RISE OF EROS

The next day, Andrew called a meeting in the office to discuss some issues. At the meeting were present, Andrew, Carolina, Helena, Aki, Oliver, and Marie, who were pretty much the central core of the Heavenly Palace.

Once everyone was in the office, Andrew wasted no time in ceremonious acts and began to speak, "There are 3 points I want to discuss", he paused and added, "First, now we have the money, so Carolina, coordinate with Victor, and purchase the 3 premises we talked about".

Carolina nodded her head in agreement showing understanding of the order Andrew was giving. Andrew seeing that everything was understood continued, "Second, Helena, how is the training of the dancers going?".

"Well, thanks to the help of the guards who have been serving as the audience, they have improved quite a bit, but I think they still lack a bit of fluency. Still, I think it\'s just a lack of experience. After we open the dance room they will adapt quickly," Helena replied calmly.

Andrew was pleased with Helena\'s report because not only was it good news that the dancers were ready, but Helena\'s ability to direct and evaluate them objectively, was valuable to make things easier for him.

After that little thought, Andrew spoke again, "Perfect, that\'s great, keep supervising them. However, with the current situation in the red light district, will we be successful in launching the dance room?".

This question was beyond Helena\'s ability, but Carolina took the floor and said, "Well, it really is possible not to have a good influx of clients. Oliver, is it possible to find out the addresses of our regular clients and send them a special invitation?"

Andrew was pleasantly surprised at the initiative of Carolina\'s proposal and immediately turned his gaze to Oliver for an answer and Oliver did not disappoint, "That\'s no problem, Marie and Shadow have that capability."

Taking Carolina\'s initiative, Andrew said, "That\'s good, send them special invitations, telling them that the entrance to the event is free for that day, maybe that way we will have more affluence".

According to the plan they had devised, the dance room would raise money in different ways. The first is an entrance fee to enjoy the show.

All customers who want to enter must pay a small fee. Another way to make money with the dance room is the consumption of alcohol and food. Finally, the tips that customers gave to the dancer who entertained them on stage, although this money would only be 50%, as the dancer had to have her earnings.

It was clear to Andrew that when this dance room became popular, the dancers would earn more money in tips than the other courtesans, but since they had to make an extra effort to dance, he did not mind giving them better benefits.

In addition, the private dance rooms were the ones that would generate the most income, since they were the most expensive, but he knew that, at first, they would not be used very much, especially if the clients were not yet familiar with the type of service.

With this defined, Andrew, went on to talk about the last topic he wanted to address, "Now the problem with Silvio, what are your plans, Oliver?". After that question, the office fell silent and everyone looked at Oliver because he was the one in charge of this situation.

After a few minutes of thought, Oliver finally spoke, "From the intelligence we have, this Silvio is a troublesome character. While I am confident that I am stronger than him and his subordinate Milton, the problem lies in the fact that they would not be easily eliminated and an open battle against them would attract unwanted attention."

Hearing this, everyone furrowed their brows in concern, as this was the first time Oliver had shown difficulty in dealing with an enemy and Andrew couldn\'t help but ask, "Can you elaborate? Will there be problems if you fight both of them?"

"No, that\'s not the problem. I have confidence in besting them in combat even if they join forces. By unwanted attention, I mean that while defeating them is certain, I couldn\'t do it in a short time and without such a battle not attracting other characters."

"Simply put, you can beat them even if they get together, but it won\'t be a fight that will end quickly and you\'d draw the attention of the city\'s experts," Andrew said as if wanting to clarify what Oliver had said.

"That\'s right. honestly, eliminating them inside the city would be problematic. What worries me the most is that since they don\'t know my strength, they would attack us which would lead to that situation," Oliver spoke again. .

Andrew understood what Oliver meant, but it seemed that Carolina did not understand, because she asked, "Wouldn\'t it be good if they attacked us and we took them by surprise?".

Despite the seemingly silly question, Oliver answered seriously, "Even if they underestimate us, they wouldn\'t be easily eliminated just because of that and even if we win, in the end, all eyes will be on us, something we don\'t want right now, as we are not strong enough."

Now Carolina understood the situation. She was thinking in the short term, to eliminate the enemy, but at the same time, their strength would be exposed to other people, which would bring future dangers of greater severity, as the enemies would know their strength losing the element of surprise.

With everyone understanding this point, the office fell silent again. Everyone was trying to think of a solution to this problem, but no one had a good idea of how to go about it.

In the end, Andrew sighed and concluded, "Well, we\'ll just have to wait for our chance to act and pray that they don\'t make the first move." Everyone nodded in agreement and Oliver added, "I certainly don\'t think they will make a move soon because while Silvio is quite arrogant in his strength, he likes to first thoroughly investigate his enemies before making a move, so we still have time."

Although it wasn\'t the best situation, they couldn\'t do anything, just wait for the right moment. Unexpectedly, unbeknownst to them, soon would break out an event that would bring them this opportunity without them looking for it.

Inside the castle. The king, the ministers, Aldus, Redeus, and Arturios were discussing the new information they had obtained. It turns out that from the interrogation of Goston, they had discovered the mastermind behind the stampede of monsters.

The kingdom of Tripia is a country located to the west of the Cannaris Empire and in recent years has begun to emerge as the second power in the region after the Cannaris Empire.

Because of this, the empire has been paying attention to them and the borders shared with that country are the ones that receive the most attention, as they are already beginning to be a threat. As the saying goes, two tigers cannot live on the same mountain.

Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years, but no conflict has broken out, but now The Cannaris empire had learned that the Tripia kingdom had already begun to make its moves and they were not small ones.

The stampede of monsters was just the warm-up, because from the interrogation, they also learned that there were other plans underway, only Goston did not know what they were, nor who was carrying them out.

The only thing they knew was that besides Goston and the assassin who had entered the castle with the intention of capturing the king, there was an additional spy. The kingdom of Tripia had been very clever and devised several plans to destabilize the empire, but each one was independent of the other and the actors did not know each other.

This was in order to avoid that if any of the devised plans failed, there was no way for the others to be discovered. This situation left the empire on the passive side because while they knew there was a threat, it was hidden.

Not to mention that Goston, as well as Gistaly and many others involved in the terrorist attack some time ago were all nobles, which showed that the nobles of the empire were too greedy and were swayed by foreign forces for small gains.

This was what really bothered Arturios because he was one of the two pillars and protectors of the empire. He could not stand that the nobles who should be the backbone of the empire were now the disease.

He was not worried about the kingdom of Tripia because he thought that there was no expert that could overcome him and as long as that did not happen, it was impossible for the empire to lose. However, he knew that he was only one man, he could not solve everything.

For this reason, he was upset because he knew that he had to rely on the nobles so that the empire would not suffer, but now they did not know if these nobles could be trusted. When he managed to calm down he said, "The nobles are not trustworthy, at least not all of them. Other than those present, who can be considered loyal?".