Chapter 10

I waited until the door closed behind Nora before letting a long audible sigh. My tense shoulders sliding down the chair as I did so.

"Fuck. It's all your fault Kalden your rash decisions killed an innocent family for nothing."

I said to myself aloud, collapsing back against my chair, staring mindlessly at the door for a few seconds.

"I need a drink."

Pulling out the bottom right drawer revealed a small fridge, inside was two glasses and a bottle of carbonated Sake.

Ignoring the glasses, I unscrewed the cap and started drinking, this was not the first time my actions have caused the death of innocents, and it won't be the last. But the initial feeling of guilt would stay with me for the next two hours at least, and I have no desire to be sober during the two hours.

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When I woke up, the small clock on my desk indicated it was already four in the evening. A blanket had been draped on me, with a sleeping Ken sat across from me, snoring cutely as he drooled onto the desk.

I could feel a wide smile stretching out my lips as I watched Ken's shoulder rise and fall rhythmically with his breathing.

"You're going to catch cold sleeping like this," I whispered, lifting Ken up, bridal style, which was an easy feat, he weighted almost nothing in my arms. Ken was a surprisingly deep sleeper and did not rouse despite my inexperienced handling.

I was in the middle of setting Ken back into bed when the door connecting the bedroom to the office opened.

"Ah. So that's-" Mike stopped himself when he saw Ken's sleeping form in my arms, he nodded and turned around back into the study room, taking a seat by the meeting table, I could see a stack of papers already stacked on top of it.

The conversation I had with Mike yesterday popped back into my head. The morning's events had made me forget all about it.

Quickly, I tucked Ken into bed, silently closing the door and walked over to the meeting table, sitting directly opposite from him.

"Good evening Kalden, Is something wrong? You look... troubled." (Mike)

"Good evening Mike, and no, I'm fine, just some troubling intelligence failures from the CIA, Nora fixing it. Now, what do you have for me?"

"I poured through the Danthron's holdings, and the seized assets from the corrupt officials and the recently arrested GLA members. We currently control two banks, a Ragnite mine and a Ragnite refinery and several steel mills. We can consolidate them to create the Atlas Corporation."

Mike said, sliding over a thick binder towards me.

"What about the food side of the company?"

"It would take about two months for us to set everything up. We have to create this from the ground up. It is also going to take a significant initial investment."

"Would one million ducals of initial investment get this going?"

"More than enough."

"Good. Get the money from Rhona and set it up."

"You got it."

I know setting up a company is going to take time and with the Fief being cash strapped it does not sound like a good decision right now. But the main goal of the company, at least for now is to reduce the massive unemployment rate in the city in a much more sustainable manner.

If done right, the Atlas Corporation will reduce unemployment at the same time make me much-needed funds.