Chapter 129: Offer

"I have to admit and apologise. Dear, I didn't expect you to be able to offer such a solution. For underestimating you, I do honestly apologise."

After several moments of walking, I finally gathered myself to speak. Lowering my head to accompany the words of the apology I expressed my honest emotions.

"Ah, no, there is no need for you…"

Startled by my behaviour, Ayda twitched before starting to panic. Seeing her loitering around like that, in the cute clothes that she picked for herself, I felt a sting on my heart. Not from some unwelcomed sadness, but from pure happiness.

"Give credit when it's due. This kind of solution completely slipped out of my mind… Or rather, I don't think I would be capable of seeing it in the first place. While I never had any doubts regarding your capabilities… Heck, to think you would exceed my expectations so quickly!"

Reaching out with my hand, I ruffled Ayda's soft hair with a gentle smile. Taking my hand back, I looked down the corridor to confirm we were relatively alone.

"As much as I would love to just cuddle you somewhere and spend the entire evening praising you, your proposition only added more work on top of what we had to deal with before. Are you ready to take responsibility for such an ingenious solution?"

Sending a quick wink to the girl, I was blessed with the sight of her face filling with energy and determination. 

"As long as you secure your place here, you will be able to do the same in my place, right?"

Snuggling towards me, Ayda hid her face in my chest. Placing my hands on the back of her head, I closed the embrace.

"Don't worry. Once we are done here, nothing will be able to stop us on the other side. Speaking of which, I already have some ideas. Come with me."

No matter how pleasant just hugging Ayda was, doing so wouldn't push any of our agendas forward. Be it the position and financial stability of my faction on earth or the liberation of the witches from the oppression back in Ayda's words, each of those tasks was simply too big to be tackled at once. That's why, only by splitting them into several problems of smaller magnitude each and consistently working on them would I be able to finally obtain at least a momentary peace.

"Sure."

Sneakily grabbing my hand as I unveiled my arms from around her shoulders, Ayda trodded behind me with her face illuminated by her bright smile. 

In just a few moments, we moved from the general wing of the mansion when all the workers had access to, to my private part of the entire compound. Located right on top of the ruins of my former home, it was located relatively on the outer part of the entire area. 

If one were to take the current shape of the main building of my faction into consideration, it would make a huge letter 'H'. The front of the compound consisted of a huge gate complex with a lot of office space. It was the home to all the small and big deals that my faction was making with anyone from the other areas of the town. 

The short part that connected the two long lines of concrete was the actual heart of the entire faction. From the private rooms of the more important executives, through the several meeting rooms and even gyms located in the underground, it housed everything that my cult could afford to show to the outside world. 

True magic began once one would step into the backside of the entire compound. With a huge hall right at the intersection with the connector, one could travel either to the more secretive areas for example Sander had his workshop, or one could take the opposite turn and reach my private quarters.

Taking up the entire wing of the backside of the building, it had way more space than necessary. Even though the dome above the basement took nearly half of the first two ground floors, the life was bustling directly above it. 

Sander's workers continued to move the raw and manufactured goods in and out of the warehouse, administrators continued to bring the foundatory requests only to leave with fat stacks of cash or cheques… Even if some kind of important guests were to visit, I could organise an entire penthouse for him without infringing on the ongoing logistic of the people inside the building.

But now, rather than stopping by one of the heavily used areas, I lead Ayda to one of the quarters where only those who I personally invited had access.

"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sir!"

Standing at attention once I entered the room, Penne instantly lowered his head in a respectful bow. Even though he had to wait for several hours confined to this room and this room alone, there was no sign of boredom or anxiety on his face. Rather than that, his eyes were filled with the strange, primal energy of someone who suddenly saw the path to achieve the impossible.

"Dear, this is Penne, one of the young people that were quick on their decision to explore the appearing dungeons. If you wouldn't mind, do you think you could teach him witchcraft? I would be especially happy if you had a more battle-oriented set of skills to impart to him though."

This was something that continued to appear in my mind on several occasion, yet never seemed to be important enough for me to bother my mind with. According to Ayda's words, witchcraft relied on combining the invocation of a particular spell with a singular emotion. While I infused my emotions with skills that I believed could be of help back when I still hoped to save my mother, they weren't by any means strong in terms of fighting. 

But that didn't mean it was impossible to create a witch oriented at the battle!

"Sir…?"

Staring blankly at the two of us, one of which was the head of the local, powerful faction, the other one being a cute girl in even cuter clothes who still had the privilege of being addressed with such familiarity by me. For Penne, this had to be the most peculiar sight he ever saw.

That is, besides learning about his flame sleeping with someone else.

"That's doable, but it mostly depends on how hardworking he is. Tell me, what would be the purpose for his training though? What do you want him to accomplish once he will be prepared?"

Looking at me seriously and releasing a deep sigh, Ayda finished.

"Knowing that in advance would make it easier to prepare a training regime for him."

For some reason, this damned girl had to assume that I expected an explanation. Maybe it was a play on her part aimed at keeping our social standing unperturbed in the eyes of the young adventurer? Or maybe she actually believed that I would bother to hide something like that from her?

Unable to discern which one accurately described Ayda's thoughts, I simply cast those ideas aside before focusing on the young man in front of me. 

"Penne, I remember that I felt a great energy from you. Energy propelled by the wish to change your current situation. Tell me, how far are you willing to go to take revenge on those looking down on you?"

Ignoring Ayda's inquiry, for the time being, I asked.

"Look down on me? I'm not that sure what your excellency has on mind…"

Escaping with his eyes to the side, Penne didn't dare to accept the intense stare of mine. 

"..."

Rather than answering the question, I leaned my head to the side, still keeping my eyes on the young man. After a while, I turned my sight back to Ayda.

"Well, now you get the gist of the situation. I want him to be a kind of hero for our dungeon. Can you make it happen?"

Not even bothering to wait for Penne's approval, I directly asked Ayda about her opinion.

"A hero for that place, huh… Hmm… That might work. So, are you interested? In becoming the most recognised accomplished adventurer? Do you want your face to become the symbol of heroism and prestige?"

Turning her lips into a straight line for a moment, Ayda couldn't hold for long. Bursting with the giggle that she attempted to hold back, she had to close her mouth with her hand not to disturb the talks.

"Hero? What do you mean?"

At first, I thought that Penne was simply too dense to accept the reality that was dawning upon him, but after a second thought, I realised that he simply refused to accept reality because of how bright it was. 

"As I said. My faction will heavily invest in creating something that you might recognise as the adventurer's guild from many novels that I believe you read in your past. And I want to use your face to promote this idea. But that means I need to make you capable of shouldering the burden of such position."

Putting a wide smile on my face, I looked intensely at the young man who actually couldn't be more than just a few years younger than me. 

"In other words, I'm asking if you would like to become powerful enough to stand on the top so that you could be of use for me? Just imagine the face that those fake friends of yours will make when you suddenly raise beyond the level they could ever dream of reaching!"