Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Objection!
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In the end, they agreed to provide prime brokerage services using the cash in my account as collateral.
As expected, scamming by borrowing someone else's name is the easiest thing ever.
No, strictly speaking, this isn't a scam—it's me reclaiming my rightful claim.
Those street-punk bastards.
Using Mesui like whipping out a gun whenever things get dicey feels a little prickly. Actually, it's way past "a little"—my conscience could use a full shave. But who cares.
As long as I can pull Harumi out of this hellhole, I'll do whatever it takes. Call me a leech who clings to women or trash who exploits them—I couldn't give less of a damn.
Mesui's the type who goes nuts for being put through her paces as an assistant anyway. Once I handle her properly down the line, she'll be plenty satisfied.
This woman's done so much for me already. Time to throw in some proper sow training soon.
Two days later, Tachibana Corporation board meeting.
The vast conference room lay steeped in a heavy silence, chilled to the bone.
An antique oak long oval table bore neatly arranged stacks of reports and gleaming gold nameplates.
Harumi sat huddled at the far end of the table.
The only silver lining was Kamijo Misaki sitting beside the tiny girl.
The seating was blatantly deliberate, screaming to anyone, "You're nothing but uninvited pests." Kenji and the board members across from them made no effort to hide their sneers.
Kenji tapped his fingers rhythmically before speaking. His sleazy voice dripped with venomous mockery.
"Well, well, it's been a while. Our dear niece. Harumi showing up here... Does it mean you're ready to claim Uncle's seat? Or is it just childish greed? If you're confused, feel free to consult me anytime."
Proper etiquette for the occasion, sure—but just a thin veneer over a tone brimming with ridicule. A few directors snorted at his words.
Whether from shame or fury, Harumi's fingertips trembled. She couldn't lift her head. She stole a glance at Misaki, then quickly dropped her gaze to the floor, biting her lip.
Another director adjusted his glasses and chimed in.
"Miss, you'd do well to heed Director Kenji's advice."
Laughter rippled through again—this time, not light. Sly contempt lurked behind decorous smiles. Harumi bowed her head even lower. Her straight hair, unbound for the formal setting instead of pigtails, draped over her face, but she couldn't hide the quiver at the edge of her tightly pressed lips.
"Ah~ It's fine. Kids sneak into adults' turf to play sometimes. With a toy in tow, even."
He meant the lawyer beside her. Low, subdued snickers followed.
At that moment, the man standing behind Kenji shifted his stance, and the mildly rowdy room fell instantly silent.
Everyone gathered here knew it full well.
Real power lay not with Kenji, but with the silver-haired man standing ramrod straight behind him—Kurogami Ryoma, his right-hand brain.
A middle-aged man of chilling charisma who had appeared out of nowhere, propping up the illegitimate Kenji to seize control of the company's vacancies.
Thud!
In that instant, Misaki snapped her document binder shut and fired back coldly.
"Is the Tachibana board's agenda today mocking someone far younger than yourselves?"
Silence descended. A few directors' faces stiffened; even Kenji's brow furrowed briefly.
Harumi's shoulders twitched. In an even tinier voice, she murmured,
"B-Because of me... You don't have to... step in...."
Faint laughter echoed from a corner of the room.
Misaki didn't flinch, pressing on toward the directors.
"We're here to discuss shares. Spare us the irrelevant chatter."
Kamijo's curt, razor-sharp retort. The room's laughter cut off abruptly.
Kenji lifted his chin with exaggerated airs.
"Shares? What shares does our niece even have? Frozen ones, aren't they?"
Harumi drew a desperate breath, mustering courage, and squeezed out a tiny voice.
"Y-Yes... but I have shares too! M-Mother's 20%...!"
Her words trailed off in a tremble. A brief silence gripped the room before cynical laughter erupted.
"Impressive. 20%, no less."
Some shook their heads openly, sighing in disdain. Twenty percent was substantial, but it wasn't formally inherited yet—and above all, Ryoma loomed behind Kenji.
He was the man who'd wrested her father's shares through some shadowy ploy. No way they'd left her mother alive for nothing.
If they snatched her mother's shares too, as the board suspected via some special maneuver, Tachibana Corporation was finished.
Thus, Harumi's claim to that un-inherited 20% posed zero threat to them.
"And participating in management requires far more experience, I'd say."
Harumi's face burned crimson as she stammered onward, but her choked voice shrank back into itself.
"...I... I can do it... too...."
Yet her whisper drowned instantly in the directors' sneers.
"Time to rush that 4P sex prelim quest."
I slapped both hands on my hips and puffed out my chest for all I was worth.
The so-called "Superman pose"—supposedly great for salarymen facing big meetings or high-stakes tension after a drink. Human postures hold some weird power; just sticking your chest out eases nerves and amps up confidence, they say.
Pretty fascinating stuff.
Bang!
I threw open the door to the boardroom mid-meeting. A long table dominated the center; Kenji lorded over the head seat, Harumi huddled at the foot.
Brr, freezing.
"You all must run hot."
The AC was cranked way too low, turning the air into an icebox.
Looking closer, I spotted padded vests peeking from inside their suit jackets. These pricks knew Harumi was coming and set this up on purpose. Cold plus tension leaves anyone powerless.
"Who the hell are you? Know where you are, barging in like that?"
Suits lined both sides of the table, faces blank as masks. Their stares converged on the chairman's seat, where Kenji drummed the armrest.
"What, that lawyer's errand boy from before? Internship gig? This is a board meeting—scram."
Kenji yapping away, no clue what was coming for him.
"What the hell's security and the secretariat doing?"
A guy shot me a glare and spoke up. Nameplate read CFO Executive Director.
"Uninvited guests should leave. Now."
The legal advisor piled on. Name? Didn't matter. They'd be stripped of those nameplates soon enough. By me.
I ignored them and plunked down in an empty seat at the table's end. Standing makes you a gatecrasher; sitting subtly claims a participant's spot.
Kenji snorted at me casually taking the seat beside Harumi.
"Should I demand ejection for disrupting the meeting?"
I shrugged and spat out what I came to say. No point dirtying my mouth bantering with vermin.
"H-Harumi.... H-Hehe. You came? I-I was trying so hard...."
Trembling voice.
"You did great, miss. Take five."
Pat pat.
I flashed an awkward grin and gently stroked Harumi's head as she clutched my sleeve tight. She beamed back, but her face wasn't its usual bright, bubbly self. Lips turned blue, shivering hard—and sweating bullets from the nerves on top of it all.
Yet draped over her shoulders was a thin cardigan wildly different from her suit—a stark contrast. The woman in a suit matching the cardigan's hue raised her voice again.
"There's no such crime as 'disrupting a meeting.'"
The lady lawyer stood tall, chest out, rebutting in a frosty tone. Kamijo Misaki. This had to be her cardigan. Her own lips were bluish, shoulders quivering faintly. Freezing her ass off, yet she'd given it up to shield Harumi.
Classic tsundere.
Growing on me more by the second.
"Ah~ Whatever. Looks like you're here for some internship crap. Hurry it up and get lost."
I planned to wrap this quick too—before Harumi froze solid.
Bang!
I slammed the desk and flipped Kenji the bird.
"Objection!"
Something I'd always wanted to try.
"What the fu—"
The guy in the blue suit's crude gesture shocked the entire board into condemnation, but I just grinned and popped open my briefcase.
Click—
White paper. Seals. Red wax.
The inky scent of official Japanese documents wafted through the room.
"Wh-What're you pulling out?"
"See for yourself."
Flick!
With a wrist snap, I slid the document stack down the full length of the table. Utterly rude to the head seat... but hey? The man who ought to be sitting there wasn't Kenji anyway.
Check it with your own eyes.
What's written there.