"Mom! Can you make the horses go slower?" Alex asked out loud as his butt started to hurt.
"You guys want to go to the capital in two weeks instead?" Katherine questioned.
"Never mind." All three of them yelled back at the same time as the wagon's noise was starting to overshadow their voices.
After sitting in the wagon for almost half a day, Alex and Sophia started getting used to the shakiness.
The road also became much smoother, with only an occasional bump from the rock rather than a constant jump at the beginning.
However, the three of them sitting in the back were starting to become bored.
The scenery had become too repetitive with the same old forest and plains, and there was nothing much to do.
"Mom! I'm bored!" Mary complained.
"You can come out with me if you want... One at a time, though!"
The other two quickly sat back down on their bench, letting Mary go to the front to be with Katherine first.
After waiting for Mary and Sophia's turn, it was finally Alex's turn. As he slowly stepped to the front, Katherine quickly pulled him back down to her lap.
"Be careful. Don't stand still, or else you might fall over." Katherine warned as she held onto the two horses' reins.
Alex nodded in agreement as he began examining the clear view in front of him.
On the left was an empty field. But in the distance was a giant forest that overshadowed the road ahead of them.
On the right was a small creek, the same creek that had been traveling with them all the way since they had left the town.
Meanwhile, ahead of them was a bunch of plain and smaller forests, with a dirt path wide enough for two wagons to ride side by side.
"This feels like a fantasy world so much..." Alex quietly murmured as there was zero pollution anywhere in sight.
"Hm? What did you say?"
Katherine asked out loud as the wind made it almost impossible for the two to hear each other's voices normally.
"Nothing! Mom, can you teach me how to control the wagon?" Alex suddenly asked out loud this time.
"Um, sure. Just hold onto this and pull back a little when you see a rock on the road."
As Alex waited patiently, he kept his eyes on the road as he looked for a rock to appear in the path.
After waiting for almost a whole minute, he finally got the chance to pull back the reins a little.
The horse immediately slowed down a little, making the wagon jump down a little lower than usual.
It almost felt like going through a speed bump as a car, slowing down to avoid the horse from speeding up against the rocky road.
"Good job. Now, if you pull all the way back, the horse is going to stop... Never do that unless there's an emergency."
Alex nodded in agreement as he gently released the reins back to what it was normally, letting the horse run on its own.
"Now, to make a left turn, you only pull the left reins slightly. And for a right turn, you pull the right reins. But since we're just going straightforward, there's no need for that."
Katherine explained as she took back control of the reins, ending his experience as a wagon driver as the road became much bumpier again.
"How about telling the horse to go faster?" Alex curiously asked.
"It's already going at its max speed... I don't recommend whipping the horse if that's what you're thinking of."
"Why not?"
"Because the horses have memories too. If you're doing it for a short distance, it will probably be faster for the first few times.
But in the long term, it's going to hurt the horse. And we're going to rely on these two horses for a while, so we are better off being nice to them."
"I see."
"If you're riding on the horse directly, you can just gently knock on the horse's stomach with the back of your feet to go faster."
As Katherine continued teaching Alex knowledge about riding a horse, she suddenly pulled him back a little, letting him lean directly onto her chest.
"You don't have to be shy, Alex. Don't have to lean your back forward like that if you are already feeling tired."
"Thank you, mom..."
Alex soon started to get a little sleepy, closing his eyes as Katherine's soft body almost felt like a real bed.
Even as the road was still bumpy with the rocks in the way, the hidden firmness was also just enough to support his neck without putting any weight on his shoulder.
"Alex is so tall already... It's almost up to my chest now."
Katherine thought to herself as she pulled both reins a little to slow down the bumpiness of the trip.
The more she focused on Alex's face, the more her heart started to skip a beat as she imagined him as her husband for a second.
"What am I thinking? He's obviously always going to look like Paul. He's your son, you idiot."
Katherine quickly shook her head, getting all of the weird thoughts out of her mind as she shifted her attention back to the road.
"Alex! It's my turn now!" Mary complained as her loud voice appeared from the back of the wagon.
"Okay, okay! Thank you, Mom!"
Alex quickly woke up before getting up from his mom's lap, not noticing the change on Katherine's face as he headed back inside.
"No problem..."
---
After almost eight hours of nonstop sitting in the wagon, it finally came to a stop.
All four of them immediately jumped out of the wagon, walking away from each other in silence to take care of business.
"Ahem, Mom, where do we set up camp?" Sophia curiously asked as they finally gathered back up together.
"Inside the wagon... Let's eat something before going to sleep. Can you three go pick up some wooden branches?"
The three quickly nodded in agreement and headed to the nearby forest outskirts to get a few pieces of wood.
With a few big branches in hand, three of them started heading back. But to their surprise, a whole camp was already set up next to the wagon.
"Surprise! Did you guys actually think we're going to sleep in that small wagon?"
Katherine asked as she quickly grabbed all the wood from the three of them before starting a fire in the pit.
"Mom, how did you set all these up so fast?" Sophia asked curiously, her eyes unable to believe all the things that had been set up.
"Magic! Do you guys want to learn this?"
All three of them immediately nodded their head, so Katherine snapped her finger again.
Right before their eyes, the tent and the campfire disappeared again. Then, with a snap of a finger, it reappears again.
"You guys will learn it in the future when you become an archmage with dimensional magic. Anyway, let's start cooking the food."
Katherine started the fire up again, putting the food into the pot before making water out of thin air.
"Mom, you're an archmage?!" Sophia asked in excitement, as none of them knew her actual mage capability.
"Hell no. I just specialize in dimensional magic, so I have early access to it." Katherine replied as she began stirring the vegetables in the pot.
"What's an archmage?" Mary curiously asked.
"Archmage is the second-highest possible mage. Mom, did I answer that correctly?"
"Yes, Alex. You studied your book pretty well, didn't you?"
Alex held his chin up proudly, feeling a little happy to be complimented by Katherine as she gently patted his head.
"I-I know that too." Sophia chimed in, not wanting to be left out.
"Yeah, yeah, you did a good job too..."
After the three of them finished eating dinner, Katherine snapped her finger to make the campfire and pots disappear.
Next, she went over to the stack of hay that the horses had finished eating and gathered it back into the wagon.
"Mom, why don't we just put everything in your dimension thingy?" Alex curiously asked.
"Because there's a limit to how much I can put in it... Anyway, let's all go take a bath now."
All three of them looked a little confused by what Katherine meant until a giant wooden bathtub appeared before them.
With a small chant, the entire bathtub is filled with hot water, along with a bunch of steam floating into the cold air.
"What are you guys waiting for?"
Katherine quickly began to take off Mary's clothes, putting her inside the bathtub before taking off her own clothes.
Sophia didn't hesitate and took off her clothes before getting inside, leaving Alex the only one remaining with his clothes on.
"Alex?"
Alex thought for a second, then took off his clothes before jumping into the bathtub as well.
The hot water immediately rose to Mary's chest as the four of them sat in silence on the wooden bathtub ledges.
"We haven't taken a bath together for so long," Katherine murmured as she leaned back in the bathtub.
"Yeah. I miss us spending time together like this so much," Sophia murmured as a rush of nostalgia rushed into her mind.
"The three of us literally sleep on the same bed every day..." Mary murmured as she submerged herself in the water before getting back up.
As the three girls relaxed in the bathtub, Alex's mind was on a whole other planet as he covered his crotch with both hands.
His eyes were looking to the side, trying to avoid looking at their bodies, knowing how inappropriate it would be for him to stare.
"Alex, are you okay?" Katherine curiously asked after noticing his awkward position and the nervous look on his face.
"I-I'm fine."
Seeing Alex responding without even daring to look back at her, Katherine suddenly swam to the other side to sit next to him.
"It's okay, Alex. You don't have to hide yourself... We're all family here." Katherine whispered as she forcefully pulled his hand away.
After a short internal fight in his head, Alex eventually turned back around to face the three of them.
"Look, it wasn't that hard."
After looking at their body for a bit, he quickly realized his mind did not react to his sister's body at all.
It was partly because their bodies were as flat as cardboard. The other half was the fact that his mind had long treated them like real sisters.
However, the moment Alex looked over to his mom's body, he felt a little tingle. Katherine's voluptuous body was making him think of something immoral.
It was starting to make him a little scared, as his mind was once again treating Katherine as a beautiful woman rather than his mother.
"Come on, Alex, she's your mom... Don't make it weird... You're her son and nothing else..."