Chapter 316 Bested
At first, Damon was dumbfounded slightly by the fact that Theobold admitted to the accusation without trying to defend himself.
However, that was until the part when Theobold suddenly revealed that he was willing to share some of the military intel with him.
'What kind of last-ditch effort is he trying to pull?' Damon wondered silently, seemingly curious at Theobold's final struggle.
The seconds ticked by, each one loaded with an unspoken tension that enveloped the area.
Finally, Damon couldn't hold himself back and shouted, "What kind of nonsense are you talking about, Theobold? Military intel? Since when did fabricating a recording and derailing from the original goal any part of military intel?"
"Because it's military intel, which is why I was hiding it." Theobold shrugged his shoulders.
"Fabricating a recording, do you think I could do such a thing if I didn't receive permission?" He then questioned Damon back, seemingly reversing the situation.
The crowd started to change their attention to Damon.
"Yeah, why does Commander Damon have such files when Commander Theobold was concealing them for military intel?"
"Maybe Commander Damon is jealous of Commander Theobold's reputation. You should already know who's more popular than the others."
"Indeed, I've also heard rumors that they were in discord in the past, and Commander Damon was always holding a grudge."
The whispering and gossip among the spectators might not be loud, but with his hearing ability, Damon was able to hear them perfectly clear.
Word games were never his fort, so he had expected Theobold would be pulling some similar stunt to reverse the tide to his advantage. It had always been like that, so Damon wasn't surprised by it.
The only thing that truly shocked him was that Theobold was shameless enough to use military intel as an excuse.
Military intel, just that one term alone was able to nullify every suspicion.
However, it was also a critical mistake of Theobold to use military intel, because if proven wrong and Theobold could not back it up, then losing his rank was the least severe punishment.
"Do you have any proof that you were doing some military activity?" Damon snickered coldly. "If you don't have any evidence that could back your claim up, then under the Military Code of Conduct, Chapter 3, Article 5, I can forcefully detain you for judgment."
There might not be any court present with the current state of the world, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a military trial where the Five Families leader would gather together to make a decision.
Of course, such action meant that the situation was extremely severe enough that threatened the safety of Gearits City.
The military trial had never commenced once, given people aren't that dumb enough to land themselves in such sticky trouble, or they were subsequently killed before it was ever needed.
Just when Damon thought he had the edge, Theobold suddenly flashed a sinister smile.
It was the very same sinister smile that Damon recognized back then when he had caused the death of many of his comrades. A bad premonition started to loom over his head as he wondered what kind of trump card Theobold was holding.
And right in front of everyone's eyes, Theobold snapped his finger and a soldier brought up a device that flashed a hologram picture.
Three simple words were shown there with a direct stamp of approval.
Permit to fabricate- with the stamp of approval belonging to the Hill Family, one of the Five Families in Gearits City. Each of the Five Families had the authority to give a seal of approval to any military commander without needing to inform the others.
It was also because of such conduct that the Five Families were all able to maintain their own military team individually.
But everyone was stunned because they never expected Theobold would also be able to gain a seal of approval from one of the Five Families. After all, he had always remained neutral and was serving the citizens wholeheartedly on the surface.
"I'm sure your eyes are working fine, Damon. So tell me, what was the point of your action today?" Closing the hologram picture, Theobold then questioned Damon's integrity.
"Everyone here, please be a witness, especially you– Damon's soldier. You're recording it live right now, so make sure to not close the recording. Otherwise, everyone would know that your commander is guilty of something and wished to hide."
The soldier who was in charge of recording it live from Damon's order was caught in a dilemma.
On one hand, it was his commander, but on the other hand, he was going to receive backlash from Theobold and everyone else that was currently watching the scene.
As for Damon, he might have looked calm on the surface, but inwardly, he realized Theobold was prepared the entire time.
'The Hill Family… which means that Phoebe should have known about this.' Damon exclaimed inwardly.
Nancy had informed him that she had contacted Benedict, Samantha, and Phoebe regarding this. This meant there was a high chance of Phoebe being a rat and traitor among them, feeding the information to Theobold so that he could be ready for this.
Meanwhile, Nancy, who was standing from afar had her eyes narrowed as she quickly removed Phoebe from their group chat.
Unlike Damon, who only had suspicion, Nancy was more straightforward and decisive.
Nancy: Benedict, you better separate from Phoebe now. That Phoebe is in cahoot with Theobold.
Samantha: Geez, you banned Phoebe so fast! *stunned emoji*
Benedict: Rest assured, I'm already staring at her right now with my soldiers. If things don't go right, then we might just have a brawl.
Nancy: Don't start a brawl with her. The plan must be changed, so come back to the camping area.
After texting that, Nancy clenched her fist as she glared at Theobold from afar.
'What an unkillable cockroach. So you were aware this entire time but pretended to not know anything. And to even use your elite soldiers as bait to make us believe it. How devious yet admirable of you!' Nancy praised Theobold's action sincerely.
She had truly been bested in this round.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶