"Because I want the attention and power. That’s all."
Akaza did not know what to expect from Simon’s response, but a part of him expected something... more from Simon.
Not something as useless and pointless as attention and power.
’How disappointing.’ Akaza thought. ’If not for the poison in my system, I would crush his skull right here and now. I can’t believe a cowardly bastard like him is controlling me and my underlings.’
Although Akaza had this thought, he still had a few questions to ask and some suggestions to make. He needed Simon to increase the percentage of his shares and to also give a little percentage to the Iron Fangs.
"If you want the attention and the power, then wouldn’t it be better for you to treat the Iron Fangs better? Treat them well, and they’d come to love you and respect you. Treat them bad and they can betray you one day. It’s common sense, Broken Halo."
Simon raised a brow and looked at Akaza from up to down, then back up again.
"Love? You speak of love from the Iron Fangs like you’ve experienced it before. The Iron Fangs respected and feared you. They didn’t love you."
Akaza frowned behind his lion mask.
"You may be right, but you’re forcing the Iron Fangs to work like slaves. They extort your classmates but you don’t want to give them anything in return."
"Many of them would be displeased and angry about this. They can take extreme measures against you."
Simon scoffed. "They wanted to kill me. They should be grateful that I didn’t kill any of them or cripple any of them back then. Why should they benefit from the tasks I give them?"
Akaza was tongue tied hearing this because this was Simon’s main defense against offering any sort of benefits or reward to the Iron Fangs, and in a way, he was right.
The Iron Fangs tried to kill him, and now they wanted to benefit from Simon’s boldness and madness in attacking the dormitory and going too far?
It just didn’t make sense.
But at the same time, Akaza knew that Simon’s method of controlling the Iron Fangs was a self-destructive method at the end of the day.
There was no way the Iron Fangs would progress under this sort of method.
’But why does he have so much confidence in his poison? Does he think we would not be able to find or buy an antidote for his poison? The moment we do, he dies by my hands no matter what.’
Akaza’s eyes flashed with coldness, but only if he knew the source of the poison Simon gave him, he would not have such confidence and such thoughts.
He didn’t, so he pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and he tried to convince Simon to change his mind.
"You’re right, but if you truly want the attention, power, and authority you gain from being the leader of the Iron Fangs, the members of the Iron Fangs needs to be treated like a family, not as a tool."
To Akaza’s surprise, Simon did not immediately refute what he said. He was silent, his gaze was on flow, and his hand was on his chin as he seemed to be pondering Akaza’s words.
A few seconds later, Simon spoke.
"I see. What you said does have some meaning to it. If I want to maintain the attention, authority, and power, I need to treat them better."
Akaza’s eyes flashed with excitement and relief at these words.
"Exactly." He nodded.
Simon looked around, and he finally looked at the source of the dozens of stares on him.
He could see the Iron Fangs, all watching, observing, and listening to both he and Akaza.
They all different gazes looking at him. Some had resentments, some had anger, some had hatred, some were indifferent, some were calm, some had contempt, and some were sad.
But when they looked at Akaza, their gazes told a different story.
Many of them were happy, relieved, and gazes filled with awe as they looked at Akaza.
The fact that he tried so hard to make things better for them spoke a lot about how much their Lord Akaza valued them.
It was one of the reasons they respected Akaza, and why he was still their Lord in their hearts. Because he treated them well.
Simon observed the members of the Iron Fangs with slightly narrowed eyes, then he shifted his gaze to his classmates, and the gazes they had could be summed up into one word.
Anger
Every single one of them wished to beat the shit out of Simon, and some even wished to kill him.
All of them heard the conversation between him and Akaza, and it was clear as day that Simon was the true mastermind behind the extortion that just happened.
Every single one of them wanted to beat and kill Simon.
Simon saw this, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t bothered by the killing intents that were aimed at him from all his classmates.
He shifted his gaze back to Akaza.
"I’ve thought about what you just said, and I agree with you. I need to treat them better."
Akaza nodded. "Yeah. Exactly."
"But I just can’t let them go unpunished for trying to kill me. A life is precious. Mine, very much so."
Akaza narrowed his eyes slightly. "So, what are you insinuating?"
Simon smiled lightly behind his mask, then he raised four fingers. "For four months, they’ll do as I say and they won’t collect a single percentage from the tasks I tell them to do. From any extortion I tell them to do."
Akaza frowned deeply behind his mask. "Four months is too much. Make it two."
Simon shook his head. "Three is the lowest I can go. Any lower than that, then things would continue like this indefinitely."
Akaza’s frown deepened, then he looked at the members of the Iron Fangs. When he saw their gazes of awe toward him, he released a soft sigh and nodded.
"Fine. Three months. They’ll be punished for three months, and not a day after."
Simon nodded with a light smile behind his mask.
"Definitely."
He agreed, however, Simon’s thoughts were different.
’I guess it worked.’