Though he didn't understand why the Marquess was discussing things in front of that honorable lady from the Sertsul family, he still believed that the Marquess had trust in her, so he kept his guard moderate.
"Top 3? Having a market share of 60% in the whole Empire puts you in first position, Mr. Carlos," Avendial looked towards the man who was the chief executive of the main business and most likely the economic backbone of the Croceaus family's entire business empire, generating 40% of revenue from this group alone.
All the construction work, from creating pleasure houses for the Sertsul family to government projects involving bridges, department buildings, smart city planning, etc., was assigned to this group.
Yet this man demonstrated experience by not allowing himself to take too much pride in his accomplishments, unlike the other two CEOs who often believed in their positions.
"We report our complete details on time; usually, the revenue produced by other corporations might be higher than what is reported.
So that's why—," Carlos began to explain how, unlike them, who filed their taxes on time, there were other construction groups that didn't do the same, resulting in their rankings dropping since they failed to report their actual revenue, which was the reason he stated they were in the top 3. But before he could complete his statement, Avendial interrupted.
"I need you to produce weapons for me, Carlos," Avendial directly addressed the matter, not wanting to waste more time assigning the task to these people since it had already been an hour. It would be 10 o'clock in 8 minutes, with 12 being the time when all classes would end and students would leave.
'He is really preparing for treason!' Aecilia cried out in her mind while maintaining a composed exterior, with folded hands, while her closed eyes betrayed her inward situation as she tightly clenched her teeth, fearing that the man she loved was engaging in such actions.
He was preparing for treason just because of a poisoning event orchestrated by one of the royal heirs?
'Now that's the man I choose. Not a bad choice, Aecilia,' Aecilia couldn't help but praise herself, knowing that her choice was truly commendable since the man she chose was strong enough not to back down and cared about those behind all this—the royal family—and was preparing for treason and a coup.
Yesterday, he was poisoned, and today he was preparing his army. Which woman would not want to fall for such a brave, strong-hearted man?
'But....' Aecilia tilted her head while her eyes remained closed, feeling that preparing weapons to go against her family was futile, considering they possessed individuals with superpowers. Even the government, with complete access to nuclear weapons and artillery, could not harm a single hair on the royal family's head.
As a kind gesture, she decided to help him, given that she was also angered by the royals for going this far.
"Weapons?" Carlos, resting his chin on his knuckles, thought deeply about his superior's request. Unlike others, he didn't react with surprise at the mention of creating weapons but remained composed while considering a solution.
The most he could do was obtain a license and start using metal refineries to create the parts, but it all came down to creating the mechanisms for the guns and weapons, which were difficult to license or obtain a patent for mass manufacturing.
"Yes, but not the ones you are thinking of," Avendial could see through him, understanding that by weapons he must have imagined guns and similar modern weapons. This prompted him to clarify, "but instead, swords, axes, spears, sledgehammers, katana blades, and such weapons."
"Hmm, I see," Carlos nodded, deeply engrossed in thinking about the possibility of manufacturing these weapons. The refineries were capable of producing them, and they also had steel, so it wouldn't be hard, given they needed two or one and a half months for production.
'!?!'
'..Heh?!' Rihane, standing near the door, overheard everything while feeling confused and unable to understand the use of such weapons in this modern world. It appeared as if those weapons were most likely meant for some movie set or cosplay.
Since one can simply kill someone with a small gun, who would even try to use a sword in a fight?
Somewhat, Rihane's perspective was correct, given that except for the higher-ups and people in leading positions, those lower down were not aware of the presence of Empyreals under the royal family, causing them to consider everything from a normal logical standpoint.
A sword-wielder can never kill a gun holder; a spear can never do anything in front of a grenade launcher, and so many such logical things are undeniable.
This made her reconstruct her thoughts, considering that maybe the Marquess just wanted those 20,000 people to act as traditional soldiers or patrol guards for his territory instead of having a military equipped with modern weapons.
"Sir, how much time do we have to make the preparations?" Carlos inquired, not asking any further reasons, just wanting to complete the task assigned to him by his superiors.
"I want more than 100,000 of such weapons in six months; increase the production and primarily focus on their manufacturing," Avendial further ordered before taking a pen from the desk and a notebook, tearing a page as he began to write something on it.
"I understand," Carlos bowed before lifting his head, patiently waiting for the details Avendial was writing down. He remained calm and composed while already thinking about how to fulfill the number of weapons, realizing he needed to procure more raw materials soon.
"Here, read this—it's the alloy from which I want the weapons to be made," Avendial stretched out his hand and offered the paper on which he had written the composition of the metal and the approximate amounts needed to create those weapons.
"Th-this?!" Carlos, who had maintained his composure, felt it crumbling the moment he saw the metals he needed to arrange were not steel. His eyes scanned the composition, "Titanium (70%): 350,000 kg, Tungsten (10%): 50,000 kg, Vanadium (5%): 25,000 kg, Aluminum Oxide (10%): 50,000 kg, Silicon Carbide (5%): 25,000 kg. Is this correct, sir?"
"Yes, that is the alloy from which I want the weapons made, and for your reference, I had mentioned the amount of raw materials as well." Avendial, knowing well that the quantity was substantial, confirmed it was not impossible to arrange if all the resources available to the Croceaus family were used.
"This alloy seems to have non-conductive properties," Carlos observed, looking over the metals used in the composition, which led him to conclude that the weapons or alloy would be a poor conductor of electricity. He nodded before further inquiring, "Anything else, sir?"
"Nothing, just ensure you hire professionals for weapon design and provide the best quality designs possible; we can't have our soldiers wielding mere pieces of metal, can we?" Avendial replied with a calm smile, showing no hint of an opening for Carlos to guess the reason for this particular task.
Before Avendial added, "Also, deliver the message to the Mayor that I will meet him in two weeks, so until then keep everyone away from approaching me."