Azzy's last comment irked the supreme commander and made him furrow his brows in displeasure for a couple of seconds before forcefully calming down himself and asking straightforwardly, "young man, do you have a problem with me? Your responses reek of disobedience. At first, I thought that it is because you are arrogant about your talent and being the descendant of a royal family but it appears that you don't like me, considering how you were quite respectful toward other members of the squad. So, tell me. What's your issue? Is it because I'm an elf? Or is it something else?"
As the supreme commander became straightforward with the matter, Azzy no longer hid his unpleasant feelings and expressed them directly to his face.
Without a change in his expression or tone, he replied, "Sir, I believe you already know the answer but I will say it to you. My grandpa always says that the greater good is the same as the lesser evil and those who will justify themselves aren't people who can be admired. They are nothing more than a necessary evil for society.
I'm sorry to act this way but my conscience will not let me bow my head to you. If you want to suspend me or transfer me to other divisions, I will accept that punishment too. After all, you are the superior and you can exercise your rights."
After spending in the Zero squad for the past ten days, Azzy had already realized that the squad's principles were quite different from his.
Of course, he wasn't the same na?ve fellow who thinks that killing is just wrong and everyone deserves a second chance or something like that.
But still, Azzy doesn't like sacrificing his teammates or innocent bystanders just for the sake of completing the mission. In his view, the others appeared like robots that follow the orders of their handlers.
The only reason he stayed in this place is that he wanted to find out the name of Barton's killer. During the past ten days, he found every piece of information he could find from the restricted section but it proved useless as he had yet to make some progress. This only frustrated Azzy more and more…
Seeing that staying in this squad no longer benefits him, lately, he was having thoughts of quitting this squad and moving to other divisions where he would easily be made a captain.
And now that he saw the chance, he tried to grab it by speaking rudely to the esteemed supreme commander.
Azzy expected the elf to demote him for either insubordination or just chose to ignore his rebellious acts and let him do what he wants.
However, to his surprise, Commander Kruger calmly stared at him for a while and spoke, "The will of the supreme commander is the will of Zero Squad, Mr. Garcia. If you want the others to act your way, then, climb up the ranks and take my place. And since you were confident that our ways are wrong, then, I will give you the opportunity to prove it too.
Using my authority as the leader of Zero Squad and the supreme commander of WAMO, I'm promoting you to the captain rank and will let you operate without any partner for the time being.
And just like the other captains, your data will be calculated at the end of each year. If your rate of success drops below 50%, you will be demoted based on your lack of skill.
Go and rest for today. You will receive your badge, new ID, and mission by the following morning."
"Eh? Promotion? I'm not demoted?"
***
Two days later;
In the suburbs of Silver City, three siblings of similar ages were walking together on a sidewalk. All of them were quite beautiful enough to attract the attention of passersby even when they were wearing casual wear.
The Eldest sibling was talking about one of her experiences in the office. The youngest sibling was engaged in conversation with her sister while the middle one was just walking in silence and observing the surroundings from the corner of her eyes.
For some reason, the twenty-three-year-old was quite vigilant even though it was daytime.
"Something is going to happen but what is it? Nitro, Heli, do either of you have any clues?" She mumbled to herself.
"Don't ask me. I'm too tired," lazily answered a deep voice in her head.
The second voice, which sounded like a sweet young girl, gave her reply, "Sister Lennie, look at the sky."
"Hmm?" The girl looked at the sky and spotted something strange. There was a large black dot that appeared in the sky and the clouds were slowly moving toward that object.
No, it was like they were revolving around it.
What could be it? She wondered. She halted her footsteps and just stared at the mysterious phenomenon.
"Lennie, what are you… Huh?" One of her sisters called her but then, she too saw the strange movement of the clouds, which sped up. "What the hell was that?" She screamed, gaining public attention.
Eventually, all the passersby in the area were seen staring at the sky, some of them were even taking out their mobile phones and recording it.
Within the next five minutes, almost all the clouds in a 100-kilometer radius were seen revolving around the black dot at a fast pace, drawing the attention of WAMO and the organization's president.
People started running away for their lives and those sisters were among them. The middle sibling, on the other hand, didn't leave with them and stayed as a spectator out of curiosity.
However, little did she expect that this act of hers would change her life for good, starting from the very next ten minutes.
The clouds revolved and revolved for a while before the little dot transformed into a giant scarlet door with the image of a skull inscribed on top of it. Its massive size scared the hell out of the citizens living around it and forced the top three experts of WAMO to make a personal visit.
Surprisingly, there was one more person who appeared behind the Supreme commander before he started descending onto the ground. No, he was free-falling under the effect of gravity.
"Eh?" The Supreme commander, Kruger, appeared to be surprised for a moment and looked down at the boy who was falling at a quick pace. "He doesn't know how to fly? Never mind. He won't be injured heavily even if he falls from this height anyway."
Kruger shifted his focus back to the mysterious door, leaving the organization's president and vice president in surprise.
Meanwhile, the boy started to fall at a rapid pace and would crash onto the ground at any moment. However, he was calm and there was no tension on either his face or even inside him. What's more, he managed to take control of his body and will land directly on his feet unless no unexpected thing occurs.
As if he was fated to meet an unexpected incident, before he touched the ground, the girl managed to reach the location and caught him using soul energy threads, which are shooting from her palms.
The boy slowly landed on the ground and the girl questioned him right away, "What's going on? What is that gate?"
Azzy looked at the girl who interrupted his landing and replied, "Someone summoned one of the gates of tartarus."
"Gates of Tartarus? What is it?" Lenore asked in confusion.
"No idea..."
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