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(3rd Person POV)
When that sentence got registered in the minds of the two other people in the office, they had opposite reactions to it.
Jeremy Agriche was enraged.
He was enraged that his precious sister might have to resort to such disgusting tactics to alleviate that crown prince's anger. Jeremy was a sis-con through and through. He wanted the attention and affection of his sister to be for only him.
Since his birth, he had never been given love or any kind of affection either from.his father or his mother. His father had been nearly absent from his whole life until he started bringing great results in missions given to him and his mother had ignored him since he was born, he barely got to know her name when he was 10 years old. The number of times he had talked with his mother could be counted on one hand.
Love wasn't expected to be given to children in the Agriche household.
He may have grown up into his manipulative and sadistic counterpart in the novel if he had not been influenced by his sister, Roxana. He still has malicious thoughts but those are tamed down by Roxana.
Roxana, in her goal of resisting her fate, thought that Jeremy was a good pawn to use. He had high potential and was easy to use.
The future Jeremy might have been difficult to handle but the young Jeremy was quite cute in comparison and easily controllable.
He was more easily influenced and susceptible to love and affection.
The current Jeremy was a person who would easily follow every single one of his sister's orders. The disadvantage of Jeremy being too attached to his sister was that he was too protective of her and disliked anyone harming her or getting close to her. His reactions in those situations were quite unpredictable.
There was an incident in which he tried to stop Roxana from giving her blood to the poison butterfly eggs. That day Jeremy went to his room wounded from his fight with his sister.
He was okay with his sister doing whatever she wanted but he didn't want her to be with another man and give her love to someone else.
That's why he disliked other men coming near her.
Now, hearing this from his father he was furious.
He slammed his hands onto the table and shouted, "But father! Why do we have to bow in front of him? Why does Ana have to sacrifice herself to protect us from him? Aren't we the Agriches who never bow in front of anyone? Even if he is really strong, can't we defeat him together?"
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lant Agriche looked at the gasping Jeremy whose face was red from anger, he calmly replied in a firm tone, "Jeremy, you have to understand now. You are just trying to deny reality by making up some delusions in your mind. You saw the situation yesterday, Aston is too strong for us to handle."
"You could see neither you nor Roxana was able to react to his power. He has a mysterious power that we don't know. Maybe it is related to the secrecy around the powers of the Phoenix Family. The point is we can't beat him."
"Even if we manage to go neck to neck against him, he can easily call help from the royal capital and we won't stand any chance against them. Our reputation among the people of the empire is not good enough. Any flimsy reason will work on the people for the action of destroying the Agriches."
He continued, trying to explain to his foolish son, "The reason why I am suggesting this solution is because if this works, it will be advantageous and beneficial for us. If he starts to even consider the option of taking Roxana as his concubine, then the chances of him destroying the Agriches will be very low. And there is another reason which is that we have no other option. We might be fucked if this plan doesn't go well."
After his explanation to Jeremy, Lant looked straight at Roxana who hadn't spoken a word since he said anything. He firmly said with hope lacing his voice, "Roxana, I expect a lot from you. I hope you don't let the Agriches down. You have to fulfil any request of the crown prince... Whatever it may be."
The pause before the last sentence gave ample information so that Roxana could interpret what had to be done.
Roxana who had been standing quietly, replied confidently, "Of course, father. I will fulfil your order to the best ability."
On seeing the confidence of Roxana, Lant smiled satisfactorily and said, "I have informed the crown prince that my daughter will be guiding him during his stay here. You have to deliver the food on your own to him."
Without listening to any of their arguments, he signalled both of them to leave his office.
When they were outside, Jeremy asked in an apprehensive tone, "Sister, are you gonna try and seduce that despicable crown prince?"
Roxana shut him up with a no-nonsense tone, "Jeremy, you heard what Father said. The whole family is at stake here, I can't just think about myself."
Jeremy, then asked with red cheeks and in a nervous tone, "B-But what if h-he asks you to do that t-thing with you? I don't want sister to experience anything like that."
At first, Roxana didn't understand what Jeremy meant but after a few moments, she realised the meaning behind Jeremy's words.
She didn't reply on that but if anyone concentrated on her face, they would see a tinge of redness on her cheeks. She was embarrassed even after thinking about that topic.
She brushed his words aside and ordered him, "Jeremy, go back to your room. Don't disturb me from now for meaningless topics and there will be consequences if you come in my way again."
Calmly, she came to her room and sent her maid outside. After there was no one inside, she let out a sigh of relief and dropped on a chair. Her facade of being calm was destroyed as she had a panicked expression on her face.
When she heard what her father said, she was extremely surprised and panicked. She had learnt seduction techniques in her childhood but there was never a situation where she had to use it. She could dominate the others by just giving a slight smile to the male and they would get bewitched by her beauty. And even without it, she was strong enough to take care of herself as well as the Agriche surname behind her helped her a lot in getting rid of the annoying pests who wanted to propose to her.
But now, her father has said she might have to use it on a person. The idea of doing those things with someone irked her and that someone was the crown prince, a despicable man.
She knew that the crown prince was handsome and dashing. He is considered the best bachelor in the whole empire. There were tons of noble ladies who would swoon over him and do anything to be his wife or even his concubine.
She had heard about him but her sole motive at that time was to resist her destiny which was death.
Now, after seeing his personality which was like an unprincipled devil, she could not even imagine what things he would make her do. And his chaotic behaviour was even more dangerous.
She had promised herself that she would do her best to not interact with the crown prince. But, now the total opposite is going to happen, whether she wants to or not.
She calmed down the train of her thoughts and tried to think rationally. After a few minutes, she went through her plan, she planned to be passive while interacting with Aston. She won't try to attempt seduction with her own choice. She will try to just fulfil her normal duties as a guide and deliver the food.
It was do or die for her now.
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(End of the Chapter)