PMC

"Wait, before you start talking." The blond guy called Eli raised a hand and interrupted him and then came closer.

And suddenly his walking became a charge towards him with a drawn-out combat knife in his left hand.

Yuri had to frown deeply and narrowed his eyes. His action was a blatant provocation.

By the time Eli positioned himself so that he was already slashing horizontally at him, Yuri was already acting on instinct and had already raised his arms in front of his body at chest height.

Yuri then caught Eli's knife-wielding arm at the wrist with his own left hand and redirected the force pulling it towards his left side while he himself was sidestepping to the softly to the right.

With that, Eli´s attack was already pretty much neutralized because his outstretched arm was in a deadlock by Yuri, but Yuri obviously didn't stop just there.

He forced Eli's wrist inwards with his left hand so it lost grip of the knife while at the same time proceeding to bodyslam his right elbow with a step forward into Eli´s sides.

Then for the finish, he used Eli´s still deadlocked arm that was now at his chest like a pivot point to pull and throw him to the ground. It was rather easy because he used his point of gravity to his advantage and only needed to put a leg in front of his so that he could do nothing but fall over hard.

A fierce groan came out from Eli and before he could stand back up Yuri picked up the dropped knife and placed it near his neck after crouching down near him.

Eli smiled and tried still to fight but Yuri had enough and slammed the knife into his adjutant's shoulder blade.

"Ugh." Eli groaned again from the hit. "That is cold. Aren't we friends and all?" Eli coughed a little bit from the damage but still continued to grin fiercely at Yuri.

Though he did stop his movements and seemed to calm down.

Yuri on the other hand frowned again now and looked at the knife in question. It was just bent.

"A toy?", he asked himself and raised it to inspect it.

"Neat, ain't it? It has the same feel and weight as the real deal."

"God damn it, Eli. I don't have the time for this. Hasn't your father already told you that we don't point weapons at our comrades?" Yuri glared at him and tossed the toy on his body.

"Come on. It's just a spar."

"I am NOT in the mood for that!!" Suddenly Yuri was shouting and Eli's grin vanished. The blondie raised himself up and patted of some dust from his clothing.

"What happened?", asked Eli now in a serious tone.

Yuri only sighed. "Listen...The royal family is not the governing power in this country anymore...We will leave this place today."

Then Yuri looked back at Maxim and ignored Eli for the time being.

"Can I take all these guys with me? Though it's not many..."

"They are enough, young lord..." Maxim looked at Eli. "The boss seemed to have figured out something like this could happen...So he sent 40 of our best combat oriented personnel with 5 medics and 5 agents. 50 personnel is quiet high"

"And the rest are busy making toys or how should I see this?" He pointed at Eli's knife. And of course, Yuri knew his question was just rhetorical. He was aware that this amount was already investing too much.

"Uhm." Maxim didn't know what to say towards that.

"Whoah there. This thing was made by me when I had boredom. Most of our guys are busy at building and improving the mother base. I think father already stretched the people thin enough for this amount being here." Now it was Eli defending his own and mother bases actions.

Yuri looked at him. "Fine...Maxim, tell Snake to expand our forces. Collect every possible mage in the Russy Federation. After all, there should be enough space for them now. That is if you really mainly focused on expanding mother base..."

"Understood. Should the agent's activity be still kept low?"

"Yes. For now, we should only keep observing."

"Where exactly is our journey going?", asked Eli now.

"The Gerun Empire."

"Oooh, neat. I heard there is a lot of tension on their borders. I wonder if it will come to war?"

Eli was clearly pro-war in all ways and he didn't bother hiding it. Even his serious demeanor changed back to the smug and carefree attitude. What can he say, he was a child born as a soldier and lived as one.

It somewhat irked Yuri but at the same time, he felt confident in his adjutant. He would become a great soldier for sure and would be a great help later.

No...should he see them more as pawns by now? He knew that they were a construct of his philosopher stone.

Homunculi to be exact. Puppets that were just looking like humans but were none.

Then the smile of the brown-haired girl came into his mind again and the innocence in her eyes radiating life. So he looked at her again and he could see it again.

'...What the hell am I thinking...What am I then...if I start to doubt if they are even real?', he shook off his old thoughts.

"Let's go. That convoy ship over there is our ticket out of here. You guys will mainly act as my royal guards for the time being."

"Then take this with you, young lord." Maxim handed Yuri a wristwatch with adjustable bands for different wrist sizes.

"This is?", asked Yuri and equipped the watch nonetheless.

"Our R&D Department hasn't developed our own reliable computation orbs yet but old fashioned computers are easy to do. This watch is very close to the iDroid and can be used to stay in contact with the mother base. We already sent 5 regular communication satellites into the orbit that let us stay connected wirelessly all over the world."

"Great! So we have that advantage now. Good job. As soon as you are finished with the base construction of each unit, execute the normal operation. I hope that R&D by then can operate normally as well. I can't wait for the new equipment." Yuri was genuinely happy at this moment.

That was the only problem he had at the start when he was surprised by the battalion under his command.

He had these 3000 legendary men as human resources. That is at least if he had to go by the documents that he had from them stating their capability being at least S rank...So game like...

But at the same time, he didn't have a base for them.

Using some of the royal treasury without anyone knowing, he somehow managed over the time of those last 3 years to get enough material and money for his PMC to build a good base. Well, he at least hoped so. He hasn't visited it yet.

It helped out from time to time as well when he found himself having gold lying around where none was before. All of it was of course put into his company.

Now thinking about it, he knew it was the stone again. He really wished he could use it more frequently and whenever he wanted. It being as random as it is now was kinda disappointing.

But what do they say? Don't look into the gifted mules mouth or something?

Anyway, now the base practically operated on its own. It was already giving back dividends en mass with sweet things like satellites for communication.

Such things were of course unheard of in this world. At least for now. But even then, the 300 something scientists in his R&D unit were brilliant minds even for 1980 standards. Just this watch proved that point.

Come to think. He is actually lucky on this unlucky day...