A day had passed since Lucius dealt with the prisoners.
After the death of the one who spat on him, the other prisoners were more than willing to cooperate.
They had never seen such a gruesome way of death.
It was normal. After all, they had only entered the military after magic had disappeared.
They lacked the experience of seeing people getting bombarded with magic spells and tools.
Although it was dubious as to what magic really was, Lucius still kept his interest in the subject. But as for the time being, researching it would have to wait for another time.
On the other side however, a Zurg general was furious. He yelled out loud and slammed his fist one the war table.
"How could there be no word from them???!!!"
"Now now, let's wait and see first, General Ubrigate. It has only been less than 3 days since we sent them after all. They might have encountered some obstacles."
"But you told me they were famous for being excellent hounds who did work quickly!!! They could have at least made contact with us through carrier pigeons!!! You're lucky that you're needed in this war, or else I would've cut off your head sooner!!"
The two figures were very famous in Zurg. However, their personalities were like ice and fire.
The strategist named Edmund De Corvus was a highly talented and genius war strategist. He was famous for being extremely thorough and detailed. Not to mention, he was still just a 19-year-old teenager.
Meanwhile, the furious general's full name was Lin Ubrigate Tryncendio. He hated his first name, so people referred to him as Ubrigate most of the time. General Ubrigate was one of top 10 generals of the Empire, had more than 30 years of war experience, and had a supremely gifted physical prowess. He was also famous for his extreme addiction to violence.
Currently, General Ubrigate was having withdrawal symptoms from the lack of blood and gore. He was the sort of general who went for straightforward action when in battle.
This was the main reason why General Ubrigate hated working with Strategist Edmund, who preferred to do things slowly but surely.
Nevertheless, he couldn't reject the Emperor's order and was forced to bear with it.
"Don't worry General Ubrigate, I've already devised numerous alternate plans in case this one failed. There should be 2 other scouting missions that I have commensed today. This time, they will be extra stealthy."
"If it turns out that every damn scouting plan of yours failed, I will resume our march!! We should not waste more time!"
"I've also taken that into account. So when that time comes, I will lead a separate force that will take advantage of our current intel."
"You mean the random rumours that they've secured a direct route to the elves?"
"Indeed. But those weren't just random rumours. It was leaked by elven merchants who dealt with the Greyge Kingdom, which neigbours the elves' great forest. The passage is small, so I won't take more than 100,000 soldiers. I will focus on disabling their trade route."
"How are you so sure that the Greyge Kingdom would cooperate?? They're allied with the elves."
"Which one outweighs the other, trade with the elves, or war with the Zurg Empire?"
"War with us, obviously."
"Exactly, they won't do anything to us since they're so afraid of us."
****
"Your majesty??"
A business owner was confused about the current situaton.
Unbeknownst to him, he was just one among the many.
Around a dozen or more merchants, business owners, and traders had experienced the same thing he did.
"You're planning to buy my entire business??"
"Yep, just name me a price."
"Excuse me, but I refuse. This has been my family's business for 2 centuries."
Even though he was politely refusing Lucius, his face showed intense doubt.
On one hand, he could demand any price from the King of Heimer and live lavishly for several generations. On the other hand, his future generation would have nothing to do and would probably cause his family to go into ruin.
"Ah, don't worry. I will not be taking away your position as the head of the company. I will just be owning it."
"I apologize, but what would your Majesty do after taking ownership?"
"Simple, I will only take control of the overhead decision-making. That means I will just be steering control of where the company goes into in the future. You will still be in the top of the company, aside from me of course."
"May your Majesty grace me with your Majesty's vision of my company?"
The company the man owned was similar to a construction company. Except his company focused more on providing the skilled labour for construction work.
The current era's common sense had architects working for nobles instead of construction companies.
This meant that there was a lack of independent architects. Independent in the case of not being tied to a single noble.
The problem was the fact that the architects often didn't see eye-to-eye with the construction companies, leading to lack of architectural development, slow construction progress, and sometimes conflict due to contract termination.
All of these problems for the sake of a noble's pride.
"I want to make Heimer's exclusive architects work for the company. It's time that we get rid of this stupid system that's only causing problems."
"Excuse me your Majesty, but could you repeattht again?"
"Heimer's exclusive architects will work for the company if the deal goes through."
"But that would mean that other nobles and even commoners would be able to employ them? Are you sure your Majesty? This seems too beneficial for my company."
"I am 100% sure. This will only improve our Kingdom's development in the long run."
"Then I shall agree to this. However, will my descendants still be able to inherit my position?"
"That depends on their skills and capabilities. You should enroll them into my school if you want to guarantee their positions into the company. You've heard of my public announcement about it, correct?"
"Indeed, your Majesty."
"Great, now let's discuss about the price, shall we?"
After they were done with the price settlement, the now CEO of Lucius' construction company left with a giddy expression clearly showing more than just satisfaction.
Lucius didn't tell the man, but architecture and design will be one of the many non-STEM fields that he will implement to his university in the future.
Though technically not part of STEM, architecture is still important for civil engineering.
Nevertheless, his day was still not done yet. He still had some business owners, merchants, and traders left to meet with.
****
The next day, Lucius had a meeting with the new CEOs of his 20 newly acquired companies.
About 40% of the CEOs were the previous owners of their companies.
The rest of them were either the 2nd or 3rd highest ranked person of their previous company, or a person from Earth-0.
The meeting was about Lucius merging them under one single group company.
Since all 20 companies were owned by Lucius, there was no need to go through complicated procedures.
As a matter of fact, the group company was separate from the Kingdom. Although both of them were owned or ruled by Lucius respectively, he didn't want to merge them into a single entity.
The meeting went through smoothly with no problems.
At the end of the meeting, Lucius finally revealed the group's name.
Dragon Group.
****
It was past midnight. Lucius had spent all day organizing the new Dragon Group, and was finally done with his work.
Just when he was about to open the office door, Elizabeth bursted in.
"Elizabeth?? What's up? It's rare to see you still up around this time."
"I did it!! Lucius, I did it!!!"
Her face was blushing full of excitement.
"Did what exactly? You have numerous projects you've been working on for the past year."
"The one that's supposed to save Father!!"
"Ah, that one. Wait, which one? The one that uses cloning or the one that uses cybernetics?"
"The cloning one!"
"Wait, this should've been impossible. How would you even be able to achieve it without the proper technology and knowledge??"
"I know! Even I was surprised. I've been spending most of the past year focusing on researching cybernetic limbs and organs. I never even thought that the cloning one was remotely plausible!"
"So how did you even do it?"
Once he asked this, Elizabeth had a nervous expression. She wanted to lie, but she couldn't.
She knew she would feel regretful over telling it to Lucius, but she did it anyway. That was how huge her excitement had gotten.
"I-I had outside help."
"Outside help? From who?"
"Promise me you won't get mad."
Lucius, sensing that something was going on, raised his eyebrow in a questioning way.
"Okay?"
"Great. The truth is, that person told me to keep it a secret to you until I've achieved my goal."
"Your goal, which was??"
"Saving Father from old age."
"Ah, I see. So then who's this person?"
"He.... he's not one of us."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Umm, he's not from Heimer, nor is he from this planet. I'm not even sure if he's from this galaxy, or universe at that."
"...."
Lucius was silent, but Elizabeth knew that he was getting the wrong idea.
'I feel like I've been played like a fiddle.'
It was jealousy mixed with feelings of betrayal.
"Who is this man?"
He said in an icy voice.
"Wait wait wait!! You're misunderstanding something. He did nothing other than teach me. We've never even met!! I don't know how he does it, but he periodically communicates with me through telepathy."
"Sigh, tell me that first. I trust you, but I don't trust the people you hang out with."
Suddenly, the air behind them shook. Space distorted and a wormhole was open.
What looked to be a human being with casual clothes from Earth came out of the wormhole. However, the person was wearing a goofy mustache disguise glasses.
"Yooo what's up? Lovely wife you've got there!"
From the person's voice and build, it was clear that he was a man.
Elizabeth quietly trying to process what just happened.
Meanwhile, something clicked in Lucius' mind, and his icy voice returned.
"Are you the one who's been talking to my wife?"
"Yup, but relax, I'm just teaching her some simple science."
"So what's the reason you're here?"
"Ah, that. You see, I have business somewhere else, so I've been meaning to progress things a bit."
"Progress things? What do you mean?"
The man didn't say anything else, and just approached Lucius casually.
Although his fight or flight instincts kicked in, he couldn't move any part of his body, even his mouth and eyes.
It was as if something was trapping his body.
Elizabeth didn't know that something wrong was happening, so she still waited for Lucius to do something.
In her eyes, Lucius was just letting the man approach him casually, so that must've meant that he was letting the man do it.
The man then touched Lucius' forehead with his right index finger and said something outrageously silly.
"Boop!"
After doing what seemed to be a silly prank, the man walked back to the still open wormhole.
"See ya!"
He then entered the wormhole, and the wormhole instantly closed up instantly, leaving the office completely silent.
Elizabeth checked up on Lucius to see what his expression was, but she was dumbfounded by the fact that he was completely still like a statue.
His eyes were hollow, as if he was not there.
In fact, he was currently sleeping with his eyes open and while he was still standing.
****
"Hmmmgghhh...."
Lucius opened his eyes and found himself tucked in bed next to Elizabeth, who was still sleeping.
'What the fuck happened??'
'What? Why? How?'
Because of his super intelligence and his ability to think simultaneously through several thoughts, he had more questions about what had happened than the total amount of questions he had asked in his entire life.
The only thing he knew was the fact that the man had injected every possible science-related knowledge of the current Earth-0.
He felt like the man just gave him the answers to an exam, but in an entirely different level.
The only other distinct information that the man gave him was a message.
"Come find my lab on your so-called Earth-0."
He said that out loud, prompting Elizabeth to wake up.
Elizabeth groggily approached Lucius' face and kissed him deeply on his lips.
"Hoaahhm, morning."
She said sleepily.
"Morning. Were you the one who put me on bed?"
"Yeah. I was also the one who changed your clothes while you were on that weird trance. So what happened?"
"I'm not really sure myself, but it seems that he overloaded my brain with information."
"Is that so? Phew, I was really worried. I would've been panicking if he wasn't the one who taught me the knowledge of saving Father."
Looking at her sexy nightgown, Lucius' eyes were glued to it.
He then buried his face between her two big mounds.
"I haven't had my fill yet last night."
"B-but it's morning already."
She responded while slightly sweating.
"No, you're not escaping this."
It was past midday when they were finished.