Dawn City
"Latest news from Ilotran," Seth said, raising his head and handing the document in his hand to Christos. "Eric is dead."
"What do you mean?" Christos froze slightly and raised his hand to take the document.
"Davis was bought off by the corporations. He manufactured internal unrest, took control of the military, and entered the mayor's residence to force Eric's hand," Seth said with a sigh. "Then Eric committed suicide."
"Weren't Davis and Eric good brothers?" Christos flipped open the document in confusion. "How could he make a move against Eric?"
"'Good brothers' was what Eric told us," Seth sighed. "But the facts proved that his relationship with Davis wasn't as good as he imagined."
"Not necessarily. Perhaps they really were inseparable brothers," Christos said after silently reading the material for a moment. "It's just that Davis was the kind of person who could kill his 'brother.'"
"That's even more terrifying," Seth said hoarsely after a moment of silence.
"I looked into Davis before. He came from the bottom of society and grew up in the slums. He first made a name for himself in the City Defense Army through sheer ruthlessness. People with that kind of background generally value family very highly," Christos said, looking at Seth. "But there's another extreme: believing that family 'can also be sacrificed.' But there's no point discussing that now."
He lowered his head and looked at the document in his hands. "We received this intelligence a little too late."
"Ilotran is too far from us. Our intelligence department has very few footholds there, the corporations blocked the news, and they cut off our external network," Seth said quietly. "If the Nolanka Group hadn't passed the intelligence along through their channels, we probably would have received it even later."
Seth looked at