Terrible idea.

Four and a half years ago not only Lee's vision wasn't fully developed, he didn't have too many chances to observe surroundings while lying in the sling on Tess's chest.

Now the situation was completely different. His stepmother did try to make him sit on her lap, but there was enough space in the wide, open carriage, pulled by four chestnut colored horses, and passengers weren't cramped up even though there were five of them.

"I must say, Tess, we are mighty grateful to you!" The short and bold fatty, sitting across Lee, said, "If not for you and your cute son, we would've had ridden horses, like the rest. But now … look around! What a beautiful forest"

"Shut up, Powel! It's already embarrassing enough!" The thin man next to the fatty elbowed him, but apparently it wasn't painful, because Powel was more amused rather offended.

He said, "Come on! To ride on a horse for almost ten days at our age? Farcry, even you can't be that delusional! The Emperor and General Strongheart is one thing, but us? No way!"

"But your daughter can …" Alan tried to end the argument, but it had the opposite effect.

"It's all because she has her eyes on Dale, although I still can't understand what she sees in your son!" Powel's mood changed in an instant, and so did Farcry's, except it was time for the latter to laugh.

"It's because he's not only smarter than you, he's taller and, actually, handsome. And I bet his children will have hair!" He teased the fatty, but seeing that steam was about to come out from Powel's ears, Farcry added, "Don't worry, he'll take a good care of her. He's a good boy unlike Hardwood's son, doing two at the same time. Let's open a bottle of whine, shall we? We have a long road ahead of us!"

Lee could swear that the faces of the two young people, riding fifteen, twenty yards further in the front were colored crimson red.

Apparently they were the children the two spoke about, but Lee didn't care about the gossip. His eyes were carefully inspecting the two because he had seen them before, in Pine Village.

From what he understood, the sons of the three generals were also present in the expedition, but they were somewhere further ahead, with the imperial cavalry led by the emperor himself. Obviously the sons of the generals were harder nuts to crack, thus Lee focused on observing the couple in front, trying to think of best ways to start the road of revenge.

Unfortunately the two couldn't take the embarrassment, and galloped away, thus in few moments Lee had nothing better to do than to foolishly look around.

Powel was right, the green forest was beautiful and the trees, similar to the pines Lee was familiar with, grew even taller. He did consider it being an optical illusion because of him being small, but last night, when they camped for the first time, he verified it wasn't the case.

There was a problem, though, and for some reason no one in the carriage said anything about it. After the whole cavalry regiment passed, the road turned into a shit-show, literally! The carriage was going through shit of hundreds of horses that took this road before them and the wheels, and everything else was quickly covered in horse shit.

Even if one ignored the smell, which was impossible to do, droplets of shit or dirt mixed with shit sprayed all over the place, including the passengers, their faces, and even got in the cups of vine that the two quarrelers from before just filled up.

'This was a terrible idea!' Was the only thought that came to Lee's mind.

Only when the cavalry camped for the night he could finally take a breather. After washing up and having dinner, Lee stated that he was going to join the boys, and went to get acquainted with his targets.

At first Tess intended to follow, but Alan managed to hold her back, and she reluctantly gave in only because the boys sat at their own bonfire only thirty, maybe forty yards away and the whole place was packed with soldiers. Probably there was no safer place in the whole empire.

Ignoring the encounter with Victoria those years ago, this was the first time Lee could closely observe few of the people who murdered his family. From what he remembered, there were twelve in total and tonight were present five of them. But no matter how he wrecked his brains, there was no plausible way of eliminating them all at once.

"Hello, I'm Lee!" He said, and sat on a free spot next to one of the guys. Two of them currently were roasting meat while chatting with the rest.

Lee's idea was simple – no one would drive him away as long as he was polite and, more importantly, silent.

One of the young men didn't think so, though. Not hiding displeasure, he asked, "What do you want?"

'Keep it simple!' Lee reminded himself, and said, "I want to be like you, guys."

As expected, with one sentence the tense atmosphere was gone. The girl, Powel's daughter, immediately melted, but the young men mostly felt amused.

"Why?" A well-built and particularly good-looking young man asked. He was sitting on the opposite side of the bonfire and the fire reflection on his face made him look especially handsome.

'Probably Hardwood.' Lee quickly deducted. The guy definitely looked like someone who was chased by several girls at the same time.

"I also want to be a general and command an army!" He said. His seriousness was rewarded with a wave of loud laughter, and, hearing it, Tess almost rushed over to check whether her darling was not taken advantage of.

"That's not how it works." Surprisingly, after calming down, Hardwood gave a serious answer, "Positions in the Imperial Council are hereditary. You're Alan Green's heir, though, and could join when you grow up."

"Why can't I become strong?" Lee pretended to be upset.

"Who said you can't?" The big guy besides him, said. His voice was deeper and surprisingly calming, "Practice. Then you can lead all the battle healers in the empire, and that means – in the world!"

"Which general are you?" Lee looked back at him, and asked, trying to look cute.

"Our fathers are generals, not us, at least not yet." The guy said, "I'm Virgil Strongheart, that handsome fellow is Mark Hardwood and he's Ian Foxson. Those two are, right, I probably should've led with the only lady present, my apologies … anyway, she's Hannah Powel and the … friend next to her is Farcry's son, Dale."

"Are all of you heirs?" Lee tried to ask a stupid, but logical question, and seeing a couple of nods, added, "Great! Then we'll meet often in the Imperial Court!"

While the young men snickered, Hannah couldn't hold back a burst of laughter. Her voice wasn't close to as beautiful as Victoria's, but contrary to the crown princess, she was pleasant to look at. Her deep blue eyes were particularly captivating – no wonder all Dale did was stare in those.

"What do you think happens in the council?" Hannah asked, while drying tears from her cheeks.

"I … I don't know …" Lee stuttered, and noted to himself that he had to find out if Alan somewhere in his notes had a technique that allowed one to forcefully blush. The way Tess held her breath to achieve a similar result was rather inconvenient.

"But I'll become strong!" He immediately added, changing the subject, "I already know how to ride a horse!"

Even though he couldn't take care of all five, technically there was a way to deal with one already during this expedition. He had to hang around them more to find the proper timing, though.

"So?" Strongheart shrugged. Nothing Lee could or couldn't do mattered. He was a kid after all.

But Lee jumped to his feet and, shaking a couple of tiny clenched fists, said, "I'll prove it to you! Do you have a spare horse?"

Of course, in this life he never had an opportunity to ride a horse or a mule, or even a goat. But in his first one he and Lisa, in order to get to remote destinations, had to. Normally his first choice were always dirt bikes, but she was a romantic, and he happily gave in.

The simple plan worked and, under Tess's terrified eyes, Lee leisurely made a couple of circles around the camp on horse's back. The saddle was too large and he was too small, but he managed to look mighty impressive.

While this served as a good amusement for the soldiers and the group of heirs, Tess didn't find it funny at all. And when Lee stated that from the next morning on he'll ride with the boys, she almost lost her mind. Profanities flew left and right, and even the seasoned cavalry soldiers had to blush at her choice of words. Sadly, no matter how she fumed, Lee didn't give in.

Alan, even though Tess demanded him to set his son straight, was also helpless, because Lee came out with an iron clad argument – he didn't intend to ride a stinky carriage when his place was with the other men.

Even though Lee won at the end despite Tess's tears and begging, he didn't feel like a winner.

'Damn it! A child should listen to his mother! This was a terrible idea!' He cursed to himself the next day long before noon.

As it turns out it's much easier to ride a horse for a grownup than a little child. It didn't even had to be galloping – a relatively slow trot made Lee jump up and down in the saddle to the point he thought his little testes would be squished into a mush. To not speak about the aching butt, of course.