Nicolae's heart was struck by Aleksis's explanation. They had never talked about the mysterious Alaric Rhionen before. Even when Aleksis stayed at his place for two months, Nicolae never asked her, let alone urged her to tell him about her relationship with Alaric.

In his heart, he now felt more depressed. He now knew how sincere Aleksis' love for Alaric was. The girl paid no attention to the age difference between them and did not even care if his face had been disfigured.

He did not know whether, one day, Aleksis would love him that much.

"I didn't know your relationship with him was like that," he said quietly. "He sounds like a complicated person."

Aleksis nodded. "He is indeed very complicated. I know my family will not be able to accept him, Aside from his shady background, he also held a huge grudge against humanity. At that time, I naively thought I would be able to change him. Unfortunately, the opportunity never came, and he died with that hatred and grudge still in his heart."

"That means our similarity ends at the physical appearance," he remarked after listening to her. "I'm not complicated and I don't hate humans. My father is like that, but I'm not like my father."

"Right," Aleksis smiled for the first time. "You are yourself. I like Nicolae who is warm and always sweet. Please don't ever change."

"No. I will not," Nicolae answered firmly. "I will not change no matter what."

"That's nice." Aleksis snatched the knife from Nicolae's hand. This time, it was her turn to peel the apples for them. "Do you want to drink wine?"

"Uh, it's not 12 yet," Nicolae answered, his tone hinting a bit of a surprise.

"There are no children around here," Aleksis whispered mischievously. "Let's open a bottle."

Nicolae obediently plugged out the wine cork and poured half a glass for each of them.

They drank wine while talking about his various adventures around the world. The stories seemed to have accumulated over the years. Wine made the atmosphere more pleasant. Soon the two of them were laughing heartily when Nicolae told her about Terry who had almost booked an empty plane to take them to Rome.

"Ah, my brother really likes to do things in an exaggerated manner. That one instance is the example," Aleksis shook her head, laughing. "I still remember you guys were bitter enemies in the past. How does it feel realizing that the person you hated the most before is actually your best friend in cyberspace? Didn't you feel weird?"

Nicolae shrugged, "At first I did. But over time, I forgot that at one point in our lives, we have been enemies. Now, we're simply good friends."

"Ah ... how nice." Aleksis smiled. "By the way, Uncle Lauriel deliberately invited several beautiful and single girls from respectable families to your party. Did anyone catch your attention? We can invite them again for a new year party, a ball or something."

Nicolae nodded, "There was. And I want to invite her to dinner with me next week."

"Oh really? Which one?" asked Aleksis.

"She's from Germany. If I'm not mistaken, she's Uncle Caspar's daughter." Nicolae shrugged and then finished his wine. "Only, I don't know if she wants to have dinner with me or not."

Aleksis suddenly hit the young man's shoulder who then giggled because he managed to tease her.

"You are not being serious," she grumbled.

"Who said so? I'm super serious, really." Nicolae put down his glass and looked at her intensely. In a very earnest voice, he asked, "Miss Aleksis Schneider ... may I have the honor to have dinner with you next week? Just the two of us?"

"Aish ... what the hell is this? Of course, I will. You don't have to look so pitiful," she answered.

"I'm not pitiful," Nicolae defended himself. "I just want to sound earnest, because you accused me of not being serious."

"Hmm .. okay. I won't accuse you of that anymore."

"Thank you." Hearing a positive answer from Aleksis, Nicolae then called out again. "Aleksis ..."

"Yes?"

"Can I hold your hand?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

Aleksis looked at Nicolae in disbelief. The young man's face seemed very solemn. Finally, waving her hands, the girl laughed.

"Ahahah ... I didn't expect you to ask me that." Aleksis turned towards the valley, avoiding Nicolae's gaze. But she still answered casually. "Yes, you can."

"Thank you." With a wide smile put on, Nicolae clasped his right hand around Aleksis's left hand. In that position, the two of them then enjoyed the view of the valley together.

***

A few months later, the world was just shocked by the announcement of the merger between two giant corporate groups. Since even before, they were already in control of various important industries in many countries, the sudden merger solidified their position as one of the most powerful corporations in the world.

Meier Group and Rhionen Industries combined their various assets and even many of the projects they had worked on together, making them the largest corporation group in the world, based on the assessment of the most prestigious business magazine.

Alaric was getting busier each day but he really enjoyed his work. After meeting with his four foster children and Pavel, he had begun to travel to various countries. This was to visit the various branch offices of his group and showed his face to the top management working under him.

Within three months, Rhionen-Meier Industries launched various breakthroughs that shook the world. The corporation's household digital assistant system that was tested in China had produced very encouraging results. This prompted various major countries to immediately propose collaboration with Rhionen-Meier Industries so that the system could be implemented in their big cities.

In their estimate, within three years, all developed countries would be integrated into this new system, while the developing countries would follow within ten to twenty years.

Virconnect 4D had also become very popular and Splitz had become the largest media company in the world connecting all people from all walks of life.

To launch this product, Splitz held the world's largest 4D music festival, presenting to the world that top artists and celebrity. Splitz account holders from all around the globe could access the event no matter where they were.

The festivities lasted for one full day. The news then became so big that in just one day everyone heard about Virconnect 4D.?The idea of attending festivals from where they were as if they were directly on the location really made people very excited.

Now, they could come to concerts or watch theater performances without having to tire themselves with the trip. They no longer needed to go out of the house,? park their cars, or spend a lot of time on the road.

In Virconnect they could also meet their friends in the same event, without having to be there physically.

Before the market's enthusiasm for Virconnect 4D had subsided, Holodeck was launched. Soon, due to this invention, Splitz was solidified as the largest and most influential media company in the world.

It was only during the official launch of Holodeck that the directors of Splitz found out who Alaric really was. It was when he came as the new leader of Rhionen-Meier Industries, of which Splitz was one of the numerous subsidiaries.

"Gosh ... is he the new owner of Rhionen Industries?" They wondered to each other, now understanding why the young man's attitude was so bossy and overbearing when he first came during Virconnect and Holodeck's presentations. They never expected the big boss to be this young and mysterious.