Chapter 196: Helped (this is actually - 197)

Chapter 196: Helped (this is actually Chapter 197)

[Please read the next Chapter first, then this one. I uploaded them in the wrong order. I can’t rearrange them before it would change more than 100 words and wn won’t allow that.]

"FUCK!"

Lue ripped the Kinext off his wrist and hurled it across the room. It hit the wall hard enough to bounce once before clattering to the floor.

Nobody sitting around the stainless-steel table reacted. A few of the lower-ranking officers watched him with the careful faces of people who had no intention of getting involved in whatever this was.

Above the table, the holographic map kept cycling between regions of Divinity. A second display stood upright beside it, marking troop movements, objectives, and every location the military considered important.

It was a war room, through and through. The only thing missing was a real war.

Lue stayed standing with both hands planted on the table, his teeth clenched hard enough to hurt.

He should have been angry at Jaxir. The idiot had challenged Maelis without even knowing what a Combat Arena was, and a big part of Lue was furious with him. However, every time he looked across the table, that anger found somewhere else to go.

The general sitting opposite him met his glare without his expression changing in the slightest.

"I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish by glaring at me."

"No." Lue straightened up and pointed across the table. "I don’t think you understand."

The officers around them went even quieter.

"I never wanted Jaxir involved in any of this in the first place." Lue’s hand dropped back to the table, and his voice hardened. "You people went out of your way to pull him over anyway, and now the moment there’s a slight bump in the road, you’re ready to toss him aside."

The general watched him for another second, then folded his hands together.

"I will take your current state of mind under advisement, Colonel, but I would advise you to watch your tone."

His voice stayed perfectly calm. If anything, that only made Lue angrier.

Lue laughed and pushed himself away from the table.

"This is all such a fucking joke. We’re the military, sitting in a secure briefing room strategizing over a fucking video game, and somehow we still don’t have any fucking balls."

One of the younger officers shifted in his chair. The general didn’t move at all.

"No wonder America’s in the shitter." Lue swept a hand toward the battle plans floating beside them. "We lost our backbone a long time ago."

"This operation is too important to allow the ego of a non-military official to dictate its direction." The general’s eyes hardened a little as he spoke. "We will not interfere in this matter, and we can only thank Jaxir for the assistance he’s already provided."

Lue snorted.

Thank him. As though Jaxir were some contractor whose job had wrapped up early.

"Hopefully, once Maelis gets the revenge she wants, the rest of our personnel will be left alone." The general glanced at the map before turning back to Lue. "The String Quintet will understand that pushing the matter farther risks consequences neither side benefits from."

So that was the plan. Hand Maelis her pound of flesh, and hope she was full afterward.

"Yeah?"

Lue leaned forward again. He was grinning, but there was very little humor behind it.

"And what are you planning to do when Jahbri finds out what happened here and leaves too?"

For the first time, the general’s eyes narrowed.

"According to my information, Jahbri Valen chose to end that relationship of her own accord." His voice stayed even. However, Lue caught the change underneath it. "Do you seriously believe she’ll choose a childhood boyfriend over her own father?"

Lue stared at him for a few seconds.

He had thrown his best punch, and the man had simply turned it back on him. Lue had no answer for that line, and they both knew it.

He slowly nodded.

"Well played, General."

He said the title with so much contempt that two of the officers looked away.

"You know what, I hope I’m wrong and Jaxir wipes the floor with her, because I’m going to love watching you bow and scrape afterward when you realize you still need him."

The general’s face went cold. "I think you need some time off, Colonel."

**

Jaxir opened his eyes in Divinity, and the first thing he found was a little girl sitting on his chest.

Niri was wearing pink pajamas covered in tiny white stars. Both of her cheeks were puffed out, and she was staring down at him with a look of complete dissatisfaction.

Jaxir barely had time to register that it was, in fact, her, before she started complaining.

"I’m traumatized from yesterday and I want candy, but I’m too scared to go outside by myself."

Jaxir stared at her. "Traumatized, huh?"

"Very."

Jaxir chuckled and rolled onto his side, taking Niri with him until she slid off his chest and landed in the blankets.

She complained immediately and kicked one pajama-covered foot at him. Jaxir was already getting out of bed.

If she had enough energy to extort him for candy, then yesterday couldn’t have been as bad as he’d feared.

"We’ll get you something later."

Niri lit up right away. And that certainly didn’t do much for the credibility of her trauma.

Jaxir headed downstairs expecting the house to be empty apart from the two of them.

Instead, Nick was sitting at the dining-room table with his arms folded.

There was no food in front of him, and none of his usual slouch, either. It was strange enough that Jaxir slowed down on the last few steps.

Nick looked like he’d been sitting there for a while, waiting.

Jaxir smiled anyway. "I’m surprised you were brave enough to come back here."

Nick didn’t smile back. "This is why I didn’t want to join the government." His eyes stayed locked on Jaxir. "They’re real fucking scumbags."

Jaxir’s smile faded a little as he crossed the room. "What happened?"

Nick leaned back in his chair and dragged a hand down his face.

"They wanted to draw a clear line between themselves and us after Maelis started coming after the team. Helping you was ’fine’ when everything looked profitable, but now that the String Quintet is involved, they want everyone to know you’re on your own."

Jaxir pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. That much, he could understand. It was cowardly, but it was the kind of cowardly he could have predicted.

Nick looked down at the table for a moment before continuing. "Moving between Arena Tiers isn’t easy. To get to a new tier, you need to challenge someone a tier above you, but there’s collateral and risk involved. You need to put quite a lot upfront if you don’t risk losing everything everything you have."

Jaxir’s eyes narrowed, realizing that Nick wasn’t just explaining the breakdown of the Arena for him just for the shits and giggles.

Tier Four as of last night... That was what Lue had said, no? Jaxir hadn’t thought much of it back then, but was Lue trying to warn him of something? Something that he hadn’t been able to spell out cleanly because of his other obligations? Was that the real reason he had been so angry?

"They helped her get there."

Behind Jaxir, Niri padded into the room and climbed onto one of the chairs. She’d apparently decided this conversation didn’t stop her from waiting on her promised candy.

Nick didn’t pay her much attention. His expression only got darker.

"They put up the money, arranged the matches, and helped push her Arena standing high enough before she accepted your challenge." He tapped one finger against the table. "They knew exactly what Tier Four would let her demand from someone with no Arena record."

Jaxir leaned back.

Lue’s warning came back to him almost word for word. 5 Levels at the minimum. A complete character reset at the highest collateral. Every item he owned handed over to Maelis if she won.

Up until now, Jaxir had assumed Maelis just happened to already be close to the rank and had just made a final push after getting all the incentive she needed from his challenge. If that was the case, then he had walked into this with his own ignorance, and that was nobody’s fault but his.

But, if Nick was right, someone had gone out of their way to make sure this fight was as dangerous for him as it could possibly be.

Nick watched his face.

"They’re backstabbing cunts, Jax." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "They helped her load the gun so she would leave them alone after you were screwed over."