Chapter 95 - Aides and plans

"Now that all of us are here, let's get this meeting starting."

As soon as I, escorted by my good friend, Byrne into the room, Pike began as Byrne and I stood around the Chancellor's table just like the rest of Pike's trusted aides were already doing. Despite how much distrust was between us, for some reason, Pike still choose to invite me to this meeting where, from what I managed to learn, would be the meeting that would dictate what would Arkadia do in terms of expansion and the well-being of the people that belong to it.

"While many of you know him thanks to his past feats of heroism and because of his exemplary record of keeping the grounders at bay, I still believe that it is only fair for all of you to know that Leon Kennedy would be joining us today. His knowledge of warfare would undoubtedly help us in our mission to keep our people safe."

Pike you old bastard. Even a blind man could have seen what the new chancellor was trying to do. Not only did he raise his own prestige by including me, a boy, who had fought the grounders from the first day and even won against them. He also used the things the delinquents and I did to keep ourselves alive

"And despite his disappearance in the last couple of months, Leon did help us by infiltrating the enemy, bringing back much-needed information that would help us in the long term."

I could see the faces of some of his aides twitching in anger when Pike mentioned my name again as if the whole meeting was about me. Not that it was the wrong assumption, after all the man was trying to make a loyal little soldier that he could use just as he did with Bellamy. To be honest, my little stunt with Octavia was more of a gamble than anything else, luckily it worked thus removing Bellamy from this madness before he became a dweller of hell, as for Octavia…the poor girl was the one who suffered the most. Ever since that night, she barely talked or ate after she witness Lincoln being executed by Pike.

"How will this boy be in any kind of shape or form helpful to us, Chancellor?"

"What we need the most right now is soil. Sadly, for us to get that soil we will need people that know how to kill those grounders, and thankfully, this boy is one of the few people in our camp that has a higher headcount than anyone in this room. Heck, I don't think there's someone in our entire camp that has killed more of them than him."

"Pike is right. We need fertile and arable soil if want to survive for years. Vastly richer than anything we've found since we landed her. If we can organize a team big enough, we should be able to search the whole area for a place to get our crops up and running."

"Forgive me for interrupting Chancellor, but even if I send all of my guards out, we would never know what soil is what, even if by some struck of luck we manage to find the best soil, what will we even plant in the winter?"

"We should be able to create a device that would help us test the quality of the soil in the field. As for the winter…There's nothing we can do about it, however, we can make some improvised greenhouses for the time being where we'll start with soybeans and corn. They grow faster than anything we have and we can also use Mount Weather for the same purpose."

As Hannah(Monty's mother) was explaining to Byrne what she and the rest of the people from Farm Station were planning to do with the soil, I noticed how Monty was slowly moving his eyes from his mother to the map that showed Pike's plans for expansion. As much as I would have liked to ask him what made him look at the map in such shock, I couldn't do it without making Pike and his people suspect me of something. Thankfully, Miller's boyfriend was also present and he wasn't a suspect.

"What happened Monty? Is there something wrong with us planting corn or soybeans?"

"No, nothing about that, though I had never eaten corn, that's not what made me look at the map."

Monty pointed his finger at a location on the map where a village was supposed to be. As soon as I looked at where he pointed, I knew what Pike was planning to do and despite how much I understood his vendetta against the grounders. The more I looked at that place, the more I realized that there was no reason for him to attack an innocent village other than simply killing these people, considering that no one would be able to live there, especially when those bloody poison plants grew near the village.

"Chancellor, might I inquire why do we attack that village?"

"Of course, you can, Leon. We need that land for more than one reason."

"Don't get me wrong, sir, but the people that live there, they aren't part of the coalition army, besides they are quite friendly with us."

"Here you are the wrong son. These grounders were trading with us because we let them treat us as their bitches giving them high-quality pelts and raw meat for a little amount of cured and smoke meat alongside pieces of scrap that they scavenged from god knows where."

"I still believe it would be better to maintain our relationship with them rather than attacking them, especially now that you have killed their warriors in that massacre. Moreover, even if they were to fight back, what could a bunch of old people and children do? Talk us to death? Besides, their commander together with Kane managed to slowly transform their blood must have blood revenge into blood must not have blood. However now, thanks to the massacre, the grounders would all gather under one flag, whoever that may belong to, and attack us."

"Let's say you are right, so I ask you what would you prefer, Leon? Die fighting for your home? Or starve to death? Because that's what would happen to us if we don't act now. I'm willing to die so that my people could survive this winter, are you willing to gamble your life for your people?"

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