Chapter 9
Chapter 9
When I got home and asked Yang Hye-in for my smartphone, she handed it over, though with great reluctance. As I'd suspected, more than just keeping it safe for me, she'd likely been trying to stop me from using it freely.
Given that it was obviously on the chairwoman's orders, the fact that she gave it back so easily the moment I asked made me feel there was more to the story. Some sort of authority Ye Sa-ra herself hadn't been fully aware of, perhaps.
But even that was a little strange. In just one month, by asking the staff around me, I'd been able to get a rough idea of how much power Ye Sa-ra actually held. If she'd set her mind to it, she probably could have ordered around most of the nearby staff without a problem.
Just how badly, how systematically, had she been gaslit?
Well, I could look into that later. Right now, understanding the maximum extent of the power I could wield was the priority.
"So... market capitalization... Yujin Electronics."
I took my smartphone and flopped onto the bed, rolling around while I typed in the search term one character at a time. Worried I might look up something bizarre, Yang Hye-in stood glued to the side of my bed.
I'd once tried investing in stocks to somehow grow my pitiful paycheck and ended up with nothing but a fifty percent loss. A high market cap doesn't mean a stock only goes up, and a low one doesn't guarantee the company is about to be delisted. Of course, it's also true that companies with higher market caps and more cash assets are less likely to collapse easily.
So back then, in my own way, I'd done a surface-level look into things like market caps, business-group rankings, and the flagship businesses each company pushed.
If you limited the scope to just electronics, the gap between the domestic number one and number two was extreme. From what I recalled, the market cap difference was about 4.5 times, maybe close to 5 times. For reference, number one hovered around roughly 500 trillion won. Number two was just under the 100 trillion mark.
So I naturally figured that the market cap of Yujin Electronics, the largest subsidiary of Yujin Group, would be somewhere around there.
I was wrong.
"So... one, ten, hundred, thousand...?"
While counting the digits of the long string of numbers, I panicked and bolted upright on the bed before I even realized it.
Yujin Group, which in this setting proudly holds the number-one spot in the Republic of Korea's business world.
When I saw it described as the number-one business group in the Republic of Korea, I'd assumed its inspiration was, naturally, that actual number-one group from the real Republic of Korea. The creator had, of course, hammered home that 'all of this is fiction and in no way tied to reality,' but isn't that the same boilerplate most works use?
The one thing I'd overlooked was that the creator had been dead serious about the word 'fiction.'
Yes. In this indie game, the part they called 'fiction' was fiction in the literal sense. Yujin Group was truly a company unlike any that existed in the reality I had lived in.
"Three thousand six hundred... trillion...?"
Three thousand six hundred trillion won.
That was the size of Yujin Group's market capitalization.
"Three thousand six hundred... Three thousand six hundred...?"
My head spun the moment I saw the number.
No, I was pretty sure the biggest computer company in the world was right around this size. Was the inspiration not a Korean company but an American company...?
This is total setting overload! I get wanting to throw in a ridiculously massive chaebol, but how the hell was anyone supposed to win against a chaebol like this!
In the game, Ye Sa-ra ends up shouldering the whole thing—
Oh.
Right. The story only made defeating her possible because Ye Sa-ra shouldered it all herself. The target wasn't Yujin Group as a whole; it was Ye Sa-ra personally.
And in the end, the chairwoman of Yujin Group abandons Ye Sa-ra. After that, she pays no mind to who Yoon Da-ho breaks his engagement with or who he gets engaged to next.
I quickly looked up the other Yujin Group subsidiaries.
Even if you combined all the rest, it barely came out to roughly 200 trillion. Which was still an astronomically huge scale on its own, of course, but Yujin Electronics, this mind-breakingly enormous company, made it all invisible.
Homyeong Electronics, the star performer of Homyeong Group, came in at about one hundred fifty trillion.
This wasn't a gap Homyeong Group could do anything about.
...So that's why he had been that serious about the engagement. Enough to bow his head to me despite being heir to the second-ranked business group in the Republic of Korea.
Though considering all that, he was still a massive prick.
Well, you could chalk that up to him being an immature little brat who still hadn't properly learned how to bow.
I still couldn't figure out why the chairwoman of Yujin Group was so insistent on marrying me off to the crown prince of Homyeong Group.
With other people, digging deeper at least gave me a vague feeling about their thoughts. But the thinking of the current Yujin Group chairwoman, Choi Na-kyung, alone was exceptionally hard to predict.
.......
"Maid."
"Yes, young lady."
Yang Hye-in, who stood right next to me, responded immediately to my call.
"Roughly how much inheritance did I receive?"
"Yes, shares worth about 5.7 percent of the market capitalization."
...Even a simple calculation put that at 205 trillion won. A level of assets that could run a small country for a year. Just hearing it made my head go faint.
"And there is some cash and real estate... but I don't know the exact details of those. I apologize."
"You know at least part of it, even if not all of it, right? What would you say is the single most significant piece of real estate?"
"The most significant piece of real estate is... right here."
Yang Hye-in hesitated briefly, then looked at me staring straight up at her and spoke quietly.
"......."
Ah. So that's how it was.
Now I understood why the staff inside this mansion had no choice but to obey my words.
Though a question still lingered. Normally, when one spouse in a couple dies, the property is divided between the children and the surviving spouse. Unless something special has been laid out in a will, the general rule, according to the search results I'd just pulled up, was the spouse getting 1.5 times the share and the child getting 1.
Let's say Ye Sa-ra's father hadn't actually gotten along with his second wife, and he had known he would die before his own child.
And so, before that, he had secretly set things up to give the important assets to his one and only daughter in advance, behind his spouse's back.
...Even with that, a question still remains. If that were the case, after her husband's death, the current chairwoman would have discovered that every single critical asset had gone to her adoptive daughter. Of course, she can't arbitrarily steal it back, but managing those assets would fall to her as the sole legal guardian. With Ye Sa-ra still a long way from adulthood, she would have had ample time to find some way to handle those assets—
Ah.
...So that's it.
The reason she trapped her adoptive daughter here like this, isolated her from the world, was likely to bring Ye Sa-ra to heel.
To make her so utterly broken, a doll who would act only according to the chairwoman's own words, so that later, when Ye Sa-ra came of age and could exercise her property rights, she could use them in a way favorable to herself.
Was that why she'd looked so satisfied when I called her 'Chairwoman'?
Maybe engaging me to Yoon Da-ho was also some scheme to manipulate Ye Sa-ra. Perhaps even if it meant getting blood on her hands.
It gave me chills.
"Here you go."
"Pardon?"
"I'm done with it."
When I handed the smartphone over, Yang Hye-in took it with a flinch. She slipped it into a pocket on the apron of her maid uniform, seemed to think for a moment, bowed her head in a small bow, and then backed out of the room.
As always, the door closed without a sound.
I lay back on the bed, stretching out comfortably as I thought.
First, let's figure out how to actually use that enormous fortune.
Assets gifted more than ten years before death were separate from the inheritance. If that 5.7 percent stake and the real estate had been transferred to Ye Sa-ra's name a full ten years before his death, then, based on what I'd gathered, they wouldn't be counted among the assets divided in the inheritance process. In that case, it was even harder for the current chairwoman to touch them.
But if I tried to just pull money out of my bank account and spend it, the chairwoman would try to block me by whatever means she could. I couldn't even be sure I could walk into a bank.
...This is a real problem. I know the wealth exists, but I have no way to get to it.
Well, there was still time. I'd take my time and think it over. If Ye Sa-ra's father had been far-sighted, he would've put every possible safeguard in place.
Thinking that, I got up to change my clothes.
*
Whether it was a misfortune or a relief, cars weren't allowed on the school grounds.
So I had to get out at the front gate and walk, a reality that applied equally to everyone, no matter how much money you had. In fact, most of the kids attending Hwayeong High School lived in the area. The school had originally been built in a spot with easy access from the wealthy neighborhoods. So even though the school is full of children with that kind of money, the front of the school rarely ever got jammed with cars.
The reason this was a misfortune: because of the incident right after the entrance ceremony yesterday, I had firmly lodged myself in the other kids' minds. I hadn't been able to get friendly with anyone as it was, and then I'd even ended up fighting in the hallway with a student who was my fiancé. And on top of that, the fiancé in question was a pretty boy who, in due time, would steal the hearts of most of the girls in this school.
Though it was speculation, thanks to adults meddling, my image was already bad. The guy was handsome and rich enough to be everyone's idol, and I wasn't satisfied just being engaged to him—based on what I'd said yesterday, it wouldn't be weird at all for people to think I openly looked down on other students.
And besides—
"Hiiii!"
After seeing me off, the maid Yang Hye-in left, and I was reluctantly making my way inside the school gate when someone slapped me on the back, sending my vision pitching forward.
"Wah, wait!"
The person who had slapped my back let out a shriek and hurriedly grabbed my arm, pulling me close to steady my balance.
"Ah."
But before I could even process that this was the first time in my life a high school girl had hugged my arm, my left arm forcibly reminded me yet again that it had ample reason to be sore since yesterday.
The arm she'd grabbed for support was the very same one Yoon Da-ho had seized yesterday, leaving that bruise.
When I winced, the kid holding my arm recoiled from me, startled.
I narrowed my eyes and looked at her.
...I wasn't glaring. It was purely because she was so bright it hurt my eyes.
"...Yu Ha-neul."
When I said that name, Yu Ha-neul apparently thought I was mad, because she immediately ducked her head low and apologized.
"S-sorry. I ran at you without thinking, didn't I?"
"...No, it's fine."
My back still stung, my heart was pounding from the shock of almost falling forward, and the left arm she'd gripped ached, but among the three, none of it felt severe enough to be dangerous.
"...Really?"
"Yeah."
Only after I gave my sigh-laced answer did Yu Ha-neul rub the back of her head sheepishly.
"Uh, um, so... hi?"
And then she greeted me once again.
I gave Yu Ha-neul a small smile.
"Hi."
"Can I walk with you?"
"Yeah, sure."
When I said that, Yu Ha-neul came and stood beside me, a little calmer than before. Maybe because of what she'd done, she didn't really talk.
After walking a few steps and feeling the awkwardness, I was in the middle of wondering whether I should be the one to speak first.
"U-um."
This time the voice came from the other side.
It was a voice I'd heard before.
When I turned to look, Lee Su-a was standing there, not glowing quite as much as Yu Ha-neul but still giving off a faint light from her face.
Looking a little nervous, Lee Su-a glanced over at Yu Ha-neul standing beside me, and her expression became slightly shocked. Well, I get it, someone standing next to me is a marvel.
But soon she shook her head from side to side and came over to me to ask.
"Can I also walk next to you?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Is standing next to me really a thing you need permission for?
...Mm, now that I think about it, if some random older guy stood quietly at my side without a word, I guess I'd find it intensely creepy.
"Thanks. Oh, and."
As if just now remembering the most important thing, Lee Su-a's face went slightly red as she spoke to me.
"Hi?"
"Hi."
Was she nervous because I was the daughter of the number-one family?
...And then I recalled that the number-one group had a market cap of 3,600 trillion.
Fair enough to be nervous.
"Hi. My name's Yu Ha-neul. Are you Sara's friend?"
"Sara?"
Seeing her friendliness, which could fluster even the Human Capybara, it made me think: yes, the female protagonist really is the female protagonist.
Lee Su-a looked up at my face a little. Her expression seemed to be asking for my permission.
"She's the only kid who took a picture with me at my middle school graduation."
When I said that for her, Lee Su-a's face flushed slightly, but she gave a bright smile.
"Yeah. Right. That's right, we're friends. My name is Lee Su-a."
Well, I guess there's no harm in saying that. 'Friend' isn't something created by mutual agreement anyway.
...Though, of course, if some grandpa I'd met once insisted he was my friend, I'd report him to the police without hesitation.
"Oh yeah? Then we're friends too."
Yu Ha-neul said that and gave a cheeky grin. At least, I thought she did. I couldn't see her that well.
With me in the middle, the two of them lightly shook hands.
Walking along surrounded by people who don't even like you could certainly be called a misfortune.
But, having even one person here I could smile and talk with like this—wasn't that, if anything, a relief compared to sitting in silence in the sterile back seat of a car?
I tried thinking that to myself.