Despite my original plan getting destroyed flawlessly by the confident Milicia, the sightseeing of the rest of campus and everything else was pretty good, to say the least.
"You know I thought that this was going to be a bad idea..."
It was true, considering Milicia's personality, it wouldn't be that far off to assume she might try to cause trouble, however, she didn't cause any trouble at all.....
"...But why did you make me buy fifteen different packs of poker cards? That's a lot you know.... it cost 300 Requiems..."
I voiced my complaint about this.
"Huh? I don't see why you have any complaints, Houdini. We still have a ton of money."
Well, she wasn't wrong considering the allowance and spending of those cards have a wide gap, I shouldn't have any complaints.
However, that wasn't the reason why I was complaining.
"And look at how cool and majestic the cards look! And don't worry I bought myself some tarot cards!"
She showed that if she was playing with her first-ever toy, a toy would be inaccurate, it would be her first-ever gun.
"Well that's good and all… but that doesn't answer my question…"
Milicia sighs and returns to her grin as she decides to answer my question. "I want to learn whatever card tricks you can do, and not some bland parlor tricks. Like something cool that seems genuinely magical." She made her request to me.
Well I did recall her saying that she would like to learn some magic tricks from me when we first met, so it makes sense why she made me tag along with her.
Anyway her request is somewhat difficult to do since it looks like she knows all of the card magic tricks that are known, so showing those will bore her and probably would be perceived as being predictable for her so coming up with one is gonna be a tricky, but I think I have a few ideas in my mind that could interest her or maybe make her be caught off guard of course just some ideas, not definite ones though…
"A cool trick? That's quite an excessive request." I chuckled a bit as we were about to sit down at a small table in the park.
I must say the scenery of this park is marvelous, even how the tree's leaves move around is incredibly elegant. It almost gave me another nostalgic feeling within me.
Milicia plopped herself onto the chair across from me and she stretched her arms. "I don't think so Houdini, after all, I am sure that silly brain of yours can come up with something that would be mildly more interesting than any parlor tricks I have seen."
It's interesting that she already has a high opinion of me, which makes her a bit dangerous if I want to come up with a cool trick on the spot which leads me to start a map chart in my head of multiple options I can think of….
"Say Milicia, if you don't mind me asking, why did you come to this school? I can probably assume that you just came here to make your position as the head of the company, but I think there may be some more nuance to your ambitions for coming here." As curious as I was, I couldn't help but ask her that.
I saw her tap her cheek playfully like a child trying to decide which flavor of ice cream they wanted. "Hmmm~, I suppose I could tell you since you did say your ambition was to become an aspiring magician in our class."
I was surprised once more that she was willing to tell me, considering her behavior, I would have thought she would deny my question and tell me to figure it out myself. Of course, that is if you are not on her radar or if you are on her bad side like Leonid is.
"I would like to call my ambition, Machina Genesis."
"Machina….Genesis?"
What does she mean by that? I know Genesis means birth, and Machina means machine.
My brain started to turn its wheel to decipher Machina Genesis.
Birth of Machine? Or could it be something else?
She used the word Genesis, which would possibly imply the biblical word of Genesis which was a worldwide creation of the earth and all living things. Maybe her ambitions mean…. the birth of a machine worldwide.
Or maybe…
"Spare the effort of trying to solve it since I am gonna tell you nevertheless." Milicia pulled me out of my thoughts as if she knew I was breaking down what she meant.
"Machina Genesis, in a sense, is a plan I had since I was about five when my father declared that I would be the next heir to his company."
A plan huh…..
I might have an idea where this is going… so Milicia is the expansionist type…as expected of her.
I decided to play a surprised expression on my face to have her explain it more than have her believe I had an idea what her plan was.
She then grinned more when she began explaining her plan.
"When I first started this plan, I wanted to gain global power over the weapons industry. To do that, I have to gain control over the six provinces of the weapons industry which are the Northern American Huntsman Corp, Eastern Armaments, Invictus Industries, Solaris Munitions, Jaguar Warworks, and the great Milosevic Eastern European Marksmanship Company. Those main six control the entirety of the weapons field and I am gonna take control of every single one of them as I already am bound to become heir of the one my father owns."
"I guess why settle for one big power when you can have all of them right?" I asked as she nodded.
"Correct!"
"But how would you even pull this off right after graduating from this school? If you make it to the top four classes."
It was logical to express my concern about these ambitious plans for her since it would be impossible to even pull this off after graduating unless she already enacted this plan before entering this school.
"Well my little Houdini, let me tell you how my plan is already set and full with no flaws."
I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in her explanation. "So how did you do it then?"
"Do you know about the phantom death of The former CEO of the Northern American Huntsman Corp, Beck Huntsman?" She asked me.
It would be foolish of me to not know what that mysterious incident is that occurred two years ago. His death was rather ruled that it was a suicide but some had doubts since he reportedly never showed any suicidal tendencies.
Although from the looks of it, Milicia has some inside knowledge about his death it seems, I think it won't be good since this might be related to her supposed plan.
"Yes."
"Well…" Milicia's grin radiated an ominous feeling I saw"….I was the reason for his death.."
Just as I thought, his supposed suicide was indeed by the works of Milicia, a girl who has the aura of the greatest arrogance I have ever seen.
However, I should not come to an irrational assumption, since all she said was that she was the reason for his death which doesn't mean that she killed him directly, of course it was still a possibility that she did directly kill him, but I think Milicia here wouldn't kill someone directly since it would be barbaric and low brow of her to do so. Considering her arrogance is incredibly elegant to the point she wouldn't stoop to an act like that to kill someone directly. Although she does enjoy showing off her superiority given her act during the class introduction, her killing directly should still be taken into account, even if it's just a small possibility that makes it possible for her to do so.
Which would mean that she influenced him, or pushed him into a corner that forced him to take his own life.
I would rule out the former since I don't think she has any way to influence someone to kill themselves, at least not in the manner of saying the order and abiding by that order.
So she probably forced him into committing the act by pressuring him or he did commit the act if he was incredibly prideful, after all, he was the CEO of the biggest weapons industry in the world.
Another unlikely possibility was that she used a proxy to do her dirty work, although that would be hard to hire a proxy to do your dirty work at the age of 13 since even her being the heir of one of the most powerful weapons industries in the world, her resources are still limited.
But then again, she could just be lying about this and just wanted to gauge a reaction out of me, but I highly doubt that since I saw no inconsistencies within the statements she has made so far. My expression didn't change except a cold sweat formed on my forehead because I heard someone saying that they were the reason for someone's death so casually is odd despite our society being alright with killing to some extent.
However, all of this isn't possible to be correct since I would need to know what method she used to even execute the act.
After a second, when she said that bold statement, I responded in my usual calm tone. "Don't you think saying that outright to someone you just met is a bad idea?" Of course, the value in those words I spat out of my mouth had no value since she would probably laugh off the question and be unfazed.
"Hah! Remember what that Marie girl said, this school is its world, therefore anything that happens outside of the school is irrelevant so I highly doubt this school cares if you committed a crime or not. However, you just want to know how I did it right? Since you probably believe I did something but can't figure out how I exactly did it."
Before I could respond, she continued. "Now pay close attention Houdini!"
Honestly, I am no longer bothered by the fact she keeps calling me Houdini since I don't think it'll stop soon.
———-
I was currently tapping on the table as I was waiting for Mr. Huntsman to arrive.
"Milicia, could you please stop tapping the table?" A man who sat behind me asked as a vein was showing on his forehead.
He looked funny with that expression that I almost laughed at and pointed out.
The man who was annoyed was the representative of my father's company, Nikola Jovanovic. He is also like a right-hand man for my father and carries out all orders with no flaws.
Although it is still fun to get under his skin.
"But it's only one of the great ways to bypass time till those lots get here!" I said with a childish pout.
"I don't believe you two need to wait any longer." We then saw two men enter the room across from us.
The one who spoke was a tall man with brown hair and had a composure filled with calm and arrogance. He was Mr. Huntsman.
And the person beside him was probably the representative of his company, he was thin and had black hair and a smug smile. I could tell this guy in particular was sketchy just from that smug look on his face.
Whether he is smug about his owner winning or just has a shady side that could be him being a backstabber to his owner is completely irrelevant to me since he'll be under my palms either way.
As Mr. Huntsman took his seat with his dog sitting behind him, he began to speak in his boring composed tone. "I still find it foolish of you to even make a bet against me whoever wins this bet takes full ownership of one's industry."
What a measly insult that I rolled my eyes in boredom. "Uh huh just get to the point of what you chose to have us play." I motioned my hands for him to get to the point since I'd rather not waste any of my precious time.
He then reached into his blazer and grabbed out a small pistol, or to be specific a revolver. "You see this is a—"
"A Smith & Wesson 351C, and it's an AirLite as well." I interrupted him.
"Hm? You knew what the revolver was?" Mr. Huntsman asked in his boring stoic tone as if he was slightly impressed.
Despite not ever holding a gun or even seeing one in person before, I was able to gain access to a vast knowledge of books and blueprints on every gun that was made.
After all, it would be embarrassing for me not to know any gun at all for someone who is the heir to my father's company.
"Well it seems befitting for what you want to play against me, the revolver is a caliber that carries a .22 magnum bullet, and since this revolver isn't like any other revolver it contains 7 bullet slots. And since the capacity is 7, then it would be difficult to track the bullet position in the revolver. Another thing is that this revolver also has a lightweight frame which makes the weight shift of the bullet harder to perceive. In other words, we are playing Russian roulette and since you brought this gun means that you want to make sure it is fair and unpredictable."
"Impressive.." Mr. Huntsman said but his expression hadn't changed.
Nikolai being the type of person he is interjected. "Sorry, but I can't allow Milicia here to play Russian roulette against you."
"Oh? I don't see any issue and from her reaction, this girl seems alright playing Russian roulette." Mr. Huntsman's dog said.
I then side-glance at Nikola. "Nikola, with all due respect from the bottom of my heart, shut the hell up. You and Mr. Huntsman's dogs are only here to carry out the transaction once this is over. This reminds me, should we take out the transaction papers? So that we make sure no one tries anything funny?" I suggested as Mr. Huntsman took out a paper that showed two signature places, the top one was already signed and the bottom one was left empty for me to sign once I won.
Nikolai took one out as well that already had the top part signed and the bottom part ready if I lost. Although I could tell he was still against this but still abided like a good dog he was.
Well now that I got the full gist of what we were now playing.
This is going to be a boring ending…
Well, I can always just make this amusing for me, after all, it would be a bit amusing if Mr. Huntsman's last effort was used against him by his own will.
"Now then since you are aware we are playing Russian roulette, I should warn you that I have a luck that is driven by God, so I hope you are prepared." Mr. Huntsman taunted me.
What a shocking revelation!
I wonder if he does this with everyone he gambles against. Well given his position, he probably does say this to everyone he gambles against.
I stayed silent as I yawned in boredom, I could see in his stoic expression that he seemed slightly annoyed despite nothing changing except his eyes narrowing at me.
He then began as he slid the revolver to me as if he wanted me to be first. "It's quite rude of you to have me start first, after all a man like you should take initiative." I pouted as I slid the revolver back to him.
"I suppose you have an interesting point." He sighed as he pointed the revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger with no hesitation.
Click
Nothing came out of the revolver, so it was now my turn he slid the revolver back to me as he still looked unfazed with that arrogant aura of his.
I then slowly reached for the revolver and pointed it at my temple. "You know Mr. Huntsman! I love that blazer coat of yours! Unfortunately, it landed in your hands and not mine since it would totally~ look better on me." I said to him as I wanted to stall for a moment.
"Stalling, aren't you? Are you perhaps getting nervous?" He read me as I thought would happen.
I then took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
Click
Nothing came out as my grin was still constant. "Aren't I a lucky son of a gun?"
I slid the revolver back to him as his gaze still focused on me.
He then put it at his temple once more.
"You know Mr. Huntsman, what is it like controlling the most powerful weapons company you have ever created? It must give you a nice feeling of being in control, no?"
I decided to continue teasing him "It would be a shame if you allowed a trivial bullet from the revolver to stop you."
I saw that his finger halted on the trigger and his other free hand finger twitched a bit at the edge of the table.
Oh? It seems I might have hit a small nerve in him to make him start contemplating his second turn.
As composed as ever, he sighed as he pulled the trigger.
Click
"It's your turn." He slid the revolver back to me and ignored my tease.
"How rude of you to not retort my teasing!" I waved my finger at him.
"Milicia…out of all times to act like this ... .your choosing the most serious time?" Nikola whispered as he rubbed his temple.
I ignored him as I grabbed the revolver and put it to my temple.
I was currently thinking how Mr. Huntsman's luck by God would kick in.
I pulled the revolver back. "You know I just realized that we never spun the barrel when we started!" I feigned surprise and shock as I spun it.
Which made Mr. Huntsman's eyes widen at my action.
"You seemed shocked Mr. Huntsman? You don't have any issues with my spinning it right?" I asked him with my grin widening slightly so that I could feel something ominous in my grin.
He quickly composed his eyes. "Of course not…."
I then placed the revolver back at my temple and I could see his gaze on me, but this gaze was different since he had his full attention on me now than before.
And his gaze seems to be considering a rather interesting option.
This might get amusing…
"You know," I decided to amuse him. "Despite this being my first time playing Russian roulette, I can't help but admire the best thing about it, which is that it shows how little control we have. We can't change fate, no matter how hard we try. Don't you agree?"
I saw his composure start to decay slowly as his hands started to shake slightly. It seems my words are affecting him more than he thinks since it doesn't look like he is even aware of it ... or perhaps refuses to acknowledge it.
Just what I thought from a prideful man like him, he would want control, that so-called 'Luck by God' is just an intimidation and a way to drive his opponents into making irrational choices to the point it makes it look like divine luck was against them when in reality it's just a petty method to win against inferior opponents.
Click
After I pulled the trigger, I slid the revolver back to him with my grin widening more as I saw he wasn't grabbing it.
It looks like we are finally moving beyond the game of bullet, or rather his mind was currently forgetting about the game and revolver and now focused on protecting his pride from his breath now becoming shallow and his finger twitching becoming more visible.
He was now completely readable for me to finally finalize my assumption of him.
I can finally see the war in his mind starting. He wants to prove himself, to show me that he couldn't be defeated by some thirteen-year-old girl who came walking in here with arrogance and naive playfulness. He needed to prove it, he had too much to lose.
That is why his pride would be his undoing…
I saw his hand halfway to the revolver, I tilted my head and made my grin form into a playful smile. "Do you want to let this game decide your faith, or will you take the cowardly way out?" I said as I was mocking his pride.
His jaw clenched as he pulled his hand back, and as expected, reached into his blazer and pulled out a secret gun, and pointed it at me.
Well, this is somewhat fun!
I saw Nikola get up. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Mr. Huntsman ignoring him looked at me. "You little brat, what makes you think you can win against me? I'll always stay in control no matter what."
Unfazed as I was I responded with my usual grin on my face. "If what you said is true, then why not continue our game? If you pull the trigger on yourself with the revolver and nothing comes out then you are fine, however, if you did pull the trigger and something did come out, then you would have died as your precious divine luck wouldn't be helping you. Now that I have expected you to have a secret gun on you just in case this went south, you are pointing that gun towards me, and if you shoot that, then you are a pathetic coward who was all talk and no bite. So go ahead and pick the only option that suits you better than any other option would."
He's already too far gone within his pride to shoot me or even continue playing fairly at this point, I already knew this coward had lost, his pride is already broken but he is too far into his pride to even be aware of that.
He now realizes he is no longer in control, and now it is time to deal the final blow against Mr. Huntsman.
Now with a smile forming on my face that made Nikola and Mr. Huntsman's dog grow uneasy despite my attention only focusing on Mr. Huntsman himself.
As I slowly formed a gun with my hands and aimed it at his temple. "Go ahead…"
"…..protect your pride right here and now." my voice grew colder despite my facial expression being different.
He then pointed the gun he was originally going to use on me at himself now. And just within a second.
"Bang," I said as his gun went off on himself and his body slumped into the seat he sat on.
My smile did not disappear as I felt satisfied with how I wanted this to come.
I then got up and went to the deceased man's body grabbed his pen and wrote down the contract he had. "Now then, his company is now under my control, right you filthy dog?" I asked the smug guy who had a small cold sweat.
"You are right."
I then looked at the revolver grabbed it and aimed it at him. "H-huh?"
"Milicia! You've won already! There is no reason to kill him!" Nikola protested behind me.
My grin came back. "Who said anything about killing?" I said as I pulled the trigger at the smug dog.
Click
Nothing came out which made both of the men confused and scared of me.
I then aimed the revolver back at Mr. Huntsman's dead body and pulled the trigger.
Bang
"See, if he wasn't so prideful with how he rose into power in the weapons field, he could've won. However, he was so tragically prideful to the point that he wasn't even aware of how far he was in his ass to know how prideful he truly was to the point his backup plan to shoot me with a secret gun would turn against him." I explained and then I looked back at them with a playful smile.
"Quite silly right?"
However as amusing and exciting as this was, it was also boring and unfortunately predictable.
"Hey, I recall that he had a son right? I want you to make him a figurehead heir of this company so it looks like he is in control when in reality I am got it?" I ordered the smug dog.
Smug Dog is gonna be on my list of favorite nicknames.
"Y-yes ma'am." He obediently said like a good dog.
I then motioned Nikola to come and leave the room we were in as I knew for certain that Smug Dog would get rid of the body, or make it look like he committed suicide.
As we were walking out of the building, I asked Nikola something. "Is he still on the line?"
"Yes…" He said as he still looked traumatized from what transpired.
"Give me the phone." I hold my hand out as he puts the phone in my hand. "Hello, Mr. Morrigan, did you hear what transpired throughout the line? Well, I know that Nikola here secretly recorded it as well for you to see."
"You're the devil…." Mr. Morrigan said as his voice had fear in it despite him being in England.
"Mr. Morrigan, we'll be arriving in England in less than 24 hours, when we get there, I better see the relinquishment of ownership to the Invictus INC paper at your desk and ready to sign," I said to him in my usual tone.
"….."
All I heard was silence on the other side. "I'll say it again, have the papers ready for me when I arrive or you will end up the same fate as Mr. Huntsman did. Do I make myself clear this time?"
"….Y-yes ma'am…." He then ended the call and I felt a victorious feeling within me as my plan was coming along well.
It's absolutely cute how Mr. Morrigan, the first one I intended to deal with first, also rejected my offer to gamble because I was just a simple kid, but now here he is, in my hands and he is graciously accepting it as I was no longer viewed as a child in his eyes.
Truly killing two birds with one stone!
—————
"..And after that, I was able to get the Invictus INC when I arrived in England. So my plan went well so far!" Milicia emitted a victorious aura that could blind someone if they could make a mental image of the aura.
She wasn't lying after all….
Come to think of it, she was pretty unfazed that killing was a possibility in this school, though a minor inconvenience of course.
I don't think Mr. Huntsman was weak, in fact from Milicia's testimony, it was obvious how prideful he was, but he made sure that he prioritized his pride over anything, however, he had a sadistic element to his pride since he was perfectly fine to accept a gambling wager against Milicia, and he had the advantage since Milicia said that he could choose any game he sees fit.
On the surface level, people would see Mr. Huntsman as weak-willed for falling into a trap set up by Milicia. However, that is far from the case, since most tactics that rely on insecurities would only work short-term on Mr. Huntsman since his pride would just override it and make those tactics useless against him.
What Milicia did was beyond that, she attacked his core philosophy, which was to control.
Mr. Huntsman didn't fear the gun, the game, the bullet, or even death. What he feared was him losing control, since losing control would mean that his existence is meaningless therefore he had no value to live.
This also probably explains why she did what she did and used Mr. Huntsman's forced suicide to intimidate Mr. Morrigan to relinquish ownership. Mr. Morrigan is probably prideful like Mr. Huntsman or even more since it doesn't look like he would accept any wager from a child, even if it's tempting, since he saw her as a child, but after that incident, he sees her as the devil, which he most likely interpreted her as someone to not be on her bad side now, so he gave up.
"And you made the move to make Mr. Huntsman's son the figurehead for the Northern American Huntsman Corp and Mr. Morrigan the figurehead of his industry because you already took account of external forces trying to meddle with your plan right?"
"Right on the spot my favorite little jester! However, the external forces in question wouldn't do a single thing, since the six provinces of the weapons field hold a strong influence in their countries that it would be foolish to go against them." She explained with her constant grin still.
That would explain why no news media announced that Invictus INC and Northern American Huntsman Corp were merged with Milicia's family company.
Her ambitions and efforts are incredible that she even took account to conceal her intentions from any outside forces.
However, her plan is still not completed, since she only has three of the six provinces.
I am sure she already knows what to do about the other three. But now I am curious about her real goal in this plan. "Considering your plan seems to be going well. Why tell me about it? And what is your actual goal?"
I saw her expression go into a thinking state as she tapped her lip multiple times. "Well to answer that second question first, like I said, these provinces have a strong influence in many of the country's government and economy. And let's say when I own all six provinces, I would have a worldwide influence and power in their economy and government. That I could start wars and end them, and create outcomes within wars that I would be able to see fit, and I can control who gets what resources."
Essentially it wouldn't be too far off to call her a goddess of war if her plan becomes a success..
What a terrifying woman that is in front of me, I can already assume that her father is the opposite of her given that this Nikola person is the right-hand man of her father and from Milicia's testimony about him looking traumatized from Milicia's behavior and method, it means her father must have a moral compass of pacifism with a mix of competitive spirit.
This woman in front of me holds no Achilles Heel as she has no regret for any of her actions and only sees what she does as a stepping stone towards her own goals.
Making her an enemy would be troublesome.
I wonder if Leonid knows this much about her. No, not likely, since Milicia doesn't have a good impression of him, she wouldn't tell him about her plan. So Leonid only sees her as some stupid arrogant girl.
All of this begs me the question if Milicia Milosevic's nature was created the moment she was declared the heir, or has it always been there and she just needed a way to show off her nature?
It'll be a mystery for me since I don't intend on exploring it since it might end up more troublesome for me than good…
Although, if fate did create a possibility of Milicia and I facing each other…..well ... who knows?
"…and the reason why I told you, well I can feel that we have a chemistry line of sorts if that makes sense." She shrugged.
A chemistry line huh….
I wonder what you mean by that.
"I see now, well thanks for having some trust in me I guess…" I said with a calm and expected nervous smile.
However, after coming up with hundreds of methods for a creative trick she might like, I believe I have found one, however, I still have the slightest bit of worry that the trick will be seen through.
"Milicia…I think I have a trick to show you how." I said as I reached into the bag and grabbed the black and gold deck.
"Oh? Well, then Isaac Mahoka. Let's see your magic trick then." She said with her smirk turning into a predator smile with her eyes narrowing through me.
It seems she is interested now since she is using my actual name now…
Let's see if you can see through this one.
End of Vol 1 Chapter 1.3