Chapter 22 – Plans for the Second Phase

    The meeting with my parents were surprisingly formal even for me. They welcomed me as if I were an envoy and acted formally... which I was not used to. It threw me into a loop, to be honest! Sasha wasn''t faring any better; she felt as if she wanted to melt into the ground and run away. My Mother scanned her from top to bottom whenever they looked at her. It was nothing like our previous visits... not at all!

    "We read all your reports!" My Father started while we sat in the castle''s conference room, facing each other over a wide mahogany table. "Do you have anything to add?"

    "Um..." I blinked, my eyes flusteredly, "No, I haven''t. I already told you everything!"

    "So you are going through with it?" He pressed on further, crossing his muscular arms before his chest, looking at me with the eyes of a predator, ready to strike. What the hell was going on here? Did the Empire contact them? Or what?!

    "Yes!" I answered in the end, starting to feel annoyed and getting aggressive myself. "Even if you have problems with it! My ideas are right, and it would greatly benefit our land and people!"

    "It would. And it would concentrate the power in our family''s hand." My mom interjected, turning her head from Sasha, finally looking at me.

    "And?" I asked back, now feeling defiant against their accusatory tone and looks. "So what? From what I have seen, they are living in a pigsty! Our castle is not much better!" The moment I said it, I thought I saw a dangerous flash go through my Mother''s eyes, but it was not the time to start backing down.

    "The local nobles won''t like it." Father continued, and in turn, I couldn''t help but chortle.

    "So what? They have power because of us! They were appointed to lead some sectors. Oversee food production, hunting, the security of the towns, and so on! Are they really nobles? I don''t really see them that! They are the same as any other civilian under us! The only difference is that they pocketed benefits for themselves, skimming off the top that is coming from our rule anyway! Are they unhappy? Why should I care?"

    "They have power."

    "Bullshit!" I slammed at the desk, "They don''t! I have the power here because all the people who have been working with me in the past summers realize what I am doing! Especially now that the skeleton of my work is getting visible and they could experience the barebone functions, keeping them warm through the winter!"

    "They still have influence over many and can raise an army."

    "An army?" I smirked at my Mother, "We have the army right here!"

    "Which is under my rule!" Father boomed, "And they won''t leave the walls!"

    "If these so-called nobles," I shouted back, "recruit peasants to fight for them, I am confident in standing out and calling those people to my side! They won''t have any ''army'' to speak of!"

    "They can hire mercenaries." Mother added nonchalantly, which... I had no answers for. Yet.

    "I am still confident in dealing with them. I will deal with them. It has been set into motion, and if you are starting to doubt me now, then I am sad to say it is too late! I will go through with it; these nobles can suck my dick! If they want, they can join me to start their own businesses; I won''t stand in their way to make a fortune! But if they think they can stand in my way, then I will grind them into the ground and make them into the fertilizer for a better future!"

    "Huh..." Mother exclaimed softly, forming a smile and elbowing my Father, who was also trying to hold back a grin, "He inherited the best things from you and me, it seems!"

    "I told you! Let''s push him a little and place some pressure on him to see if he buckles or has the backbone of mine! Bwahahaha! Good kid, good kid!"

    "I''m not finished!" I added with a raised hand, "I only answered what I want to do with the food side of the problem! I am going to address the nobles now!" With a smack of my lip, I couldn''t help but shake my head at what I was about to say, "You gave me an idea. About mentioning mercenaries... okay. I will hire my own mercs!"

    "And how do you plan to do that?" Father raised his voice along with his eyebrows.

    "I spoke poorly... I will hire bandits."

    "What?!" Not just my parents rose from their seats but Sasha, too.

    "Heard me right!" I looked at them, deadly serious. "I will hire bandits, thugs, scum. I will aim their weapons at our nobles who wouldn''t back down and use them for the dirty work. We can clean them up in one fell swoop when they are finished!"

    This silenced them quickly, and I let them think about it while sitting there calmly. When nobody wanted to say anything, I cleared my throat, continuing.

    "I''m not naive. The world is not kind, and I am not a saint either. I want to create a place where I can enjoy life, and if others stand in my way, I will deal with them. In this scenario, we only lose those who, even if joining me, would try to cause trouble! I don''t need partners who can''t play nice! On the other hand, we get rid of scummy ones!"

    "Our territory has very little in terms of bandits. Even if there are some, they are equipped with sickles and pitchforks!" Father grunted first, nodding at me, giving me the green light to continue with my idea.

    "Nope! Not yet!" I shrugged, "This only came to me now! I was thinking about how we could play it off, and even if someone reports it, we would only scolded for not keeping our borders clean! We would have no linkbacks to the connection to the bandits; trust me on that!"

    "I can point you the way."

    "Mother?" I perked up, curious, but she shook her head.

    "Give me time as I need to exchange some letters first with my family! I will do it along with traveling back home and bringing some of the scented soap with me! It should take a month or two, but I''ll be back by the summer! Then we will speak about it again!"

    "I knew I could count on you!" I grinned at my parents, who simply shook their heads.

    "Now! About another important news!" She turned back to her serious mode, looking at Sasha, making her yelp and go stiff. "Are you pregnant or not?"

    "Not!" She replied like a soldier; I almost imagined her standing up and saluting.

    "Tsk! Then work on it!" She grumbled, making me twitch my mouth.

    "I can see the change in you! My son already made you his, right? Then start giving me grandkids! I want four! No, make it six!"

    "Woah, woah, Mom, let''s not put weights on her, okay?! It happens when it happens!" I waved my hands after seeing Sasha turn as red as fire, afraid she would accidentally summon a blazing inferno.

    "Yeah!" Father joined in, feeling just as troubled, glancing apologetically at Sasha, "Don''t worry about it; I am sure it will happen!"

    "Yes, we are doing it regularly!" I blurted out, making it even worse, resulting in me quickly escaping to my old room, dragging Sasha behind me, still hearing Mother yelling from afar, saying she would herself come in and instruct us in which pose makes it most efficient... Haaah... geez... I thought my Father was a beast in bed... turns out my Mother is worse...