Chapter 462 Devious n ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Although the Commonwealth of Red Dusk had already reached the conclusion that they couldn''t miss this final opportunity to ''wlessly'' capture their neighboring territory and resources, the way in which they should execute the n still sparked a lot of debate.
Initially, everyone was very excited toe up with multiple ways to bring Emilia down while leaving no trace, and putting the me on her own people at the same time, but as the discussion progressed… it seemed like everything was full of ws.
The location where the meeting would take ce, Huono town, might have been close to their border, but it was still almost twenty-five kilometers away from their outermost military post.
Naturally, it was impossible to just instruct a few snipers to take everyone out, no matter how talented or lucky they were.
Bombing the ce was another ''sure fire'' way to aplish their mission, but it also carried the risk of other countries being able to spot and log their activity. With such a critical w, themonwealth naturally couldn''t afford to take the risk.
Sending in a suicide bomber was also very likely to get discovered early. Plus, even if it worked, any kind of scrutiny of the corpses, materials, or the scene of incidence might lead to the premature exposure of their n.
The chief of the intelligence division sighed. "I guess that leaves us with just one option… let''s have a specially selected group from our army disguise themselves as the ''rebels'', sneak into the Empire of Blue Dawn, and finish the job personally."
Having had all their ns already rejected none of the others argued against this st resort'', and only turned to look at the frowning president''s face.
The man hummed solemnly before nodding. "I normally wouldn''t bet everything on just a few men. After all, men make mistakes. But since we can''t afford to miss this opportunity… Let me ask you this, Tom… are you willing to lead the operation for our Red Dusk?"
It took the intelligence division''s chief almost a full minute before he managed toprehend the president''s words, and when he did, his smiling expression froze. "O-Of course I will look through the whole n, and—"
The president mmed his fist on the table. "I don''t mean that, Tom! What I need you to do is head in there personally… and see to it that everything goes well. We cannot take chances here, understand?"
Faced with the president''s powerful gaze, the intelligence division''s chief had no choice but to nod in agreement. "I know. I just didn''t expect that the president would allow me to have such an honor at this age, but thank you."
Although there was no sarcasm in his words, anyone present could tell that he was far from satisfied with how things yed out. But it wasn''t really much of a surprise.
After all, while the soldiers sent to the Blue Dawn may not have been instructed tomit suicide, there was still a very high likelihood that some of them would die.
No matter how careless the empress was with the security around her, she couldn''t bepletely defenseless. Plus, with how fierce she had been in some of the videos that had been leaked so far… if they were even a little sloppy with their ambush, the aftermath might be gruesome.
Moreover, to ensure that their ''origins'' couldn''t be traced back to themonwealth, every troop being sent waspulsorily required to get imnted with a timed explosive that they had to activate before engaging.
This ''security measure'' could only be disabled if they managed to escape safely back to their own country, and required the approval of both the president and the military general.
Needless to say, even if they were extremely lucky, more than half the troops being sent out were expected to perish in one way or the other.
For the chief of the intelligence division who believed he had served themonwealth more loyally and better than anyone else, this was undoubtedly more of an insult than it was an honor.
But even if everyone could read between the lines, they all pretended to remain oblivious.
Tom couldn''t help but scoff. ''Does this bastard finally realize that his poprity is continuously declining, and he''s unlikely to win in the next elections? But if he thinks he''ll get rid of me so easily… he''s got another thinging.''
Unfortunately, no matter how dissatisfied some people were with the ''inadequacy'' of the method, they all had no choice but to ept it and move on.
After all, the n was so perfect that even if it failed, all they would lose would be a few ''disposable'' men. If it seeded, however… theirmonwealth of Red Dusk would finally start expanding once more, and not by a small margin, either!
Plus, if the news of the ore veins in their neighboring regions turned out to be true… perhaps theirmonwealth could finally ride the momentum and turn into a superpower that none could dare look down on!
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Even though he wasn''t very happy with his direct involvement in the ambushing team, Tom was still quite diligent when it came to the execution of the task.
After all, while he may be somewhat famous as the ''capable and charming'' chief of themonwealth''s intelligence division, it was far from being enough to really contest for something like the presidential elections.
Of course, if one were to factor in the achievement of being the hero who brought down the neighboring tyrant and made it possible for themonwealth to finally expand once again, that would naturally no longer be the case.
Naturally, for people to know of his achievements, the president''s orders of ''taking this secret to their grave'' could definitely not be followed.
If no one even knew about it, what was the point of achieving anything in the first ce?
Tom decided that if he was going to risk his life, the greatest winner from this conflict definitely had to be himself. Even if it brought some conflict and resistance against his country, he felt that he was more than capable of handling it all given his experience and skill.
Of course, all of this would have to wait until he was done getting rid of Emilia, that tyrant. Without her gorgeous little head in his palm, there was no way he could so easily convince everyone and take the helm of themonwealth.
Imagining the look on the faces of his superiors when he rose far above them in both status and poprity, the man almost started grinning from ear to ear.
The other soldiers dressed inmoner clothing couldn''t help but shake their heads ruefully as they saw the man standing idly in a corner while they waited for their drilling equipment to cool down a little.
"What were the superiors thinking, sending in a rookie like that?"
One of them chuckled. "Hey, don''t insult rookies. At least they are young, strong, and enthusiastic. Look, he can''t even tell we''re talking about him from this distance… what a moron."
Finally feeling some of the derisive looks being thrown his way, Tom frowned impatiently. "What the hell are you guys looking at? Get back to work!"
The soldiers were naturally dissatisfied at being reprimanded even though they were doing everything they should. None of them were foot soldiers at the lowest rank, after all, and were all hard-working and respected individuals in their own right.
When was thest time they had been reprimanded like this?
It would still be okay if it was from someone like their general, but when a ''desk-lizard'' like this man started pointing fingers at them, it obviously stuck them on a wrong nerve.
"If you''re so dissatisfied, why note here and help us out?"
"Yeah, stop being azy idiot, ''captain''. The general told us you would be leading us, not standing aside and shouting like a clown!"
The disbelieving and indignant reaction from the man finally seemed to alleviate some of the depression in their hearts from being forced to take a ''suicide mission'' like this one.
After all, even if it was for the good of themonwealth, and they were all loyal soldiers, no one was truly happy to die and leave their family and friends behind.
Now that they were already halfway through into the empire on this suicide mission, did they still need to suppress their temper and wrong themselves? Obviously, it''s not like this guy could run all the way back to file aint about them, right?
Not that it would matter at this point.
Ignoring the indignant squawks of their ''leader'', they couldn''t help but groan amongst themselves.
"If only we didn''t have to carry this dead weight, sneaking into Blue Dawn and killing that little bitch would be such a piece of cake."
"We can at least take sce in the fact that he seems to know how to hold a gun and shoot, can''t we?"
Suddenly, the tallest man among the bunch leaned forward with a devious grin on his face. "I heard that the empress of Blue Dawn is young and hot, isn''t she? What do you say, brothers, wanna capture her alive?"
Although the tradition of the soldiers getting to keep the ''spoils of war'' had long since be ''archaic and outdated'' in most ces, the Commonwealth of Red Dusk was one of the few that still honored it.
The other soldiers couldn''t deny that they were somewhat tempted by the idea. "If she looks even half as good as her pictures… the mission only said we have to kill everyone and can''t leave any witnesses, right?"
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