Alexandria stood at the last line of the nine generals; the dungeons had just ended with nothing important happening.
Unlike solo or duo dungeons, squad dungeons had nearly 60000 participants. For that sole reason, every year almost all of the generals participated too to keep the people on their rules.
And with such a large force, no one dared to do anything stupid.
As Alexanderia opened her eyes, she had been returned to the main hall of military headquarters. The first thing that she saw was a worried crowd around them.
The first man in line, General Armstrong, said with a loud voice, "What happened?"
His vice general stepped forward and bowed: "While you were in the dungeons, my generals, the witch attacked General Alexandria's base, and the judges had slaughtered half of the Dragonlord family."
Alexanderia ignored her place and moved forward. "Report, what happened?"
He first looked at General Armstrong for approval and then continued: "Last day, the witch attacked your base; no casualties had been reported as your vice general stood on guard, but the whole building had been destroyed."
"Her vice general is level 3. How did he stand guard against the witch?"
"No one knows." He cleared his throat. "Apparently Lady Marian gave her some stats for some time, but if you see the videos, you will understand."
All the people in the hall were high rankings of the military; Marian's true identity was no secret.
"Play it."
Alexandria wanted to leave as soon as possible, but her role as a general could be in danger if she left just like that.
The videos of the news started to play on a big screen for all to see.
After seeing the actions of Freya and Charlie, General Armstrong himself commanded, "Take all of their belongings and put them in prison for the rest of their lives. You don't have a problem, General Alexandria?"
"That's too kind compared to what I had in mind." Her face lacked any emotion.
The video continued playing until Ray revealed himself to be an Outcast, but none of them spoke anything.
"General Alexanderia, this boy seems talented with crafting and seems to be Cardinal. Can I ask why you didn't tell the rest of us?"
"General Hawk, with all due respect, don't act like you would have told everyone about it too." Everyone had their own secrets; she was sure that for this thing she wouldn't get in trouble.
"Continue."
Moments later, all of them stared into the screen with wide eyes. "He really did that?"
"Who is that boy?"
Generals were the most elite people on earth, even though all of them were surprised by his capabilities.
"Even I wasn't able to hurt her..." Alexanderia thought to herself.
As the video ended, a woman stepped forward. "General Alexanderia, I will trade him for 40 Death crystals."
"No."
"60."
She shook her head, "Out of the question." Her worries increased, though; General Iri was famous for getting her hands on whatever she wanted.
"Where are my troops at the moment? And where is Vice General Ray?" Alexandria asked the man in front of them.
"All of them currently live in your Vice General's tower, and he is there too; Lady Marian herself is healing her."
"May I go?" Alexandria asked Armstrong.
"You may; we will send you the important stuff about the judges."
"Thanks, sir."
The image of Ray's tower flashed in her mind, but a strong defense stopped her from teleporting in. "Marian?" She moved her target to a nearby street.
Minutes later, she entered the first floor of the tower; many of her troops were standing guard.
"It's General..."
"Thank God."
All of them rushed to surrender her.
"Someone explain to me in detail what happened, and why are all of you standing on guard?" There was no sign of Charlie or Freya.
"The judges had attacked a rich family last night, so we stood guard for Vice General."
"Good, from now on, Leo, you will be the leader of others; explain everything in detail." She pointed at a short man with a long beard.
Among others, he was the closest to level 7, and she trusted him to some extent.
Upon hearing the version of events from Leo, she started to organize her army in a new way; anyone that had a close connection with those two had to get rid of. Hours passed while Alexanderia had an emergency meeting with her higher rankings, looking for a new base.
"The military will not give us any money. Any idea on what to do?"
From the beginning, this problem had been on her mind; billions were needed to rebuild her base again.
"Vice General has given us the permission to stay here for as long as we want."
"What?" Her eyebrows raised up. "How do you know that?"
"Before he came to our rescue, he had told Lady Marian to gather all of us here."
Alexanderia sighed; her debts to Ray grew more and more.
Finally all of her tasks were done, and her army returned to a state of working again.
Her path changed to the highest floor, and Marian still made no connection with her.
One of the maids bowed to her by the elevator. "Lady Marian awaits you on the 100th floor. Please follow me."
Both of them went on the elevator, and in seconds, she reached the last floor. Behind the hallway, Marian sat on a big sofa with many bottles of alcohol around her.
"Mentor."
"Took you long enough. Healing her is a pain in the ass, so you know I had to use some distraction." Even though thirty bottles were around her, she had no sign of being drunk.
Alexanderia moved to sit beside her. "How long will his healing take?"
"Two weeks at best, but from tomorrow he can talk."
"You should take a rest; I will keep the watch for now."
Marian threw her bottle to the wall. "No. It was my fault; I shouldn't have given him my stats."
"But you saved thousands of people..."
"That's the worst part; I should feel good, but the only thing I can feel is guilt and shame." Marian sobbed, "Come here. Just let us rest together for tonight."
Alexanderia had never seen her mentor like this, but she didn't mind as Marian hugged her and both of them let their bodies relax.
All that night both of them were awake, with no sound coming from their mouths, staring into the ceiling.
One thought repeated itself over and over again in Alexandria's mind: "What should I say to him?"