The Mighty Ten
A video was playing on the main screen of the hall as Karen was looking over the brochure in his hand. He sighed when the video started with "TCV, the cause of the epidemic disease that emerged in India in 2035 TDD (before The Dark Day) and spread all over the world in a short time..."
He had listened to this summary of history maybe ten times during the activities since morning.
The one-day symposium was something SOU organized to cover up the violence used in suppressing the Gonzales rebellion. It was a purely fake event, with several newly developed technological product introductions and plaques awarded to a few feudal lords trying to correct the world's flora imbalance.
The symposium was taking place in a large meeting building which was built in contrast to the architecture of 1st city, which was fairly old, built just outside SOU's main campus.
SOU was not stupid enough to let such big magnates within its borders, but it did not want to attract attention by choosing such a location. This symposium was an excuse to gather the mighty ten together. Karen anticipated a secret meeting during the day.
A man with whom Karen had done business before, saw Karen and sat next to him after a greeting. While they were chit-chatting, in the video shown, it stated "After the epidemic brought under control, four mutants came together and formed an organization in 2045 TDD to cope with the technological disorder and nuclear influence in the world and to bring order to the world. They called themselves 'Soldiers of the Universe (SOU)'."
After hearing that the man kindly said, "I guess you weren't born when your father founded this organization."
Without waiting for Karen's answer, he added, "You look too young to be the first mutant." and laughed.
Karen laughed along and said, "I'm the second generation.". He could spend all his time until the meeting with this man who has a very pleasant conversation.
The first ones to be exposed to the epidemic caused by the mutant virus were called the first generation. The second or third generation were the children born to them.
Their numbers were very small compared to the world population. The third and fourth generation, on the other hand, was a rarer occurrence.
No matter what generation they were, mutant people were called secondars, and they were quite different from primars, people who did not have the virus, in terms of lifespan, abilities, and outlook on life.
Later on in the conversation, Lal called out to Karen. Karen turned to see the guard next to Lal. It was time for the meeting. He asked for permission and left. The attendant escorted Karen and Lal to the elevators.
As soon as Karen got on the elevator, he noticed the cameras placed in the top two corners. SOU was really exaggerating.
The elevator attendant greeted him and his assistant respectfully and pressed the button for the third floor of the building.
Karen yawned as he was looking at the black braided attendant dressed as a maid. "She's using voice changing method. Why would an elevator attendant need such a thing?" he thought.
Although Karen is a civilian, he was trained at SOU academy. That was why he could understand that kind of tone playing. The attendant was a soldier and was taking the guests one by one to the floor leading to the meeting room.
Ten minutes after the Lord of the West was taken on the third floor, Irina Sael and her butler got on the elevator. Miss Irına apologized to others because of her big wings that take up a lot of space in the elevator. The attendant apologized to the richest and most naive woman of the age for not being able to offer a bigger elevator.
After the naive master, who lived with a tribe with a similar mutant on the foothills of the Alps was left on the third floor, Uberto Uman and his assistant got on the elevator. Mr. Uman had a very busy transport company, and he impatiently asked the attendant how long the meeting would take. The attendant said she had no idea.
The next guest after the Lord of Transportation was Damien Montoro. He did not bring any of his assistants. He did not need a helper or a supporter. Because he got the virus from goats, his face shape resembled a goat, and he even had horns. The attendant bid farewell to the man, trying not to laugh at the man's hesitant face.
The next guests were a short, white-skinned master and his opposite, dark and tall assistant. The short man raised his arms and stretched, "We will go home right away when this thing is over Will-bo. It is very hot here." The attendant realized that he was Oniris Alen, the Lord of the North.
Then, a very beautiful woman and her little maid took the elevator. Renenet saluted the attendant in an arrogant but also pleasant tone. The boy then saluted her respectfully. The attendant wondered about the secondar ability of the child assistant. Because being the assistant of the most beautiful woman in the world at this age was a great achievement.
Right after them, Yuha, the only secondar who got the virus from a scorpion, nicknamed the Scorpion King, entered. Knowing Yuha's intense love and interest in women, the elevator attendant could guess why he had immediately followed Renenet.
During the thirty-second elevator ride, the king, who was making an advance to the attendant with his scorpion tail, did not get what he wanted and got off before the elevator.
Fish Scale Jade got into the elevator with the water-filled fish glass on her head and greeted the attendant with the entryphone. If he had to live outside the sea, he had to leave his head in the water. But the elevator attendant had heard that he could survive for more than eighteen hours without oxygen. Behind him, him assistant, who got her secondar ability from another sea creature entered.
Umut Ay, one of the rare people who got the virus from a plant, gave a flower he created in seconds to the attendant who kindly accompanied him.
The elevator attendant admired this magnificent person who could grow plants on one limb and thanked him for the flower. She had heard that after getting his secondar power, he vomits when he eats meat, but he likes meat very much.
The attendant guessed that this man might have spent his entire afternoon in the bathroom because of the food he had eaten at noon.
The other horned guest of the meeting was the Veterinarian Leonel was also the last person to attend the meeting. It took a while for him to arrive as he lives far from SOU. He was living with rhinos in the south of the African continent, where he got the virus. The new member of the Mighty Ten was this strange man.
...
The guests gathered around a round table measuring three meters in diameter, seated at the table according to the degree of their familiarity with each other.
As soon as Uberto Uman saw Karen, he sat next to him because they met quite often for transportation business.
Karen was quite surprised when General and one of the primar directors entered the room. It was quite strange that his father had left his office and personally attended the meeting of the freaks.
He made fun of himself, saying, "Did you miss your son or..." He could not remember the last time he had seen him. I think it was on her mother's birthday last year.
The first issue was Gonzales' stray lands. SOU has announced that it will be allocated to the Mighty Ten who want to take over the temporarily confiscated lands. 11th City was purely a primar city that likes blood wealth for the killed primar. Also, it was the best place to be considered fertile and had arable land so it would be best to leave it in their hands.
A separate sharing meeting would be held later, special to feudal lords who wanted the remaining lands from Gonzales.
The second issue was autonomy within the seigniory. There could have been a heated debate about the extent to which SOU had the right to interfere with seigniories, but SOU had opened the demand system on this.
He sternly stated that if a feudal lord has a proposal for the SOU on internal affairs, they must do so officially and that after SOU has considered this decision in its council, it will change it if considered reasonable.
Karen expected that goat-faced guy to get even more prominent, but he probably did not dare to say anything to SOU after what had happened to Gonzales. Karen did not like the SOU's involvement in the seigniories, but Gonzales was violating human rights. There was no discussion.
The most interactive part of the meeting started after General asked, "Any questions?" First question was asked by the Lord of the North. It was about Gonzales' death in detail. Who has killed him and how?
The general kept quiet and then stated that he could not give details of a military operation. One of the female participants objected, "If you have soldiers who will kill one of the big five and their private soldiers, we should know about it."
Karen found it futile that this beautiful woman acted like she was unaware of everything. The first ten soldiers of the organization were stronger than half of those at this table. He thought Oniris Alen, who had destroyed a third of a continent while he was fighting with the soldier Number 1 knew that well.
General said, "With the right strategy and a good team of a few talented of course can destroy a great feudal lord."
He closed the file in his hand, showing that he was about to leave the meeting. He leaned back in his chair.
"However..." he said while he was making eye contact with his son for a moment. "I am not going to share with you the personal details of a private soldier," he added.
After a short silence, he wished them a good day and left the room.