Chapter 203: honoring the dead

Back in the Spartan republic, Leo had a helpless expression on his face as he conversed with 2 beautiful ladies who were looking at him with livid expressions on their faces.

One of the ladies, Kate, sat beside him while glaring at him angrily. The other, Emily was communicating with them through a virtual projection.

“So, you are telling us that Clark went for another possibly dangerous mission?” Emily asked, as she tried hard to control her emotions and not lash out at this man.

“Yes, its confidential. I can’t tell you guys more, you…”

“It’s ok, no need for further explanations, I’m fed up of your bullshit”.

“Tell me, why did you not persuade him to reject it? And you call yourself his f*cking best friend”.

“Like I told you already, the circumstances were beyond our control. We both did our best, I’ll like to tell you more, but sorry…, it’s confidential”.

Leo spread his hands widely to emphasize and show how helpless he was, and that he was saying the truth.

As her sister and boyfriend traded words, Kate finally couldn’t hold her emotions back as she suddenly sprang up from her seat and turned to face Leo.

“Honey, I can’t believe you”.

“Ahem…, cough…, Kate, I’m still here”.

Emily spoke out again from the projection, this time with black lines all over her face. What the hell was her sister thinking displaying her love so blatantly in her presence?

“Hey, sister, allow me to speak”. Kate was not taking that nonsense, as she quickly lashed back.

“Honey, why did you let it happen?” She asked.

“I already told you what Clark means to me; he is my benefactor. He saved me when I least expected it, I owe him a lot, I just can’t bear the thought of him being in a dangerous situation”.

“I’m sorry Kate, I really am. Clark also means a lot to me, he is my best friend, remember?”

“Stop that best friend tactic, I’m not falling for it this time”. As she said this, she placed her hands on her hips while gritting her teeth to show her anger.

Seeing this, Leo could not sit down again as he finally stood up. He knew that the sisters were not really angry at him, only the abruptness of the information made them to react like this.

Well, for Emily, he didn’t really give a damn. But for his fiancée, he sure as hell was concerned.

Standing up, he quickly went closer before holding Kate on the hand. Though she tried to resist, his strong grip and his direct pleading look melted her angry heart.

Instead of lashing out, she just shook her head before turning back to bury it on his chest. As soon as she did this, Leo complimented it and hugged her while his free hand gently stroked her long hair.

“Kate, you know I love you, right?”

“Umm…”

“I also love Clark the same way that I love you, he is my best friend since when I was a cadet. The only difference is that I love you more, I would not want anything bad to befall you both. Understand?”

“Umm, but why did you let him go?” She asked sobbingly.

Leo sighed again on hearing this question for the thousandth time, he now knew that explaining was futile. He finally confirmed the saying that girls live by emotions, not by logic.

“Well, if you don’t need logic, I’ll gladly spam you with emotions”.

With that, his head drew closer as he planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. As he did this, he slowly hugged her tighter.

Though these series of actions looked insignificant, their effect was mind-blowing. Just like magic, the once unstable Kate calmed down as she reciprocated and hugged her fiancée back.

A soft bright smile outlined her face, as Leo kissed her again on the forehead. She giggled and softly bumped him on the chest. Just like that, she forgot what she was originally pestering him on.

Seeing this blatant display of attention, Emily’s face went through a life cycle of fluctuations. From twitching to blushing, to reminiscing, to finally reverting back to its default poker look.

“Leo, if that’s all, then I’m going. Just remember that if anything happens to Clark, I’ll hold you responsible”.

“Umm…, you said what?”

The 2 lovers were alarmed, as they finally remembered that they were in the company of another person. Leo quickly turned and asked, but Emily was nowhere to be seen.

“She left”.

Though they both felt a little weird, they no longer fretted about it as they soon returned to focus on what they were doing.

…

As soon as Emily cut the call connection, her face could no longer maintain its poker look as she started blushing fiercely.

“What the hell? How can you guys be so indecent?”

She kicked the wall next to her, making the stuff on the nearby table to fall down, but she hardly showed concern. After the kick, she finally calmed down and thought through what just happened.

Though it was supposed to be a normal thing as Leo was already engaged to Kate, she still felt a little weird inwardly on seeing them being so intimate.

She knew that she was supposed to be happy for her kid sister, but thinking of her own stagnant relationship situation and comparing it with her sister’s made her feel a little bad.

Though Clark never clarified it, after so long, she already deduced that he took her as a friend only. His heart was already long stolen, and belonged solely to his Sonia.

She slumped down on her seat at the corner as her mind went through all this information. She brushed her face with both her hands, smoothing her hair downwards in the process.

“Kate already has her man, there’s no reason for me to tarry again. I guess I have to look out for mine as well”.

She knew that rushing into a relationship because others were in one was not good, but she just could not help it. She felt a little insecure not being in a relationship when her kid sister was already in one, despite being a soldier.

As all these thoughts went through her head, they finally clicked back to Clark’s current situation.

She was not really as angry as she looked when talking to Leo, she was just trying to vent her anger at the abruptness of the information.

Like every other soldier, she knew that there was no shortcut to greatness. If you’re afraid of taking risks, success would be afraid of you. She just wished him the best.

“Clark, I hope everything goes well for you. You’re my role model, my secret crush, my everything. You’re the reason why I keep improving, know that”.

Knock!! Knock!!

A sound of the door knocking broke her out of her thoughts, as she turned to face the direction of the door.

“Yes, come in”.

“Good evening commander, Jack is back”.

“Oh, ok, tell him to wait for me, I’m coming”.

With that, she quickly stood up and got ready to go. She almost forgot that she had a mercenary group to manage. Smiling, she walked out of the room to settle her mercenary group’s affairs.

…

A few kilometers away from the shelter were they just rested to hide from the windstorm, Clark stood at a small elevated platform, facing his soldiers.

The soldiers all had different expressions on their faces, as they faced their Major. Some were curious, others apprehensive, while some few others had depressed looks on their faces.

At the front of the group of soldiers, below the elevated platform where Clark was stood the 2 seconds in command, Diana and Benny. Clark finally started speaking out.

“Soldiers…, I have a lot in my mind to say to you all, but I will try my best to summarize them”.

“Before I start saying anything, I want us to honor our dead comrades who came with us to this mission. They died for a good cause, so its our obligation to give them the last honor that they deserve”.

After saying this, he quickly made a sign which Diana understood, as she quickly came forward and anchored the singing of the Spartan national anthem.

After singing the anthem, the soldiers saluted simultaneously before creating a small hill with the nearby snow.

As soon as this was done, Clark brought out an exotic sword from his bag. The sword was placed on top of the small hill, which served as the makeshift substitute grave for the 5 dead soldiers.

The sword served as a sign of respect to their identity as soldiers.

The soldiers went into a solemn moment of silence after this for a minute, before they finally turned to face their Major again.

Though what they just did might seem like a waste of time, Clark knew that it was important as he could perceive the slight increase in the optimism of the soldiers.

Being seen as important was always a great motivation tool for soldiers, and Clark just utilized the same strategy.

Honoring the dead solemnly, would make the others feel that they were not dying in vain. It would make them feel valued.

Quickly clearing random thoughts from his head, Clark finally spoke out again.

“All our 5 dead comrades did not die in vain, they died to further the interests of the Spartan republic, which was what they signed up for in their oath taking day”.

“They sacrificed their lives for us to survive and continue the mission on their behalf”.

“Though we just honored them, that is superficial. The greatest honor that we can give to them is to forge ahead, and to successfully finish the mission on their behalf”.

“There is no honor greater than that. With such an honor, their death would not be in vain and their names would be remembered as soldiers that were part of our squad”.

“Soldiers!! Who wants to honor them with me?”

“I will!!”

“I will!!”

Hearing the enthusiastic words from the soldiers, Clark nodded to himself before continuing.

“Good, that’s the Spartan spirit. Even if we face dragons and krakens, even if everything seems hopeless, still, no retreat, no surrender. We are Sparta!!”

“Saying it with mouth is good, but doing it is even better”.

“To fulfill our remaining duties to our dead comrades and complete our mission, we have to continue forging ahead. We cannot linger because of fear”.

“Getting to the first shelter is a sign of progress for us, that means we already reached somewhere. The next thing is for us to climb this mountain higher, get to a large shelter before probing for information about our mission target”.

“Soldiers, are you with me?”

“Yes, sir”.

“Good, then let’s go”.

“Sir, please wait”. One of the soldiers suddenly spoke out.

“Sir, when you took the seconds in command to the side compartment, I used a part of the money that we came with to buy the map of this region”.

Clark was surprised as he did not expect such proactiveness from these soldiers, that meant that they were still optimistic about the mission. He was happy.

“Good, that’s a nice decision on your part”.

After taking hold of the map, he quickly started skimming through it to know where they were and to get a general direction of where they should go next. 4 minutes later, he got what he wanted.

“Let’s go this way”.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Sorry, there was a mistake here, I just rectified 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.]