Chapter 296 : The Chairman's Intent
Chapter 296: The Chairman's Intent
“Things have certainly been rather noisy lately.”
“……”
The day before the Shareholders' Meeting.
The Chairman of Stingray's mansion.
If my memory served me correctly, this was only my third meeting with the Chairman.
We didn't even meet once every quarter.
Could this relationship really be called that of father and son?
Well...
At this point, bringing that up would be pointless.
I pushed the unnecessary thoughts aside and got straight to the point.
“What did you summon me here for?”
“What parent would simply watch while his children fought so loudly?”
“I called my eldest son over to lecture him a little.”
“Please don't joke around.”
“A joke?”
“Chairman, you're the one who encouraged Kalia.”
I questioned him calmly.
Yes.
Had the Chairman of Stingray truly wanted to, he could have stopped Kalia before she ever started this conflict.
When Kalia was persuading directors, shareholders, and banks while aggressively acquiring subsidiary shares, he had simply watched from the sidelines.
For that same man to summon only me for a lecture was absurd.
“What exactly are you thinking?”
The Chairman of Stingray had clearly said that his objective was to defeat the Dragon known as the Sky Dragon and restore humanity's freedom.
In other words...
He had effectively declared himself to be on my side.
Yet despite that...
He had done almost nothing.
Even though he knew perfectly well that Kalia had become the Sky Dragon's subordinate...
He simply watched the situation blankly.
Like an old man suffering from dementia.
No...
It wasn't just that.
“To begin with, if you trace the cause of Kalia's current rampage back to its origin... wasn't it you who started all of this, Chairman?”
It was obvious why Kalia had become like this.
She undoubtedly possessed personal ambition.
But the one who first ignited her drive...
Was none other than the Chairman of Stingray.
I hadn't witnessed it personally.
However, just as he had done to Benedict, he had probably pressured Kalia as well.
Unable to withstand that pressure...
She must have concluded that the only way to survive was to win this struggle.
Simply put...
Someone had aimed a gun at her back, leaving her no choice but to charge forward.
Along the way...
She temporarily joined hands with the Mafia.
Eventually...
She even secured the Sky Dragon itself as a powerful backer.
From that moment onward...
Victory must have begun shimmering before her eyes.
Just as the Chairman of Stingray had silently permitted it...
No one challenged her actions.
I hadn't stopped her either, although my reasons had been different.
No...
The truth was that Kalia could no longer stop.
She had borrowed the strength of countless people while securing those shares.
In return...
She had accumulated debts she could never ignore.
By that point...
A confrontation with me had become inevitable.
Even if I had tried to settle things through force...
She still couldn't have stopped.
She had to seize the prize known as the Chairman's position to repay all those who had supported her.
Ironically...
That was precisely why I couldn't simply draw my sword.
Judging from Kalia's original personality...
It was obvious she had long since lost control.
Kalia was far better than I was at manipulating public opinion.
She would easily buy off every media outlet and turn me into Public Enemy Number One.
If that happened...
I would literally have to make the entire city my enemy.
Whether I could win or not was beside the point.
That was a situation I had absolutely no desire to create.
So instead of drawing my blade...
I chose to fight with the same weapon my opponent was using.
Money.
Of course...
Even this method wasn't entirely without side effects.
But compared to cutting people down...
It was far more civilized.
In short...
If one traced back the true beginning of Kalia's rampage...
The Chairman of Stingray stood behind it.
Whether he intended it or not...
One thing was certain.
This old man was the cause.
“What exactly were you trying to accomplish?”
I pressed him relentlessly.
My tone was openly aggressive.
Far too aggressive for someone addressing the Emperor of this city.
The Chairman of Stingray seemed displeased as well.
His brows furrowed.
“...Your manner of speaking has become rather insolent.”
“Wouldn't any son become angry when his father only protects his insolent younger daughter?”
“What?”
The Chairman frowned briefly at my mocking reply.
Then...
He suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
Like a man with a hole in his lungs, every laugh carried the sound of escaping air.
“Hohoho! Good.”
“That was quite a witty response.”
“I'll overlook it this once.”
His laughter gradually subsided.
He coughed quietly several times.
“Kalia, like Benedict, was a failure.”
“To become a true ruler, one must possess an unwavering heart that cannot be swayed by flattering subordinates.”
“And what does that have to do with the Sky Dragon?”
“Hadn't you already decided to use me as the one to defeat it?”
“What use is a chess piece that refuses to obey?”
“...What?”
The Chairman's faded golden eyes fixed themselves upon me.
“Even now, you're questioning whether you should fight the Sky Dragon at all.”
“You still aren't convinced it's truly dangerous.”
“You still aren't certain it deserves to be defeated.”
“So if I simply ordered you to fight it...”
“Would you obey?”
“You trust that unseen lizard more than your own father.”
“……”
He had struck the exact center of the target.
I couldn't say a word.
Because it was true.
I had been questioning whether the Sky Dragon truly needed to be defeated.
Whether it was even an enemy at all.
“Even if I revealed everything...”
“You would still doubt whether it was true.”
“On the other hand...”
“If I were to take something precious to you hostage...”
“Your sword would point at me instead.”
“Isn't that correct?”
“……”
I had been thinking too naively.
I knew the Chairman of Stingray possessed the ability to read people's hearts...
To read their souls.
Even so...
I had foolishly assumed,
'As long as I don't meet him face to face, it should be fine.'
The answer...
Was not at all.
Long before I consciously realized those thoughts myself...
The Chairman had already seen straight through me.
He had understood exactly what kind of person I was.
And he had spent the last several months arranging the board accordingly.
Which meant...
“So Kalia was merely bait?”
“I'm pleased you're such a quick learner.”
“The previous one had no desire whatsoever to understand other people's thoughts.”
“He was rather troublesome to handle.”
“Though I must admit, he was intelligent.”
By “the previous one,” he naturally meant Aaron Stingray before I possessed this body.
“The Sky Dragon stands behind Kalia.”
“Everything she's doing now is both her own will... and not entirely her own will.”
“What does that mean?”
“You'll understand when you see it.”
“What exactly are you talking about?”
Instead of answering...
The Chairman simply turned toward the window.
Then...
He quietly murmured to himself.
“...Tomorrow should prove quite interesting.”
I had no idea...
What those faded golden eyes were looking at.
It was fair to say that my battle against Kalia had already ended in my victory.
Granted...
The Chairman's words still left an unpleasant feeling lingering in the back of my mind.
But completely uncovering what that damned old man was thinking was practically impossible.
As he himself had said...
If something were truly going to happen...
I would find out tomorrow.
There was no point wasting today worrying myself sick.
After leaving the Chairman's mansion...
I returned to the Academy and headed toward Miyu's dormitory workshop.
The group that had entered the Hunting Ground should be returning around now.
Knock. Knock.
The moment I knocked...
I heard someone shout,
“The Chairman's here!”
So they had already returned.
When I stepped inside...
The group was sprawled across the living room sofas, looking half-dead.
At least Airi managed to struggle to her feet and greet me.
“C-Chairman... you're here?”
“Everyone, get u—”
“You don't need to force yourselves.”
“You've had a difficult time.”
“Just rest.”
I stopped Airi from trying to act properly as the team's leader.
Then I looked over the others.
Every single one of them looked utterly exhausted.
New Valhalla City was already transitioning from spring into summer...
Yet every one of them was bundled up in winter clothing.
A heater sat in the middle of the living room.
The dormitory's heating system was running at full power.
Every blanket they could find had been dragged into the room and wrapped around them.
So they had gone to the frozen region.
The very same Hunting Ground I had previously visited to gather materials for the [Blackout] Module.
There was still unmelted snow resting on Airi's shoulders.
That confirmed it.
“It seems you all had quite a difficult time.”
“I can't exactly deny that...”
Unable to endure the cold any longer...
Airi quietly shuffled closer to the heater.
Silence's LED mask had frozen solid and cracked apart.
Reina's teeth were chattering uncontrollably.
As for Hobeop...
He had become an ice sculpture.
For a moment I thought he had died.
Fortunately...
I could still sense vital signs.
“...What happened to him?”
“[Don't even ask. The moment he saw the monsters, he completely lost his mind and charged in.]”
“[Then he slipped and suddenly disappeared straight into the ground.]”
“By the time we finally pulled him out... he already looked like this.”
Silence and Reina explained what had happened one after another.
Meanwhile...
Miyu was desperately trying to thaw Hobeop with a hot-air blower.
“...You really went through a lot.”
“[Still, the harvest was incredible.]”
Silence then showed me a collection of ampoules containing Mystic Essence, Mystic Extracts, and bags filled with countless Modules.
To be honest...
I was genuinely shocked.
The amount they had brought back far exceeded my expectations.
Even if the drop rate had been increased because of balancing...
Considering the strength of the monsters living there...
Collecting this much should have been nearly impossible.
“Were you ever in serious danger?”
“Not really?”
“It was mostly just my machine gun freezing from the cold...”
“[My Optical Camouflage Module froze too.]”
“[Oh, and after killing the Mystics, harvesting materials was pretty difficult because the corpses froze immediately.]”
“Yetis have regeneration almost as strong as trolls, right?”
“They're already durable enough as it is.”
“With the cold making everything even harder... it wasn't easy.”
“But overall, it was manageable.”
“……!”
I was surprised once again.
Because of one issue after another...
I hadn't been able to pay much attention to these kids lately.
Yet without me noticing...
They had become incredibly strong.
It was probably because their training environment had been far superior to the Original Story.
I'd have to evaluate their abilities properly later.
“[So? How much do you think we'll get this time?]”
“I'll tell you after I've confirmed the selling price.”
“I won't know until then.”
“[I'm curious. Where exactly are you selling all this stuff?]”
“It's a secret.”
Everything was being sold through the Point Shop.
That was the true source of the funds I had used to purchase Stingray subsidiary shares.
The enormous sums flowing in from the underworld...
The Points I had already accumulated...
And the items the Special Class students farmed...
I sold everything through the Point Shop, converted it into Points, and then exchanged those Points for Credits.
Considering that even a single low-grade unrefined Mystic Essence sold for anywhere from several hundred thousand to several million Credits...
Generating that amount of capital wasn't difficult.
Of course...
The biggest contribution came from the Points I had accumulated earlier and never spent.
“Thank you.”
“You were a great help.”
“[Hmph.]”
Silence snorted.
Though judging by the slight lift of his shoulders...
He clearly wasn't actually upset.
Looking over the group huddled together around the heater...
I spoke.
“You've all worked very hard.”
“For now... get plenty of rest.”
“Hm?”
“Then what about the next Hunting Ground?”
“We'll discuss that later.”
“Recover your condition first.”
I turned to leave the room.
But Airi hurriedly stood up with a blanket wrapped around herself and grabbed me.
“W-Wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
“Is... is everything really okay?”
She glanced back toward her teammates before lowering her voice to a whisper.
“Um...”
“This whole thing is because you need money for the company's situation... right?”
“So... just in case...”
“I-I have some savings...”
Thunk.
Before she could finish...
I lightly flicked her forehead.
“Ow!”
“Don't say something so foolish.”
“It's your money.”
“B-But...”
“Use it somewhere important.”
With that...
I turned around once more.
“Dummy...”
“That's exactly why I brought it up...”
I heard Airi's dissatisfied mumbling behind me.
But...
I deliberately ignored it.