As soon as they arrived at the office, Todd guided Zen to the most prominent seat.

“I won’t refuse.”

Zen sat down with a thud as if it was a familiar place, crossed his legs, and said to Todd and the employees who were still standing:

“Sit down. We can’t talk while standing, can we?”

“Yes.”

As Todd sat down, the other employees followed suit.

Zen casually asked the employees who were only watching cautiously:

“I don’t like wasting time, so I’ll ask directly. What do you think about Baem’s future currently?”

“Pardon?”

Suddenly such a deep question? People were dumbfounded.

Displeased by this, Zen shot them a sharper glare and said:

“I said I don’t like wasting time. Or what? Don’t you want to make money?”

At Zen’s subtle threat, the employees immediately thought:

‘This person is an investor.’

It was the presence they had been waiting for. The employees hurriedly opened their mouths.

“Of course, we think it’s bright.”

“On what grounds?”

They hesitated for a moment, then mentioned humanity’s history of challenging the automotive technology industry, the discovery of more stable fuel unlike the past, and technology differentiated from transportation methods that have appeared so far.

“Do those reasons prove this company’s future?”

“We wanted to say that automobiles are not something that will disappear after a momentary trend. And since we possess the most excellent technology in this industry, naturally…”

“For that, the current technology seems quite lacking.”

Zen said with a sneer. The factory manager opened his lips, sweating coldly.

“Even now, it’s not that insufficient.”

“Really? The vibration of the body, noise, speed, not a single thing is satisfactory.”

“But the technology of other foreign companies-”

“Is Baem satisfied with just not falling behind other companies?”

Only small sighs escaped from their open mouths, with neither a denial nor an affirmation.

“Let’s acknowledge what needs to be acknowledged. Currently, the biggest rival in this business is people’s perception.”

People have always distrusted unfamiliar things. Moreover, Baem’s cars didn’t have such great advantages to overcome their various shortcomings.

“Everything newly born is bound to be lacking. I acknowledge that too. But in the end, things that succeeded had a breakthrough technological leap enough to change people’s perceptions.”

“…”

“But has Baem really had any great technological leaps since its foundation?”

At that moment, Eugene, the core technology development manager who had been silently listening to everything, opened his mouth.

“I fully understand why you’re saying this, but development is impossible without investment.”

Eugene tried to speak politely, but couldn’t completely hide his frustration. His colleagues who had been observing him for a long time looked back and forth between Eugene and Zen, whom Eugene was staring at intently, with expressions that seemed to say ‘oh no’.

“So, are you saying that currently Baem doesn’t have the capital to invest in technology development?”

As Zen said with a crooked smile, the employees’ gazes turned to Todd. Todd remained still, seemingly unbothered by his rude remarks.

“Ah. Well. You need overwhelmingly high sales to invest in technology. But Baem’s current sales are just so-so, and Baem is even slow-handed with a backlog of orders, isn’t it?”

“We can’t compromise on production speed.”

Todd, who seemed like he would keep his mouth shut like a rock no matter what insult he received, opened his mouth. However, his voice wasn’t any more excited than usual.

“With this kind of production speed, you’ll only be producing the current model until the end of next year.”

“As I mentioned before, we plan to expand production scale by acquiring other factories and hiring more employees.”

Zen chuckled and lazily counted on his fingers as he spoke:

“Then investment in factory expansion, investment in employee wages, and it will even take time.”

“It can’t be helped.”

Zen, who had been quietly staring into Todd’s eyes, slowly smiled bitterly.

“So I…”

His voice, mixed with a dull sigh, spread like smoke. Instead of finishing his sentence, Zen closed his eyes tightly and took a breath.

“I’ll give you a week.”

Zen opened his eyes again. Those eyes that had been looking at them mockingly were nowhere to be seen.

“Bring an investment plan that even someone like me, no, someone even more prickly than me, would find appealing enough. If you don’t get investment this time, it’s best to think that Baem is finished.”

Zen left the office with those words. The air outside was worse, so he couldn’t even take a refreshing deep breath, but it didn’t matter.

‘A factory…’

Zen looked around and unfolded the map in his head of this place.

‘That factory was a clothing factory.’

Zen carefully observed the factory to the east of Baem’s factory. Although black smoke wasn’t rising as much as here, thick gray smoke was also billowing up and covering the sky over there.

Probably, even if you just go near that factory, the unique smell of chemicals will sting your nose. All the employees will be moving like emotionless wooden puppets, covering their mouths with cloth. Holding back their coughs, that is.

‘You must have been in a place like that too.’

It was heartbreaking. It was obvious how Deborah, who thought she wasn’t diligent despite being damn diligent, would have worked.

At that moment, Todd, who appeared belatedly after talking with the employees, said:

“Are you leaving right away?”

“I have to if I want to catch the train.”

“You’ve been pushing yourself hard lately. How about resting nearby today and moving tomorrow?”

“No need.”

Zen preferred to see Deborah’s face for about 3 minutes at home rather than sleeping for three hours here.

As Zen got into the car, Todd, who followed him in, said:

“They said they would definitely send it within a week.”

“Well. I’ve never seen a decent proposal come out of an office that smells of alcohol.”

Zen said, raising one corner of his mouth.

“Do you intend not to tell them until the end?”

Todd omitted a lot in his words, but Zen understood immediately.

The employees believe that Todd is the young businessman who bought all the technology and employees of a failing car company with money, but Todd only lent his name, and the real boss was Zen.

“There’s no need for that.”

Zen answered like that and looked out the window. Then, remembering Deborah who was constantly looking at the scenery beyond the car window sometime ago, he muttered again.

“There’s no need for that…”

The chandelier was boasting its brilliant light in the dark banquet hall.

The singer with the highest price tag in the central region was singing an opera piece in luxurious attire. It was a heart-wrenching love song that could easily give up one’s only life and still have more to spare.

“Yawn.”

At that moment when the song reached its climax, Bellus yawned. Eric asked him as he wiped away the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes with his finger.

“Are you bored?”

“A little.”

Eric raised his hand. The singer who had been singing hurriedly closed her mouth. The servants who had been standing like decorations on the wall uniformly drew the curtains. Then, the deep sunset rushed in.

“Entertaining you is no easy task.”

As Eric said, there weren’t many times when Bellus felt joy.

He was a little excited when he created the Chelsea Club, or when he started a loan shark business with gambling addicts, but he lost interest in all of them just a few days later.

“So, what do you think?”

Eric pointed to one of the maids with his finger. A fairly pretty woman with black hair was bowing her head nervously.

“How about enjoying her instead of what you left in Astrian?”

“…Do you think I would have left a woman in Astrian?”

Bellus replied without taking his eyes off the maid. Satisfied with this reaction, Eric smiled and said:

“It doesn’t make sense that a handsome man like you lived alone.”

“Too bad. I really was alone.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I just slept like crazy. While cursing my damn situation.”

Bellus suddenly stood up and lifted the maid’s chin with his fingertip. Barely twenty years old, the young maid glanced at Bellus’s face and quickly lowered her eyes.

“I hope she becomes a small gift to comfort your situation.”

As he heard Eric’s voice, Bellus stared intently at the maid’s face.

A slightly trembling face flushed pink, large eyes, black hair, a nice fragrance, a slim and petite figure. Everything was pretty. But it wasn’t what Bellus wanted.

“Do you think I was alone because I couldn’t find something like this?”

“Huh?”

Bellus dropped the maid’s face and said with a grin:

“I’m quite disappointed, Eric.”

“Bellus. Don’t misunderstand. I really just wanted to comfort you.”

As Eric quickly made excuses, Bellus shrugged.

“Comfort? You, me?”

Eric’s slightly open mouth closed tightly. Bellus smiled coldly, narrowing his eyes.

“I didn’t mean to offend you. Really.”

“Eric. You don’t need to make excuses like that. I’m not that angry. Really. You know I wouldn’t be smiling like this if I were angry, right?”

Bellus picked up his coat and walked out the door.

“Bellus!”

Eric called his name, but Bellus didn’t look back. Watching Bellus completely ignore him as if he couldn’t hear his voice, Eric gritted his teeth.

‘It’s damn hard to please him!’

Eric had always tried. Even now, didn’t he make every effort to please Bellus because he wanted to have a private audience with Bellus’s grandfather, no, his brother?

But Bellus was playing above Eric just by being born into a good family. Why is life so unfair?

“Haa…”

Eric was frustrated. Where are there nobles these days who aren’t frustrated…