Papa Perez was stunned. He had expected a polite refusal, a negotiation, or a careful political maneuver. He had not expected immediate, enthusiastic agreement. The young Sovereign's response had completely wrong-footed him.
"You... you agree?" Perez stammered.
"Of course," Adrian said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He leaned back in his chair, his expression shifting from that of a revolutionary to that of a pragmatic CEO.
"Papa Perez, my goal is not to become the sole food provider for Slum II. That's not a business; it's a bottleneck. It's inefficient. My true goal is to break the Concordat's monopoly and create an entirely new, independent economy for all of us."
He looked at the council, then back to the two Normat. "Selling cooked food from a truck... that was just a marketing campaign. It was a demonstration, a proof of concept to show your people what they've been missing. It was never the long-term plan."
