Chapter 85 - The Tug of Fate

“What happened to you?” I hadn’t seen Achillios in a while, and he was a mess. His clothes and white shirt were full of dirt, but he was still smiling, “I was buried in the ground. It was difficult to get out.” 

I looked at him wearily. I was tired of him grinning at me while following me around exclaiming, “Please make me your subordinate!” He was glued to my side and wouldn’t leave. I finally understand why Miltiades kept saying he wanted to kill this guy if he had the chance. 

I had a flashback of my past week: I had been avoiding and rejecting Achillios, but he kept following me. What did I have to do to get him off my back? I had tried running away when I saw him and even speaking harshly to him, but nothing seemed to work. I knew that he wasn’t right in the head from the very beginning, but he was turning out to be worse than I thought. 

“I want to be your subordinate!” He was persistent. 

“Do you really want to work for me? You’re not joking around?”

“No,” replied Achillios, his eyes sparkling. 

“Are you okay with being my subordinate even though you might just be a pawn for the Holy Vios Empire?”

“I would be glad to be your pawn instead of Vios’s.” What difference did it make? In any case, I had to be completely clear with him, “I’m not joking around. I really am going to conquer the world.”

“I’m okay with that,” he replied, clearly not getting it at all. I had no choice but to resort to my final trick to get him off my back once and for all, “I want to be clear with you: do you like me or Miltiades?”

Achillios was Miltiades’s vassal. There was no way he could go against the emperor. Thinking that I had finally managed to get rid of him, I smiled in excitement. However, Achillios started to shiver, and then grinned and said, “…. Do I need to take a newly sworn oath?” I was astounded at how quickly he responded as if he was waiting for me to ask him that. 

“I heard that the person taking the oath has to put his heart on the line. It’s a spiritual contract: if they break their oath, their heart explodes. Over time, people deemed it savage so it’s just a formality now, but I’ve always wanted to take one.” 

I didn’t think this sort of oath was to be taken lightly. Achillios’ eyes started shining brighter than ever before as he looked at me. 

“Didn’t you take one for Daddy?”

“His Majesty doesn’t believe in anyone other than himself. Although that’s exhilarating in its own way. At first, I didn’t want to follow anyone other than His Majesty, but I didn’t expect you to appear. This must be destiny,” as he said this, I wondered what button one would need to press to get a personality like his. I was getting a bit scared. 

“Please make me your subordinate.”

“You’ll regret it.”

“Do you think I’m the kind of person who makes decisions that he’ll regret?”

“Yep,” I replied bluntly. If it was anyone else, I would have gladly accepted them, but Achillios was just too damn annoying. I thought he would give up after a while, but I couldn’t ignore his sincerity. 

“If I told you to die, would you do it?”

“Yes.”

“Then die.”

“But I’m not your subordinate yet. If you truly recognize me as such, then I’ll die.” 

In any other novel, he would have definitely been an obsessive fanatic. I debated what to do with him but quickly gave up out of exhaustion. Even I had a limit, after all. He would be difficult to deceive, so I might as well put him to good use. If I worked him to the bone, there was a chance he’d run away. “Wanna be my intern, then?”

“Your intern?”

“It’s a trial period to see how useful you are before officially becoming my subordinate.”

“Oho, so it’s a kind of test.”

“Exactly.”

“Alright, I’ll do it.” 

He was the prime minister, so I thought my suggestion would hurt his pride, but Achillios was smiling broadly, “It’s a bit embarrassing to say so myself, but I’m quite useful.” Why was he getting all fired up?! I felt like I had dug my own grave as Achillios looked at me excitedly, “What should I do, Master?” 

What did he just call me? “Why’re you calling me Master instead of Lady?”

“I like being shackled down.” This man was not okay. I wanted to retract everything I said, but there was no use crying over spilled milk. I needed to think positively. No one else was on Achillio’s level. There was a huge risk of uncertainty because I couldn’t predict what would happen, but I was going to use him as much as possible since he was willing. “First, find jobs for all these people,” I gave Achillios the list of all the survivors except for the children. 

“And…” Achillios looked up while going through the papers. Could he handle this? I smirked at him knowingly, “Buy this for me.”As I tossed him another piece of paper, Achillios’s expression turned serious. “Hescalts Tower?” He gaped at me, wondering if I’d made a mistake. I nodded, “If you buy that, I’ll make you my subordinate.”

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