Chapter 78：New Goals

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Shortly after Rose left Sicilia's safe house in a hurry to return to Finaflor mansion, an irritated voice rang through the office as a woman with pitch-black hair and golden eyes forced her way though the doors of Sicilia's office. A look of irritation and annoyance which matched her irritated voice was written all over her face .

The golden-eyed woman didn't seem to mind or even care about the wraiths that flanked her sides, ready to attack at a moment's notice and instead she proceeded to stand over Sicilia with her arms crossed while Sicilia herself leisurely leaned back against her seat.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

In response to the sudden intruder; the Breetish Royal Admiral; Michelle's appearance, Sicilia would only shrug as she gave her answer to Michelle's original question.

"All that my subordinates and I has done was to work to fulfil our part of the agreement of this 'joint operation.' In fact, isn't it I who should be mad at you for falsely accusing me of nothing when you have an army to be leading? I've played my part now why don't you play yours."

Sicilia spotted a kind of unidentifiable 'flash' appear in Michelle's eyes as her irritated face appeared to fade away while she was taking in a deep breath before exhaling. While the irritation wasn't completely eliminated, Michelle at least appeared to be a lot less threatening than before.

It was almost as if Michelle had the ability to subdue that look all along but for some reason, chose not to.

Whatever the reason actually was, Sicilia knew that she would probably never find out, nor did she actually care about what the actual reason was.

Other than just to sate her morbid curiosity, Sicilia would have nothing to gain from prying into Michelle's personal choices.

Thus all she could and would do was listen to Michelle's response.

A response that to Sicilia's slight surprise came at a tone that was eerily vaguely familiar to her. It was just that she couldn't exactly lay her finger on what it actually was.

"So I guess unnecessarily comprising everything is also part of your duties within this 'joint operation' is it?"

Utterly shocked by Michelle's answer, Siciclia opened up her mouth to respond only to be immediately interrupted by Michelle. Her mouth curved upwards into a wide smile as she shrugged casually in a mockingly similar manner to how Sicilia shrugged earlier.

"Oh please, for someone who is supposed to be responsible for a lot of the Imperium's covet operations, even Maxwell can lie better than you."

"..."

Sicilia was instantly rendered speechless upon the mention of her brother. She didn't know what it was exactly that caused her to lose her voice, all she knew was that it happened.

"Well... don't you have something that you have to say for yourself? Or are you so bad at making up an excuse that you need me to do it for you?"

"W-what does it matter to you anyway?!"

Sicilia felt what she perceived to be an 'unidentifiable flash' similar to that of which that appeared in Michelle's eyes appear in her own eyes as she made her response to the black-haired Breetish admiral.

"I can do what I want! I am not another one who just bends the knee to Maxwell! I am my own person damn it! Screw you!"

That was what Sicilia wanted to say.

However, she knew that she could not possibly allow herself to do such a thing.

Although those words clawed at her very being, trying to force themselves out of her mouth, Sicilia remained unmoved.

Except for one person, she has never disgraced herself in front of anyone before in her life.

And she wasn't going to start now.

Instead she responded to Michelle with something completely different.

"I apologise for my sudden rude outburst, why don't we have a more civilised talk? I'll even have one of my subordinates serve you a glass of wine. Freshly wine imported from the mountains of Benice."

Although Sicilia should have little reason to hold a friendly expression when facing Michelle, that was exactly what she did when she 'apologised.'

On the other hand, when Michelle heard Sicilia's response, her mockingly wide smile regressing into a kind faint smile as she replied to Sicilia. Her expression almost perfectly mimicking that of Sicilia's.

"I will take you up on that offer. That and I too, apologise for my sudden rude outburst when I literally busted into your office."

Michelle sighed as she stopped standing and instead sat down as she was speaking with Sicilia.

"But you must understand that I do not appreciate how you just needlessly compromised the integrity of not only this operation, but the Confederacy's plans for this war. After all, you are aware of what role Rose plays for the 'future' for Portegol and you just needlessly antagonised her."

Sicilia casually waved her hand as she waved away Michelle's concerns. As she did so, one of her wraiths; Aldrin appeared before proceeding to place two glasses in front of the two and filling them both with fine wine.

It was only after Aldrin finished pouring the wine did Sicilia choose to speak up again.

"It'll be fine, I was only teasing her. It was her own choice to needlessly head for her mansion, I didn't force it upon her. Besides she should be safe. I have a few of my subordinates keeping tabs on her. I've... added a few parameters so that things won't deviate to much from our original plans."

As Sicilia spoke, Michelle's faint smile continued to fade away. By the time that Sicilia finished speaking, Michelle's smiled faded away in its entirety that her face became a blank state, her expression almost mirroring that of the stone-faced commander-in-chief of the Imperial Army; Erika.

However, Sicilia felt that it was not because Michelle wanted to maintain a professional disposition like Erika typically does that she held that expression, instead she felt that it was something a bit more 'personal.' However, annoyingly, Sicilia just could not decipher the emotions held within Michelle's eyes.

Sicilia hated it.

She hated not being able to read someone's intentions.

No, Sicilia could read technically read Michelle's emotions right now.

No, what she hated was something else.

What she actually hated was the inability to read whatever thoughts was lying in someone's mind.

Because knowledge is power.

Raw physical 'power' is in of itself power, that is true.

But power comes in many forms.

The ability to manipulate people can be said to be 'power.'

And how could one manipulate a person without knowing their thoughts?

At the very least, if one couldn't manipulate a person no matter how much they knew what the person was actually thinking, one could at least feel safe with the ability to read a person's thoughts.

Even knowing just a snippet of their thoughts was enough to make Sicilia feel self-assured.

There was just an indescribable feeling that came from knowing what the other person was thinking.

She could do it with Cromwell.

She could do it with Kiezwell.

She could even do it with the normally expressionless Erika.

There was only one other person that Sicilia had a hard time reading their thoughts...

Just one person.

And that was Maxwell.

Sicilia didn't know how to describe it.

It just felt as if whatever thoughts Maxwell was thinking were all 'out of this world.'

While his eyes told her what he was currently feeling, it never told Sicilia what he was currently thinking.

She tried her best to guess what it was, but her guesses were either proven wrong entirely or left unanswered.

And now, she was facing the same problems with Michelle.

It was at that moment that Sicilia remembered a conversation she had with Erika.

"Oh Michelle? She's fine I guess... It's just that she's... she's just such a GOD DAMN BITCH! I HATE HER! I LOATH HER! I DESPISE HER! I-..."

Sicilia believed that she has never before seen Erika that mad. All Sicilia did was literally ask Erika about her thoughts on Michelle and that explosive outburst was the response she received.

Sicilia herself rarely interacted with the enigmatic Breetish admiral who usually only interacted with Maxwell himself and in some cases with Kiezwell or Michelle. Sicilia either didn't have the time to properly interact with Michelle or just didn't have the time.

Now that Sicilia thought about it, Maxwell often personally met with and had appointments with Michelle more than any other person if Erika is excluded. What would he would have typically done was have someone else do it for him and for him to just receive a report of the result.

Could it be?

Could there be something that both Maxwell and Michelle inherently held that allowed them to do the things they did?

They were both not only enigmatic people in their own right, but they were quite well accomplished as well.

To list their entire list of accomplishments and feats was a monotonous and tedious procedure.

Instead Sicilia opted to just make a quick summary of the culmination of their achievements in her mind.

Maxwell revolutionised military warfare on the ground while Michelle revolutionised military warfare on the sea.

Of course, Sicilia was already aware of this rather convenient 'coincidence' but now that she thought about it, perhaps there was more to this than Sicilia originally thought.

It was when that revelation flashed through Sicilia's mind that her eyes quickly widened due to the pure shock.

At that moment, she noticed that weirdly enough, Michelle continued to remain completely unperturbed by Sicilia's actions.

Instead she continued to sit down with that ever-present expressionless expression on her face as she continued to sip on her wine and silently nodded at Sicilia in acknowledgement of Sicilia's answer.

It would seem that Michelle had no intentions to respond to Sicilia.

Nevertheless, Sicilia didn't mind.

Sicilia did not know if Michelle was actually aware of Sicilia's thoughts or how much time has passed. And quite frankly she did not care.

There was something that Michelle and Maxwell were hiding.

Something that allowed them to accomplish their feats.

Something that was responsible for their thinking process and capabilities.

Mentally, Sicilia smiled to herself.

Who would have thought that there existed a goal more interesting than gaining immortality?

As Sicilia sipped on her own glass of wine as she sat opposite to Michelle, she mentally added another objective to her growing list of end-game life goals.

If it would take her one year or a thousand.

If it would take her one lifetime or a thousand.

She will uncover their secret, no matter the cost.