“Can you drive a car?”
“I can, but I am only allowed to drive my electric racing kart. Izanami and I race around them in the underground carpark on Sundays. Would you like to come?”
Nori shrugged. “I don’t know how to drive.”
“Your mother has access to my karts. While I am dancing on Saturday, she can teach you to drive. An electric racing kart is easy to drive. They are just like super-karts, only smaller.”
“Really?”
“They are four-wheel drive and steering with independent suspension. The spoilers are self-adjusting, six-speed automatic gearbox, power steering, and powerful disc brakes. I have plenty of power cells.”
“Wow, that would be great.”
“I finish soon,” Kaede said. He looked about and asked Nori, “Where is your mother?”
“Oh, she is outside,” Nori replied, then he mumbled, “Just in case you didn’t like me.”
“Wait here,” Kaede said.
Kaede walked out of the studio, closed the door, walked up to Lady Emi and took her down the hall. He said, “I have invited Nori on Saturday to play with my karts in the underground structure. I hope you are available to teach him to drive them?”
“I thought that is when you are on the set of ‘Dance’ with Izanami?”
“I am. You can come in and teach Nori to drive my karts. Make sure you put the power cells on charge when you are done. I will make sure you both can order some meals from the Palace kitchens, and he can stay overnight with me.”
Emi blushed and said, “Oh, I don’t want to impose.”
“It will be my pleasure if you and Nori be my guest for the third and fourth meals of the day. I will have a spare bedroom you can use.”
Emi took a step back and asked, “Is my father making you do this?”
“I am aware Viktor is your father, and I know about Nori, but no one is making me invite him, or you over.”
Emi said in a soft voice, “Nori is, well, different.”
Kaede nodded and said, “I heard he quit swimming after being teased.”
“I was hoping to get him to return to competitive swimming.”
“When is it on?”
“Sunday Nights, but he should train every day.”
“I will need diving lessons soon, and Sunday is the only free day I have. I understand that you’re a qualified instructor?”
“Yes.”
“I will pay you to teach me, Izanami and Nori. I will provide the boat, the crew, and all the equipment. We will be open water diving first using a diving bell and later a deep submersible vehicle.”
“How deep?”
Kaede cocked his head and replied, “For now, that is classified omega. I will brief you once you have proper clearance.”
“Omega?”
“Yes. Your father and I have developed a new submarine. It can go beyond crush depth of the Navy’s deep-diving bathysphere.”
“Why?”
“There are a lot of valuable minerals on the bottom of many oceans beyond our reach.”
“Wait, you want to bring my Nori to the bottom of the ocean?”
“I know we only just met, but Nori is very nice, and this will boost his self-confidence.”
“I don’t know. Nori is a little young to be ocean diving.”
“It would be best if Viktor told Shinji a few small lies to let him think you’re taking Nori for open water swimming lessons.”
“I want to bring him Tuesday nights for martial arts training as your student.”
“Is Nori any good?”
“No Nori is only a beginner.”
“Yes, I do need a student. Nori is perfect. I will arrange for him to have access to my private gym, pool, and dojo in my workshop.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. If you can, please call me Sensei. You can be my Senpai.”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“To get a fourth star, you need to complete advanced combat training, and I will pay you.”
“Just one question.”
“Yes?”
“I do not see a pool in your workshop?”
“I have a secret panel in my workshop. It is best if I show you.”
“Just how big is your workshop?”
“I have three stories on subbasement four and another three on subbasement five. Izanami’s and other workshops around me to mine. My various companies rent a quarter of all the workspace and have thousands of workers in my employ. If you work a second shift at the Palace for me, I will pay you the same rate you earn now to a private account in your name.”
“If you have a spare room for me?”
“I will let Lady Toshiko know that you need a room in the officer’s quarters. When you bring Nori, he can stay with me, and use my helicopter to get him to school.”
✽✽✽
Saturday morning Nori woke on a futon on the floor of Kaede’s room to find Kaede was not in his bed and hanging on the door was a racing suit and a helmet with a note taped to the helmet. He wore a pair of purple shorts and a blue top.
Confused, Nori read the note. In neat handwriting, it read, “Nori, I have left early; There is a bag by the main door with a towel and swimmers for the pool. Inside is your helmet, suit, gloves, and boots for later. You will need to wear them when driving a kart. After swimming in the Palace pool, your mother will take you to my karts. Enjoy and see you later. Your friend Kaede.”
Nori took the note, folded it and put it in his backpack. There was a knock at the door; Then it slowly opened, Emi peeked in and saw Nori. She came in wearing a pink racing suit.
“Hi, Mum, Kaede left already.”
“Son, I told you about titles. It is Prince Kaede.”
“But he said we are friends, and as his friend, I can drop the use of his title after a few times.”
“Remember that it is only for informal conversation.”
“Does the prince outrank his father?”
“Yes, he does. Kaede outranks almost everyone. Even my father treats him as an equal. I think the prince only answers to the Emperor.”
“Wow. I wish I could give orders to my father. I would order him to stop yelling at you.”
Emi hugged Nori and said, “I love you, baby,” she looked at him, and huffed, “But, your father is my problem, not yours.”
“Kaede’s father does not call him a sissy, even after wearing a dress.”
“Honey, a Kimono is not a dress.”
“Last night, the maid brought him a pink dress. He said he is dancing in the park in it today.”
“Oh, right, they have Yosakoi Dance competition today. Nori that is not a dress; They call it a Yukata and the team has to wear matching clothes.”
“He has cool girlfriends.”
“Your father arranged for you to meet a nice girl. She is from a good family with good grades.”
“Mum! She is much younger than me and so boring. All she talks about is dolls.”
“I am sorry. If it were up to me, I would give you time to find someone you like, but you are in your father’s clan, and until you are eighteen, you belong to your father and his clan.”
“I don’t care. I hate my father. All he cares about is getting promoted to central command.”
Emi sighed and asked, “Oh! What did you and Kaede do last night?”
“He is so cool. He took me to see his magic library. It is huge. I have never seen so many books. He showed me a book on transformation magic. Kaede told me this magic is why the Empire makes money using plastic mixed with gold and a variety of impurities. Not just gold notes, the coins have more plastic than metal in them!”
“Yes, coins are made to a specific weight, design and have many non-metallic impurities to counter counterfeiting.”
“Oh, he has a huge collection of magic items and not just wands. He has staves, rods, rings, and cauldrons. In a huge case, he has a crystal ball that glows.”
Emi was puzzled. She looked around and asked
, “When did you leave the room?”
“Oh,” Nori said, looking down.
“Freya and I were in the main room. You didn’t come past us, and his collection is way down in the vault.”
“Are you always watching him?”
“It is my job,” Emi said as she looked around the room. I wish I knew how he got out, but it would be wrong to ask Nori to tell me where the secret panel is.
“Even when he is on the toilet?” Nori asked.
Emi turned to Nori and smiled, “Learn to control yourself. Be a good friend and don’t tell anyone that he took you to the library. Or how you got out. If you cannot keep secrets, he will not want me to bring you to the Palace.”
Nori nodded.
Emi tapped his nose. “Now get dressed. I will wait in the main room and take you to the kitchens. We can have a chef make our first meal of the day, but after you do eight laps of the pool, we will stop by my father’s office. But don’t worry. I will teach you how to drive an electric racing kart today.”
“Cool,” Nori said, reaching for his jumpsuit.
“Don’t forget your swimmers,” Emi said.
Nori, worried, looked down, and mumbled, “I didn’t bring them.”
Emi said, “We shall go to the workshop and have a pair made.”
“A sharkskin swimsuit?” an excited Nori asked.
“No. I cannot afford that. You’re getting a synthetic rubber competition swimsuit,” Emi said.
“Oh,” Nori sighed.
“If will do well. I will save for one, but you must study hard.”
“Can I learn magic?”
“No, you’re too young.”
“Kaede can do spells.”
“Only cantrips.”
“Can I do transformations?”
“If you want to learn transformations, you must study harder than you do now and spend a long time in school.”
✽✽✽
Takahiro sat at a large computer desk; It had two screens that sat side by side under the transparent surface. On the left display, marked Madam Oei, was an elder female Flower Elf with gold eyes and faded pink hair in Shimada style with gold pins. She wore a red kimono embossed with gold. She bowed and said, “These are the latest arrivals. They are clean, young, and all are virgins. I checked them all. You see any you like?”
On the right screen, a display of a dozen short young Asian females with mahogany brown hair in pigtails, a round face and large round dark brown eyes. They were all between 90 to 100 cm tall and dressed in revealing lace bras and panties. Most had small breasts, full, round faces with long hair. He licked his lips.
“Is that all the Koropokkuru?” Takahiro asked.
“Yes,” Oei replied.
“Not many.”
“I have many other Dwarfs.”
There was a knock at the door. Takahiro sighed and said, “Clean them up. No perfume or makeup. Dress them in pink fishnets, a pink yukata with soft white shoes. Don’t bother with underwear. I will interview them personally tonight.”
“Yes, Emperor.”
He ended the call and swiped the screen left, and it went black as Masako, a tall Koropokkuru Dwarf entered carrying pushing a trolley with a bowl of Ramen soup and a pot of tea.
“Up all night again?” Masako asked as she placed the bowl on the conference table near the entrance.
“Kaede has the market busy. I gave him a dozen research projects, but he has registered over a hundred.”
“That’s good,” Masako said with a smile.
Takahiro shook his head. “No, it isn’t. I only intended to put pressure on the others. But now he wants to buy all my medical companies, including my New Shanghai Medical Laboratories, and his mining company wants to mine asteroids in a couple of systems.”
“What do you mean?” Masako asked.
“I only want him on the throne temporarily, and to keep control of most of my companies. But he has made so much in a short time; He can raise billions for any project he puts his name too. At this rate, he will steamroll over me in a decade.”
“I am sure Kaede will still appoint you as CEO of the corporation.”
“I do not want to be CEO under him. I want him to draw attention away from my failed energy program and give me time to rebuild my support.”
“You always said business is war and that the first casualty is the plan.”
Takahiro nodded. “Speaking of plans. Have you made plans for next year?”
“Plans?”
“Yes, once your contract is up, have you found a new job?”
Masako tried to smile, but on the inside, she was in pain, but she managed a slight smile. She said, “Oh, I will find another job after I take a long vacation.”
Takahiro nodded, stood and came over to the table.
Masako wanted to cry. Why am I so upset? He hasn’t slept with me for over a year. “I don’t understand why you’re upset. You gave him a massive budget, sold him a pile of incomplete research he put his name to and is producing results.”
Takahiro sighed and said, “Hiro is the problem.”
“Hiro is your son; there was a time you would move mountains for him. If you want time off, why not put him on the throne?”
“Emperor of the Empire is not a hereditary position, but Emperor of East Hyperborea is. I wanted Hiro to sit on the Throne in New Tokyo, and Kaede can be my representative here. After a couple of decades of him being an obnoxious attention seeker, they would be happy to have me back.”
Masako poured tea and asked, “Hiro is still young, and you’re in good health, why rush?”
“Since birth, I was groomed to serve in the court. Sitting on the throne felt natural. Now it feels like a prison, and all the inmates hate me. Kaede is popular, and he keeps the focus off me. That allows me to get things done behind the scenes.”
“If that is what you wanted, why are you upset?”
“I miscalculated. I only wanted Kaede to run a research company, put his name on some papers and sell me the designs. I limited his production. But instead of hindering him, he licenced production to my competitors and thousands of small factories all over the Empire, then used the profits to build his factories.”
“Did you know Dain Media is doing an Exposé on the teahouse and how you exploit Dwarves?” Masako asked as she put the teapot down.
“Let him. I built a huge business Empire under his nose, and to this day, it pisses him off that I beat him using his rules. I built the largest waste processing centre and the largest construction company in the Empire from a small scrap yard.”
“Dain says you fathered many daughters and married them off to the highest bidder and appointed them as lords. They ran the biggest network of illegal casinos, brothels and opium dens, and paid you a fortune you hide inside your scrap. Then when you have enough, you used it to take over many companies on Mars and become the Emperor. Then you pardoned the Yakuza and made membership legal.”
Takahiro looked surprised. He smiled and said, “Yes, I did, and I would do it again.”
Masako noticed that on the screen there was the treasury list of richest Elves and Takahiro was second and Kaede number one, “Kaede is number one?”
A bitter Takahiro said, “It took me a thousand years to become the richest in the Empire. I was the first to make a trillion. Kaede made one hundred trillion in five years, but most of that is debt.”
“Why then is he not Emperor? Is it his age?”
“No. This list is not the official list; It is just a projection of wealth if everyone had no debt. The official wealth rank goes by your non-monetary assets reduced by your debt. Kaede owes every bank, every house, and almost every Lord a fortune.”
“How far off number one is the prince?”
“According to my calculations, Kaede is five years from making the top ten.”
“Are you planning to call in his loans?”
“If I do that Patya might launch an official investigation and Dain will rally everyone again
st me. But, Toshiko and Abelle already started granting Kaede low-interest loans. If Dain and Patya join them, I will never be able to remove him.”
“What will you do?”
“I need to find a way to pressure him to sell me his inventions in return for a debt reduction, without having anyone rescue him.”
“If I were you, I would do a deal with Kaede before Dain and others cash in on his debts and loan him more at a much lower rate. You may not want to do it, but the only chance you have now is to reduce his interest to the minimum rate, or everyone will grow their wealth off him, and when it comes time to reduce assets to meet the wealth cap, you will be the one selling off everything.”
“What do I get in return?”
“Sign a contract guaranteeing you the position of CEO of the parent corporation. Ask for an appointment to the Imperial Court and to serve as an advisor.”
“That is a brilliant idea. Don’t worry. I will write you a recommendation and pay your holiday bonus early so you can secure an apartment before you go.”
“Thanks.”
“I take it you took that job doing pornographic movies for Arjuna?”
“No.”
“He is the largest producer of pornographic movies. You want me to get him to pay you more?”
“I have been offered a job as a housekeeper.”
“How long have you been working for him?” Takahiro said in a firm voice.
Masako gasped. “You should be more worried about Dain’s plan to partner with Kaede on a new shipyard.”
With a sly grin, Takahiro said, “Good luck with your new job.”
Masahiko smiled and left. Outside the door, she wiped a tear off her cheek and returned to her room. She called Kaede.
Masahiko smiled and left. Outside the door, she wiped a tear off her cheek and returned to her room. She called Kaede.
“Hello Masako,” Kaede said.
“I did as you asked, but he figured out I am working for you.”
“Nothing he can do without exposing himself.”
“What about Dain?”
“Tell him you signed a non-disclosure agreement and that you now work for me as my assistant. Abelle will keep him from embarrassing you and don’t worry about the Teahouse. They are used to his probes; they love the free publicity and don’t give out the real names of former employees.”
Power Games Page 11
