"Can't I come tonight?" she suddenly asked, going overboard with her request. James just glanced at her, before realizing, finally, the rivalry between the two girls.

He had to admit, this was a brilliant feeling, but he had to make things clear to her, so he smiled warmly, as he caressed her cheeks:

"I want you too as much as I want her, and sleeping with one before the other isn't that important to me, as from this moment we all will be one big happy family."

"Then let me be first!" she didn't succumb to failure, not yet.

"I can't," he simply shook his head, "I know her far longer than you, and so she deserves this, she is first, then you," he said, in a decisive tone to end this quarrel before it started.

She didn't like it, but she had nothing in hand to do to change it. she knew what he said was true, Islinda knew him far longer than her. She just stayed with him this short, and she witnessed how busy he was, how many things happening, and how he handled them all with Rigo and Islinda.

So far she did nothing, yet, of value to make her presence in his life worthy. All she offered was a promise for making him stronger, but he didn't taste her yet, nor knew how much benefits she could offer to him.

And so, she finally resigned this time, making him feel, mistakenly, that she accepted her fate. She would lay low, bid her time, until he realized her worth, then she swore to never let him touch Islinda ever again.

As for James, he then restarted thinking about this dilemma, this imminent threat coming towards him in the veil of ambassador.

"Send a message to Islinda," he suddenly said to those sitting in the communication unit, "refer to the message coming from home to here, and add this one sentence: the wolves are here!"

"Affirmative, supreme leader."

The soldiers started to work diligently, relaying the message to Islinda just like James told him to do. Islinda, who just finished dealing with the merchants, agreeing on everything they needed to draft on the contract they just signed, received the message, feeling somehow the distress of this situation.

'This doesn't bode any good,' she muttered, as she, like James, had understood the meaning of this move. That ambassador didn't come with good intentions, not at all!

So, her mind started to work, thinking about how to make this ambassador yield, and not use threatening words against them. she understood why James sent her this message, he was clueless, and thus she had to step in here.

She had a very vast knowledge and experience dealing with different powers struggling for one fruit, so it was much suitable if she handled all this.

Her mind was busy, while his heart was beating wildly from excitement. She knew she would go to his room tonight, and stay there the whole night, alone, together, with him.

Her heart had this unexplained happiness, despite not feeling the warmth of any man before, but her body started to ache for one.

Above all, she had also won him from that witch, and this alone was enough to turn her on.

Every time she recalled the stupefied look over her face when James asked her to meet him tonight, her body quaver, and she felt some strange warmth all over her body.

She was getting excited over winning this mere rival, despite being nobody in real life, she was a worthy opponent to her, in the fight for her man.

And this competition didn't end, like she wrongly assumed, it was just getting started.

"Spread out the word, we are asking merchants to organize themselves and select specific planets to establish an open branch of the dark market here."

Her mind suddenly reached this conclusion, amongst all the conflicted thoughts she had. She didn't delay and gave the orders to her assistants, who started to work at once, spreading the message.

Unlike James, who wasn't as experienced as her, she knew the only shield she could use against this ambassador was monetary power; the power of trade!

This place was still starting, with no established routes of trade yet, so any disputes happening here wouldn't be part of the black market, not protected by their strict rules.

Besides, if this place joined the black market, the bosses behind that ambassador would gain part of the cake, naturally, in one way or another. So, leaning to the violent solution wouldn't serve their purposes, in fact it would work against them.

Single move and she managed to secure herself and James against the incoming lethal strike. The words spread like fire, as many merchants didn't believe themselves when they heard that.

Most merchants here came from the shadow side of the universe, the black market. Leaving the responsibility to establish a branch of black market here wasn't that hard to do, it was so easy.

However, they just admired the bravery and guts of James, as joining black market meant he had to pay some taxes annually, in exchange for protection and advanced services.

Sacrificing part of the profit seemed stupid, especially if this part was enormous, but to them James didn't hesitate to do it.

They didn't know about the threat coming to James, nor did they expect this move to come from Islinda not James. They started working fast, connecting their friends, distant relations, and even bosses, telling them the good news.

Now they could establish fixed branches of black market merchant associations here, and use this place like any other place in the black market.

The only dispute that happened was related to the place of the planets that should be selected to be part of the black market, which wasn't a big dispute at all.

During all this time, James got the news from Islinda, telling him what she had done and for what. She explained in her message the great reaction from those merchants, and how this would affect the incoming visit of that ambassador.

James read the message and marveled it. Islinda was such a brilliant little girl that he liked a lot. She was dependable, reliable, and could solve problems he couldn't deal with.

On the side, Luna wasn't feeling the same, in fact she was feeling the opposite. She realized how hard this Islinda was, as she had this place in James' life.

Luna admitted to herself, frankly and honestly, that she wasn't anyway smart or decisive like her, but she was manipulative and tricky. She had traits Islinda lacked, and all she needed was to find the most suitable place to put her skills into use, of course away from James' bed.

James stayed in his main cruiser, reading all the reports coming to him from Islinda and Rigo. Rigo's reports were the same as usual, without any news in them worthy of his attention.

Rigo was still travelling at speed of light towards the first target, and after he reached near the kingdom, he would start executing his plans there.

On the other side, Islinda's reports were kicking in, one after another. The merchants were now so much excited, and they tried to hasten up their preparations, for fear that James and Islinda might renege on their words.

So, before nightfall, there was another meeting requested by the merchants, as they all agreed upon choosing a planet, located on the edge of this kingdom's twenty planets, as the main base of the black market.

The planet was huge, considered as the largest in size among the twenty planets, but they didn't request this to be the black market new branch for its size, rather for its location.

It was so near to the nearest black market branch, the one under James control. That would facilitate the travels between the two branches, helping this newly established one to flourish.

James and Islinda, both without prior agreement, wanted and focused on attracting foreign merchants to here. However, to do so, they needed to lure the local merchants first.

So, Islinda informed James with their decision and he, unwillingly, agreed. The most important thing now was to eliminate the coming threat of the black market ambassador, making it a cooperation visit, not an enmity resulting one.

Just as night fell, James sent a message to Islinda, asking her to come to his room.

As the leader of the newly established empire, James had the largest room in this cruiser, which wasn't any less in size and arrangement to his royal chamber in the palace back home.

He went up ahead, while Luna watched him leave with some regret on her face. The first time should have been with her, except for her bad luck and wrong timing to appear in this aspiring ruler's life.

James stayed in his room for quite some time until he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.

Islinda walked in, dressing in her fancy white coat, making like look like an angel.

"Sorry to be late," she said.