Chapter 386
「Title: The Rothschild Group’s Bold Move: Launching the Largest Public Utility Foundations Ever Seen!
The Rothschild Group has made a surprise donation of the group’s property to society. They announced that they were deeply impressed by Jonathan Investment Financial Group’s two trillion dollars donation for the world’s peace in April.
Besides their nickname ‘Defender of the Day of Advent,’ the Rothschilds hold a large stake in multinational conglomerate corporations such as Berry, Googol, NanoSoft, and City Group. They have made the largest amount of donations in a short period ever recorded through the group’s public utility foundations…」
Strictly speaking, the assets that went into the public foundation meant they had left the family’s pockets. However, the reality was different. As long as the family controlled the foundation’s board of directors, they could exercise the same power over the group.
Especially in the United States and England, where the Rothschild family originated, governments didn’t levy taxes on stock donations made to public foundations. Therefore, there were many cases where companies exploited this.
Therefore, the criteria for determining whether the donation was based on pure good faith or not was clear. It depended on whether the foundation had independence! However, it was surprising to note that the thirteen foundations, which had received the entire assets of the Rothschild family, were operating independently.
None of Dresner’s real blood relatives, so-called the ‘Rothschild family,’ had any power in those foundations. That wasn’t the only point that showed that the foundations hadn’t been created for succession. If they intended to succeed as the successor in their family, then they would have established a new foundation that would fulfill their purpose.
Kim Cheong-Soo said on the video call monitor. He rummaged through the data in a surprised manner as if he couldn’t understand Rothschild’s decision.
It only took two days for the Rothschild family’s entire assets to be split up into thirteen public foundations, but it would have taken months to just figure out the scale of their property. Even if they utilized the electronic legal system of the UK government, the number of pertinent documents would have been significant enough to fill a substantial book.
It was never a task that could be carried out impulsively. Kim Cheong-Soo was unable to locate any data that would arouse suspicion. As he maneuvered his mouse and clicked on the page, the ultimatum sent by Dresner to Kim Cheong-Soo was magnified on a single section of the video conferencing program.
「Since the Day of Advent, I have contemplated lots of things, including whether my decision would create any problems for the club. Nevertheless, after deliberating on the matter, I concluded that I could proceed with this for the sake of peace in humanity, if it could offer you even a small measure of help.
However, the family members will never understand my decision. They will aim their swords at me, but I have no regrets. Please forgive and take care of them.
You will soon find out what decision I made. 」
Dresner was aware that his family members might threaten his life due to his decision. Although his conviction was resolute, it was hard for me to believe that he relinquished his family’s assets to society with purely altruistic intentions.
He volunteered to be a clown while suppressing his anger and thirst for revenge. Even if a person might have the capacity to change at any time, it was implausible for someone like him to single-handedly execute a decision that affected the shared property of hundreds of family members.
While his decision appeared to be made in good faith on the surface, it was likely that many complex factors were intertwined within it.
Dresner and his close aides’ whereabouts were currently unknown. If he had actually died, then he might have been killed by a family member. If he were alive, then I would ask Yeon-Hee to confirm his intentions by using her mental skills.
Although I used him, I didn't trust him.
***
It was said that Dresner’s mansion had been vacated during the two days when Dresner was ‘disposing’ of his family assets. The testimony given by all the employees, including the resident bodyguards, were consistent in stating that they had been instructed by the butler to vacate the mansion.
According to his blood relatives, there were numerous internal complaints about what Dresner had been pursuing since the end of the Day of Advent. They were chasing Dresener’s whereabouts as much as I did while also searching for forces who could succeed in the nullity suit.
However, it would be hard to nullify his decision. It was an issue that required my approval, but because Dresner had incinerated all the related documents, there was nothing. All that remained were the old records in the British government’s computer data. In other words, only records on the group’s shares delegated to the head of a family remained.
The system for maintaining the head of the Rothschild family had literally ripped them apart. Even the information about his whereabouts was gone. To be honest, I was impressed by his work. It was so meticulous that it made me think he was better than I thought.
Gillian included a final point before concluding his report on the investigation conducted the previous night.
Since the British club members were hesitant to contact me directly, it was only natural for them to voice their concerns to Gillian instead. The Rothschild family was even representing British interests, so their walkout greatly impacted the British members.
He finished with the explanation that such treatment and authority were guaranteed for the new members of the foundation. I wondered whether Dresner aimed to gather my people and covertly assume control of all of the family’s assets, using me as a motive.
However, that would never happen because I checked the possibility of him doing that immediately after the emergence of the large public foundations. Both Kim Cheong-Soo and Gillian were suspicious of that at first.
Apart from the British members’ opinions, Gillian was indirectly saying not to revive the Rothschild family.
Once they realized who held the greatest authority over the foundations, they would cease their complaints.
I hung up at that point. Yeon-Hee had seen me working on this since last night, so she put a glass of water on my desk and left quietly.
I couldn’t stop myself from focusing on the documents that I had reviewed countless times. It was hard to let go of the thought that Dresner might have maliciously planted a trap. Accounting firms and the British government were also scrambling to grasp the governance structure of the thirteen foundations, but they hadn’t found anything yet.
I really wanted to put Dresner in front of me and ask him directly. He not only feigned being a clown, but also capitalized on working under my direction and was fixated on amassing gold. He had been obsessed with the gold collected from China and pioneering gold mines in outer space.
‘How could such an action be rationalized? Was it merely a facet of the capital augmentation?’
I couldn’t understand Dresner’s actions, yet the situation affected me deeply. All the evidence indicated that he had acted with a truly altruistic motive.
How could someone change this much?
***
That afternoon, it became evident that what Dresner had done did not disrupt the structure I had established. I just simply didn’t know what his motives were for doing so. For now, I accepted Rothshild’s walkout as a fact. It wasn’t worth paying too much attention to Rothschild as they were just a little accessory of mine. I had kept the investigation going, so if my people found something, I would get back at it again.
It was late in the afternoon that the Savior’s person, who left to collect insignias and Spider Egg, returned. At that moment, cheers and sighs were alternately coming out of the room where Yeon-Hee was in. I was waiting for Olivia. I still couldn’t figure out Jonathan’s intentions, but I had decided that the egg was his from the time I blocked his bid..com
Given that I had already decided on which other dungeons to open, there was no reason for me not to return to outer space after handing over the egg to Olivia.
When I sensed her presence, I realized that there was another person’s heavy footsteps. I had just finished working on the design of the Teleportation insignia. The sound of them coming up was clear as my Sense was at its maximum capacity. The two footsteps stopped briefly in the elevator and resumed walking again toward me.
Jonathan was finally back from wandering! However, for some reason, Olivia went back without coming into the room together with him.
I opened the door to congratulate my comrade’s return. Jonathan shook his hands as soon as he saw me.
“You stole the present I was going to give you, Sun. Would you mind if I come in without anything? Long time no see, Sun.”
He smiled faintly, and I reciprocated with a smile too.
I quipped, “Wow, who is this? I was this close to forgetting your face. I thought you moved in with Olivia and lived happily ever after.”
“I considered that since she is a faithful woman. Are you interested in her as a girl?” he asked.
I laughed. “Hahahaha. It’s not even funny, man. Anyway, welcome back, Jonathan.”
“I needed a little break, but it took longer than I expected.”
Jonathan shifted his gaze over my shoulder where Yeon-Hee was leaning against the wall and gently moving her hand. She was smiling at him, but her pupils were skimming through Jonathan in suspicion. Fortunately, her eyeballs had not turned entirely black.
- Seon-Hu: Stop it, Yeon-Hee.
When I warned her, she finally stood upright and said, “I will let you guys catch up. Do not care about me.”
She returned to her room while giggling.
Jonathan’s smile vanished, and his forehead appeared noticeably tense. He spoke briefly while looking at the door where Yeon-Hee disappeared.
“I would rather die if I had to live with such a woman.”
“...”
“She will kill the guy if he makes any mistake with her. No one other than you would be able to deal with her Sun.”
He stopped joking and lowered his voice immediately.
“I will be honest with you. I want you to mediate so that there is no dispute between Mary and me. We will get into so many conflicts, but it’s unpleasant to think that Mary reads my feelings every single time. If she reads my memories without permission…I won’t be able to tolerate that. I’d rather be physically naked instead.”
He was serious.
I explained, “She closed her Empathy skill, Jonathan.”
He blinked. “...Oh, yeah?”
“But I will let her know. Mary won’t look into your emotions or thoughts. She wouldn’t want to do that either. Let me ask you a question.”
He nodded. “Go for it.”
“Where do you want to be? Outer space? Or the mainland?”
“Osiris is in outer space. I am always ready to help if he needs support, but I would like to stay here until then.”
“Okay. What exactly do you want to do here?”
“Some people subscribe to the notion that ‘There are no great men in the world. There is only a great challenge that ordinary people rise to meet.’ However, I haven’t encountered anyone who is cognizant of the fallacy in this belief and educates those who believe this accordingly. I will assume the responsibility, Sun.”
Jonathan was indeed back from his wanderings.
“I will keep the order in the name of the great man, you.”