Adrian heard nothing but the roar of blood in his ears. The Prime Minister was being more than obviously biased towards Zeke. How could he favor Zeke so openly when it was blatantly obvious that Zeke was nothing but a thug and a pushover?
Did Ares and him combined weigh so little in his eyes? How could they be less important than a useless man stripped of all of his abilities?
“Prime Minister, I refuse to apologize.” Adrian tasted blood in his mouth, seeping from the cracks between his teeth as he gritted them tightly.
The Prime Minister finally lost his temper. “You’ll do as I say! I am the founder of the Department of Law Enforcement. As departmental personnel, if you disobey my instructions, you’re committing mutiny!”
“Kneel and apologize,” the Prime Minister said with a sense of finality. “Otherwise, I’ll have you tried for mutiny charges.”
Something had broken inside of Adrian. He no longer felt any anger, just a blanketing sense of numbness. Quietly, he kneeled and apologized to Zeke.
Sole Wolf had a canary-eating grin on his face as he watched Adrian apologize, giving Zeke a thumbs up. “That was awesome.”
At this moment, an ignored Emily Clemons had practically been petrified at the scene.
She had no idea what was going on. Zeke was already depowered, no better than any ordinary man. What terrifying power did he still have, to the point where even the Prime Minister had to treat him so graciously?
She snorted contemptuously. If Julian could not even restrain a piece of trash like Zeke, then he was even more useless than trash.
On the other end of the spectrum, Dawn, Nancy, and Lacey were laughing as they celebrated.
Their brother-in-law was a badass. Even as skinny as he was now, Zeke had still managed to get the upper hand on Julian.
Finished bowing at Zeke’s feet, Adrian stood up sullenly. He announced that he would be resigning his post as the Director of Law Enforcement effective immediately before slinking away with his tail between his legs.
There were tears prickling in his eyes. He had begged for the Prime Minister to come and help him get justice for the grievances he had suffered.
But in the end, his supposed savior had ended up blatantly favoring Zeke for some reason or another.
Rude as anything, Zeke had demanded him to kneel and apologize, going so far as to demand his resignation. Through it all, the Prime Minister had indulged him. Adrian had to laugh bitterly at that. He had inadvertently summoned reinforcements for Zeke instead.
The sheer injustice of it simmered in his chest.
Seeing the sudden loss of their advantage, Ares and Julian prepared to leave as well. Today, they had been utterly shamed and humiliated.
Even now, they could not wrap their heads around the reason why the Prime Minister had been resolutely letting Zeke have his way with everything.
They had barely taken one step when Zeke called, “Hold it, I didn’t let you leave yet.”
Ares’ anger exploded in a spectacular display. “Zeke, you’ve gone too far! Don’t forget that you’re now just an ordinary man. You don’t have the right to order me about anymore.”
“Oh, I wasn’t ordering you,” Zeke said casually. “As I’ve said, Julian isn’t worthy of being the Great Marshal. I just want him to step down from the post before he manages to disgrace the Great Marshal’s name.”
Unable to control himself any longer, Julian growled. “The title of Great Marshal was given to me by the Supreme Leader. The fact that you’re trying to take the title away means you’re defying the Supreme Leader’s orders.”
“Prime Minister, I formally request to bring the criminal Zeke Williams in to face justice so that he can be made an example of,” Julian said, turning to face the Prime Minister respectfully.
“Silence, all of you.” The Prime Minister massaged his forehead ruefully. He was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. If he had known earlier that the situation would escalate to such a scale, he would not have agreed to show up in the first place.
With Zeke and Ares both unwilling to back down, the situation was now frozen in a stalemate once again.
At the same time, a series of other events were unfolding in Lundr.
General Ragnar Maples was currently receiving treatment from the best doctors Lundr had to offer.
Contrary to popular belief, General Maples had not died in the battle in Southern Archipelago. During the day of the battle, he had not detonated the explosives he was carrying, slipping away in the chaos of battle with his life by the skin of his teeth.
Barely after he had returned to Lundr, more news from Eurasia reached his ears, stating that the great General Maples had been defeated by the newcomer Julian.
That had earned General Maples’ ire. In Lundr, he was renowned as a great warrior. His name was almost a synonym for bravery and strength among their people.
If he had fallen to Eurasia’s top King Class warrior, he would not have complained and would accept his defeat gracefully.
But losing to that rat Julian? That was an insult neither he nor Lundr as a whole could stomach.
General Maples loathed his defeat with his entire being. Turning the thought in his head over and over again, he came to the conclusion that there was only one way to restore the honor of Lundr. He would challenge Julian to a duel.
Of course, that was just a part of the plan.
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