Chapter 298: anticipation

“You now have a fiancée?”

“Yes, we got engaged 2 weeks ago after my pregnancy was confirmed”. As she said this, Emily stealthily stole a few glances at Clark’s face to detect any change.

There was a change as she expected, Clark was not as unfeeling as he acted on the surface. The only problem was that the change was not exactly what she wanted, but she expected it though.

After hearing what she said, she noticed that Clark visibly shifted uncomfortably before trying to give her the needed distance that should be given to an engaged woman.

She noticed his facial expressions change subtlety though he tried but failed to hide it. First, his eyes became complicated, they showed slight regret and surprisingly reflected anxiousness a bit, this did not last though.

The previous emotions only lasted but a moment before Clark’s eyes became focused again, a visible gleam of determination shining from its depths.

This shattered the last hope in her heart. She knew that it was selfish on her part and cruel to Jack, but at the back of her heart, she still hoped before to detect a change in Clark’s feelings after hearing her.

To her disappointment, this only brought Clark down a bit before making his determination for the one and only girl who caught his eye to blaze fiercer.

Yes, the determination was still flickering and unstable but she knew that Clark’s heart had no place for any other lady.

She finally succumbed to fate. “It seems that the myth of soulmates is real After all, I guess I’m not his soulmate”.

This once again brought another curiosity that she’s been trying to hide throughout all these months, she wanted to meet Sonia physically. She’s seen her pictures but that was no longer sufficient for her, she wanted to see the real thing.

She wanted to see what made her so different that Clark remained so spellbound despite having so many beautiful girls around him.

“How’s he? I mean, he treats you well, right?” After taking hold of his emotions, Clark coughed before asking.

Emily had an amused expression on her face, she already got over her disappointment in this short time. “He treats me well. Even if he wants, he does not dare to treat me badly when you’re here”.

Clark laughed, prompting her to also laugh as they both took in the joy of this rare moment together.

After calming down, Clark spoke again. “When you guys just came, I noticed that he doesn’t seem to like me. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I hope it’s not causing the both of you any trouble”.

“Not at all”. Emily smiled but she didn’t go further about it, so Clark also decided to ignore that topic.

Clark turned back to sit down on his chair. Sighing, he looked down the balcony. His enormous compound was reflected in his eyes, shoving his success back at his face.

He turned to face Emily. “Since the mercenary group started, it’s grown by a lot under your leadership. Do you think it’s right that I remain the Commander when I’ve barely done a thing?”

Emily feigned a hurt expression. “After everything that we passed through, after finally developing the mercenary group to this level, now you want to leave everything to me. You’re cruel”.

“No…, no that’s not what I meant. I mean…”

Emily laughed. “I know, I already noticed the concern but I promise you that everything is under my control. Most especially now that you’re a Captain, and also with the inclusion of Captain Josh into our ranks”.

“Ah! Before I forget, how did you meet Captain Josh? I already noticed that the both of you have a peculiar relationship, and you’ve also not told me your experiences in the Everest”.

“Oh, I almost forgot too”.

Activating his jamming device, Clarks settled down on a more comfortable position on his chair before filling her on all his experiences in the Everest.

She was left exclaiming excitedly throughout the story, at times feeling goosebumps from listening to the fantasy-like descriptions, she wished she was there when Clark experienced all these.

Throughout the story, the atmosphere was harmonious, it only became a little sad when Clark got to where Benny died to the exobeast, Grey Fur.

It was the ugliest part of the story, but it could not be skipped.

Like Clark and the others, Emily also had a good relationship with Benny after knowing him. When she heard of his death from her sister, the pain was there she just didn’t express it outwards.

Now that Clark described the process, they were both plunged into a sad mood. As they both became silent, Clark suddenly said something that startled her.

“I miss Henry”.

Getting no response from her, he continued. “His death was painful but I didn’t feel it much then, probably because I was also fighting for my life”.

“After losing Benny, that’s when I started appreciating life more. Losing friends to the tentacles of death really makes me feel sad, lost, and incompetent; it’s traumatizing”.

“Yeah”. Emily wiped a tear from her face.

She had a storm of emotions rolling through her mind, she just didn’t know how to express them. In the end, she summarized it all in a single sentence. “I’ve lost too much, Clark. I hope I don’t lose you too”.

Clark smiled. “Even if death is staring at me in the face, don’t worry I’ll remember the promise I’m about to make to you today. I promise to never succumb to death when you and my other friends are still here”.

Both of them locked their fingers to make a pinky promise. It looked silly but not to them though, this was from their heart.

“I think it’s time for you to go give the mercenaries a speech, Commander”. Emily suddenly said while grinning.

Clark stood up, smiling in an amused manner at the way she phrased her words. “Let’s go give them the speech that they want. In a few weeks, it’ll be needed to hammer hard at the terrorists”.

“And please eat well and let your baby develop fast, I want to see a little Emily running around soon”.

Emily laughed and bumped his chest with her fists. They both turned to go down the next moment, a hall of mercenaries was waiting for them.

Getting to the hall in the mansion where Rose led the mercenaries, the place was quiet and organized. All the mercenaries were already waiting for them.

Clark’s speech was epic like usual. Emily didn’t know how he practiced becoming so good at it, no matter how she did it she always failed to grab all the mercenary’s attention during her speeches the way Clark did.

After giving a passionate speech that left every mercenary pumping with energy, Clark finally ended his speech.

The mercenaries were not staying here though, he assigned them to go to his other mansion. Since he got the mansion, he’s not found the perfect use for it yet. Using it as a base for the mercenaries was not a bad idea.

He would think more about that later, for now, he had to let the mercenaries settle down in a nice place in preparation for the upcoming battle.

As they left with their arsenal of military vehicles, Clark had a complicated expression on his face. Little drops of water really make a mighty ocean.

From the mercenary juvenile group of only about a dozen soldiers, Emily already expanded it to a dragon mercenary group of over 1,400 soldiers despite his absence during that period.

It was nice to see something grow; it was even nicer when that thing was created by you.

Sighing nostalgically, he turned and went back straight in the direction of his room. As the new vice commander of the mercenary group, Captain Josh followed them away of course.

Now, only the mischievous Jason and his clique were left for him to send to their rightful places. And before he forgot, he had not contacted Dickson since they returned from the mission.

He placed that at the back of his mind to join with the other things in his scale of preference of things-to-do list.

…

“You both took your time”.

“Yeah, we just took the opportunity to reminisce about our past together. I hope you have no problem with that”. Emily turned to face her fiancée before answering.

“No”. Jack bit his lips, he hesitated but in the end, kept quiet and turned away.

Emily sighed in her heart on seeing this. Since their relationship started, she knew this would always be a problem until they grew to the stage where they had absolute trust in each other.

Jack may seem meddlesome, but she didn’t blame him a single bit. She would also feel insecure if her fiancée was previously madly in love with her Commander.

Before the spark of their relationship started, every mercenary under her knew that she had a crush on the Commander. That was one of the main reasons why they never complained about Clark’s months-long absence.

Jack having the courage to fall in love with her under such circumstances was already commendable, she didn’t want to add to his problems.

Her words were now even more delicate when she spoke to him.

She knew that after they started their relationship, though Jack never said it, he had a silent ambition to replace Clark’s place in her heart completely.

This was not just in terms of love, but strength, influence, and a lot of other things. She already expected something surprising so she took it more calmly, but she knew that the sudden news of Clark now being a Captain shook Jack to his core.

Despite the many defects and worrying situations, she was not too worried though. They were soldiers, such trivialities were not enough to knock them down.

Taking her mind from this, she finally started thinking more about the new mercenary who just joined them today, Captain Josh.

After hearing Clark’s story about the captain, she was left completely speechless. Though Josh was not like typical 3rd rank high-grade soldiers, he very much had the strength.

Compared to his personality, she cared much more about his strength.

She knew that the inclusion of 2 Captains would take the Pendragon mercenary groups to heights that she only dared to dream of before.

It was hard to see a 3rd rank high-grade soldier working as a mercenary, most of them were already poached by their countries. Mercenary groups with 3rd rank high-grade soldiers were the cream of the top ones.

With the inclusion of Captain Josh, she knew that an even more rapid period of growth was coming.

That’s why Clark said that this was his payment for the upcoming battle. Mercenaries joined them because of benefits, and the benefits that a soldier like Josh could bring cannot be quantified with money.

To her, this was the best payment that they could ever ask for.

She now even anticipated the day that the battle would start; she was also fed up with the terrorists despite not being a Spartan citizen.

[Thanks for reading.]