The instant reply if James was weird, and it got even weirder when he added:

"I want all of you."

"What do you mean by all of us?" Alex asked, with some anticipation and suspicion.

James just smiled, as he glanced at his shoulders, where Eli, shyly, was standing there, watching them, doing nothing. His sudden turn startled her, as she, nervously, moved a fantasized hair from her face.

"I want the three of you to work under me," James explained, with short words.

"What do you need us to do?" Alex asked, without showing any strange or doubt towards James, not like Islinda.

"What benefit would it have for us?" Islinda asked with much aggressiveness, while thinking of how to refuse the next offer of James; she didn't like him!

"…" Eli opened her mouth, said nothing, and closed it again in obvious nervousness and hesitation, as her mind went to bad stuff; things she would never expect to be asked for or wanted to do!

"I want all of you to work for me, as for what to do, I still haven't decided," James vaguely said.

"You didn't say what we will gain from that," Islinda demanded, stressing over the point that interested her.

"I have to tell you the bad news first, so you will know what benefit you will gain from working with me, sorry, under me," James said, correcting his intentional mistake, to show them he would be their boss, not their partner.

"As I mentioned before, your empire already controls the whole grand sector, so being here, in this very conflicted environment, means one thing for you," he then pointed with his index finger towards her face.

"I'm not in the grand sector of my empire?" she said, in a more confession than inquiring tone. Her face showed a plain look, as she never saw this coming!

James just nodded, before adding his most important, key words, to gain her allegiance for him, "not only that, your empire lies in the centre of the whole universe, but your location now is in a grand sector on the outermost layers of it."

As he predicted, her face turned upside down, ashen white for a moment then pale red in the next, expressing her stress and anxiety. Suspecting she wasn't in her grand sector wasn't that hard for such an intelligent girl, but what she didn't see coming was the fact she was far, far away from her empire.

Journey like this was very hard, full of dangers, without any guarantee of success. The problem wasn't just the time needed to cross all such grand distance, but in the obstacles she would face, enemies of her empire she might meet, and above all, her beloved uncle's assassins wouldn't let her set a single foot near her empire's grand sector that easily.

Islinda's eyes softened, from her despair, as she realized how deeply her uncle's treacherous scheme had gone to. He wasn't lying when he told her he had carefully selected a trial she couldn't overcome.

"Don't worry," James decided to step in, after giving her precious minutes to consider, "if you worked under me, devoted all your efforts for me, then I promise I won't rest until I see you to the throne, your rightful throne."

His words were casually said, but the meaning and determination they carried were touched by her. She raised her defeated eyes, looked with her solemn face towards him.

"I'm not good at fighting, all my entire life I was raised to be a queen, ruling queen, so I know nothing about this life, thugs life."

Her words were direct and harsh, but James wasn't offended as she was at least honest with him. "I know you might look at our current life to be a bad way of living, something you always despised, and you might value yourself lowly in this life.

I want to assure you, your role here would be irreplaceable, so precious that I, and all my followers, will protect you with our lives if needed."

She, suspiciously, looked to him, with inquiring eyes. She tried to think about his meaning, the role he pointed out in his words but she found none. So she expressed her confusion loudly by asking:

"What is this magical role that I missed?"

"The role to start an empire," he said, "an empire that would reign supreme on many grand sectors," he added, "with you as our brain, me as our leader, my trusted subordinates as our weapons, we would reign supreme on many grand sectors."

He then paused, as to let them all digest his words. "And I promise you when time comes, our name will be thunderously reverberating everywhere, even when I escort you to your empire, none will dare to stand in our way, none!"

His words, despite being so grandiose and majestic, were describing a long term plan, a plan that might take years up to a decade to be done. Isilda realized this at first glance, but she didn't object, in fact she was appreciating James' efforts to put such a plan in front of her.

She knew what it meant to return to her empire, ascend her rightful throne. She knew, better than anyone, the endless times she would be faced with tough choices, death and life situations, and the despair of losing everything despite doing anything.

At least James had provided a plan, safe and somehow applicable, without asking much for her except to use her superb talents in serving a goal that was both his and hers.

She also felt appreciation for him, as through this mission, she wouldn't need to abandon her training since little, but would gain a lot of real life experience, which she critically was lacking right now.

If she had such experience, she would never have fallen into the clutches of her uncle, at least without a proper fight inside the imperial court. That made her mind, making her accept this role mentally and spiritually, and the latter held great importance in the near future of both of them.

"I agree," she finally spoke, saying what James needed to hear. There was another reason for fixing his gaze upon her and the other two beside her. They appeared in time of great plan regarding the three immortals he fought before, and that meant they would be, in some way, related to the mysterious powers he had. They even might have other forms of this power, but didn't discover it, not yet.

"I'm honored to accept your services," James said, without making a big fuss over it.

"What is my role then?" Alex asked, in an impatient tone, "would I be a fighter? A great general of your armies?"

James just glanced at him, in a pity that he tried to hide. He came here because of Islinda, and Alex was just a collateral gain.

"Sure," James replied without interest, "I will depend on you then in leading part of our armies," he said, and before Alex could early celebrate, "but I warn you, you need to start training first, climbing up ranks with your own efforts."

Despite putting this hard to achieve condition, Alex just jumped out of surprise, without hiding his excitement, he yelled at James:

"Thanks a lot, leader. I heard them calling you this, so I hope you won't be mad at me. I won't disappoint you, never. You won't regret this decision, never."

James just nodded, as he put him in no regard at all. If there is someone he dared a lot beside Islinda, Eli would be such a person.

"As for you," he turned to look at Eli, who was so nervous right now that she even forgot to breath.

"I want you to accompany me all the time," James vaguely said. he had some plans out for her, but as he was imagining how he would ask her about her powers, deciding to start testing the three by her, Alex said with a rude tone amidst his ecstasy:

"Oh, you two are lovers then, that's good, but isn't she a little younger to be bedded?"

His words fell like a bomb that made James' mind even stop. He, silently, stole a glance towards Eli, to find her angelic face blush in embarrassment, that even her face was starting to boil. He sighed, without showing any reaction at all, he looked at Alex, feeling already regretful. Why didn't he have this foul mouthed idiot killed?

"Don't joke about such serious things, or else others might be hurt by your jokes."

Alex felt James reply to be awkward, so he stopped as he wondered to himself, when was he ever joking?

"Stop joking around, let's move out. I will take you out now, and from now on you all will listen to me or my right hand, Rigo."

James then moved towards the side of the cell to open the bars, while Alex looked towards Islinda as he muttered:

"Is this Rigo his butler or something?"