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chapter 58
“…Yes?”
“What do you mean, ‘Yes?’”
Captain Advelo jerked his chin toward the door.
“You don’t have anything to do anyway, right?”
“…I actually have more work than you think.”
Ami, feeling slightly indignant, made a timid protest. But Captain Advelo only snorted.
“Funny, coming from someone who had their feet up on the desk reading a magazine earlier.”
“I was just taking a short break before getting back to work…”
“You don’t need to work. Just guide me instead.”
As if granting him an excuse to slack off legally, the captain grabbed Ami by the collar and dragged him away like a puppy.
“…Wow.”
Inside the Special Forces office, now absent of Captain Advelo—
“The storm has passed.”
Céline muttered wearily.
The rest of the special forces nodded silently in agreement.
“By the way, Captain…”
On their way to the conference room together, Ami spoke up.
“There’s a rumor going around that the Epherena family is entering into a weapons deal with Advelo. Is that true?”
“Probably not.”
“I thought so…”
“Why? Are they saying it is?”
Waving dismissively at soldiers they passed—signaling them to mind their own business—Captain Advelo asked casually.
Ami nodded with a grave look.
“It seems they’re using that rumor to cover up their abuses. There are also suspicions of factionalism forming within the military.”
“Well, looks like our family has a new reason to file a lawsuit.”
“Our lawyers will be busy again.”
Advelo spoke indifferently, as though it were someone else’s problem.
To her, such things were even more trivial and meaningless than her granddaughter’s games.
At the conference room entrance, military police stood guard to control entry.
Before they could even react in surprise to seeing her, Captain Advelo pressed a finger to her lips in a “quiet” gesture.
The MPs barely managed to hold their tongues, though their shock was plain.
“Crack the door open a little.”
At her order, one of them opened the door just a sliver.
And immediately—
“You bastard!”
“It wasn’t us! We were tricked too!”
“Damn it! How dare you—!”
“No way! That can’t be true!”
A cacophony of furious shouts erupted inside.
“Heh.”
Captain Advelo grinned, amused.
“Looks like things are going well.”
The hearing began somewhat tediously.
Stating its purpose, explaining the order of proceedings, warning that misconduct would result in expulsion, and so on.
But once it truly began, the atmosphere grew more and more intense.
That was inevitable.
At first, the perpetrators claimed their innocence.
It was all a minor misunderstanding, they said, and they’d already reconciled over drinks—no need to blow things out of proportion.
Even Baron Epherena, who appeared as a witness, testified similarly.
Unlike his burly son, the baron was slightly below average height and very thin, with a comparatively gentle face.
“My son may be clumsy and have unusual ways of expressing himself, but he cares deeply for his subordinates and loves his country more than anyone…”
But his testimony was anything but gentle.
“Young people these days are overly sensitive to the way their superiors express affection.”
His words bordered on the bizarre.
Still, he was trying to prove two things:
That his son and the 7th Fleet members were innocent.
And that the supposed victims were twisting the truth.
…
At this point, Leto had been quietly fiddling with his interlocked fingers. Noah, seated nearby, saw it all.
As the chairman of the hearing, Leto was forcing himself to remain neutral.
So far, the developments were within expectations.
But the victims’ testimonies flipped the atmosphere completely.
The first to testify was Sergeant Alrac Tropia.
“He always shoved his work onto me.”
“He’d punch me under the pretext of training. If I so much as flinched or tried to block it…”
“When he learned I was an orphan, he mocked me, saying I reeked of being parentless.”
“He threatened to use his family’s influence to sabotage my promotions…”
The accusations he leveled at Captain Epherena were shocking.
He then presented his own body as evidence.
The military police representing the victims provided photographs.
“These photographs were taken with Sergeant Tropia’s full consent…”
Even after seeing the pictures, Leto’s eyes showed no visible reaction.
“Captain Epherena.”
Instead, he asked,
“Just now, you claimed it was all a small misunderstanding.”
“Y-yes…”
Epherena stammered.
“What exactly was that misunderstanding?”
“….”
“What kind of misunderstanding justifies punching your subordinate? I’d like to know before I consider it.”
“T-that is…”
His voice trailed off. He couldn’t answer.
From the back, Baron Epherena’s expression hardened.
His gentle face, twisted in anger, now looked all the more vicious.
Next came testimonies from members of the 7th Fleet.
The senior perpetrators sitting on the accused bench smirked smugly at them.
‘That bastard Epherena won’t escape punishment.’
‘Serves him right. Should’ve known when to stop.’
Captain Epherena would likely be punished—but not them.
That’s what mattered.
They had already silenced the juniors. If they just got through today’s testimonies, they could start being a little nicer.
Though, when they got back, they still planned to vent the frustration of being locked up in the brig.
“….”
“….”
But their complacent smiles cracked in an instant.
“They gagged me with a towel, twisted my arms behind me…”
“They sprinkled sand into my meals every day.”
“They sometimes pressed wet towels over my face to torment me…”
“They pointed a gun at me—and once fired a live round.”
“They made me stand for an hour holding a bucket full of water…”
The continuous stream of testimonies sent the hearing room into an uproar.
Leto banged his gavel, trying to restore order, but it was pointless.
Those present couldn’t shut their mouths.
Even the officers, trying hard to remain neutral, cleared their throats uncomfortably, and the military police on guard furrowed their brows.
The victims also exposed what had happened at the tavern days ago.
“They threatened us, saying if we didn’t give false testimony, worse things would happen.”
“Bullshit! That’s all lies!”
One of the perpetrators finally snapped, shouting out.
Leto immediately had him sent to the brig for disrupting the hearing.
“As evidence, the sworn statements of tavern employees in the Oceanus territory have been submitted.”
Lieutenant Colonel Ice handed over a sealed envelope.
Inside were detailed testimonies from that day.
“No… it can’t be…”
One of the perpetrators muttered, realization dawning.
They remembered: during the short time they’d stepped away, the tavern employees had kept offering free snacks and drinks.
They had happily accepted, never realizing they were being watched all along.
“The tavern staff suspected abuse, contacted the Navy directly, and immediately provided statements.”
“Well, that’s impressive.”
Leto, reading through the testimonies, was genuinely impressed.
The papers he tossed onto the table all said the same thing:
Threatening language.
Gestures suggestive of violence.
Open disdain and pressure.
“Some nobodies I’ve never even heard of managed all this…”
He stopped, catching his breath in disbelief.
But his red eyes, glaring at each perpetrator one by one, gleamed like gun barrels pressed against the back of their heads.
“You lot took the Navy’s hard-earned reputation, built up over years, and scorched it like burning a sofa cushion with a cigarette.”
Every word was a loaded bullet aimed at them.
And those bullets were nothing more than their own past deeds.
They were reaping exactly what they had sown.
“…Do we really need to go on?”
Leto asked the officers.
None of them hesitated.
Shaking their heads, their gazes toward Leto made it clear the decision was already made.
“But General…”
Koemen, head of personnel and one of the committee members, asked:
“Why is Baron Epherena even here?”
Naturally, all eyes turned to him.
Unable to keep his composure as the hearing went against his expectations, the baron trembled, lips pressed tightly shut, like a soaked, pitiful donkey.
But unlike a donkey, there was nothing endearing about him.
With ragged breaths seeping between his clenched teeth and his eyes blazing, he looked savage and venomous.
“Good question.”
Leto smiled at him.
“Did you really think someone like you would be any kind of threat here?”
The blatant mockery made the baron’s face flush red.
His testimony had already been dismissed as unreliable, since it came from the perpetrator’s father.
“But since everyone must be curious…”
Leto gestured to Noah.
“Captain Velo, turn on the radio.”
Noah switched on the radio in the center of the room. After adjusting the frequency, familiar music played—the theme that preceded the noon news.
And the first story broke:
[The Advelo family has filed charges against Baron Epherena for defamation and suspected stock manipulation.]
The baron’s already flushed face drained of color.
“W-what is this…?!”
His lips flapped uselessly like a broken nutcracker.
But before he could voice his denial, the radio announcer continued:
[Additionally, Baron Epherena is accused of embezzling investment funds by spreading false information about a joint military-industrial development project with Advelo…]
[The Baron had claimed the project was in cooperation with the Navy, but the Navy has firmly denied any such involvement…]
Click.
Noah switched the radio off.
“….”
“….”
The conference room fell into a frozen silence.
Calmly, Noah returned to his seat.
“…Well then.”
Leto broke the stillness.
“Shall we discuss how to crush these bastards now?”
