Chapter 192: a new mission

After Clark finished the press conference, on getting back inside the hospital, the 5 commissioners gathered their willpower and confronted him. They felt that their Major was going towards a dead end if they did not intervene.

Despite all their talks and how excessively they emphasized how dangerous his decision was, he still stood his ground and refuted all their persuasive points.

In the end, they could only give up with dismay still apparent on their faces. Clark spent no further time with them, as he quickly left the hospital the next moment.

Though it was always good to get a record of your losses after every battle, he didn’t want to do it now as the day’s happenings still bugged him. The commissioners’ words even disturbed him more.

Despite his reluctance to do it, he knew that his losses today probably crossed the 10,000,000 credits range. He could not help but sigh on thinking of how money is hard to get, but can easily drain after one fierce use.

Going to the garage of the hospital, he finally reconvened with his exotic car again. He smiled as he advanced closer to touch its smooth and undamaged surface, before slipping inside it.

Zoom!! Its powerful engines quickly powered up after being ignited, before reversing and driving out of the hospital compound.

Getting outside, he took a bit of time as through the regional soldier’s help, he finally navigated through the large mob of Vatican civilians.

It took him about only 10 minutes before he finally arrived back at his mansion. His mansion’s A. I-controlled gate opened up after detecting his arrival, as he quickly drove in to meet a surprising sight.

He was visibly surprised on driving in, as he saw an organized assembly formed by his workers to welcome him.

Suppressing his surprise as this was a first, he finally stopped his car at the front of the mansion, gave it an order to park itself at the underground garage before finally coming out.

On coming out, one of the more luxuriously dressed workers among his assembly of workers came out to meet him. Seeing her at a closer range and recognizing her, he chuckled as he finally understood.

“Rose, you really like stirring trouble when there is none. Why gather all the workers just to welcome me? Am I coming back from a holiday?”

Like she didn’t hear what he just said, his personal assistant came closer before dropping herself a bit and greeting the lady’s way. “Welcome back, boss”.

“Welcome back, boss!!” The workers quickly echoed after her the next second.

Seeing this, Clark’s mouth twitched as he could not help but cringe a bit. “What the hell is this?”

Though his thoughts said a different thing, he didn’t express it as he had to acknowledge their effort at caring a bit. After controlling himself, he finally answered them with an awkward laugh.

“It’s ok, thanks for your care. Ok, I’ve seen it, go, go and continue your works”.

“Sir, we’ve already finished every pending task for the day”.

“Oh, ok, then go play. Play games, do anything, you are humans. Don’t kill yourself with work, work, and work every time”.

“Hmm, ok sir”.

After the large assembly of workers left, Clark finally heaved a sigh of relief before turning to glare at his mischievous personal assistant. Though he was caught off guard, he had to admit that this did a good job in brightening his mood.

“What? What did I do?”

Ignoring her poor attempt at feigning ignorance, he poked her shoulders with his broad hands, earning a blush on her face before finally telling her to set the mansion for his friend’s arrival.

“Oh, Staff Sergeant Leo is coming. I’ll prepare everything”.

With that, she quickly left, disappearing inside the mansion. Clark chuckled before also going straight to his room to rest his aching back and muscles.

…

2 hours later, when it was already evening, Leo finally arrived in his car at his best friend’s mansion.

His welcome was even grander than the one Clark received back in the day, as the workers welcomed him with so much grandeur like he was a king. He could only curse his shameless friend, as he went inside the mansion.

He was dressed in a casual pair of black jean trousers with a red polo shirt. With his well-chiseled face and nice physique, he looked just like a model.

As he walked inside the large mansion, he could not help but secretly admire his surroundings. He sighed after taking in everything, his best friend was really already in a realm of his own compared to him.

Clark already knew it the moment his friend arrived, so he came out to meet him the next second.

This time, he was no longer moody. After exchanging jabs and their usual jokes at each other, they both quickly entered the mansion.

Clark treated his friend to a nice meal, a nice talk session in the process about life, before finally taking him to tour around his large mansion.

It was already years since he last felt it, but spending so much alone time with his best friend succeeded in bringing back the vibe that made him feel like they were twin brothers.

Leo acted very modestly and cute, as he meekly asked his best friend questions on what he didn’t know about in the mansion.

They cracked jokes about each other’s love life, career life, and daily life, making them erupt into occasional bursts of loud unrestrained laughter. They relived their cadet training days in just an hour.

When they got to the large technologically decorated and well-designed underground garage, Leo was wowed on seeing how luxurious and equipped it was. It was a luxurious haven of a garage.

Leaving there, they walked around the other noteworthy areas of the mansion. They visited the chef building, where they took a small taste of the juicy specialties of the mansion’s chef.

Clark suggested that they visit the dueling room to duel next, but Leo quickly shot down the suggestion. He was not a masochist. He instead suggested that they do a small-scale car race at the tracks connected around the mansion.

The outcome of the race was easily evident, as Clark’s machine easily dwarfed his best friend’s. They both felt like kids, as they did any naughty thing that came to their brain.

After all these, getting to the mansion’s large swimming pool, they both stripped, leaving only their underwear’s and dived in immediately.

They used this to chill, rest, and cool down, but their kid mentality at the moment kicked up again. The cooling down soon turned into a swimming contest, whose results were controversial to both of them.

After tiring themselves, they finally gave up on their child-like competitions. They just cooled down there, watching the sun slowly set as the darkness of the evening heralding the night slowly came.

As the day darkened, the lights of the mansion quickly switched on, illuminating everywhere with their powerful glows.

This was when they finally came out of the swimming pool, their bodies already soaked in the water enough. Instead of going back inside the mansion, at Leo’s suggestion, they went to the nearby artificially grown forest inside the mansion compound instead.

After putting their clothes back on and going deeper inside the forest, they found a random spot before casually sitting on the earthy floor.

Using a coin toss method, Leo was selected to go climb and pluck fruits from the nearby trees. After 2 minutes of doing this, he returned with a sizeable number of mangoes, oranges, and other varieties of fruits.

Sitting back down, they both munched happily on the fruits in silence. Only the creaking sounds of crickets, croaking sounds of frogs, and other random animal sounds dominated the night.

“Clark”.

“Yes, bro”.

“You’re really a big shot now. Look at your big mansion, look at your workers, look at your followers, look at your personal assistant, a beauty, you’re blessed bro. I’m sincerely happy for you”.

“Back then, 3 years ago, we came here with Benny in tow as soldiers who just graduated, now you’re the leader of the whole Vatican City territory”.

“Then, you were just the day-to-day Penrabbit talkative bastard. Now, you’re the great Major Clark, with many legends in the republic”.

“You even have many nicknames, the magician, the stranded dragon. Damn, man you’re a beast”.

“Haha, that’s funny bro. You’re also now a Staff Sergeant, I never once thought that then drunken hands would end up being able to lead so many soldiers to battle. You command respect now bro”.

“You’ve started again, call me that nickname again and I’ll skin you alive. Don’t dare call that in front of my wife”.

“Woah, you’re already calling her your wife. Kate is still just your girlfriend bro, what a shameless bastard you are”.

“Haha, that status would soon change”.

“Damn, you’re already thinking of marriage at this age, 21???”

“How old do you want me to be first, I’m not like some extreme soldiers of the republic who get old before marrying, I’m a cool guy, you know. The date of the joining together is still under consideration”.

“You’re so decisive man, I envy you. Is that how her charm has completely bewitched you already? I thought we agreed to be single forever”.

“…”

“Not me and you”.

“Hahaha, I got you”.

As they both discussed and laughed in a nostalgic mood, the fruits slowly reduced at a steady rate. They didn’t even have to look for their hand to locate what they wanted.

“Bro, let’s play chess. It’s been long since we did, do you remember back then in our cadet training days. I always won; you were always the sorry loser”. Clark suddenly brought a new topic.

“What a beautiful night sky”.

“Hey, don’t divert the topic, let’s play chess”.

“No!”

“Yes!”

As they both bickered, the bright headlights of a car suddenly started illuminating their surroundings as the car slowly drove nearer, stopping their random blabbering.

After getting to their positions and parking at the side, the car’s door opened, revealing Kate who was dressed in a casual tight short skirt and top.

Seeing the questioning look on her boss’s face, she smiled before waving his encrypted communication device at him.

“Uggh, not now. Please go, I’ll answer the call later”. Clark quickly interjected before she came closer, on seeing the communication device.

“Sorry for disturbing your cheeky get-together with your best friend, but this is a call directly from the Spartan army headquarters”.

Clark’s casual expression suddenly became serious on hearing this, as he wondered why a call would come from the Spartan army to him at such a late time of the night.

“Did something happen?”

Suppressing his doubt, he stood up and took the communicator device before going to the corner. The call took 15 minutes away from his time before he finally turned back to his friend.

“What happened?” Seeing his expression, Leo asked curiously.

“A new mission”.

[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.]