Page 107

I sat in the living room on the Top floor after coming back from meeting Lucian.

I was thinking about Gunnar and what to do next, but my thoughts drifted to Elina.

She was an interesting girl, but far too reserved.

Maybe after giving her the gift, I could expect her to warm up to me a bit.

Just as I was indulging in my thoughts, Lucian entered the living room.

"May I come in, Your Highness?" he asked from outside the room, his presence breaking my stream of thoughts as I looked up at him.

"Why such formalities, Lucian?" I said, signaling for him to come inside and sit on the sofa beside the one I was sitting on. "It’s not like you could have entered this floor if I hadn’t invited you," I added, reminding him that if he was here, he already had my permission—I didn’t need to say everything verbally.

"Astral Knights," Lucian said as he sat on the sofa I had gestured to, his tone reminiscent and slightly amused. "I would surely have had some friendly encounters," he reminisced.

"Well, we’ll get to that too, but first we need to meet Gunnar," I said as he settled on the sofa placed to my right.

"He’ll come to present his report any moment," I told him, recalling what Eldon had informed me after I came back.

Gunnar had wanted an audience to discuss the operation, and I had instructed Eldon to allow it.

We discussed the matter as Gunnar arrived at the entrance to the living room.

"May I enter, Your Highness?" he asked. I looked up at him while talking to Lucian, then gestured for him to enter as I concluded my conversation.

He walked in and stood before me. I noticed the tension in the air the moment he saw Lucian.

"Greetings, Your Highness," he said, to which I responded with a simple gesture acknowledging his greeting.

"Greetings, brother," Lucian said. I visibly saw Gunnar clench his fists.

"How have you been?" Lucian added, as Gunnar clenched his jaw, clearly forcing himself to reply.

"I am fine, Lucian," he said after a pause, his voice strained. "What about you?"

"I am fine as well, thanks to His Highness’s grace," Lucian answered. The meaning veiled behind his seemingly simple reply hung in the air, adding to the ever-increasing tension in the room. I could feel the essence stirring between them, conveying their true feelings.

"Now, if you two are done getting lost in each other’s eyes, shall we get to the topic at hand?" I said, intervening just at the right moment to stop them from staining my elegant living room with blood, as was evident from the escalating stir of essence in the air.

They broke eye contact and looked at me, both offering apologies. I wouldn’t have minded a bloody show, but we had things to do. Gunnar presented a document, placing it on the elegant and exaggerated white table in front of me.

"This is the plan of action for this operation, Your Highness," he said as I picked up the document.

"Go on," I said, leaning back on the plush sofa as I opened the document.

"As we know, there are 300,000 Knights of Bastion whose armors need to be enchanted. To save costs, we are going to recall their armors for repairs and reinforcement before enchanting and returning them," he began, explaining the overall objective as I read.

"Now, we can’t just recall all the armors at once and leave the knights at the borders defenseless in case of a surprise attack. To solve this, we will use the 75,000 armors present in the armory as reserves," he explained. The armory held reserve armors and equipment for all levels of knights.

"So we will deliver 75,000 armors to the knights and collect their armors in return. After modifying the armors, we will send them back and give the 75,000 reserve armors to the next batch of knights," he continued.

"So we’ll need to complete this operation in four cycles," I commented, summarizing his explanation.

"Yes, Your Highness," he confirmed.

"And the budget will also be divided into four chunks?" I asked. He nodded in affirmation.

"We know that House Llewellyn is responsible for the operation of cargo wagons in and out of the estate," he said.

Each house had its defined industry. House Aurivell was responsible for mining the special materials used to build carriages, which were specifically designed for nocturnals and vampires since ordinary wagons wouldn’t suffice.

House Valecrate, on the other hand, managed passenger carriages.

The estate had two types of carriages: passenger carriages controlled by House Valecrate, and cargo wagons for transporting goods, which were under House Llewellyn’s jurisdiction.

Hearing about House Llewellyn reminded me of a particularly strict teacher, but I reined in my thoughts and focused on what Gunnar was saying.

"To deliver 75,000 armors, we’ll need about 1,250 cargo wagons. The budget will be divided into four portions of 250,000 crescent coins, out of which 50,000 will be allocated to cargo wagons to ensure the armors are delivered to and from the borders and the inner circle.

"Of the remaining funds, 100,000 will go to House Blackwood for repairing and reinforcing the armors, while the other 100,000 will be allocated to House Rylan for enchanting the armors," he concluded, providing an overview of the operation.

"So right now, you need to withdraw 250,000 crescent coins to set the first phase in motion?" I asked, setting the report down.

"Yes, Your Highness," he confirmed.

"Lucian will accompany you as my sign of approval, and you can withdraw the required funds," I concluded, ignoring the tick in Gunnar’s jaw and the glint in his eyes as Lucian stood up and bowed in acknowledgment.

"Go now. I will study this report in detail," I said as Gunnar finally controlled himself and left with Lucian.

What a child he was—so easily revealing his dislike and giving others the opportunity to provoke him. Immature, despite having lived so long.

One lesson I had learned well in my previous life, moving from a low-salary employee to a business tycoon, was that only with enough power in hand could one afford to display their likes and dislikes openly. Only then could they eliminate their enemies without giving away their weaknesses.

Had I not been born so high on the food chain in this life, I would have invested more effort into controlling my emotions and suppressing my beast until I amassed sufficient power. But as it stood In this life, I was born so privileged that no one would dare to oppose me.

This was going to be interesting. As much as I loved to indulged my beast in carnal pleasures and delivering Pure unbridled sexual, my true inclination, the main forbidden emotion which had caused my beast to be Satiated enough to merger with my beastwas towards chaos and carnage.

A faint silver glint filled my eyes as the thought settled in my mind.