you please sheath your blade?"

Julia took the point off his neck. "Well then, congratulations. Henrietta is a good sort."

"Thank you." Keith nodded and shook out his cloak. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be back in a few days. Send any important updates to Gren's Keep."

"Wait!" That's when Chloe started yelling. "You can't leave now!"

"Watch me."

Keith left a hot mess of confusion and anarchy behind. Among his generals, at least.

His workspace was clean, organized, and primed for his absence.

In a way, Keith wished that he had stepped out that morning instead of wasting time flying Hubert all over the forest. He could have found Ria faster if he'd left—and he wouldn't have needed to argue with Chloe about leaving.

Did she care that he was abandoning his work, the castle, or the war preparations? No. She was livid that Keith wouldn't play host to Julia.

Honestly, that was just another reason for him to run away … or vacation, as he'd informed the group.

Chloe had gone so far as to fake faint into her lover's arms at the unfairness of it all, but she would get over it.

So Keith shook out his old dungeon delving kit and grabbed his satchel, went up to the lookout platform, and headed out for Gren's Keep.

For his tenth birthday, Feliwyn had gifted Keith a collection of monster parts. From it, he had created his favorite magical prosthetic construct. He had dabbled in replacing limbs at that point, but for this he'd crafted himself a set of wings.

They were black wyvern membrane tissue bound to mechanically enchanted treant bones, for added flexibility and mana circulation. The wooden bones were also easier to carve spell script and enhancements into for a ten-year-old.

Keith unfolded the set and slotted them into holes precut into his adventuring tunic. [Flight] was a higher-level spell, and it cost a lot of mana to maintain. Activating the wings, however, meant he could fly around and not risk plummeting to a painful collision with the earth if Henrietta distracted him.

Planning ahead was always important when dungeon delving.

It took a bit of trial and error to get a feel for his temporary extra limbs, but less than half an hour later, he was flying west.

Keith arrived at Gren's Keep before dinner.

It was next to impossible to go unnoticed in the Dark Enchanted Forest when you were the king of the Dark Enchanted Forest, so he didn't bother trying to be stealthy.

He landed outside the town. Folding his wings down, he clipped the tips to his belt so that they wouldn't sway around awkwardly while deactivated, and then he simply walked in through the front gates. He told himself it would make it easier for Ria to find him if everyone and their human knew he'd arrived. Secretly, he enjoyed the chaos it caused.

Unfortunately, the General of the West found him first.

"Yourrr Viciousness!"

A tigerkin in full beast form went from casually napping on a building roof nearby to bounding over fully transformed and landing on one knee in front of him, his voice rolling the R as many of the feline beast folk did.

"General." Keith nodded imperiously, but he wasn't looking at Quinton. He was sweeping the crowd for any sign of Henrietta.

Quinton rose to his full height in beastman form, a little taller than Keith, and awkwardly scratched his head. "We weren't expecting you?"

"I'm taking a vacation."

Quinton's mouth dropped open; he didn't appear to believe what he was hearing. "A vacation?"

"Yes." Keith nodded.

"You?"

"Yes."

"Here?"

"Yes?"

"But … why?" the general asked. "We don't have any golems needing rrrepairs, and there aren't any new monsterrr types spawning in the dungeon. If you needed ingredients for yourrr automata, you could just say so."

Keith couldn't see or smell his princess anywhere, so he made the next most obvious choice. "Quinton?"

"Yes, Yourrr Viciousness?"

"Take me to the Damp Gizzard." Keith knew that the first thing Henrietta would do would be to find food after her [Quick Step] cooldown. So if she wasn't here yet, he should wait in the most obvious place.

"Yes, um, of course." Suddenly, Quinton looked like he'd been caught between a rock and a hard place. "Right now?"

Keith only saw his general sweat like this for one reason and one reason alone. He ordered, "Tell me."

"It's no problem. Just … I need to tell the wife first, you know? I'm supposed to be watching the kits after I get off guard duty …" Quinton looked off toward his house and then back at Keith. "Of course, Yourrr Viciousness comes first! I'll have someone send word to Lina."

"How old are Bastian and Bastet now?" Keith remembered the twins from the last time he'd visited. Lina had shoved a fluffy Bastian at him so she could tend to Bastet clawing the couch legs. The young tigerfolk had spent the better part of thirty minutes telling Keith all about the animals he'd seen and tried to hunt that day.

"Six, but Calypso is two and quite the handful now." Quinton chucked. "But she's cute and can get away with murderrr."

"How many murders?" Keith joked. The two started walking to Olen's, and the crowds dispersed politely to let them through. "Is she hunting already?"

"Ha! She's taken afterrr her old man and caught her first rrrabbit this week!" Quinton smiled with pride.

The general signaled someone to take over for him on guard duty, and a veteran named Puma stepped forward. Keith approved. As the saying went, No one checks for assassins quite like Puma Checks. She was renowned across the entire forest for her stealth, her deadliness, and her high Perception.

It became a saying due to her so aptly appropriate last name.

He was just about to have a word with her about keeping an eye out for his wayward princess when he heard a familiar voice call out behind him. "Keith?"

He turned around and saw Ria running up to him with a big, surprised smile on her face.

Puma, in natural guard form, attempted to stop Ria from approaching the king without proper protocol or invite … It didn't go well for the beastwoman.

Ria had chosen Perception as her dump stat … and Puma's entire arsenal was fueled by high-level stealth skills. Ria didn't realize the guard was on her until Puma had a dagger drawn on the princess's neck.

Within half a second of the knife landing, just before it touched her flesh, Ria reacted with a startled flinch, grabbing Puma's wrist and using her momentum to throw the guard over her shoulder.

Which would have been fine, if Ria's Strength stat wasn't sixty-seven …

They all watched in impressed horror as Puma flew far, far away into the forest. Just before she dropped out of a sight, the guard's armor caught the sunlight and gave off a beautiful sparkle.

"That was amazing!" the young elf girl who was standing right behind Henrietta spoke first. She turned to General Quinton and exclaimed, "Did you just see that? She just threw Mistress Puma! The Mistress Puma … Should someone go check that she's alive?"

Wait, was that Duke Briarthorn's daughter?

Keith looked at the busy town, the general, and Lady Amaryllis. All of whom were interested in tagging along for his reunion with Ria.

He suddenly had a wonderful idea.