Chapter 524: Challenge
Sam looked at the general who is looking at him a bit coldly with faint hostility. There is no contempt or any other superior feeling, it is true hostility.
"I am resigning as a soldier and no longer part of the army, I no longer am anyone else's subordinate. I believe that I don't need anyone's permission to get out of here."
"It is indeed true that there is no need for you to listen to my commands of mine if you are not a soldier, but the situation is a bit different. You are leaving the army when there is a war, you will be charged with treason, and at the same time, if you really are leaving the army and did this is to a soldier as a normal citizen, it is not a simple deserting case, you will be seen as siding with enemies and I would have right to detain you."
Sam frowned at the words and looked at the son of the commander coldly and thought for a bit before saying.
"General, I never met you and I only joined the army recently but from what I heard from the other soldiers, you are fair and just. Please give me some answers and I will definitely save that person from this agony and even apologize to him."
"Speak."
The general gave the permission and Sam looked towards a soldier near him and called him over. The soldier was frightened but when he saw that general is also gesturing him to come, he came forward, and then Sam asked.
"When a person is accused of a crime in the military base, what is the procedure that should be followed?" Sam asked seriously. Although his voice is not exactly loud, the scene is extremely silent and everyone could hear this.
All of them immediately looked at the regiment commander and some of them recognized the soldiers who are also part of the ploy and exchanged weird glances at them.
The soldier who was asked also understood this and gulped nervously. He looked at the regiment commander who only has a blank expression and then at the general who is waiting for his answer. He gulped down and answered.
"The accused shall be taken into custody and kept in a cell. He should be given an answer to explain himself, meanwhile, the authorities would start investigating the matter. If the accused's explanation has merit and was valid or if the investigation showed that accused was falsely charged, he should be released and his innocence would be announced all over the military to clear his name."
Sam once again asked.
"What happened three days ago?"
The soldier didn't dare to answer. He knew that this question would come. The regiment commander looked at him with a warning gaze. The general looked at the three of them and said to the regiment commander coldly.
"Who are you glaring at? You better stay obedient while I am here. You might be the regiment commander, but I am the general and you are only one of the regiment commanders under me."
He then pointed at the young soldier and asked.
"You tell me what happened without any bias. If I find out you are lying you will suffer the consequences."
"I.. I.." The soldier stammered under pressure and Sam patted his shoulder and said.
"Okay, calm down. I will ask simple questions say yes or no that is it okay?"
The soldier nodded and Sam continued.
"Three days before, am I accused of rape attempt or not?"
The soldier looked all over the place tensely but still answered.
"Yes."
"Did they take me back to the cell?"
"No."
"Did they investigate the matter?"
"No."
"Did they give me a chance to explain myself?"
"No."
"What is my punishment?"
When Sam asked this, the soldier couldn't help but pause. He doesn't know what to do. The regiment commander will surely remember this. The general saw his hesitation and understood there is something off.
"Tell me honestly, after this is over, you will directly be transferred to the General's troops."
The soldier immediately wiped his sweat off and said confidently.
"Comrade Sam was accused of attempting rape on a human girl, when she yelled we arrived at the scene in less than thirty seconds so there nothing happened at all, but before the soldiers went there the soldiers from the regiment commander troops are already there and they already surrounded Comrade Sam.
He was not given any chance to explain himself or the time for the matter to be investigated. Within ten minutes he was convicted and the punishment was already given.
His cultivation was sealed and he was thrown into the Formation furnace for three days straight. The punishment should have ended at the crack of the dawn today, but the officers only came at this moment.
In these three days, the commander's son came to the furnace several times to increase and decrease the temperatures…"
As he went on and on, the regiment commander couldn't hold on anymore and yelled.
"Don't take non-sense. You must take responsibility for your own words."
"I already told you to stay put, who are you to show authority in front of this General."
The general yelled at the commander and he looked at Sam.
Three days in the formation furnace, he couldn't even imagine the punishment. When he looked at the heat emanating by the formation Sam laid that was considerably smaller than the formation furnace, he knew that Sam was being truly benevolent.
But his face is still serious and directly said.
"Even if you have such grievances, you should have reported it to higher authorities, what is the point of leaving?" His tone has a slight reprimand.
"You must be jesting, sir. The highest authority as a normal soldier I can even greet is the battalion commander, I am already so pleased that a person of regiment commander's stature is already 'taking care' of me so much. I don't have the fortune of being taken care of by a great person of status as you.
Please just let me leave."
"I will give you a proper explanation regarding this, until this matter is resolved, you are not going anywhere." The general sternly replied and looked at the regiment commander and asked.
"What do you have to say about this?"
"Sir, I will be honest, the regiment troops' soldiers are all goofing around a bit due to the high pressure of war, so they hid near his company barracks to have a drink, but when they heard a woman screaming, they immediately went in and caught him in his act."
"Is there any evidence that he indeed violated the woman?"
The general asked once again.
"He was caught red-handed and even the soldiers surrounding knew what happened. So…"
He doesn't need to say much, the General understood and looked at Sam. He is thinking about how to proceed but the regiment commander wanted to sway him a little and said in a low voice.
"Sir, you are wasting your time on him. From what I know he is the filth of the lowly birth and doesn't even have an identity until he came to the army, he was complacent with little achievements and my benevolence that he did such a heinous act." The general got furious at his comment, it is not a good thing to comment on one's birth.
At this moment, before he could say anything, he could sense enormous killing intent and looked at Sam in astonishment.
What is the worst thing to say in front of orphans? It is slandering their birth. And he has to provoke Sam who is the most sensitive of his birth. Particularly, when his birthplace was slandered, he couldn't hold it, he might not have parents, the place he was born, India was dear to him. That place has taught him many things that he abided to date.
There is one thing he abided by, one might have any resentment with their parents and birthplace but they never should let an outsider malign them, not even with words.
He looked ferocious and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"How dare you call my birth lowly? Are you looking down on me, this human that much? What have you shown so much that is noble of your Naga birth, you filthy mongrel, your son violated a girl every day and played with women's lives while you, his father is so eager to show him that you can wipe his shit off of his ass as soon as he excreted.
Your son will provoke and provoke the people he couldn't deal with and here you are ready to get involved to oppress the victims with your authority.
What kind of noble birth are you talking about?
The place where I am born, they treat the livestock that helped in farming to the tools they used to dig up the soil as gifts of gods.
The place I am from, a woman will get ready to burn herself to death than let another man touch him.
In the place I am from, a grown man would never run back to his father for every grievance and even feel ashamed to use the innocence of women to scheme.
There the soldiers who fight are treated with respect and revered by all. Even the wild animals treat their prey with respect after the hunt and eat it.
But I who slain a battalion worth of soldiers enduring all your unreasonable missions have been schemed against again and again.
Much less you, who used a woman's innocence to scheme against me. What nobility do you have? In my eyes, you are scum amongst the scum that would be disdained by even the worst of the pigs.
With the sky, earth, wind, water, and fire as my witness, I Sam challenge your authority right here and right now. If you are even a man who has the noble birth you claimed to be, bring all the army you can bring and all the support you can get. Try and dare if you can stop me from leaving this place with my life intact.
No matter who is in my way, today their blood shall be part of my swords and their flesh shall be food for my mounts."