The advisors gradually left the war tent, each going their own way, with only two men standing out as they were the sole humans amongst them.
The first was Magnus, while the second…
Cassius Asta. The man who participated in countless wars. The man who had seen it all, from the most evil minds to the most selfless. The man who thought nothing could phase him anymore after experiencing that thing.
...But here he was, getting shaken once more, by the same man that he came to view as an anomaly amongst the humans.
It all started with him trying to read their minds.
In the case of the queen, he didn't have much interaction with her aside from the weekly war council, where every representative met. From that, he noticed her frightening rationality and logic-driven mind.
The way she saw everything in patterns, categorized information, and processed it was eerily reminiscent of the way his own Astrologer dissected personality. But even if she was just replicating a trace of its might, she was doing it on her own, using her own reasoning and intellect.
...That is, until she met that anomaly.
It was suddenly like her whole world started revolving around him and solely him. Every calculation started taking him and his well-being into consideration; every decision was made with him in the picture...
It was almost like a switch flipped in her mind, or perhaps it had always been like that, and he just noticed it now that those thoughts were brought to the forefront in his presence.
For the anomaly, though, while most of his thoughts and emotions were indeed preoccupied with the queen, it had only taken him one day to steer his mind to something more productive, even with his emotions still burning with useless lust and love.
Cassius was glad for this, now eager to know the actual thoughts of the man with the strongest will he had ever encountered.
And 'surprising' didn't even begin to describe his reaction.
First of all, but certainly not least... The anomaly seemed to think of himself as a person from two hundred years in the future who came here with a mission to change as much of the future as possible.
Cassius would have dismissed this as another crazy thought. The anomaly believed himself to be the world's savior after all, so what's one more time-traveling delusion?
However, his fantasies didn't seem without substance, since astonishingly enough, he already knew of the plan to wipe out the two armies in one fell swoop using the Narkals, knew the actual culprit behind it, and was even looking for him with the intention of stopping him.
Cassius almost believed that he was indeed from the future, but he soon dismissed the idea. Time traveling was too inconceivable, even for gods, let alone a human.
His most likely guess was an innate ability feeding him visions from the future. This made it on par with his ability in terms of utility. Cassius rated it even higher, since it actually showed the future, unlike his fake claim.
But all of this wasn't important right now... At least, not as much as the Astrologer predicting his own death in the very near future.
After reading the couple's every facet of their personalities, from their behavior and habits to their thoughts and motivations, he predicted that they would move against him within the week, with every day exponentially increasing the chance of his death.
Put another way, he was still relatively safe right now, since it hadn't been even a day since the start of his death's deadline. Cassius had to thank the anomaly for his desire to study and observe him before making his move, since it granted him this window.
'It seems that the interest went both ways,' Cassius thought in intrigue as he aimlessly walked ahead, with Magnus still shadowing him.
"Sadly for you, dear anomaly, curiosity killed the cat... or has it spared it in this case, perhaps? Haha."
Magnus, marching one step behind, didn't pay much attention to his leader's mumbling; he was known for saying incomprehensible things from time to time and rarely explained himself.
Something else made him break his silence, though: "Commander, this is not the way to the human camp."
Cassius didn't stop, nor did he change directions; instead, he nodded affirmingly. "It seems that we are not welcome here anymore. We're leaving, Magnus. Are you with me?"
"Naturally."
The vice commander didn't even ask about the reasoning behind that conclusion, even though the demi-humans had been pretty accommodating and everything pointed to the opposite of his words.
Because he knew the terror of the Astrologer and its capabilities, second only to its owner.
⛧⛧⛧
"...And that's why we are so cooked now..." Ashen explained bitterly to Alice, who still clung to his lap, despite the alarming news she was hearing.
"So... you're telling me that the human commander, that heroic looking man, who I still can't fathom why he'd even defect, is actually the orchestrator of the Narkals' stampede and the eventual death of everyone here?"
"Pretty much..." He palmed his forehead, suddenly feeling a lot shittier for his oversight when she put the man's actual danger this way.
"...And that very same man is still operating in our present time, two hundred years from now, as a cult leader who is working toward the human race's destruction, and actually still getting away with it?" Alice asked again, confirming, her voice soft and nonchalant, as if she was talking about the weather.
"Fuck me... Yes, that's right!" Ashen wasn't as relaxed as her, though. How could he be when even with all his prior information, he still managed to miss the man and get spied on instead?
"I'd like to do that, dear, but it seems we have to deal with this threat first." Alice gave him a soft kiss on the chin, and that seemed to ground him.
"Right, let's assess the current situation first." He closed his eyes and took a breath.
Alice nodded. "First, let's assume that he already has a hold of our personalities and current power level."
Ashen continued, "It seems that he needs more time or maybe more observation to predict the future since..."
He let the words drift, and Alice picked them up. "...Since if he's able to predict the future, he'd surely see his death or imprisonment at our hands."
"...But with him still here looking so at ease, that's obviously not the case," Ashen concluded.
Alice reached a hand to caress his hair, while the other nuzzled his shoulder. "...If he saw my power level, then he must know that I'm not as powerful as the fox queen is rumored to be..."
Hearing Alice's whisper, Ashen got confused for a moment, but soon understood. "While you have her mana and physique, you don't have the memories, so you can't access the spells that actually make her feared..."
"That's right," she admitted easily, not bothered. "But with all this mana, I can create a lot of toys in much less time, so I've been stocking for the past two weeks. You'd be surprised."
"That's one good news at least..." He laughed.
"Now, back to the bad news." She said. "I'm pretty sure he already knows my personality."
"Why sure?"
"Because I couldn't get a read on him. He actually fooled me into believing that the fake personality he was acting out was the real one."
Ashen's tone grimmed. "...The only way to fool you is to get a sense of how you observe the world and read patterns, and adjust according to that... It seems his ability is more than he lets on..."
"...That's plausible. A man that cunning will never show all his cards, so we must prepare for surprises." Alice nodded in affirmation. "How about you...?"
Ashen looked ahead with a weird look. "...If he read my personality, he'd probably think I'm crazy, but he won't get any real advantage, I think... So let's leave it at that."
"Why? I find your current personality quite charming..." She whispered as she still clung beside his ear.
Ashen let out a scoff. "Alice, I'm sure you'd even find my completely deadbeat personality cute, so let's not take you as an example."
"Fi~~ne." She pouted.
Ashen shook his head in amusement before steering them back to the topic.
"No matter what, I don't think he'd make a move on us just because you're weaker than expected..." He started.
She agreed. "True, not with all the demi-humans at my beck and call, so he will probably stay low before the Narkals arrive..."
"But we must not," he said.
"Yes, first, let's avoid him, just in case his future-predicting ability is triggered through sight," she proposed.
"...Let's also put some surveillance on him, in case you haven't yet. That way, we will know if he foresaw something when he starts acting up." He added.
"Aside from that, will we gather as much data on him for the confrontation back in our time, or should we just kill him?" Alice asked curiously, leaving the decision in his hands.
Ashen thought for a moment before making a decision, the same one that would make surviving this fragment of history so much harder than it should have been.
"We will observe him for a week, no more. If he makes any strange movements, we kill him immediately."
"...Alright, but don't forget that his prediction ability could activate anytime. We still haven't discovered the true trigger after all." She cautioned.
"I know. The date for the Narkal invasion is 25 November 1825..." He informed.
"...And today is 23 August 1825." Alice helpfully added, knowing what he was getting at.
He smiled. "That's more than three whole months before the Narkal invasion in the real timeline. I don't know how he did it, but since it's still so far away, I figured waiting one more week won't change much..."
Alice agreed, seeing his point. "...Even if we killed the current Cassius, the one in real life would still be alive and well, so it's more practical to use this one to probe for weaknesses in preparation for the real confrontation."
"Exactly." He stroked her tails in satisfaction.
But the smug look soon left his face as he heard the voice of a messenger that suddenly arrived in front of the tent.
"Your Majesty! Commander Cassius Asta of the human army and his deputy have gone missing! Should we send search parties?"
"..."
"..."
"Fuck." He finally uttered in defeat.
"...I might take you up on that offer, after all." She sighed softly.