Chapter 172: return of the king

Clark was confused and perplexed by Emily’s decision to name her mercenary group after his surname. The reason that she gave for making the decision, was even weirder to him.

“What is going on in her head?” He sighed again, recalling the reason why she named it after him.

According to her, she named it Pendragon because she did not want to run and manage it alone. She wanted him to be the leader. The reason for her wanting him to be the leader, she did not mention.

“Girls are really…?” He shook his head to dispel his random thoughts, before turning back to face her and the mercenaries.

Though shouting that you’ve created a mercenary organization was simple, officially starting it after registration was troublesomely tedious.

He was happy that he suddenly became the leader of a mercenary group from nowhere, but he accepted it calmly only because he did not have to take care of it. She was still the default leader, who will take care of anything.

And the mercenary group was still only at its creation stage, the work to make it well known and high leveled alone was nerve cracking. He did not envy her, he pitied her.

After the first few mercenaries openly showed their eagerness to join the new mercenary group, the group now officially had its first 5 members.

Emily asked the other mercenaries to see if anyone was interested in being a member. Though they all recognized and dreaded her transcendent strength, they were not ready to suddenly jump into a new mercenary group.

Who knew if it would collapse in a week? New mercenary groups not lasting a week was not rare news, among the mercenary circle.

They would rather go on with their slow but steady grind of being solo for advancement and money than to jump ships into unstable elements like a new mercenary group.

Due to this thought process, most of the remaining mercenaries declined her offer politely. Only one of the females among them later joined, after taking time to think through it.

Though they declined her offer, they were still apprehensive of her strength. So they tried probing her, to see the probability of her allowing them to go safely with their lives.

Emily easily saw through their thoughts, but she didn’t mind, she maintained the same cool expression on her face.

After knowing the ones who were not on her side, she nodded before congratulating the few that joined her new mercenary group, despite it just being in its creation stage.

Though the cool expression remained on her face, she was actually already over the moon. This was originally just a random mission for her, she never expected to create a new mercenary group so suddenly, and even get 4 new members already.

A smile came into her originally poker face for the first time, dazzling the mercenaries, as she directed it at the first female mercenary who pledged her allegiance to her.

“Jenny, congratulations on being my first follower. From today, you’re my second in command in the new mercenary group. My partner here, Clark, will be the commander, while I will be the vice commander”.

After saying this with a smile, she finally turned to face the other new mercenaries that just decided to come under her.

“Jack, Tom, Dave, Becky, you all shall be the first upper echelons of the mercenary group. Congratulations”.

Of the recruits, only Jack and Jenny were 1st rank high-grade mercenaries. The rest were still normal mercenaries, with no inkling of a breakthrough closeby in the new future.

Hearing her words, the mercenaries were slightly puzzled on her decision to make her partner the commander of the mercenary group, but they shrugged it off as this mysterious man had never shown his strength before them.

What if he was even stronger? He was just like a peaceful dangerous hermit to them. Well, they didn’t care. If he was stronger than them, then they’ll gladly accept him as their commander.

The first upper echelons and the basic hierarchy of the Pendragon mercenary group were already being formed by its founder, just on the first day of its creation.

Emily did not impose any strange orders on the mercenaries who declined her offer despite her strength superiority. Instead, she allowed them to go freely, which earned deep sighs of relief from the lucky mercenaries.

After thanking her, they packed their bags and equipment before going. They were sure to never forget this woman’s face, who completely changed their perception of what it felt like to be a mercenary.

Seeing the other mercenaries go, she finally turned to lead her mercenaries away.

10 minutes later, they left the thick forest. After exchanging small conversations to know each other’s schedule, she finally parted from Clark to go back to the embassy of the Mercenary Alliance.

She left the hired car for him to take, as she now had a company of 4 others to transport.

They would probably not see each other soon, as she planned to travel around with her new mercenary group after its registration, to complete missions to increase her level and that of the group.

Clark quickly bade her farewell, imprinted the faces of these mercenaries who joined her in his head and implant, before turning around to go.

Not long later, the hired car decelerated as he arrived at the luxurious Landmark airport. Despite already seeing it before, the sight of the airport still made him steal more than one glance at its surrounding to satisfy his craving.

Shortly after, he quickly boarded the Spartan line airplane again, before getting set to return to the Spartan republic.

It was already a few days since talks of his inauguration party started, his presence was now needed to progress further and finalize the already well laid out plans.

…

In the large Vatican City central airport, the original order was not being displayed today. A large gathering of soldiers and civilians alike stood orderly, like a battalion waiting for their commander’s arrival.

The airport was extremely boisterous, as all corners were cramped up by the overwhelming number of people gathered together.

Some of the civilians held up banners of different types, some reading; “the first hero of Vatican is born”, others reading; “Clark Pendragon, our pride, the Vatican pride”.

Brilliant smiles filled with accomplishment and joy were on their faces, some even had expressions of relief as they waited patiently for the arrival of their leader to be.

Children stood beside their parents with anticipatory grins on their cheeky faces, making their chubby sweat-filled cheeks glow like diamonds as they wildly waved the banners that were given to them by their parents.

Currently, Clark’s status in Vatican City was already at the exalted level, as him being the leader of the city would bring a lot of good. Most especially, it would bring a lot of opportunities for further development and growth.

A City having a soldier leader to guard its territory meant that it finally produced something worth considering by the Spartan government.

By having a leader, they would have more political power when vying for the yearly budget allocations to all territories of the republic. It would also bring more investors, as the rich in this era had a tendency of running after the strong and powerful.

It did not take long before the main protagonist that warranted this extremely luxurious welcome finally came out of the airplane. Clark was already informed of this arrangement beforehand, so he was prepared.

As soon as his foot touched the deck of the plane, ripples of emotions surged in all the Vatican citizens and soldiers. They looked at him with varying expressions of admiration, like he was a deity who was on the verge of descending.

In his new sky-blue suit, his well-proportioned body was directly enhanced to new heights of gorgeousness. He did not look like someone who just came out from the forest, from a mercenary mission.

His new gold wristwatch glinted brightly under the glow of the afternoon Spartan sun. His coming down was like the return of a king, he seemed like the prince in the ancient movie, coming to America.

After he finally came down from the airplane, he smiled a bit before waving at the large number of people who stood before him with excited expressions on all their faces.

As his growth was just too rapid for his good, he was still extremely unfamiliar with dealing with such huge crowds that came specially just to welcome him.

His performance was directly from the ones he observed in movies, and the knowledge seemed to have helped, as loud cheers immediately followed on seeing him waving at them.

The Vatican soldiers who stood at the front made their stance more rigid before they all saluted in sync with solemn and respectful expressions on their faces.

As all these happened, the diplomatic leaders of the city finally came forward to welcome him specially.

“Major Clark, welcome back to Vatican City, your ancestral city of birth. It is a great honor for our city to birth an exceptional soldier like you…”

Clark paid little attention to the blabbering words of flatter which the diplomats bombarded him with, most of his attention was still on the civilians at the back who continued cheering him unrelentingly.

He felt like grinning on seeing this. He was no longer the nobody of yesterday, this reassurance always made him feel fulfilled.

His ultimate dream was to change and overthrow the tyrannical rule of the big 5 organizations, but his reform had to start from his home first, or all his dream would just be fantasy.

Like the wise ones said, little drops of water make a mighty ocean. To overthrow the rule of the big 5, he had to lay the foundation by starting with his country.

And he was not even at the country level yet, he was still only at the city level.

He still had a long way to go, but the satisfaction from today was exactly the right motivation he needed to continue doing his best to break his limits and get more power, wealth, and authority.

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