311 I'm a leader, not a pimp!
“Damn…” Nadia moaned while stretching out both her legs and her hands. “That was tiring!” she then shouted while slamming her hands against a small desk she was sitting behind.
Mathew’s group moved to a small room that Marcus prepared beforehand to conduct all of their interviews.
What Marcus didn’t know, though, was that Mathew’s claims to be able to see through every lie… was a lie in itself.
“I’m sorry in advance,” Mathew said to Norbert as soon as they left the main hall of the camp and entered the room.
“For what?” Norbert asked while raising his eyebrows with suspicion filling his eyes.
“Since we can’t really ascertain whether those people will lie or not, it will be up to you to monitor them closely,” Mathew revealed his true plan.
“That’s…” Norbert hesitated. He then averted his eyes right as his shoulder slumped under the weight of yet another duty he would have to perform on a regular basis. “That’s quite a thing for you to ask,” he muttered, averting his eyes as if he was too ashamed to refuse the request while looking straight into Mathew’s face.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Mathew replied, lowering his eyes to the desk he found and sat behind. “I promise you, though,” he then added, raising his eyes back to the former officer’s face. “Once we are done with our current strategy, I will focus all of my available resources and efforts to help you grow stronger,” Mathew stated.
“Weren’t you supposed to do it already?” Norbert pointed out while raising his right eyebrow.
“You know how it is,” Mathew replied, averting his eyes yet again.
“Yeah…” Norbert admitted right away rather than bidding his time to use this point to back his claims to Mathew’s support. “I”m aware of the situation. You are using whatever you can get your hands on to improve everyone’s chances of survival, I really do understand it,” the man stated before taking a step forward and resting his hands on Mathew’s shoulders.
“This is the duty of a leader to allocate his time, resources, and manpower to the most pressing matters,” he claimed.
The look on his face betrayed that it wasn’t just some empty words of wisdom from the internet but a truth that Norbert learned while putting his life on the line while deployed to the war zone.
“But there is a second side of this duty,” Norbert then added, raising his hands and taking a step to the back. “And it is to listen to the complaints of the clueless soldiers that don’t know anything beyond their own thoughts and desires,” Norbert added, using his own words to put himself down.
“Is this how it really works?” Mathew asked, gladly taking the olive branch and putting an amused expression on his face as well. “Is a soldier supposed to be able to randomly approach the supreme commander with ideas on how to lead the war effort?”
Norbert gave Mathew a long look… before shaking his head and turning around.
“Your tongue is turning too sharp for your own good,” he said while walking toward the far corner of the room. “Right now it’s fine, but I’m worried about what kind of problems that tongue of yours will lead us to in the future.”
“You are wrong,” Nadia stepped forth from her seat by Mathew’s side. “His tongue isn’t sharp!” she argued while putting a proud expression on her face. “It’s soft, gentle, and extremely plea…”
Mathew reached out and grabbed his crush’s hand before giving it a tight squeeze.
The room was still closed… but there was no telling when the volunteers would start to walk in.
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1 And soon enough, the process of accepting people started.
Every last person who entered had to answer three simple questions.
“Do you have any hidden or unspoken agendas prompting you to join our camp?”
“Are you willing to work as hard as it will be necessary to keep everyone well-fed, protected, and happy as long as it’s within the limits of your safety and personal dignity?”
“Do you have some particular skills that could be of use to the group?”
The first question was directed at all those spies Marcus was likely to put among the volunteers.
‘For a man as crafty as him, it would be too much of a missed opportunity if he didn’t at least try it,’ Mathew thought when he came up with that question.
The second question was fairly simple and was aimed to weed out those who were either pressured into entering Mathew’s camp but were unwilling to pull their own weight while in there.
And lastly, the easiest question of them all, one that inquired about a person’s unique skill.
In theory, it wasn’t necessary. But after a short deliberation with Marcus out of everyone, Mathew decided on adding it just before all the interviews started.
After all, for a development-focused group like his, rather than asking people for their fight-related abilities, it was better to ask them whether they could fill any holes left in the civilization by all the zombified professionals.
In the end, out of a total of nearly one hundred and fifty individuals that decided to try joining Mathew’s camps, only about eighty didn’t get flustered when answering the questions.
“I’m quite surprised you refused to take in those whores,” Norbert commented when he finally could stand up from his chair and drop the act of the one checking everyone’s answers from the shadows. “I bet their services would raise the morale of all the men and boys in the camps,” he pointed out.
“That might be true,” Mathew admitted with a nod of his head. “But at the same time, their presence would likely lead to quite a lot of conflicts down the line,” Mathew pointed out before giving his wives a quick look. “And I’m a leader,” he added, pretending that his decision didn’t stem from the fiery looks his girls gave him when the three prostitutes revealed what their special ability was. “Not a damn pimp!”