Kingsman Return

Suspicion Of One's Identity

After Rommel left Arran's ward, he made his way down the long hallway and climbed a fleet of stairs to arrive at the main command room. The room was already occupied.

There were already a couple of people waiting for him in the room out of which captain Mei was a part of them, but compared to the rest of the people seated around the room, she was the least important person there. This was shown by the fact that she was not even entitled to a seat in the room even though this was her office and she was the base commander of this particular outpost.

Rommel made his way to the head of the room where the winged warrior from before was seated. At this moment there was no sign of her wings on her body now. For that matter, Arran's wings were also nowhere to be seen ever since he woke up in the ward.

As soon as he stopped in front of her, she asked, "well, how was it?"

Rommel did not answer, instead, he placed the bracer that had now lost its glow on the table.

Everybody in the room raised their eyebrows and the winged warrior immediately brought out the box that was used to hold it before putting it inside.

Sighing softly, she nodded to Rommel and praised him.

"Very good, I did not expect you to succeed so soon. We originally sent you in order to probe the situation but it's good that you were able to persuade him."

Upon hearing her, Rommel shook his head before saying, "I did not do anything."

Hearing this, the warrior frowned before asking, "you were not the one who persuaded him?"

"Yes. Like I said, I did nothing." Rommel replied to her.

"Then what did you do then. And how did you get it off him?" the lady was now getting confused. The issue with getting the bracer off Arran's arm had been giving everyone a massive headache.

While they did have a way to forcibly strip it from him, the price that they would have to pay would be a very heavy one for both Arran and themselves. Like she had said before, they were strong but they weren't bandits. Even though they would be very justified in doing so with force since the bracer was originally theirs in the first place.

In fact, they had every reason to want the bracer back because it was a fact that it is a very powerful artifact that once belonged to their race. They had lost it for close to four hundred years now and finding it by accident this time was a very joyful occasion for them.

But if the said artifact was in the hands of someone else and a mortal for that matter who may or may not be one of them, then it was very frustrating.

While she was lost in thought, she heard Rommel calling for her. That was when she realized that she had been spacing out and had missed what he had been saying.

"Commander Margo, did you hear what I said," Rommel asked.

Clearing her mind, Margo said, "excuse me. What were you saying."

"I said that it was the boy, Arran, who gave it up himself."

"What!!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am. He removed it from his arm and handed it over without any hesitation." Rommel confirmed.

"What was his reason for doing so. Don't tell me that he trusted our integrity?" Margo asked.

"No. I had not even gotten to persuading him before he had handed it over."

"Then what his reason?" someone else in the room asked him impatiently.

Rommel looked at who had asked the question from the corner of his eye and sneered. It was a very bulky, middle-aged looking man.

He, Rommel, and a few others in the room had graduated from the same year in their races military academy and they had always had a strong rivalry with each other. His and Rommel's had been particularly intense.

Considering the importance that the leaders of the race put into this matter, there would surely be a lot of credits to be had for their performance here.

Not wanting to delay the commander anymore, Rommel quickly said, "he said that he had faith in his parents. Said that they would never put him in a hopeless situation."

Once everyone heard his words, they turned silent as they thought silently to themselves.

It was not until commander Margo asked a question that they all came back to themselves and paid attention again.

"From your brief interaction with him, what is your impression of him?" she asked Rommel.

Rommel did not even have to think before answering.

"He's smart. He looks like he has been through a lot in his short time alive. But if I was to venture a guess, I'd say that there is a serious problem with his parents. They are too mysterious." Rommel said.

"Yes, I agree with Rommel. The boy's parents are the real problems." Someone else in the room agreed with what Rommel said.

He continued.

"The fact that they were able to get their hands on the artifact and still have a way to keep its existence hidden goes to show that they at least have some ability. For all we know they might be powerful experts who have hidden themselves in order to achieve some objective. Hell for what we know, the boy might not even be their biological son and was likely picked from somewhere to be brought up." That person analyzed.

"That's not possible." Someone else refuted him.

"Even if what you say is true and they are experts in the universe who have an objective to accomplish, there is nothing to be gained by sending the artifact to us in the first place."

"What if they did it to build goodwill with us then?" someone else asked.

"Then why not send it themselves? Why use a mortal to give it to us instead?" another person questioned instead.

Everyone in the room was trying to add their own input, trying to analyze the identity of Arran's parents and their motive for sending Arran and the artifact to them.

No one would believe that they did not do this with a motive in mind because it was very obvious that the artifact was meant to draw their attention knowing fully well that it would attract them once Arran opened the box.

While everyone was providing various opinions, the muscular man from before raised his voice and said.

"What does it matter what their motives are. We now have the artifact and have the advantage and their mortal son is in our hands and we can do whatever we want with him. So no matter what, we hold all the chips in our hands."

When the people in the room heard him, a few could not help but agree with him. It was the truth that they held all the advantages in this situation.

Rommel, after hearing this sneered and let out a soft sarcastic laugh. The muscular man upon hearing this said loudly, "what's so funny?"

"Idiot!" was all Rommel said in reply.

"What did you say?!!" the man asked furiously.

He was making his way towards Rommel and he looked like he was about to start a fight right there and then. The others immediately rushed forward to stop him from moving forward.

The rivalry between Rommel and the man was well known among all of them and they could count the amount of time they had had to stop a fight from breaking out between the two.

As all this was going on, Commander Margo was watching with an expressionless face.

After calming down a little, the man said ferociously, "Rommel, you'd better explain yourself or else don't blame me for being impolite."

Rommel just watched on calmly before replying. "I guess you did not read the report carefully, did you?"

The muscular man frowned and replied, "I've seen it. What about it."

"That's why I said you were an idiot who only has muscles for brains." Rommel did not give up on insulting him.

The man was about to lose it again but was stopped once again by his colleagues.

One of them admonished Rommel by saying, "Rommel you should stop trying to rile him up and continue with what you were saying."

"Fine." Rommel gave up and continued.

"If you had read the report very carefully you'll see that the boy's cell activity is very high and from that, we can tell that he is not a native human from that planet. At least we know that his natural lifespan is close to a thousand years."

"Yes we know that but so what, he is still a mortal since he does not have an ounce of vital energy in his body." The muscular man hurried to say.

Rommel had to control the strong urge to roll his eyes and said, "I'm not finished so what are you in a hurry for."

"Humph!" snorting, the muscular man kept quiet.

Rommel continued, "apart from that, we know the reaction that happened when the boy put on the artifact."

The muscular man also interjected here, "we know all this. It was most likely a means of the artifact protecting itself from the shade who was after it."

"Will you let me finish what I'm about to say!!" Rommel finally exploded.

The man was about to reply but seeing the various eyes that were looking at him, he decided to keep shut.

Rommel calmed down and continued.

"As I was saying and to answer to the buffoon here."

The man was about to retort but once more decided to keep shut while noting this down.

Rommel continued, "if the artifact wanted to protect itself from the shade, we all know that's it is very capable of destroying it on its own without the need to attach itself to anyone else." Seeing everybody nodding in confirmation, he went on.

"Even if it decided to do so, for someone who does not have an ounce of vital energy in his body, the best outcome would be that he would explode and worst case would be that he would be crippled and die a slow agonizing death by having his cells destroy themselves."

"Since all this did not happen then it can only mean one thing."

"That is that all our suspicions are correct and that we already have a guess to his identity and that of his parents."

"Am I right, Commander Margo."

Saying this, he and everyone else turned to face Margo who had been quiet all this time they were debating with themselves.

Seeing that she was asked a question, Margo finally opened her mouth to say, "yes, we already have an idea of who his parents are, at least we can confirm who his father is and can also infer his intentions.

Hearing that, everybody was curious and asked, "who is it and what does he want?"

Margo answered, "if his father is who we suspect him to be, then we can basically confirm that he is telling us to take care of his son and that he has an important matter to take care of."

Hearing this, everyone was confused and the muscular man asked, "who is it that can make such a request. Is he a very important person?"

Margo stood up and walked to the window behind the desk she had sat in before answering.

"Yes, he is a very important person and now that we have his son with us, then we can finally know what happened in that tragedy four hundred years ago.

When everybody heard this, they seemed to realize something and were very shocked. If all this turned out to be true, then this would shed light on a mystery that had plagued them with questions for four hundred years.