Fire Cannot Be Wrapped in Paper

Meanwhile, at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park encampment, on the half of the open ground generally closer to the west.

Eugene was packing with his men while helping the others set up their tents.

Just then, Liana and the others approached him together from nearby.

Seeing Eugene still busy, Liana walked up behind him, patted his back as he bent over to hammer in tent stakes, and asked softly.

"Second Company Commander, the boss and the council chairman have left the camp. Judging by their direction, they're taking a walk farther along the river. Should we send someone after them?"

"Follow them?"

Hearing Liana's words, Eugene drove down a stake with a heavy blow and responded.

"What would we follow him for? To eavesdrop on how the boss plans to negotiate all that messy exchange of interests with the council chairman?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Instead of wasting time on that, get the men's tents set up, then take over the outer defensive line as soon as possible—or build a new one. Box the council's people in and give them an invisible encirclement!"

"When you were here on your own before, the council had way more people than you. I saw how low-key you became because of it. You actually gave them most of the good sentry posts. Fuck that!"

"Handing over positions that can watch both inside and outside to the council is basically putting our safety in their hands. How the fuck is that acceptable?"

"Now that we're here, our combined numbers aren't the least bit smaller than the council's!"

"And when it comes to combat power, I believe the bastards under my command can definitely fight better than those guys standing ramrod straight. They've already burned all their strength on standing around!"

With that, Eugene abruptly straightened