Chapter 35: The crimes of Benjamin Norton.
Back in the guard cab of the crimson duchess Hiro, Okimodo and Shipo sat on the floor in a circle. For the past few minutes they had been discussing strategies on how to deal with the class six super resonator just in case Lyon and the others failed.
“I don’t understand.” Shipo sighed. “What the hell did this Benjamin guy do to piss so many people off so much. Just using underhanded tactics against your political opponents doesn’t explain why all of these people want him dead.”
Hiro’s eyes bulged upon hearing Shipo’s words. “Have you not read the news papers recently?”
“No.” Shipo answered bluntly. “I was too busy training to worry about other people’s problems.”
“I never read the newspapers either.” Okimodo answered along side him.
“That’s the problem.” Hiro shook her head in disapproval. “How can you be prepared for these kinds of jobs if you don’t stay informed?”
“Don’t start lecturing us.” Shipo sneered.
“Then leave.” Okimodo snickered. “Let her lecture me alone in private and with the lights off.”
“Stop it!” Hiro became flustered before she grabbed Okimodo’s ear and twisted it painfully.
“My bad!” Okimodo quickly apologised before continuing to ask. “Why is it that so many people want Benjamin dead?”
Hiro let go of his ear before releasing a deep breath. She brushed her white hair behind her ear as she began to explain the situation. “Benjamin starved out an entire city of innocent people. The city of Lenoon in the westernmost island of the country. He did it because the city was captured by a coalition of west islander separatists who planned on peacefully overthrowing the provincial government in favour of establishing an independent one.”
“I see.” Shipo nodded. “I’ve heard of the separatists before, apparently their popular in the western most island provinces.”
“They are very popular.” Hiro explained. “Naturally the imperial government wasn’t having any of this and sent their army to recapture the city and they did succeed in recapturing the suburbs. But like many cities that were formerly in the Coronatian empire, the more ancient interior of Lenoon is surrounded by a series of canals and fortified walls. The separatist didn’t make any offensive moves and simply attacked any Viriticilian troops that got too close to entering the inner boroughs of Lenoon. A stalemate lasted for several days with the separatists repeatedly declaring that they only wanted peaceful negotiations.”
“Where does Benjamin come in to the equation though?” Okimodo asked.
“Benjamin had happened to be staying in Lenoon while this was happening and decided to make a map of every canal and point of entry into the inner city.” Hiro continued to explain. “After a day the map was completed and he snuck his way out of the city to meet with general Ninotanya who was leading the portion of the army that had been sent to Lenoon. The two formalised a plan to cut the inner city off from all external resources in order to break the will of the separatist.”
“Ninotanya?” Okimodo’s eyes lit up with a revelation. “I heard my father discussing that name. Apparently, Ninotanya was assassinated five days ago in his own dining room.”
“That still doesn’t quite explain why so many super resonators want Benjamin dead though.” Shipo frowned.
“Obviously I’m not finished.” Hiro sneered at the boy for interrupting her. “After being cut off from external resources for several days, the inhabitants of the inner city began to beg the separatists to surrender which they did. Unfortunately however, the resources were never returned and the inner city’s population of over three hundred thousand people starved slowly and painfully.”
“That’s just genocide.” Okimodo felt like a real dumbass in that moment. Had he known that Benjamin had done such a thing before hand he could have come much more prepared.
“it is.” Hiro nooded as anger appeared in her eyes. “Most of them died from dehydration early on, those were the lucky ones. The rest all fought for every scrap of food and drop of water they could find or drink in the form of blood from dehydrated corpses. Several months passed with the situation growing increasingly dire. Eventually the four last healthy separatist left the walls of the inner city to find out why the Viriticilian army didn’t restore their access to resources. On their way they were suddenly attacked by three shang rokai that had been secretly hired by Benjamin. They quickly slaughtered three of the separatist but failed to kill the final one which turned out to be a female class three super resonator. Through great scheming the woman managed to escape and survive before finally confronting Ninotanya and Benjamin. Upon being confronted the two men declared that they intended to starve out the entire city’s population as a show of strength and a warning to other break away factions. They stated that they were carrying out the will of the ancient empress Valari who believed that the Coronatian people were destined to rule the entire earth.”
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”that’s it right there.” Shipo signed. “Benjamin’s a walking dead man, there’s no way in hell he’s going to survive this journey.”
Hiro nodded in agreement before continuing. “The woman whose name was Erithi then fled the island and managed to board a cargo ship destined for Geasborg. After arriving in the massive city she contacted several journalists and told them the entire story. This led to Benjamin and the military receiving so much public backlash that they had no choice but to withdraw after another month of starving out Lenoon. During this month Erithi was constantly molested by politicians, journalists, playwrights and novelists who sought to exploit her story for personal gain. They ultimately ended up elevating her story into the public eye which led to Erithi becoming an overnight celebrity. Eventually she was able to return to her Home alongside an expedition led by Benjamin’s political enemies. Unfortunately she returned to find everyone she had ever known lying dead in the streets. While Benjamin and Ninotanya were ultimately stopped, it turned out to be far too late when it did happen and the entire city was successfully starved to death. Unable to accept the grief that life forced upon her, Erithi took her own life and became a martyr for break away factions everywhere. Her death was announced on the television five days ago leading to an uproar that resulted in Ninotanya being assassinated in his home. After Ninotanya’s death one of the lower ranking soldiers that had served under Benjamin and Ninotanya came forward and exposed all of Benjamin’s actions and intentions. As a result of this Benjamin was placed under house arrests and scheduled to be trialled for war crimes.”
“If that’s the case then why is he on this train and not locked up at home?” Okimodo asked.
“He was released from house arrest earlier this morning after he received a printed message from his wife who had gone into labour.” Hiro explained. “Because he’s obsessed with the old Coronatian empire he chose to raise his family in its former capital city. I don’t know why he would choose to visit his wife at such a dangerous time though.”
“Balboa…” Shipo sighed. “There’s definitely going to be tons of super resonators waiting for a chance to kill him.”
“Yep.” Hiro nodded. “There are tons of politicians who intend to finish him off for various reasons. Some are other nationalists who want him dead so he doesn’t continue to drag their reputation through the dirt, others are his opponents who see his views as a cancer on society. Apparently general Ivan of the Ukosyranian army left for Corone early this morning and intends to protect Benjamin and his family.”
“What the fuck.” Okimodo immediately stared at his brother while frowning deeply.
Shipo stared back with visible unease before turning to face Hiro and saying. “You can’t be serious. You don’t expect us to fight a class nine general right?”
“You also don’t plan to fight him yourself either right?” Okimodo added.
Even though Okimodo and Shipo had fought Ivan the previous day, it was ultimately just a glorified sparring session. If they confronted him in the complete war zone that would soon become of Balboa, they’d simply die miserably. There was no chance in hell of two class threes and one class five defeating a class nine. Class nines were the pinnacle of strength among mortal beings with classes ten, eleven and twelve being considered demigods.
“I’m obviously not going to fight him.” Hiro laughed. “There will likely be other high class super resonators appearing to confront Benjamin. Those guys will be the ones to face Ivan. While Ivan is distracted by his enemies I will sneak behind his back and kill Benjamin.”
“You can’t just sneak past a class nine general.” Shipo got up from the floor and sat back down on the couch with an unimpressed frown. “Those guys could kill you faster than it takes your brain to generate a single thought.”
Hiro sighed before standing up herself. “That’s for me to worry about. All you have to do is stop anyone else from assassinating Benjamin. I’m sure you’re both just dying to help a beautiful girl like me right!”
Shipo didn’t respond but simply stood up before heading down to the carriage, leaving Okimodo and Hiro alone.
Hiro turned to face Okimodo who was in the middle of getting to his feet. “You’ll definitely help me right?”
“Of course darling.” Okimodo smiled warmly before suddenly knocking her out with a chop to the neck.
He quickly caught her unconscious body and placed her down on the couch gently. During his extremely brief time with Hiro, Okimodo had come to see her as a friend. He wouldn’t let her throw her life away by messing with a monster like Ivan.
Okimodo whispered silently to himself. “I’m sorry Hiro.”
Now that Okimodo had a deeper understanding of the situation at hand, he couldn’t help but find it all to be extremely stupid. Why the hell would someone go on any kind of journey when their blood was lusted after by so many people? Perhaps Benjamin was doing this all deliberately? Either way it didn’t matter, Okimodo would drop Hiro off somewhere safe and immediately return home upon completing his job. Whatever happened to Benjamin was not of his concern anymore.
He then left the guard cab to see whatever the hell Shipo was doing in the carriage. He slammed the door behind him with a sharp thud.
End of chapter 35.