And the person who had barged into the tent to stop this worst-case scenario, right before Isolde was truly prepared to trade her life for Lorenz's in a limit-exchange, was none other than Andrew.
His casual tone sounded like he was just making the most normal small talk imaginable. But for Isolde, it was like a bolt from the blue.
This voice, which had become so familiar during the recent battle, caused Isolde's movement—originally intended to raise her hand and fire—to instantly freeze in place. Subconsciously, she hid the hand holding the gun behind her back.
Isolde completely ignored the two soldiers who had just been approaching her. She turned her head in disbelief to look at the figure that, in her imagination, should not have appeared here at all.
For a moment, even she was stunned into a loss for words, standing there in a daze.
However, while Isolde might have frozen because she recognized the arrival, that didn't mean Lorenz, his two fully armed adjutants, and the sentry would remain motionless forever.
As people who had only arrived at Scott Outpost recently and had merely listened to Isolde's report, they did not recognize the Andrew standing before them.
Lorenz frowned as he looked at Andrew, who had suddenly appeared. The sinister ruthlessness in his eyes was almost overflowing at this moment.
Why hadn't he heard any warning from inside the tent? He spent so much money every month to feed these dogs, and they couldn't even do the most basic job of watching the door for him?!
To think they let such a big living person sneak all the way into his tent without being discovered... it must be because those guys relaxed their vigilance just because they were inside the outpost!!!
At this moment, there was anger and sinister malice on Lorenz's face, but the only things missing were fear and nervousness.
Yes. Regarding Andrew's entry, even though he had directly laid out the other sentry, Lorenz didn't feel any tension because of it.
In his view, the suddenly appearing Andrew was just another guy with a bit of strength who had sneaked in while his personal guards were slack, wanting to try and extort him after hearing the conversation just now. Or perhaps there was another possibility: a wet-behind-the-ears brat bursting with a sense of justice, wanting to fight for the unfairness suffered by this woman, Isolde.
Regardless of which it was, neither could pose any threat to him.
After all, no matter how lax his subordinates were, they all possessed the strength of an elite squad of the Defense Force. How could they possibly lose their combat effectiveness without making a single sound?
With them here, even though Andrew was already standing in the tent walking towards him, Lorenz didn't feel the slightest bit of danger.
He was a Major General! A Major General of the Defense Force!
As long as one was a normal person, it was impossible not to know the severe consequences of harming a general-grade officer inside an outpost. Moreover, his two fully armed guards were still by his side.
The sentry, in the end, was just a rotational post for ordinary soldiers in the personal guard; his only function was to provide an early warning. His true guard, from beginning to end, had always been the adjutant standing by his side.
Accompanying a signal from Lorenz's eyes, the adjutant and the sentry changed their targets without hesitation, moving towards Andrew one after the other.
Subsequently, their pace slowly turned into a charge.
As the sentry, the soldier knew very well that his role was to test Andrew's specific strength, so he consciously lunged towards Andrew with a stride, taking the lead. But even so, he had great confidence in his own strength.
After all, although they were both sentries, his strength within the team was in the top three—truly among the best. He was on a completely different level compared to that guy outside who was dead last in every aspect!
He pulled out the individual combat knife reinforced with Ether materials from his lower back and gripped it tightly in his palm, only to realize that Andrew had maintained an attitude of ignoring him from start to finish.
The flames of anger rose in the soldier's heart. Since the opponent dared to ignore him like this, don't blame him for showing no mercy!
As the soldier leaped up, he prepared to use a sliding tackle to take out this intruder, hoping to thoroughly enter Major General Lorenz's favor. By then, who knows, maybe he could become the next adjutant.
Although his fantasies of the future were beautiful, reality was extremely cruel.
The moment after he leaped up to slide-tackle towards Andrew, the world began to spin in his eyes.
One second he was charging at Andrew, and the next, he felt his back slamming into a table while simultaneously, a wave of incredibly intense pain radiated from his abdomen as if he had been fiercely kicked.
Even the military knife in his hand had broken completely at some point; now, only the hilt remained in his grip.
But what exactly had happened during this interval? Why had he ended up like this without noticing anything?
No matter how hard the soldier tried to recall, he found that there was absolutely no such process in his memory. It all happened too fast, so fast that for the soldier, it was as if time had skipped a beat.
The intense pain left him unable to speak. Very quickly, he passed out completely, powerless, having failed to make a sound from beginning to end.
Although the soldier himself hadn't noticed, the adjutant following closely behind him had seen everything that just happened with crystal clarity.
Watching Andrew appear at the soldier's side as if teleporting, then kicking him in the waist—snapping the military knife in his hand into two pieces in the process—the adjutant knew that this soldier was likely doomed.
At this moment, the reason why this man before him could subdue the door guard without triggering an alarm was plainly revealed.
But so what if the opponent's close-quarters combat strength was strong?! Although it was impossible to subdue him relying purely on melee combat, the only way to deal with enemies wasn't just so-called melee combat!
As the saying goes: Outside of seven steps, the gun is fast. Within seven steps, the gun is fast and accurate!
At this point, he no longer cared if the gunshot attracted soldiers from other units; rather, that would play right into his hands.
Accompanied by his left hand pulling a switch and flicking to the right, the Heavy Ether Charge Cannon fixed behind his back instantly unfolded with inertia, landing steadily in his right hand. As the muzzle aimed at Andrew, it simultaneously encompassed Isolde within its range.
As for why Isolde was also a target? It wasn't that his consciousness was unclear or that he made a mistake. Quite the opposite—his mind had never been clearer than at this moment.
The Major General was attacked, and Colonel Isolde was unfortunately killed by the thug during the battle between the guards and the assailant.
Listen to that, how pleasant it sounds.
With this, the combat report and the merit commendation would have no witnesses against them and could fall completely into their pockets. Not to mention, the Major General could fake a few cries at the funeral later, perhaps even earning a reputation for caring for his subordinates and loving his soldiers like his own children.
He believed that no one could take a cannon shell to the face at point-blank range without any protective gear and remain unscathed!
Looking at Andrew, who remained motionless as if he hadn't reacted yet, the corners of the adjutant's mouth curled into a mocking smile.
Sir, times have changed!
BOOM!!
Accompanied by the recoil transmitted through his hand, under the force of the explosion, the shell traced a straight and sharp line through the air, arriving at its destination almost the instant it left the chamber.
Such a close distance. In a mere fraction of a second, it had already flown in front of Andrew's face.
Time seemed to slow down in his eyes. The smile on his face became increasingly hideous as the shell got closer and closer to the target. The image of the massive impact force blasting the two people in front of him into pieces seemed to be right before his eyes.
Watching the man across from him, who was getting all worked up in his own self-indulgent fantasy, Andrew first glanced down at the shell that had already flown in front of his face, then casually waved his hand.
Bang.
Accompanied by a low, muffled sound.
In the adjutant's vision, which was staring so hard his eyes were about to split with disbelief, the sharp straight line of the shell's trajectory in the air completely turned into an obtuse angle at that moment.
A large tear in the tent, instantly ripped open as the shell passed through, indicated that there had been no accident when the shell was fired. But now, it had been... swatted away by the man in front of him with the attitude of shooing away a fly?
What had just happened was too phantasmagorical, making him involuntarily suspect if he was hallucinating. But the next moment, when Andrew's fist smashed ruthlessly into his chin, the intense pain of shattering teeth finally confirmed that everything he had just seen was real.
But by this time, it was too late to make any reaction. The agony of his jaw seemingly being pulverized by the iron fist, combined with the dizziness brought by the violent shock to his brain, caused him to follow in his predecessor's footsteps, completely losing consciousness.
In just two or three short seconds, the guards Lorenz had placed such high hopes on were paralyzed on the side like two dead dogs.
Walking up slowly, Andrew paid no attention to the two lackeys he had casually laid out. After all, the threat these two things posed to him wasn't even as great as when Meow-Da played around with him.
So for Andrew, the operation just now was simply like casually dealing with two annoying flies.
Not to mention that the two had initiated the attack on Andrew, and each had displayed an attitude of going for the kill. The fact that these scumbags, who used power and force to forcibly steal credit from others, weren't beaten to death directly was already the result of his moral compass exerting its influence.
Ignoring Lorenz's increasingly ugly expression, Andrew walked casually to the seat Lorenz had originally arranged for the soldiers to prepare for Isolde's revisions and sat down firmly.
Crossing his legs, compared to the guy in the military uniform across from him, it seemed as if he was the true master of this tent.
The seat previously used to create a sense of oppression for Isolde was completely reversed at this moment. The so-called power and wealth Lorenz controlled had become worthless accessories in the face of this primitive, absolute violence.
Isolde finally snapped back to reality, crying out in shock to Andrew sitting in the chair: "Andrew?! Why are you here?!"
Andrew shrugged and answered Isolde's question: "Previous matters delayed things for a long time. If I delayed any longer, I'd miss the opening time I agreed on with Ellen. Belle said she's already waiting for me at the Video Store to open up."
Saying this, Andrew cast his gaze back toward Lorenz in front of him and continued: "As a result, following Orpheus's directions, when I arrived outside the camp preparing to wait for you to come out, I heard some content that made me a bit unhappy. At that moment, I roughly guessed the reason you wanted to see me."
Looking at Isolde's joyful expression, Andrew stated with great certainty: "Looking at it now, I probably didn't guess wrong."
"You heard it clearly and guessed it back then?!" Isolde was astonished upon hearing this.
The central tent was at least four or five hundred meters away from the perimeter, right? With such a long distance and so many obstacles in between, even with the tent's mediocre soundproofing, Andrew could actually hear clearly?
Because of this, Isolde couldn't help but be even more puzzled. She looked at Andrew and continued to ask, "You... from when did you start listening?"
Hearing this, Andrew tilted his head slightly, and after recalling for a moment, said with certainty: "About... right when this guy suggested that the report had overlooked some details and needed a 'small alteration'."
"That early?! Then doesn't that mean you were here from the very beginning?"
Regarding Isolde's question, Andrew nodded affirmatively without hesitation.
For a moment, thousands of thoughts raced through Isolde's mind. But since Andrew had discovered this matter from the very beginning... Isolde couldn't help but ask: "In that case, why did you only choose to step in and help me now?"
However, regarding the question Isolde asked, Andrew was perfectly self-righteous. He answered with great seriousness:
"Because regarding this guy wanting to pluck your fruit, you didn't show any resistance or rejection. I didn't know whether you, personally, were willing or unwilling."
"What if you actually wanted to do it? After all, it's your own thing. Whether you choose to give it away on a silver platter or fight for it on just grounds is your own choice, isn't it?"
At this point, Andrew crossed his arms and summarized very seriously: "My kindness hasn't overflowed to the extent of proactively choosing to help someone who has no consciousness of resistance themselves."
At this moment, Isolde finally understood the reason why Andrew had chosen to stand by and watch at the beginning.
"So, if I hadn't shown any resistance all along, and didn't even ask for help after coming out to see you, would you have pretended not to hear anything?"
Hearing this, Andrew shrugged once again, nodded affirmatively, and said, "Correct, you could say that."
But what he didn't say was that for a scumbag like Lorenz appearing in front of his eyes, even if he didn't help Isolde, Andrew would definitely have found a way to make him suffer a bit. It was just that the final result would have been purely making him suffer a bit.
As his voice fell, Andrew looked at the revolver Isolde was still subconsciously hiding in her palm. Andrew gave a thumbs up and revealed a smile of appreciation.
He said with absolute seriousness: "If nothing else, the way you spoke your mind right to that cur's face just now... was very cool!"
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