"It seems I will no longer be able to be your first wife, so I will settle for being the second. Take good care of me in the future." Suddenly something was heard that left everyone speechless.
"What are you saying, you foolish girl?" Carmen tried to scold her daughter, to which Sofía replied in a cheerful tone:
"I'm speaking very seriously, Mom. I believe my cousin has already seen the beauty that I am and will be very interested in me."
Carmen could only cover her face in embarrassment upon seeing that her daughter had not changed at all and apologized to André:
"I'm sorry, André, my daughter spoke without thinking."
"It's fine, Aunt, I'm not upset," André answered with a smile.
After talking for a while longer, everyone left, leaving only André with Alicia in the study. Rose saw that Alicia wanted to speak alone with her brother, so she intelligently left, leaving them alone.
"What do you want to tell me, sister?" André saw his sister's serious face and asked, consternated.
"André, during the journey I saw how the viscounty had changed and I am proud of that."
"Thank you, sister. Right now it is only the beginning; I still have many plans for the entire viscounty."
"Can you tell me your next plans?"
Alicia was a little embarrassed, since they had just met and she was asking about his plans, but everything was for André's good. So she endured the embarrassment and looked at him firmly.
"I still plan the construction of large factories as far as production is concerned. Soon we will be the largest exporters of all kinds of merchandise in the region."
"As for internal matters, I plan to abolish the tax collectors and have the lord's mansion take charge of collecting the tributes directly."
"The local lords abuse the common people too much in order to pay their own taxes. That is a priority to resolve. In addition, I plan to charge a land tax to the landowners and local lords."
"And in the medium term, the plan is to abolish slavery, but that will be carried out little by little."
Listening to her brother's plans, Alicia could not help but praise his vision, but she also became very worried. She knew that the reaction of those people would not be friendly and that André could be in danger. Then she said:
"André, I believe you should postpone those plans until you have more support from all sides. Right now they will bring great resistance from everyone."
"You know that our cousin's death was very strange. I fear they have something to do with it." After saying that, extreme concern was noticeable on her face.
"Don't worry, sister. I already noticed a group of traitors among the vassal nobles. I am only waiting for them all to join together so I can carry out a thorough cleaning," André watched Alicia's reaction when he said this.
Seeing her calm face as she listened, André felt relieved. He did not want his sister to think he was a monster for calmly planning to kill many people.
Then André realized that this was the Middle Ages. All of this was normal; it happened a great deal among the nobles, unlike the modern world. So he decided to continue:
"Right now, under my command I have an army of thirty thousand soldiers. They are completely loyal to me. Everyone thinks that my army is still the original one."
That was right. André had perfectly hidden the news of the recruitment for the army. The recruits had also not been allowed to leave until they completed the training.
"Immediately after announcing the reforms, I will wait a short time and then I plan to give them a great opportunity to finish me off."
"I believe they will not resist the temptation to end their problems at the root. That is when I will finish them all off and, in passing, avenge my cousin's death."
"No, you absolutely cannot!" Alicia exclaimed agitatedly and with a little anger on her face.
"Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to me. Everything is well prepared," André tried to calm her, saying that everything would be fine, but it did not seem to work.
"I will not allow such a risky plan. Do not try to convince me." Alicia's eyes were a little red and she was about to cry.
Seeing her state, André could not help but feel a little sympathy. She had been strong, enduring the death of her father at an early age and now the death of her grandfather and her cousin, with whom she had grown up. If anything happened to André, she would surely collapse mentally.
"How about this? Tomorrow I will let you see the strength of my army and then we will discuss it," André compromised a little. He believed that tomorrow, after seeing his military might, he would be able to convince her in some way.
"Alright," Alicia said with slightly clouded eyes. She approached André and took him by the arm, then added:
"From now on you will not leave my sight at any moment."
There was firmness in her gaze.
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