Every single thing Simon said to Akaza about him changing his mind, about him planning on treating the Iron Fangs properly after three months... was all a lie.
He had no plans to do any of that because to him, the Iron Fangs were just a tool. A disposable tool which he only needed for a short period of time.
He had no plans on making the Iron Fangs the strongest group in the academy.
He could do it. He had the ability. He was a king in his past life, and his kingdom was the greatest on Earth.
So, making the Iron Fangs the strongest group in the academy was not a difficult task for him to do.
But why should he waste his energy on such a thing when his personal strength mattered the most?
He needed to get stronger quickly.
He had many threats looming over his head.
The Soul Mirror Demon, the unknown family of Thorgan, Jorra and Merath, and the hidden clan leader.
He had way too many threats to deal with, and all these threats were beyond his current power level.
Nurturing the Iron Fangs to become a force to reckon with in the academy would take out of his precious time.
Besides, even if he did so, the Iron Fangs could not help him to handle any of these looming threats.
Not only that, nearly all the members of the Iron Fangs hated him and looked down on him because he was a slave.
If he wanted to nurture the Iron Fangs, he would need to make everybody see him in a new and better, a feat which would take considerable time.
He would need to train them, spend his resources and time on them.
These were things he could not do on a rag-tag group like the Iron Fangs.
Besides, the Iron Fangs were mainly made up of failures.
The only valuable individual of the Iron Fangs was Akaza, and he was the only member Simon was interested in nurturing.
As for why he put on such on an act and chose to deceive Akaza?
The answer is simple.
Because Akaza was right.
If he continued treating the members of the Iron Fangs poorly, they would rebel and revolt against him. There would be betrayals left, right, and center.
Simon expects betrayals regardless of whether he treats them poorly or in a good way, but what would annoy him would be the frequency of the betrayals and rebellion.
To prevent this, he needed to give them hope.
He needed to make them believe that their current situation was just for a little while.
Hope was a very powerful leash, and he planned to use it on his disposable tools.
As for Akaza?
Akaza was basically his manager while he was the owner of the business- Iron Fangs.
Instead of wasting his time and energy to improve his relationship with the members of the Iron Fangs and to also improve his reputation in their eyes, all he needed to do is improve Akaza’s reputation amongst the Iron Fangs.
He needed them to respect him more and to also fear him more.
Once Akaza was more respected, feared, and loved, controlling the Iron Fangs was as easy as pie.
All he just needed to do is to control Akaza, then he controls the Iron Fangs.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
If Akaza had more experience and knowledge, he would have found it strange that Simon was allowing him to speak about improving the treatment of the Iron Fangs out in the open.
Conversations like that between leaders, were usually done in closed spaces. Not in the open.
Akaza thought he was fighting for his subordinates and himself, not knowing that he was dancing like a doll on Simon’s palms.
’As for the poison... They can forget about dealing with it anytime soon.’
The gears in Simon’s mind spun as he made several calculations and simulations in his mind.
A few seconds later, he stretched out his hand to Akaza.
"My merits."
This time around, Akaza readily gave Simon the extorted merits while keeping ten percent of it for himself.
As he shook Simon’s hand, transferring the merits, he spoke.
"Just like you said, some had less than half of their weekly stipends, so we collected everything they had."
These words would have meant nothing to Simon, but when he thought about the church rat, his lips could not help but twitch.
Simon let go of Akaza’s hand after the transfer of merits, and he went through it.
’Hmm... After Akaza took his share, I got one thousand and forty four (1,044) merits in total. If everybody still had their stipends, I should have gotten one thousand and seventy six (1,076) merits in total, after Akaza takes his ten percent.’
Simon furrowed his brows slightly as he thought about this, then he released a soft sigh.
’The money is so little, but it should be expected. The weekly stipends from the academy are not meant for us to be living an extravagant life. They’re meant to motivate us to earn more.’
’Unfortunately, this is going to be my source of income for a long time.’
’Fortunately for me, the Iron Fangs had quite a lot of merits when I took everything from them. Over five thousand merits.’
’Now I have a total of six thousand, three hundred and seventy five (6,375) merits... Manageable for now.’
One might think that Simon earning just a little bit over a thousand merits was little, but one should not forget that the weekly stipend of the first ranked Initiate of their class is just one hundred and fifty (150) merits.
Simon had nearly times ten of that. However, his slave status bothered him since everything he bought would cost triple the original price.
’But I believe I’ve found a solution to that.’ Simon glanced at Akaza with a glint in his eyes.
"I’m sure you know what to do after today?"
Akaza nodded. "Yeah. It shouldn’t be a problem."
Simon looked to his left, the vicious glares and stares of his classmates could be seen reflecting in his sky blue eyes.
"We’ll see about that."