Miyazaki Mansion, Ares city;
"It looks like brother-in-law decided to take action," Kiyumi commented as she was watching the television along with her mother.
"I wonder this will change anything," Reisa commented, taking a sip of coffee.
Both of them glued to the morning news of GBN (Global broadcasting network) as they played Storm's interview.
After that, the new anchor further mentioned how the new CEO failed the company by getting fooled by an acquaintance and lost 6 billion dollars to the company.
She didn't fail to mention the four billion dollar transaction between Jonathan Fogs, the owner of Ark bank which is based in Colville, and the Texel Group.
As the people who always keep an eye on pretty much everything, it was no secret to either Kiyumi or her mother. However, they didn't want to step in when they weren't even been asked for help. Only that way, Wil would owe them a bunch of favors and in return, they could easily ask him to help out in the upcoming elections.
A while later, Kiyumi opened the lightweb, the most popular social network site. To her surprise, she found the matter didn't attract much attention from the public.
There are a few dozen hate comments towards Texel. However, Kiyumi guessed that those accounts must be from Scarlet Group too.
Of course, there are a few normal users who joined the discussion but it didn't go as Wil hoped it to be.
The reason?
One is that the matter is three weeks away and most of the people already stopped caring about it.
Two, the banks going bankrupt and big companies filing a case against each other are too common.
Because of such two reasons, the matter didn't spread like wildfire as Wil wanted.
Until for a few hours, that is…
The upper echelons of the Texel group thought the Scarlet group was only trying to make a noise upon finding that situation is completely under control. However, at exactly around 11 o'clock, the lady luck smiled on Wil and turned the situation completely around.
The police who are investigating the case found an ample piece of evidence against Texel, where one of the missing family members presumably the victim's eldest son was caught in the port town of Flurg while she attempted to escape to the western continent by sea route.
As he was being escorted to the prison, the police chief presented the investigation results and recorded statements before the media.
It seemed like the eldest son of Jonathan fell into an argument with his father after Jonathan borrowed the money from Storm to save the bank rather than paying off a heavy debt to Texel.
His son didn't know that Jonathan borrowed it from the Scarlet group. He thought some billionaire friend of his gave to him or might have taken a loan from a bank. Bank owners usually have a few billionaire friends. So, he didn't find anything amiss.
As Jonathan was adamant about saving the bank, the argument between the father and the son heated up.
Having no other choice, the son blackmailed Jonathan to commit suicide if the money isn't returned to Texel as he was constantly receiving a lot of death threats from unknown people every day when they weren't able to pay off the mounting 120 million dollars quarterly interest.
With Jonathan's wife also supported her son, facing mounting pressure from family, Jonathan was forced to pay off the debt to the Texel group.
The next day, feeling that he betrayed the innocent bank customers and his own friend, Jonathan committed suicide.
Meanwhile, Jonathan's son convinced his mom and ran away from the house with the remaining two billion dollars to have a fresh start somewhere else.
But, the story doesn't end there.
After both of them are changing towns and cities constantly every day, watching the news, Jonathan's wife finally realized that the money belonged to the Scarlet group and her husband took a 25% high-interest loan from its CEO.
She immediately feared for her life. She knew that despite being a far smaller company than Texel, the Scarlet group is much dangerous than Texel. She panicked about what the Scarlet group will do to them if they ever get caught.
So, she tried to convince her son to return the money to its rightful owner. But, how could Jonathan's son do that?
If they return to Colville, not only he should return 2 billion dollars, he would have also to pay an additional 4 billion dollars with a whopping 1.5 billion dollars annual interest. On top of that, he might also have to face the wrath of the public. As a son, he will be forced to clear his father's debts.
They argued. He tried to convince her that once they will reach the western continent, they will be safe. However, his mother was adamant about her decision.
She thought he would be safe in the police custody rather than with Scarlet. She told him that she will call the police and inform him about their whereabouts, the next day morning.
The rest is predictable. The son killed his mother while she was sleeping and quietly escaped in the middle of the night. But, what he didn't know is that his mother sent a text to her friend before she went to sleep regarding her current whereabouts.
That very message helped the police to track him down.
Back to the present;
Watching the news from his office, Wil let out a whistle, "now, this is some turning twist. I guess, even if I didn't have to do anything, the matter would have solved on its own… No, actually, in this case, I can only recover 2 billion. Hmm…"
Thinking for a while, he pressed on 0 and called the reception desk since he doesn't have a secretary yet. He then informed the receptionist to connect the line to Jordon.
After a while, Jordon and the PR department head were seen entering the Chairman's office together.
"I guess the both of you watched the news?" Wil looked at them.
Both of them nodded.
PR head then spoke, "Mr. Chairman, as you have ordered, we are escalating this matter as much as we can. Now with the latest investigation results, several citizens are blaming the Texel group for Jonathan's death. But, still, I'm not sure how this will help us in the case against them and recover our money."
His last statement brought a frown on Wil's face and Jordon immediately nudged his colleague to stay quiet.
Wil then ordered the PR head to anonymously create a rumor that Scarlet might be going downhill soon due to the financial losses. The PR head quickly understood what Wil was trying to plan. He agreed with it right away.
After dismissing him, Wil looked at the towering giant standing before him. "Mr. Jordon, I wanted to reappoint you as the CEO but doing that will only defame Storm. I don't wish for that. But, at the same time, you also looked after the company for two decades. So, I won't do injustice to your service too.
However, all I can give you is two choices."