It was almost evening by the time they were done with the interviews, and while Samantha still had to take care of some loose ends on her side, Emilia was finally free to retreat to her room.
"I can't believe you managed to pull it off!"
Emilia breathed a sigh of relief as she slammed her room's door close.
Cynthia's surprise wasn't unwarranted, because there were simply too many things that could have gone wrong. But thankfully, most of it had worked out in her favor.
Of course, the resourcefulness of the villainess's family played a vital role in bringing about that outcome. From securing the 'merchandise' to keeping the entire thing a secret, every single person involved in the process mattered.
And she made sure to convey her gratitude to her father and sister, so that such diligent workers are aptly rewarded and kept firmly tied to their boat.
"Aiyo, Emilia, don't tell me you're getting possessive over the employees too? You yandere, you."
Emilia rolled her eyes as she moved into her walk-in closet. She didn't have much time to get ready for the party tonight, after all.
"Very 'funny', Cynthia. Would I be doing all this if not for your stupid little missions?"
"But I have to say, for being so uninvolved with them after you came here, I didn't expect you to make use of the villainess's family so well. As expected of a princess, having the confidence to order people around when you didn't even know they existed till that moment."
Emilia just rolled her eyes as she continued sifting through the clothes. Ever since she had decided to use Cynthia's summoning sparingly in light of its usefulness in emergencies, her partner's tongue had gotten more and more loose.
"You should I take you out to check?"
"C-Check what?"
"If you have really grown a humongous pair of steel balls?"
"…"
Her system seemed to get the hint, and meekly kept her mouth shut. For an entire minute, that is.
"Emilia~ Why are you so sensitive, you snowflake!"
Ding!
[ Current Status ]
—Follower Summoning: Cynthia (Available), Remaining Duration: 7 hours 11 minutes 24 seconds.
—Shapeshift (Available), 8 hour cooldown upon use.
Her trick seemed to have worked, because Cynthia's attitude did a complete one eighty as she felt an ass whooping incoming.
"A-Ahem, I meant, you're so smart and witty, I was just in admiration! Especially how you handled Samantha, that was so evil! Truly a villainess. I'm proud of you, ya know!"
Emilia sighed. "It's not something I'm proud of, though. Hopefully, I never have to do it again."
Over the past week, she had gained a clearer understanding of Danielle's family. The parents were unreliable at best, always busy with their own affairs. If she was lucky, she would see them during dinner time, otherwise they were mostly absent from her life.
In contrast, her most reliable ally in the mansion was Samantha, who loved her little sister to bits. A true siscon who would always be at her beck and call.
When she had first realized that this kind of trouble was coming her way, she had no choice but to forcefully convince Samantha to bend to her will regardless of her own thoughts. To be precise, she had to bully her into submission using her love for her little sister as a tool. Emotional blackmail, more or less.
She hated doing it, but the situation was urgent, leaving her no choice.
Once she had all of Samantha's subordinates at her disposal, the matter became far easier to handle. And the key factor turned out to be Samantha's personal secretary, who could mobilize even the main headquarters when needed, thanks to having special permissions from Mr. White.
Although that became redundant later once she got direct approval from her father, it did speed up the process significantly at the start.
Within an hour, she had already obtained all the information she needed on who will be operating on their 'case', and then all she had to do was figure out a countermeasure.
The easiest method would have been to turn them over to her side, and it seemed like a good idea on the surface, considering officer Mark's past link with them.
However, as she looked through their records, she realized that would have been a very risky endeavour. Although they pretended to be diligent and dutiful on the surface, the way they abandoned 'hopeless' cases such as the one of the paralyzed girl showed their inherent hypocrisy.
How could she bet everything on the whims of these worms?
Although it wasn't as if her family would really get into major trouble if she ignored this, their reputation would definitely suffer. And after following the business trends for a while, Emilia already realized how important it was for a large corporation to maintain a good public image.
It wasn't that corporations with a poor reputation couldn't prosper, however. It was just that the way valuation worked in this world meant that those with a good reputation could prosper much further. This was simply based on the future growth that people see from investing in them, driving their stocks up higher than they should actually be.
And White Deer corporation was precisely one such entity. Currently, the difference between the White Deer and Black Tiger corporations was around 35% in terms of valuation, but the actual difference between their real liquid assets and properties was already almost negligible.
Of course, this valuation could be converted into true liquid assets by selling their shares, but that would be the same as cutting off their own flesh to sate their hunger.
This difference in valuation stemmed from the fact that people saw a brighter future in the clean and open White Deer, and felt safer investing in them than they did with Black Tiger. In case that ever changed, the tables would certainly flip.
This is why Emilia felt it was crucial for them to preserve White Deer's image. As a corporation with a good reputation, they can't afford to have it tarnished, or the losses they would suffer would put them just low enough for Black Tiger to be able to trample on them.
Once she determined that cooperating with the police was out of the question, that meant that she would have to strike back against them so hard that they never think of taking her on ever again.
Mobilizing almost the entire strength of her father's company, she finally came up with two final solutions, one of which was the paralyzed girl Michelle's case which had been badly mishandled by the officers, and the other was the jackpot.
Although the Michelle's case would be enough to get the job done, so to speak, the jackpot that was the child trafficking case would not only shield them from future harm, but Emilia expected it to bring in plentiful harvests.
And to top it all off, she could also feel good about it.
However, it was a titanic task that they barely managed to pull off in time, even though she contacted her 'father' to make sure they were using a hundred percent of their strength. Thankfully, she still had Michelle's case to fall back on if they hadn't pulled it off in time, or else she would have lost half her hair from worry.
"Idiot Emilia. You can't go bald."
"I will… thanks to you."
==========
"Did you get shot? Did you even get fucking punched? Then why the fuck did you give that signal?! What the in the fucking hell were you thinking? You morons!"
Morgan and Mark kept their heads down as they grit their teeth.
The moustached white haired man in front of them was heavily sweating as he kept walking back and forth.
"All you had to do was question them politely, make a report, and come back. But now that you've made this mess, what the hell am I supposed to even do? Do you know whose call I received today? Do you?"
As they hesitantly shook their head, the old police chief slammed his fist on the table with a resounding boom.
"The fucking governor! That's who! You know what? I'm done with you two. Put down your badge and firearm on the table, and—"
However, the door swung open unannounced at this moment as two tall men in black suits entered while flashing their IDs.
"Not so fast, chief. Your department will now be undergoing an audit, and no records can be manipulated or destroyed, and no employees can be fired until the audit is over."
"What the f—"
