FE [ABO] Chapter 14: Union Orders

Chapter 14: Union Orders

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

Union commander-in-chief Kane took over his elder brother’s position six months ago because his elder brother, Kyle, was involved in an assassination attempt and nearly died. Not long after the assassination attempt, Kyle, who was still in the hospital, made a ‘voluntary’ statement that his younger brother, Kane, would take the post of commander-in-chief.

The discord and struggle between the two brothers had already been settled. People with clear eyes could see the cause of the ‘assassination,’ but no one dared to mention it. As the new commander-in-chief took office, it was inevitable that new and old forces would change and clash. Kane was obviously a man who was better at intrigue with his own people inside the Union than in military and foreign affairs. In order to consolidate his position and keep Kyle from turning it over completely, the focus of the Union in the past six months had been on the reshuffle and change of policy, which could be said to be a mess internally. It was also through this internal struggle that the momentum of the Empire overtook that of the Union.

This Union’s visit was the first time Kane had face-to-face contact with the Empire.

The Empire was not as nervous about the Union as it used to be. After all, the Empire was still in an advantageous position. Otherwise, the Union would not be required to visit in person. The Emperor attended the banquet of the first day of the Union and a brief interview the next morning. Later, he told the Eldest Prince and Second Prince that he would not appear again.

Augus and Ed moved back to the small house. Every day, the princes needed to be followed closely by the military in the handover talks with the Union. But this time, there was no business for Ed at all. Because Augus was here, he had to avoid suspicion the entire time. Augus didn’t speak. These days, he had only been quietly following the news of the Union’s visit.

Ed looked away. It was not his style for two people to be embarrassed and silent until they left each other. At least, he would leave a better memory for Augus in the time they got along. Seeing Augus watching the news, he sat beside him generously, “New commander-in-chief, eh?”

Augus was so nervous that he turned off the light screen.

“Was that necessary? I didn’t say you can’t watch the news,” Ed didn’t know if he should cry or laugh. “Look at your expression. It’s as if you were caught cheating. If I didn’t know better, I would think you are watching videos of your ex or something.”

“What a joke! I… I haven’t seen him before.” Augus thought about it too much, but he felt guilty about reading the Union’s news in front of Ed.

Ed opened the light screen on his own. It showed Kane who was accompanied by the Eldest Prince to visit the palace. Both of them laughed so heartily at the camera that Ed could imagine how stiff their faces were.

“To be honest, Kane is not as good as his brother,” Ed always disliked this kind of person who was keen on political struggle. “War is not good. He is too suspicious and has no vision. He is good at that kind of thing. Oh, it’s all your own.”

Augus didn’t really like the new commander-in-chief to be honest, but he couldn’t agree with Ed. He could only stare at the light screen in silence.

Ed looked at him in a tacit manner and said with a smile, “He hasn’t done anything good since he took office. He didn’t trust the people Kyle used before, whether they were civil servants or generals. The people brought in by him to replace them have a lot of straw bags. Tsk, you really won’t think about staying to serve the Empire? Sooner or later, the Union will be defeated with those types of people in charge.”

The last sentence was a joke. No matter who the incumbent was, Augus, as a loyal soldier, couldn’t betray the Union. If he was going to betray the Union, he would have done so a lot earlier on.

“The Union is the Union, not the one in power.” Augus couldn’t refute how much loss Kane’s series of actions had brought to the Union, and could only answer it bluntly.

Ed had thought of the answer for a long time, and didn’t care. It was better to say that if Augus abandoned the Union and went to the Empire, he would have a good look at his feelings.

“Well, if you don’t talk about these national affairs, talk about yourself? What are you going to do when you go back?”

This question seemed to pain Augus. His hands trembled for a while, and he replied, “I will use long-term inhibitors and try my best to return to the army, even if I am a civilian…”

Although it was not Ed’s fault he had become like this, he was very regretful when he looked at Augus’s appearance. No one could be more unlucky than Augus.

“… I’m sorry. “

Augus shook his head calmly, “No, it’s all your Third Prince’s fault. Besides, I……”

“You?”

“Nothing.” Augus pursed his lips, looked away, and fell on the Eldest Prince’s face that was similar to the Third Prince’s on the light screen. In a flash, he could recall the feeling of when he was almost tortured to death in the laboratory, when all parts of his body were exposed without dignity, and the smile of the Third Prince as he walked around with interest.

“… Sooner or later I will kill him.”

Ed looked at Augus’s face and knew who he was talking about. Augus angrily clenched his hand because he thought of the past and was comforted a few times by Ed. He slowly released his clenched fist.

“I’m so scared. Will major general Augus kill me someday?” Ed raised his eyebrows and tried to make a joke to ease the atmosphere. 

He didn’t expect Augus to take it seriously, and hurriedly explaine, “I won’t! Whether it was what happened to me or not, you have nothing to do with it… “

Ed was so amused by his appearance that he approached him and said in a low voice, “Nothing? I fucked you from inside and out every day. I don’t even know how much semen I put in you. Yet you say I have nothing to do with you… “

“You…” Augus realized that Ed was actually joking. He was not used to this kind of straightforward flirting. He pretended to look back at the light screen after staring at each other. In fact, his body had a weak reaction when he heard Ed saying ‘fuck’. This change made him confused and irritated.

“Well, what are you looking at? Don’t pretend.” Ed tsked, just to expose Augus’s obvious disguise, when he received a second level encrypted message sent to his mobile terminal. 

A brief message lay on the light screen after Ed entered his fingerprint and password, it read: [The meeting with the Union is scheduled for 09:00 in the morning, and the other side needs major general Augus of the Union to be present. Half an hour in advance, the military will have a car to pick you up and take security measures.]

Ed sighed. Sooner or later, it would have come to this. Short pain was better than a long one. “Let’s go out tomorrow.”

“Where to?” Watching Ed’s expression, Augus had already guessed.

“The ‘trading floor’. The Union’s side wants you there,” Ed replied coolly.

What Augus speculated was proven true, and if Augus said he was not the least bit happy, that would definitely be a lie. Yet, the happiness was covered up by an unknown emotion.

The next night they couldn’t fall asleep for different reasons.

Ed had put on his uniform early in the morning and sat in the living room waiting for him. Recently, he had not worn his uniform for several days in order to avoid suspicion. Looking at the star badge on his shoulder, he even wanted to take off his clothes. Wearing these clothes meant that he would be making a ‘deal’ with Augus as the general of the Empire, with the best interests of the Empire in mind, and he might even have to send his omega away to another alpha.

Augus seemed surprisingly calm, and Ed thought about it. But if all his expressions were written on his face, he would not be a major general. But his expressions always made Ed feel as if he was indifferent to leaving.

After receiving the news that the car was almost at the door, Ed still couldn’t push the door open. He pulled Augus and pressed him on the door instead, exchanging the most intense, deep kiss ever. It was so intense that Ed seemed to be trying to swallow the other person into his stomach with the kiss.

At the end of the kiss, Augus gasped for breath, and his expression finally changed.

“For you,” Ed took out a thin necklace from somewhere. There was a blood red pendant on it. It gave off a faint and almost imperceptible smell of Ed, “It’s coagulated blood with mental power. Just throw it away if you don’t want it.”

For a moment, Augus simply put it on. In order not to be conspicuous, he tucked it into his shirt and stuck it against his skin.

Seeing that he was decisive, Ed couldn’t say anything. Just through the gap of the shutters, he saw a black military vehicle outside, which drove to the door and stopped stably. Then, they quickly left through the door.

After getting into the vehicle, the soldier and Ed saluted, and the soldier said, “Sorry for the offence”, after saying that, he fixed Augus’s right hand onto the seat with electronic handcuffs. 

Ed never looked down at it, and Augus didn’t respond to it. Both of them knew that they were involved with the Empire and the Union. It was best for them to pretend that they were not closely related.

When he arrived at the site, Augus was taken by a special person, while Ed went to another room and was led to the negotiation table after he had been checked for weapons.

Ed made a series of salutes in place. Sitting opposite the table were the Union’s commander-in-chief Kane and the two accompanying Union generals. In the absence of the Emperor, the Eldest Prince represented the Empire. In order to show his sincerity, he was accompanied by the marshal who had come back from the front line some time ago.

Ed stood respectfully behind the prince. 

Kane said, “What did you say just now? Oh, yes, planet Miral.”

The Eldest Prince smiled, “Yes, we will give back the control of this planet. Accordingly, the Union will give up its control of the mining planets, Daly and Aska forever.”

“No problem. But if I didn’t lose my memory, the planet Cass is still in your hands?”

“Oh, yes, it just so happens that major general Augus is here as well,” the Eldest Prince of the Empire said. “I’ve heard for a long time that major general Augus was captured from the Union. I heard that many civilians and soldiers in the army who admired him have offered to free him.”

“It’s admirable that his Highness even knows about the gossip in the Union’s army.” Kane’s face was as usual, but he was very upset. The Eldest Prince meant to exchange the price of giving up Cass for Augus. And it was true that there were voices in the military hoping that Augus could be freed. This civilian origin general was always very popular, but what they didn’t know was that Augus was now a useless omega. It was not worth using Cass to exchange Augus.

For a moment, Kane thought.

He did not want to give up Cass. As a rare planet that produced biotite, Cass was basically the place where the Union could gain 30% more biotite. If they didn’t have the biotite that could greatly improve the density and strength of weapons, the Union, that was already at a disadvantage, would practically crumble overnight. 

“I mentioned before that I would like to see our major general. Is he here now?” Kane looked at the Eldest Prince sincerely. “It’s not that we don’t trust you, we just to confirm the body of the major general and his mental state.”

“No problem.” The Eldest Prince also knew that the Empire’s request made the other party feel very difficult, and he was very happy. Of course, his superficial thinking was still sufficient, and he was straightforward and magnanimous. “He is next door. I wonder if a five minute meeting time is enough?”

“Of course.”

Augus’s room was similar to a detention room, where he sat on a chair with another empty chair across the table.

When Kane walked into the room, Augus stood up subconsciously, “Commander-in-chief Ky… Kane.”

“Do you still think the commander-in-charge is Kyle?”

“No, I don’t dare,” Augus answered with a low head in front of Kane, who sounded annoyed.

The two soldiers who were watching Augus went out, closed the door and guarded the door.

Kane looked up and down at Augus. He was not familiar with Augus at all. First of all, Augus was not the person he promoted, and he had not ‘expressed’ anything since he was promoted, which made him very unhappy with Augus. Since Augus was still qualified as a soldier, Kane managed to send him to stay in the front-line using the best of his ability. Unfortunately, this time, this kind of trouble happened.

“I heard that you were transformed into an omega?”

“… Yes. ” Augus was embarrassed to accept Kane’s scrutiny.

“Do you remember the technology they used when you were transformed?”

“This… Sorry, this subordinate did not see it. “

Kane shook his head and said, “Can you go to war now?”

“If there are inhibitors…” Augus raised his head and replied hurriedly. 

Kane interrupted, “I also heard that you were temporarily marked by the general Ed of the Empire.”

“…Yes. “

“Did you have a say in that?”

As far as Kane’s words were concerned, Augus understood that he was asking himself if he had disclosed confidential Union information.

“No! I… “

“Why didn’t you decide another path?”

Faced with Kane’s cold questions, Augus was speechless, “I tried, failed, and later…”

“Why didn’t you try again?”

Augus couldn’t respond.

“The Empire wants to trade you for Cass.” Kane saw that Augus was silent, and did not continue with what he had just said. “What do you think?”

Cass? Augus knew that Empire was a lion’s mouth. If he was still an alpha he may still be useful, but as an omega, he really didn’t have the value to be exchanged for this precious energy planet.

“There’s a lot of talk from the Union about getting you back.” Kane’s body, which had been leaning against the back of the chair, suddenly leaned forward. Augus was stunned, and he came close to the table, only to hear Kane lower his voice. “But I can’t give up Cass. And I can’t believe someone who might be controlled by the enemy with pheromones.”

Kane took out a tiny red pill from his gold earrings.

Augus looked at the medicine and knew exactly what it was. He opened his mouth, but could not say anything to contradict the other.

“Major Augus, don’t embarrass me.”