Chapter 768.1: If You Want Strong Grass, You Have To Burn Them First

Port Gallon Governor’s Office.

One man sat boldly in a chair with his legs planted wide, while the other paced anxiously back and forth across the office. Two cups of tea rested on the low table. One was still warm, while the other had gone cold without being touched.

Seeing Yadoo stroke his chin in thought without giving an answer, Laxi finally lost his patience and cursed. “... Can you fucking stop walking in circles? You might not be dizzy, but I’m getting dizzy just watching you.”

Yadoo glanced at him, then looked out the window and shook his head with a heavy sigh.

Seeing him hesitate without speaking, Laxi’s eyebrows twitched violently. “Say what you have to say.”

Yadoo finally sighed. “General, do you know why Mr. Ample Time transferred you away from the front line and into the rear?”

Laxi raised his teacup and blew across its surface before replying indifferently. “I know.”

The space between Yadoo’s brows throbbed. Suppressing his temper, he continued, “Then why are you being so impatient?”

“Impatient? Heh. The Xilande Empire is killing my companions and slaughtering my kin, and you ask why I’m impatient?” Laxi raised an eyebrow, though his eyes narrowed into slits as his gaze pierced Yadoo. “Every day I waste sitting here, who knows how many families are being destroyed?!”

“I will never forget what happened at Camp Rowell, and that was only a speck of dust, a single blade of grass, across 4,000,000 square kilometers of land! I’m telling you, I wish I could march into the Heavenly City right now, butcher that old Emperor’s entire family, and tear down all one thousand pillars in Tassen!”

Yadoo tried to speak, but Laxi cut him off.

“You’re from the Snake Clan. Some of those who died at Ten Peaks Mountain and in Guardian Manor Wasteland may well have been your compatriots. You’ve read the Survivor’s Daily. The way they died wasn’t even worthy of being called cannon fodder. Yet that useless Wutuo Xilande not only refused to reflect upon it, but was overjoyed and now plans to send even more people to die in that cursed place. Before you try persuading me, perhaps you should think about your own brothers...”

“Enough!” Yadoo suddenly roared, interrupting Laxi’s endless tirade. His chest rose and fell. For once, the worldly, smooth, and forbearing face showed a trace of lost control. His eyes stared fiercely at Laxi. He wanted to rush over and seize the man by the collar, but managed to restrain himself.

Eventually, he roared, “I’m fucking worried about you! You short-lived bastard! It’s not as though you don’t know the situation in the north. Those idiots may be your fellow comrades, but they’re worse than the armies of the feudal lords. If you go there, how is that any different from throwing your life away?”

Surprise appeared on Laxi’s face. He did not feel offended. He simply had not expected the usually reserved man to possess such a straightforward side.

He immediately burst into laughter. “What a joke! Turtles live long because they keep their heads inside their shells. Why the hell would I want to be a turtle? You laugh at me for having a short life, but I laugh at you for living so long that you’ve grown tired of it. Heh! Today, I’ve decided I’ll be that short-lived bastard!”

Yadoo did not know whether to laugh or cry. Seeing Laxi finish his tea and prepare to leave, he personally stepped forward, poured half a cup more, and stopped him. “General, my ancestor, at least consider the practical situation...”

Laxi snorted. “You think you understand the north better than I do? Don’t forget that the battle reports reach my office first! I study the original reports. Don’t I understand more than someone like you who reads secondhand reports? Those pigheaded fools keep fighting the stupidest battles. The more I read, the angrier I become. I get so furious that I drink bottle after bottle!”

As he spoke, he seemed to remember those battle reports again and immediately began grinding his teeth.

Yadoo sighed. “But what difference can you make by going there?”

Laxi replied without hesitation. “The resistance may be incompetent, but I am not! The Moon Clan is not incompetent either!”

Yadoo could not help asking again. “And what if you lose?”

Laxi answered calmly. “Then I die.”

The room fell silent.

Yadoo stared at him blankly. He had assumed the earlier remark about being short-lived was a joke, but the man was completely serious. He truly intended to wager his life...

Yadoo gulped. Without speaking, he lifted his teacup and offered a toast to the commander. “I never expected you to possess such resolve. I have been disrespectful.”

“Don’t fucking act like you’re sending me to my grave. I’m not dead yet.” Laxi clinked cups with him and grinned. “But even if I do die, leading them to their deaths would still be better than letting them continue living in such a pathetic, half-dead state. If they fail to pull the Emperor from his throne and instead extinguish the passion in the hearts of the youth of the Poro Province, that would truly leave me dissatisfied!”

As the two spoke, footsteps sounded beyond the office door, and a young man pushed it open. “Mr. Yadoo, a telegram from Dawn City has arrived.”

“What does it say?!” Before Yadoo could respond, Laxi had already risen and shouted the question.

The young man cautiously glanced at Yadoo. Only after seeing him nod did he continue. “Mr. Ample Time said... it is approved.”

Ecstasy appeared on Laxi’s face. He laughed several times and cupped his hands toward Yadoo. “Farewell!”

With that, he strode out through the door like the wind without pausing for even a moment, leaving only Yadoo and the young man behind.

The young man glanced in the direction Laxi had gone, then looked at Yadoo. After a moment, he hesitantly asked, “Mr. Yadoo, is this really a good idea?”

He was from the Horse Clan. Before becoming a civil servant at city hall, he had not been a noble, but he had worked for nobles and therefore came from a reasonably prosperous family. His feelings toward someone like Laxi were a mixture of admiration, fear, and faint disgust. He admired him because the former nobles and masters feared the man. He feared him because Laxi truly was not a good person and was both temperamental and ruthless.

As for the disgust, there was probably some jealousy mixed into it.

It was city hall that led local residents in building railways and subways and redeveloping the elevated districts. Yet the broad lower and middle classes admired Laxi, who was ruthless enough to kill even his own people, far more.

Compared with Yadoo, Laxi actually possessed considerably greater prestige among the people of Port Gallon. Had Laxi himself possessed any interest in becoming mayor, the respected Mr. Yadoo would have faced considerable difficulty competing against him...

At least, that was without resorting to schemes.

“Perhaps Mr. Ample Time has his own judgment.” Yadoo remained silent for a long time before sighing softly.

After serving as acting mayor for so long, he had begun to understand some of the difficulties Ample Time faced. Most of the time, his task was not to choose the best of two reliable options, but to select the lesser evil between two unreliable ones.

Should he extinguish the flame that had finally begun burning, or allow it to continue and see what it might create?

Yadoo suspected that if he stood in Ample Time’s position, he might have made the same choice.

In truth, Laxi was not quite that bad. A man who openly declared that he wanted to become an emperor and warlord was still preferable to Chalas of the North Island Federation, who shouted about freedom, became an emperor, and still called himself president.

The former could at least be corrected. The youth of the Poro Province did not yet view equality as a calamity, and what Laxi alone thought was not important. The latter, however, was far more difficult. Right and wrong would become inverted, and only an earth-shaking war or a fire burning to its absolute limit could allow everything to begin anew.

As a reformist, Yadoo did not particularly dislike people like Laxi. If he had to arrange them in order, such men were ultimately more agreeable than monarchists, though he still could not bring himself to admire them.

“We’ll take things one step at a time.” Yadoo shook his head, returned to his desk, and continued reviewing the newly compiled textbook proposal submitted by the Education Association.

Elsewhere, after leaving city hall, Laxi stopped outside its entrance. He suddenly turned to look at the Port Gallon flag and New Alliance flag fluttering above the square. Then he removed the officer’s cap from his head and placed it upon the raised platform supporting the flagpoles.

“You said we were not permitted to kneel. Today, I will not kneel. One day, every survivor in the Poro Province will replace kneeling with bowing or raising a fist. If any bastard dares kneel again, whether he kneels to me or anyone else, I’ll saw off his fucking legs first!”

After speaking, he bowed three times, straightened his back, turned, and walked away.

That day, the Port Gallon Governor’s Office accepted the resignation submitted by Laxi, director of the Civil Defense Office. 100 officers and soldiers from the militia resigned alongside him. It was said that Laxi delivered a speech at the barracks that day, after which the number of resignations more than doubled.

Under the Governor’s Secretary’s instructions, the Port Gallon authorities approved every resignation.

The young men returned the military caps, uniforms, and shoulder insignia issued to them by the authorities. They also returned the rifles carried across their shoulders. From that day onward, they were no longer the feared militiamen. They were merely ordinary residents of Port Gallon.

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