American Isekai - Chapter 187 (Patreon)

AN: Chapter finally out! Don't worry, we'll be getting to the juicy stuff soon! I'm just trying to work out and decide what the time skips are going to look like ;)

May 16, 624

The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the terminal at the Treehouse was the massive amount of people moving around, either leaving the Rail to report to their superiors or moving cargo and supplies from the loading bays. Extremely few people were leaving. 

 The second thing I noticed was the additional wall around the base. The place was becoming a city, with two dozen buildings being erected for all the new personnel. Even the headquarters was being expanded. 

I had been kept relatively up to date while I was gone, but the place still hardly looked like it once did. Around the original base, that wall of gargantuan trees were still standing. However, one of the trees had been cut down, allowing them to create a massive entryway. I thought it was rather sad. What caught my eye after that though were some interesting monolithic structures dotted periodically along with the walls. They were heavily enchanted, so I wondered what their function was. 

Jasmine was there to meet me when I arrived. 

“Major Cooper. Glad you’re back. How was the vacation?”

“It would’ve been better if I had gotten to stay. You look like you’ve had a fun time without me.”

I smiled a bit while glancing at Jasmine’s baggy eyes. She looked like she had aged another few years.

She scoffed. 

“You got to skip the brunt of the load, you punk. Quite the exquisite timing on your part.”

“I tend to be exceptional in everything I do.”

“That’s good to hear,” She smiled, “Very good to hear. Since you don’t have any luggage weighing you down, you can come with me then. I can’t wait to apply your exceptional skills, especially since that Authority 6 mind of yours is even sharper and faster than before.”

“...It’s not that fast.”

“But it is exceptional, hm? Come, I have a present for you.”

Jasmine turned on a heel before marching away, somehow rejuvenated compared to a minute ago. It gave me a bad feeling.

Sure enough, the first thing I saw when we walked into the war room was a shelf full of Orbs. The fact that all the details regarding the past week took up multiple Orbs was a slightly horrifying thing. 

She pat the shelf. 

“I want you to memorize the following 6 Orbs by the 18th.”

“...I don’t wanna.”

“And I didn’t want to process an additional 14 thousand troops while also monitoring 26 simultaneous recon teams, 12 of which are still active. Yet here I am. I’m alive at least, aren’t I?”

“Are you?”

“An admittedly contentable point. But at least you don’t have to draw up anything yourself. Have fun!”

She cutely went up on her tippy toes and pat my cheek before skipping off. Apparently my suffering had an invigorating effect on her, while my happiness did the opposite. That was the only explainable conclusion. 

I shot those Orbs a death glare before letting out a long sigh. I would at least be able to find the limits of my mind now. 

I grabbed one and infused my Psyka. Information flooded my Mind Palace, getting absorbed just as fast and cataloged into books and maps. 

A visualization of everything that had happened across the surrounding land manifested. Extracting the main points from the redundant or erroneous proved to be shockingly easy, which made the absorption process even easier. Suddenly my new task wasn’t so daunting. If anything, it was impressively enjoyable. 

To see the big picture get drawn out before me was majestic in its own way, but I soon figured out that the reason I was having such an easy time picking out the main details was because I had already been expecting them. It was like coloring a picture I had already drawn in advance. 

Everything was expected. It wasn’t just that nothing fell out of my expectations, but that just about everything that had happened was an unconsious prediction I had made before I left and during my break. 

Expecting a range of possibilities and predicting specific happenings were completely different. 

In essence, the things that had happened over the last week boiled down to reinforcement and information procurement. Those two things though represented a larger plan, which was readying for an offensive. 

The only reason I wasn’t surprised was because the Kingdom had already made their crossroads decision. That decision was when they decided to reinforce the Treehouse instead of abandon it. There was no way that they wouldn’t be stubborn now after having thrown massive resources at it. It would both kill their momentum and morale as well as demand even more resources to reorganize and ensure that the Scourge didn’t use the opening. The 

Treehouse wasn’t in a super strategic position but letting a massive Scourge force move anywhere past their lines was a bad idea. 

That wasn’t even to mention the most surprising report of all. It was under Polly’s name, a mission that she headed not long after I left. It was a mission I had been planning to do before I was interrupted my Chief Reginold’s return. 

A recon mission around some mountains southeast of the Treehouse. There was minimal Scourge activity there but I suspected that there was something more. 

Turns out there was. Go figure. I was quite the genius so there was nothing that could escape my eye. 

That didn’t make it good news. Basically, the Scourge had created another secret transport route. They had tunneled through a ton of hills and managed to assemble a force behind the Treehouse. Since we had discovered it undetected, they had yet to use any of those forces. But they were still accumulating. 

They were also accumulating in front of us. They were preparing to demolish us. 

In response, the Kingdom was preparing to attack. All the information collection was toward that purpose. I just wish they had the same gusto while on the defensive. I wouldn’t have had to petition so much for recon if that had been the case. 

Well, at least they were doing something about it. 

The most surprising thing today though was the fact that I was able to get through all 6 Orbs in about 7 hours. Just about an hour per Orb was fantastic speed, but I didn’t want others to know that. 

To that end, I took three of the Orbs and disappeared into my room. It would make it look like I was working on them. 

But in reality? I’d be searching my 6th Star. How sneaky of me. 

I had found a plethora of new weapons right off the bat when I advanced but I wanted to get a full inventory and a read on the era it had put me at. 

I was doing that both to satisfy my curiosity as well as prepare. There were plenty of strike and recon missions going out and I could easily slip myself into them. I had no doubt that pretty soon I’d be in the field, especially since the Pathfinders and Snow Doves were hard at work. They were gone at the moment but would soon be returning. I’d make sure I was with them next time they deployed. 

For now though, there was something I needed to do. 

After my first day back passed I went to go find Polly. She had been busy and generally difficult to find, but I managed to catch her on a break. 

I joined her for lunch and the two of us sat down with trays to eat. 

“Good to see you back, John. I'm assuming Jasmine piled on some work for you.”

“Very eagerly, yes.”

I chuckled, choimping down on a chunk of chicken. The one good thing about knights being half the population here was that there was no shortage of dense foods, which meant meat. Perhaps they had magic animals buffed with Vigor instead of steroids or antibiotics. 

Polly gave a small smile. 

“We need to catch you up. Jasmine finally realized just how much you were doing when you left since she had to take up your roles. She even got a bit worried when her missions weren’t bringing her back as many results as she wanted.”

“Unfortunately I had taken many of the bigger recon missions into my own hands. The only one I had intended to carry out but didn’t was the one you handled. I’ve read the report, and it looks like the General is sufficiently worried.”

“Indeed he is, especially since we sighted three dozen Bombardos. I think he wants to launch a major offensive pretty soon but with the influx of soldiers, I’m not sure how he’ll handle it. Despite that though, he’s asked for your input.”

She eyed me a bit, and with my sharpened Aura I could clearly sense some displeasure. 

“Your accolades have been mighty impressive. I don’t think it’ll be long until you get promoted once more.”

“Well, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

I set down my fork and sat back, elbow propped up on the back of the chair. 

“I suppose I had forgotten since I also partially stopped caring given the weight of what I had been discovering, but I haven’t exactly fulfilled my end of our detail. I wanted to apologize, as well as offer you a proposal.”

“Yeah? Being honest, I’m not so interested in the apology. Let me hear your proposal.”

She leaned back, mirroring me in my casual attitude. 

I stroked some of the stubble on my chin, feeling the rough texture despite having shaved the day before. 

“I was given an offer while I was back at the Capital from what could be considered a sponsor of mine. He wants my to work for him and has enough influence to get my schedule rearranged so I can do so while also still fulfilling my duties here.”

“What is he, a Sovereign? You may not be high up in the chain but that’s exceptionally difficult to pull off.”

“He’s Sawn from Sawn Industries.”

“...Well then I can certainly understand.”

She flipped on a dime, making me smile a bit. 

“He wants me to come under him and work on enchanting. I’ve known him for a while but he was especially adamant when I went to join after the Magisterium. I ended up turning him down back then.”

“You’re a fool. Any summoner would kill for that job.”

“Yeah, well, my calling was elsewhere. I’m not interested in just getting by. I’ve got a war to fight and I’m not going to shirk that responsibility. Either way, thing have changed now. The deal Sawn offered is too good to pass up so I’ve taken it. And he’s given me a condition.”

I looked Polly in the eye, focusing a bit and seeing all the tiny little details of her brown iris. Biology could be quite fascinating. 

“I have 6 months to become a Lieutenant Colonel. If I start my new schedule, which will half my time here, my chances of getting promoted plummet. That means I want to get it before that happens. I want your help with that.”

“...You’ve been in the military for a year. It may not be nearly as competitive as the fight to become a General, but there are still plenty of people vying for the spot of Lieutenant Colonel. It’s quite the coveted job, better than all the other intelligence agents yet without the responsibility of a full Colonel. Squeezing you into that fight would be difficult, even with your proximity to the Generals.”

Polly rubbed her chin, her mind churning. She could already see why she would want to do this, as expected of her. Our minds may now be similar in power, but she still had experience. Plus, she was smart anyway. 

I couldn’t do anything to work against Polly. She would want to do this not because I would hinder her progress, but because if she didn’t, I wouldn’t help her as much as I otherwise would. 

I had proven myself to be good at my job. I wasn’t afraid to be self aware. There was a reason I had garnered some fame. I took on a ton of work, did it all to a grade A standard, and went beyond satisfaction to impress. I also knew how to take hold of opportunities. I had done it with the infiltration beyond the Pass and with Chief Reginold’s report, as well as my discoveries regarding the Bombardos. I had spurred the entire military into reinforcing a base and then doubling down on it. I’ve moved nearly 100 thousand with my words. I certainly wasn’t nameless. 

Polly wanted that on her side. 

Even if I couldn’t do too much for her now, I could in the future. If she wanted my help, then she’d need to help me get this promotion. She need to make me the fastest rising star in the military’s history, having achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in just 1 year, if not less than that. 

After that? Not only would I stop taking the spotlight, but I’d actively shift it to her. She would take credit for all my hard work and exceptionalism, and I’d fade into the background. In fact, I’d probably be scorned. I’d be taking this promotion just to get pulled to the rear every month. The Generals would probably get pissed at me, thinking I conned them. 

But hey, it wasn’t like I was shooting for anything much higher then Lieutenant Colonel, and even if I was, it would take years of work to achieve anyway. I wanted to ride this wave while it had momentum and take all I could get. 

Polly could deduce that, so the two of us spent almost two minutes in silence. I started eating again at some point to pass the time. 

She finally spoke after I finished my chicken. 

“...Despite everything, I think it’s possible. Alright John. I’ll help you get that promotion. Question is, how much can I trust you?”

“I may have stolen some of your thunder, but I’m not a liar. Even then, I didn’t take the spotlight because I didn’t want you to have it. As confident and amazing as I may be, I can still get caught up in heavy situations. I still lack the numbing that comes with years of this work.”

“That’s not a bad thing. You can be awfully direct sometimes too. Learn some rhetoric.”

“I don’t bother with that when it comes to people I trust. You deserve to know the truth, and I want to help you because like me, you’re good at your job. The military needs more people like you and I want to help you. You can do more than me. All I want is this quick promotion before slinking off to work enchanting. Lord knows I won’t get promoted after that.”

“Indeed. Don’t worry, I’ll get you that promotion. To that end, your name will start appearing on reports. You’ve gotten close to the Generals as well so there’s no need for my help there. I will help you get into some of these meetings though. I want you by my side at the very least, and I’ll go to you for some input if the opportunity arises.”

“I’ll take what I can get.”

I smiled and raised my cup, Polly doing the same. 

They tapped together, both of us taking a sip. 

“To a newfound partnership.”

“Work on your toasts as well.”

She chuckled a bit, making me shrug and down the rest of my water.