"I see, so like a carriage but powered by steam? wait how does that work?"

"hmm... it's a little hard to explain..."

"oh I see, then don't worry about it Mars"

"okay, well then Alfred where to next?"

Alfred thought for a moment before he eventually asked

"what about visiting the port first them?"

Mars gave a nod

"sure lead the way"

AS Alfred lead the way down to the port Mars looked at the buildings around him, they were mostly 2 or 3 story brick buildings with few windows which gave the city a slightly cold feeling, when they reached the port district Mars was not so surprised to see giant ironclad s.h.i.+ps with steam engines at the docks

"are there normally this many s.h.i.+ps in the dock Alfred?"

"no, normally they would leave for Kafer as soon as they had loaded new cargo but with the invasion going on most of them have been in port for sometime now..."

"I see"

Mars and the others looked around on the port some more before Alfred brought them back into the city and showed them around, after some time Mars got bored of seeing the same brick buildings over and over again and asked Alfred

"Alfred, I'm starting to get hungry do you have any recommendations on where to eat?"

"hmm... I'm afraid I don't eat out much but there is this place near where I work I sometimes go when the work nights gets long"

"That will do, lead the way"

"yes, at once"

"we're hungry too"

Varvei and Mary both spoke up, apparently hunger had found them too

"well then I'll lead the way"

Alfred let the way through the streets that were surprisingly empty streets, Mars understood why, n.o.body wanted to live in a city that could be attack at any moment, most people they saw were the old that had nothing to lose or perhaps were too attached to the city to run form it

"well then we're here"

Mars stopped his idle thoughts and looked over before he asked

"Isn't it too early to be drinking? well not that I mind though"

"it is indeed a bar Mars but their food is also very good, anyways this is the place I recommend"

"okay then let's see what they have..."

meanwhile in a not so distant location a woman stood and overlooked the port from a vantage point on top of a building, she carried a spear and was clad in light metal armor that covered all but her back where 2 sets of wings were growing from, she clearly was not of this world or in other words she was an invader

"commander"

a subordinate spoke up from behind her, he like her had 2 sets of wings growing from his back, clearly he was of the same race

"...what is it?"

"we have managed to gain control the s.h.i.+ps left in the harbor and are ready to invade the landma.s.s beyond the sea"

the commander gave a nod before she fell quiet and after thinking for sometime she spoke

"is it really for the best?"

"commander?"

the commander fell silent again, after a few moments she spoke again

"greed was what drove our old world to ruin, so is it really for the best to be greedy once again?"

the subordinate lowered his head and spoke with clenched teeth

"bu commander the earthen tribes have already claimed the most fertile land, at this rate our people will starve"

the commander gave a sigh and after a few more moments of silence she spoke again

"have our troops get familiar with the s.h.i.+ps first"

the subordinate's eyes lit up and lowered his head deeper before he spoke

"yes commander!"

"good, you may leave"

the subordinate rose to his feet and with a flap of his wings he flew off towards the port leaving the commander alone, she gave another sigh and took off her helmet and let her long white hair flow out before she sat down on the edge of the roof and looked east towards the unknown landma.s.s they soon would be invading and muttered

"is this really for the best..?"

the wind carried her voice out to the sea where it disappeared among the rolling waves...

Mars opened his eyes, an unknown ceiling was above him

'where is this again..?'

Mars slowly sat up in his bed and looked around, he was in a small room with a single bed where Varvei was laying along with himself

'oh right.... the reconquest starts today...'

the memories of last night slowly returned to him, after they had eaten they had returned to Alfred's house where they meet his elven wife Christina and then after finding out there was only one bedroom with one bed the girls had played games to decide who would have to honor of sleeping with Mars and who should sleep on the couch, after a long fight Varvei emerged victorious.

'and then she dragged me to bed after that and hugged me tight before she fell asleep...'

it might sound like Mars was complaining but he was actually quite happy being used as a body pillow and he had slept better than he had the past few weeks

'well whatever... time to get up...'

Mars tired to get off the bed but found himself unable to as Varvei still had him in a death grip

'well I guess this comes first'

Mars began poking her soft cheek and after awhile Varvei slowly opened her eyes and stared at Mars with her vertical split red eyes for a little while before she wrapped her arms around Mars and dragged him down again before she closed her eyes again as she snuggled up to Mars

'well I guess we can sleep in for a bit...'