Seed of Titan-Chapter 209: Under the Colonels’ Scrutiny

Hearing the oddly obvious question, Drai truly wanted to say, "Duh, I was the one who caught the culprit," but instead, he politely replied, "Yes, I was involved."

Instantly, the metal stakes binding him tightened, forcing him to augment himself a few levels to ease their pressure. Luckily, the chair he was sitting on was extra sturdy, otherwise it would’ve been crushed by his magnified weight.

"That’s it. You heard him loud and clear, colonels," Lugos said before tightening his stakes a bit more since Drai didn’t seem that fazed. He then added, "I thought it would be a hassle to force a testimony out of him—turns out we have a coward here."

"Stop provoking him too much, Lugos. What if he explodes like his comrade?" the man beside him said.

"I doubt he has the balls to since he just confessed in record time," a woman with purple blemishes in the middle row remarked.

At the same time, a few colonels seated at the left end of the rows were having a different discussion.

"Isn’t he the General’s special recruit? How did the General not realize he was inserting an insurgent into his own base?" one of them questioned.

"I’ve told you—the General’s judgment seems to be worsening with age," another one remarked with a knowing look.

"It doesn’t help that he’s been increasingly busy playing politics instead of dealing with more meaningful matters, like reinforcing our army and securing our nation," the only woman among these few sighed.

The other colonels also broke into murmurs while looking at Drai with various expressions. A few seemed rather contemptuous like Lugos, but the rest were mostly restless or intrigued.

Meanwhile, Ailem was silently facepalming at her seat.

"Order, please," Marteen announced, quieting the disturbance that was growing louder. He then looked into Drai’s eyes and said, "Private Drai Varz, since you’ve practically admitted to being a member of the new insurgent group, I have countless questions for you. To start with, did you approach General Alancho with the intention of infiltrating this base from the start? And if so, were today’s incidents the result of a thorough planning or were they executed by chance? And what’s their actual purpose aside from removing a meager number of our troops?"

Hearing all these questions and seeing the colonels’ restlessness, Drai realized he had just blundered. With a frantic look, he blurted, "No, you’re mistaken! I’m not an insurgent!"

Seeing Drai’s outburst, Lugos tightened his bindings once more. But to the colonel’s surprise, Drai seemed completely unfazed by this. He then tried tightening them once again, but he realized they wouldn’t budge further.

’Is this the reason for that nickname of his?’ Lugos thought before he finally stopped his seemingly futile attempts. Little did he know that Drai had upped his augmentation by a level upon sensing the increasing pressure, which allowed him to withstand it easily. If Drai weren’t in such a predicament, he would’ve probably opted to endure it unmitigated as a form of training.

Still, the thought of speaking out against this borderline abuse didn’t even come to Drai’s mind as he was still busy clearing up the misunderstanding he had just created.

"Really, I misspoke just now," Drai said with a much calmer tone after seeing that Marteen was paying close attention instead of being dismissive like some of the others around him.

The rows of colonels started murmuring again, but this time Marteen immediately silenced them with a single hand raise followed by an invisible force.

"Please, elaborate, Private," he then said.

Drai took a deep breath and proceeded to explain. "I thought when you said ’involved’ you meant any kind of involvement, not this kind, so of course I answered ’yes’ since I was the one who captured the culprit. Before Frost told us about it, I didn’t even know there was a rising insurgent group."

Hearing his incapacitated son getting mentioned, Lugos’ anguish instantly rose, and he reflexively tightened his metal stakes many times harder than before.

Getting fed up with the distracting pressure all over him, Drai finally had enough. He raised Nexus Augmentation to the max, causing his chair to break apart as he plopped to the floor with a loud clang.

The colonels watched speechlessly as their young accused tore himself free from the metal stakes and twisted them into round knots before shoving them to the side.

"Sorry, these things suddenly acted out—and sorry for the chair too I guess," Drai flatly said as he deactivated his augmentation and stood up under numerous stupefied gazes.

Just then, another salvo of tiny glints sped toward him, but just as Drai prepared to intercept them, they abruptly changed directions toward Marteen and landed harmlessly on his palm.

"That’s enough, Lugos," Marteen sternly warned before launching away the small needles in his hand without moving, sending them back to their fuming owner at the top row, who deftly grabbed the projectiles and put them away without a word.

Marteen then continued, "So you’re saying you’re innocent?"

"If by ’innocent’ you mean ’not an insurgent, traitor, or the like’, then yes, I am completely innocent. But if capturing the culprit is a crime, then I guess I’m guilty of that," Drai thoroughly answered since he didn’t want to create more misunderstandings.

After a brief silence, Marteen said, "Rest assured, we’re not that petty. Capturing the perpetrator without prior knowledge that he was stuffed with an explosive doesn’t warrant a punishment. Having said that, what’s your verdict, Captain Ailem?"

"Everything he said is true, Colonel, including the part where he said he had misunderstood your initial question," Ailem answered from her seat, causing another wave of low murmurs.

Hearing this, Drai couldn’t help but sigh in relief as he experienced firsthand how useful Ailem’s skill was for what was otherwise a helpless situation. He then sent a thankful gesture to Ailem, who simply replied with a faint nod.

"I guess that’s it for the proceedings, ladies and gentlemen. Private Drai Varz has been found not guilty," Marteen declared.

Suddenly, Lugos rose from his seat and said, "I refuse to accept this—this guy is the only viable lead we have now. Are you telling me that his enlistment and the incidents that happened just days after that are merely coincidental? Have our army fallen so low that we’re supposed to accept our losses without being able to retaliate?"

"Hey, calm down, Lugos," the blonde colonel hurriedly interjected with a concerned look. "I know how frustrated you are with your kid getting badly hurt and all, but you know how accurate Ailem’s senses are. Not once has she ever been wrong with her verdicts."

Glancing at the captain in question, Lugos snorted in contempt.

"There’s always a first time, Boyd. And who knows—maybe she’s also in this," he loudly remarked, causing a number of other colonels to glance a bit suspiciously at Ailem.

"You can take me to the Intelligence Corps or do whatever, but I assure you that I have no part in all this, Colonel Lugos," Ailem calmly said with a raised voice for everyone in the chamber to hear clearly.

Disregarding her comment, Lugos said to the person currently leading them, "Marteen, I demand a more thorough inspection of this boy. We must check his whole body—he might have a similar mark to the one mentioned in the report."

"I didn’t realize you were into stripping young men in public these days, Lugos. Penny will surely kill you if she ever finds out," the lady with purple blemishes dryly remarked.

"Not in front of us, of course! I’m telling him to get checked somewhere private! I don’t even want to be there to see!" Lugos angrily retorted, earning him a few subdued chuckles from his fellow colonels, and the lady herself let out a hearty one.

However, the chamber instantly turned dead silent afterward, for Drai had begun stripping, seemingly without any care.

And when he was about to pull down his underwear, the only thing left on him, Marteen commanded, "Enough, Private."

"You haven’t seen my butt, though. What if I have a tattoo there?" Drai questioned without a hint of shame.

After a brief pause, Marteen asked, "Do you really want us all to see the private’s bare behind, Lugos?"

"Nonono—this much is enough! He must not have a mark!" Lugos hastily replied. His previous agitation had been replaced by bewilderment at how absurdly shameless youngsters these days seemed to be.

"You heard him, Private Drai. Please, get dressed," Marteen instructed, to which Drai gladly followed.

’I figured this would be the quickest way to convince them all. I want to go back and rest already,’ Drai thought while pulling up his pants. ’But is this Lugos really Frost’s father? Why did no one ever tell me about this? Hmm, maybe Frost never told the squad either. It’s understandable though since his old man got quite a temper, but maybe he’s being like this just because what happened to Frost.’

Just as Drai was about to finish, a familiar voice shouted again.

"That thing! Check that!"

’Oh, boy, here we go again...’ Drai inwardly grumbled as he put on his bracelet, wondering what Lugos was concerned about.

Marteen seemed to be quite annoyed too since he curtly asked, "What now?"

"His dimensional storage! We need to check it—maybe he’s keeping explosives there!"

"Fine... I’m sorry Private, but would you please place the contents of your dimensional storage before us?" Marteen requested with an impassive look, thinking that this would be just another waste of time.

However, to his and everyone else’s surprise, Drai was visibly getting the jitters.

"Private Drai? Would you please?" Marteen repeated.

"...Alright," Drai eventually said as he walked to the colonel. Arriving there, he began to pull out various items from his storage and laid them on the tables behind which the colonels were seated.

’Nothing unusual so far,’ Marteen thought as he eyed the military uniforms, field supply, snack wrappers, casual clothes, and a few other things Drai had brought out.

Shortly after, Drai stood there in silence, seemingly done, with his possessions laid bare for everyone to see.

"They’re... pitifully mundane," the lady colonel with purple blemishes remarked upon seeing the objects below.

Above and behind her, Lugos frowned, as he too felt that nothing stood out. Still, he was unsatisfied, so he turned to the side and asked, "Ailem, is he really done?"

’Now you’re asking for my help?’ Ailem snidely thought before focusing her senses on Drai, and before long, her nonchalant expression vanished.

"He’s not done..." Ailem announced almost in a whisper, causing Lugos and a few others to ask her to speak up. But before she could repeat her answer, Drai had already spoken up.

"This is my last item," he said before pulling out a black pendant.

As if on cue, every colonel had a similar expression upon seeing the symbol on the pendant—it was a crownless and refined version of the one Frost had attached to his report, a majestic lion with a red scar on its left eye.

"I-I can explain..." Drai hurriedly added. Yet, his stammering voice fell on deaf ears.

Every single one of the colonels’ faces had turned dark as they locked on to him, including the ever-imposing Marteen, whose hands were now brimming with imperceptible force.

***