The door creaked open, and Yetos and Xibizete stepped inside. It had been a few days since Zeng Mu had seen them, and their faces seemed slightly different from before. The change was subtle, but he could still make out those faint traces of age.
"Nameless, did you have a smooth trip back?" Yetos spread his arms as he approached and gave him a firm hug.
"Good to have you back. I really must thank you this time. If it weren't for you, Nair would have been in danger. Oh, have you seen her yet?" Xibizete asked, patting his shoulder.
Zeng Mu nodded. "Yes, everything went smoothly. I only did what I should."
Both men tilted their heads, seemingly dissatisfied with his answer. Of course, they had been prepared for that disappointment. They had known he would say exactly that.
"Sit down." Xibizete gestured with his hand.
Only after the two men had taken their seats did Zeng Mu dare sit down. Then Yetos pulled a rolled-up map from inside his clothes and, with Xibizete's help, spread it across the octagonal table.
It was a fairly large map, two meters long and a meter and a half wide, densely packed with drawings and markings. There were too many lines, intersections, and other symbols to take in at once. They left him dazzled, unable to distinguish them clearly.
"Look. This shows the state of the war in every region of our Holy Sword Territory. Here are Gway, Warren, Trissa, and Moy. Not one of these places has been spared. They're all locked in fierce, tense fighting."
Perhaps the military map was too complicated for Zeng Mu to grasp right away, but there was no denying that he understood just how desperate the situation was.
"Yes, put that way, things really are