Chapter 183: reflection and decision

After Clark got back home to his mansion, he responded mildly to the cheerful greetings of his workers as he went directly to his room and plopped down on his bed.

It was already late, so he had nothing to do outside again. He laid on his bed while looking at his ceiling, as he tried without much success to organize his random thoughts.

Despite him knowing that it was a fluke and wanting to get over it, he could not. His thoughts could not help but go back to what just happened.

He knew that him taking a defeat so personally was childish, but he just could not get over it. It was a common military mission to bust a thief, but he was now feeling that it was a personal challenge.

After finally sorting out his thoughts, he was surprised as after going through his experiences, he discovered that this was his first personal setback against a same ranked soldier.

He didn’t know why, but he felt emotionally defeated for a reason. This defeat made him feel useless, he felt like he was not living up to his position as a Major and leader of a city.

As the thoughts kept on hitting him like an unrelenting train, discomforting him, he finally came to a surprising realization.

“Have I become arrogant? Is this pride?”

He wanted to refute it as soon as it came, but his inner mind knew that this was partly right. Or why else would he be fretting so much about such an inconsequential defeat?

He already started noticing that he developed pride after he was promoted to the Major rank, but he initially shrugged it off. This encounter became the catalyst that brought his attention back to it.

Unknowingly to him, he was already feeling like he was the head in everything and everyone he met. He already felt like he was the best, which was a dangerous feeling for any soldier to have.

Apart from his missions that went wrong which led to him being stranded in the sea, he had not faced any individual that really served as a bitter competitor and rival to him. This was why he felt like he was the best among his peers.

“Damn, why did I not notice this? When did I change so much? How did it happen?”

He felt confused, surprised, and a little guilty at the same time.

After thinking about it further, he discovered that his friends were probably the ones who were impacted the most by his change, but they never complained nor did they tell him.

He felt bad thinking of how Leo probably felt about seeing his best friend become like this. From best buddies and equals, unknowingly to him, he was already taking Leo as a lesser soldier.

“How did he feel? We originally both graduated as soldiers and best friends. God…, what came over me?”

“Is this what every successful man faces when they become successful and powerful?” He could not help but think about it from the perspective of others, because this was completely shocking to him.

Despite his deep-dwelling on the topic, he could not still pinpoint when and how the feeling came over him. In the end, he guessed that it was a side effect of his rapid rise to power, but he decided to remedy it immediately.

He felt that it was funny, as he never expected, not even in his dreams that a mere thief chase would bring him so many emotional mood swings and realization.

“I don’t know if this is a blessing or a curse”. He chuckled to relieve his emotions, picked himself up from his bed before going to his bathroom to wash up.

After having a nice cold-water bath to refresh his body, he finally came out of his luxurious bathroom fully revitalized. The only setback was still his less than an idle mental state, but he already had plans for it.

After eating the nice food combination that his cook made for him as dinner, he smiled satisfied before going back to his bed to sleep.

During the short time that he went to take his bath, the scattered bed already re-arranged itself. As almost everything in the mansion was electronic and controlled by its A.I, most things were automatic.

As soon as he plopped down on the king-sized bed, hidden instructions were given as the bed responded by giving him a static body massage to relieve his muscles and make him fall asleep faster.

…

About 8 hours later, he finally woke up from his sleep to meet a new day. This time on waking up, he felt completely refreshed and energized both mentally and physically. The massage did a good job in relaxing his muscles.

He slightly patted the bed to indicate a job well done, before standing up from the bed and going to the bathroom again to have a hot bath. He already had a template for all his actions today planned out.

After washing himself clean with the freshwater, he came out before directly going to his dressing side compartment with large strides.

2 minutes later, he came out dressed in a red and black casual t-shirt on a pair of jean trousers. He wore a black boot to complement it, taking his look to the next level.

His long hair was still permed, so he did not have to take time to brush and nice it up. He just used his perming tool to smooth it more and remove any rough contours.

He wanted to go to church, as he felt that the best remedy to his pride was there. What better place to humble himself, than to go to church without making it bombastic?

After doing all these, he sat down on his luxurious single’s chair in the room before bringing out his new enhanced smartphone. He spent huge money to get this recently, all the way from the regional headquarter of the Microsoft empire organization.

As the master programmers and developers, all their gadgets were top-notch, and he wanted a top-notch phone this time. The abilities of the phone could not be exploited in a week, that is how outrageous it was.

After setting his butt at a comfortable angle on the chair, he finally opened up the phone. He connected to the internet again, after so many years of isolating himself from it due to circumstances.

It was as busy and noisy as usual, but he paid no heed to the trending news as he quickly installed the communication app that he wanted. He did not have time to while away on the internet.

After doing this, he composed a message before sending it to Leo. A smile adorned his well-chiseled face when the phone indicated that the message was successfully sent.

When he woke up, he already started thinking of how he would make up to his best friend. So he decided later that having a best friend’s outing was the best plan, and he went for it.

He knew that Leo was not free, but he was ready to use his influence to make this work.

After doing a lot more brainstorming, he also finally decided on the best location for the outing. What better place to make up with a friend than the place he loved best, his hometown?

He planned the location to be in Balmi City, and the schedule was the next day.

He also included in the message that after they came back from the outing, he wanted them to get ready and go to the exobeast training base the next day. He no longer felt the need to spend time tracking the thief.

Even if it was not a direct defeat, the defeat still succeeded in stirring up his strong desire to improve more. He didn’t want this training session to tarry again, he was ready to drive hard at his bottleneck now.

Who are warriors? Warriors are those soldiers that take every defeat as experience and a source of motivation to improve more. And Spartans are warriors, so was he. Being petty was not in their dictionary.

After including in the message that his friend should not forget to inform Benny and Smart man, he finally motioned forward to remove the application from operating.

After doing this, as he wanted to stand up and go out, the message flashing repeatedly at the top of the screen suddenly drew his attention. He clicked on it to enlarge it, as his curiosity overcame his determination to leave it.

[Trending news: Major Clark’s inability to capture a random thief- Was it favoritism that led to his promotion? Is the Major as competent as hyped by the media?]

Clark’s face darkened on seeing this, but his emotions were completely kept under his control. He already expected something like this, after what happened yesterday. This was one of the main reasons why he paid little attention to the internet and media.

Though this was not a media of Vatican City, its influence still extended over here, so this was probably already viral everywhere.

He knew the culprits though, so he didn’t feel much about it. He just felt it was a pity, as his rivals finally found a point of breakthrough to sabotage his rule with.

During his inauguration, the 5 leading commissioners of the city already told him of their rival, Sadan City.

As the biggest city of this region and one that bordered Vatican City, it was inevitable that there was some friction between both cities. They competed for resources every year, and a lot of other things.

The only advantage the Sadan City had over them was broken when Clark became the owner of the Vatican territory.

This seemed to hit their rough spot, as since then, competition measures and tactics between both cities intensified. They tried to bring each other down by a notch, both politically and economically, but none succeeded.

This hyping of his inability to capture the thief was probably also done by them, so Clark paid no heed to it.

After so long, he already built a good and fairly unshakable reputation across the city. One occurrence was nowhere enough to change his position in the hearts of the people. The recent rapid development was proof of his love for the city.

He did not read further, he kept his phone, picked up his bag, and went out. The only difference that he made was that this time he took his mask.

He didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention, most especially not now that such a scandal was being hyped to drag down his reputation.

He just wanted to go to church, reflect more on his behavior and devise methods to control his ego. He wanted a temporary place of calm.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites and read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers.]