Chapter 258: Emergency Call up
"Hey, Aurel," Jason called, finding a familiar figure among the crowd.
Her expression froze for a moment, but she pushed that aside and pursued a normal, flat expression. She made no impression that she wanted to mingle with him. Giving him a nod, she stood in her place silently. Jason smiled and crept to stand next to her.
"So, you have been called up as well, ha?" he said.
"Everyone whose supplementary duty on the front lines is due has been called up, of course, I have to turn up," she said nonchalantly, waiting for the people in the camp to arrive and announce the reason for the sudden call-up. "Not everyone has a father like yours."
Jason sighed at her biting words, but that was just Aurel being Aurel.
"You thought I was going to ignore the call," Jason said, "and use my background to get away with it."
She nodded. "It's not like your first time doing something like that."
"You sound like you don't know me," Jason sighed. She probably had no idea about him forsaking his family.
"I wish I didn't," she sighed as well.
Jason bit his lips and said nothing. There were a few familiar faces in the crowd who came to greet him. After all, he was a quite reputable fellow, not to mention his background. Even if he wanted to forsake it, people would still think of him as the young master of the Folger family.
They still think getting on his good side would help them with his father, the governor of one of the most important cities in the world.
More people were still coming. Only a quarter of an hour remained for the higher-ups to turn up. Usually, most of the higher-ups turn up late on most occasions, considering they have many other businesses to deal with. However, as far as he was concerned, they would likely turn up on time on this occasion, the situation being what it was.
Jason was not completely sure what had happened, but a conversation with his sister had cleared up his confusion somewhat. Apparently, there had been a big expedition going on, with many of the noble heirs participating in it.
Jason, himself, would have been called, but considering he had little to no communication with his family, he had not been considered for this expedition.
Not until today. Continue exploring at m|vl-em,py-r
Supposedly, the top-secret mission into a deeper part of the rift had not been going well. And who could they blame other than the forsaken? They have sent away a little over 200 candidates from the front lines, which included elite rankers from big houses, guilds, and other establishments.
It was right after a couple of days into the expeditions, news came in that there were ten times the number of forsaken—goblins, orcs, trolls alike—while already waiting to intercept them. This completely jeopardised the safe return of people, let alone the possibility of gaining riches from the site.
So, the upper echelon of the military had no choice but to call up more of the young prospects to the front lines and assign them the task of taking care of the forsaken problem.
Jason had been planning to come to the frontline this month. He wanted to meet up with his sister and Warden. He had already made up with his sister before arriving at the camp, but when he inquired about Warden, he discovered the guy had gone for the expedition as well.
Honestly, Jason was not at all worried about him. The sheer power and mastery over combat skills Warden had demonstrated left no room for doubts about his survival.
As Jason pondered this, the higher-ranking officer turned up just about on time. He was not surprised to find his elder sister, along with a couple of other captain-ranked officers, behind the man. Jason recognised the man: Terel Walt, the commander-in-chief responsible for almost everything at this base of the military.
He was a gold ranker before Jason was even born and had been attempting to court his eldest sister for over a decade now. Not that his sister gave him enough air.
The commander-in-chief addressed the crowd, sharing the necessary information about what the mission would entail. It was the same as what he had learned from his sister before coming here.
She mentioned nothing about the site being from an esoteric time, though, and the type of riches that could be gained from there. Many of the iron rankers literally drooled, learning about ability gems and potions as rewards. There were about 1200 of them who would be divided into 6 teams, while a captain or sergeant-ranked officer would take charge of each team.
Jason was not in the least bit surprised when his name was called and found his elder sister was the leader of the team. Aurel was part of the team as well, though he hardly thought his sister had any say in it. Jessica probably had no idea about their relationship, besides it had been so long.
It didn't end with that. Hundreds of iron-ranked soldiers joined them in the expedition as well, the commander leaving no room to doubt the success of their mission. They were given only two hours for the departure. There had been some complaints from the mass of young iron rankers.
But all their complaints found no ears, as the commander-in-chief had already announced the importance of this expedition.
After all, he would face heavy backlash if any of the heirs of high-ranking noble families fell into this expedition.
The High echelon would rather lose dozens of normal soldiers and rankers from no background than receive the backlash from high-ranking noble families. Not to mention, there was an imperial prince and princess involved in this expedition.
"Curious," Jason said to Aurel. "If you're going to the expedition, what about your duty as a combat instructor in the academy?"
"It would be on hold for the time being," she said. "Besides, it's not just me who had to turn up for the sudden call. Half of the combat instructors are here."