Arc#5 Chapter 23: In and Out (2)

If Reivan was being honest, the smell inside the pink tent got to him before the visual shock did.

Even he couldn't deny that he was a bit of a degenerate who liked indulging in the pleasures of the flesh. That's why despite him not wanting to, he was familiar with how his own semen smelled. And even the "fresh" stuff smelled obnoxiously awful to him. Despite his lovers' apparent lack of aversion to it, the smell of his own jizz caused him to gag—which, when he thought about it, might be a magnified reaction caused by his sharp sense of smell.

But one could get used to everything. Especially one's own odors. It was why people with bad breath or smelly sweat never really noticed until someone told them or unless the smell got so bad that it bypassed their defense against their own smell. At some point, as long as it wasn't a few inches close to his face, he could somewhat ignore it the same way he didn't really mind his own sweaty odor right after training.

'Today's a bad day to have a functional nose.'

Reivan shut his mouth shut and covered it with his hand to stop himself from wasting food. The abhorrent stench filling the interior of the tent made his eyes water from how putrid it was. It was so intense that he felt as if he could see the fumes. Never in his two lives was he ever curious about what days-old semen smelled like, but he unfortunately knew now. There was blood, sweat, and other things mixed in too, making one of the most rancid combinations of smells his nose had ever been cursed with.

It was only slightly inferior to how the Outlands smelled. And that was really saying something.

Once he recovered from the temporary mutilation of his nose, Reivan finally got to fully take in how disgusting certain aspects of war were. Women without a speck of clothing were strewn about as if they were discarded pieces of trash, with some piled on top of others. Their arms were tied together but their legs were unrestrained, likely for more heinous reasons. The Argonians hadn't even given them the dignity of wearing rags, letting them lay languidly across the dirt as naked as the day they were born. Their white Arkhanian skin was marred with soil, sweat, and presumably, dried semen. He could even spot a few who had bloody lips and bruises all over their bodies, likely a consequence of resistance.

Some raised their head slightly in response to his entry, only to shiver in fear at what he might do to them. Meanwhile, some didn't even react, their blank eyes staring mindlessly off into space.

If there was any consolation, it was that the inside only had lanterns for illumination. So the hundred or so ladies pitifully crammed into the tent were spared from truly seeing what was happening all around—though this did not help them with what was happening to them.

"Huh?" the older legionary that Reivan had seen earlier looked up in surprise at his sudden entry, pulling one of the cleaner women to one corner of the tent. "Who're you?"

Reivan casually flicked his hand, not even gracing the man with an answer. A skewer appeared out of nowhere and shot straight through the man's skull, killing him instantly. Just as the younger legionary realized what was happening, his head snapped a hundred and eighty degrees before his body fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

The women that the two legionaries were about to rape squealed in shock at the unexpected bout of silence, and so too did the others. Some women remained impassive though, and Reivan feared that they were already dead—or worse, mentally broken beyond recovery.

"I'm here to get you out of here," Reivan spoke clearly in Arkhanian, immediately proving that he wasn't one of them. After all, none of the men who ravaged them likely took the time to learn the republic's language. "I'm very sorry that I don't have time to explain. But know that when you wake up, you'll be in a safe place."

Not waiting for a response, darkness spread from his feet and filled the tent's interior. A second later, all the women lost consciousness when their stamina was drained past a certain point.

'Zee. Help me out here, bud. Do the thing.'

In response to his mental plea, a serpent manifested into reality and became big enough to just swallow a few people at a time. Its body almost entirely filled the tent, but that was fine. The massive serpent deposited the girls into his stomach two or three at a time, keeping them safe and allowing Reivan to take them with him when he escaped the camp. Making them lose consciousness first wasn't him being cruel though, he just didn't want them to see whatever cosmic horror was inside a World-devouring Serpent.

Even Reivan didn't know what was truly like inside that place. And Zouros advised him not to let his curiosity get the better of him.

Without even asking him, Zouros ate up the two legionaries' bodies. These wouldn't be treated with the same level of care as the captive Arkhanian women, that was for sure.

'Oh. That must be the ones that were mentioned earlier.'

Among the unconscious women were a few that still did have their clothes on. They stood out as being a lot more attractive than the others, and they were obviously from the richer end of the spectrum. The ones who caught them must have realized that too and kept them "untouched" for the lords to taste first.

Reivan noticed that one of them had a familiar shade of crimson hair and he momentarily blanched. He turned her face toward him with [Formless Will] and sighed when he discovered that she wasn't anyone he knew. But that relief made him feel a trace of disgust for himself even though he knew that he wasn't truly at fault.

Once the job was done, Reivan gave the snake's snout a hearty pat. "Good work. Now, let's see if I can find the other tents. Don't sleep, alright? I might need your help."

Zouros flicked its tongue in acquiescence, returning to his soul. Being an entity that could turn invisible to everyone but him and presumably spirit beasts, it would have been the perfect scout in this situation.

But Argonia had way too many mysterious powers. Reivan didn't know if the empire had any ways of detecting spiritual entities. The republic and the empire were in constant conflict, after all, so it wouldn't even be that strange if the latter did have a method to do so.

He was already taking a lot of risks by infiltrating the enemy camp. Adding more risks to that seemed incredibly unwise.

Especially now that he had more than a hundred women in his "pocket" who would get recaptured if he got caught.

'Should I go back first, or...'

After a moment of thought, Reivan decided to keep going for now. Nobody knew that an entire tent full of captured women had just been emptied out, so the other pleasure tents wouldn't be on guard. If he came back for another day, however, he might not have such an easy time extracting the girls.

Just as he was about to come out of the tent, he heard footsteps gradually headed in his direction. He immediately sunk into one of the shadows.

"Where in the plowing hell are the guards...?" someone said from outside. A moment later, the tent flapped as a legionary entered, together with three other legionaries and five young women—who, thankfully, were clothed and clean, if not for the obvious signs of being struck in the face. "Huh!? Where are all the other girls in this tent!?"

"Maybe they got moved to another one?" another legionary offered.

"Imbecile. We came here because all the other ones were full to the brim. Even the guards couldn't stand the smell. Plowing knights, attack so often that we don't have time to wash the slaves. Even I wouldn't put my dick in any of those."

"That's true... Then where could the ones over here be?"

Reivan materialized right behind the men, his soul armament mimicking the armor of a vanguard. "What the hell are you louts doing here?"

The four legionaries, and the five women all reacted in surprise, turning around to see someone appear seemingly out of nowhere. Smiling sheepishly, the first legionary dipped his head in respect. "Warrior. We were sent out to re-scavenge anything we could use from the towns we'd already raided. There, we found stragglers. The men and kids have already been sent to the motherland while the elderly have been fed to those monsters."

Another legionary continued off. "These women, on the other hand, looked pretty enough so we wanted to have our lord have a taste first but they're still injured. We were told to keep them in one of the tents for now and to instruct the guards not to touch 'em before the lord recovers and has the first turn."

"Oh?" Reivan raised a brow. "And I'm supposed to believe that you haven't tried these ones yet?"

Snickering, the legionary answered with a grin. "We may have copped a feel, but that's all."

"Is that so..." Reivan hummed in thought before asking. "Remind me again, how many tents like this one are in the camp? I only just got here and don't know my way around yet."

The legionaries seemed confused, but the one closest to him still answered. "Uh... There are a dozen or so, warrior."

"And where are the others? Can you tell me so I can visit them?"

"Eh, well... I'm not quite sure where all of 'em are, but we visited five in the northern part of the camp..."

"Heard anything about where all the others are?"

"Uh, warrior... You're asking some questionable things..." The legionary's gaze finally turned suspicious as he backed away. "My apologies, but could you tell me what division and regiment you're part of?"

Reivan clicked his tongue, realizing that the jig was up. With a casual wave, the four legionaries also had their necks snapped like the two he'd killed in the tent. He then rushed to pull the girls into the tent and undid his transformation, shocking them. "I'm here to help you all."

"You're Arkhanian...?" One of the girls gasped, a charming young blonde presumably in her late teens.

"Uh, no..." Reivan pointed at his silver hair a bit sheepishly. "You may have heard about me. I'm Reivan Aizenwald..."

"Ah! You're right!" exclaimed another woman. "I remember him from the papers."

"Yes, yes. That's me." He nodded, relieved that they actually recognized him. It would have been fatally mortifying if he acted famous only for them to not know. "Anyway, I'm here to take you girls out of here. Preferably, everyone who was captured. But I don't know where they're all being kept for now. If you know anything, I'd appreciate you telling me..."

The girls glanced at each other before telling him what they knew. Sadly, all they had to offer wasn't very helpful, and most of it had been revealed by the now-dead legionaries anyway.

Still, Reivan thanked them and cut off their restraints. Especially since they had to relive what was most likely the scariest moments of their lives. "Thank you very much for your help. Now, don't be surprised. You'll lose consciousness and wake up somewhere safe, alright? I don't really have time to explain everything right now."

Before confusion fully set in, the five young women were knocked out and deposited into Zouros' belly. He then ran out of the tent and sunk into the shadows, careful to avoid any light.

'The north... I'm pretty sure I'm in the eastern area right now.'

It was actually quite convenient for him that his only known targets were in the northern part of the camp because Samsara's forces were stalking the imperial army from the southeast. Even now, knights kept on harassing the army, serving as an excellent diversion for his covert actions.

Just as a precaution, he picked off some isolated legionaries and peasant levies, interrogating them in not-so-gentle ways. But the levies knew next to nothing even though they gave in quickly, while the legionaries preferred death.

'If nothing else, I have to praise their soldiers' loyalty. But it's not helping me right now.'

In the end, he gave up on obtaining the locations of all the tents through interrogation. He would find the five tents supposedly in the northern area, save the girls, and then see how things played out from there. In situations like these, he had to be decisive. Otherwise, he'd lose more lives.

Once he reached the northern area, Reivan had a pretty easy time finding the tents. Three of them were fortunately right next to each other. The other two were crowded, seemingly "under heavy use".

Unfortunately, the situation didn't allow him to do much.

The three pink tents adjacent to each other also had guards. While each only had two, they were within eyesight of the others. So he would instantly be discovered if he took any out. Sneaking in wouldn't work because he'd be noticed by the guards outside, and it was already established that he couldn't kill those.

Meanwhile, the crowded tents were, well, too crowded. He would inevitably let some of those slip or scream for help. Furthermore, the only ones allowed to peruse the captive women were imperial vanguards, so it wouldn't be easy for Reivan to slaughter dozens of them without the guards outside noticing. Maybe it was possible to take out a few dozen with a large-scale elemental art but that would be akin to lighting a flame in the darkness—he would be swarmed by vanguards within seconds.

'Guess there's no way to do this subtly.'

Reivan hid in a corner and took out his dream crystal. He telepathically sent forth the information he'd found and ordered the knights to assault the northern portion of the camp. Naturally, they would have to penetrate deep and fast, so he could help secure the area and extract the prisoners.

Gwen quickly responded, scheduling it for about two hours later. The knights had just performed multiple strikes and needed to rest for a bit before they could perform to the best of their abilities. A lot of the homunculi were actually stationed nearby in anticipation of a rear attack, so the knights were going to have a really hard time. They needed all the strength they could spare.

Naturally, Reivan agreed. Even though he pitied the women, he didn't want any of the knights to die. Especially not in a rushed rescue attempt. After all, every knight dead would lower their overall ability to help, thereby lowering the number of lives they could actually save.

Some of the captive women were being ravaged, yes. But at least they were alive. With any hope, they could recover from their horrible experiences.

'Oh, right. Should have just asked her to scout for me in the first place.'

Reivan also asked Gwen to send someone capable of flight to mark down any pink tents in the enemy camp. And it didn't take long to receive an answer.

The image of a map was pushed into his head, where the five tents that he'd already discovered were marked along with the one he'd cleaned out. Thankfully, that wasn't all because there were six other points spread out around the camp.

Five more were at the west and they were thankfully separated from each other. The last one, unfortunately, was very close to the center—likely a tent filled for nobles to use.

'But then why did one of the lords send for a legionary to fetch a girl from the lone east tent? Did the legionary not know about the tent in the middle? Or is the tent at the center only available for really important lords or something?'

There were many questions, but Reivan decided on a plan of action. Before the forces of Samsara recovered their strength and assaulted the northern section of the camp, he had to clean out the other six.

'I'll go for the five in the west sector first. Then see if I can do something about the one at the center...'

His route decided, Reivan took a deep breath and glanced at the stars above before running off.

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Surprisingly, the western section's pleasure tents were very easy to liberate.

It may have been because he got lucky, but there weren't many vanguards nearby. And not many vanguards meant not many had the clearance to be anywhere near the captives. Reivan took out the guards one by one and extracted the girls the same way as the first one. Just like that, he managed to free five tents worth of captives within thirty minutes.

'Now's the hard part.'

Because priests were concentrated in the center along with the nobles, the security was far too tight. There were no shadows to speak of, with corners and blindspots minimized to an obsessive degree. Clearly, the empire was used to dealing with [Darkness] attributed knights infiltrating their base. They had just gotten careless on the first day when Xander blew up their supplies.

Luckily, Reivan had other options. He disguised himself as an Imperial Vanguard patrolling the area. There were other Vanguards doing the same thing, and they would give him a look before nodding in greeting. He would do the same and continue on as if it was business as usual.

He found the pink tent easily enough, but even from afar, he realized that it was different from the others.

First off, it had a lot more guards.

Second, when some people entered it, the momentary gap in the tent flap gave him a peek at the interior—which was decidedly not filled with a bunch of naked women. Instead, the inside of the tent seemed more like a meeting room or something. That said, he still glimpsed a few scantily clad women seemingly serving drinks inside.

'I guess they were dressed up to serve lords...? Either way, this one's going to be tricky.'

One advantage he had was that he didn't need to be as discreet with this one. The five northern tents would be secured by the knights, so he didn't need to worry about them anymore. This also meant that Reivan could be more forceful with his methods as long as he could still escape to the north afterward.

"It's gonna be tricky..." he muttered to himself.

As he idly continued along his patrol route—which he copied from someone else—one of the vanguards guarding the pink tent suddenly flagged him down. Though he was a bit reluctant, Reivan dutifully walked up to the man and scanned for any armor decorations that would set them apart. There didn't seem to be any, so the Argonian was likely at the lowest rank among the vanguards just like the guy Reivan was disguised as.

"Are you the guy replacing me for guard duty?"

"No," Reivan answered after a while. He wasn't even sure where this guy was guarding. "I'm supposed to patrol through this route."

"Plowing heavens..." the vanguard cursed under his breath. "Well, can you take over for me then? I've been guarding the command tent for hours. I was supposed to swap out with someone, but the plowing sack of crap hasn't come to relieve me yet."

'Probably because they're one of the guys I killed.'

Reivan hummed in thought as he pointed at the large pink tent. "That command tent, right?"

The vanguard frowned. "Yeah. There ain't no other command tent, now is there?"

"Was just making sure they didn't set up a new one because of the attacks." Reivan made up an excuse and shrugged. "Those plowing knights haven't given us a rest these days."

"Ain't that the truth," The Argonian chuckled, losing his suspicion. "Well? You up for it? I'll just inform the overseer that I had one of the patrols swap with me. Then I'll hunt down the slacker that was supposed to be here..."

Reivan groaned but internally pumped his fists. "Sure thing. I don't mind. But I better not get in trouble for this."

The vanguard laughed, playfully punching Reivan's arm. "Thanks! Oh, what's your name, by the way? So I can tell the overseer."

"Axi. Name's Berikal," he said. It was the name of an imperial vanguard he slew. Specifically, the one who used to own his current appearance.

"Berikal... Alright. Thanks. I'm Valdi and you don't worry about anything. All you gotta do is stand there and look imposing. You don't even get sent off to the front lines if the camp gets attacked again."

With a final wave, the imperial vanguard went off to who knew where, leaving Reivan alone to stand in the middle of the path. Fully immersing himself in the role, Reivan walked over to the spot that had been previously occupied by the vanguard named Valdi. Unfortunately, said spot wasn't near the entrance of the tent, but rather, somewhere to the side. Vanguards were safeguarding the tent from all sides, and he was just one of many now. His colleagues didn't seem up for a chat though, so he just went along with it and stood there like a statue.

'I think I can hear inside...'

No matter how prepared they were, it was very hard to completely fortify any location within a single day—and that was with stable structures. A camp with only tents wasn't even a possibility unless the tents themselves were enchanted—and to enchant such a flimsy material, Ascendants had to be the ones to do it. With that being impossible, the tent was perfectly ordinary and didn't guard very well against eavesdropping. Reivan had even examined it with [Supreme Insight] just to be sure.

Strangely, there was a cold air seeping out from the tent's lower gaps, presumably to counter the uncomfortable heat. And when he thought about it, Reivan realized that the temperature wasn't that bad even outside the tent. It hadn't been bad even at the first pink tent he came across, even though it was still probably near forty degrees.

'It doesn't seem like elementalism though. So they must have some other way to counteract the heat.'

He'd mostly ignored it until now, but he wondered how the imperials did it.

"The lords are growing anxious," a deep voice rumbled from within the tent, barely audible through the gaps. If Reivan wasn't half warbeast, he may not have heard at all.

"Let them be, Axion," another male voice said. This one seemed a little younger. "They were the most insistent on a coalition, first to argue over who gets the land, first to demand loot and women... Yet when the knights come knocking, they are also the first to suggest retreat. The nerve of them. We should have just gone by ourselves. It's not as if their levies and the pitiful number of vanguard-level warriors they brought along make a difference. They're just slowing us down and consuming what little food we managed to hide away."

"Now, now..." Axion chided, sounding amused. "While I don't disagree, we must throw them a bone sometimes. If they suffer catastrophic losses here, they will be more reluctant to insert themselves in any of our future campaigns. Besides, they have thankfully taken it upon themselves to fulfill all the grunt work. They've absorbed much of the pressure from the knights as well—even with all the vanguards we've lost, it is still much less than we predicted thanks to the sacrifices of the levies."

A new voice, that of a woman, spoke out this time. "We have shed plenty of legionary blood as well. They are seeds who strive to become vanguards and they are dying by the hundreds. Furthermore, though we still have months worth of supplies to maintain our core forces, the supplies lost in the initial ambush are still a big blow. If we wish to muster another campaign under this coalition, then it'll take us many more months before we can gather the required supplies. I'm sure the other coalitions are doing much better. I've heard they're about to take over all the western provinces of Arkhan. This campaign... is a failure."

More voices voiced their agreement as Reivan digested the information.

'There are other armies like this one. And this army still has food hidden somewhere... Probably in a few spatial storage artifacts.'

"So is that it?" the unnamed man from earlier chortled condescendingly. "We just... fall back. Like cowards? Sent home crying by the big scary knights. Is that it? That's what you all want to be known for? We'll be a laughing stock!"

There was silence before Axion cut through it with pragmatic words. "Better shamed than dead. Honor can be reclaimed. But a life? I don't think so, unless you consider becoming a revenant viable."

"And what would you suggest we do? You've been acting like the coalition's commander from the start. Any bright ideas, then?"

"A few," Axion said. "But before I share mine, I'd like to know what you all have to contribute."

The woman who had spoken up earlier cleared her throat. "You gathered all the espers that the ancestor gave us. What has come of that endeavor? Still nothing?"

"Unfortunately, nothing much." Axion chuckled sheepishly. "The ones I sent to Lageton, Aizen's main foothold on the continent, were all taken out somehow."

"All of them?"

"All of the ones that managed to infiltrate the city, yes. I still have others around the area, riling up volcanoes for us."

A new man's voice cut in. "And how is that going?"

Axion was silent for a moment before he sighed. "Unfortunately, they're dealing with the situation easily enough. At this point, I really have to hand it to them—those knights are monsters."

"We are against those monsters," another man said. "So I'd appreciate it if you could stop praising them so much. You've been doing it for days. It's fine if it's just us, but it'll lower the morale for others."

"On the contrary, I think acknowledging the strengths of our enemies is the first step to defeating them."

"Bah." The first man that had spoken from a while ago scoffed. "You talk a big game, but you've wasted all of our espers. Not just yours, but ours too?"

Axion chuckled. "Tsk tsk tsk. Relax, the only espers that got taken out were mine. Yours are still alive. As I said, some are hiding around Lageton to pin down some of the kingdom's forces. Others have infiltrated all straggler communities along our army's path. Even if we retreat, they might be able to infiltrate Lageton just by living among the Arkhanians. That'll make our future campaign easier. We even found a hidden settlement the other day because an esper managed to infiltrate the community."

The knowledge that their own personal troops weren't taken out seemed to calm the general atmosphere within the tent. The discussion became much more productive after that.

"So retreat is really the best option here?" a man asked.

"Yes, unfortunately," Axion said. "Honestly, the only reason why I rushed the formation of our temporary coalition is because I was hoping that Aizen would be too busy to pay attention to us. They're attacking the motherland itself too, as you all know. Arkhan isn't the only war front. Not to mention how they've apparently absorbed most of the Spirit Tower."

"Unfortunately," the woman said with a somewhat tired voice. "They saw it coming. We managed to take over quite a bit of land, but our coalition alarmed our competitors, encouraging them to form their own coalitions. Except theirs will be much more successful because they're far away from the knights."

'Wait a minute... It almost sounds like there are other groups vying for supremacy in Arkhan other than the kingdom and the empire...'

Reivan stood ramrod straight like a statue as he tried to process what he'd heard. That's when he caught sight of multiple flags all around the camp and things finally clicked into place.

'The empire's purpose with the treaty is to create an environment of strife so he could raise capable people.'

Specifically, the War God wanted to raise heroes. But perhaps he also planned to use the chaos to raise a leadership figure as well. If so, he would obviously pick his descendants—of which there were reportedly numerous by now, given the empire's more than a millennia's worth of history. 

Reivan surmised, adding everything else he'd heard from the conversations, that imperial princes and princesses were being made to compete against each other. And it seemed that each one had a certain number of forces assigned to them. Specifically, homunculi, espers, legionaries, and imperial vanguards. Sensing the threat posed by the kingdom's interference, multiple imperial family members banded together to form a coalition so they could conquer southward more safely.

As for the lords and aristocrats, they had simply invited themselves into the part, so to speak.

"Quiet," the woman seemingly tapped the table to get everyone's attention. "You said you had a plan, Axion. Clearly, no one else has one, so why don't you share it now?"

"Oh, well it's quite simple, really," Axion said with confidence. "We'll use the slaves as hostages. I'll negotiate with the knight leader and release all the ones we have in exchange for safe passage. If they don't let us, then we flay some slaves and hang them up along our path of retreat."

None of the others in the tent seemed to think it was a good idea. And they made sure to voice their concerns.

"Knights don't submit to threats like that. Not unless you have a prince or someone captive."

"This won't work. I read multiple reports where they just let hostages die and do unspeakable things to the ones who did it."

"They won't even negotiate. Likely, they know they're in a superior position and will abuse that."

"They might also just renege. Say they'll let us go for the hostages but they'll attack anyway."

"So much backlash..." Axion seemed exasperated. "But valid points all around. Remember though, the situation has changed a lot from the past."

"How so?" the woman sought clarification with genuine curiosity.

"In the past," Axion began. "When a knight lets a hostage get killed, the people of Aizen never blamed the knight—they blamed the one who killed the hostage. This is a reasonable way of thinking, honestly, but the general populace isn't supposed to be reasonable like that. Such results are mainly because three thousand years worth of knights have forged an ironclad reputation of trustworthiness."

"Your point?"

"That reputation only exists for Aizen's people. Everywhere else, they're god-like beings who can beat everything. If they let a bunch of hostages die, who will the people of Arkhan blame? The Argonians who're just doing what they always do or the supposedly strong knights who can do anything if they really want to?"

There was a moment of silence before someone said, "The former, no?"

Axion clicked his tongue. "Well, yes. Most will. But I guarantee that some will blame the latter, my dear cousins. That is simply how the ignorant populace works. I would know, because unlike you all, I grew up in the dirt and mud. When a hunter comes back with a dead apprentice, most blame the bear, but there are always those that blame the hunter for not being perfect."

"And so what if that does happen?" a young man asked with doubt in his tone. "Say we kill hostages after they refuse to let us go unmolested. Our forces will still suffer massive losses during the retreat."

"My brother is right." the woman said. "We stain their reputation among Arkhanians for a while in exchange for tens of thousands of Argonians? That doesn't seem like a good exchange."

Axion chuckled. "I don't either. But it's a threat, right? Think of it this way... Alphon. Let us say, for argument's sake, that you only have a hundred vanguards in your retinue. Now, I make a bet with you—I'll flip a coin, and if you get it right, I will give you twenty of my vanguards. But if you get it wrong, you will have to give me ten. Would you play?"

There was a moment of silence before Alphon, the young man who'd spoken earlier, seemingly clicked his tongue. "I wouldn't."

"Is that so? Even though you could gain more for little risk? How about we play this game right now?"

"I don't want to."

"Suit yourself," Axion continued. "Most people, like Alphon over here, value the avoidance of loss more than the possibility of gain. Consider the current situation from the knights' perspective—they have suffered no losses whatsoever, they've taken out numerous enemy forces, and now, the imperial army is basically begging to be released from suffering. Essentially, the knights are winning. They could go home right now and be proud of their gains because the big bad people from Argonia are retreating no matter what they do. Would they, under these circumstances, stain their reputation—potentially beyond recovery—in exchange for the lives of a few hundred thousand peasant levies? Of which none will truly affect the course of this war?"

Again, there was silence before the woman spoke again. "What if they do?"

"Ah, well." Axion chuckled, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "Honestly, if they take that route, I'll personally send their new leader my respects. Maybe I'll release all the homunculi we have and let them rampage around Arkhan. That'll keep 'em busy until we can get out of here."

"You crazy bastard..."

"Anyway. Silvin, didn't you and Alphon over there see that prince they call the Young Wolf? Back when we were all still attending the Spirit Tower."

The woman grunted. "What of it?"

"Why don't you tell us your impressions of the guy? I was unfortunately too busy studying magic and couldn't care less at the time."

"What do you expect us to tell you? We barely interacted." Alphon scoffed. "And what interaction we did have probably wasn't his true self anyway."

Axion sighed. "That's why I asked for your impression of the guy."

Silvin answered after a bit of thought. "He's strong. Probably stronger than any vanguard."

"Oh?" Axion whistled. "What about me?"

"I don't know."

"Tsk. Well, I suppose I'll just assume that he is stronger than me. Seems safer." Axion cleared his throat and there was a wooden clatter as he seemingly got up from his seat. "That's all for now. We should all catch whatever sleep we can catch. None of you can take more than a few sleepless nights, so I won't keep you for too long. We'll inform the lords of our decision tomorrow morning. I'm sure they're too busy plowing some unfortunate wench."

After that, the people inside steadily filed out. Reivan watched them all, scanning each and every single one with [Supreme Insight]. Among them were two faces he recognized from his time before infiltrating the Spirit Tower—Alphon and Silvin. He had even interacted more closely with Alphon as Clover, working out near each other in the Tower's training hall.

Last to leave was a tall man, with a muscular build that Arnold Schwarzenegger had in his prime. The torso seemed like an inverted triangle with chest muscles barely contained in a white tunic. The man had sun-kissed brown skin and a head of blonde hair.

'This must be that Axion fellow.'

Reivan immediately used [Supreme Insight], only for it to result in something he'd never seen before.

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[ The target's special ability has resisted Supreme Insight. ]

[ Some information cannot be revealed. ]

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Name: Axion Stran Argonia

Species: Human

Realm: Mortal

Age: 21

Sex: Male

Favor

(Interest) 13 / 100

Threat Level

B+

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'Well, that's new. I've either been allowed or denied entirely. It says it's because of the guy's special ability though, so I guess there really are all kinds of gifts out there.'

Just as wondered what else the special gift did, Reivan's gaze met with a pair of blood-red eyes.

The imperial prince was staring right at him.