xymnovel Chapter 41 Pick up your pen and give me a list of oligarchs to be 'purged'.
Chapter 41 Pick up your pen and give me a list of oligarchs to be 'purged'.
The cry for hope echoed in the polluted air.
Constantine did not keep Andreas kneeling on the ground for long.
He personally stepped forward and, before Alexandros and the guards could react, used both hands to forcefully lift the trembling scholar from the cold ground.
"Professor, I don't need your knees."
Constantine looked directly into Andreas's burning eyes, his voice steady and powerful.
"It's your brain."
Andreas shuddered, and tears streamed down his face even more fiercely. He wanted to say something, but he was too overwhelmed to utter a single word. He could only grip Constantine's arm tightly and nod repeatedly.
"Let's talk on the bus."
Constantine said nothing more, and helped the still somewhat unsteady Andreas up, then turned and walked downstairs.
Alexandros snapped out of his daze and hurriedly followed. He watched the two figures ahead—one tall and dignified, the other thin and hunched—walk out of the dark corridor with an eerie harmony.
He knew that at this moment, the wheels of history were turning with a deafening roar.
Inside that simple, unadorned carriage, the atmosphere was as intense as a volcano about to erupt.
Constantine and Andreas sat facing each other.
During the hour-long journey back to the palace, a storm of ideas raged fiercely within the cramped carriage.
"...Regarding risk control for industrial investment banks, I have envisioned a three-tiered approval system, but it is not yet perfect," Constantine asked.
"No!" Andreas immediately retorted, his eyes flashing with an alarming light. "The approval system is secondary! The key is to establish an independent evaluation committee composed of engineers and industry experts! Politicians and bankers don't understand real industry! We must let professionals do what they're good at!"
"Very good! What about the source of this committee's power and its oversight mechanisms?"
"Power is directly in your hands! As for oversight, we'll bring in an advisory group from Britain and France! Let them oversee our project; this will both shut them up and utilize their expertise!" Andreas's mind was racing, and countless buried sparks of wisdom were ignited.
From the precise calculation of the money multiplier to floating loan interest rate schemes for different industries, from how to avoid the systemic strangulation of oligopolistic banks to how to exploit British greed to secure technology for Greece…
Andreas's genius and Constantine's forward-thinking vision from a later era meshed perfectly like two high-speed gears.
Their discussion grew faster and more in-depth. The air in the carriage felt almost scorching.
Alexandros sat in the corner, listening to the terms and ideas he only half understood, feeling dizzy and disoriented. He looked at the completely different, radiant Andreas, and then at the Crown Prince who had been completely at ease and guiding the pace of the conversation from beginning to end, and felt only awe.
By the time the carriage entered the palace gates, they had already refined the "Initial Concept" into a detailed and highly operational action plan.
Instead of returning to his own palace, Constantine took Andreas directly to his study.
Under Andreas's excited and expectant gaze, Constantine walked to his desk, spread out a sheet of paper bearing the royal crest, and picked up the Parker gold pen that had been used to sign the £7.5 million agreement.
He dipped his brush in ink and wrote with great flourish.
"Professor Andreas Kofinas is hereby appointed as the first Director of the Office of the Royal Economic Advisors, with full authority over the establishment of the office and the preliminary planning for the use of the £7.5 million recovery bond funds..."
When Constantine signed his name and affixed the Crown Prince's personal seal, Andreas could no longer contain himself, and his eyes instantly welled up with tears.
Five years of humiliation, five years of despair, all vanished in this moment.
He knew that with this appointment, his life would turn a completely new page.
The next morning.
The political scene in Athens was detonated by a bombshell.
His Highness the Crown Prince announced the official establishment of a new agency called the "Royal Economic Advisor's Office"!
The office was located in a long-abandoned wing of the palace.
Overnight, this dilapidated little building covered in ivy was completely cleaned and renovated. Workers smashed the stained old windows and replaced them with large, gleaming glass panes imported from France.
For the first time, the brilliant sunlight streamed in without any obstruction, illuminating the brand-new mahogany desk, the huge map of Greece hanging on the wall, and the rows of bookshelves waiting to be filled.
The air was filled with the fresh scent of new wood and ink, mixed with a fragrance called "hope".
Everything here is brimming with vibrant new life, forming a stark and jarring contrast with the somber Prime Minister's residence and Parliament building just a few hundred meters away.
Andreas stood in the center of the office.
He changed into a well-tailored black suit, hastily made overnight by a royal tailor. He was still thin, but his posture was ramrod straight. His gray hair was meticulously combed, and the stubble on his chin was clean-shaven.
He was like a sharpened and re-sharpened sword, his edge fully revealed.
Without wasting a minute, he immediately began recruiting soldiers as instructed by Constantine.
His list did not include any so-called famous scholars, but rather young people like him who were suppressed and ostracized by the academic and financial circles because of their progressive ideas and unwillingness to conform.
A university lecturer who is an expert in statistics but was fired for pointing out that the Ministry of Finance had falsified data.
An engineer familiar with mineral exploration, who lost his job after offending an oligarch who held a mining monopoly.
A young accountant who knows everything about maritime trade, but was fired by the shipping magnate's company for refusing to participate in falsifying accounts.
These people, like pearls covered in dust, were found one by one by Andreas from every corner of Athens.
When these people were brought to the brand-new office and saw the "Concept" personally signed by the Crown Prince, their reaction was exactly the same as Andreas's performance the day before.
Doubt, shock, ecstasy... and finally, a frenzy that burns everything!
A core team, loyal, professional, and filled with deep hatred for the old forces, was quickly formed in just one day.
In the evening, Constantine arrived at the office, which was already taking shape.
Andreas and his team members all stood up and greeted their leader with the utmost respect.
Constantine nodded in satisfaction.
He walked up to Andreas and gave him, the office director, the first and most important task.
This task has nothing to do with investment or construction.
"Professor," Constantine's voice was calm and undisturbed, yet carried an icy chill, "the first step to rebirth is to remove the rotten flesh."
He placed a brand-new fountain pen on Andreas's desk.
"Pick up your pen and give me a list."
Constantine's gaze fell upon the brightly lit city of Athens outside the window, where behind each light might lurk the corrupt elements of a nation.
"I need to know the names of every single one of the Greek financial oligarchs, land oligarchs, shipping oligarchs...
"Where are they hiding their money?"
"Where is the Achilles' heel of their industry?"
"Who are the legislators they've supported?"
"How much civilian blood is on their hands?"
Constantine withdrew his gaze and looked at Andreas, speaking each word clearly and distinctly.
"I need a list of those to be utterly destroyed... a 'purge' list."