'well it's good she recovered... same can't be said for this place...'

they had not seen another person since they entered the desert, the villages and town they came across was empty devoid of people it was like the whole southern desert had been abandoned by the empire, what Mars and Varvei didn't know was the emperor had take the change to redressing the layout of the whole southern desert now that it was devoid of people anyway

"Mars~"

"what is it?"

"nothing I just wanted to say your name~"

Mars looked over at Varvei and saw she had her usual dumb grin on her face and gave a sigh, he was pretty sure she had fallen for him, but due to his inexperience with the whole subject of love he wasn't sure how to proceed plus there was Chloe and Elsa to think about too

'...looks like I have become a lady killer in this life'

Mars didn't know how to feel about the whole thing so he tried not to think too much about it... well one thing's for sure, his dragon side was awfully happy about having so many admirers

'well let's wait until we reach Destra's magic academy...'

Mars shuddered a little when he thought about what would happen when the 3 of them finally meet for real

'...let's not think about it'

as the saying went; out of sight out of mind

"let's make camp a little further ahead"

"okay Mars~"

"Victoria you there?"

Victoria jumped out of a shadow when Mars called and walked over with her horns glowing while lightly purring

"what... is it?"

"can I have the backpack?"

"sure..."

a tar like shadow appeared on the ground in front of Victoria that suddenly shot out the backpack before it disappeared again Mars caught the backpack with his newly healed right hand and put it on his back as they walked another few kilometers before they stopped and made camp for the night, as the sun was slowly setting over the horizon Mars gave another sigh as he looked over at Varvei that had latched on to his arm and was rubbing her face against his shoulder with a dumb grin on her face

"...are you going to do that all night?"

"yes~"

Mars gave yet another sigh before his eyes turned serious and he turned his head and looked into Varvei's crimson eyes and asked

"why don't we do something else?"

"eh, something else?"

Varvei gradually got more and more red in the face before she suddenly took some distance from Mars with a full flush on her face and looked down

"...pervert"

'diversion complete'

Mars had found that while Varvei was very good at 'offence' she had very little 'defense' and was thus easy to get to 'retreat', basically she was like a pure maiden with a very lively fantasy

"well then go to bed, I'll take first watch"

"...meanie"

"what was that?"

"...nothing"

Varvei pouted a little but still got into her sleeping bag and soon she fell asleep, as soon as she begun lightly snoring did Victoria appear, the first thing she did after walking out of the darkness was watching Varvei for a bit before she walked over to Mars and laid down in his lap and begun purring loudly

"what's wrong Victoria?"

"...nothing..."

"okay?"

Mars decided to leave it alone and looked into the campfire while the night gradually grew longer...

The next morning after packing up camp the group once again begun moving south, as the time neared mid day did something unexpected happen

"what's that sound?"

Mars stopped and strained his ears and so did Varvei, the sound Mars was hearing gradually got louder and louder until Varvei also heard it and yelled

"military sky carriage! Mars move!"

Varvei grabbed Mars' hand and begun running for cover, Mars looked back and saw... it, while it was called a military sky carriage that's were the similarities to a normal sky carriage ended it was huge, more than 50 meters across with more than 20 mana armors on the outside of the hull and two mana powered cannons in the front on either side of the c.o.c.kpit

"looks like a heavy landing craft"

"now isn't the time to be in awe, run Mars!"

"yes yes"

Mars picked up Varvei and increased his speed but how could they outrun a military sky carriage? soon it overtook them and landed in front of them, Mars stopped running and narrowed his eyes as the mana armors separated from from the hull of the military sky carriage and begun walking towards the two of them, one of the mana armors was painted pure white and lead the others towards Mars and Varvei

"looks like we can't avoid a fight"

as Mars drew his sword Varvei stepped forwards as the horns in her forehead grew longer and claws grew out form her fingers, her tail also grew out bone barbs as it slowly swung from side to side before she screamed at the mana armors with tears streaming down her face

"WHY ARE YOU HERE!?"

the leading white mana armor raised one of its hands which signaled the others to stop and alone walked forwards towards Varvei and then it... kneeled down

"I ASKED YOU, WHY ARE YOU HERE!?"

the white mana armor lowered its head low before it spoke

"your subordinate is here apologize general"

Mars walked up next to Varvei and petted her on the back

"calm down Varvei"

"okay... ugh this idiot, I'm no longer a general you know that right Jeff?"

the white mana armor spoke out again

"in your subordinate's eyes you will always be the flaming rose general"

Mars' eyes widened slightly and looked at Varvei, of cause he had his suspicions about Varvei being the flaming rose general but hearing it for real was a little of a shock, Mars then pointed his sword at the white mana armor and spoke

"...come out of your armor if you want to talk"

the white mana armor ignored Mars and kept still until Varvei gave a sigh

"do as Mars says"

"understood general"

the back of the mana armor opened and a middle aged man jumped out, he had sort graying hair and a muscular figure he walked over and stopped a few meters ahead of Varvei before he kneeled down again which caused Varvei to give yet another sigh as she once again asked

"why are you here Jeff?"

"your subordinate is here to apologize for his incompetence"

Varvei gave yet another sigh and kneeled down and put her hand on Jeff's shoulder and once again asked this time in a soft almost in inaudible voice

"why are you here Jeff?"

"to help you escape the empire's reach"

"I'm pretty sure that's not your orders though?"

"orders given by the now ruling faction is to be ignored by my own discretion"

Varvei gave yet another sigh before she asked

"what do you want me to do? fight another long and b.l.o.o.d.y civil war to overthrow the human supremacists and restore the empire to its past glory?"

"no your subordinate wishes for you to live a long and happy life away from the empire"

"but that---"

"Varvei"

Varvei was about to say something only to have Mars interrupt her

"what is it Mars?"

"I think we can trust him for now"

"but that's not what I'm talking about, I' worried he will be branded a criminal and sentenced to death for violating orders"

"look at him for a second Varvei those this Jeff seem like a man of poor resolve?"

"but---"

"general we are all here of our free will to help you"

Varvei looked like she had a headache coming and ma.s.saged her temples for sometime until she finally gave yet another sigh and said

"fine, but no more general this general that call me by my name"

Varvei stopped off towards the military sky carriage leaving Mars and Jeff

"oh by the way Jeff was it?"

"yes what is it?"

"for me making a repeat of what happened in Ely isn't hard, so you better be sincere when you say you want to help her"

"...I can swear by the 13 if you want"

Mars gave a grin and pulled out his necklace of the apostle and showed it to Jeff

"no I trust you... for now"

"apostle... so the generals rescue was a divine order?"

"nah it was my will alone"

"...okay"

Mars reached out and gave Jeff a hand as he helped him to his feet again before both of them looked towards Varvei that was walking towards the military sky carriage as she yelled

"come on Mars or I'll leave you behind"

"yeah I'm coming now"

Mars gave a wry smile and followed after Varvei and soon both of them had boarded the military sky carriage