"That"s my cousin Ming and my other cousin Walter, from both sides of my family tree and are quite the famous lovers around here. They"re also staunch supporters of the tenth prince, my brother who had tried taking Anya away from you. Ming"s family is a part of the royal Lu family, however the bloodline is a little thin on her end.Her family run an opium/Alchemical opium operation right here in the academy. There"s hardly any sort of substance that can give cultivators and mages the high needed once they want to unwind, but her great grandfather had discovered the plants on a dimensional expedition some four hundred years ago, and from then till now, it has been raising a ridiculous amount of money for them. Estimates say they make at least 5 trillion good coins every year alone from the sales, and they alone have a monopoly over the plants. For her our target would probably be to get the seeds and the method to cultivate them, and get a portion of the shares. Worldwide, her family is the 3rd richest in the entire world, which is why they so important and valued.
My other cousin Walter on the other hand is even closer to the throne of Albion than I am, my mom is a princess or was, Walter is the son of her elder brother from another mother. The siblings have hated each other since young, and Walter saw the need to carry it over into our generation. Walter runs mining operation for his father in the Dimension that the academy uses to train the students, he receives regular shipments every week of the most precious of ores and gems, materials to make better weapons and enchanted items. Not exactly an arms business, but responsible for providing the materials needed to make weapons...…and jewelry.
His father might not have as much money as his Ming"s, but he"s still a royal and given the nature of both their businesses they run in the same circles, having the same contacts and making the same deals. As far as money is concerned, they"re the biggest fish in the pond, and one that neither empire can control, so let"s help ourselves to portion of the pie."
The princess was certainly greedy, but even though Alex didn"t know much, he knew businesses such as the ones Ming and Walter"s families had couldn"t not have been built in one day, and they would obviously be relying on people to move a few things around, just as people would be relying on them to move things around for them too.
The academy being a school was just a f.u.c.king façade, this place was a literal no man"s land, with no rules or fear of repercussions where the elite of earth carry out their shady dealings and in some way or the other, introduce their children into the family business. A lot of funds has been sunk into this place, so it came as no surprise why the academy was as powerful as it was, and Alex was definitely sure that the people benefiting the most from all of this was the academy itself.
Alex watched as Walter and Ming came closer, from where he was sitting ex could smell the heavy perfume that she was wearing, and he couldn"t help it when he suddenly sneezed out. He was just as shocked as Anya and Victoria, though given the amused smile on Victoria"s face, Alex sneezing as they came close was a welcome development. The private rooms had doors, but Victoria had purposely didn"t left theirs open, so just as they could see Ming and Walter, they could also see them. Ming felt insulted and embarra.s.sed, sure it might be a coincidence but did he have to sneeze when she and her lover had gotten close to them.
"Cousin I would advice you to put your man toy on a short leash, we wouldn"t want to break the gift from your father the emperor. Walter spoke up, annoyance etched all over his fair face as the accent used synonymous with the people of the Albion empire slithered out with his words.
"Is that so Walter, well I will put that in mind. But you seem to be getting the wrong idea, my father did not gift him to me, I was gifted to him. Get your facts straight cousin, you"re already enough of a disappointment to grandmother and grandfather, don"t give them any more grief." Victoria answered him with a nonchalant vibe to her words, enough that it would lie anyone off just the way she spoke, rather than the words themselves.
"I guess the standards of Emiliano"s Combat restaurant has dropped in the beginning of this new semester, but they can"t be blamed. Some trash are just born into positions they don"t deserve." Ming said as she raised her nose into the air, by this point Anya was already tired with all of the back and forth banter.
"Please can you move along, you smell!"
And that was loud enough for the entire floor to hear, there was no one here who didn"t have a sensitive enough nose to know Ming had come into the restaurant. She was well known for her heavy perfume, but this was the first time that someone straight out called her out on it, even going so far as to say she smelled. Obviously Anya had just gotten herself a nemesis, but obviously the girl didn"t give a s.h.i.t.
"How!...how!....how dare you! You uneducated barbaric Savage! You"re the one that smells, it"s your whole family that smells!" Ming had lost her cool, but if she thought she was a hot head then she hadn"t met Anya yet, and the fact that it was in such a way was all to her misfortune. Anya wasn"t just a hothead, she had a poisonous mouth to boot.
"You say I smell, but you"re the only one any one can perceive in this restaurant, even the food is loosing it"s taste. I don"t get it! Why would you be smelling so much, it begs the question about the taste of that Walter dude that looks like he"s got a ten foot pole shoved up his overly pompous and pampered a.s.s. He must have some really weird fetishes if he can handle the stink coming off your body, so I"m really scared for you! If your body smells this much then...…I can"t imagine how rank it would be down there! Are you sure it"s not a nest for maggots?" Alex and Victoria simultaneously spat out the wine in their mouths. Victoria burst out laughing while Alex looked at Anya with his ears burning, he felt embarra.s.sed for her, he really did.
Ming on the other hand had watery eyes and no words, so she turned around and ran out the restaurant her face in her palms as her body was wracked with sobs. Anya had just made an enemy, and it was not because they were Victoria"s enemies, nah it wasn"t as complicated as that. It was simply because Ming"s perfume had made Alex sneeze, and instead of moving on, Ming her dainty looking boyfriend was putting on airs. It p.i.s.sed her off, and she responded in kind. Walter looked at them, pure undisguised fury in his eyes as he glared at the three people in front of him.
"This is far from over Victoria, you and your hooligans will pay for this!"
"I"ve told you already Walter! They"re not my hooligans, I actually belong to them!" she yelled out to him as he left the restaurant, her mocking laughter escorting him out.
"They can make things really difficult for us you know, they have more resources in hand to f.u.c.k us up badly." Alex said to Victoria as he leaned back and held Anya"s hand under the table.
"Just join my tower, that wouldn"t be a problem too difficult for me to handle." Victoria said to him as she tried convincing Alex to for all intents and purposes; move in with her.
"Oh I"m not worried, in fact I would very much welcome a challenge. Whether it"s a battle or a contest of schemes and intellect. For now it"s better if I remain separate from you, sure the world knows we"re getting married, but if we"re not in the same tower, it would give the impression than one of us or both of us aren"t too happy with the arrangements, it would paint a target on our backs and take a few eyes of yours. Because even then, whether or not we do want to get married, we"re still considered a pair in the same camp, and an attack on me is an attack on you.
They"ll come after me since they can hit you directly, and that"s just what I want. So far I"ve learnt cultivators and mages or any other pract.i.tioners are very prideful, they"ll make stupid deals in the name of reputation. I"ll use that to my advantage." Alex answered her with a smile.
"But wouldn"t the pressure be too much?" Victoria asked, but this time it was Anya who answered.
"They say Alex"s talent makes his rate of advancement really slow when it comes to cultivation, his grandfather even believes that Alex might also have a Mana heart and element so he can become a mage too, but it"s already hard enough to advance with Qi talk less of adding Mana to it. But we"ve discovered his cultivation advances faster than normal, like 20 times the speed of normal people when he"s under pressure, be it physically or mentally. As long as he keeps pushing his mind, body and soul to the limit, he would be blowing through levels and realms like it"s nothing.
Which is the only reason we both don"t mind being your sword and shield while you use daggers to stab others in the back. All of use in our tower would be forged even stronger from the pressure coming out way, so we welcome it with open arms. But can you keep them off our backs for a month or two while Alex"s gets things set up, he needs to focus on fixing that tower and getting some resources. And don"t offer any help, his pride as a man won"t let him accept help, much less from you." Anya sneered when she said the last part, obviously she gave no f.u.c.ks about Alex"s stupid pride, but Victoria understood, after all she grew up in the midst of powerful men, and their pride was incredibly important to them.
"Very well then, I"ll do as you ask. For now anyway our targets would be Walter and Ming, because they have what would probably be the most important resource for the fight to come, and one we need to get our hands on first." Victoria said to them.
"And what resource is that?" Anya asked, And Alex gave her the answer.
"MONEY!"