Chapter 481 - What are Friends? (1)

"Let us welcome our heir," the chairman seemed exhausted.

There was no one to applaud me, everyone gone. The illusion collapsed in some areas of the building. Revealing the drabby place with some mold growing from not enough sunlight. I gasped as I didn't realize they were using artificial lights this entire time. The shining marble tiles turned into stone with cracks, the servants appearing like broken robots. Meanwhile the spell had escaped from this room, continuing to destroy everything. The walls were starting to crumble while the employees were busy evacuating to other branches. People with enough mana were placing barriers everywhere they could or fortifying the present ones.

"I'm retiring today. You can take care of your mess," the chairman watched everyone abandoning the place.

"I'm the new chairwoman!" My eyes sparkled.

"I'll transfer everything to you first," he didn't hesitate to make me shoulder the burden.

"You can deal with our shareholders and everything else is inside the manual," he sprinted to run away.

I had to brag about this to my hostages. Running in the halls, I smiled when I found the place untouched by the spell by everyone desperately working together to create some barriers. I guessed everyone knew I was the new boss with the message the former chairman has sent out. Some people bowed at me in respect while others shuddered from finding out that I was the cause of the building collapsing near the other side. Unlocking the door, one of my prior rivals entered the room with me.

"I don't think you should continue to be this cruel to the hostages. Their families won't let you go for this!" He pitied the hostages.

"I'm the new chairwoman. What can they do to me?" I flipped my hair.

"You shouldn't make them fight each other for animal food!" He recalled one of my answers to the test.

"If dogs can eat them, why can't humans eat them?" I found him acting strange since we didn't even have animal food here.

Looking at me in horror, he pressed a button on the keyboard to release the hostages from their chains. I was stunned, frozen from him acting on his own without my permission. Lucius took this chance to teleport out of the room with Ben and Claire to where I stood. I hung my head down, knowing this would happen as soon as I got rid of chains holding them back from using their mana.

Tightly grabbing onto my arm, Lucius didn't hide his anger towards me. While Ben knocked my subordinate unconscious and Claire making sure that no one noticed their escape. I dropped onto the floor, refusing to move as I knew I was a goner now. I worked so hard to become the chairwoman and it would soon become useless. Instead of planning to escape from the organization, Lucius began to hit my back, "spit everything out now. I'm not going to stop until you spit out all the poison and drugs you've been eating for the past days."

"My back!" I cried from the pain.

"I can help," Claire joined Lucius in hitting my back.

"I'm going to call my subordinates!" I began to threaten them.

"I have all her devices and access card," Ben used this chance to take everything the organization gave to me.

"I helped you with your mission. Everything was an act!" I switched my approach as I began to vomit some of my past meals.

"How can you do this to me? I treated you guys so well while you were hostages," I grunted.

I couldn't rise from the ground, their merciless hits not stopping. Tears spilled out of my eyes, making my entire face drenched. How could they be so cruel to a child? The only people less humane than me were these people. Dizzily staring at them once they determined my stomach was empty, they didn't use heal on my back.

"Now apologize to Ben and Claire for how you have been behaving for the past several days," Lucius stared at me.

"I didn't do anything wrong! I needed to put on an act to get them to believe me," I continued with my excuse.

"Rika!" He didn't fall for my act.

"Who do you think gave you access to the entire organization?" I struggled to properly sit on the ground.

"You need me so you can peacefully collect all the information here," I glared at them.

"She's right," Claire nodded her head.

"You should be easier on her. All she did was starve us and throw some food on the ground. She did work hard on becoming the chairwoman," Ben seemed to acknowledge my efforts.

"I can help you," I added.

"Explain everything that happened, and don't you dare to put anything out," Lucius decided to focus on their mission.

This was how I was sitting at the head of the table with the three of them acting as my subordinates, standing behind me. Looking at the other executives at the table, they seemed exhausted in getting rid of the spell. I was surprised when I got the message that the spell finally disappeared. I waited for one of them to start the meeting with high expectations, being my first time attending one of their meetings.

"A recent client that has been providing us with information lately has been the Nicole family. Although our hostage has sadly escaped, they were the ones that let us know who to target to obtain a great source of mana," an executive gestured to the charts on the screen.