I spent all night training, and then, before it was time for the others to wake up, I wore my illusory mask and went out for a walk.

I wanted to go to a place where there were few people to breathe some fresh air and look at the stars without anyone bothering me, so I went towards the back.

Here, outside the fortification, a group of prostitutes and merchants from Hoss that followed us at a distance until now set up their camp. Here the soldiers could sell their spoils to the merchants and then spend it to relieve the day's pressure.

I got out of the crude earth wall that protected the camp and then walked to the right. I had no busyness with them so I just walked away and walked towards the edge of the camp, I was in the empty piece of land between the fortification and the pleasure camp, people rarely came here. The only other people were probably inside the tent in front of me, Erian's medical tent.

She choose to place her tent here instead than in the middle of the fortification and used her large tent as a makeshift hospital, accepting everyone who asked for her healing.

This afternoon's show caused many soldiers to end up injured to allow the enemies to reach us heroes and raise the morale. The clerics though were mostly trained in buffing spells rather than healing, so the burden fell on a group of healers in the logistic team and the priests. Oftentimes, the priests didn't do anything though, and the medical team was the only one carrying the burden. But they weren't enough for treating everyone in only one day, so a lot of people came to Erian. She was also the only person the people in the pleasure camp could rely on.

While I passed I took a peek inside and saw Erian still working, changing the bandages on a patient. She was alone so she probably had to ration her mana and rely on old-fashioned medicine.

She seemed exhausted, but her gentle smile was back on her face, brighter than it used to be.

For a moment I felt some sense of tenderness towards her, watching her motherly figure taking care of others with a smile on her face made me feel cozy and warm.

I then rapidly walked away, I didn't want to have that feeling, even if it felt good. My path was another one, I had to cultivate other feelings.

But one day, maybe, I would be strong enough to protect the ones like her. I only hoped she wouldn't try to hinder me, or I would have to eliminate her.

I felt a deep cold inside me when I thought that.

I continued to walk until I reached an empty zone between Erian's tent and the sentinels on the edge of the camp, and sat down to watch the stars in the sky.

I stood there for a while and managed to empty my mind a bit and regain some peace, and, too soon, the sun rose.

I returned to my tent and helped Lae with the heavier things to carry to my horse.

After I finished, I saw Roxanne and Mark doing the same and decided to use my blessing on Roxanne, expecting pretty much the same.

The scene was about the same, but there was something different about the lioness, she seemed now fiercer and bigger, and there was fire coming out of her mouth. There was also another change in that scene, now together with the lion family, there was also a blind dog. It wasn't much, but I didn't like the new look of the lioness, her eyes were bloodshot and she had a much more aggressive look. I needed to keep a better watch on her now.

I went near Lae, who was finishing preparing Direshadow, and asked her:

“Tell me Lae, is Roxanne fine? She had it rough at the Rising Sun, but this new way of life is much more stressful and unpredictable, considering that she may have to fight soon. I would like her to start gaining power by killing soon, but I don't want her to freak out in the middle of the battle, did she seem stressed or pent up lately to you?”

“No, I don't think so. Back at the brothel, she seemed much meeker, but I think it was out of hopelessness rather than her normal state. I think she now looks better than ever, and if she's nervous, she doesn't show it at all.”

“Good, she seemed a bit unsettled lately to me, but maybe I'm wrong.”

It seemed I had to investigate on my own.

I used to be pretty worried about Erian, but now Roxanne was the biggest wild card in our group. Erian was hostile to me, but she now was alone in that, and honestly, I didn't think she had the tools to oppose me.

The only threat about her was the fact that I was still charmed by something in her, but until I paid attention and didn't lower my guard I was sure I could resist it, I had the mental prowess for it.

Thinking about prowess, I had to measure my physical power. While Lae was still finishing her work I took out the magical tools and measure my energies and my affinities.

I gained about 50 of both mana and ki, bringing my mana to 691 and my ki to 667, war was really remunerative it seemed.

My affinities were pretty much the same, the only big difference was my hellflame and demonic affinities, which rose to 120 and 97 thanks to my new training.

Well, since I only focused on meditation it was normal my affinity rose so much, after all since I couldn't train my manipulation and couldn't have combat training I had to compensate with sheer power.

Lae then finished preparing Direshadow and I hopped up on him, ready to march.

--Roxanne's pov--

Lately, I've been feeling better than ever, I was learning to fight, and also found someone I favoured.

It didn't seem much but it was everything to me.

When I was at the Rising Sun I thought I would live and die like that, meaninglessly, with the only accomplishment of allowing my family to resist a bit more. But now it was different, I was still risking my life, but I was gaining great rewards for it.

I always fought to protect someone, but back then it was a losing battle, I was doomed to have no meaning, while now I can gain the strength to change my fate. Well, with that I only meant I could become an adventurer and gain the citizenship, but it was something that seemed impossible until a little ago.

I also thought I became unable to have any positive feelings for males, but Mark proved me wrong. I don't know what it was but there was something about him that made me feel pure like I was when I was a kid. With him, I felt like having fun again and let myself go. This was something I couldn't do with any other male, actually, I couldn't do it with anyone at all, but with males was worse.

And it was even worse if they believed in Hoss and the empire.

I regretted severely going there with my family, I should have stayed in Zaven, there the things were bad for weak people like us, but at least we had the chance to change things by hunting monsters.

Anyway, I didn't have any choice anymore, Mark was bound to the empire after all, but it was hard seeing those bastards trying to subjugate my people while thinking they were right. Sometimes I just wanted to say fuck everything and go on a killing spree, leaving everything and everyone behind, abandoning all burdens.

But I couldn't do it, I had things to protect.

While I was walking I looked at David, he was someone I despised. He was right at giving importance to strength, but he didn't seem to have any idea about how to use it, he seemed to live in his dreams. Well, Mark was a bit like that too, but he was in a cute and innocent way, while David was dangerous. In a way, he resembled the officials of the empire: living in delusions, with an ego out of control, and with great strength, the worse mix.

But I knew that David liked him, or perhaps was obsessed with him, so I had to live with it, like with all the rest, but maybe I could try to put his feet on the ground. Trying costed nothing after all.

--David's pov--

During the rest of that day, nothing major happened, it was quite a difficult day for me though. I was dead tired and I was getting irritated by everything, the time seemed to not want to pass. Everyone else seemed about in the same condition, the ones that were faring discretely good were Lae, Roxanne, and Mark.

After the day ended and we set up the camp and Ces came to find me and proposed me to witness the war meeting this evening. A messenger from Hoss told us their scouts found an army ahead of us, so every evening the officials gathered to discuss how to face the battle.

The enemy army was just four days of march away from us and was marching towards Twinmounds Fort, a fortress placed in a strategic spot on the road towards Cail. Dodging them would make us lose quite some time since we would have to pass through one of the two, covered in wild trees, hills beside it and then they could cut our supply line easily, so we had to fight them.

Anyway, they had no reason to fight us in the open if they weren't sure they could defeat us so it probably was another attempt to slow us down.

The enemy would have a fortress to protect them, but they still couldn't have too much time to prepare, and I doubted they would use too much of their force just to slow us down, they had all the interests to keep most of their strength for the battle of Cail.

Anyway, Twinmounds Fort was two and a half days away from us, so every meeting was important now, and I was very interested in seeing it.

I went to the commander's tent in tow with Ces and the officials allowed me to remain for the first part of the meeting.

I always like strategy and so I was also very excited about participating in a real strategy meeting alongside real military strategists.

They used a table with a map carved into it and carved pieces of wood to represent the armies, just like in movies.

First, they decided to send an elite centuriam to do as much damage as they could and gather more information before the enemies reached the fortress, then they started to discuss how to face the actual battle.

Hoss's scouts found they were quite numerous, so they either wanted to protect Twinmounds with all they had, which was improbable, or they were using cannon fodder to slow us down while getting rid of some mouths to feed during a possible siege.

A high-priest's aide proposed to push our army to march fast enough to take the fortress before the enemy arrived. But although it was technically possible due to their strength, even those elite soldiers would get tired after that, and it would still be difficult to make it in time.

The commander rejected, with the rest of the alliance not participating we were at an advantage, but Zaven was still not to be underestimated.

A high-priest then proposed to give all the horses we had to the earth mages and send them to the fortress with an escort so that they could start preparing siege weapons. There were many things earth mages could do during a siege, they could create many kinds of siege weapons, like siege towers, stairs, or ramps from which to throw round boulders at the gates as rams and also a temporary fortress of our own to protect us from the enemy fire. All these things were to be imbued to runes and maintained so that enemy earth mages could just melt them, but they were still all useful things.

This proposal was taken into consideration.

Then it was Ces's turn to propose something. He emphasized that if the enemy army was made of cannon fodder as we suspected going for the moral was the best thing to do and proposed to order the centuriam going ahead to take some prisoners and execute them in front of the fortress.

No one said anything but everyone nodded.

I didn't want to be less than him so, while everyone discussed the proposal of another high-priest to be patient and go for a long siege, I came up with something.

After they rejected that proposal I said:

“Esteemed commanders, I may be just an inexperienced earthling, but allow me to advance a proposal. It is a simple idea, but it might give us an edge and I hope it may help to bring more glory to the already glorious empire.

As Ces said, lowering the morale may allow us to win while losing the least soldiers possible, maybe even not fighting at all, so it may be a good idea to make an offer to them and spar their life at the condition that they give a speech in front of the fortress telling how trustful we are. They have been betrayed by their allies, so they should be weak to the charm of an ally that can be trusted and also treat well their captives.

We still need to show them we're not joking so we still need someone to execute and if everyone accepts we can still kill some anyway. On the contrary, if no one accepts we can just kill someone ahead of time, give their clothes to one of ours and make them give the speech, in such an improvised army it's impossible to keep track of everyone. Actually, we should mix in a couple of good orators regardless and give them the longest speeches.”

Everyone nodded again without talking I guess they would at least keep it in mind.

Afterward, the commander opted for a relatively fast siege, taking our time to build siege weapons, but still don't go for starving them even if we could surround them.

They then started simulating the battle both inside and outside the castle, in case they tried to break the siege.

Tactics weren't my forte so I didn't say anything, I just looked with fascination at the wooden pieces moving in mesmerizing ways. I couldn't help but be excited, it would be a battle of brains and muscles where people staked their lives for power, truly an interesting experience.

The evening passed rapidly and I and the aides had to leave the meeting since they had things to discuss by themselves.

I went back to my tent and while I walked, I fantasized about the feast of exp that the battle would be, it felt like one of the books I used to read or one of the strategic games I used to play.