Marico sighed heavily at this point as if he was letting out all the frustration in his chest like a dying old man filled with regret.
"Still, I have tasked Violet to fully focus on helping Luke in any manner possible as long as it is something my family can do even if we have to harm our foundation in order to do so."
Upon hearing her father's words, Violet began to narrate the direction and intensity of her efforts regarding the task assigned to her by her father.
"I have mobilized all the contacts our family has in order to find out the circumstances of Luke and the punishment he is due to receive from the military. The only way we can put enough pressure is to put enough stress on the economy of the city to force the government to take action on our behalf."
Violet had been working very hard on the project. She was very worried about Luke as well and would have done everything to help him even if her father hadn't asked her to do it.
Despite all her efforts, Violet wasn't confident of getting Luke out of trouble because things were moving very slowly on her end. It turns out that influencing the military was a monstrously difficult job for civilians like her who had more wealth than power and authority.
"It may be difficult but I believe that you can figure out a solution." Zach comforted Violet who was probably feeling worse after hearing his unintentional but searing words.
Both Marico and Violet were excessively busy during this time; the former was busy reorganizing the sugar production business and the logistics chain with Christina's help and the latter was busy trying to save Luke from the clutches of the military. But Clara was nowhere to be seen in the Windsor family mansion. It was like she didn't care about her family who had barely gotten away from a calamitous situation.
In fact, Clara was too busy clinging to Zach during this time. Even though she was needed at the Windsor family mansion, she refused to budge from Zach's side despite the latter having pushed her away on so many occasions. She was like a stubborn leech hell bent on sucking Zach dry of his blood.
The reason why she refused to leave was because she was too worried.
Marico's constant cautions to Zach had in fact poisoned her mind instead. She grew increasingly paranoid with each warning and eventually her paranoia reached a stage where she couldn't let Zach out of her sight for a single second, afraid that he would encounter some kind of danger without her.
Even though Zach was strong on his own, Clara was not willing to take the risk of letting him go out alone. She knew that she wouldn't be able to bear it if something happened to him after what had happened to her sister and father earlier.
"Hey, why do you keep following me around? Don't you have something better to do?" asked Zach annoyed by her constant pestering.
"I don't." replied Clara in a matter-of-fact manner.
"What do you mean?"
"You asked me if I had something better to do…I don't. Father is looking after the business while elder sister is busy filtering out any spies as a precaution after the last incident. They told me they didn't need my help because my personality is not suited for either task." Clara had a smug smile on her face as if she was proud of being so useless in her own household.
Zach was speechless this time. The girl knew no shame.
"Go home, I can protect myself. Don't take your father's words to heart. The Hunter family can't do anything to me while I am here on the island."
Zach wasn't afraid of any enemy on the level of the Hunter family. He could mow down such enemies with ease whenever he wanted.
"I won't leave you alone until I can be sure that there is no danger. You won't mind feeding an extra mouth while I am here, right?"
Zach was helpless in front of her as well. He couldn't figure out how to tell her off even after having tried to do so on so many occasions. After all, the girl was only worried about his safety and was trying to protect him in her own way.
Therefore, Zach hardened his mind and tried to ignore her antics as she followed after him like some kind of bodyguard. A petite girl like her no matter how monstrous she was, didn't look like a bodyguard at all. It only made for a comic sight.
Zach was trying to slowly get used to Clara's continued presence as he surveyed the development on Greenland. The residential area had almost been developed with the help of the trained manpower and the professional machinery that Zach provided.
As a result, a project that might have taken years to complete in a world devoid of machinery took more than a few months to complete.
It was already in the final stages though it still wasn't complete in the truest sense.
Since, the requirement of manpower for the remaining project wasn't very high and most of the soldiers of the family were now free, Zach could begin training his soldiers in the new and advanced weapons he had unlocked after absorbing the latent energy from Christina. Based on the new weapons, the tactics of the soldiers needed to be revised as well.
Zach had already thought up a few battle strategies based on these weapons but the soldiers needed a few weeks of training in order to understand the profundities of the new formations.
Therefore, he called for an assembly of all the soldiers who were free from the construction duties and were busy idling about or playing with their weapons in the shooting range. Diana was of course the leader of the troops and was standing in front of them like a disciplined general about to report to the commander-in-chief.
Zach nodded towards her as he appraised the condition of his soldiers. He had been worried that the soldiers would be too worn down after days of construction work but they seemed to be in high spirits. Each and every one of them was extremely excited at being called in such a manner by Zach.
During the time they had spent working on the construction of their family's mansion, they were unable to fight anyone. This had been an extremely boring stretch of time and had taken a toll on their minds. It even made them want to fight each other in order to experience the thrill of battle.
Clara stood behind Zach like a petite and cute little secretary who looked extremely harmless. But the soldiers in the front had seen her terrifying strength that was completely capable of altering the geography of land.
Therefore, none of them dared to look her in the eyes even though she was making faces at them in order to make them laugh. It seemed that the young lady of the Windsor family was in the mood for pranks today.
Zach rolled his eyes annoyed at her childish antics and decided to ignore her completely.
"You have been leisurely for far too long. Your fangs have gotten a layer of rust after being away from battle for so long. A soldier can only be called one after experiencing countless bloody rains and deaths. You are still too green to call yourself a soldier. You need more training to get back in shape."
Zach's voice was like thunder that ignited a fire in the hearts of all the soldiers. Motivation surged in from the deepest parts of their souls. They were ready for whatever Zach had planned for them.
Although the atmosphere around the soldiers was full of excitement, the one who was beaming with the most joy was Diana as usual. She couldn't contain her excitement at the thought of being trained by Zach again. The reason was that she could spend more time with him in this manner especially now that she had more competitors than before.
Despite not showing it outwardly, Diana wasn't willing to hand over Zach to the girls who obviously came after her. She wanted to declare her dominance to the other two girls.
Her soldiers were influenced by her enthusiasm as well and synchronized shouting was heard a moment later declaring that they were all ready to take on the next challenge with all their strength.
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