Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Avery's thoughts were in complete chaos thanks to Regina's offer.

He had not been prepared for her to set her sights on him. Believing that she would be opposed to him maintaining any relationship with her daughter.

Yet, she had not become the most powerful person on the planet by failing to learn how to negotiate.

Her ultimate goal was to have Jasmine stay on Azade and take her place as their family's heir.

When the next senatorial elections came around in two years, Regina would have Jasmine reclaim the seat that their family had held since the founding of the planet.

However, it was clear that her daughter still wished to be rebellious and would not be staying easily.

That made the easiest path to ensuring her being through Avery. If he decided to take Regina up on her proposal, Jasmine would undoubtedly go along with him.

As her mother, Regina had already seen the signs of infatuation and dependence Jasmine had in him. She was not happy that he was a mercenary with no background to speak of though.

Regina had already picked out a more suitable marriage partner long ago, but sometimes concessions needed to be made. At the very least, she judged that Avery would be useful and could serve as a pillar of support for Jasmine. Which is why she had decided to entice him over to her side.

'He is still just a young mercenary that gotten this far by being lucky. I've just offered him a safe, secure, and prosperous future where he hardly has to give up anything. Of course he is going to accept.' Regina though, assured of her victory already.

Except while Avery was tempted by the idea of becoming Azade's minister of defense, it would shackle him down to Azade.

He might be able to leave the planet occasionally, but he would lose what he valued most by being a mercenary, his freedom.

Avery's wish was to travel among the stars and see what amazing sights the enormous galaxy had to offer. In the short time since becoming a mercenary, he had already gotten to experience more than he ever thought possible.

'And Jasmine is the same way. She left because she felt that she had no agency of her own here and wanted to do some good like the people and characters she idolized. Certainly, I'm no hero of justice, but I also can't deny that we've saved a lot of people through our work.'

Avery's decision was already made even if he had wavered momentarily.

Since becoming a mercenary, he felt more accomplished than he ever had before. He did not want to give up on the journey when he was still only at the starting line.

His ambitions did not stop here. In the future, he was aiming to become a renowned mercenary known throughout the Dramid Alliance. He still had not even broken into the higher ranks yet. It was far too soon to be giving up his mercenary mantle.

"Thank you for the generous offer. But I'm afraid that I'll have to decline. As you said. I'm just a simple young man with no background. Being a mercenary for just a few months hardly makes me qualified to one day take the position of minister of defense for a whole planet. It's too lofty a position for me. I already have enough trouble just leading my small team."

Regina's confident smile began to crack because of Avery's refusal.

She thought that she had had him. The time he took to think over her proposal had not been short. In her experience, the longer an individual took to consider an offer, the more likely they were to take it.

"Ah, but I will accept your blessing to marry your daughter. I care deeply about Jasmine and can't envision a future without her by my side. So, I'm grateful for your approval." Avery said.

Seeing as how Jasmine's mother had decided to try and unsettle him and catch him off guard, he figured that he would use her own words against her here. Obviously, her approval of Avery was meant to be a package deal with him staying on Azade with Jasmine. But he figured that he might as well use this chance to bring the meeting back into their favor.

Of course, as much as he caught Regina by surprise, Jasmine was even more so. Avery had just essentially proposed to her.

He had already told her before that he would never abandon her which had similar connotations, but it was not the same as him outright saying he would marry her.

For Avery though, he felt like they were pretty much already to the point where their bond was unbreakable. Jasmine had conveyed her desire to stay with him, and he felt the same way. In his mind, the only thing separating them from being a married couple was filing official paperwork.

Naturally, he felt the same way about Kasandra, so he gripped her hand with his own and briefly looked into her eyes with a warm smile on his face. This was all he needed to do to convey his intentions to her.

This caused Kasandra to start blushing as well, and Avery now had two fidgeting beauties on either side of him.

There was one person in the room not touched by Avery's romantic confessions though.

Regina was furious that Avery had just derailed her plans in what she considered the most illogical fashion.

For her, success was defined by a person's status and authority. That was how she had been raised, and how she had intended Jasmine to be as well.

Yet here was both her daughter and Avery throwing away a chance to rise to higher stations. All they had to do was follow her lead and the two of them would gain far more than they could ever hope for as mercenaries.

It was all too baffling to her. And As Regina failed to understand her daughter, she simply became more enraged.

Her first and second plans had failed. Leaving her with less desirable means of coercing her daughter into following her orders.

Regina had really wanted her to stay off her own accord, but now that it had come to this, she was not above using more forceful methods.

"If you think I'm going to let my daughter go again and continue galivanting among the stars only to get blown up, you are mistaken. Jasmine, you are staying here and taking your right position in our family." Regina said, her tone sharp.

"No, I'm not coming back mom. I left the life you want for me before, and I never once thought about returning. Even when I left the Alliance Police and had people following me, there was not a single moment I wanted to come back to Azade. My place just isn't here. I know you want me to live the same life you did, but I'm just not meant to do so. You're going to be the last cog in the machine that has been our family's lineage."

Jasmine's outright refusal not only of the position that was rightfully hers, but also the very way of life of their family was the last straw for Regina.

"Truly, I did not want to have to do this, but I'll have to keep you detained in your room until you see reason. Your two friends here will also be staying as my guests, indefinitely. I'll have a transmission prepared for the rest of your band saying that the three of you decided to remain here. In time, you'll understand that this is for the best." Regina said, offering no room for refusal.

She had considered throwing Avery and Kasandra out, or even having charges filed against them, but felt that doing so might be a bit extreme at this point.

If at all possible, she did not want Jasmine to hate her.

There still remained the possibility that she might be able to use Avery and Kasandra to influence her daughter, so she believed that keeping them around could be beneficial.

So far, she had failed to easily get through to Avery or Jasmine. But that still left Kasandra. It was clear that she was close enough to the two of them to persuade them. Regina would spend the next couple of days working on Kasandra to get her to convince Avery to stay, and by extension her daughter.

"No, I don't think that you're going to be keeping us here. If you've said all that you want, we're going to be leaving. The chancellor of Azade reached out to us, so we came. But there's nothing obligating us to do anything else." Avery said, standing up and pulling Jasmine and Kasandra who were both still gripping one of his hands along with him.

"Do you really expect me to let all of you just leave? With one word I can have my guards detain all of you. Within this residence, I hold absolute power." Regina said threateningly.

"That may be true, but even you aren't above the laws of the Dramid Alliance. If you keep us here, you're going to regret it."