As Greg continued to speak, Loki distanced himself from the troublemaker. He wanted the distance between them partly so that any hatred and trouble because of the words that Greg said would all be directed at Greg.
He didn’t want to be in the splash zone of any trouble. But the main reason he didn’t want to be this close to Greg was that he wanted to be able to see any suspicious move from Greg from afar.
He didn’t want to be too close to dodge or block an attack from Greg. He didn’t want to be caught off guard like last time, so he kept his distance and kept an eye on Greg.
Greg saw his behavior but didn’t mind it. He only thought that this was another effect of Loki’s unexpected and unexplained dislike for him.
He didn’t mind that Loki didn’t like him because many people don’t like him. He just found Loki’s dislike as soon as they met, somewhat unexplained.
If Loki were an old member who had dealt with him for a year, he would understand why Loki dislikes him. But Loki hated him as soon as they met enough to pretend to be angry to get away from him.
This is something he finds weird. But it is not something he was willing to dwell on.
He would rather examine the people who came to follow him on the mission. As he examined them, he noticed that most of them were newcomers.
21 people had shown up for the mission. Of these 21 people, 15 were the newcomers who had joined the post in the past three months of recruitment. The rest were veterans.
Without thinking too much, he could figure out why the distribution is this way. He can tell that these 15 people only hate him for his words. He expects that they don’t hate him for his actions yet, which is why they showed up in larger numbers than the veterans.
He could also see what they were thinking on their faces. When he looked at the newcomers and observed their behavior, he could tell that what they were thinking about was how they wanted merit points and were willing to experience more of his bad mouth if they would get the merit points.
As for the veterans, he could tell that they, too, want merit points but are more concerned about getting back alive from this mission. This made him shake his head and say, "Oh ye of little faith."
Then he raised his voice and said to everyone, "Gather round."
After everyone had formed a big circle around him, he said, "I know that very few of you believe in me. You think I am rash, and you believe that I don’t consider your lives to be valuable. But you’re only partly right."
"You’re right to think that I don’t consider your lives to be valuable. I won’t sugarcoat it. You all are expendable, and if you die, you won’t be missed."
He patted his chest and said, "I for sure won’t miss you."
"And to be honest, not many people will miss you. So maybe I am also right, and your lives aren’t worth that much."
Before anyone could argue with him, he raised his hand to stop them from speaking. Then he said, "My point isn’t about how I am right about your lives being worthless, even though I am right. I am saying all of these to convince you that I am not rash."
"You are wrong to think that I am rash because I will never do something that will endanger my life. Just think about it. Since my life is the only valuable one here, isn’t it just common sense that I will prioritize it above everything else?"
When he saw that the faces of everyone looking at him had become darker, he coughed to ease the atmosphere. That didn’t work as people were still glaring at him. So he shrugged and continued speaking.
He said, "You are free to believe that I can take you into a dangerous situation. But you will be very wrong to believe that I will take us into a hopeless situation."
"If I didn’t think we had a real shot at raiding them and getting away with it, I wouldn’t have brought up the mission. So trust me when I say that this is a good opportunity for us to earn merit points."
Then he raised his hand and said, "Who’s with me?"
What he received in response was dead silence. No one raised their hands or spoke up in support. They just continued to glare at him.
Because of this, the smile on his face died down, and he grumbled, saying, "It is like talking to a bunch of monkeys. Nothing I say gets through to them."
At this point, Loki had to step up and be the voice of reason. He quickly spoke up and said, "Let’s not waste time talking. Let’s leave as soon as possible."
Everyone was still silent as they were contemplating what to do, but Greg nodded and said, "Let’s go."
Then he pointed at the large airship and said, "To the Giant Smasher."
This time, he didn’t wait for them to respond. He jumped onto the city wall and used it to jump onto his mech. Then the rockets attached to the back of the mech ignited as the mech rose into the air.
This stopped those who wanted to say or do something after Greg called them monkeys. They begrudgingly let the insult go and focused on something more important.
With Greg leading the way, they followed him. Everyone scaled the wall or passed through the city gate in order to reach the airship.
Greg was the first to reach the airship. His mech landed on the sturdy deck with a loud thump. Then he jumped down from the mech’s shoulder and rushed over to the control wheel of the airship.