35 A Proposal (3)

"How?" Kang Seung leaned back in his chair, his fingers neatly crossed against the other in his lap. Alexis had caught his attention.

"Through the oldest tradition in the book, marriage," Alexis smiled at me warmly. "My niece, Anastasia, is the same age as Kang Ho. Through an arranged marriage we can show off the union between both our families. You will be able to take advantage of the Romanov name and elevate the KangMung group further in high society without having to, mind my language, ass-kiss Predators such as Lord Blackwood. While you benefit from our status we can maintain our wealth through doing business with your group and continuing a long-standing relationship. We have a lot of profitable business ideas that just need an investor, good guidance and a powerful force behind them."

Alexis paused, gently sipped from his glass of water, and stared at Kang Seung, "What do you think?"

Seung was silent for a bit, I could tell he was seriously considering Alexis's proposal. There were many benefits that this marriage could bring to the KangMung group. While KangMung was powerful and large with a long history, they had many competitors and they were often looked down upon by those of 'old money and nobility' even in South Korea.

Throughout their history, the KangMung group had ongoing friction with royalty and elites that persisted into the modern-day. Despite their pride as a group, they were often dismissed as merchants and businessmen and kept away from certain events. Kang Seung had personally experienced being snubbed by children of these elites in his youth.

Because of that, Seung had always aspired to take the Group beyond the level of a simple conglomerate, he wanted KangMung to be a group that even politicians and the President would have to be polite towards, and it also fed into his own future goals of running for office. Yes, Kang Seung wanted to go into the world of politics once he retired.

That was why he had pushed for Kang Joon-ki to marry Yong Myeong, her Dragon group would have been his gateway into the world of politics and the elite, but of course, that plan fell through after her accident.

However, the Romanovs would literally make them royalty, even if they had no kingdom, the world would be paying attention to their actions. With the Romanov's history and legacy, just having their names attached to them would cause their status to skyrocket. It was everything Kang Seung had been aiming towards.

No matter what type of business the Romanov family wanted to create, Seung was certain that his Group could make it profitable, it was clearly a win-win situation without much loss... but he still carefully thought it over.

He glanced at me.

I had been sitting down quietly while swinging my short legs, throughout this whole exchange. Kang Seung then did something that surprised both myself and Alexis, he asked for my opinion.

"What do you think Ho? If you want to go ahead with this and become engaged with Anastasia I will agree. If you don't want to I will respect your opinion."

It wasn't anything huge, he was simply asking what I thought on the matter, but I was moved. He could have easily overlooked me.

My young face became thoughtful. I had changed so many things already that the current events had very much veered off the original storyline. There was no Princess Anastasia even mentioned in 'Overcoming Obstacles'....but who cared about that, a new storyline, a new adventure, my own dark path not dictated by that pathetic writer...that's what I wanted.

And if I thought about it, this could be very fun. This would be an engagement that neither of us would be able to break off easily. Meaning they were freely giving me a toy that would be mine for a lifetime. I had never played with a Princess before, I wondered if they screamed differently from other people.

I smiled and finally spoke up, "I want to go forward with it, I would love to be engaged to a Princess, It's like something from a fairytale Grandad." I looked at Alexis with wide innocent eyes, "I promise to be her Knight-in-Shining armour, I'll be loyal to her forever and make her mine."

Alexis instantly grinned with pleasure once he heard those words, "My Goodness, you're Grandson really is too precious."

While Alexis laughed, Kang Seung gave me a strange glance as if he could see my true twisted intentions. The corners of his lips twitched upwards and then he shook hands with Alexis, "Then we have ourselves a deal."

"William!" Kang Seung called for his secretary, a pair of feet that had been lingering outside of the dressing room door during our conversation, moved, and William Kim politely entered. He bowed to everyone in the room.

"Everything is ready for us to depart to the hotel, Sir," he said.

Kang Seung nodded and then introduced William to Alexis, "This is my Secretary, he will be arranging the paperwork and any future meetings and business appointments that I have usually go through him."

William instantly offered his business card to Alexis.

Alexis nodded as he tucked it into the inside pocket of his blazer, "I will make sure my people arrange things through him."

"Brilliant, we will be in Vienna for two more weeks, perhaps before we go we can have all the details of this engagement ironed out, and even allow the two children to meet."

With that, there were a few more pleasant words of goodbye, and then we all parted ways.

Kang Seung was quiet throughout our journey to the car and our short drive to the hotel.

It was only when Min Ho was about to take me to my own room that Kang Seung stopped me, and said, "I don't care what you do to this girl or how you do it, but remember that she is to be your wife and also remember your position in our family. Whatever you do, it must never be made public and you must keep her on your side."

I quietly glared at Kang Seung, my dark eyes reflecting his serious gaze.

I felt like protesting a bit, but then I realised that would be childish. He had a point. I simply nodded and then tugged on Min Ho's hand and we went off to my room.

As Min Ho tucked me into my silk sheets he showed me the phone, Cha Hunha had barely made a dent into all that talc. She had thrown up a copious amount of times and tears were rolling down her cheeks leaving wet trails between all the powder. There were parts underneath her where the powder had even turned brown and yellow as she pissed herself and excreted....a symptom of consuming talc was diarrhoea.

Watching her struggle made my face twitch and the corners of my lips curl, I sniggered. I could only imagine how much her chest hurt. All those fibres and particles filling her lungs and the exposure of some asbestos pieces was surely slowly killing her and causing a lot of discomforts.

I watched her cry and puke more before leaving her a sweet bedtime message; "Don't stop, keep going. I'm watching you always."