Chapter 339: Katarina’s Vicious Plan

"Huuu..." Katarina made sure that Gloria returned safely before finally returning to the room. They drank quite a lot, but Gloria completely let her guard down this time.

It must have been the stress.

"It’s fortunate that it ended up like this." Katarina narrowed her eyes. She went to her room first, as it was already extremely late.

She opened the room as quietly as possible, thinking that everyone was already asleep.

To her surprise, the room might be dark, but one lamp was still on in it.

Auric was sitting on the couch with his legs crossed. He was reading a book related to evolution materials.

As soon as he saw Katarina, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he simply stood up and headed to the bed, as if he had been actually waiting for her to return.

"..." Katarina was startled. It was as if Auric was planning to wait for her until she returned, even if that meant he wasn’t sleeping at all. As soon as he confirmed she was all right, he didn’t make any complaints.

Katarina could only shake her head helplessly with a smile on her face.

She walked toward him and chose to bring the good news first. "I think you might want to hear this first."

"Mhmm?"

She talked as quietly as possible to avoid waking the others. "I think I may be able to convince Gloria to follow you after this competition."

"What do you mean?" Auric furrowed his brows.

"It looked like Dermania used Gloria as a scapegoat for all the blunders they made. The instructors were simply much more influential than Gloria.

"So, I visited her earlier and talked about it. She said she would think about it. If she decides to accept, I will throw your name in so that the process of her naturalization will be smooth and quick. Is it okay with you?"

"I don’t exactly mind, but won’t she be suspicious about it?"

"Nope. There is one big reason. I’ve actually checked Gloria’s background. Her father used to be a major general, and her mother was the president of a fairly reputable mercenary group.

"However, her father was betrayed, which caused him to lose his position and then his life. They tried to... ehm, do ’that’ to her mother after defeating her, but she chose to take her own life before that could happen.

"To avoid the annihilation of the family, her mother used the last bit of influence her husband had to send Gloria to the military. She was only 6 years old at that time.

"She ended up being protected by her father’s friend in the military, Major General Joshua. Well, it could be said that she lived a quite decent life in the military, as she trained together with the soldiers and gradually became a powerful genius just like her father and mother. Both of them were Rank 6, you know?

"To repay her guardian, she achieved a lot of things in school during the day and performed well as a special forces soldier during the night. Eventually, she became a major.

"Her intention is to repay him and rebuild her family. It’s a pretty noble goal, right?"

"Indeed. I understand her circumstances and her goals. So, what’s the problem?" Auric asked. "You’re not going to tell me that’s all there is to it, right?"

"Yep. Once she reached this rank, she thought that her goal wasn’t just a dream. She intended to continue and finally rebuild her family, but whenever she was about to achieve something that might allow her to raise her rank again, she was shot down."

"Sabotage?" Auric crossed his arms.

"Yep. It had happened twice before. It was as if someone was trying to stop her from being able to reach a higher rank.

"So, I became suspicious about it and began my investigation into it. To my surprise, it looked like the accidents were planned and might have been caused by the same person who betrayed her father."

"They didn’t want her to get a higher rank and become untouchable?" Auric understood what they were trying to do.

"Exactly. The story became even wilder from this point." Katarina took a deep breath. "The major general was supposed to be protecting her, but nothing happened to him. If he were the one fighting for her, it would be natural for his influence to be weakened first, right? After that, they could take Gloria away."

"That’s true. That’s what I will do as well."

Katarina scoffed. "When I investigated the major general, I realized that his assets had multiplied quite a lot over the last ten years. It wasn’t something that a normal major general could have done.

"Even her father had a hard time doing the same. If not for her mother, their family wouldn’t have become so wealthy. After all, the majority of the household income came from her mother. Her father simply had the position to ensure that nothing would trouble the household or her mother’s company."

Auric frowned. "Do you mean... her father’s friend was the culprit?"

"Most likely. Nothing came up during the police investigation, but all the information I had gathered pointed in the same direction. Although the overall picture isn’t clear yet, the major general must have something to do with it. That’s my conclusion."

Auric sucked in a cold breath. "What a vicious person."

"That’s not all." She shook her head helplessly. "At this point, I pity Gloria. It looks like there are other people who want Gloria. Because both of her parents were Rank 6, and Gloria has shown herself to be one of the most talented geniuses in her country, they all believe that Gloria will easily reach her parents’ level in the near future.

"In other words, marrying her will allow them to gain a future Rank 6, and not an ordinary Rank 6.

"There are currently a few families approaching the major general to get their hands on Gloria, but right now, Gloria’s rank is at the level where she is high enough that her goal might become a reality, but not strong enough to protect herself.

"In other words, the major general might have been pushing her back so that she wouldn’t be able to raise her rank again. This way, she thinks she still has a shot at accomplishing her original goal. At the same time, she is vulnerable to attack from outside.

Auric understood what was going on. "Vicious might be too soft for this guy."

"I know, right? Look at the previous situation. She managed to accomplish a lot during the hunting event. It should have been enough to raise her rank, but he used the fact that her cover was blown to remove that chance.

"Gloria has done a great job of leading her teammates if you watch the episode of Dermania training. She was supervising them and cheering them on. If not for her, Dermania would struggle a lot more.

"However, this matter had started with Head Instructor Ryan because of a conflict with you. Head Instructor Ryan was actually close to the major general. After this incident, I noticed that the major general received yet another benefit from him, so the blame was shifted from Head Instructor Ryan to Gloria."

"..." Auric fell silent for a moment. "Does that mean Gloria still has the chance to rise back up?"

"Yep. In fact, the major general had assured her that the situation would quiet down soon and she would be able to come back up again."

Auric shook his head in disbelief. "I know a lot of old foxes, but this is just a demon—no—a devil."

"I think the same." Katarina nodded in agreement. "Because of that, I caused a bit of chaos over there. Since they were trying to blame Gloria, I fanned the flame by using her photo with you."

"!!!" Auric looked surprised. "You are beating someone who’s already down?"

"Not exactly. I’m actually trying to sever her connection to her country. I’ve told her that you can take care of her, or at least, I will convince you to take her in."

Auric crossed his arms. "I understand that she won’t be suspicious of it, but is it even enough? What if she decides to tell her superior about this?"

"Nope. She won’t. In fact, it looks like Heaven favors us." Katarina grinned. "Tomorrow is the beginning of the joint training, right? And in this joint training, our country will be the first one to issue the challenge. We already know that the challenge will be similar to the raid that took place at night during the national training camp.

"Hence, if you can just do something to annoy the hell out of Dermania, you can provoke Head Instructor Ryan even more.

"With that anger, Head Instructor Ryan will seal his fate the next day. Yep, Friday... is the day when Dermania will be issuing the challenge. We don’t know what kind of challenge they’ve prepared, but if you can provoke him again, then consider it done.

"The citizens will blame Head Instructor Ryan, but Head Instructor Ryan is going to find another scapegoat. Now, who do you think will be blamed for this? Will the people think that the new ace is not capable? Or will the people blame the former ace?

"I think it’s easier for them to blame the former ace, like, for example, they would say, if their former ace, Gloria, wasn’t incapable, they wouldn’t have this kind of hole in their team. Of course, I will manipulate their opinions to go in that direction as well.

"In the end, Gloria will end up taking the blame. At that time, her position in the military might have to be reconsidered. Then, the major general might use that chance to blame her and sell her to the highest bidder."

Auric contemplated. "Getting another benefit for one last time..."

"Yep. For now, I’m still continuing my investigation on the major general. We’ll see if I can find any information about him.

"Then, before all this happens, I’m going to make Gloria think that having you take her in is the best option.

"If that’s not enough to convince her, I’m going to put the suspicion about the major general, which I will claim that you were the one who asked me to investigate it. This way, she would think that you were her only savior and follow you."

"Gaslighting at its finest..." Auric shook his head helplessly.

"I don’t think that’s the perfect word to describe it, but close enough, I guess." Katarina shrugged. "In any case, that’s the situation. You will have to face the instructors from Dermania on Friday. If the plan works, we will be able to recruit Gloria.

"Rather than letting her suffer and be buried under their politics, isn’t it better to get her for ourselves? At least we won’t drag her down the way the major general does. I take that as a win."

Auric took a deep breath. "You do know that you have a quite nasty personality, right?"

"Maybe I should ask for a bonus." She grinned.