"Yes , if it's for the greater good than i am willing to stain my hands with blood , you of all people should understand that GENERAL ironwood." leon said after seeing the looks on both their faces. "it's different in my case , i am accountable for my decisions." ironwood defended sternly. leon rolled his eyes "please don't lie to my face , we both know that if you really wanted to you could assume control over atlas without any real trouble at all." he said making glenda now look at ironwood in horror that only grows when the man can't bring himself to deny it.
"Do you know why wiping out your forces still serves the greater good?" leon asked making ironwood and glenda focus on him again. "simply put you have an itchy trigger finger , the more power you try and gather the more the temptation to use it grows and eventually you WILL fall to that temptation and make it the whole worlds problem. don't bother trying to argue since your actions and thoughts speak for themselves." leon said honestly and ironwood pales as he realizes that leon was right and he was indeed slowly falling into the pit he dug for himself.
The true reason ironwood had shown up here today was completely put on the back burner in the face of this horrible realization. "how do i fix this?" ironwood asked seriously. leon sighed "you have a few options but none of them are easy , are you prepared for that?" he asked sternly. glenda slapped the back of leon's head however angrily "just tell him already and stop being so dramatic." she said with a huff. leon chuckles and shakes his head "what a buzz kill." he complains half heartedly only for glenda to glare at him threateningly.
"Fine fine , you win. simply put you need a new focus for your development." leon said calmly. ironwood looked stunned at this solution mostly because it truly did sound simple but the more he thought about it the harder he realized it actually was. say he decided to switch to a scientific route from the militaristic one he was currently on. first he would need to cancel the various military contracts he had to grind the development of more advanced weaponry to a halt. then he would need to create even more contracts with those companies for scientific apparatus instead while funding the academy towards science rather than warfare which would require even more shuffling of personnel.
"See that expression on his face? that's him realizing exactly how deep the abyss he dug was and how hard it will be to fill it in." leon said to glenda snapping ironwood out of his thoughts. "he's right about that , it really is a deep pit that i have been standing on the edge of." ironwood said self depreciatingly. "depending on what direction you choose i may even be able to help you fill in in that hole of yours quite easily." leon said with a smirk.
"The only real option that atlas has is science due to that always improving to fuel the military with better equipment." ironwood said honestly. "oh yeah i know , doesn't make hearing you say it any less satisfying though." leon said with a chuckle. "the best part is that i can basically turn atlas in an entirely scientific direction in about four months , six if your people are as hard headed as you." leon said casually leaving both ironwood and glenda speechless. "what? you don't secretly take over and remodel an entire kingdom if you don't know how to get things done efficiently." leon said defensively at their strange looks.
"I suppose he has a point" glenda said with a sigh and ironwood nodded in agreement. after that ironwood worked on hashing out the details of this cooperation with leon while glenda made sure leon didn't take advantage of the general much to his dismay. one would think she would take the side of the father of her child but no as always she was very pragmatic and neutral.
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