Chapter 105: exiled soldiers ii

"Alright then, first let me start by giving a brief explanation of how the chain of power is in the western continent is." Camron was about to begin.

"Wait, Alex, you are not from the Western continent?" Drake who was sitting beside Camron interrupted.

"No." 

"Then where do you come from?" Drake inquired.

"Somewhere far away. Now please stop interrupting." Alex returned his attention to Camron.

"The highest official position of power in the western continent is the office of the prime minister, then the office of the governor, and then the office of the mayor. Although there are other offices that have more jurisdiction than that of the mayor, in the case of the army the power rests in both the prime minister's hands and that of the mayor's. This way power is being checked and balanced.

There is a command token that is needed before any, division or regiment in the army can be deployed for any kind of situation, and only two of these tokens were made. One of them is in the hands of the prime minister and the other is in the mayor's hands. Without it, no General or Lieutenant colonel in the army is permitted to deploy a large number of soldiers…

4 years ago, when the Roxanne regiment, that is the regiment that rebelled – were caught and about to be executed, they claimed that they got the go-ahead from the prime minister to carry out their operations. They said that their Lieutenant colonel was bestowed the command token, by the prime minister and they were right. Their Lieutenant colonel did have a command token with him, only problem was that the token was a fake."

"So the prime minister planned everything out and made the regiment take the fall for him?" Alex wondered.

"No he didn't, at least every evidence provided by him proved otherwise." Camron pointed out.

"I thought you mentioned that the prime minister bestowed the Lieutenant colonel a token?"

"The soldiers only said what their lieutenant colonel told them when he presented the token to them." Camron clarified.

"Then couldn't the Lieutenant colonel prove that the fake token was handed to him by the prime minister?"

"The Lieutenant colonel was one of the first people that were killed before the regiment was caught."

"Dead men tell no tales," Alex whispered. "Continue."

"Apart from the government, there are others that hold unofficial power and can affect the decisions of the government," Camron mentioned.

"The ancient-bloodline families?" Alex asked.

"Yes. The government was created by the general populace to keep the families with ancient bloodlines in check. If all power was left in their hands then it would most likely be abused by them and the general populace will have fewer opportunities to become anything unless they are under the wings of these families. Even with the government in place, these families are still getting bigger and stronger. Freelance cultivators still go to them and pledge their allegiance.

When the government was created, a rule was put in place that all decision-making offices cannot be given to people that are related, affiliated, or have pledged allegiance to these families, and everyone was okay with it including the bloodline families. This rule was put in place to avoid giving one family more authority than other families. If any of these families feel threatened by another, then it can lead to a feud between bloodline families." Camron continued.

"So those in decision-making positions, I assume that they were all elected into power right?" Alex guessed.

"Correct again. Most of them are people that started from nothing and worked their way to the top. Now to what the Roxanne regiment did that warranted their exile. The first crime was the mobilization of the whole regiment without the command token. The second was attacking another regiment of the army. They attacked their comrades and the causalities weren't minuscule."

"If you want to start a civil war, aren't there better ways to do that? Why kill your comrades?" Alex pondered.

"Here's the reason why. This regiment that they attack was the Krakion regiment, a regiment filled with people affiliated with the Krakion family. The Krakion family is a Class-3 ancient bloodline family, one of the strongest on the western continent, although the families with bloodlines cannot gain political power they are free to get military power. It was rumored that the rival regiment of the Krakion regiment was the Roxanne. There was already some kind of beef, so it was a win-win situation for them, kill their rivals, and start their rebellion.

When the Krakion family found out they quickly deployed reinforcement from the family's personal army and with them, the rebels were forcefully suppressed into submission. The Krakions, were the ones that brought the head of the Lieutenant colonel to the officials, since this predicament happened, both the prime minister and the mayor have been facing a lot of issues in the office.

The class-3 bloodline families are demanding that they abolish the rule that is against them taking over offices that gives them the jurisdiction to make decisions."

"Aren't there any Generals in the army?"

"There are, but they also didn't expect it. The token is meant to be given to a General first, then the General will give his subordinates his own token. For it to be given to a Lieutenant colonel directly and not following the chain of command, only makes their claim of innocence, laughable.

As a soldier in the army, you are meant to know how the chain of command is followed strictly. They said that they didn't know the intentions of their Lieutenant colonel, that they were only following his orders." Camron finished.

"I understand a bit of what is going on now, but what I don't understand is why they chose to give students the duty of protecting their spouses. Why not get the government to take care of that?" Alex wondered.

"Because the whole parliament is in disarray and in conflict. They have different views on the demand of the bloodline families, some support their notion, some are neutral, and others are against it. They fear that there are moles everywhere. If they use guards provided by the government and their spouses get kidnapped by those that want to blackmail them into doing their bidding, then they would have no chance to save themselves. And the votes of both the prime minister and the mayor carry a lot of weight.

The governor is in support of the bloodline families' demands. He has already cast his vote and made it known to others who he is in support of. Now here is the tricky thing, if the prime minister and mayor don't cast a vote then this bill that they are trying to pass on will remain stagnant until they have voted.

And if they do vote, then they will likely be thrown at the doorstep of the exiled soldiers. They have been avoiding this matter for a long time and they cannot do so anymore."

"But it is still not a wise choice to let a few nascent realm cultivators protect them. What if the opponents we face are way above our capabilities? Then there will be no use in standing guard and I have no plans on putting my life on the line for the clients." Alex shook his head.

"You don't have to worry about that, there are rules in the capital city for things like this. Only disaster realm cultivators downward are allowed to take on any operation that involves QI. If anyone disobeys this rule, they will be apprehended by those that are watching. Cultivators above that realm seldom intervene in cases like this. We just have to avoid leaving the inner regions of the city, the rule only takes effect in the inner parts." Katherine who had been looking for a chance to join in on the conversation spoke up and answered Alex's question.

"And who are those that are watching?" Alex arched his brows.

"Mediators assigned by academies like ours and also from sects. Sects and institutions like the Severance academy have agreed not to include their selves in this power struggle and anything like it, but they as overseers of the western continent, they take action to make sure that there is balance." Katherine explained.

"I was also told that there will be 2 other teams there to join us on this mission, but they are not from our academy. They have late-stage disaster realm cultivators with them so you shouldn't worry much about it

"Hmmm, almost everything about this situation sounds fishy. I can't help but feel curious and want to poke my nose into this case." A little smile formed on Alex's lips.

"Your curiosity shouldn't affect the main objectives of the mission. We are just going there to be in charge of their safety. Remember, we owe the school a lot of merit points. We need to pay that back before the month ends. In other words, our performance in this mission will determine our livelihood for next month." Camron cautioned and reminded them of their situation.

['Your livelihood, not ours. We rich as f*ck'] Al corrected.

['This mission, I only hope it doesn't turn out to be as troublesome as the first. If you use your awakened bloodline ability, this time you might not survive.'] Lex stated.

['I don't plan on using it. I was too reckless with it in the past, it might be a trump card but it is also a double-edged sword.'] Alex tightened his fist as he recalled what he saw and heard when everything turned white and black.

The blood-curling voices and very disturbing scenes. He hoped that everything he saw and heard was just hallucinations, but deep down he knew that it wasn't so.

Alex unclenched his fist and tried to relax. He leaned comfortably on the backrest of his seat and closed his eyes. "Someone tell me when we reach the capital city. I need to close my eyes for a bit."

['I haven't had a peaceful sleep in two weeks.'] He sighed…