For Family.
The next day, when Adonis came to the breakfast table, he saw his cousins surrounding one chair.
"You want this?"
"What do you like?"
"Do you want any gift from brother?"
"Call me brother."
He went near them to see that they were surrounding Drusilla who looked like a doll in sky blue dress.
[Still need to put on some weight.]
Drusilla noticed Adonis and looked at him with doe eyes.
"Brother."
Adonis couldn't process what he just heard.
"What did you just say?"
"Bro….ther."
Drusilla looked a bit panicked.
Adonis picked her up and went to sit on a chair, with her in his lap.
He never knew that being addressed could make your heart warm, fuzzy and have a sweet feeling.
Ozias pouted and said,"Not done brother. All of us were trying the whole morning to get addressed by her and you did it without doing anything."
Drusilla leaned into and hugged Adonis tightly.
Looking at all their pouting faces and the piles of clothes, gems, candies on the tables near him, Adonis smiled.
Leaning in and pointing towards them, he said,"Silla, let me introduce your brothers and sisters to you. He is brother Ozias Elton, he is brother Rufus Darby, she is sister Juno Anton, she is sister Mila Anton and she is sister Lucia Clare. All of them are family. They all want to be close to our pretty Silla."
Drusilla loosened her grip on Anton and looked at them, one by one, with wide doe eyes.
"Brothers and sisters."
Then she smiled.
When Drusilla smiled, her eyes would form a Crescent moon shape too.
Ozias clenched his heart and looked like he was in pain.
"Oww."
"What happend brother?"
He quickly smiled and said,"It's just that our Silla is beautiful when she smiles, brother almost had a heart attack."
She looked at Adonis and he nodded.
Drusilla then started laughing.
All of them looked at her in awe.
After breakfast, Mary took Drusilla to her room.
"I've already thought, Drusilla needs an etiquette teacher, some subject teachers."
Juno said.
Lucia added,"A dance teacher."
Rufus said,"A Knight."
Ozias said,"A music teacher."
Mila added,"Someone who'd teach her swordsmanship."
Rosie, who was standing straight like the exceptional butler she was, said,"Might sound bad but house expenses are a bit low, right now. We'll have to wait till next month for the Master's Salary to be paid by the palace."
Adonis seemed to be in deep thoughts. All of them looked at him.
"Let's buy the coal mine in the northern part of the city."
"What? But-"
"With our own money."
The six people looked wide-eyed at the man who was in much ease.
Mila spoke,"I heard those mines don't even produce a good amount of coal. That's why Count Alexander is selling it for 7 golds. People aren't buying that. They still think it's expensive."
Adonis looked her in the eye and smiled.
"That mine is a treasure."
Mila and Adonis looked at each other without blinking, whereas the other four looked at them, looking at each other.
Mila was the first to break the gaze.
"Okay, if you say so. All of us one gold each?"
"The price is also exactly for us."
The others didn't even have a say in it before they had to take out one gold from their pockets and give it to Rosie. Adonis gave two, for him and Drusilla.
"Let's move to study."
They all went to Adonis's study. All of them sat on the couch, including Rosie.
"So I called all of you here to discuss our family position."
All of them looked at him with a serious face.
"As you know, we do have respect and prestige because we are old Nobles, Arnall family being the main one. We are well off because the Royal Palace sends us a good salary. But we only get to keep 10% of the tax we get from the lands we own."
All of them nodded.
"To put it straight, we lack power. We should make ourselves powerful enough to be able to protest when faced with some unfair situation."
"But how?"
Rufus asked.
"One way to obtain power is to get lots of money. If you have money you may not be able to buy a position but you can definitely buy the person seating in that position. At last you'll have the authority of that position."
All of them looked at him intensely.
"Our family hasn't done so but we should start doing it. We should start businesses."
"A business we all own?"
Lucia asked.
"Rather all of us should own a business. The most important thing to have is information so we'll try getting that with the help of our business."
Juno said,"But Ado, it might look suspicious if we all start business at once."
"That's true. So Rosie will help us with that. Rosie will bring candidates and we'll choose them by observing ourselves who'll be the face of our business. They'll handle everything. Let the main owners be mysterious."
He paused and continued,"We'll only let them know when it's time to do that. Let them think we're so-called nobles without power."
Mila asked,"All this, for what reason?"
Adonis smiled and said,"For family Mila, for the loved once."
He looked out the window and said,"I had a dream, a very long one at that. We all were destroyed so easily because we didn't have power, because I was a fool. I couldn't protect the ones who love me, who I love, my family."
But the sad face turned into a determined one in matter of seconds and he said,"But not anymore. This time, let's become powerful together and protect ourselves. Let's protect this beautiful family of ours."
Ozias smiled and said,"Don't worry brother, it's just a dream. We're all good now but....Can.... I open a cake shop please brotherrrrr???"
Adonis smiled and said, "yes, it won't happen. [I won't let it happen.] Sure you can. Let's do this everyone, let's list out the things you like and their business. We'll choose like that. Even if it's purely for money and power, we should still do what we like."
Lucia nodded enthusiastically whereas Rufus nodded his head.
While all of them were preparing for leave, Juno came to Adonis and hugged him tight.
She looked at him with slightly watery eyes and big smile and said,"Our dear Ado has grown up to become such a good boy."
Adonis hugged her tight and said,"Yes sister."
Lucia and Ozias joined, pulling Mila and Rufus in.
The cousins hugging each other with all smiled, looked like a beautiful scene.
Rosie smiled, looking at those idiots.
"Madam, you would have been so happy to see what I'm seeing."
After everyone was gone, Adonis asked Rosie,"Rosie, did you send my letter to Duke Bloodworth?"
"Yes, Young Master."
"Okay, so I'll be meeting him in four to five days, we'll get knights from there."
"Pardon my question, Young Master but can you really convince the Duke?"
Adonis looked at her and winked,"Don't worry, I have something he wants."