On the morning after he assumed leadership of the Nobles of the Lions...
Alji did not hold a celebration.
He did not deliver a speech.
Nor did he ask anyone to bow before him.
He entered the meeting hall quietly and sat in the main seat, while more than thirty noblemen, the organization's highest-ranking leaders, stood before him.
They were men accustomed to giving orders.
But for the first time, they found themselves waiting for the words of a young man who had not yet reached the age of twenty.
Silence filled the hall.
Then one of the elders spoke with a tone laced with disdain:
"You are the youngest leader this organization has ever known."
Alji did not raise his head.
He was turning over the reports placed before him.
Then he calmly said:
"Does age make a person more intelligent?"
A mocking smile spread across the elder's face.
"But it brings experience."
Alji slowly closed the file.
Then looked directly at him.
"Then... tell me."
"How many wars have you won without losing thousands of soldiers?"
The elder did not answer.
Alji continued:
"How many cities have you conquered without destroying them?"
Silence remained.
"And how many kingdoms have you brought down without raising a sword?"
The man's gaze fell.
Alji smiled faintly.
"If you cannot do any of those things..."
"Then don't speak to me about experience."
Silence settled over the hall.
And for the first time...
Everyone realized that their new leader did not fight only with a sword.
But with words as well.
He threw a massive map of the continent onto the table.
Then drew a circle around several cities.
He asked:
"What do these places have in common?"
The leaders began looking at one another.
One of them answered:
"They're the wealthiest cities."
Alji shook his head.
And said:
"Wrong."
He pointed to a river running through them.
"They all depend on the same route to transport grain."
Expressions of astonishment began appearing on their faces.
He continued:
"If we control this route..."
"We'll control the food supply of half the continent."
One of the leaders said:
"But that will start a war."
Alji replied calmly:
"War is expensive."
"Hunger..."
"Makes people kneel of their own accord."
Silence filled the room once again.
They were hearing an idea that had never crossed any of their minds.
Alji's goal was not to conquer cities.
But to conquer people's stomachs.
He began buying grain warehouses through false identities.
He hired merchants who had no idea whom they were working for.
And he purchased entire farms using the wealth of the Nobles of the Lions.
Within only two years...
The organization owned most of the wheat and barley trade across three provinces.
Yet no one...
Connected those transactions.
They appeared to be ordinary business deals.
When in reality...
They were the beginning of an empire.
One night...
One of the leaders rushed into his office.
"There's a problem."
Alji lifted his eyes from the book.
"Speak."
"This year's harvest is excellent."
He remained silent.
The man continued:
"If the markets are flooded with food..."
"Prices will fall."
Alji closed the book.
Then said:
"Then..."
"Make the harvest disappear."
The man froze.
"How?"
Alji rose from his chair.
And walked toward the window.
"Burn some of it."
"Buy some of it."
"And spread a rumor about a disease affecting the wheat."
He slowly turned around.
"I don't care how."
"What matters to me..."
"Is that people go hungry."
The leader trembled.
Although he had committed many crimes...
The thought of starving entire cities was something he had never imagined.
As for Alji...
He spoke of it as though he were discussing the weather.
Months later...
The crisis began.
Food prices rose.
Then doubled.
Then doubled again.
People flooded the streets.
Riots spread everywhere.
Meanwhile, the merchants were making unimaginable profits.
At the top of a tower owned by the Nobles of the Lions...
Alji stood overlooking the city.
He saw a mother begging for a piece of bread.
A man selling his house for a sack of flour.
A child crying from hunger.
He felt nothing.
Instead, he quietly said:
"Hunger..."
"Creates the most obedient soldiers."
During that period...
He received a letter sealed with a symbol he knew well.
Winter.
He smiled for the first time in weeks.
He no longer needed them.
But the time had come for them to learn...
That the young man they had met years ago...
Was no longer merely a fighter.
He had become a player capable of reshaping the economy of an entire continent.
Winter's letter contained only a single line:
"The time has come for us to meet again."
No signature.
No location.
No date.
And yet...
Alji knew exactly where to go.
At midnight...
He arrived at the old harbor where they had met years ago.
The waves crashed violently against the wooden docks, and the fog covered the sea until it seemed as though the world had vanished behind a white curtain.
The black ship emerged from the heart of the mist.
Slowly...
Then came to a stop beside the pier.
The white-haired man whom he had met in the past stepped off the ship.
But this time...
He bowed respectfully.
He said calmly:
"Your standing has changed greatly, Alji."
Alji looked at him without replying.
Then boarded the ship.
Inside the main hall...
The highest-ranking leaders of the Winter Mafia were waiting for him.
They sat around a massive round table.
Only one chair remained empty.
His.
When he sat down...
One of the leaders said:
"We've heard that food prices have risen across half the continent."
Alji replied:
"That's correct."
"Are you responsible?"
He smiled faintly.
"Does it matter?"
Silence followed.
Then one of the leaders burst into laughter.
"Hahaha... so the rumors are true."
An elderly man sitting at the far end said:
"We don't care about the method."
"We care about the results."
One of them tossed a thick file in front of Alji.
He opened it.
It contained the names of hundreds of merchants.
Smuggling routes.
Assassination networks.
And dozens of cities.
The man said:
"This is our empire."
Alji closed the file.
Then handed it back.
"Small."
Silence filled the room.
Everyone looked at him in astonishment.
One of the leaders raised an eyebrow.
"Small?"
He answered calmly:
"You control criminals."
"As for me..."
"I'll control the honorable as well."
Silence settled over the room.
For the first time...
Winter's leaders felt that this young man was more dangerous than they were.
The negotiations continued until dawn.
At their conclusion...
Winter's leader stood.
And said:
"You will not be subordinate to us."
"Nor will we be subordinate to you."
"But..."
"Let us stand on the same side."
He extended his hand.
Alji looked at it for a moment.
Then shook it.
At that moment...
One of the most dangerous alliances in the history of the continent was born.
A few months later...
Alji began carrying out his next idea.
He said during a meeting of the Nobles of the Lions:
"If you want people to trust you..."
"Feed them."
Everyone was surprised.
One of them said:
"But we're the ones who created the famine."
Alji replied:
"Exactly."
"That's why..."
"We'll sell them hope."
He established a new organization.
Its name was...
The Dawn of Life Foundation.
It appeared to be an unparalleled charitable organization.
It built shelters.
Distributed food.
Treated the sick free of charge.
And adopted orphans.
Within months...
People began mentioning its name in every city.
The newspapers said:
"A light for the poor."
The merchants said:
"The noblest foundation on the continent."
As for the common people...
They began praying for its benefactors in every prayer.
And no one knew...
That its true founder...
Was Alji.
But beneath the main building...
There was another world.
Long stone corridors.
Steel doors.
And stairways descending deep underground.
No light.
No windows.
Only...
Screams.
There were rooms entered only by certain individuals.
Rooms where prisoners were tortured.
Poisons were tested.
And the limits of human pain were studied.
Anyone who disappeared without a trace...
Usually ended up there.
Alji did not personally attend the torture sessions every time.
But he demanded the reports.
He read them the way a merchant reads an account ledger.
Then calmly wrote his notes.
"The third method...
Is more effective."
"Prisoner Number 18...
High probability of psychological collapse."
He did not see people as individuals.
But as data.
One day...
A man was brought before him after being captured while trying to uncover the foundation's secrets.
He was trembling.
Crying, he pleaded:
"Please..."
"I have children."
Alji raised his eyes from the papers.
And asked him:
"How many children?"
"Three."
He nodded.
Then said to the guards:
"Release him."
The man's eyes widened.
"Really?"
Alji smiled for the first time.
"Yes."
The man collapsed from overwhelming relief.
But before he reached the door...
Alji calmly said:
"Bring me his children."
Everyone froze.
Even the guards.
Then he continued coldly:
"Let him watch."
He did not shout.
He did not raise his voice.
He said it...
As though he were asking for a glass of water.
At that moment...
Everyone in the room realized...
That mercy had no place within this man's heart.
A few years later...
No one knew how many organizations worked for him.
Nor how many merchants owed him their loyalty.
Nor how many assassins carried out his orders.
But everyone knew one title.
The Shadow.
No one knew his real name.
Nor his age.
Nor his appearance.
Even those who had worked with him for years...
Had never seen his full face.
He constantly changed his appearance.
And used intermediaries for everything.
If one of his men died...
Every trail disappeared with him.
That was why...
A rumor spread throughout the criminal underworld:
"You may hear the name Shadow...
But you will never see his face."
And as time passed...
The rumor...
Became a truth that everyone believed.