"Boy... you know the Veiled Moon?"
The captain knew that they had already been overheard, so he opted for a stiff nod instead of antagonizing the three clearly much more powerful demi-humans with silence.
"Good." The elf, with the demeanor of an elder and the face of a teenager, nodded, satisfied. "This shall make matters far easier to convey."
The woman on his right, the elf with the thin saber, took a step forward and silently threw a piece of clothing in their direction.
A glance at it clued them in that it was a piece of the attire of the men they were fighting earlier. More importantly, it was the strip that had the emblem Ashen had described earlier.
The elf who spoke earlier continued, "We have tracked the Veiled Moon for more than two moons in these lands, and one of our charges was to secure proof of their presence here."
Then, disappointed, he added, "Alas, they proved more elusive than anticipated, and this is all we could claim."
The elf sighed in relief. "Fortune smiles upon us that you bore witness with your own eyes. Such testimony shall suffice to deliver unto your commander, alongside the empire's word."
The three elves sharpened their gazes, making their presence even more suffocating.
"...Y-es." The captain, who was at the highest step amongst them at 6th, was the only one who managed to utter a word underneath that pressure, and it fortunately worked as they were able to breathe as soon as he spoke.
"...Then hearken well," the elf's tone and posture suddenly shifted into something more regal, and not even his youthful face could diminish it.
"The Veiled Moon is a plague born from thy kind, and ye have allowed it to fester amongst you long enough to spread to nigh every corner... Now it threatens to engulf the whole of mankind, and ye remain ignorant still..."
As Ashen heard the words, he had to resist the urge to facepalm. 'Great, just what we needed—a fucking cult as an internal enemy when we are already overwhelmed by external ones.'
"...This is thy final chance to avert the crisis that is the Veiled Moon. Seize it, else our empire shall tolerate thee no longer."
The three figures gradually vanished as soon as the man finished speaking, but a final message rang alongside the wind, even though there was no one left to deliver it.
"...The Astrologer shall enact his vengeance by any means necessary. This is the karma thy race hath sown, thus it falls upon thee to mend it."
⛧
The atmosphere of the return journey was gloomy because, for one, most of their division was wiped out, and second, the threat of this so-called cult seemed anything but simple.
Ashen's mind was occupied with this new variable the whole way back, trying to make theories, but nothing would stick without more context.
And from the look on their captain's face, it didn't seem that he would be receptive enough to elaborate.
The moment they reached the temporary camp of the army, the captain promptly went to report, and surprisingly, Ashen was asked to report in not long after.
The moment he entered the general's tent, he instantly felt the somber mood of the man who had the entire army's fate constantly on his shoulders.
"Scout Ashen Hart, reporting for duty as ordered."
Ashen announced before planting his feet shoulder-width apart and drawing his right hand from the heart up to the jawline, fingers tight together, palm inward, in a smooth motion.
For a split second, his hand hovered there, as if sealing the oath upon the lips. Then, with a sharp exhale, his hand snapped diagonally down and out, palm slicing the air toward the left hip in one motion.
Ashen thought that the salute, what they called the Iron Oath salute, was a cumbersome process every time he had to do it at first, but when he learned the meaning behind every gesture, he stopped thinking about it as a drag and did it with much more sincerity.
How cool it looked when a hundred soldiers raised their hands in unison, drawing the motion from heart to jaw, then cutting down in a single breath, making the air hiss as one certainly contributed to that sincerity, though.
The actual meaning that convinced him, aside from the visuals, was in the soldier's vow to ascend from conviction to command. That was what heart-to-jawline symbolized: what begins as belief ends as action.
The brief pause near the lips meant a silent promise for what is sworn and what shall be done.
And the final diagonal cut represented the oath taker's decisive execution being swift, efficient, and final.
This made each salute always a reminder to the soldiers of their conviction to guard the wall that hid their loved ones.
"Take a seat." The general merely nodded before gesturing toward the chair across from the table at which he sat.
Ashen relaxed his posture and complied.
"After your last mission, I'm sure you have a lot of questions… You are here to get answers, so ask away." The general's tone was casual, but the content was anything but for Ashen.
He raised an eyebrow. "...Sir, isn't this classified information?"
"It is." He nodded.
"...Then?" Ashen let the question hang, hoping for an explanation.
"It may be classified, and normally, you wouldn't even know what Veiled Moon means until you at least become an officer by my side, but I judged that you have the right to know more, solely based on your talent and contribution to the army."
"Oh, that works?" Ashen mumbled, and the general caught it.
"Of course. I'm the one who makes most of the rules here. And if I decide that you must know something, then you will know."
Ashen didn't know how to react to that, so he simply accepted. "Thank you for your trust, sir."
He didn't see any downsides to having more information anyway, especially if it supposedly concerned the safety of all of humanity.
"You don't have to thank me; you have earned this by your own merit." The general shook his head slowly, then fixed his aged eyes on him.
"Your performance and dedication have long been noticed. Your promotion to the scout position is a decision based on that and the nature of your talents."
He stroked his white beard. "...The decision to disclose classified information is naturally also based on that..."
He paused for a beat, then stated, "I'm sure you already know, but we, at the Bloodwall army, won't judge you on other things as much as your contribution to the war."
"Here, as long as you kill more Narkals, your past becomes irrelevant."
"...Your race won't be an issue..."
"...No matter what secrets you hide, we won't pry..."
"...Even if you're a little crazy, you'd still be tolerated."
"...All you have to do is kill. Kill as much as you can for however long you can last... and no one would bother you on my watch."
"...Yes, sir." That was all Ashen managed to say as he saw the raw hatred in the old general's eyes.
He wasn't overly shocked since Lucia had already told him how things were run here before coming, and that was why he dared to show such exaggerated performance on the battlefield without the fear of people prying into his secrets.
'I guess the old general wanted to reassure me that no one would bother me, just in case I was holding back because of fear of harm coming to me when I exposed my hidden cards.' Ashen mused.
"...As long as you understand." He nodded briefly. "We got sidetracked, so I assume you want to ask about the cult?"
"If it is permissible."
"It's not a problem..." The general reclined back. "Where do I begin...?"
"Well, first of all, what those long-eared bastards said is mostly true." He clicked his tongue.
Ashen ignored the derogatory comment about the elves and confirmed, "Sir, does that mean that there is really an organization that could threaten all of humanity hiding amongst us...? And that it was of our own making...?"
"Unfortunately, yes, to both of your questions. And the recent sharp increase in the Narkals' aggression may also be connected to them..."
Ashen's face stayed stone-faced outwardly, but inside his mind kept spewing every curse he could think of, knowing that the human race still could not unite, even with the possibility of extinction looming ahead.
The signs were already there.
While the demi-humans built an empire that encompassed their every race… from catkin, houndkin, foxkin, and even the usually antagonistic elvenkind and dwarvenfolk… the humans, as a single race, managed to form five factions still.
'Long live humanity, I guess...' Ashen thought sarcastically.