Chapter 279. Shareholders’ Meeting (7)

After he had finished getting ready, Lee Eun-Ho and Yul prepared to leave.

“We’ll be back soon,” Eun-Ho said.

“I’ll be right back, Daddy!” Yul shouted in reply.

They took off, leaving streaks across the sky like fading contrails. Ayasa and Han-Wool remained behind, seeing them off.

The man with an unremarkable face bowed politely. “You’ve been working hard.”

“Hard? You have no idea. I’ve been stuck babysitting that idiot Crow brat.” Ayasa exhaled a slow stream of smoke, her cigarette hanging loosely between her fingers. The man dipped his head again, but she merely glanced at him through the haze. “That kid earlier, Yurin or Yorin or whatever, how old is she?”

“Ah, her name is just Yul,” Han-Wool replied quickly. “She’s a bit small for her age, but she’s five.”

Whether the girl was small or big for her age didn’t matter to Ayasa. What surprised her was something else entirely.

She muttered more to herself than to anyone else, “An invisibility ability at that age?”

Usually, such abilities awakened in assassins or people who had been pushed to the brink of death.

Han-Wool seemed to brush it off. “She always liked playing hide-and-seek.”

Of course, Ayasa didn’t take that at face value. Abilities didn’t awaken just because someone liked something.

More likely, the girl had been in a life-or-death situation, leading to her survival instinct manifesting as invisibility.

“Well, whatever.” What she wanted to know was something else. “Do you know why he took her?”

“Uh... No. I don’t,” Han-Wool admitted.

“Do you at least know where he took her?”

“He just said he was going to meet some bad people...”

The man in front of her was completely useless...

Ayasa shook her head in disbelief and blew a long sigh of smoke straight into Han-Wool’s face. “If someone says they’re taking your five-year-old daughter somewhere, you should be grilling them for answers. Why didn’t you ask anything?”

He coughed for a moment before managing to respond, “Because Yul wanted to go.”

What a stupid answer.

Ayasa clicked her tongue, thinking he was exactly the kind of foolish father to give such a reply. “So if she wants to go, you’d send her all the way to hell too?”

“This is the kind of world we live in,” he said calmly.

“And that means you can just raise her however you want?”

“No. It means I’ll teach her everything I can, so that she can survive in a world like this.” Han-Wool shook his head, adding quietly, “Just because she’s a child... no, because she’s a child, she needs to grow stronger.”

It was a bitter sentiment, yet his face didn’t look bitter at all. If anything, there was a sense of clarity, something that only came after long and difficult contemplation.

Seeing that expression reminded Ayasa of a comrade she had lost long ago.

She pulled out another cigarette and turned away. “You’re being sentimental. Go on.”

“Oh, I’ll wait here until Chairman and Yul come back,” Han-Wool said.

“What? How long do you think that’ll take?”

“He said he’d be back soon.”

Right. Suit yourself.

Ayasa shook her head again, unable to understand the thought process of fools like him.

Just as she was about to walk off, she suddenly froze.

“Huh?” The cigarette slipped from her fingers and dropped to the ground. “Wait, what the hell are they doing?!”

A giant crow soared through the sky. Atop it, Lee Eun-Ho and Kim Yul were fading from sight, vanishing as if swallowed by a game of hide-and-seek.

“They’re flying just fine. What’s wrong?” Han-Wool asked, confused.

Yes, they are flying just fine but...

“Sector two.”

“Pardon?”

“The place where the shareholders gather.” What made Ayasa frown wasn’t their speed or their condition. It was the direction the Crow was heading. “That’s not the right way.”

“What?”

***

The scene returned to the snow-lashed castle deep within the blizzard-covered mountains. Eun-Ho brushed the thick layer of snow off his clothes as he stepped inside. Without waiting for permission, he casually dropped into an empty seat.

The major shareholders exchanged incredulous glances, their telepathic voices overlapped in a flurry.

“Since when was that bastard here?!” one of them demanded.

“He just came in through the window. He was so fast I almost thought I imagined it,” another replied.

“I knew it. I did sense something.”

At first, they were stunned. Then, as the shock faded, irritation took its place.

“How did that insolent brat even find this place?!”

It wasn’t exactly a top-secret that a meeting of major shareholders was held in the Eternal Snowy Mountains. With nearly a thousand attendants following them around the clock, fully hiding their movements was nearly impossible.

It wouldn’t have been strange if he had picked up the information somewhere, like a rat sniffing out scraps.

“He’s got a death wish, doesn’t he?”

The real problem was that he had come knowing they were all gathered here. That meant he believed he could walk out of this place alive.

“You, you!”

As if to prove it, Eun-Ho acted without the slightest hint of restraint. He pulled a teacup from the empty seat before him and set it down before himself, then casually popped one of the Stamina-recovery snacks on the table into his mouth.

“Who said you could eat that?!”

“It’s a bit bland,” Eun-Ho said after chewing. “Don’t you have anything with chocolate?”

“C-chocolate?!”

Outraged voices erupted, some asking if he thought this was a shop, others shouting to drag him out immediately. Yet Eun-Ho didn’t budge.

“What should we do?”

“Perhaps this works in our favor. Didn’t he walk straight into the tiger’s den on his own?”

“That may be true, but do you have a plan?”

“I’ll make sure he can’t move an inch. Use that time to pry into his intentions.”

After a series of forced coughs echoed around the room, one of the shareholders finally stepped forward. “You insolent wretch!”

The middle-aged man of short stature with dark skin was the so-called King of the Underworld. As the tenth-largest shareholder, he had barely secured his position with a mere one percent stake.

“Do you even know what kind of place you’ve barged into?”

Despite his small frame, his muscles were powerfully developed. His skin, dark and hardened, could pass for stone. The sheer pressure he exuded made it clear he was far beyond ordinary humans.

[Weight of the Underworld - Release]

A murky, suffocating aura burst forth.

Sss—

Then, a pale gray haze flooded the space, pressing down as if to crush everything within.

“Heh, are you trying to crush the acting chairman to death?”

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

The heavy smoke bore down on like a soaked rag wrung tight, and even the seated shareholders felt their skin prickle under the chilling killing intent hidden within it.

“What kind of place is this supposed to be?”

Yet, Eun-Ho remained completely unaffected.

“I asked what kind of place this is,” he repeated calmly, raising his eyes with a faintly arrogant tilt. “A place where I’m apparently not even allowed to show my face.”

“We are gathered here for the prosperity of the company—”

“That happens to be my top priority as well,” Eun-Ho cut in smoothly. “The company’s prosperity.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m the acting chairman, aren’t I?” he flashed them a faint smile. “Why don’t we discuss it together?”

He even had the audacity to make the suggestion.

“He’s fine after that?!”

“A mere mortal enduring the Weight of the Underworld... Just how resilient is he?!”

That wasn’t all.

Eun-Ho’s expression shifted, turning chillingly sharp. “That’s a strange technique you’re using.”

Slurp—

With a grotesque sound, the thick, oppressive aura was sucked into the King of the Underworld’s earlobe. It was as if an invisible black hole had opened there, swallowing everything whole.

[Your demonic energy has been depleted.]

[Consuming Stamina to generate additional energy.]

The tenth-largest shareholder was utterly dumbfounded. His vast reserves of demonic energy, as deep as the sea, had been drained dry.

“You bastard! What trick did you pull!” he roared.

The other major shareholders also exchanged silent glances.

As if oblivious to what others did, Eun-Ho simply gestured to the maid waiting behind him with a teapot, saying casually, “Pour me a cup as well.”

The poor maid froze, unable to move forward or step back, caught in an impossible situation. “Ah, w-well, I...”

“Oh.” Following her gaze, Eun-Ho let out a quiet sound and curled his lips into a faint smile. Then, without hesitation, he set the teacup back down. “So you’re the third-largest shareholder. The Master of the Snowy Mountains.”

“And you,” he added, glancing elsewhere, “the one with the dark skin, are you going to keep going?”

It was as if neither the tea nor the pointless clash of power had ever been his real objective.

The enraged tenth shareholder kicked off the ground and lunged forward, but he froze solid before he could take another step. “You insolent—”

“Oh,” Eun-Ho murmured softly.

It was far too casual a reaction for someone who had just witnessed the leader of the opposing side subdue an enemy without even lifting a finger.

“Ha, just as I heard. You’re quite the sharp one.” The Master of the Snowy Mountains finally said. His hearty laughter didn’t match the cold-blooded act of freezing his own ally moments ago. “Very well. What brings you all the way out here?”

It was unclear whether he meant why Eun-Ho had come or how he had managed to get here.

“I’ll be the one asking the questions.” Eun-Ho had no intention of answering either. “What is it you want?”

“Hmm. What we want, you ask?”

“There must be a reason why our esteemed shareholders feel the need to meddle in the appointment of a chairman.”

Meddle?

The audacity of that word twisted the shareholders’ expressions instantly.

“My lord, don’t fall for it! He couldn’t have heard what we discussed before he entered!”

“That’s right. Just deny everything.”

However, Eun-Ho didn’t seem inclined to wait patiently for an answer.

“The newly appointed chairman holds the rotten belief that company funds should be wasted on employee welfare. Therefore, we intend to immediately replace him with a more suitable candidate,” he recited it aloud with effortless precision, word for word.

It was the exact message the third shareholder had sent in the invitation to the others.

“How does he know that?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? The invitation must have been leaked!”

“Fifth! You were carrying it around! Did you lose it somewhere?!”

“What? It wasn’t me!”

“You should’ve left it in your office instead of waving it around! I knew this would happen.”

The Master of the Snowy Mountains cut off the chaotic telepathic chatter that had devolved into a mess. “Enough.”

“In that case, let’s simplify things,” Eun-Ho said. “You’re worried that improving employee welfare will hurt the company’s profitability. Is that it?”

“That’s correct.”

“You’re quite confident about that.”

“A company exists to generate profit. As shareholders, I believe our demands are entirely reasonable,” replied the Master of the Snowy Mountains firmly.

They were simply protecting what they had invested for profit. It was a shareholder’s right, one no one could easily refute. At least, that was what they thought.

He’s smiling?

Eun-Ho smiled. It was not a mocking smirk but a genuine, almost delighted laugh, as if things were unfolding exactly as he had hoped.

The Snowy Mountains Master’s voice sank heavily. “Ha. It seems our acting chairman finds this situation amusing.”

“M-my lord!”

A violent blizzard surged. The mountain shook as darkness swallowed the world beyond the windows. An avalanche roared toward the castle, shaking it to its core.

“Of course I do,” Eun-Ho said.

At that moment, demonic energy burst forth from him.

“T-this is?!”

It was the very same Weight of the Underworld that the tenth shareholder had unleashed earlier. The suffocating pressure, mixed with the choking stench of death, flooded the space in an instant.

“Keugh!”

A sinister, pitch-black haze spread rapidly. The shareholders hastily raised their defenses, while one covered their nose and mouth with flowing, water-like hair.

Amid the chaos, Eun-Ho alone stood upright and called out two individuals, “The fifth shareholder of Sector Four and the eighth shareholder of Sector Three.”

The two who had just been accusing each other of leaking the invitation now stood equally exposed before him.

“You might want to tighten your office security,” Eun-Ho said.

They had shared the same documents and were invited to the same meeting. They had also left their offices at the same time.

“W-what?!”

“What are you talking about?!”

Dividend Records(Confidential).

“Thanks to you, I was able to confirm everything. I even cross-checked it,” Eun-Ho said calmly.

The shouting shareholders fell silent like mute fools. Why was a confidential document, one that should have been locked safely in an office vault, fluttering in Eun-Ho’s hand?

“H-how?”

The fifth and eighth shareholders locked eyes midair. There was a growing sense of something terribly wrong.

“This doesn’t match the company’s official records at all,” Eun-Ho said with another smile.

“W-well, that’s—”

“Why? Do you really think I came all this way just to see your faces?”

A chill ran through the room.

The dividend records were the shareholders’ long-hidden secret, the very reason they wanted a chairman who served their interests. Holding them, Eun-Ho regarded them coldly.