The Guardian's Return (Ethan Rivers) novel Chapter 498

If the first team had completed the mission smoothly, he could announce the good news at a press conference, and everyone would praise him.

However, the first team was nearly annihilated, and a second team had to clean up the mess. Stephen could not bring himself to announce that. The enemy was just a small foreign faction, but they almost wiped out an elite squad. If Stephen revealed the news, he would only become a laughingstock.

The assistant shook his head. He did not know the reason either.

His best guess was that Arnold’s team’s actions had been exposed.

Stephen took a deep breath to calm himself down, considering how he was supposed to report this to the public.

“What if we say that both the first and second teams are from the same squad, but they took different routes?” he suggested.

That way, the narrative would shift from ‘the first team was ambushed and almost annihilated’ to ‘the enemy’s fierce resistance caused casualties in the squad’. Stephen felt that the second narrative sounded better.

“There’s one more thing.” The assistant continued, “During the operation, many villagers and a unit from the South Regent also came to assist.”

“Huh? Why would he help?” Stephen was stunned. He did not understand it.

“According to the report, it was because of Ethan Rivers,” the assistant said. “They thought Ethan sent our team, so they came to help.”

Stephen’s mouth fell open, but he could not say a single word. The South Regent and many villagers came to help because of Ethan. The narrative that he came up with was instantly shattered.

The South Regent coming to help was already something ridiculous, let alone him intervening for Ethan’s sake. If people found out about this, what would they think about Stephen?

Casualties occurred due to his poor leadership, but the South Regent and many villagers came to help because they still looked up to Ethan. With their support, they managed to eliminate the enemy and rescue the hostages.