Chapter 17 - Robert's Secret.

While Arther went to the auction, Robert went back into Jack's shop. There Jack was talking with someone for arranging the things Arther asked for. Seeing Robert coming Jack sighed and asked the man to leave while he went to his seat to sit. Robert went to the counter in front of Jack and sat on the seat, both of them had serious expression which was contradictory to what they showed in front of Arther. Robert placed his hands on the desk and leaned a bit forward to ask, "Do you have any news of it?".

Jack knew what Robert was talking about, being someone with many connections inside the army it is not difficult for him to get some information concealed by the government, and with his experience, he already smelled that there was something fishy the moment worldwide lockdown was announced as those higher figures didn't like seeing losses and this decision must have inflicted huge losses. And the military battalion stationed in the city as war emergencies was also moved.

What he felt was this lockdown was just a way for those people to camouflage their actions from others. There is something huge brewing inside. But he didn't get much news from inside as his connection were all either from the military logistics department or low-level soldiers from other places who didn't have much authority.

But yesterday he received a message from his network stating that there is a shifting of the war resources stored by the city along with the military official of higher level to a certain part in the west, and the government is also trying to make some deal with the higher-ups of this black market. This made him surprised as one should know the number of supplies stored as war supplies is a huge figure, they are stored according to the number of citizens and army, it contained most of the necessary things like food, water, cold clothing, mattress, utensils, various, ammunitions, heavy guns, war vehicles, tanks, fighter aircraft, personnel carriers, laboratory equipment, medicines, medical machines, and facilities, etc.. to shift them to a certain place the time, money and power consumed is a huge figure.

This showed only one clue that either a huge calamity enough to harm the entire city is coming or there is an upcoming war. But city F is not a big city and doesn't have any strategic significance for anyone to attack even in a war so war might not be the reason. This further confused Jack and also made him feel uneasy.

As Jack explained these things to Robert he went into deep thought. According to everyone, he knew Robert was a shut-in otaku and car enthusiast, but he had a different identity which he didn't like so he didn't tell anyone about it. Robert was the grandson of one of the three generals of the Alp country. His clan was one of the eighteen general's families of Astral kingdom, though not as strong as in history their clan still had huge power in the country. His grandfather had six wives and he was from the third wife's branch, his father had one younger brother who was a big businessman in the country. Robert had a younger sister she was also the most loved by his grandfather in their generation due to her talents in the military, She was already a captain at the age of 20. Robert, on the other hand, was not so well known to the clan due to his introverted personality and he was also always under huge pressure due to his sister's outstanding performance.

Though there was a tough competition inside the clan for benefits Robert was not much inflicted as his parents and sister always helped him. But his way of thinking and performance has brought many difficulties to his father, so as not to hold his sister back and create more problems he decided to leave the home and find a peaceful place to stay before his family has enough strength to stand against other family branches and he has enough achievements to show his worth to the family. His family knew didn't stop him as his father knew this can be an experience for Robert and also provide him a peaceful environment for Robert to grow.

But he received a letter from his father yesterday asking him to come back immediately, his father has always been a calm person but the letter showed how anxious he was that he even asked his bodyguard to pick Robert up.

The letter didn't state anything else. First, he thought this had something to do with the other opposition branches of the family but the atmosphere in the city and the movements made by the city government made him think otherwise.

Robert had made his network of people here and Jack was one of them for outsider Robert was their customer, but for these people Robert was the backing for them to keep this shops, they were his trusted personnel. He had thought of taking them with him while his uncle will take care of the business here. He wanted to wait till a chance arrive for him to enter the battlefield of his clan and his father also wanted to use him as a trump card for a higher position in the clan, but this event has disrupted their plan as they had to leave earlier. He has decided to complete his deal with Arther and then leave.

Arther didn't know about this, if he knew he would have gone insane as he knew something more important about Robert and his family no one else knew, not even them.

In the post-apocalypse, city X is the nearest city to a huge forest known as Elven forest with the kingdom of elve demons. This forest was a restricted area for humans, the borders of this forest though were relatively safer and were controlled by the Golden Ape clan also the ruler of city X base city. It was a huge force in the apocalypse, their clan contained the bloodline of golden ape, and the patriarch of the family contained the inheritance bloodline at a higher level from the start of the apocalypse gaining a boost in the start. This bloodline provided them with an indestructible defense of evolved metal elements (Gold) and huge strength. They also had some fighting techniques passed from their ancestors. They also had an increased affinity towards the metal elements.

This made them an indestructible force in the eastern part of the continent, the city was also very prosperous due to the resources from the elven forest.