Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 476

478

A grand ballroom in a hotel located in Senocide [likely a fictional city]. A hush fell over the numerous attendees. But soon, dozens of people sitting in the right-hand seats jumped up and cheered. And an old, white-haired gentleman sitting in the front left seat lowered his head, his hand trembling as he held his cane. The old man was Worst, the owner of WBS broadcasting company.

Soon, the emcee on the podium spoke feebly in a trembling voice.

“I hereby announce that the agenda regarding the composition of the new board of directors of WBS Broadcasting has been passed with 58% in favor and 12% against. Now, the representative of the new board of directors will come up and say a few words.”

As Beomseok smiled broadly, Natalie stood up and walked to the platform. Her face was beyond joyful, almost ecstatic. This was her first major task as the president of one of the world’s three major broadcasting stations, and she had great expectations. She had been gritting her teeth at the tyranny of large broadcasting companies while managing LKS, and now she was about to stand in that position.

Natalie, standing on the podium, looked around nervously before barely opening her mouth. She, who was usually cheerful to the point of being brazen, found it incredibly difficult to utter a single word today.

“Hello? I am Natalie, the president of LKS Broadcasting and the newly appointed director of WBS Broadcasting. In the meantime, I…”

As Natalie’s speech continued, Beomseok carefully looked back. He had seen Theresa visiting before today’s extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. Fortunately, he hadn’t run into her and avoided a face-to-face encounter, but it was a series of tense moments. If the stalking continued as before after today’s meeting, he would have to suffer for quite some time again.

However, she was already leaving. Seeing her put her handbag on her shoulder and heading out the door, he could rest assured, at least if she wasn’t just going to the restroom.

‘Oh. Did the disgusting food operation work properly? She’s just leaving without even saying hello.’

Relieved, Beomseok looked at the podium with a relaxed expression. He had made an appeal for support earlier, so there was no way she hadn’t seen him. The fact that she was leaving without even acknowledging him meant that she had completely lost interest. So now, if he was careful of external dangers, his worries about Theresa were over.

‘Ah. I need to finish that girl off quickly… I’m going crazy because I can’t catch her tail. These days are like walking on thin ice…’

Frankly, with Beomseok’s power, he could have eliminated Theresa in an instant. If he told Angela, it wouldn’t even be a problem to kick her out of her Desert Scorpions [presumably a sports team or organization] gladiator position right now. Of course, he was worried that she might have been up to something internally, but now he didn’t have to worry about that point too much.

Angela owned 24% of the Desert Scorpions team’s shares, and institutions held 31%. With the economic organization’s shares at 8%, it was now safe.

‘It would be dangerous if Theresa swept up the remaining shares and received full support from the institutions, but it’s different now. Institutions tend to follow profits and trends.’

Until today, Beomseok’s leverage to pressure the institutions was only LHN and Wilkins Financial Group. But while they were quick to help with matters related to the Black Society [likely a criminal organization], there was no guarantee that they would cooperate on other matters. In particular, Chairman Wilkins was a very strict person when it came to company profits, so it was questionable whether he would help Angela. But today, things had changed.

With WBS Broadcasting joining Ilsimhoe [likely a powerful organization or alliance], he also had considerable power. Institutions couldn’t help but be mindful of major broadcasting companies, so even if they had made firm promises with Theresa, they were likely to lean towards Ilsimhoe again if he saved them some face.

Then the game was over.

But the reason why he wasn’t hitting Theresa even in this situation was simple. It was because he couldn’t catch her tail. He needed to put her in jail at least to feel safe, but all he could do was kick her out of the manager position. Then Theresa would become even more spiteful, and he could face even greater danger.

The most certain way for Beomseok to take action now was to secretly kill her. But he was never considering this option. It was because he couldn’t condone the act of killing a woman in principle.

“Well, if I wait, she’ll somehow reveal her true colors.”

As Natalie’s speech was coming to an end, Beomseok took out a notebook and opened a list. It was a list of some WBS Broadcasting reporters and announcers, those who had troubled him so much at press conferences in the name of journalists.

There was a very high possibility that they were collaborators of the Black Society, so they had to be purged as soon as Natalie became president. Of course, there was some personal resentment as well.

The next day, Beomseok heard unexpected news on TV. It was the news of Chairman Lucas’s release on a National Foundation Day special pardon. It was unexpected, but he understood. He had seen countless dirty cases like this in reality.

“Welcome back, Father. You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”

Lucas, who entered a hotel room, took off his hat and tinted glasses and smiled brightly at Theresa.

“Heh heh. Have you been well?”

“Yes. What problems would I have? But Father, were there any followers?”

“No, there weren’t. The private investigators you sent did a pretty good job, and the guys didn’t even dream that I would be released, so they didn’t follow me.”

“That’s a relief. Now, come and sit down.”

Lucas, who pulled up a chair and sat down, glanced at her.

“But why are you being so careful? Has anything happened in the meantime?”

“Yes. I think the Ilsimhoe side suspects me.”

“Really? Why?”

“I approached Beomseok to seduce him, but the reaction was a bit strange. He seemed to be avoiding me, and he even tried to chase me away by serving me strange food. He likes women so much that he wouldn’t reject a beauty like me, so I suspected something and looked around, and there was someone following me.”

Lucas nodded slowly. Beomseok would have been able to notice.

If not, he couldn’t have been defeated so helplessly. At the time, he had made perfect preparations to kill Beomseok, but the iron door broke down at the final crime scene, resulting in failure.

There was no way that the iron door, which had been verified, would have broken down on the day of the incident, so it could be said that he had noticed something and prepared for it.

“That guy would have been able to notice. Otherwise, I couldn’t have been defeated so thoroughly. Anyway, did you shake off the tail well?”

“Yes. I hired a woman who looked similar to me to shake off the tail. The guys don’t know that I noticed, so they’re not being careful.”

“Heh heh. Good job.”

Theresa, who nodded lightly, glanced at him.

“But Father, what are you going to do now? The company has been handed over to the economic organization, so you can’t get involved in management. You should find another business and try to rebuild.”

“That’s something to think about later. The first priority is to eliminate that guy.”

“That guy? I told you, he’s always expressing extreme concern about us, even to the point of attaching followers. It won’t be easy.”

“But if we don’t get rid of him, we have no future. He’ll definitely interfere with all sorts of tricks.”

Theresa didn’t agree with that point. He continued to express caution by attaching followers, but he hadn’t played any tricks on her so far. He could have used his friendship with Angela to hit her, but she was still in the position of manager, and he didn’t show any other hostility.

Of course, all of this was an intention to seize a perfect chance, but she had no way of knowing.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”

“What are you talking about? You have a tail on you, so how can you say that?”

“That’s true, but it seems to have a different meaning.”

“What meaning?”

“It just seems like he’s being careful and paying attention. If I were in his position and had that much power, I wouldn’t have left me alone, but he’s not taking any action. I don’t know why, but he even seems to be wary of me.”

Lucas put his chin in his hand.

“Hmm. Is that possible? Are you mistaken?”

“No. In fact, I haven’t done anything to be caught by that guy recently. Then it means I was caught in the past, so it goes back four years. It’s about the Shayla case. At that time, he said that there was a spy in the Youth Business Association, but ironically, it was when he started to form a deep friendship with his mother, Angela. In other words, he heard from his mother that I was your daughter and started investigating, and he must have captured my secret contact with you. But he hasn’t taken any action against me for that long period of time. Then it means he has no intention of harming me in particular.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes and nodded. No wonder he had been constantly defeated by Beomseok, who was as small as a cotton ball, since then. It was clear that the information leaked through Theresa had become a fatal dagger, since he, who had built a company with his unique genius, couldn’t have been defeated.

‘In the end, I was defeated because of this foolish girl. I thought she was quite smart and liked her, but it turns out she was an ax that hit my foot.’

But Lucas didn’t show any resentment. She was still a child worth using. Besides, she followed him better than any other child, so she did whatever he told her without complaint, and she was also very useful in deceiving Beomseok’s attention.

“That’s true. But wouldn’t he be acting like that to make you a double agent? To catch this father and the Black Society?”

It was a highly likely story, so Theresa fell into thought. Using the enemy’s spy to gain an advantage was a very common strategy.

“That’s possible. But there are still some questions left. In fact, as soon as the news that there was a spy in the Youth Business Association after the Shayla incident, I took extremely cautious actions. Of course, I didn’t leak any information at all. But they remained silent. Even though I was useless for four years.”

“That’s because that guy Beomseok is very patient. He believes that he can catch your tail someday, so he’s staying still.”

“Hmm. That could be. But now that the Black Society has collapsed, I don’t know why they’re leaving me alone. I’m useless now.”

“That’s because he’s aiming for me. In fact, that guy Beomseok is a bulldog who sticks to the end once he has a grudge. He’s not the kind of guy who would leave me alone just because the Black Society has collapsed.”

“Are you saying that he’s holding a grudge against the fact that Father tried to kill him before?”

“Maybe so.”

Theresa bit her lip. She was relieved because she didn’t see any action, but it wasn’t at all.

“Then we have to get rid of that guy Beomseok somehow.”

“That’s right. But you have to do it. I have a previous record, so I’m being suspected by the authorities. So even if it’s something that can be done, it won’t work if I get involved. And we have to set a deadline and disguise it as a natural death. Even if he dies suspiciously in line with my release, I’ll be suspected.”

“Yes. That’s right. Then what should we do?”

“You have to approach him.”

Theresa frowned. She recalled her last meeting with him. She really didn’t want to taste that kind of diet again.

“Do I have to approach him? We can hire another guy.”

“Of course, we can do that, but I can’t trust them. The reason why I failed to eliminate Beomseok last time was because the guys who participated in the work didn’t check the iron door properly. I don’t want to have that experience again.”

“W, well, that’s true, but that guy suspects me?”

“You can clear up the suspicion.”

“How?”

“Confess your relationship with me yourself.”

Theresa tilted her head and replied.

“Will he believe that? If I say that out of the blue, he might suspect me more.”

“That’s right. He’ll definitely suspect if there’s no valid reason. But there’s no way to do it.”

“What way?”

“You love him. So you eventually open your mouth in bed because of guilt. Fortunately, he’s heterosexual, so it’ll work pretty well.”

Theresa, suddenly embarrassed, waved her hand. There was no way she could hug Beomseok. Of course, she tried to do it once before, but now she had completely changed her mind. Even now, when she saw his face, it still felt like the smell of ammonia was coming from her mouth.

“B, but I don’t love him.”

At that, Lucas frowned.

“Have you suddenly become stupid? An intelligent girl like you wouldn’t know what I mean now, would you?”

“W, well, that’s true, but…”

As she showed conflict, Lucas said in a quiet voice.

“Theresa. You are the only child I cherish. So I’m even thinking of giving you all my property in the future. But if you can’t even do that for this father, it doesn’t make sense, does it? I’ll say it again, we won’t be safe if that guy is alive. It means we live when he dies. So just close your eyes this once.

Then your and my future will be bright. How about trying it?”

“Sigh~ Okay… I’ll try it for Father’s sake.”

Theresa, who sighed, was nodding. If she just endured it once, everything would be resolved. If she killed Beomseok in an accidental death, the father and daughter could live a comfortable life.

============================ Author’s words ============================

Everyone, have a nice day. I’ll see you again tomorrow.