I Became A Mech Soldier After Waking Up in The Future. - Chapter 53

“Actually, there’s another matter that has quite annoyed me recently.”

“Oh, really? Major General, you can tell me what happened and I might be able to provide you with a helping hand,” Jeanne said enthusiastically.

“Actually, it’s not a big problem. It’s just that the Faction Evaluation Center urged me several times to abolish the slums in the Trudheim city. They said that there might be a lot of unregistered deviants wandering around there recently and argued that they might cause security issues in the future.”

“Oh? vagrant deviants? This is really unusual. What district and city did these people come from? and what’s the response from the faction over there?” Jeanne asked.

“My people had done their investigation and found that they were refugees coming here from Sariel City via the coal railway. There was a big fire accident in the slum there a few months ago, and many deviants took advantage of the opportunity to escape all the way here,” Frode stroked his beard and continued, “The guys in this Faction Evaluation Center are really annoying; all they know is systems, regulations, and procedures, it’s so hard to communicate with them properly. There is no such bullshit in the capital. You can’t even find any deviants there.”

Jeanne only gave him a smile as a response and then pointed to the distance, where a small patch of dark, disordered, and cramped shelters existed like a sore thumb among the high-rise buildings, and the asked, “That’s the slum area, right?”

“Yes,” Frode said, stretching his hand to the side, and the adjutant next to him handed him a telescope. Frode looked at it briefly and then handed the telescope to Jeanne. Jeanne held up the binoculars, seemingly very interested in what she saw, and she did not put them down for a long time.

Major General Frode said, “By the way, the strange thing is that the news of the appearance of many vagrant deviants in the slum area was reported by an anonymous ID from the Capital. I feel something fishy is going on here. Jeanne, don’t you know a lot about these kinds of things? What do you think happened here?”

With her eyes fixed on the telescope, Jeanne replied in a voice so low that it was barely audible to both of them.

“The other party may be a person from the capital who didn’t want to reveal their identity, came to the Trudheim for something, happened to find this matter, and reported it. Or, the other party was a special agent sent from the capital to investigate this matter, or else the anonymous report itself was false and the real purpose of the other party was to use this matter to blackmail you.”

“Major General, if you do not mind, I am just sharing my analysis. You recently received the Order of Merit, I believe there are a lot of people in the dark who feel threatened and become impatient. Everyone knows what your biggest political weakness is, and they’re looking to attack you with it,” At this point, Jeanne stopped.

Frode’s face darkened for a moment before he mustered a smile and said, “Hahaha, you’re really smart, Jeanne. Let’s walk around, I’ll take you to dinner. If I’m not wrong, your favorite food is fried rice from Trudheim, right?”

“Major General still remembers,” Jeanne said with a smile.

After luncheon, Frode invited Jeanne and company to stay in Trudheim for a few more days, but since the troops were about to start field training tomorrow, Jeanne and the others insisted on returning by today.

So, Frode sent someone to accompany Jeanne and the others to appreciate the scenery of Trudheim, and when the time came, he would send them back.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to see in Trudheim. To put it bluntly, this city had an unpleasant atmosphere. Trudheim was a war zone that had been plagued by war for a long time.

There were bunker-style buildings with barbed wire everywhere, and various military facilities could be seen everywhere.

In the southwest corner of the city, a memorial hall was built in the memory of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians who died in the tragic Trudheim in the Zerg assault 23 years ago, in order to remind the world to stay vigilant and never relax their guard.

After wandering around, the Trudheim day trip ended quickly and boringly.

Jeanne was a little unhappy and said that she wanted to go shopping alone, so that everyone should not accompany her. Then she quickly went against what she said before, and quickly dragged Keiko away, leaving a lot of dumbfounded followers behind.

The followers didn’t dare not to follow them, but they also didn’t dare incur the eldest lady’s displeasure for sticking too close, so they could only tail them from a safe distance.

Jeanne’s “wilfulness” came too abruptly, and Keiko hardly had a chance to refuse.

By the time she reacted, only she and Jeanne left. Keiko could sense that the security personnel were following them before, but the eldest lady just took her passing through two alleys and a corner, and easily got rid of the guards.

And the eldest lady just tapped twice on her bracelet ID, which not only turned off her GPS location but also blocked Keiko’s location at the same time. All this was done smoothly, in the blink of an eye, as if it had been rehearsed countless times, leaving Keiko dumbfounded.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you to a nice place,” Jeanne laughed.

“Where?” Keiko asked.

“Don’t ask, you’ll know when you get there. You will definitely be interested,” After saying that, she naturally took Keiko’s arm, sandwiched in between her soft and jiggly bosom, and walked with her side by side.

Keiko’s body jolted, and then stiffened.

She didn’t mind physical contact, but because of her sexuality, she became too conscious of intimate gestures like this. Although she had tried to ignore it, the more she deliberately ignored it, the more it lingered in her mind.

Jeanne, pretending to not be aware of the uncomfortable expression on Keiko’s face, sauntered leisurely while humming happily.

***

Keiko was used to living in poverty.

Although her adoptive father was a strong martial artist, she had no talent for making money. She had lived a poor life since she was a child.

Later, when she joined the army, she rarely had the chance to get in touch with people from the upper class, so she didn’t know what it meant to be rich. In her opinion, just having a clean and tidy ordinary home was already a blessing.

After entering society for a year, she began to understand what kind of life the rich life. Occasionally, she would be a bit envious and think that if she had money, she could do whatever she wanted.

She knew in her heart that she had pretty much inherited her father’s poor sense of business. Even if there was an opportunity to make money in front of her, she may not know how to seize it.

Thus, although she was poor, as long as she was free and happy, there was nothing to complain about.

But today, Keiko understood how terrible poverty actually was.

Jeanne took her through the filthy streets, where she saw beggar-like paupers in rags to the point of being naked, lying half-dead on the side of the road, motionless.

In the gap between the shelters, the children who were digging through the rubbish and the wild cats were fighting each other for food.

Seeing the withered old man kneeling at her feet, softly begging, “Miss Officer, please give me something to eat!” She felt like there was an invincible hand strangling her neck, suffocating her.

Jeanne and Keiko were dressed in elegant military uniforms and looked imposing and majestic, more so when compared to the dark and gloomy building around them.

The expensive cowhide military boots they wore on their feet paraded down the dirty streets, gradually stained with mud as they trod.

Keiko didn’t know why Jeanne brought her here.. At this moment, she didn’t even have the heart to try to figure out Jeanne’s intentions, as she was unnerved by the sight in front of her.