"Our real ally, huh?" Rea sighed. "I guess the Griffith Family is one of them. After all, the current leader is Teacher's father. And probably, the Mafia Queen. She should know that Teacher won't abandon the base and her. That's why she has remained quiet this whole time. She is fulfilling her agreement with Teacher."
Maya nodded in agreement. "You forgot the beggar association. They have become quite close with the Griffith Family. So, I don't think they're going to betray us.
"As for the remaining influences inside the base…" Maya glanced at Agata, wondering what she thought.
"They weren't that close to those influences. And some of them were even blackmailed by the Griffith Family to participate in the war.
It wouldn't be strange if half of them switched sides. They would assist the government in pressuring Theo's group until eventually, Theo had no choice but to obey them."
Agata looked at Maya. "You are better in negotiation, so you should talk to each of them to see if they have a change of heart or not."
"Sure." Maya nodded. "Is there any hidden influence that we don't know about?"
"I don't think so." Rea shook her head.
"In that case, let's discuss the first problem. How much damage have we received from the current momentum?"
"The airplanes and the blueprint, the Star Group's reputation, Theo's credibility, and public trust. These four are the major damage. There are more, but I think we should handle these four first."
"I have stripped the safety structure from the planes, so I don't care much about them. At the very least, we can still recover in the future, and I have received a lot of money from the banks. Right now, I have only spent a third of them, so we have a lot of money for the next expedition. If you need anything, I'm ready to buy it for you." Maya shrugged to make it look like the situation was under control.
"As for the Star Group's reputation… it's nothing much. We have lost it once, so losing it again won't cause a lot of problems. Our people have become more loyal after the previous incident."
Maya was confident that the Star Group wouldn't collapse again. And if Theo had restored the world to normal, she would regain her strength, influence, and money. So, she didn't mind bleeding for a while.
"Then, Theo's credibility." Agata scratched the back of her head. She was the most concerned about this problem since she was Theo's fiancee. "How do we restore his credibility? After all, we're the ones bringing it down. Although it can be fixed when Theo returns here, it doesn't change the fact that we're the ones who let it drop."
They had made a lot of promises under Theo's name in order to gain victory in the previous battle. So, they had to find a way to restore it before Theo returned.
"Still, the public trust is something we have to gain back. On the one hand, we don't care about the public that much. Although I'll be a horrible person by saying this, most citizens are not that good in politics and stuff like that, so they're easy to control.
"On the other hand, we still need them. Theo had warned us before. If the public trust was gone, the citizens might cause chaos from one place to another. If they come out and cause more trouble, even the people who are fighting in the frontline will be affected. That's why we have to gain the public's trust again." Maya's expression was grim. She was more concerned about this than Theo's credibility. After all, Theo could easily regain it when he returned. Although it would mean they became trouble there, it was easier to fix than the public trust.
They had been building it over the past few years. Even Maya had been spending a lot of money to provide weapons, shelters, and so on to the citizens to build up trust. Yet, a single problem was all it took to bring it down.
She was more annoyed than anyone else regarding this matter.
"Since the situation is like this, I'll try to come up with a plan to restore Theo's credibility. Maya, you should recover the public trust. After all, the Star Group is the biggest company in the world. With us focusing on these two problems, that's left for Rea to supervise our current defense."
Rea frowned. "So, I'm going to the border?"
"Yeah. You are more aware of the battlefield situation than us, right?"
"I can't deny that." Rea nodded. "Alright, I'll go. I'll follow everything we've decided earlier. So, don't ask me about the infiltration or anything."
"Sure."
The three women had reached an agreement. Obviously, this was just an internal meeting for Theo's group. Agata still had to talk with the Griffith Family, especially Valerie, who was adept at controlling the situation. In the end, she asked Valerie to maintain the current situation, not letting it deteriorate even further.
The same applied to Maya. She had gone to the beggar association to confirm their relationship before talking to the leaders of all organizations in the base.
Some were showing their trust, some revealed their concern, some were confident that they could get anything they wanted. The last ones were the people that had switched sides.
So, Maya had to use all her connections to figure out their intention.
As for Theo's group, they had been working nonstop, especially Aisha. As a healer who could recover limbs, Aisha had been restoring those parts. Of course, people were aiming for her ability since it was simply too powerful.
Luckily, Felix recovered and joined Ruth and Ava to protect Aisha. This time, the government was planning to take control of Aisha by using public sentiment like saying, 'She should use that overwhelming ability of her to a good use.' If she rejected their offer, she would be branded with a lot of negative things.
And it truly put a lot of pressure on Aisha's shoulders. She tried not to care about it and kept helping people under Theo's group, but her complexion gradually became worse due to the pressure.
