The Red Nights - Volume 1 Chapter 42 Determination
The three armies of the three cities were all gathered in the dining hall for the feast their host, Glenn , had prepared for them. While straying his sight around him, Jamal realized how big was that room. In one sight, he counted that they were nearly one hundred people and still each of them was well installed on one of the two the long tables which were occupying the dining room. Those tables were filled with many varieties of food; mashed potatoes , salads , meat , chicken and many other meals. There were many fruit juices naturally prepared, and Jamal was happy to notice that he didn’t put too much wine or any alcohol at it would have reduced the capacity of the soldiers in the war .
While they were enjoying that banquet, Glenn was humbly explaining to Jamal, Volga , Nelson and Sania who were sitting near him, where were came all the foods he had used to organize the dinner. Jamal as all the others thought naturally that they were their provisions what it was true but not exactly. Glenn said that in fact he, or rather his family , owned a company of agronomy which had farms all over Palet city and others where they were producing many aliments whatever vegetables, meats , fruits and other industrial products like milk and eggs and were reselling them to the markets . When he gave the name of the company Nelson even recognized it as it was the principal supplier of the majority of stores and markets in his hometown.
” After what you know happened 2 years ago, I directly thought about it before anything else many of our employees were among those who disappeared and I was afraid because of that would cease to work and would lead to the famine, so as mayor and at the same the president of this company I gathered the people and exposed them that we needed volunteers among them to take place of those people who were missing in order to ensure the carrying on of the food supplies and avoid the famine hopefully they accepted, and even after the rise of criminality they kept going their jobs to feed the people even until now ” Glenn said.
If the others beside him took longer to understand, Jamal got at once what he wanted to say, he gazed at him insistently and said while waving his hand around him ” you mean that among them… ” . Before he finished, Glenn nodded ” yes, there are some simple workers who don’t wish to fight ” .
Jamal’s face changed. From the start he was worrying about this matter since the time he was still in Stainfall . At that when Lina and he were planning about how would he deal with each city, they found that Palet city was the one with the most complicated case as its mayor, whom he just met with, couldn’t give them a real description of their situation. So using the few informations they had, they concluded that they would have to base their strategy on the amount of people he would gather along his journey.
” Mr. Glenn , when you told us about your situation you said that the criminals were divided into three clans, is it still the case ? ” he asked him . The mayor bowed his head desolate while he responded ” yes unfortunately. The most of the time we are battling with only one of the them , the nearest, and even if we lost many of us thank god we managed to keep up . But lately the two other clans who used to clash with us very rarely as they lived far away from us enhanced suddenly the number of their attacks. I advanced the idea that maybe they decided to move because of the lack of resources in their previous areas. Anyway now they’re all around we will have to deal with the three of them. ”
” How can you differentiate one clan from another? ” Sania asked innocently.
The man turned his head and showed her a smile full of amus.e.m.e.nt and confidence when he replied, with a very kind voice ” I have spent almost my whole life living in this city, I have been its mayor for 20years, I know every single one of my people whatever they are criminals or not, so yes I can differentiate them because I know very well each of them all “.
For a short moment she asked herself if he was actually trying to seduce her, [ it will be finally my chance to find a partner, I’m tired of being single while everyone around has already found a lover ] she was telling herself, she put those thoughts aside to focus on the discussion [ there are things more important to care ] .
” You said that there was a first group which used to attack you but then two others joined them and are they are three . Does that mean that from the start you’re just going through their assaults and you’ve never fought back and challenged them on a battlefield? ” Volga asked with a little tone of reproach in her voice, Nelson made a sign with his head to show that he was supporting her statement . Jamal firstly thought that Glenn would be going mad because of all those reproaches against him, but he surprisingly remained calm while he was justifying himself while all eyes were on him .
” You surely think that I’m a coward because I’ve avoided the fight to my army for all this time or maybe you think that I’m rather a hypocrite and an evil because I’m sending you, a group of strangers, to go win a battle against our own enemies, don’t you? ” he chuckled ” so let me tell you that you’re right, I’m a coward and a hypocrite. My first motivation has always be to protect my people. I have two houses, this mansion and an another one which was owned by my parents near, even if it’s destroyed now they were enough big to contain the entire population which was remaining after the catastrophe, when the situation became too dangerous I proposed to come staying here ” he lifted his arms and made a move to show his surroundings ” it is well built, surrounded tall walls and thus easy to defend, we are auto sufficient in terms of food, so our survival is guaranteed ” he landed down his hands and carried on still with a calm tone ” so why would I have sent them in the battlefield with the high risk to die there “.
” Yeah you’re right ” Volga sighed ” I find that pretty selfish and a bit stupid. What about whether we didn’t come, you would have been resolved to live here for the rest of your life with your cherished people ? ”
” Yeah I guess ” he responded with less confidence his voice than before while moving his sight from Volga to Jamal ” what would be the problem? ”
” What would be the problem, huh ? ” she repeated while falsely acting as if she was thinking ” let’s suppose like we didn’t come and your townspeople accept to stay here hiding behind those walls and waking up every morning to defend this castle from the outlaws, let’s see what would happen. We already know that you get the most difficulties containing them and therefore you get too much casualties and lose too many of your men, one day they would have crushed you, but let’s be more optimistic. Let’s say all things go well, that you manage to maintain them away from you and live peacefully here for a moment without putting a step outside, however it will come a moment where you will run out of munitions and you will no longer be able to protect yourselves and the outlaws will notice it, they will raid inside and will start killing everyone, some of you will try to escape hoping to find security in the other cities but those hopes will be ripped apart when they will find that the outlaws surrounding the whole castle with no way out” she laid her palms on the table and leaned toward him ” do you understand? In any case you would have been killed, tortured and your women enslaved, reduced to the state of s.e.x.u.a.l toys “.
Glenn tightened his fists and everyone noticed that he was slowly losing his calmness ” so where is the meaning if in any case, whether we fought or not we would have died anyway? ” he said, irritated.
While Volga intended to respond him Nelson raised his hand to tell her that he would continue from there, she nodded and gave him the talk ” can you tell me please the reason why you’ve stayed here and didn’t flee to hide in Stainfall with the rest of your companions you’ve sent there? For what reason do you think all us have stayed to continue the war and didn’t run away, even though many of us already knew that we would have died there if Jamal didn’t come to help us ? Why do you think we didn’t run away? ”
” … ” the man gazed down without responding even though he did know the response. ” You don’t know so let me tell you why , because if we didn’t the criminals would have moved, looking for other places to put the chaos, they would have followed us until Stainfall and thus we would have brought the war there and our townspeople and other innocents would have no longer be safe” he lowered his voice ” Do you realize now how irresponsible it was to let them be , what if they got tired of attacking this house day after day vainly and decide to move to another city , you would have been the principal responsible for the deaths they would have caused “.
At those words he lost control, he stood up and bursted out ” so what is the point to tell me all those things!! ” he shouted and caught the attention of all the people who were there , a woman left her seat and walked toward him in the intention to calm him down but Jamal stopped her and indicated her that she shouldn’t interfere ” Do you want me to regret having preserved their lives ! ” Glenn carried on while waving his hand to point the people around ” Why do you tell me that? you wanted me to tell them to go lose their lives in the battlefield while waiting for some helpers to come?! ”
” We wanted to tell them to go win this war for you , for their friends and families, we wanted to tell them to fight to stay alive… not to die ” Jamal said with a calm tone, knowing that it was his turn to intervene now Volga and Nelson had fulfilled their part of the job.
” To say the truth, even though we do think it was irresponsible to avoid the fight, we are also pretty glad you did that because we thought you’ve preserved the number of your soldiers for the final battle . But honestly , look at them ” he said while pointing the Palet’s army ” from the start they were listening to us but no one could stand to defend you , not because they don’t love but because they are scared, intimidated by us. We are about to go on Palet’s war final battle but your men are very lacking of fight spirit, at this state they will be useless in the battlefield, just a stack of dead weights. It’s your responsibility to motivate them to be able to fight with all their hearts and to defend their city , instead of being just an enc.u.mbrance to us . And unless you made you make up your mind and be ready to put your lives into play we will not work with you and will deal with this case in our own. ”
He left the table and walked silently toward the exit. Volga , Nelson and Sania followed him and so all their men did too . They left Glenn and his army there, gazing down shameful without knowing what should they do.
” What’s the meaning of all this show? Why to go this far until angrifying such a lovely man ? ” Sania asked, more upset than intrigued, to the three main leaders while they were walking through the hallway. ” His men. Didn’t you see ? They were acting as if it was more our combat than theirs, they didn’t even act like people who were about to go in a dreadful war. ” Nelson responded while staring forward him without glancing even once at Sania ” we had to do that in order for them to stop relying too much on us and more on themselves. You could have noticed all that if you were not busy staring at the eyes of him ” he then said while glancing at her from the corner of his eyes.
Her face turned red , not of embarrassment but of anger . Even though he was two times right , she really didn’t like the way he spoke to her as if she was one of his subordinates whom he had the responsibility to correct, she promised herself that one day she would make him pay .
They penetrated in a wide room, like every room in the mansion, where they decided earlier to make it their strategy room. the captains of the teams were surrounding a table in which a map was spread out on and were plotting about how should they proceed to deal with the three clans of outlaws while the rest of the army was behind them listening to what they say .
Few moments after they had started discussing about their plans someone knocked on the door. They all turned their heads and found Glenn standing at the door , his whole army behind him showing that they were supporting him . He had replaced his calm face and his warm smile by a serious face with two eyes ill.u.s.trating all his determination to fight. ” We came to firstly apologize for our cowardice, we are resolved to fight against the outlaws and to end up this war which has lasted too long and also to ask you to come helping us to accomplish this goal ” his said with a strong voice .
A smile slowly appeared on Jamal’s face while all the eyes were laying upon him waiting for him to give his decision , ” man, you really have taken your time . Of course we will help you we came here for that after all. Come on here to tell you about plan and we still have something important to discuss and clarify before everyone go to sleep, I recall that tomorrow we have to wake up early to go kill some villains. ”