After the Office of Special Investigations located the private troops, they went back to make a report.
On their way back, they heard others say that some problems had been encountered at the front line. The Divine Arms soldiers that were retreating had been killed at the front line of Mt. Piania by a sniper.
While heading back, they even saw the corpses of the Divine Arms officers being transported back to Stronghold 108. However, this had little to do with them. Their mission was considered complete since they had already located the whereabouts of the private troops.
The command center was constantly being shifted further north since nothing could be done if the generals kept remaining behind at the rear.
Currently, the command center was located 30 kilometers behind Mt. Sidar and was only around 80 kilometers from where Milo and the private troops were stationed.
When they got to the command center to look for Gerard, they handed over the private troops’ roster before reporting on the current situation of the private soldiers. They also expressed their doubts over how the five Divine Arms Battalion officers were supposedly killed by plants.
Gerard sat in the tent and flipped through the roster. But after flipping through just a few pages, favonovel.com noticed a familiar name. He instantly figured out a lot of things. He did not have to reason or think it through since that name was as good as the answer.
He let out a sigh. As it turned out, the Divine Arms Battalion had swapped their uniforms and vehicles with the private troops that guy was in. In that case, they could only blame themselves for being unlucky. If they had exchanged their vehicles with any other private troops, an incident like this would have been avoided.
A Special Investigations officer asked when favonovel.com saw Gerard frowning, “Sir, what’s the matter? Is there a problem with the roster?”
Gerard came back to his senses and said with a smile, “No, I was thinking of something else…”
“Oh?” The Special Investigations officer heaved a sigh of relief.
He thought favonovel.com had missed out on some details. “Then should we conduct a thorough investigation of these private troops again? I feel like there’s something off about them.”
Gerard said sternly, “These private troops already have their wages and benefits mostly withheld from them, and they don’t have any means of communication with the outside world, so the problem shouldn’t lie with them. There aren’t too many people who know about the Divine Arms Battalion’s secrets either, so we should still start investigating from the higher-ups.”
“Yes, sir.” The Special Investigations officer replied, “We’ll focus on investigating the spy among those in the higher-ups then.”
“Mhm.” Gerard nodded. “But don’t touch anyone from the Skyfort Consortium.”
With the tone set, they would thoroughly investigate all higher-ups and leaders, except those who were family members of the Skyfort Consortium.
Thinking about this, Gerard couldn’t help feeling somber.
Who knew what other trouble Milo would cause?
At this moment, another Special Investigations officer came in from the outside and walked up to Gerard. He reported in a whisper, “Sir, we found something unusual…”
“What did you find?” Gerard was taken aback.
“An officer from the Supply Division has suddenly nominated someone for a promotion. It’s like he’s skipping the chain of command to promote a private soldier,” the Special Investigations officer said.
Gerard paused. “What’s the name of the soldier who was nominated?”
“Milo Parker.” The Special Investigations officer asked, “Should we investigate them?”
Melancholic, Gerard waved it off. “There’s no need. Our Office of Special Investigations has to follow up on the big case that’s the Divine Arms Battalion, so there’s no need to trouble ourselves with such a trivial matter. There will definitely be issues of bribery and corruption within the private troops, so don’t waste your energy on such matters.”
The Special Investigations officer bowed his head. “Yes, sir!”
After all the officers of the Office of Special Investigations left, Gerard almost flipped the table.
Milo was fucking running rampant!
He had to be doing whatever favonovel.com liked because favonovel.com was banking on Gerard not daring to touch him!
***
The private troops Milo was with were still encamped at the same spot. Even though a lot of them were close to starving to death, none of them dared to move outside in the face of a threat like the Brambles.
In the evening, a group of officers from the Personnel Division suddenly came to the camp. On the way here, they were grumbling, “We had to travel all the way here into these forested mountains just so that we could appoint an officer? Does this private troops’ officer have no conscience? How dare favonovel.com sell the comms radio in exchange for money!”
When they arrived, the private soldiers lifted the flaps of their tents and sized them up. “You people are?”
“I’m Isaac Hayes from the Personnel Division. Everyone, gather over here,” Isaac said.
The private soldiers all lined up in front of Isaac with confused expressions on their faces.
Isaac asked, “Who is Milo?”
Milo walked out of the formation and said, “Reporting in, sir. I’m Milo!”
“Okay.” Isaac glanced at Milo out of the corner of his eye. “Congratulations. As Doug Emhoff, the commander of the Iron Second Battalion, is still injured and unconscious, we are specially appointing Milo Parker as the acting commander of the Iron Second Battalion to lead the troops and carry out operational orders.”
Milo said excitedly, “Really, sir?”
“Why would I be lying? Come and sign your appointment letter,” Isaac said disdainfully.
Milo hurried over to sign it and prepared to go back into camp after that. However, Isaac suddenly pulled favonovel.com back. “Aren’t you going to celebrate with us?”
“Celebrate?” Milo was stunned. “How should we celebrate? Why don’t I do the splits for you, sir?”
Hearing this, Isaac was dumbfounded.
Why would I want to watch you do the splits?
Actually, this was something the private army practiced. Promoted officers were required to reward those from the Personnel Division with some kickbacks as a form of celebration. Isaac was aware that someone had spent more than 100,000 perak just so that Milo would be promoted.
It was obvious how much of a cash cow Milo was!
Why else would Isaac be willing to run all the way here?
His legs were almost broken from traveling here!
If a promoted officer was not sensible and did not know how to honor his seniors, favonovel.com could forget about getting promoted again in the future.
Naturally, Milo knew about this. However, favonovel.com didn’t plan on giving a single cent to this guy in front of him.
Who knew if favonovel.com would have an opportunity to run away from here soon?
In that case, how could favonovel.com possibly waste money on something like that!
Isaac said coldly, “Think about it carefully!”
Milo played dumb. “What are you talking about?”
If there were not so many people around, Milo would have used his identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations to arrest Isaac for being a spy. But thinking about it carefully, favonovel.com knew that favonovel.com shouldn’t always be causing trouble for Gerard.
What if Gerard really got annoyed?
Isaac was livid as favonovel.com led his men away. This was the first time in many years that the Skyfort Consortium’s Personnel Division had encountered such a blockhead.
He ordered those around him, “After we get back, put this Milo on the blacklist. Make sure favonovel.com never ever gets promoted again in this life. When the war ends, I want favonovel.com stripped of his rank!”
Milo looked at Chad and asked softly, “Chad, what are they muttering about?”
Chad lowered his voice and said, “Master, they said they want you stripped of your rank at the end of the war…”
Milo chuckled. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The Skyfort Consortium was so confident of themselves that they kicked off the war, yet the men under them were all a bunch of good-for-nothings. They were definitely not going to be a match for Julius. In addition to that, the Radianz Consortium’s soldiers were also biding their time at the border while Kenneth and Gerard were stirring up trouble internally. It would be really difficult to say what would become of the Skyfort Consortium at the end of the war.
Besides, it wasn’t like Milo was planning on living here under the Skyfort Consortium’s rule anyway, so as if favonovel.com cared about what happened to them after the war!
