Tribal Sign-In: Immortal At The Start

"Creature, you say?" David muttered with interest, "Go ahead, enlighten me."

Seeing him act so easily and free-spirited, Jareb and Henry gritted their teeth. The two of them had just been in death’s maw, and twelve of their platoon members were dead, but the commander had no care whatsoever.

This wasn’t just making them furious; it was also making them lose all hope in the kingdom, which their families had taught them most of all.

"Why are you still silent?" David asked calmly as he leaned forward in his chair.

The two of them shivered under his yellow eyes, which were devoid of all emotions, and Henry muttered, "While patrolling, we were attacked by a bunch of knights..."

"Hmh," David nodded. "That I can see on my own, I want to know about the creatures that man just mentioned," he added while looking at Jareb.

Henry looked at Bael from the corner of his eye to ask for his approval, and Bael gave him a faint nod.

On the other hand, Jareb asked, "Do you not care about the dead soldiers?"

"Lord Jareb! How can you say such a thing?" William shouted furiously at his misconduct, and before things could turn worse, David raised his hand and said, "Silence."

William closed his lips and whispered while bowing his head to David, "I apologise for shouting, Sir Commander."

David waved his hand. "It’s fine."

Then he looked at Jareb and answered softly, "I do care about them. But my duty requires me to remain calm and act most advantageously. Your group holds important information which will help us save more soldiers... So instead of walking to those bodies and tearing up before them, I’d rather make sure no one else dies the same death."

Jareb fell silent as David’s words made him aware of the commander’s responsibilities and his own ignorance.

He lowered his head and mumbled, "I apologise for questioning you, Sir Commander."

David waved off his apology and muttered, "Yeah, yeah. So which one of you is actually going to be useful and tell me about those damn creatures? It’s getting overly dramatic now."

Henry, who was already going to tell him about it, stepped forward and said, "Even though those things wore armour and used swords, what attacked us wasn’t humans but alive shadows... Our attacks passed through them, and they could travel through the shadows."

"Alive shadows..." David whispered under his breath, and Henry commented, "You don’t believe us, do you?"

"Of course not, who would even believe such a thing?" David scoffed.

"I may believe the second, as shadow wolves can also travel through shadows, but unlike what you said, they can be attacked," he commented while rubbing his broad chin.

Henry also fell silent.

"Do you have anything other than that?" David mumbled, and both Henry and Jareb turned towards Bael.

Seeing that, William furrowed his brows and asked, "Why do you keep looking at your guard?"

They looked at him and answered at the same time, "He was the one who saved us."

"OH?" Hearing that, curiosity danced through David’s eyes, and he asked, "So do you have anything?"

"I do," Bael mumbled as he stepped forward and continued with a dark expression,

"First of all, the alive shadows are different from the ether beasts."

"Hmm? How are you so sure?" David asked while tapping his table with his fingers.

Bael raised his gaze at him and said, "I’ve fought many ether beasts, and over time I could feel the ether in them... but I felt nothing like that from those shadows."

"I see."

"Second, those shadows were wearing armour belonging to the duke’s forces. Why would a beast do that?" Bael asked.

"Right..." David nodded.

"Lastly, I was only able to kill them because I got lucky," he finished.

However, his last statement caused all of them to raise their eyebrows at him.

"What do you mean?" David asked.

Bael scratched his cheek and said, "Well, while I was fighting them, the sun reached noon, and as the bright sunlight fell on them, their body hardened and turned into black rock statues, which I destroyed to save all of us."

"So the sunlight is their weakness?" William mumbled.

"Not really," Bael shook his head.

"Then?"

He pointed at the ceiling of the tent and explained, "The sun and sunlight were always there, but it was too weak. So their weakness is any kind of light which is brighter than their darkness."

"That makes sense," David muttered and said, "Is that all?"

"Yes," Bael stated.

David heaved a sigh and mumbled with a smile, "You may return to your tents."

The three of them saluted him and left the tent. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Once they were gone, William glanced at David and asked, "Do you think they are telling the truth, Sir Commander?"

"They have no reason to lie," David mumbled as he rose from his chair.

"It could’ve been an internal conflict," William suggested darkly.

David shook his head. "How do you think they got those armours then?"

William opened and closed his lips a few times, but he had no answer.

David looked at him with a tired gaze and said, "Stop running away, Sir William. Supernatural does exist; you can’t continue denying it... or maybe don’t. You’ve already denied when it mattered the most, after all."

With that, he stepped out of the tent, and William stared at the golden chain with a silver star hanging from it in his hand.

"You don’t know it, David, supernatural doesn’t exist, everything has a reason..."

As the three of them walked back to their camps, Bael thought, ’Is it really the first time they’ve heard of these living shadows? Or they simply don’t want to believe that such an absurd being actually exists?’

He glanced at the pale faces of the soldiers walking around the camp and mumbled in his head, ’How long can you continue this tomfoolery for? At the end, you will have to believe... one way or another.’