Claude stayed calm. "So these people have been scheming behind our backs this whole time. Who is it, then? The last of the stray dogs that turned tail and fled during the last war? Or that little alliance between the merchants and the fiend council elder?"
The Order member shook his head. "Our scouts couldn't place either of them anywhere on the front lines, my lord. And to be honest, I'd be relieved if it were them. Because whatever's marching on the central zones is no ordinary force. They cut down our outpost guards and several of our own without so much as slowing their step."
Claude's brow creased. "If it isn't them, then who?"
"Apart from the headmaster of the Dark Mage Academy," the man said, "we couldn't put a name to a single face out there."
