Chapter 283: current situation

As soon as the military report was given and the President left, Rashford finally ended the short convergence conference.

After General Armstrong left, he also stood up to go after making sure that Clark was teleported back by the building’s A. I to be led away by his escort.

He didn’t leave the President’s building though, after leaving the conference room he teleported to another part of the building before taking a spiraling staircase upwards.

It took him 2 minutes to get to the end of the staircase. When he reached the end, he arrived before an open sky.

This was the roof of the helmet-shaped building.

On the roof, there were a swimming pool, a small garden, a small zoo that was filled with creatures and exobeasts of various species, and a small bar at the side that was dominated by drinks.

President Leonidas was currently seated inside the bar, leisurely sipping from a bottle of enhanced treated water. Seeing Commander Rashford, he smiled like he was expecting him.

“You were expecting me?” Rashford laughed.

“Yes, I knew that you would not be able to curb your curiosity. That’s one of your weaknesses that you never bother to improve on, it can be used to lay a trap for you one day”.

“Hahaha, let them try, I’ll bulldoze through all their traps with brute power”. Rashford flexed his muscles, prompting a chuckle from the President.

“How much do you know about the Elites?” The President suddenly asked.

Rashford paused. “You mean the Elite Commanders of legends?”

“Yes”.

“I don’t know, I think I know fairly much about them compared to others. They are the soldiers with the strongest individual strength in the world, they have abilities that science cannot explain”.

“Lots of stuff like that, their description is too much to finish in a sitting. Why did you bring this up, is it related to the parchment that the kid showed us?”

“Yes”. The President smiled. “That’s why you came right? You want to know what the parchment meant?”

“Yes, I didn’t understand a thing. I just kept quiet to maintain my dignity before a junior, a soldier has to have prestige you know. You thought me that”.

Rashford shrugged before plopping down on a chair beside the President, he already snatched a bottle of chilled drink for himself.

President Leonidas chuckled, leaned back on his chair before speaking, his tone nostalgic. “The E written in the parchment, that is an ancient communication technique that I’ve not seen in centuries”.

“Holy moly!” Rashford was shocked. “You serious?”

“Yes, I’m dead serious”. The President relished the feeling of making his younger companion shocked, he always loved feeling more knowledgeable than others.

“To be sincere, when I first saw the kid bring out the parchment, it took all my willpower to hold myself back from cursing out loud. Like, seeing something that you last saw over a century ago will startle anyone”.

Rashford threw his head back and roared in laughter. “If you lost your cool, then poor Clark’s perception of the cool and aloof President would have been brutally shattered”.

“Ok, jokes aside. Tell me more about the parchment”. He finally demanded with a tinge of expectation in his tone.

“The E on the parchment, it was written with the extracted blood of a high-tier exobeast. This was a strange method that the Elite Commanders used in communicating over a century ago”.

“Well, that’s the last time that I saw it being used”.

“Back when they were still known by some upper echelons of countries, some Elite Commanders gave this parchment to the soldiers that they fancied, which acted as a layer of protection to those few lucky freaks”.

Rashford finally caught to the point, eyes widening. “You mean…”

“Yes. I don’t know how but somehow, not only did this Clark have the chance of meeting an Elite Commander, he also attracted the latter’s attention”.

“I don’t know if this is pure dumb luck or as a result of his talent, but either of the scenarios is a great win for the Spartan republic”.

The President sighed. “Armstrong thought that they were sending him to his death, but now see. The world is really mysterious, I think this is the legendary fortune from misfortune scenario”.

Rashford became serious a bit. “If this is true, then Clark Pendragon is a soldier with an enormous potential than we evaluated. We have to give him proper attention and take care of him”.

“That’s why I raised his attention level to the highest level received by young prodigies. But this may all be speculation too, so we can’t really be sure”. The President clicked his tongue.

“We don’t know, but helping him hurts no one”.

“You’re right”.

The President suddenly sighed. “Even in this my age, I have only heard about Elite Commanders but the small kid already had an encounter with one. Is this fate?”

“Who knows? Well, forget about those things, and let’s focus on more important matters”. Rashford waved his hands casually.

The President suddenly turned to face him. “Don’t you feel anything? I originally wanted to give the bean quadrant enhancer to you when I heard that Clark retrieved it”.

Rashford paused for a moment before replying. “I don’t really need it to fulfill my potential, it’s better utilized by Clark. And besides, I don’t want to anger an Elite. I still love my life and my wife”.

Bursting into a pearl of laughter, the President downed his water in one gulp before taking a bottle of chilled drink from the cabinet before him.

They both sat, enjoying the sensation of the sun heating their skin, and drinking to their heart’s content, while leisurely bringing up matters of discussion to kill the time.

“What is your opinion about the infamous Professor Granit?” Rashford suddenly asked; his face now an epitome of curious laziness.

“I have to say that Clark is really a lucky bastard. Not only did he meet an Elite Commander in one mission, he also had the chance to meet a freak like Professor Granit”.

“From the history that I learned, though that guy was a freak, he was still a legend of humanity when it comes to the medical sector. Who thought that he was actually still living as a brain after so long, what the heck?”

The President shuddered a bit on hearing the Professor’s name, a sight which seemed alien to Rashford.

“Did you know him?” Rashford was curious.

“Yes, I met him for some time”.

“Woah! You never told me that! How is his personality? Is it as the rumors say?”

“That guy…, that guy is a maniac scientist!”

…

“Major Clark, I guess our time together ends here”. Captain Dan extended a hand for another handshake with his younger counterpart. “It’s been nice knowing you”.

“Same here, Captain. Thanks for the nice reception, and yeah, the eventful journey too. When we have time, let’s meet up again in the future”. Clark smiled.

“Yeah, that’s a wonderful idea”.

After exchanging a few more words of pleasantries to act the part, both soldiers finally separated.

Captain Dan went back inside his military vehicle with his subordinates to return to his post, while Clark entered another military vehicle that was parked at the side.

The military vehicle was provided temporarily for him to facilitate his transportation, it’s A. I would steer it back after its new assignment was accomplished.

Waving one last time, the captain finally drove off.

Seeing this, Clark smiled and waved back. As soon as the captain left, he did not ignite the car’s engine immediately, he leaned back on the chair to think a bit.

Before he was invited here, he already predicted what would happen so before returning from the Everest, he asked his master for help and guidance to avoid stories that touch.

In the end, he was right. He was not sure but his subconscious told him that without the parchment provided by his master, the upper echelons would have used more forceful measures on him.

At first, when his master just gave him the parchment and explained its history to him, he immediately complained that none of the Spartan upper echelons would recognize such an ancient technique.

His master just waved his protest away though.

According to the old man, the others may not recognize it but President Leonidas would.

According to him, the Spartan President was ranked 10th in a list of prospect soldiers that they listed decades ago who originally had the potential to reach the famed Elite-grade realm.

They reached out to him then but the contact was very subtle.

To be sincere, when Clark heard that his President had the potential of becoming an Elite, he was giddy with joy.

His master doused his excitement soon after though. The old man said that Leonidas already went past his age of rapid growth spurt, that for him to break through at this age required immense luck.

Though that was disheartening, Clark was still happy.

When he noticed the change in his President’s expression after seeing the parchment on his hand, he was even happier rather than worried about his situation.

Every other thing played out as his master predicted, nothing happened to him and he left with the bean quadrant enhancer much to his shock.

Thinking of the fact that so many soldiers fought, persevered, and died just to get this mission target, even his friend, and in the end, he took it selfishly to himself left him feeling guilty.

He could only console himself with the fact that he didn’t ask for it, the damned Professor decided on his behalf.

In this short meeting with the leaders of the Spartan republic, another notable fact that Clark went home with was General Armstrong who was in charge of public relations.

He was not sure but from his little encounter with the General, he suspected that this man was the one responsible and in charge of the darker sides of the Spartan republic.

He suspected that General Armstrong was the leader of the hidden powers spreading mischief from the dark.

His only doubt was that if he could suspect this just from one encounter, there was no way that the Spartan President would still be kept in the dark. So why has he not acted to nab this unstable element down yet?

Well, he was still just too small now to know such secrets of the republic, so he was kept in the dark.

Before he left, Commander Rashford also asked him if he was ready for his rank promotion ceremony but he rejected the Commander this time.

He didn’t want a high-profile ceremony again, getting his new rank silently was ok with him.

Since he learned of the hidden powers of the republic who were even strong enough to manipulate him against his will, most of his enthusiasm for such matters diminished.

Why make his promotion high profile when some hidden powers could easily manipulate him from the dark? To him, it didn’t make sense.

Till he was strong enough to shrug off the influence of these powers, he no longer fancied any high-profile military ceremony.

And as the Everest mission was extremely confidential, their award and compensation for accomplishing the mission would also be done far from the public’s eye.

The award presentation was scheduled to be 2 weeks from now.

After going through all these, his mind finally relaxed. Switching on the military vehicle, he drove off immediately from the Presidential villa.

He was not going back to his mansion yet; he was going to visit his best friend- Leo. He had to explain what happened on the Everest to his friend, he wanted to announce Benny’s death to Leo himself.

[Thanks for reading.]