As Marcus looked at Lyra, he watched her bawling her eyes out, partially out of sadness but also a tinge of happiness to know her family was safe and happy.
Of course, after all of this time, being able to find out what happened after her death lifted a great burden was off of her shoulders, as the sense of unease that something terrible might have happened to her family was fading away.
However, she quickly realized something, and that was that Marcus must have died as well if he was here now.
"Marcus, if it is, okay? Could I ask when and how you died."
Yet before Marcus could answer her question a loud shout resounded down towards them.
"Captain!"
Knox one of Lyra's lieutenants called out to her, having come to search for her now that the battlefield had gone quiet.
But as he saw the man who he still viewed as an enemy lying next to his captain who was also down on the ground, he pulled back his glaive and rushed forward.
He did not know why the two of them were just lying there, but he intended to finish off the threat before if anything could do else.
"Wait Knox."
Using what little strength she had left, Lyra positioned herself in between Marcus and Knox who just barely had time to stop his glaive from piercing his leader.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Captain what are you doing? That man is the enemy." Knox said confused by his leader's actions.
"Knox we both made a mistake. This man is not a part of the kingdom's army nor our enemy. Now if you would please help us back to the rest of the soldiers, so we can return to base."
Staring warily at Marcus, Knox was a bit conflicted by what his captain had just asked and said, "Captain, that man nearly killed me, and his beast companion killed around a dozen of our men."
"They were casualties of our mistakes. We were the ones who attacked them, and they defended themselves. I will take responsibility for their deaths, but this man here really was just a bystander as he said. Now this is an order, take us back to the rest of the squad."
Hearing this Knox straightened up and nodded to his captain, following her commands.
Still, he did not take his eyes off Marcus, not trusting him one bit.
After that Knox picked up Lyra who could barely stand let alone walk, before going over to Marcus to do the same as he followed his orders.
"No thanks I can move on my own." Marcus said pulling himself up off the ground.
Of course, he was still reeling from the backlash of his skills, but he felt well enough to at least move around now, albeit slowly.
The three of them then made their way back to the rest of Lyra's squad which gave Marcus weird looks.
Some were confused wondering why this man they thought was an enemy was with Knox and their captain. While others were radiating hostility remembering what Marcus had done to Knox, and the comrades that Roxene had killed.
However, a few did not even know who Marcus was having been far removed on the battlefield or had been on standby nearby.
"All of you stand down. This man here is not our enemy. We made a mistake in lumping him in with the troops that that follow the king. Now prepare to return to base." Lyra said, quashing any sort of opposition to Marcus before it began.
Though like Knox many of them had their complaints, but Lyra was not having any of it and ordered them to get back in line.
And while many were still not thrilled with the idea of having Marcus in their midst, they did as their captain commanded.
Following that Marcus began following along with the rebel forces.
He had a lot that her wanted to talk to Lyra about, so he was putting his mission to find Forlorieous on hold for now.
Meeting someone from his old world was already a big deal but finding someone that he once knew and was friends with took precedence over anything.
Eventually the sun began to set and the group of around three hundred fifty rebels stopped and set up camp.
However, unlike Marcus who would normally begin making something to eat, all of the soldiers just pulled out dry rations and ate in silence.
In fact, not even a single light of any kind was brought out even as the night fully encroached on the day.
Soon everyone began huddling into their tents and only a few watchers were left posted, and each of them were wearing pitch black cloaks that made them difficult to follow, and unless Marcus focused on them, they seemed to disappear.
As Marcus watched all this, he was waiting for Lyra to return from giving a briefing to her officers.
She had asked him to wait by her tent, and that she would be back as soon as she could.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmLuckily none of the other rebels paid him any mind, though some would give him wary or curious glances from time to time.
So, he waited there until Lyra reappeared right next to him having been moving about invisibly.
She then bent down and whispered in Marcus' ear, "Come inside and we can talk freely in there."
Nodding his head Marcus stood up and followed Lyra into her tent.
But as he entered, he noticed something off about Lyra's tent.
It was much larger on the inside than it had been on the outside, where it looked to be a standard two-person tent.
Looking around Marcus saw that this was less of a tent and more of a studio apartment, with an open space to one side where a bed was located, and on the other side was a small kitchen area.
There was also a fully functioning bathroom with a tub in it, though Marcus was not sure where the water would go.
"Do all rebel captains have a tent as nice as this?" Marcus asked wanting to know where Lyra got this impressive magical item.
Shaking her head Lyra responded saying, "No this is the only one of its kind that I know of. It was made by my family in this world and has been passed down for generations. And truthfully other than you only the leader of the rebels knows about it. But this is not an important topic. We have a lot to discuss, and my family's magical tent is on the lower end. Now we got interrupted earlier, but would you mind telling me how and when you died?"
His expression going serious Marcus turned towards Lyra and said, "Yeah, I can tell you. But in all honesty, I cannot be one hundred percent sure of how I died."
Marcus then relayed the events that happened immediately before his death, and then about how he had been told how he had died in a gas leak but had no recollection of it to confirm.
He also told her the date so that she would have some sort of correlation to when event happened in relation to her own death, which he could tell she really wanted to know.