Chapter 305
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 305
Chapter Title: It's Your Turn to Prove It.
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In exchange for purchasing Rimon.
She offered her clan's entire fortune.
Ekaterina stared at the Golden Princess, who spoke without a hint of hesitation, her face utterly dumbfounded.
"Charlotte, have you lost your mind?"
If a girl like this was saying something like that, it meant things were over in every sense.
Yet the other princesses couldn't say a word because they were all looking at Charlotte with eyes full of doubt about her mental state.
But Charlotte remained utterly calm.
"Why the shock? I'm merely assigning a fair price to the merchandise."
"A fair price? Your clan's entire fortune?"
"It has that much value to the Sword Duke. Especially since what he possesses isn't just some ordinary eighth Dragon Cyonic."
"......"
"Besides, that pittance can just be earned back."
The Seven Dragon Group.
Even among them, Fafnir reigned supreme in terms of financial power.
Yet not only did she dismiss their entire fortune—including all shares—as mere pocket change.
She openly brought up the very topic all the other princesses had suspiciously avoided mentioning.
Li Chingwei could only give a wry smile as she watched Charlotte.
'As expected of Charlotte.'
No matter how arrogant one might be...
No, the more arrogant they were, the more they feared losing what they had.
Yet Charlotte could make such a bold choice without hesitation because she had absolute confidence in her own abilities.
She believed she could rebuild the world's top corporation anytime she wanted.
Truly the arrogance befitting the Golden Dragon Princess.
But even accounting for that, her caliber was clearly on a different level from the other princesses.
Even Hasneti and Ekaterina, who had been competitively driving up the bids until now, couldn't muster any further offers against this astronomical price.
"How about this?"
Charlotte asked with a noble smile.
From the moment she staked her clan's entire fortune, the winner of this auction was already decided.
And so, in the next instant.
She was left speechless.
"That's not nearly enough for a bargain like that."
"......"
It wasn't just Charlotte who was stunned into silence by Rimon's nonchalant reply.
Aynsha blinked her expressionless eyes, Rose looked utterly enlightened, and even Maia wore a look of sheer disbelief.
Amid Li Chingwei's quiet chuckles.
Ekaterina asked on behalf of all the princesses, her tone begrudging.
"Sword Duke, are you deaf?"
"Isn't that a pretty stupid question to ask someone who's hard of hearing?"
"Then are you senile?"
"Want me to confirm if you've got dementia by spanking that butt of yours a hundred times?"
Having ruled out the two most likely suspects, Ekaterina looked at Rimon with an even more baffled expression.
"And yet you call that a bargain? The entire fortune of the Golden Dragon Clan that Charlotte so confidently declared would end the game?"
"......I never thought it would end the game."
"You still dismissed Charlotte's entire fortune, didn't you?"
Was she protesting.
Or just seizing the chance to tease Charlotte.
No matter how passionately Ekaterina pressed him, Rimon didn't change his attitude.
He merely snorted as if she'd asked something obvious.
"What does the Golden Dragon Clan's fortune matter? It's pocket change compared to my actual worth."
"Pocket change......"
"I don't even have that much. I'm broke. Shocking."
Rose let out a groan at his absurd words, while Aynsha muttered to herself like a broken doll.
There was no way they could afford him if even the Golden Dragon Clan's entire assets fell short.
Wanting to buy something but lacking the funds.
For these women, born into the Iron Age and raised as the world's richest from birth, this was a shocking first-time experience.
"No more chatter."
Even amid the chaos, Hasneti didn't twitch an eyebrow.
She fixed Rimon with her blood-red eyes, now coldly sunken, and spoke in a gravelly voice.
"If you're not planning to sell yourself for money, then state what you want."
If he dismissed even the Golden Dragon Clan's fortune, no princess in the Seven Dragon Society could buy him with cash.
So what Rimon wanted from the start must be something other than money.
A cool-headed judgment.
A sharp question.
But Rimon's response was as if she'd said something ridiculous.
"I am planning to sell myself for money, though?"
"......"
Hasneti fell silent, having inadvertently spouted nonsense in all seriousness.
Meanwhile, Maia, who had been watching Rimon and Li Chingwei with arms crossed, suddenly wore a cold sneer.
She knew what he wanted.
And what he planned to do.
Having investigated Rimon more deeply than anyone except Li Chingwei, she alone could sense it from his personality.
"Does that mean the price is the issue?"
"I already said it. I'm not selling for a bargain."
"Then what amount would satisfy you?"
"You want me to name a price first?"
"In an auction, it's the seller who sets the starting bid."
"Hm, fair point."
Perhaps because only Maia seemed to grasp it so far.
Rimon chuckled.
Still propping his chin with one hand, he looked down at them and stated what he considered the bare minimum fair price.
"About 51% of your shares. It'd be a bit short, but maybe the floor price?"
"......?"
In that moment.
Aynsha tilted her head expressionlessly.
100% was obviously more than 51%, so why lower the condition?
She couldn't make sense of it.
'Tata, do you know what this......'
Wondering if there was some special calculation she didn't know, Aynsha turned to Tata for advice—and flinched.
For some reason, Tata wore an expression of utter shock.
It wasn't just Tata.
The other princesses present.
The Seven Dragon Guards and retainers from each clan.
All of them stared at Rimon with eyes practically bulging out, on the verge of rolling onto the floor.
Amid them.
Charlotte quietly spoke up.
"To obtain you, you're saying we must hand over a majority controlling stake in our Seven Dragon Group?"
"Yeah."
"......!"
Aynsha's chin dropped with a thunk, her face blank.
Fafnir, Bahamut, Jörmungandr, Quetzalcoatl, Tiamat, Apophis, Leviathan.
The seven holding companies at the core of the Seven Dragon Society—known as the Seven Dragon Enterprises, the world's largest conglomerates.
Only then did she realize Rimon was demanding half the shares in all of them.
And that meant...
"In other words, you're telling us to hand over the entire Seven Dragon Society to you?"
"It has to be at least that much to balance the scales."
"......You arrogant fool."
"That's surprising. I thought this was already a pretty steep discount."
Perhaps finding it amusing to be called arrogant by the Golden Dragon Princess.
Rimon snickered.
"Your goal from the start was to return the world to an era ruled by dragons."
"Committing crimes for centuries and amassing vast fortunes was all for that end."
"So I'm giving you a chance to put that money to proper use for your beliefs."
Opportunities to buy your utopia with cash don't come around often.
As he grinned and spoke.
Rimon suddenly wiped the smile away.
Looking at them with a chilling gaze unlike before, he continued.
"You're not saying it's fine to commit crimes and kill for your utopia, but too expensive to spend the money, right?"
For some reason.
It wasn't laced with killing intent.
Nor infused with pressure.
Yet those golden eyes were so deep and heavy that the princesses who met his gaze instinctively stiffened.
Even Charlotte.
Even Maia, who roughly grasped his intentions, felt a chill run down her spine.
The exceptions were two.
Li Chingwei, smiling faintly, and the straightest-backed princess in the Seven Dragon Society.
"I have a question."
The blue-haired woman who never hesitated to spend for her beliefs, unmoved even by stern glares.
Rimon nodded at Rose.
"Go ahead, Countess."
"Did you just phrase that condition as a roundabout rejection? Or were you sincere?"
"Of course I was sincere."
"Then why propose an impossible condition?"
"Why is this impossible?"
As if he genuinely didn't understand.
After staring at the innocently questioning Rimon for a moment.
Rose sighed and spoke.
"There are two ways for us to fulfill your proposal. Everyone pooling a bit of their shares......"
"Or seizing shares from other clans."
"......Neither is realistic."
51% of the entire Seven Dragon Society's shares.
That would require at least a majority of clans to pour in most of their controlling stakes.
And from that point, Rimon's proposal lost all feasibility.
No princess would ever willingly yield shares to another clan in the first place.
Especially not now, with all of them vying for Rimon.
Moreover, given the Seven Dragon Group's structure where princesses monopolized shares, seizing stakes from other firms was equally difficult.
In short, Rimon's proposal bordered on the impossible.
And even if they somehow secured those shares, other issues remained.
"Above all, gaining 51% would make you the de facto owner of the Seven Dragon Society."
Of course, he'd only get the shell.
No matter the shares held.
He couldn't freely command the true core—the elites of each clan.
But sometimes, the shell alone could be a treasure.
If Rimon, already unmatched in personal might, also gained the Seven Dragon Society's wealth and power?
He would become an absolute being once more.
Whether against the eight monarchs or seven princesses.
No one could defy him.
"Even if we revive the Ancestor, we'd be unable to do anything without your permission."
To create the utopia the Seven Dragon Society dreamed of, they needed to revive the dragons.
But yielding a majority stake for that would mean they couldn't even dream of utopia until they persuaded or defeated Rimon.
Even if they built it, they'd constantly have to watch his mood.
"Frankly, from our standpoint, accepting a condition where we hand over majority control is too much."
"Yeah, I suppose so."
Pooling shares was hard enough.
The aftermath was no small matter either.
So it was natural for Rose to point out that he'd deliberately set an impossible condition.
"But Countess, that's not my problem."
"......You're saying you won't change your demands?"
"I've already given you the chance. Now it's your turn to prove yourselves."
"Prove what?"
"What else."
After a smirk.
Still propping his chin with one hand, Rimon murmured lowly.
"Obviously, prove you have what it takes to become my bride."
Like a princess who, rather than unwanted arranged marriages, tells her suitors to fetch the moon if they want her hand—and waits.
If they couldn't even meet this condition, they couldn't be his bride.
Stating it flatly.
Gazing down at them nobly.
Seeing the white-haired youth, an impregnable fortress in himself, the princesses—who bore the world's most exalted bloodlines—could do only one thing.
Make the most dumbfounded faces they could muster.
Only then did they realize.
He'd never intended to negotiate with them in the first place.
That proposing this absurd condition was itself a 'test' for them.
......And that they, who had always chosen their consorts at will, were now forced to compete for his selection.