Chapter 1298: A Bunch of Birds With One Stone

The explanation had been so simple and surprisingly logical that many of those who listened in felt they had judged their leaders all too harshly when this was actually up their alley.

Meanwhile, suddenly enlightened by Jax’s words, Luca had been ready to praise him for the surprisingly good idea, only to pause when the redhead apparently had more to say.

"But you see, that’s what I always get reminded to do. Not that I always follow it, but you get the point..." Jax waved that little detail aside before suddenly seeming to remember something important. "It’s different for some people, though."

"Huh? Different for some people?"

"Yeah, definitely. Like, I like this place because aside from the alarms, it’s very chill. But I’m telling you, the others are probably dying to get here for all sorts of different reasons."

The heir to House Taylor sniffled a little. He’d lived long enough to be outsmarted more times than he cared to remember, only surviving some of those situations because he’d sensed something was wrong and immediately decided to behave in the most bizarre way possible.

But after being friends with and training alongside his Captain and Kyle for so long, how could Jax possibly forget all those suspicious incidents?

"For the really careful ones, the alarms might make them waste some time and energy checking everything first. And for the really brainy ones... Well, maybe we can use the alarms to keep them from hoarding all the good stuff or at least to mess up the order of arrival."

Jax shrugged.

"I mean, there’s gotta be at least a few people who’ll look at all those alarms and think, You know what? Maybe somebody else should go in first."

It sounded rather grim, but Luca himself knew just how willing some people could be to push someone else forward to test the waters first.

"Wait, hoarding? But how could they possibly hoard anything when we were only allowed to pick from the available sets?" Theo, who couldn’t help but abide by the rules, raised the understandable question after mulling over Jax’s words.

Maybe it was because Jax had far more combat experience and had dealt with all sorts of opportunistic and crafty people, but he couldn’t help pointing out, "Right. That’s just the thing. We got here first, and it’s still pretty safe since it doesn’t look like the others are that hot on our tails."

Jax shifted another crate into place before continuing.

"They said getting here first would give us a lot of advantage. But aside from seeing exactly what’s available for everyone, getting first pick of the supply packages, and looking through all the intel before choosing which coordinate list we want and, well, memorizing as much of the others we don’t get to choose, we’re still only allowed to take one set."

His voice carried easily through the channel.

"But that might not be enough for some people."

"Would it really be impossible for another group to just take their own share, then go for someone else’s once they’re done picking?"

"..."

"Might take a while, but everyone has to come here eventually, right? So if a group just waits around nearby for a bit, won’t someone eventually show up and find a nice, completely alarm-free place that’s practically ripe for an ambush?"

"!"

"The people who come after us don’t necessarily have to play nice, right?"

Several expressions changed.

How could they have forgotten about the people who’d ruthlessly stepped on them and their own batchmates just to get out of the hall?

Maybe they were perfectly nice people outside the exercise, but at the moment, the young cadets were having a very hard time seeing it.

"That’s basically a bunch of birds with one stone. One less competitor, another set of intel and supplies, plus whatever they’re still allowed to collect from the outpost themselves."

Jax chuckled dryly.

"Bonus if they manage to do it before the next battalion arrives, so nobody else knows what’s happening yet."

"..."

"If they’re not rushing to end the exercise like we are, then why not camp here first right?"

The room surrounding Luca had become suspiciously quiet.

Jax, completely oblivious to the effect his casual observations were having on everyone else, simply finished moving the crate.

"But since we’re not doing that... or at least I don’t think we’re doing that based on what we decided..."

There was a brief pause.

"Wouldn’t it be better to delay everyone else from heading straight into the station?"

"!"

"It makes things harder for anyone planning to use a peaceful-looking outpost as bait because the others might just be more vigilant. And for the battalions that don’t care and come in anyway, the alarms might at least make them wonder what happened here first."

Jax seemed to think about it for another moment.

"Better yet, what if they’re not good at concentrating? We can’t even use our terminals to take pictures, only to communicate like this. So maybe they’ll have a hard time memorizing all those coordinates and the supply list because they’re so anxious or because the place is just too noisy? That’s bound to be a plus, right?"

"..."

Unbeknownst to the redhead, who had quite literally blurted out whatever came to mind while moving boxes around, several people across different parts of the Empire had stopped whatever they were doing.

The gathered instructors and administrative officers were stunned.

So were the military personnel who had somehow gained access to the feed when they definitely shouldn’t have.

Was there seriously another terrifying strategist hiding inside DG?!

Count Alexander Taylor had long been celebrated for his intellect, but had House Taylor somehow been hiding someone with that kind of insight all along?

Then there was one particular Chief of Staff.

Killian nearly faltered in the middle of a high-level meeting.

Because what the fuck had that rascal just said?!

Why did it sound so unbelievably smart?!

And why the hell was Killian’s head suddenly getting so hot that he felt an immediate need to start munching on ice?!

Unfortunately, not only was he listening to something he absolutely wasn’t supposed to be listening to, he was also doing it in the middle of an active deliberation.

So when several people around the table began shooting him concerned looks, Killian could only sit there and pretend everything was perfectly normal.

"Chief, are you feeling unwell?"

"..."

No.

He was apparently just so intensely flustered by his boyfriend being terrifyingly competent that people had started wondering whether he was sick.