Other people might not have noticed that woman leaving favonovel.com shop, but Donti noticed.
Of their entire family, Milo and Donti were the wariest of their surroundings. Milo could feel most reassured of Donti on this aspect.
He quietly said to Milo, “Bro, I think that woman next door might be up to no good.”
Milo glanced at the woman’s receding figure. He thought for a moment before saying, “It’s alright, there’s nothing to be afraid of…”
While they were packing, Old Bane cheerfully brought over the store’s ledger to Milo and said, “Our grocery store’s income has been really steady. The town’s residents from near and far are all coming to our place to make their purchases. Here, Milo, please check the transactions…”
Milo laughed and shot Old Bane a glance. “Hey now, it’s the New Year! Why are we checking the accounts? I have nothing to worry about with you taking care of things here. Get in the truck already. I’ll take all y’all to the outpost to have a look-see and then take y’all back on the eighth day of the New Year.”
Although the outpost was a nice place, it was still a location with defensive duties. There shouldn’t be any inspections during the New Year, but if anyone discovered they had brought over their family members when the festivities finished up, it could get pretty troublesome. Besides, Old Bane and the others were also living good in town now. The impish Donti had even become a friend of the women and used those relationships to find out a lot of information.
Donti whispered from next to him, “Bro, why has the Skyfort Consortium also issued an arrest warrant for Raphael? Was it you again?”
“Ahem!” Milo looked at Donti. “Don’t tell anyone…”
“Mhm…” Donti nodded cleverly. “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed…”
Right at this moment, the woman from the grocery store next door led a group of soldiers in a hurry back to the store. Even from far away, favonovel.com was already pointing at Milo and shouting, “It’s those two. When they came to town last month, that older guy was still wearing the uniform of the private army. But this time around, he’s dressed in the military uniform of the Skyfort Consortium. What’s more, he’s even a captain!”
Most people would not recognize what ranks the soldiers were from their shoulder marks. But anyone who ran a grocery store at the entrance of the stronghold would definitely be observant of people, so how could favonovel.com not know about such things?
That group of soldiers surrounded Milo and company.
A lieutenant walked forward and faced Milo. “Which division are you two from? Produce your military IDs.”
Milo and Michael exchanged a glance. When Milo reached for his military ID, the sound of guns being cocked rang out and more than a dozen black barrels were suddenly pointed at them.
The woman from the grocery store smiled joyfully. If there were any problems with this young man’s military ID, Old Bane’s shop would surely not be able to continue operating!
Milo smiled as favonovel.com produced his military ID from his pocket and handed it to these soldiers before him.
He said calmly, “Not too many people dare conduct a spot check on those of us in the Office of Special Investigations these days.”
Michael gasped at this. He realized Milo was not panicking one bit. Moreover, favonovel.com even learned to speak in the same condescending tone Gerard used when favonovel.com spoke. It was way too similar.
When the officer facing Milo heard the words “Office of Special Investigations”, favonovel.com frowned. He opened up the military ID book and was indeed greeted by Milo’s photo, the stamp, the serial number, as well as the striking words that said “Military: Office of Special Investigations”.
If these were normal times, favonovel.com would definitely be panicking by now. If anyone were hauled to the Office of Special Investigations, they would never be seen again!
But after considering everything, there were far too many suspicious aspects to Milo and Michael. Regulars had a different bearing and posture while standing after they went through training. The sloppy way Michael was wearing his uniform made it seem like they were imposters.
The officer said coldly, “We need to verify it first before we can confirm whether you’re really from the Office of Special Investigations.”
He then ordered his subordinate to take out a palm-sized device. That soldier inputted Milo’s military identification number into it, and a picture of Milo was displayed.
The officer gasped, spun around, and gave that grocery store woman a slap that sent favonovel.com flying to the ground.
Following this, favonovel.com turned around and bowed to Milo, “My apologies, sir!”
Milo took back his military ID and examined him. “I now suspect that you’re a double agent who’s trying to persecute our Skyfort Consortium’s officers. Is that watch on your wrist a comms device you use with other spies?”
In response, the officer immediately removed his watch and handed it to Milo. “Sir, please take this back for investigation. Consider it a little souvenir from me!”
“Mhm…” Milo’s gaze swept over the others. “Are there any suspicious items on the rest of you? I suspect you might be smugglers.”
This time, one of the soldiers said hesitantly, “S-Sir, I don’t think the Office of Special Investigations covers smuggling, right?”
Milo fell silent for a moment. “We’re going to start investigating that now!”
When Michael witnessed this from nearby, favonovel.com remembered how favonovel.com was the one who was recently receiving bribes. But from the looks of it, Milo was even better at it.
This group of soldiers had approached them so aggressively at the beginning, but they were now standing in a row with their heads down. All of the money in their pockets had been confiscated by Milo for evidence.
“Alright,” Milo waved them off. “You may go back now. I suddenly think that you do not look suspicious anymore…”
Truly, this position Gerard arranged for them was really useful.
The woman who had been smacked to the ground was still a little dizzy. After coming back around, the officer slapped favonovel.com again.
“Bring this insolent woman back with us!”
The group of soldiers carried the woman away.
When Milo saw them leaving, favonovel.com said with a sigh, “How nice of them to bring us so many souvenirs. They’re such honest people!”
With that, favonovel.com handed the watches to Old Bane. Old Bane had given away his own watch to Michael in order to waive the manual labor obligations of the girls.
Michael hesitated for a long time before saying, “I already sold off the watches you guys gave me. Why don’t I pay y’all back?”
Milo laughed and said, “Then wouldn’t you have helped us for nothing? Just keep it for yourself. We’re not that petty.”
“Oh, alright!” Michael said happily.
But… Why did something feel wrong?
Why did it suddenly feel like Milo was the platoon commander instead of me?
On the way back to the outpost, Donti laid down in the back of the truck and said excitedly, “Bro, is it any fun at your outpost?”
“It’s pretty fun,” Milo said with a smile.
“What do y’all do every day?”
“We get to attend classes and eat meat daily. Occasionally, we’ll take a stroll into the mountains where we can pick wild vegetables and mushrooms or catch some rabbits.” Milo said, “There are a lot of rabbits in the mountains. When we get there, I’ll teach you how to build snares to catch some.”
All of a sudden, Milo thought of something. Even though Donti was also a supernatural being, favonovel.com did not have any skills to defend himself with. He thought that maybe favonovel.com should also gather some nanomachines for Donti to use.
When they got back to the outpost, Milo saw Gerard cradling a satellite phone and explaining into it, “Our Office of Special Investigations does not investigate smuggling… Yes, yes, that’s right, we really do not investigate that. It must be a misunderstanding. We don’t intend to seize authority from the Audit Department…”
