Emiliano"s combat restaurant was quite different to what Alex had expected, it was cozy with four floors to it, but at with an open bas.e.m.e.nt that had a battling platforms where battles could be carried out and the people on the balconies on each floors could watch while having a meal. Guess Alex could scratch out having a restaurant out of the most of things he wanted to do to raise money for resources, as it stands though it would be better if he just worked as a merchant/mercenary of sorts, at least until everyone had enough resources to focus on their training, besides he was sure that everyone else would pitch in to help. Alex didn"t feel the need to dress to impress, but with someone like Louis for a subordinates and Xiao Mei for an elder sister, both Alex and Anya were subjected to an hour of make up and dress fitting. But it was just dinner and they all knew how simple Alex and Anya preferred to be when they wore things like clothes. So Alex had on black dinner trousers and dress shoes, and then he had one a simple white long sleeved shirt that had it"s top two b.u.t.tons undone, and it"s sleeves rolled back while it was f.u.c.ked into his trousers. His hair was styled backwards and looked really glossy, which was an improvement from the s.h.a.ggy mop he loved moving around with all the time.
The person who had the most change however and very much hated it was Anya. She had on a white mini dinner dress that came down to her thighs and clung to her seventeen years old frame quite tightly. It was enough to give even men ten times her age pause when she pa.s.sed by. Her chocolate skin seemed to glow in the night and as she was led up the stairs along with Alex by a waiter, heads turned.
The dress itself was simple, the sleeves and the area around her collar bones, chest and shoulders seemed like it was a net or a mesh (fashion terms were not really something either she or Alex cared about.) And it left her neck exposed as her short black hair was parted to one side with bangs on the left side of her face while her buzz cut was shown.
Anya was such a tomboy that any hair longer than five inches was too much for her to carry, she felt that if it was too long it would get in the way of a fight.
She preferred to be practical than fashionable, either way it was still taking all of her concentration to walk with the silver heels she had on, so she had to rely on Alex to give her support while they weren"t up this stairs, all the while silently cursing at Xiao Mei for putting her on five inch heels. They turned heads, making them really look like the perfect couple, so much so that when they came up to the floor Victoria was sitting on, the princess was lost in thought looking at the both of them as they say down in front of her.
"If you looks at us any harder your eyes might fall off." Alex said to her as he leaned back with a smile, the reactions of other people he really didn"t care about, but the one he was getting from the princess was doing wonders for his ego.
"Then it would have fallen out for a worthy reason, you both look wonderful Alex, and you too Anya." She said to them as parted her blond hair to the side, whether by coincidence or just the divine providence of Xiao Mei"s extensive information network (if it actually exists), the princess had on a similar dress to Anya, only her"s was black. It was like they were both switching roles his night.
"Thank you, your highness but couldn"t you have chosen a less crowded place." Anya answered as she complained, Victoria raised an eyebrow as she said.
"We"re in a private room Anya, sure the walls here are a bit thin and the people next tonus might hear one or two words of what we"re saying, but we"re not having s.e.x, so I think we should be safe." Victoria replied with a smile that gave Anya pause, obviously the young girl was blushing, but by virtue of her skin color her reaction was the only evidence of how fl.u.s.tered she was of Victoria"s comment.
It wasn"t too long after that as their dinner served, and it was a three course meal that to the extreme shock of Alex and Anya, the princess had prepared by herself. How she had time to come to the kitchen of the restaurant and work with the chefs was beyond them, but it was an amazing experience and Anya could not help but admit defeat in this one. Even though she came from a land where their customs are quite conservative and patriarchic, where it"s believed that a woman"s place was in a kitchen and in the home doing nothing but popping out kids and caring for them while remaining under the mercy of her husband. Anya knew when it comes to cooking, Victoria had her beat. But they weren"t just here to eat now were they.
"You guys have had quite an eventful three days since your arrival, quite impressed on how you achieved something that previously took the quickest record holder a month to accomplish. You"re becoming more and more the leader I know you are, but for what we hope to achieve there"s no time to waste. There"s already a compet.i.tion for the throne going on, it hasn"t been officially announced yet, but it"s no secret that now the daughters of the Emperor can fight for a chance to sit on that throne.
Four of my sisters are here in the academy, I don"t really get along with their mothers, but I would need to be able to rope them into my camp as supporters. But that would be a pile dream, my mother was the last to be married out of all the concubines, and yet she"s the one who became empress.
I have an elder sister who"s back in the empire of Albion putting things in place, but with just her support alone we would have no ground to stand in the empire of heaven. As far as Albion is concerned, I have even more of a reputation and influence than the empire of heaven, especially amongst the circle of n.o.bles there.
What I need you to do is to make alliances on my behalf, and get rid of people who would obviously stand in our way. We need to build more influence with the empire of heaven, and to do that we need to make alliances with some court officials and get the support of the military which at the moment is split between my two brothers. I would like to take it over from under their nose, and this is where your t.i.tle as Childe of the empire comes in. You can go on campaigns for the empire, conquering new lands in different Dimensions and bringing back resources, but that would take too long as we need to set up some ground work first before we do that, together. I have no intention of sending you to wars in other Dimensions without standing by your side as is my role as your future wife.
Alliances are to be made, and I believe the three of us can work together to achieve that, but...…some people also have to be eliminated." The princess had been beating around the bush, but Alex knew what"s up, and so too did Anya. They may not have been in this world of schemes too long, but they"ve seen enough to learn and know what was going on here.
"So basically you want Alex to do your dirty work, he plays the villain and brings all your enemies to heel while you make alliances that would serve you better. Two sides of the same coin, each working towards the same goal, but one would be invariably stained, whether you win loss...…you"ve got some guts!" Anya spoke up, but her voice was so low that the anger in it made the very air vibrate.
"Basically yes that"s what"s going to happen, however you misunderstand my aim. Alex is going to be my husband, in fact right now he could be considered half my husband, his reputation and honor is mine just admit is yours. Even if I don"t love him, I love my reputation very much so I wouldn"t out him in a situation that would put that I jeopardy. We don"t have to go up an challenge anyone, they"ll bring the fight to us, and we can use that to our advantage to either get rid of them, or bring them to heel." Victoria said as she took a sip out of a gla.s.s of red wine.
Through it all Alex was silent, as he tried to make heads and tails of whatever schemes Victoria wanted to come up with. But it was better if she laid everything on the table, Alex would be a fool to fully trust her words, at least not at this stage, so as long as he knew what was fully going on or even partly, then he would be able to take counter measures of his own to prevent any sort of drama or scenario that ends up with his trousers on his ankles.
"I got the idea from the way you just bounced in and took Minerva"s tower away from her, instead of a head on fight, why not just mess with economy in the academy a little. Because the people supporting my compet.i.tion, all have children or chosen one"s of their family learning here, get rid of them, and out them to heel, making sure it looks like the fault of their chosen support and we can cause disarray in their camp, besides there"ll probably be a bunch of people willing to jump ship for enough benefits and a.s.surance of victory.
And right now, I have the best chance out of every sibling to get that throne, but the others are killing at my heels, I have to thoroughly grind them to dust. I"ll give you a list of targets, these guys are staunch supporters of my siblings and nothing I do might be able to sway them, so we have to bring them down, killing them is not really required, but actions that would affect the foundation of their family back home would be nice. Many families and sects rely on the reputation of the Scions within the Academy to move around, we"ll eliminate it. Also you might not know this, but the academy is an open investment plan, families, schools, sects, powerful individuals have businesses and investments here worth millions and billions of gold...let"s take it, all of it. Because we"re going to need a lot of money for what"s to come." Alex just looked at her and asked.
"When do we start?" Victoria smiled and stretched both her legs under the table, touching both Alex and Anya as she motioned her head behind them, pointing to a group people coming up the stairs directly opposite their private room.
"How about now!"