Chapter 106: ¹⁰⁶: Zerek

[Breaking News]

[Four days ago, there had been a sudden and deafening explosion at the third branch of the Information Bureau.]

[It is said that seventy-five officers working on-site were seriously injured and immediately transferred to the Capital Hospital of Forces. The information was kept hidden by the Investigation Department until now for security reasons.]

[All the officers who were injured in the explosion are said to be recovering now. It is also said that Alpha Kael had been there, assessing the situation himself, all these days. More on this news from our correspondents on-site.]

Bang!

The voice coming from the news channel faded into the background as the sound of glass shattering across the floor filled the hall.

"Are you two listening?!" A furious roar echoed through the room.

A man dressed entirely in black stood in the middle of the dimly lit hall, his chest rising and falling heavily as he glared at the two men in front of him.

One of them, was standing with his hands clasped behind his back and his head bowed, clearly unwilling to meet the man’s eyes.

The other man sat farther away, partially concealed in the darkness. The dim light of the candles around him flickering barely illuminated his face, leaving only his eyes clearly visible. Those eyes were burning with red anger as he stared at the news still flashing across the screen.

"Brother Zark..." The standing man’s voice was filled with regret. He kept his head lowered as he continued speaking carefully. "We had made sure they used a Morthen orb so that no one injured would survive, but..."

"Shut your useless mouth, Maddox!" Zark pointed sharply at him, his anger flaring again as the news continued repeating the details of their plan’s failure.

"You and all of your planning have been proven useless!" His voice reverberated through the hall.

Zark stepped forward, his boots crushing the scattered shards of glass beneath them. He didn’t even bother looking down at the mess he had made moments ago.

"We lost five of our men that day! Five!" he spat. "And in return, we couldn’t even kill one of Alpha Kael’s men?!"

Maddox’s shoulders stiffened, but he remained silent.

"Listen to the news, Maddox!" Zark snapped, pointing toward the screen. "Not even a single one of them is dead! All of them are recovering well!"

His clenched fists trembled slightly at his sides. "All the planning, funding, and waiting we did until now has been wasted just like this?!"

"But, Brother Zark..." Maddox finally raised his head slightly, though his voice remained almost a whisper in front of Zark. "We did everything as planned. I don’t know how they were saved despite the Morthen."

"Oh, really?" Zark scoffed, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Maddox. "You are telling me that you did everything according to the plan? But what was the result, Maddox? Defeat? Failure of our plan?"

He leaned forward slightly, his expression filled with disbelief. "Is this how we will terrorize Alpha Kael Dreven?"

His voice grew louder with every word. "Our plan was for all of those seventy-five bastards to die! Did that happen? What will I do now? How will I answer the Lord?"

Zark clenched his fists as he walked away from Maddox, his frustration evident in every step. He eventually dropped heavily into the chair beside him and looked down at the broken pieces of glass scattered across the floor.

For a moment, he simply stared at them, his breathing still uneven. Then his expression darkened further. "It has been seven months since Gaer killed Steven’s daughter!"

Maddox’s expression changed slightly at the mention of Gaer, but he remained silent.

"I had given that mission to you as well. And what did that useless bastard of yours, who died in those suicide explosions four days ago, do?" Zark’s voice was filled with contempt. "Nothing! He simply kept the file containing her information, and before he could even do anything to Steven’s daughter, that bastard Gaer had already killed her."

Zark’s gaze fell upon another vase sitting nearby. Without warning, he grabbed it and slammed it onto the floor where the glass shards already lay.

Crash!

The porcelain shattered, its pieces scattering across the floor and mixing with the broken glass.

Maddox flinched at the sudden sound. His head immediately bowed even lower. He knew that if he couldn’t somehow calm his chief’s anger, he might not be able to escape Zark’s wrath today.

The other man sitting in the shadows remained silent, making no attempt to interfere.

Zark, however, paid neither of them any attention.

His gaze remained fixed on the broken pieces beneath him as he continued speaking, his voice quieter now but carrying an even more bitter edge.

"Right now, Gaer is a commander, promoted by the Lord himself. He leads a battalion now, living the dream I had once seen for myself."

His jaw tightened. "He is now several ranks above me - while I am still nothing more than a mere chief."

Zark leaned back against the chair, his eyes reflecting years of resentment that seemed to have accumulated beneath his anger.

"Seven months ago, I was the one above him in rank. And now he is a commander while I am still a measly chief, stuck in this shabby cabin in a forest where even beasts wouldn’t come."

His fingers curled tightly around the armrest. "You don’t know how much I hate the fact that I let that girl go when I killed her mother that day."

For a brief moment, something resembling regret passed through his eyes. But it disappeared almost immediately.

He straightened in his chair, and the dangerous glint in his eyes intensified. "If only I had not followed the orders to kill her mother on the spot and had instead gotten the information about where she had hidden her daughter, today it wouldn’t have been Gaer in the commander’s position."

His expression twisted with bitterness. "Today, it would have been me." His voice dropped as he stared ahead. "I would have been Commander Zerek."

His hands tightened into fists again.

"If only I had killed Athena Roosevelt along with her mother."