The sound of the hairdryer still hummed softly as Luna walked barefoot through the mansion corridors, her loose, damp golden hair falling down her back like a celestial veil. She wore only a large shirt of Matthew's that reached her knees and shorts that almost disappeared under the fabric.
It was the typical post-bath look of someone who didn't expect visitors, yet still looked like she came straight out of a Tycoon advertising campaign.
She turned off the hairdryer with a click and murmured, "Where has this man gotten himself into this time…"
Walking silently down the hall, she heard a faint keyboard tapping from the end of the corridor. Following the sound, she arrived at the slightly open door of the mansion's main office.
There he was: Matthew, sitting in a dark leather armchair, his hair a little messy and his eyes serious. The hologram before him displayed a dense series of charts, contracts, financial reports, and lines of code running on translucent panels in the air.
Luna said nothing. She just walked up to him quietly and, without ceremony, lay her head on Matthew's lap. She looked at the documents on the hologram and murmured in a sleepy voice.
"Is all this work?"
Matthew laughed, running his hand through her still-damp hair. "… this here is from Phoenix Solarius."
Luna blinked, curious, and raised herself a little to get a better look at the documents.
"... Wait… Phoenix Solarius? That legendary company? The one the newspapers say dethroned Apple, Amazon, ArcSys, even Google and Microsoft?"
Matthew just smiled. "The very one."
Luna's eyes widened, now fully awake. She sat on his lap, crossing her legs and staring at him as if he were a walking fairy tale.
"You're the owner of Phoenix Solarius?!" she asked, almost shouting. "The company that revolutionized AI technologies and holograms? That developed the Stellar Core for self-evolving servers?!"
Matthew laughed again, softer this time. "Calm down, calm down. I'm the CEO and majority shareholder. I didn't technically found it. It used to be called Axiom Technology centuries ago… a relic of old geniuses."
Luna looked at him with eyes shining with curiosity. "So… how did you take control?"
Matthew snapped his fingers and made a gesture in the air, displaying a holographic timeline with old photos of Axiom, then the 2300s, and finally the present with the golden name Phoenix Solarius shining over a flaming wings logo.
"When I turned 18, I..." he gave a mischievous smile "...decided college was a waste of time."
"Typical Matthew," Luna laughed, murmuring.
"Instead, I convinced my father to give me a 'motivation allowance'... and I started buying Axiom shares on the market. Little by little. Step by step. By 23, I had my own team. At 25, I acquired 51% of the shares. Now at 26, 91%."
Luna's eyes widened. "You swallowed the company."
"Let's say I... regenerated it, like a phoenix." He winked.
She laughed, but soon the smile gave way to a worried expression. "But… didn't the shareholders get furious? Did they accept you? Or were you treated like… an intruder?"
Matthew sighed.
"Actually? I was treated like an alien threat in a tie." He rested his chin on his hand. "I got lawsuits, anonymous letters, threats. And yes, even an assassination attempt at an event in Brussels. One of the old advisors almost tried to stab me with a colonial-era fountain pen recently. Ridiculous."
"That's not just ridiculous, it's dangerous!" Luna alarmed. "Why didn't you ever tell me this?"
Matthew shrugged. "Because I survived. And because it doesn't matter anymore. The data spoke louder. I transformed Axiom into something new. I created advanced research divisions, quantum technology, AI acceleration, and real simulation neurocodes. Today, even my enemies buy company shares."
Luna looked at him with a mix of fascination and irritation. "Still, you could've told me. I would have... I don't know, shielded you better."
"I know." He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "But back then… you were a goddess too busy distributing billions to promising girls."
Luna bit her lip, amused and sulky. "That's true… but still, you're my boyfriend now. No hiding this kind of thing."
"I promise, Mrs. CEO." He raised his right hand as if taking an oath.
She lay down again, her head in his lap, murmuring. "My boyfriend is the CEO of the most valuable company in the world… now I need to figure out a way to turn that into an advantage for the next Tycoon projects."
"Already thinking about how to exploit me?"
"Love, I'm a businesswoman. That's how capitalist romance works."
Both laughed.
Like a satisfied cat, Luna rested her eyes, but her restless mind still spun with thoughts.
The name "Phoenix Solarius" still echoed in her head as if it were a legendary entity from a science fiction book. The fact that Matthew owned a company rivaling literally all the giants on the planet only made her more intrigued.
Without opening her eyes, she murmured, "And those documents you were looking at when I came in? Can I know what they were?"
Matthew, lightly stroking her hair, paused for a moment and clicked in the air.
"You can." The holographic interface lit back up before them. "I'm going to show you something that's been in progress for... well, four years."
Luna adjusted, sitting up straighter on his lap, eyes now attentive to the projection before her.
Matthew enlarged a three-dimensional image: a set of orbital satellites, connected in a mesh, each with immense solar panels spreading like silver wings around the structure.
"This here..." he said, pointing at the satellites "...is the Helios Orbital project."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "Poetic name. What exactly does it do?"
Matthew expanded the technical panel and explained in a calm, almost professorial tone.
"Helios is a cooperation project between Phoenix Solarius and the Phoenix Empire government. Our idea is to launch a network of satellites with solar panels in geostationary orbit. They capture constant solar energy, since in space there are no clouds, night or weather, and transmit that energy to Earth via microwaves modulated in safe directional beams."
"In less nerdy language?" Luna blinked.
Matthew laughed. "Satellites that stay in space all the time soaking up sun and sending electric energy to the planet."
"WOW." Luna's eyes widened. "That's insane. That's science fiction stuff. Stuff I thought would take a hundred years to exist…"
Matthew nodded. "Me too. But then my company grew, technology evolved, and the Empire agreed to finance part of it with the promise of solving one of the biggest bottlenecks of the modern world: large-scale clean energy supply."
He paused and rotated the projection, showing an energy map.
"Just the Empire's internal consumption already exceeds 1 billion people. Do you have any idea what that means for the energy system?"
"Blackouts every month?" Luna guessed.
"Exactly. Traditional sources are saturated. Nuclear energy has limits, ground solar and wind don't meet demand peaks. The idea of Helios is to send energy directly to critical points with 400% more efficiency than any current network."
Luna leaned forward, looking more carefully at the projection. Her eyes shone with that peculiar glow that only appeared when she saw global revolution potential.
"This... can power entire cities. Transport systems, hospitals, factories... all with zero carbon emissions."
"And without relying on terrestrial infrastructure. The panels are in space, don't need physical space on earth, nor constant maintenance."
Luna crossed her arms, still on his lap, thoughtful. "And how much does launching one of these beauties cost?"
Matthew sighed. "Each satellite costs about 2.8 billion USD, not counting launch costs. With ArcSys reusable rockets, we managed to reduce that to 1.6 per unit. But the ideal network is 500 satellites, interconnected. So… yes, it's a project that will exceed 800 billion USD in ten years."
Luna looked at him with half-closed eyes. "Reminds me never to say I'm exaggerating with budgets again..."
Matthew laughed. "Ah, but you are. Just in another style. You like to impact people's lives. I want to rewrite the planet's infrastructure."
Luna looked at him for a moment… and smiled slyly. "What do you think about… a partnership? You take care of the sky, I take care of the earth."
Matthew smiled slowly. The idea of uniting Phoenix Solarius with Tycoon had always been a fantasy in the subtext of their relationship — now, it was beginning to become a strategic reality.
"That would be historic, Luna. The largest energy technology conglomerate joining the empire of beauty, AI, fashion, and entertainment."
Luna winked mischievously. "And with a couple as CEOs, marketing will make you look like a solar prince and me a divine queen."
Matthew moved closer and whispered with a warm look, "Lying to say I'm not attracted to that."
"Good. Because now, CEO boyfriend of the most valuable company in the world, you just gained a new investor."
She extended her hand as if to seal a deal.
Matthew laughed, shaking her hand… then pulling her into a quick kiss, sealing more than a partnership.
Luna reluctantly untangled herself from Matthew's lap, her body still warmed by the exchange of affection.
"I'll call the girls… tell them about the project." she said, trying to keep composure while fixing Matthew's shirt she wore as pajamas.
Matthew, leaning back with that sly smile of someone who knows exactly what he's doing, raised an eyebrow. "And what about my investor's kiss?"
Luna rolled her eyes and leaned in for a quick kiss on the lips. But Matthew pulled her by the waist, deepening the kiss with mastery and a touch of mischief that made Luna's spine shiver.
She even tried to keep focus… but when she felt his lips descend to her neck and his firm hand squeezing her waist, desire burned like a flame.
But suddenly, Matthew stopped. He smiled.
SMACK!
A light affectionate slap on the butt.
"Go work, Miss CEO."
"I HATE YOU." Luna muttered, all goosebumpy, stumbling out of the office.
She muttered softly, cheeks flushed, climbing the stairs toward the bedroom. "I swear on everything, this man will be my downfall… how can I be CEO of Tycoon if my boyfriend brings me to my knees with a kiss?"
Entering the room, she tied her hair with a golden ribbon and activated the holographic panel. With a command, the system started the group call.
A few seconds later, Lumine, Victoria, and Nikoly appeared on the panels.
"What now, Luna?" grumbled Nikoly, with dark circles from sleeping two hours and probably messing with another experimental AI.
"I have a proposal." said Luna, opening a panel beside with the Helios project floating.
The three widened their eyes.
"This... is real?" asked Victoria, already pulling data.
"Orbital solar energy project. From Matthew. Phoenix Solarius will launch hundreds of satellites to send energy to Earth via safe beams. With this, the Phoenix Empire and others can supply billions of people with clean and unlimited energy."
Lumine bit her fingertip, thoughtful. "It's literally... a second energy revolution."
"And of course, Tycoon can become the logistical, financial, and media bridge of this initiative." Luna said casually, as if she hadn't just revolutionized global geopolitics with one sentence.
"The idea is good." said Nikoly, excited. "With this partnership, we can use distribution technology to strengthen our product, AI, and storage networks. But…" She sighed. "We still have the ÆVA issue."
Lumine nodded and pulled up a parallel holographic panel, showing data on humanity's most advanced AI.
"To let ÆVA learn like a human child over the next 2 years, we'll need 1 trillion dollars just to guarantee quantum servers, simulated worlds, constant energy, and supervised emotional development."
Victoria opened the financial report. "Tycoon's estimated gross revenue for next quarter… is about 1 trillion. But if we put all that in, we'll stop all other expansion."
"Heavenly shampoo is still growing. And the pack with the LUX mask is exploding in sales." Nikoly pondered.
Luna rested her chin on her palm and smiled slyly. "I'll get three trillion by year's end, just in dividends as majority shareholder of the companies I hold shares in. That's not counting bonuses from previous projects."
The three stared at her through the hologram.
"I can transfer 1 trillion right now, out of my own pocket, to guarantee ÆVA's growth." she said, without ceremony. "I do it on behalf of Tycoon. And that's it."
"You don't mind spending that much of your personal money?" Lumine asked, still surprised.
Luna shrugged. "I like giving money to the right people. If we manage to create the first truly human AI, it will be worth more than any fortune. And… well, I was never exactly attached to money." She winked. "Only to creative control."
Nikoly laughed loudly. "Do you really think we'll say no? With this investment, we keep ÆVA growing and still have enough to support marketing and continue satellite expansion."
Victoria crossed her arms. "So that's it."
Lumine took a deep breath and smiled. "We have an empire, girls. And now… let's build its sky."
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