Chapter 86 - The Tug of Fate
“I’ll have to do some preparation for this.” Hearing this coming from Achillios, I knew that I had given him a difficult task. Luciana started questioning me, “That’s one of the three great towers on the continent. The owners of the tower can buy their own empire. How is he going to afford it?”
“That’s not my problem,” I replied coolly. If he was going to be my subordinate, he had to do this for me at least. To be honest, it was a bit cheeky to claim he wanted to be my subordinate without even being able to handle this.
“What in the world are you going to do with the tower?”
“Make money.”
“Do you need money?”
“Yep, lots of it.”
“For what?” Luciana looked at me in confusion. I was the saintess of the Holy Empire and a princess of the Rahel Empire. It would seem like I would never need to worry about money in my life, so I knew why she was confused, but…
It was important to have money. You needed money for food, clothing, and shelter. I needed to have my own funds separate from Vios and Rahel, so I could use them without being questioned. I needed to make sure that I was able to act independently of Miltiades. “I need money to fulfill my dream. And I need a lot of it.”
“What dream…oh, that one?”
“Yeah, world domination.” When I had said this in the past, Luciana had scoffed at me. But this time, instead of laughing, she sighed deeply, “… Are you serious about this?”
“Yeah.”
Luciana turned to me solemnly, “I’m resigning.”
“I reject your resignation,” I replied. Where did she think she was going? I wasn’t going to allow anyone to run away.
***
“My Lord, where have you been this whole time?” stamping his feet, Duke Grandbleon’s assistant Jules greeted him at the entrance, “Why did you disappear for the past few days? Where did you go?”
“Ah, I was busy with something.”
“What? Is there anything more important than the nation? Are you in your right mind? You know what the situation is like right now but you still left! Duke Ravenhook’s activities in the north are unusual! Do you even know the meaning of the word ‘responsibility?”
Achillios arrived at his office and quickly sat down, “Your nagging is getting in the way of my work. Get out.”
“My Lord!” No matter what Jules said, Achillios wouldn’t listen. The only thing on his mind was to purchase the tower in order to become Amelia’s subordinate. Just as Jules was about to continue, he saw the look in Achillios’s bored eyes, which were ablaze with the flame of loyalty. …Why is he like this? What in the world happened to him?
As soon as Achillios entered his office, he ignored Jules and started searching for basic information about Hescalts Tower. It seemed a bit difficult to get his hands on, but the more difficult the task, the more it would be a fun challenge. When was the last time he had felt this motivated? “How exciting!”
He was so excited that he could barely control himself. The feeling of working hard to earn something—it had been a while since he felt these emotions. They were so unfamiliar that it felt like his heart was actually beating. At last, he was truly living. He hadn’t felt this way since he first met the emperor.
Achillios was a genius: he grasped things easily, learned quickly, dealt with everything swiftly, and did whatever he wanted. Easy tasks bored him quickly, and he lived a very boring life. If he was a criminal, he would have been arrested, but Achillios was shrewd. Who said one couldn’t separate genius from madness?
Achillios went around in search of something to stimulate him. He was okay with anything that made him happy, and he didn’t care if people thought he was crazy. It was the only way he could feel alive. He didn’t think anyone in the world could understand him.
He remembered back when he used to have such thoughts. The first time he met Miltiades, he realized that there was at least one person who could read his mind. Miltiades was the first person to peel off Achillios’s mask, and also the first person who’d ever looked down on his ugly self.
These kinds of people brought him a certain excitement. For the first time in his life, Achillios felt such intense emotions that he swore his loyalty to Miltiades right then and there. All he received in exchange was disgust, but he didn’t care. The most important thing was that someone saw him for who he was.
He didn’t think he would fall for anyone else. At first, he didn’t think too much of it. All he wanted to do was adore the cute kid and mess around with Miltiades. He knew that Miltiades wouldn’t take in any random kid as his daughter, but she was much more than he had ever imagined.
Achillios felt the tug of fate when he looked into her ruby eyes. He felt his destiny tied to her as if he could bet everything on her. It might have shocked Amelia, but Achillios was being sincere when he said he would take a sworn oath.
“My Lord, aren’t these papers for the Hescalts Tower? Why are you suddenly looking at these?”
“To become someone’s subordinate.”
“Pardon?”
Unable to comprehend what Achillios was saying, Jules began to lose his temper, but the prime minister merely looked at him and smiled, “There’s something I want to do.” Achillios brushed past Jules and started cooking up a scheme. It was something no ordinary person would have thought of. And sure enough, exactly one week later, Hescalts Tower was in new hands.
