Antihero In the Hero Academy: I Can Connect the Past Heroes-Chapter 72: Quick Talk With The Emperor (2)

The beautiful woman smiled instantly when she heard these words. Even an emperor as intelligent and admittedly majestic as Aether had missed something.

"Atlas is young, but he has more followers than you think, young Aether. To put it briefly, he has under his command Lucia, Lisa and Lyra, my nieces, who are also the daughters of the Vampire Duke Sullivan. And then there’s River, the daughter of Thalia, the only elf queen in the world, who has officially fallen in love with him."

When Cassandra said these words, she turned to Atlas, and after she caressed his cheek, she said, "The entire academy and many of the professors within the academy worship him. I don’t need to tell you what he’s done in just two months. On top of that, every single person in the army you sent to help him wants to serve Atlas, I heard it with my own ears."

Aether’s eyebrows shot up as the woman spoke these words, and he looked at Atlas again, puzzled.

"Add to that the fact that he is Lady Cordelia’s personal disciple, and add to that the fact that a Sage like me is trying to take him for myself...He doesn’t seem to need much power, does he?" Cassandra finished her speech.

When Cassandra’s words were over, Aether exhaled deeply, then said, "It seems so, my lady," and turned to Eva, standing behind her and asked, "What do you think?"

Eva turned directly to Atlas’ face and said, "Atlas, you won’t be able to leave after you are connected to a kingdom or empire. Are you sure about that?" she asked.

Atlas shook his head and said, "I have people I want to protect, even though I never wanted to become that hero you thought I would be. I still have people I think I let down, and I need to take care of them. If I become a noble and, as the lady Cassandra said, if I can own a place, a territory, and develop it, everything will be in our favour. A cold harbour city of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, of different races, without a black market and with a certain order."

When Cassandra heard these words, she took Atlas’s hand and said, "The young man does not have a huge amount of money, but he has hundreds of alchemical formulas that he can patent. Even if alchemists are not very popular, their power varies according to their rank. I’ve been briefed on the potion Atlas made, a low-tier potion that may even be powerful enough to reset the boss monsters in the dungeons. In that case, how much money could each alchemist to whom the patent is linked make for him?"

Cassandra turned to Eva and said, "Your little brother isn’t so little anymore, Eva, he has hundreds of people to lean on, over ten thousand soldiers who have seen him fight and succeed, and thousands of students who will follow him to the death...because Atlas agreed to go forward for three of them at the cost of death."

Immediately after these words, the beautiful woman stood up, started to take steps in the room and then threw a few pieces of wood inside to feed the fireplace in the room. Immediately after that, she turned around and uttered the following words:

"The future...may harbour so many things. It is unknown and inconceivable, yet despite all the dangers and these unknowns, there is a place to step into. One day we may turn back, and we may not find a place to step back, and my opinion is that this future should not exist. I think a future that is safe enough for everyone to step back if necessary is better than a future that everyone regrets."

As Cassandra finished, she rose from her crouch and turned round, carefully scattering the scraps of wood in her hands on the floor beside the fireplace.

The woman looked very beautiful with the fire shining behind her. The long black dress with a wide skirt she wore floated on the carpet in the room, her black hair reflected the fire itself, and her crimson bloodshot eyes looked into everyone’s soul.

It was hard not to admire.

"Well...you are long past the age where you need to seek my approval. In that case, I will only have to support you. If the Aether agrees, I will support you," Eva muttered, a strange look of sadness on her face.

Eva’s feelings at this moment were profound. It was as if the young woman was just beginning to realise that her little brother, whom she had tried to protect all her life, had grown up considerably. It would not be wrong to say that it was a rather sad sight. It was the strange sadness of an older sister.

"Alright...I accept. Two days later, there will be the main feast, in honour of my birthday. I would like you to come to the ball when it starts, but I have a condition." Aether suddenly said.

"What is the condition, uncle?" Atlas asked with great curiosity. He was ready to do everything.

"The only sure chance for me to give you that rank is if you attend the ball with Lady Cassandra. If they see the two of you as a couple, everything will be fine in every sense of the word. There’s no one in the Empire stupid enough to take a swipe at a Sage. Even if our nobles are very good people, there will still be some among them who would object to someone as young as you becoming a duke," Aether replied.

Atlas turned to Cassandra after these words, and then smiled strangely, saying, "Well...It seems I won’t be able to escape from it, my lady."

Cassandra started to walk from where she was, got to the bottom of Atlas and grabbed him by the chin and said, "One day you will love me." She turned to Aether and added, "Have it your way, young man."

Now it was just a matter of waiting for the main ball in two days.