The news of the new president of Red Dusk reaching a ‘compromise’ with the Empress of Blue Dawn soon reached the ears of the Commonwealth’s public, and many people couldn’t help but praise the man for his ‘competency’.
Although most of these early news reports were mostly ‘tentative’, most people were already sure of their authenticity based on the trend. “Our new president is definitely much better than the last one, isn’t he? Makes me wonder why more people didn’t vote for him before!”
”… I mean, he looks like a frog with a wig…”
Of course, there had been no lack of memes and jokes all over the world over the ‘funny’ appearance of their new president. And while many laughed along, some citizens couldn’t help but be offended by the association.
”I still think he’s a good guy!”
”Yeah, don’t judge a book by its cover!”
What hurt their argument the most wasn’t those ‘trolls’ on the internet, however, but their own fellow citizens. “Well, It’s not just about his looks… isn’t the way he speaks also kind of weird? I wouldn’t want someone like that to represent us if I had a choice.”
”Give the man a break. Didn’t he manage to convince that stubborn Empress of Blue Dawn to forget about what happened before?”
”Right? If you think someone who can make people forgive others for trying to kill them is ‘not good at talking’, I really don’t know what to say.”
Unfortunately for these supporters, however, the more they refuted these ‘skeptics’, the more resistant they were to accepting ‘their’ new president. “Huh? Do you really believe the Empress would give up on revenge so easily based on what the media is saying? I’m telling you, either she’s biding her time, or the new president must have promised her a lot of benefits!”
”Duh! Of course he has to compensate her somehow! But isn’t that fine? Although our old president decided most of the bad stuff on his own, it’s a fact that our soldiers tried to kill her. I think this result is already quite good.”
Evidently, most people in Red Dusk were on a similar page, and even when the government released some details on the compromises they had reached with Blue Dawn, there was more appreciation than critique thrown their way.
”Just a few aircrafts and ships, not even of the latest generation, and a few cooperation agreements… that’s it? This Empress must be really easy to please, huh?”
”She’s quite cute when I think about it… makes me wonder what kind of monster our old president was to try to get her killed just so he can have an excuse to start a war.”
”Don’t forget that he wanted to get rid of some of our best men while at it too, just because they were in his ‘opposite camp’!”
”Gah! What a bastard!”
”I hope he gets flogged to death!”
Of course, the most crucial part of the compromise wasn’t disclosed to the public as it was considered ‘critical to national security’, or their reactions might have been a little different.
Looking at the results from his office, Tom couldn’t help but smile. “What do you think, Cindy, did I do well on the mission?”
The ash-blonde hesitated for a while before shaking her head. “I-I don’t know… Was there any need for you to fan the flames against your own ally like that?”
Tom sighed. “You won’t understand, girl. If I let him get too confident and complacent, would he really be willing to adjust for our empress when needed, especially in the future?”
Well, the truth was that he still needed to sow the seeds for the fruits he wanted to reap after dealing with Emilia, and Tom knew that now was the best time to do it.
The ash-blonde nodded thoughtfully, not noticing the hidden, dark smile in Tom’s eyes. ‘Fucking idiot… trusting this simpleton to keep an eye on me, huh? Well, I don’t mind getting a few more glowing reports to earn her trust faster!’
In his opinion, even if Mindy was ‘watching’ him, she was just a more efficient murder tool with even worse social skills than her ‘sister’. A threat, yes, but not for those who knew how to handle her efficiently.
’Both that little bitch and our dear new president are happy and content right now, and their guards are the lowest they can be against me. Unfortunately, the moves I can make are limited, or this would be the best time for a final, decisive strike.’
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Despite her initial annoyance with the new president of Red Dusk, by the time their ‘meeting’ ended, Emilia was actually quite ecstatic. “I can’t believe he just agreed to everything!”
Noelle smiled. “Of course he did. He’s a typical short-sighted politician who wants to solidify his ‘chair’ as much as possible, and couldn’t give two hoots about any ‘future repercussions’ his decisions today will have on the country he’s leading.”
Emilia couldn’t help but giggle. “I suppose it’s a win-win for the both of us, then. He gets to please the public and his supporters with a ‘quick and thorough resolution’ of the issue they were most worried about, while we get all the blueprints and tech we need to speed up our progress!”
White Deer Corporation might have many of the current technologies in the world at the state-of-the-art level, but for certain things that various governments kept under tight wraps, it was nearly impossible for them to have had much of a chance to ‘acquire’ them. Until now, that is.
Noelle shrugged. “Don’t expect any miracles. What the Red Dusk has isn’t really the ‘best’ in the world at the moment. It might help our researchers save quite a bit of time in development, but there’s no way to tell how effective the results would be.”
Currently, although they had already started stepping into most of these ‘forbidden’ areas after acquiring their own fully-controlled territory, the White Deer Corporation was still multiple generations behind the state of the art.
Ideally, they would be able to jump up to a level where they were just one or two generations behind the current level of the ‘top’, which was where Red Dusk was at, and then work their way up from there.
If they were lucky, they could not only ‘catch up’ to the top players, but perhaps even make a few lucky diversions and exceed them!
Of course, this was the best-case scenario.
In the worst case… well, they would still be multiple generations behind the current state of the art.
Emilia also knew that while she had managed to nab quite a few hidden talents so far, and Crystal’s ability also helped, none of them could be given the title of ‘exceptional’.
And to achieve results that exceeded expectations in the field of science and technology, what they needed was exactly that kind of ‘abnormal’ existence… or a lot of luck.
The crimson-haired girl sighed. “Ahh, whatever. Did you tell Cindy and Mindy to return, by the way?”
”I did, but she won’t be leaving for another two days.” Noelle pursed her lips in thought. “Emilia… are you really sure about this? Without her, the eyes we have left won’t be enough to observe all the moves at the topmost level of Red Dusk, you know?”
Emilia grinned. “Don’t worry.”
Seeing Noelle roll her eyes in exasperation, the crimson-haired girl couldn’t help but pout. “Hey! It’s not like I’m stupid and don’t understand the threat of Tom, but… since we already know what he’s going to do, is there any need to keep letting Mindy and Cindy be at risk?”
Of course, considering how capable she was, the risk wasn’t actually that big. Things may turn bad, yes, but she should still be able to survive most situations unless caught completely off guard, which was unlikely as it was her job to remain vigilant.
And in the worst case, even if she couldn’t escape all the way to Blue Dawn on her own, hiding and waiting for rescue should still be an option.
After a short pause, Emilia smiled shyly. “Actually, there’s another reason I wanted to call her back… Since we’re going to Phoenix soon, it wouldn’t hurt to have one more person capable of keeping an eye out for Crystal and big sister, right?”
Noelle frowned, but thinking about how things could get quite unpredictable there, she couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “… Surprisingly, that’s not a bad idea.”
”What do you mean ‘surprisingly’?! None of my ideas are bad!”
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