7th day of Last Seed, The United Front Joint Military Outpost within the Province of Sulus.
Satoshi was seated on top of his gun-metal-colored vehicle outside the gate of the compound. He was waiting to be granted entrance and the officers were checking on his credentials.
Satoshi opened his communication terminal and quickly read on several things while he waited. Most of them were news collages that Oda had sent him. There were also several question guides provided that Satoshi could use in his work.
Satoshi totally did not expect that he would get his first correspondence experience as soon as he set foot out of Istindi.
He practically just entered the border of Sulus today and was just done with delivering some goods Mahalini asked him to deliver. Then an urgent message came from Oda directing him to gather information from the United Front Joint Military Outpost.
The urgency for this particular task came as a result of a shocking event that happened several days ago. Two unknown assailants barged into the Nevas Kingdom's territory and directly challenged the Human King. The two of them got into a devastating battle against hundreds of royal guards, decimating a huge area of land around the Humanity Castle.
In the end, the Human King himself got involved and drove the two assailants toward the Boundless Seas where everyone lost sight of the three of them. The Human King only returned a day later with injuries, but the effect of the battle still remained as an abnormality of the weather system around the area.
The rest of the world was quickly moving to find out what in the world was going on. That was one of the reasons Satoshi was here.
After a short wait, a military-purpose vehicle arrived with two men on board. After a smooth stop, the man that was seated in the passenger seat shouted something at Satoshi.
Satoshi looked up but wasn't sure what the man was shouting about.
"Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Can we speak in Commoners?"
The military man looked a little bit taken aback, "You don't speak TCI?"
Satoshi recognized what TCI was, it was an amalgamation of three major languages commonly used by the Sulus back in the day. After the collapse of the Imperial Family and the enforcing rules on the use of Commoners' language, TCI quickly made its return.
"No, I don't. I'm actually from Istindi."
"Ah, I see. Come on, hop in. Let's get someplace more appropriate to talk. Leave your vehicle with one of these guards, they will take care of it."
Satoshi quickly entrusted the guards on duty and after filling out a simple form, hopped onto the military vehicle. The vehicle then made a U-turn and drove deeper into the compound.
"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice." Satoshi thanked the military man.
"Hey, don't sweat it. Colonel Padilla had promised Oda that we will help him with information as payment for his help back in the day. This is nothing.
I am Lieutenant Colonel Dante. What's your name?"
Satoshi looked at the man and was quite surprised to hear his rank. The man looked quite young to be a Lieutenant Colonel, he should be in his mid-30s at most.
"Surprised?" The Lieutenant Colonel asked with a smug look.
"Ah yes, sorry, I am indeed surprised. My name is Satoshi of Istindi."
"Istindi? I thought Satoshi was from Mhasgara. Right? The estranged Dai young master?" The Lieutenant Colonel asked his driver for confirmation.
"Ohhh, you must be talking about the young master that recently passed the trials." Satoshi quickly interjected.
"Yes, that's not you?"
"Sadly no, just happen to share the same name, hahaha."
"Huh…Well, that makes more sense. For a second there I thought Oda managed to make a young master from Dai into his errand boy. Hahaha!"
Satoshi laughed along with the Lieutenant Colonel. He was quite impressed that the rumor that he asked Sepphira to spread had reached this far this quickly. But he knew that it wouldn't hold for a long time, as given more time these military types would definitely find out.
The vehicle that they were on made a left turn past a row of identical-looking buildings and Satoshi's eyes were directly assaulted by a completely unfamiliar sight. He didn't realize that he made a 'wow' sound as he craned his neck to take in the sights.
Rows and rows of military purpose vehicles and combat vehicles were neatly lined up in a peculiar order. Each one was mounted with different degrees of mobile artillery and/or strange devices that Satoshi had never seen before.
Several platoons of soldiers could also be seen, either marching under the orders of their superiors or undergoing some kind of practice. From their appearance alone it could be seen that those soldiers came from various provinces. Each one of these soldiers was equipped with specialized armaments specific to their assigned units.
An even more shocking sight could be seen even further in the distance. Several groups of soldiers were engaged in a combat drill and each one was equipped with a military exoskeleton. They moved in accordance with their given directive to try to take down two 20-foot-tall humanoid robots.
The sleek metallic exteriors of those robots shined with a bluish hue every time they were struck by an attack.
"It's really something, right?" the Lieutenant Colonel asked, he knew that the sight would awe a commoner like Satoshi.
"We are in the middle of our preparation to receive the envoys of the Human King. Best case scenario, nothing bad will happen.
But if anything goes south, we have to be able to take down those things."
Satoshi remembered the content of Oda's directive.
After the battle over the sky of Nevas Cluster the Human King made an unexpected request to the United Front. He asked to be granted entrance for a sustained military presence within the North Pacific Wilderness, a huge swath of uninhabited wilderness within the province of Sulus.
Normally, the area was under the protection of the Joint Military of the United Front and several of its allied governing bodies. They could reject this request by the Human King, but they would be violating the Lasting Peace Protocols in the process since the United Front wasn't exactly the legitimate ruler of this dominion, they were just guests.
Thus, they could only accept and watch the Human King send in several of those 20-foot-tall humanoid robots. The most they could do was to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
"A hybrid between modern weaponry and magic armaments equipped to its smallest unit with the terrifying forces of elements, the very pinnacle of war instruments. How would you take down something like that?"
Satoshi could only hear and not answer the Lieutenant Colonel's rhetorical question. From his point of view, it would be impossible to take down even one of those things.
The vehicle finally slowed down and stopped in front of a grand building with several floors. There was a giant plaza at the front of this building. The Lieutenant Colonel and Satoshi took off from the vehicle and directly entered the building.
"This is the central tower. The general command comes from here, and this is also where most of the offices for present Officers are located." The Lieutenant Colonel gave Satoshi a brief introduction as he led Satoshi deeper into the building.
"Lieutenant Colonel, so…the United Front has really accepted the Human King's request for military presence."
"Just call me Dante, everyone does, and yes the request has been accepted."
"Okay, so are there any kind of objections from United Fronts members, or did everyone just unanimously agree to it?"
"Of course there were objections, we were practically in Hell when we had the hearing, coming especially from those Asira's representatives! And let me tell you, those guys are tough!"
"But it's still granted nonetheless?"
"Well of course, what can we do after all, with the Lasting Protocol and all… besides, those Dwarves from Dai kinda vouch for Human King back there, by promising to increase their surveillance and security effort."
"The Dwarf Nation vouched for them?? For what reasons?"
"Not implicitly, but anyone can see that they have no problem whatsoever with the Human King's forces being here.
Other than that, Sulus governing bodies themselves were more than welcome for more forces to help guard their territory."
Satoshi understood this point, after all, Sulus had done this in the past. In fact, this was how they managed to keep their safety from the North Pacific Wilderness.
The two of them reached Dante's personal office as they talked. It was a rather big office with its own seating area to accommodate several guests at once. There were several commendation and military flags hung on the wall along with Dante's pictures.
From those things, Satoshi could see that Dante was originally part of the Sulus military force before being posted here.
Dante gestured for Satoshi to take a seat as he served some drinks.
"Are you making any headway on what could cause this sudden request?" Satoshi asked.
"There are some speculations, but nothing is quite definite yet. The majority of voices believe that it must have something to do with the two Grand Masters' attack."
"Those attackers were Grand Masters?!"
"Judging from the essence residue that we picked up and the aftermath of the battle, most likely yes. But none of us have any record of these Grand Masters."
"Are you saying there are two Grand Master level experts that came out of nowhere? Is that even possible??"
"That's not what I said," Dante said, then downed his drink in one gulp.
"I said we don't have any records of these Grand Masters. BUT we might have found some records, that are very likely, of these individuals before they became Grand Masters."
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