Ch.171Chapter 20. Patriot (23)

‘Leticia?’

Virginia frowned. Traitor, rebel, deserter, thief. After these negative descriptors passed through her mind, more than ten charges along with expected sentences and punishments surfaced in her thoughts.

‘The nerve of her to send a video.’

Wondering if there might be some trick, Virginia ran a security program. There was no malware embedded. It was just a large video file with an extremely suspicious title.

‘What kind of scheme is this?’

Virginia played the video.

A woman wearing an eye patch sat on a bed, dressed in a Military Police field uniform. The buttons of her top were undone, revealing a glimpse of what was underneath, and she appeared to be wearing nothing but underwear below, her bare legs fully exposed.

“…!”

Virginia was outraged. Though the eye patch partially obscured her face, the woman who kept trying to suppress her laughter was clearly Leticia.

“What kind of trick is this?”

She paused the video and took a deep breath.

She examined the still frame more carefully. The walls were completely white, and the lighting was bright. The bed had an olive-colored blanket, but the overall bed frame resembled a medical bed.

But that was it. There was no way to identify any specific clues. Virginia resumed the video.

– Name.

A man’s voice was heard from off-screen. Leticia snickered and answered.

“Leti-Leti.”

– Wrong.

The man entered the frame. He was large, but his front wasn’t clearly visible. As he raised his hand skyward, Leticia squealed with excitement.

Then she got down on all fours like a dog and stuck out her bottom. The man’s hand smacked Leticia’s buttocks with a sharp slap. Indeed, she was wearing nothing but thin panties below.

“Kyahang!”

– Name!

“Leti-Leti… kyahang!”

The slapping sound came through vividly. It didn’t seem like he was hitting her hard, but rather that the microphone was placed close to her skin. The realism was almost too intense, making Virginia’s ears ring. But hearing Leticia’s coquettish moans so explicitly was absolutely unbearable.

– Say your name properly!

“Leti-Leti…!”

This time the man backed away. Leticia pouted her lips.

– No rewards until you speak properly. Come on, show some respect to your former superior.

“Yes. Yehe… I am Leticia, formerly of the Military Police Intelligence Division of M Corps…”

With a smile stretching to her ears, Leticia recited her proper name. For someone wiggling her bottom from side to side, her pronunciation was surprisingly correct.

– Well done. I’ll give you 1 stack of reward.

“Th-thank you…”

Virginia had no idea how to regard her former subordinate who was now bowing deeply to the camera.

However, from what she could see of the exposed skin, there were no signs of beating, abuse, or needle marks. For a brief moment, she even had the absurd thought that Leticia might be under hypnosis, though it was difficult to tell with her eyes covered.

‘How did she fall this far into depravity…? More importantly, what drove a proper soldier to this state? What method did they use?’

Virginia furrowed her brow and resumed the video.

– Good. If you properly recite the service creed from beginning to end, I’ll give you another stack of reward.

“Th-thank you!”

Leticia on screen sat at attention like a new recruit. She even extended her arms and placed her fists on her knees. But the man brought something.

– Woong. Woong. Woong.

Whatever he had put inside the sock, it was wriggling as if alive. To Virginia, it looked like some kind of eel. Leticia, wearing the eye patch, trembled slightly at the sound. Not from fear, but anticipation.

– But you have to recite it while sitting on this.

“Im-impossible, impossible…”

It was such poor acting that viewers would be dumbfounded. Even a dog excited to go for a walk would be less enthusiastic than Leticia right now. The man roughly shoved the object between Leticia’s legs. She reflexively squirmed her thighs, but he pinned her down with force.

– Service creed!

Weeeeeng, the intense vibration drowned out the microphone.

“Ha! One! W-we are! Huaaang! This is too stroooong…!”

– I told you to recite the service creed!

Weeng! Weeng! Weeng! Shorter but more intense vibration sounds were heard. Leticia, who had been trembling, suddenly raised her knees and closed her legs.

“Oneeeeeaaaaaang!”

Suddenly drooling, Leticia abruptly stood up and threw off her field uniform. Virginia was startled and tried to stop the video. But from inside the uniform…

“…?”

A strange screen suddenly popped up and then replaced the entire video.

“Ellen Burrow?”

The screen split into two. The left showed the full recording, while the right appeared to be someone filming the screen with a mobile phone. It seemed to be a method for cross-verification.

Someone had hacked Ellen’s military integrated information system and was “blackmailing” him by sending messages. Ellen responded with profanity-laced replies, but the conversation exchanged was clearly bizarre.

‘…Is this true?’

An officer of the Central-Western United Forces had not only committed fragging but had also mobilized connections outside the military. This wasn’t something to overlook. And it was also something that couldn’t be done without significant backing.

‘Fanatics.’

It wasn’t just the former Elza Intelligence agents hiding somewhere who were dangerous elements. There were also fanatics. Virginia knew that many of them were in the military, and at much higher positions than she thought.

If she caught Ellen and squeezed him, she could find out who was behind him. She was confident in her methods of making people talk.

The video was almost over. The end returned to Leticia. Having fully unbuttoned her field uniform, she was holding a large piece of paper with a phone number written on it.

* * * * *

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

“She really came.”

Leticia held out her hand to me. I gave her one of my chocolates. Actually, we could just get more from the warehouse, so it didn’t matter much, but a bet is a bet.

“See? I told you she’s ambitious.”

Leticia playfully winked. I waited another 10 seconds before answering the phone. Of course, I didn’t forget to hold a half-cut plastic bottle to my mouth.

– Put Leticia on.

“Sorry, but she’s not in a condition to talk.”

– I’d like to hear her scream then.

“Why?”

– Because she needs to be alive for the headquarters to cut off her limbs and court-martial her.

Since I had it on speakerphone, Leticia heard the savage threat and involuntarily hiccupped.

“Is that enough?”

– Fine. So what do you want? There must be a reason you sent that video with the message ‘don’t show anyone else, keep it to yourself.’ Disgusting and nauseating as it was.

“No, Leticia is actually experiencing a woman’s happiness right now. Just kidding. Kidding. You’re so quick-tempered. Right. This guy Ellen is connected to fanatics. Not only that, he’s mobilized people from the 284 Military Police Headquarters. He even left command officer dog tags, which I can show you if you want.”

Wait. Come to think of it, I pushed those away with the bed along with the corpse. Should I go get them again?

– That won’t be necessary. So, you want me to catch Ellen. That seems to be your intention, V.

“Yes. Purely as a gesture of goodwill.”

I knew Virginia was an ambitious woman. I knew it before, but Leticia’s words made it more concrete. Virginia was creating a military group that blurred the boundaries between private organizations and paramilitary forces.

– Why should I act as your hunting dog?

But is there really a need to be this sharp? I answered politely.

“If you don’t want to, don’t. You don’t have to. But this Ellen guy is up to something, with fanatics. Military fanatics at that. If you catch him, your achievements will rise too, right?”

– Ha.

“What I want is simple. Ammunition. We’re running short on bullets. AP, HP, whatever. Just military-standard bullets. You don’t even have to give them directly. Just tell me where they are. I’ll get them myself. Preferably somewhere in southern Elza.”

– Well?

Virginia’s voice was full of mockery.

– The information has already come to me, and I have no desire to do anything for you. I’ll judge this information myself and use it as I see fit.

“Hey, hey. You’re just going to take it and end it like that?”

I deliberately whined. That way, Virginia would think she had the upper hand. As expected, she didn’t hang up.

– Beg like a dog.

“Alright! Alright. I don’t need bullets. Just tell me what orders this Ellen guy sent to the fanatics. I don’t ask for anything else. If you tell me that, I’ll give you new information. But the information has to be useful.”

– That sounds good. I’ll contact you. If you don’t answer on the first call, this deal is void.

“Wait! Leticia has something to say.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Leticia pressed against the receiver and let out all kinds of moans with rough breathing. It was loud enough to hear a commotion from upstairs. Of course, the call had already ended.

“What do you think?”

Naturally, Leticia returned to her cool staff officer face. I shrugged.

“What do I think? I’ll just give her some plausible information.”

“You’re really bad.”

“Anyway, now we just need to fend off the coming attack.”

This Ellen guy will definitely mobilize fanatics. I don’t know how many he’ll bring to attack us with one command. But at least we know they’re “coming.” If we already know they’re coming, we won’t be caught by surprise.

“Let’s rest a bit and plan our strategy.”

Hearing my words, Leticia grabbed my wrist regretfully.

“Don’t you want to see a woman’s face?”

“I told you I had blood drawn.”

“You drew it, not me.”

The door burst open. Camilla looked at us both with an angry face, then opened her eyes wide.

“What? You’re both fully dressed?”

* * * * *

“A deal.”

Virginia looked down at her phone with interest. It didn’t matter much that Ellen Burrow belonged to a different unit. Charges of treason transcend military boundaries. Moreover, no one would stop her, a Römer noble.

“Asking for information… Seems like the former Elza Intelligence agent is desperate to know what’s going on in the world. That means no resources within the military. Don’t worry. I’ll mix nine pieces of garbage information with one already worthless piece. Dog food suits a dog.”

There were still about 3 minutes left. Enough time to plan a business trip to another region. Virginia was satisfied.