As Dorothy spoke, she held a short sword in one hand, placed behind her back, and the other hand placed horizontally across her chest!
This posture...
It's the formal oath-taking posture of warriors in the beast kingdom!
In other words, Dorothy has formally sworn allegiance to Richard, pledging to protect him with her sword for life!
Beside her, after Mia waited for her to finish speaking, she asked, "Dorothy, have you turned 18?"
Dorothy replied, "Yes. I turned 18 just a few days ago."
Mia responded with a simple "Oh" and didn't say anything further.
Upon hearing Mia's words and seeing Dorothy's actions, Richard understood something.
Dorothy's strength is not weak, and she is quite intelligent. She and Mia were not only outstanding assassins and warriors in the beast kingdom, but they had also received education during childhood, becoming very rare demi-humans who could not only read but also possess many skills.
Now that such a capable fox girl was willing to follow him, Richard was naturally pleased.
Therefore, he accepted her oath!
After accepting it, Richard learned from Mia that the formal oath-taking ceremony for beast warriors can only be conducted when they reach the age of 18. In other words, although they fought for the beast king for so long, they never swore allegiance before.
At that time, the battles were just tasks they had to complete.
They were selected at the age of six or seven and sent for concentrated training. They killed their first person at the age of eleven or twelve, and then carried out numerous assassination missions every year.
From childhood to adulthood, it was all about training, fighting, and killing.
...
"Dorothy, eat these biscuits like this."
In a room in the castle more than ten minutes later, Richard took out a small piece of compressed biscuit and demonstrated how to eat it.
The method of eating compressed biscuits is actually very simple. You can eat them directly, dip them in hot water, or boil them.
"Only eat a small piece each time, but since you have many people, you can divide a small portion for each person." Richard said.
Dorothy listened attentively.
After the demonstration, Richard took out a backpack filled with compressed biscuits.
Dorothy's fox tribe had their food stolen by the kobolds, but there were still small amounts hidden in some fox homes. Additionally, they had collected a small amount of immature crops, but not much.
Those supplies wouldn't last long.
It took Dorothy three days to come to Richard's territory, and it would take another three days to return. After six days, the stored food in her tribe probably wouldn't last much longer.
It wouldn't be as quick for the entire tribe to migrate, and would likely take more than twice as long as Dorothy.
Richard was worried about their food shortage, so he had Dorothy carry this backpack of compressed biscuits back.
Don't underestimate compressed biscuits!
This backpack of biscuits could at least ensure that each of the thousand-plus fox people could have a taste. And just a small bite of compressed biscuit could sustain them for quite some time.
"Thank you, master!"
After swearing allegiance, Dorothy also changed her address to "master" for Richard.
"After replenishing your food, rest for a few hours before setting off," Richard said.
"No, master, I want to return as soon as possible."
Richard's tone became stern: "Obey me, you must rest."
Dorothy was intimidated by the tone. She lowered her head and said, "Yes, master!"
So, under Richard's insistence, the fox girl went to rest.
Meanwhile, Richard took out the blueprints for the new city and contemplated where to settle the fox people.
'Let's use tents for temporary accommodation, one tent per family, only a few hundred tents.' Richard thought.
With that in mind, he went out for a while and called a dozen people to level the vacant land between the current castle and the town, then spent the next few days building two rows of toilets.
This place would serve as a temporary resettlement point for the Fox tribe in the future.
It's close to the small castle, and Richard can keep an eye on it at any time.
...
Several hours later, night fell.
Dorothy finally woke up.
Having eaten and slept to her heart's content, the fatigue in her body dissipated completely.
With Richard's help, she slung the backpack he had given her over her shoulders.
With the backpack from another world on her back, Dorothy looked like a high school fox girl engrossed in her studies.
She appeared youthful, beautiful, and full of vitality.
However, the burdens on her shoulders were much heavier than those of students from another world.
"Master, I'm setting off!" Dorothy said.
Richard nodded, "Go, have a safe journey!"
"Okay!"
Dorothy nodded and set off into the night.