Their Company Captain, who, for the record, was named Vollm, summoned a Corporal to send them to their company's section of the camp.
Their assigned company was #39 of the Cinder Outpost, and as they neared their designated area, they unexpectedly ran into a squad of familiar faces.
The Sergeant in charge of the squad had just left when both sides spotted each other, eyes widening in surprise.
Standing before them were Carack and several others from Floch's wing training group, people they hadn't seen since they had been called away by their Captain after the incident with Ralguth nearly two weeks ago.
Carack and his squad reacted with equal surprise, not expecting to run into them so suddenly.
The Corporal leading Xaren and Ilya merely pointed toward Carack's group and instructed them to follow before turning on his heel and walking away.
After muttering small thanks to the Corporal, Xaren turned to Carack, then thrust his fist forward, meeting Carack's in a fist-bump.
"Long time no see."
Carack laughed, knocking his fist against Xaren's.
"Indeed, long time no see."
Even though it had only been about thirteen days since they last met, they said it anyway just for the fun of it.
When Carack's gaze landed on Ilya, he straightened up and gave a mock salute.
"Welcome back, Captain Ilya!"
His serious expression barely lasted a second before he burst out laughing. Ilya only shook her head with a small smile, while Xaren chuckled and added,
"Keep the jokes inside, Carack, we wouldn't want to end up like that guy from that day."
Almost instantly, Xaren felt a sharp glare directed at him. Turning his head, he found another familiar face within Carack's group. It was that guy—Ralguth.
The same Ralguth who had once declared himself the "leader" of their Company despite not being appointed and had been punished for it. Now, he was glaring at Xaren as if they had unfinished business.
Xaren met his gaze with a raised eyebrow, his expression clearly asking, What, you got a problem?
Carack and Ilya both turned to Ralguth at the same time, their gazes just as cold.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Ralguth averted his eyes, then turned and walked back into the tent area without another word.
Xaren and Ilya turned away, returning their focus to Carack who led them into the tent area. Glancing around at the others who were in Carack's squad just now, Xaren asked.
"So, why were you guys outside anyway?"
Carack answered casually, "Oh, we were on patrol duty, so we just got back."
'Oh, that makes sense.'
A large army camp like this needed constant patrols, so each company had a squad assigned to go out at certain hours. The squads from different companies combined to form full patrol teams, ensuring security throughout the camp.
Carack's squad had been on patrol right up until a few minutes before Xaren and Ilya returned. Now that their shift was over, they had swapped out with the next team and were heading back to get some rest before the main attack in the morning.
"Oh yeah, speaking of which," Carack started, pointing toward Ralguth, who was walking somewhere deeper into the tent area.
"That guy got punished by Captain Vollm, and he completely lost his rank."
Xaren turned to him, confused. "He got demoted?"
"No. He has no rank. Look at his uniform. He doesn't have any rank badge on his shoulder."
At Carack's words, Xaren and Ilya both turned their gazes toward Ralguth. Sure enough, his shoulder was bare, unlike theirs, which still displayed their respective insignias.
"He's now a No-Insignia."
Xaren and Ilya were dumbfounded.
"That's… possible?" Ilya's confused voice rang out as she turned to Xaren.
Feeling her questioning look, Xaren shook his head. "I'm just as lost as you are."
He had never seen a situation where someone was stripped of their rank entirely, becoming lower than a Private. In a hierarchical society like that of the demons, losing one's "Rank" in any capacity was one of the greatest humiliations imaginable.
That much was evident from how Ralguth was now being ostracized within the Company. Even his former cronies had stopped associating with him.
Then again, this punishment was rather mild, considering his offence had essentially been insubordination.
'Next time, he won't try to claim Captain when he hasn't been appointed one.'
Xaren thought this to himself but then recalled the glare Ralguth had given him earlier.
'He doesn't seem like the type to learn his lesson easily. I should keep an eye out.'
Though Xaren didn't want to waste his energy thinking about Ralguth, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious.
They continued chatting about random things as Carack led them toward what seemed to be the supply tent. Along the way, they encountered Bjorn—the leopard demon.
Upon seeing them, Bjorn raised an eyebrow and spoke.
"Grey demon, Xaren. Fast Ilya."
"You could have done without the 'Grey Demon' part, you know?" Xaren muttered as he bumped fists with Bjorn.
Ilya, ignoring the nickname given to her, turned to Xaren and studied his side profile.
Sensing her gaze, he turned with a raised brow, but she simply nodded to herself and muttered something incomprehensible to him.
"Mhmm. Xaren is definitely Grey Demon."
"Not you too!"
Of all the people he expected to jump on the bandwagon of calling him that, Ilya was the last.
Ilya, however, simply blinked at his reaction, looking confused.
"Not me too? But Xaren hasn't looked like Xaren for a while."
"Ohh, that."
Xaren finally understood what she meant.
For the past twelve days, he had been using artifacts to change his skin colour to match Ilya's. Since she was used to seeing him with grey skin, it made sense that this look seemed off to her.
Carack, however, didn't understand the exchange and didn't hesitate to voice his confusion.
"What's she talking about?"
Xaren gave a short explanation.
"Well, during our mission, I had to change my skin colour to blend in with the humans, since humans naturally don't have grey skin."
Carack blinked in surprise.
"They don't?!"
Judging from his expression, it was clear he had assumed there were at least some humans out there with naturally gray skin, just like Xaren's.
Xaren laughed at his reaction and responded, "No, they don't. So, I had to change mine to match Ilya's so I could blend in."
While he was saying this, Ilya pulled out a mirror she had bought in Zlego, looked into it, and then glanced back at Xaren.
"Xaren with brown skin doesn't look like Xaren."
"Then what the hell did I look like?"
Xaren snapped his head toward her with the question, and she tilted her head slightly before answering.
"Brown… Xaren?"
Xaren just sighed and facepalmed while Carack chuckled at their little exchange.
From the way they interacted, it was obvious to him that Xaren and Ilya had gotten closer, which wasn't surprising considering they had been in the same space for nearly two weeks.
Just then, Carack realized that Bjorn, who had been with them a moment ago, was no longer there. He glanced around, searching for him, but before he could say anything, Bjorn reappeared from the direction of the supply depot, carrying two bags in his hands.
"Here. Tents and sleeping bags."
He handed them to Xaren and Ilya, who accepted them with gratitude.
"Thanks."
"Thank you."
Since he had saved them the trouble of retrieving their own, Carack led them toward the area where his tent was set up so they could use the nearby empty spaces.
Around them were some others who had gone through wing training under Floch, people Carack had grown friendly with over the past two weeks. As they were setting up their tents, Carack suddenly brought up something.
"Oh yeah, that's right. We ran into Kravok and Drog the other day."
Xaren immediately raised an eyebrow.
"Kravok?"
They hadn't seen Kravok since the day of the attack on Hamqua City, when they had been promoted to low-rank demons. Ilya, who was busy setting up her tent, also snapped her head in Carack's direction upon hearing the name.
She had known Kravok even longer than Xaren had and was closer to him, so it was only natural that she would be concerned about his whereabouts.
Carack nodded and said, "Yeah. He got posted to another outpost. What was the name again?"
He scratched his head, trying to recall, and Bjorn was the one to provide the answer.
"Maplespine Outpost."
"Yeah, that one! It's east of our Cinder Outpost, near a forest. Apparently, some pretty trees called maple trees and tall pine trees grow there."
It was obvious where the name "Maplespine" had come from.
While helping Xaren set up his tent, Carack continued his story.