In the afternoon, as the speeding horse-drawn carriage cut through the thick jungle on the dirt road, the shadows of the trees slipped past the escorting knights as they rode in front and in the back of the carriage.
Inside the carriage, Xin and Mormon's heads could be seen bowed against one another as they huddled together, whispering over an open grimoire placed on the table in the middle of the carriage's interior.
Mormon traced her clawed finger along an intricate diagram of concentric circles, her brow furrowed, while Xin drew another complex circle of text on the grimoire with a feather quill that had temporary ink that was made with mana so she could make mistakes without worrying about wasting the grimoire page.
"This augmentation matrix is needlessly complex, isn't it? See here? You're wasting three entire mana conduits just to stabilize what could be solved with a simple elasticity modifier add-on." Mormon huffed, her ears pointing up as she made her suggestions.
"Mhmm…" Xin's amber eyes gleamed as she tapped the page with her purple fingernail before she drew something on it with a sudden inspiration from Mormon. "I suppose we could repurpose the tertiary node to act as a capacitor instead..."
"...then the tissue expansion won't cause stretch marks!" Mormon finished with a grin, slapping her palm on the table after she reexamined the page.
"It's probably going to work! Though personally, I'd add an extra enchantment for a sensitivity enhancement for pleasure too—oh, but you already considered that, huh?" The goblin girl's smirk widened at Xin's proud face.
The half-elf has thought of it already since even if the breasts become bigger, but she couldn't even feel any pleasure from them, then it wouldn't have any meaning for her to have them in the first place since she doesn't want them to be big just for decoration, as she wants her husband to play with them and make her feel good as well.
'This is the way.' Xin thought as he nodded her head wisely.
Behind the two, Nadia almost choked on her wine mid-swallow. The muscular warrior wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, staring at the pair in disbelief. "You're seriously researching... breast growth magic??"
Xin didn't look up from the grimoire, her fingers carefully guiding the quill as she drew a new arcane sigil on the page. The glowing blue lines pulsed with each stroke.
"Not just growth," she muttered with smugness radiating from her petite body as her voice became more excited the more she explained to Nadia, "but large, perfect, proportional breasts. The spell needs to account for weight distribution, glandular tissue restructuring, and muscle fascia realignment. It's a masterpiece of all transfiguration spells!"
"And the hope of all flat and small women anywhere!" Mormon added, clapping her hands in celebration. She then picks up another quill before scribbling some adjustments to the spell matrix in the grimoire page.
"Look, look! If we route the thaumic flow through the pectoral meridians first, the supporting musculature won't sag, forever!" She tapped the drawing she just drew excitedly, leaving Nadia speechless looking at them.
"..." Zarba watched the two women's discussion with growing amusement; he wondered if his slave-wife was going to be able to bounce her hope and dream soon when her new magic spell is ready.
Zarba continued listening to the two as he reclined on the seat, resting his left arm over Nadia's shoulders as Mormon and Xin began animatedly debating hormonal balance adjustments—something about optimal lactation potential.
'I'm so jealous of them being able to play with magic.' Zarba thought as Mormon animatedly explained her experimental thought for adjusting bust-to-waist ratios using ephemeral moon cycles—something she'd allegedly tested on several unfortunate monsters back in her era when she was bored. The goblin girl's hands waved in the air as she shared her knowledge while Xin scribbled notes with an interested expression, listening to the ancient magician.
Nadia rolled her eyes as she leaned subconsciously into Zarba's body while sipping from the wine cup.
"All that magic just for bigger tits? What a weirdo," she muttered under her breath—though not quietly enough, judging by the way Xin's pointed ear twitched. The half-elf glanced back at the muscular woman, her amber eyes narrowing.
Seeing that she might be humiliated again, Nadia quickly put the man next to her in front while she hid behind Zarba's broad shoulders, using him as a living shield against Xin's displeased gaze. The Great Warrior's fingers dug into his white shirt as she practically glued herself to his back while looking at the half-elf warily above Zarba's shoulder.
"What are you looking at, huh?" Nadia hissed in defiance despite her not-so-brave-looking position. She might even forget that Xin could just order her to abandon her shield if she wanted to.
"Just you wait for tonight, hmph!" Xin snorted as she looked away from Nadia; she'll let the insolent slave off for now since she is busy with making her dream come true right now!
÷×÷×÷
Meanwhile, in the area around the center part of the Great Zasa jungle, a big group of mercenaries were resting under the shade of the trees along the road while they waited for their scouts' return.
Amidst the group of men, there's a noticeable scar-faced man with a long beard who is the leader of the mercenaries, sharpening his curved knife absentmindedly while his second-in-command paces nervously next to him.
"Boss, we should've found the sign of him by now," the lanky man in leather armor muttered, his fingers twitching near his sword hilt. "Maybe the prince is taking another road, and we are just wasting our fucking time here…"
"Yeah? You think I'm wrong, bastard?" The scar-faced leader spat onto the dirt, watching the second in command shut his mouth instantly and shake his head very fast.
A week of tracking rumors and sightings of their target as well as finding the right place for setting up an ambush for the crown prince Zarba Altra Zigma of the Great Golden Empire so they could kill him for his absurd bounty reward that some audacious noble put out has tired out their enthusiasm and dried up their coins very quickly.
"He can only be here…!" The leader's knife scraped against the whetstone with deliberate slowness as he glared at the other side of the road. "This is the fastest and most oblivious route to go through to Zenobia; he will have to go through here if the fucking prince doesn't want to get surrounded by mercenaries and assassins!"
Then a moment later a rustle in the bushes could be heard, which alerted the mercenaries, but a sharp whistle from behind the bushes pacified them. Then three scouts staggered into camp, their leathers and cloaks shredded slightly by thorns and some leaves that stuck on them.
The tallest man among the scouts clutched his small telescope tube as he walked towards the scar-faced man to report what they found to him.
"Found our possible target heading here, luxurious carriage, heavy escort with black armor knights," he says. "But Boss... while we went through the jungle, we felt something odd while going through the jungle! I think I saw the trees moving when there's no wind and even heard faint giggling in the canopy, and there seems to be something trailing us, but we never saw whatever it is…"
The scar-faced leader raised his eyebrow at the scout report as he sheathed his knife on his belt.
"What a load of bullshit. It's probably your mind playing tricks on you; just ignore it!" Despite saying that he'd heard whispers of the Great Zasa jungle oddity of all manners, some mildly interesting and some so ridiculous that he did not even want to bother considering it real before they got here.
His men, on the other hand, shifted nervously and talked with each other like scared peasants, some even making some random warding signs against evil spirits, as they also heard all manner of things from the locals, which made them quite wary of the jungle.
'There's actually danger approaching, and they're still scared of those nonsense rumors!' The leader thought with annoyance. He is definitely not going to entertain whatever the fuck this was.
"Stop being an idiot, and get in position; our possible target is approaching," he growled at his men. "And someone wake that fucking witch we picked up! It's about time the old bitch started making herself useful!"
At the back of the group, a bony old woman wrapped in a moss-covered robe snorted awake from dozing off as the mercenary leader made a loud noise.
"Witch—we need your spell to see the coming people," one of the mercenaries near her grunted, tossing her a wary glance. The witch peeled her lips back from yellowed teeth in something between a grin and a grimace as she played with the two bird skulls in between her claw-like fingers.
"You are a bunch of big men but still piss yourselves at moving shadows, huh?" She said with an old and harsh voice but stood up anyway, joints popping like she was going to suddenly fold in half at any moment. The mercenaries gave her a wide berth as she passed them by; decades of using black magic and dubious rituals had left her original natural pale skin looking like a corpse now, and her left eyelid was fused smooth shut by some long-ago curse.
"Let's see what got you all so excited…" The witch said slowly as she walked towards the annoyed mercenary leader…