the month. I believe this situation falls under a state of emergency.”

Chief of Staff Ootomo sighed at Saeki, who wouldn’t back down.

“Back then, the owner repelled the attack with their own defense squads without waiting for the sortie of our forces, right? It will be difficult to obtain approval for stationing our forces there by using the attack earlier this month as an argument.”

Ootomo hadn’t sided with the Yotsuba family. He felt the same way and was in agreement with Saeki’s proposal . Their land was attacked by a foreign power, and that attack had been repelled by civilian forces. The fact that the Self-Defense Forces played no role there wasn’t pleasant for uniformed military personnel.

The actual problem was that it was really difficult to deploy troops on private territory except during military operations.

If those civilians were common citizens, then they could handle it politically, but it was a different story when the actual owner of Miyakijima was that ?Yotsuba family. It was not clear if they have politicians in the family or if they have an influential backer from the National Diet [Japanese Parliament], but it’s an indisputable fact that the Yotsuba family exercised a strong influence on political circles. They also cooperated with the Self-Defense Forces in conducting unofficial operations.

As the Chief of Staff, he knew that they couldn’t afford to offend the Yotsuba ?just because he didn’t like what’s going on.

“That’s the problem, Your Excellency Chief of Staff. In a democratic nation, there’s no way to allow the existence of a private military force that doesn’t follow civilian control. Military volunteers must be temporary only.”

However, it seems that Saeki’s judgment ?was different from Ootomo’s.

“Is the Major General asking for the Yotsuba to disarm?”

Ootomo asked Saeki, who seemed willing to ‘stick her neck out ’, with the intention of ??Is she serious??

“This inevitably must be done in order to preserve the principles of democracy, Your Excellency Chief of Staff.” — Saeki looked at Ootomo straight in the eye with an unshakable gaze .