This guy had caved that easily?
Tony was greatly surprised by that answer. In his view, Major John, whose thoughts were particularly cunning and inscrutable, should not have been so quick to punish his soldiers.
After all, they did not belong to the same branch of service, so he had no authority to punish soldiers across branches.
Moreover, allowing soldiers to loot property was itself against the Empire's policy for governing its colonies.
Although the higher-ups knew about it, they had always turned a blind eye. If he directly exposed the matter, he might not receive their support in the end.
Therefore, as long as John insisted that the lieutenant had merely been stopping the soldiers' looting under the colonial administration regulations, there was nothing Tony could do to him.
Tony had also been prepared to argue with him and use the bigger picture as an excuse to make him summon that foolish lieutenant and issue a public apology.
Through that compromise, he could preserve his own troops' dignity while making this major understand that he was now the one calling the shots in Horseshoe City.
That way, this conflict could be considered settled.
But Tony had never expected John to admit fault before he could even begin arguing, and to directly remove the offending captain from his post.
Although the other side would most likely find an opportunity to restore him afterward, making it little more than a meaningless punishment.
Still, this allowed him to preserve the 1st Division's dignity.
He simply could not understand the other man's purpose.
"Was it to prevent the conflict from escalating and making things even more troublesome? Or had this major learned something and decided to show goodwill, hoping to befriend me so I would not stab him in the back?"
Tony considered