As the night was at its darkest a group of figures pa.s.sed the human occupied fortress and went towards the beastman encampment, while the beastmen and demons were allied on the surface they kept their distance from each other and they certainly didn't mix their troops at the same camp, after all who knew who tomorrow's enemy would be?

A beastman sentry suppress a yawn as he stood watch but soon a figure appeared in his view, he was about to yell when he saw the fluffy ears on top of the person's head and quickly gave a sigh before he spoke

"You scared the s.h.i.+t out of me..."

The approaching beastman gave a smile before he spoke

"We are returning from a mission behind enemy lines, there's a couple more of us so don't scream when you see them please"

"Sure... Hey good work out there"

"Thanks"

A couple more people approached the sentry from the dark plains the sentry wore a smile on his face as he watched his comrades return from a difficult mission but soon his smile froze as he saw a youth that appeared to be human and quickly asked

"You brought a prisoner?"

The commando beastman gave a sigh but before he could speak the youth spoke up

"Sorry although I appear to be human I would appreciate if you don't lump me together with them... Give me a moment"

Mars gave a sigh as he grew out his horns which made the sentry give a smile before he spoke

"Sorry about that"

Mars decided to play along and gave a smile

"Don't be, why do you think I was picked for this mission?"

The sentry gave a nod as it dawned on him before he gave Mars a salute

"Good work out there"

"Thanks, be sure to keep alert"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good"

Mars gave a genuine smile, he had a soft spot for proper soldiers as he was one in his past life. The group walked into the encampment and greeted the beastmen soldiers they met on the way, soon they reached the central tent where Terra stepped forwards and spoke

"I am Terra, first in line to the throne"

quickly the guards that stood outside the tent gave her a salute before they opened the tent door, Terra gave them a smile and walked in along with Mars and 78, inside the tent stood a burly slightly aged beastman and overlooked a map, when he looked up and saw Terra he gave a smile and a laugh

"Good to see you again princess! How went you mission?"

Terra gave a smile

"While we didn't complete our main goal I believe we have found a way to end the war"

The beastman general glanced over at Mars and 78 before he gave a nod, then he called for a soldier and asked him to show Terra and the others to some free tents

"Go rest, we will speak in the morning"

"Yes, Thank you general"

"It's nothing princess, you must be tired after your mission so please rest well"

Terra gave a nod and left the tent with Mars and 78, then they were showed to some free tents and went to sleep...

In the early morning Mars slowly awoke, thanks to sleeping in a bedroll his arms were free from 78's death grip so for the first time in a while Mars woke up being able to feel all ten of his finger tips which was nice

'Well then, let's get up...'

Mars then slowly crawled out of his bedroll and stepped out of the tent and felt the morning air for a bit before he packed his stuff and sat down on top of his backpack outside of the tent and meditated a bit on his mandate, speaking of his mandate he had the feeling that he was getting close to some sort of tipping point but what lay on the other side of that point he didn't know

'Well whatever it is will be fine... I hope'

Sometime later Mars felt his left arm getting grabbed and knew it was 78 that had sneaked up on him, a rather impossible task but 78 always seemed to be able to do so nonetheless so therefore he stopped meditating and spoke

"Good morning"

"Good morning Mars!"

Hearing 78 cheerful voice Mars gave a smile and opened his eyes before he stretched and ruffled 78's hair for a bit before he asked

"Are you hungry?"

"Yeah a bit"

"Okay then let's go find Terra and get some food"

"Umm!"

78 gave a nod and then the two of them went to find Terra which turned out to be still sleeping in a tent next to theirs, after waiting for her to wake up the three of them went to the mess hall and got some food in them before they talked about the next part of the trip

"So where are we headed next Terra?"

"Well to the capital of course, it's a week in a carriage so please bare with it"

"Sure... Gives me time to meditate anyways"

"...If you don't mind me asking, what are you meditating on?"

Mars gave a smile and simply answered

"The nature of energy"

both Terra and 78 tilted their heads but didn't ask him about it, soon the three of them left the front line camp and walked on foot to the nearest town where they would take a carriage from, as they walked Mars mostly admired the wide open plains and played tag with 78 (He went easy on her of course so she won sometimes).

Also during their trip they met with reinforcements that were headed to the front on foot from the nearest town, the recruits faces were hardened while the veterans seemed more relaxed, Mars greeted them as they walked past each other, they also met with convoys that were filled with supplies for the front.

Soon they reached the nearby city, well it was more of a town made into an army camp with soldiers being drilled and not a lot of civilians around as most of them had moved away from the front, those that stayed were mostly old people that had little to lose and young patriots that hoped to join the army.

While it took sometime the three of them managed to catch a carriage going further away from the front but Mars ended up having to pay a fee to travel on the carriage since Terra didn't want to announce herself as the princess, he didn't really mind though as he had plenty of cel left from his teacher job.

"So... Where are you guys headed?"

Mars asked the couple that sat across from them in the carriage, the man gave a strained smile and spoke

"Well we are headed home... We originally went to try and convince my father to come live with us but he refused saying he would rather die than leave his home..."

Mars gave a smile and rea.s.sured them

"Well hopefully it won't come to that"

"Yeah hopefully... What about you three? Where are you headed?"

"To the capital, we have some business to take care of there"

"Oh I see..."

Mars spent some time chatting with the couple but they gradually ran out of things to talk about so he used the rest of the trip to meditate, Mars was not that good at making small talk but he made an attempt which turned out rather good in his opinion. After half a day of travel the carriage arrived at a proper walled city, Mars said goodbye to the couple and the three of them went to find an inn to stay in for the night...

The next morning the group of Three ate breakfast at the inn before they once more went in search for a carriage that could take them to the capital which was rather easy now that they had reached a proper city, in fact they managed to get a private carriage (at Mars' expense of course) and so time pa.s.sed uneventfully as the carriage rocked from side to side for another week until the group of three managed to reach the capital, standing outside the walls while waiting for an inspection Mars looked up at the grand walls with awe

'They must be about 50 meters tall... Talk about overkill, well I can properly jump that... Dammit now I kind of want to try...'

As Mars stood and thought about trying to jump the walls the queue gradually moved forwards...