Thursday.

Felix had made a conscious decision to postpone taking action until the deadline set by the dictator had nearly expired and only one day remained to make contact with them.

"Hello, Your Excellency," Felix greeted as soon as he was informed that the phone was in Adolf's possession.

"Did you call to inform me that you've accepted my offer?" Adolf cut to the chase, not interested in small talk and wanting to make the most of his time.

"Yes, after discussing the matter, the headquarter decided to accept your proposal," Felix stated.

"Good. Then come tomorrow with the contract so we can sign it," Adolf said, his voice filled with a hint of excitement and joy.

"But the main headquarters has given us some conditions that need to be included in the contract for agreeing to your terms, Your Highness," Felix said, waiting for Adolf's excited voice to subside before adding his own input.

"What are the conditions? Go ahead and state them," Adolf said, but this time his tone held no hint of happiness at all.

"They've requested that the dividends be paid annually, starting from the day when the company officially begins operations after the merger, as a condition for agreeing to your terms," Felix stated, relaying the conditions as requested.

"Why start counting from that day? And why annually instead of quarterly?" Adolf asked in a displeased tone, clearly not happy with the conditions presented.

"According to them, it'll take that long for the company to start generating stable income, thus making it possible for dividends to be paid," Felix explained, trying to shed light on the reasoning behind the headquarters' condition regarding dividend payments.

"Okay, then," the dictator replied after a brief pause, taking a moment to confer with one of his assistants who was also listening in on the call.

"Alright, then. I'll be sending you the contract shortly for your review," Felix replied.

"Send it over. I'll have my legal team review it, and we'll get in touch with you if there are any changes we need to make," Adolf said in a tone that implied he was doing them a favor.

"See you soon, your highness" Felix began to say, but the call was abruptly ended by Adolf before he could finish his farewell.

...

Rina Rothschild's mansion.

Rina had finally secured the oath of loyalty from all the members by leveraging evidence of their cuckoldry against them.

This meant that Rina had gained the support of six out of the sixteen board members that had already sworn their allegiance to her.

Today, Rina was officially starting to visit the remaining board members who had not been involved in the cuckoldry bullshit, the normal ones.

"Miss, are you feeling okay?" Chloe asked Rina as they drove towards the mansion of the seventh board member.

"What do you mean by that?"

"What I meant was, are you feeling well? You have been visiting different board members for the entirety of the week and it must be exhausting," Chloe clarified her question.

"Aah, I see what you mean. I'm planning something and I need their help, hence the visit," Rina explained her reasoning without revealing any more details about her plan.

She didn't reveal her plan to Chloe, not because she didn't trust her, but because she knew that the fewer people who knew, the lower the risk of it leaking would be.

After Rina explained her reason for the visit, the rest of the journey continued in silence.

....

Friday.

Felix and his team of three arrived at the palace for the contract signing, and were swiftly escorted to the dictator's office by the security team.

When they arrived, they greeted Adolf and shook hands. However, this time was different. Adolf didn't immediately start talking about the main topic and instead engaged in small talk with Felix, as if he was trying to hide his excitement and anxiety about signing the contract with them.

"Your Excellency, is there anything else you would like to negotiate in the contract?" Felix asked, redirecting the conversation back to the contract.

"Nothing. I'm very satisfied with the conditions, and there's nothing I want to negotiate in it," Adolf replied promptly.

"May we proceed with the signing, Your Excellency, if it is not an inconvenience for you?" Felix asked politely, trying not to appear as if he was rushing the dictator to sign the contract.

"Sure, let's proceed with that," Adolf agreed to Felix's suggestion.

Afterward, they immediately moved to the chairs where two copies of the negotiated contract were sitting on both sides for them to sign and keep one copy each.

After sitting down, Felix discreetly reviewed the contract to ensure that there had been no tampering, without showing any sign of suspicion or distrust towards the dictator and his team, as he did not want to create any tension before the contract was signed.

After ensuring that everything was in order, Felix signed the contract without delay. Aron had given him the authority to do so, and he didn't want to waste any time in getting the deal done.

After Felix finished signing the contract, he exchanged copies with the dictator and Adolf also wrote his signature on it, officially ending the first part of phase one in Aron's plan.

After they finished signing the contracts, they shook hands and each person took a copy of the contract with them.

While they were shaking hands, Adolf turned to Felix and said, "Since we have already signed the contract, I have decided to help expedite your acquisition of the telecommunications companies."

"How will you help us?" Felix asked, curious to know in what way Adolf would assist them with their acquisition.

"Next week, I will send an invitation letter to the owners of the telecommunication companies for a private dinner. I will tell them that I have something important to discuss, and when they attend, you can present your offer to them. If they agree, great. If they don't, then I will invite them to be one of the first people to be accommodated in our soon-to-be-opened Gulag," Adolf said with a creepy smile on his face.

After hearing what Adolf said, Felix forced himself to smile despite feeling uneasy. He replied, "I would be very grateful for your help, your highness."

"It's nothing to worry about. The sooner your company begins operation, the sooner I will receive my dividends. So, rather than saying I'm helping you, I'm just expediting my dividends," Adolf said before smiling.

"That's fine by me," Felix replied, feeling surprised at Adolf's blunt and honest statement.

After the conversation, Felix and his team said their goodbyes and left the palace promptly. They knew they needed to come up with a fair and convincing price for the telecommunication companies. It was important to ensure that the owners would sell willingly, instead of being forced to sell by the dictator. If they were forced, they might agree to sell and then sabotage the company as soon as they escaped the country. The team had a lot of work to do to make sure the acquisition would go smoothly.

...

Aron could be seen riding a train heading to the Max Planck Institute for Human Development after successfully collecting brain data from the staff at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.

He had flown from France to Berlin after finishing the brain data collection of the people at CERN and most of France.

As there were only five more stops until his destination, Aron received a phone call from Felix.

As soon as they exchanged greetings, Felix informed Aron about the contract signing and the dictator's plan to help expedite the acquisition of the telecommunication companies. Aron was slightly surprised to hear about the dictator's involvement but was also pleased with the progress.

Aron smiled and commented, "It looks like he's eager to receive his dividends as soon as possible."

"Yeah, it appears that his advisors came up with the plan after I informed them about our condition yesterday," Felix replied

"In any case, the sooner we complete the acquisition, the better off we'll be," Felix remarked.

"Yes, I agree," Felix replied.

"Take care," Aron said, bidding farewell to Felix.

"Alright, take care," Felix replied before they hung up. Aron then proceeded to stand up and move towards the train door, as he had arrived at his destination.

After getting off the train, Aron quickly put his phone on his ear and said, "Inform Alexander that we have completed the first part of phase one of the plan. We need to keep him informed, or else he may start to suspect that we are not moving fast enough to fulfill our end of the bargain."

[I will inform him, sir,] Nova replied, and promptly sent the ordered message to Alexander.

As she was currently monitoring him from his computer's front camera without his knowledge, to ensure he didn't do anything foolish like reporting their deal to anyone.