“Politics?”

“Yes.”

Aziz looked around. Their designated landing zone was just a few hundred metres away, but for some reason, it felt like an eternity. The absurdly slow speeds at which they descended probably had something to do with that.

“Explain. Please.”

“It’s quite simple, really. According to the surviving senators of Ark City’s Congress, the two of us helped to foster a rival nation who draws from both a beastfolk and human support base,” Marie replied.

“And that isn’t a good thing somehow?” Aziz asked, disbelief all over his face.

“The politicians at the top do not like a competitor,” Marie replied. “And it was partially us who helped wrought the Republic to begin with.”

Aziz closed his open mouth, somewhat shocked, and then spat out a few choice words.

“For once, I agree with your use of these words,” said Marie. “Ark City’s stance, therefore, changed to something else. It’s no longer about beastfolk or humans. It’s about the fact that they represent an era of oppressed peoples. That is the banner they fly now.”

Aziz ran through the marshal’s words for a moment. “And we, who moved towards a new era, are considered traitors?”

“Pretty much,” said Marie. “Emotions are still running high in Ark City. The current leaders — Campmaster Eliza and Warmaster Chamberlain — are enlightened people who do not subscribe to this belief, but the old ways are still going strong.”

The colonel knew what she meant by ‘old ways’, which simply referred to the senators that dominated the Congress before the Second Extermination. To their credit, apparently quite a few of the hardline conservatives had fallen to buy time for the civilians during their great escape to the Five Lands, but…

His thoughts were interrupted as they landed on the designated area.

“Marshal Marie, Colonel Aziz.” A middle-aged man who stood with a confidence that could only come from age, spoke to them. A black robe covered virtually every part of his body, revealing only the bottom half of his face.

Such a style of dressing…Aziz blinked, and then cautiously ventured a guess. “Minster Eventide?”

“The one and only.” A faint humour lined his words. “Surprised to see me?”

“Very much,” Marie replied. “However, I’m not sure which is more surprising: to see you here, or to have the thought that someone else would wear the same black robe from head to sole.”

The minister chuckled. “True. I don’t know why people don’t like to wear black, though. It’s so useful. Pauline is a lot more amenable to my suggestions when I wear this and look at her. It’s a lot more impressive than making proposals in full combat gear too.”

“We haven’t had the privilege of seeing you take the field before, though,” Aziz mused out loud.

“You’re expecting too much from a sack of creaky bones,” Eventide replied. “Oh, right.”

He spread out his arms, and the black robes billowed dramatically. “Welcome to the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, the first and greatest line of defence against the demon invasion. I hope you enjoy your stay here.”

The last bit was spoken with a bit more malice than Aziz would have liked, and the colonel couldn’t help but make a small wry grin. “Eventide, I think that last sentence would have been better off directed at the demons.”

“I don’t think it’s good enough, though.”

“How about ‘I hope you enjoy your grave here’?” Aziz suggested.

Marie rolled her eyes. “Boys.”

The two men turned their eyes to the marshal, who rolled her eyes even more, and then broke down into laughter. After chatting for a few more minutes, in which time Eventide explicitly approved Aziz’s idea of building smaller defence lines throughout the God of Fire’s Divine Kingdom, the Minister of War returned to his own work, leaving the two of them alone.

Oh, and a bunch of frightened officers.

Aziz glanced at the group of captains, who were all bunched up together for some reason, and raised his eyebrow. “They seem rather scared of Eventide.”

“It’s the black getup he sports every day,” Marie replied. “He was a lot more approachable when he was wearing full combat gear. Now that we aren’t at Camp Napoleon...”

Aziz thought back to the first few times when he encountered the — admittedly — scary Warmaster. Back then, Eventide was in full combat gear, or at least in full infantry armour, at all times. At that time, he looked rather intimidating, but he at least wasn’t unapproachable.

However, the black robes he had been sporting after the Republic was established had firmly placed Eventide into the category of scary, and Aziz couldn’t quite blame anyone for feeling that way. He too was guilty of it at times, after all. Even after they knew each other better, the black robes just didn’t do Eventide any favours.

Marie gave the others some orders, sending them to the canteen…although how she even knew where the canteen was a rather good question.

“Yeah,” Aziz replied. “Where should we go to first, marshal?”

“You only call me that whenever you aren’t certain of anything, right?” Marie patted his shoulder. “Looks like I have no choice. I’ll allow you to hide behind me while we explore this place.”

Aziz felt his eyelid twitch. “Fine, bring it. Let’s go check out this place for ourselves. Do we have a permit to fly here?”

“We’ll need to apply for one, I think. The process shouldn’t take too long,” Marie replied.

“How do you know that?” Aziz paused. “Hey, are you reading from something?”

There was a moment of silence.

“I’m not,” Marie replied. “You must be seeing things wrongly. It’s just a letter that a friend sent me.”

“A friend from the Heaven-cleaving Fortress?” Aziz snorted. “Let me see, let me see!”

“What are you, a child?” Marie rolled her eyes. “Fine, I was fibbing. It’s just a general map of the fortress that I got before we departed for the Great Divide.”

“And you didn’t see it fit to let me see it?”

“I was planning to!” Marie paused, and lowered her voice. “After I impressed you with how I was able to know about this place despite having never visited it before. Ideally, we would make a small bet for lunch or something while we were at it.”

Aziz rolled his eyes. “You should at least hide the fact that you’re reading from something, right?”

Marie glanced at him, and then passed a piece of paper over. The small, tiny words dazzled his eyeballs.

“There wasn’t any time for me to alter this, so…” The marshal stuck a tongue out. “Come on, let’s get our permits.”