What happened with Kildor made it clear that messing with that general was a bad idea, I had no delusion that he was just lying to me, he treated this war very seriously, which was to be expected, wars were the place for generals and other military personals to shine, if his achievements were good enough, this could be his golden ticket.

His strict reaction and veiled threat destroyed many of my plans for delaying the army's advancement. The best I could do then is ask Gorduf to have the driver slow down the carriage a bit, using my comfort as an excuse. I hoped that Kildor won't find a problem with this level of indulging, and that it would win me some time, no matter how small it was.

All I could do was wait for the time to come so I can go on with my plan.

On Dorian's side, I was still laying down when I heard a commotion from outside, it didn't feel like something happened, but more like a quiet place got suddenly invaded by a group of noisy men.

Getting up, I headed towards the entrance and was met by the face of Lambert, who was surrounded by other guards and them laughing and joking around. I wanted to go and ask him about how things went and if he noticed anything weird, but just as I wanted to take the first step, my body froze.

I felt my heart beat faster as I saw all the people who were with him, I knew all of them and I probably talked to every single one of them before, yet seeing them together like that made me nervous for some reason.

From Dorian's memories, I was able to see that he had a bit of social anxiety, it wasn't that bad and he could overcome it after a bit, but it would sometimes attack him when he wasn't ready for it, and in those times he would need some time to himself.

I backtracked a bit into the break room and hid behind the wall, taking deep breaths and trying to control my beating heart. Soon my breathing returned to normal and I felt like myself again, so I prepared mentally and turned around to meet Lambert and the other guards.

"Dorian, there you are," shouted Lambert when I was a few feet away from them.

I waved lightly to him, and nodded to the others while I did my best to ignore how almost all of them turned to look at me after Lambert's shout.

"How are you feeling? Any better?" He asked after dragging me aside for a bit.

"I'm way better right now, no need to worry," I waved his worries away before asking what I wanted to ask since the beginning, "and... What about you? Did you see anything unusual when you were patrolling?"

"What? Nah, same as usual," he answered, "nothing really happens in these parts as you know, sometimes I almost wish those demons would grow a spine and come to try us out."

At his attempt at humour, the most I could do is force a smile as my heart skipped a beat, 'if you only knew,' I thought.

"Well, it's good that you found nothing, but we shouldn't let our guards down just because of that, who knows what's out there," I said without much thought as if Dorian's concern couldn't be contained.

"Well, I've never been one to let my guards down," he patted me on the shoulder as he said confidently, "if anything was there I would have been able to notice it."

His words comforted me, at least there was nothing out there yet, if there was, just like Lambert said, he would have been able to sense it, few things would be able to hide from him after he got his Inheritance.

And just like that, the day passed with no major occurrences, on both sides. Nothing much happened with Dorian, I only helped at the guardhouse because captain Dunn believed that I wasn't feeling that well, which I appreciated. And on Zagmuz's side, we moved for the whole day, not even stopping for lunch or rest, it was then that I understood why Kildor was that angry with me for stopping just because I felt a bit unwell.

It would seem that Kildor was pushing the army too much, but with how the army was composed, it was actually understandable. 

The demons were using simple but robust wooden wagons, each one could hold 4 to 5 soldiers and was drawn by an animal native to this world that seemed like a miniature version of a woolly mammoth, they were around 2 meters in height and had astonishing strength and endurance, they could move for hours without rest. I was also told by Gorduf when I asked about it, that the soldiers had their food for the day with them in the wagons.

Anyway, when we finally stopped for the night, I waited in my carriage for my tent to be set up, I also had Gorduf tell me when Kildor met with the other army's higher-ups because I needed to be there to start my plan.

I was a bit surprised when I entered my tent and saw that most of my furniture got replaced. Not everything was as extravagant as my previous furniture though, for example, the full-body mirror they got me was way smaller than the one I had before.

It took a while for Gorduf to finally come and tell me that Kildor and the other captains had gathered, enough for me to rest for a bit, take a bath and relieve myself.

I told him to wait for me outside as I prepared myself mentally for what was coming, I had to be careful not to mess this up, a lot was on the line after all.

When I felt that I was prepared enough, I went outside and had Gorduf lead the way, Deraan was there too, and I nodded slightly towards him, he smiled widely and nodded back.

Same as last time, when I entered the tent Kildor was using for meetings, I noticed that the seat at the head of the table was still empty, and I of course took it without care for what the people in the tent thought.

After Gorduf and Deraan took their seats too, I finally turned to Kildor and started in Zagmuz's usual arrogant tone:

"So, I have a few things to ask, things I feel that I should know as this army's leader and the one who's deciding how we are doing this."

I made sure to stress my words when I referred to myself as the leader as I glared at Kildor. The general himself didn't react much to my words, he just nodded lightly my way.

"I need to know how we are making sure that the army is moving unseen, and that the humans are not expecting us, or that we are heading to a trap."

I started with something that someone in my position would ask, hoping that this would open the door for me to bring up what I really wanted to ask about. I knew that starting with what I wanted straight away would seem suspicious.

No one answered me for a while, at least till kildor threw a glance at a certain demon in the room. Just this made me understand that things weren't that good for me, everyone there still treated Kildor as the real leader, not caring about me one bit, for them I was nothing but a brat they had to tolerate.

"Your Highness," spoke the demon Kildor glanced at, she was an eriny like the maid that I saw that morning, except she was more fit and had a stronger body, "my name is Liya, and I'm the person who's making sure that we are as unseen as could be."

I tried to hold the anger that started boiling under the surface at being treated like an idiot by Kildor and his soldiers before asking:

"So? What can you tell me? How are you doing your job?"

"We have a squad composed of some of our best, they are moving ahead of us and making sure that no one would see us, and that if we do get seen, they would make sure that the one who did won't survive to inform anyone. Also even before we marched out, this route was mapped and we were sure that it's rarely taken by anyone, especially humans."

I mentally froze for a bit when I heard that they had a squad that was most probably out there killing anyone they came into contact with to keep their advancement a secret, before I forcibly hardened my heart, this was nothing in face of what was probably waiting for me when the war starts for real.

"That's it?" I said after she was done talking in the most displeased tone I could muster.

The eriny flinched visibly at my words, and even Kildor frowned, it seemed that he didn't like one of his being belittled like this, but I didn't care, I just continued, finally seeing a chance to bring up the real reason I was even there without raising any suspicions.

"Everyone in Border town could be preparing for our arrival right now and we wouldn't even know," I tried to show my disapproval and displeasure through Zagmuz's gaze, which was easy considering that that was how he looked at almost everything daily.

"That can't be," the eriny said, it seemed that she had high self-esteem and didn't like her work being criticized, which was great for me.

She still wanted to say some more and defend herself, but I didn't let her and continued in a mocking tone:

"Because you are saying so? How reassuring," I snorted then looked at Kildor, "so this is how you lead your army, huh? As expected from someone like you."

"IT'S NOT BECAUSE I SAID SO!" The eriny shouted as she stood up when I directed my mockery towards Kildor, "we have people from the inside, and we know all that is happening in that shit town as if we are there."

I turned my head slowly to the eriny again, when my eyes met hers, I could see all the other feelings leaving her face, only leaving room for confusion and a hint of fear, that was growing slowly.

"Don't. You. Ever." I said from behind clenched teeth, each word coming out full of venom and hate, "Dare. Shout. At. Me." 

As I looked at the eriny, an orange fire started burning around my clenched fist that was on the table. 

At that moment, even though I had gotten what I wanted, them admitting to having someone in Border Town, and only needed to push for a bit more to know who they were, the anger I felt towards the eriny drowned all and any other feelings I had. I was sure that if I was in any other place, I would have attacked her already or had her killed.