CH 163

“I’m so sorry,” Gillian’s bodyguard apologized as he felt quite guilty about what had happened. By the time he had entered the room after hearing the disturbance, Cassandra’s tantrum had already ended.

“It’s not your fault.”

Gillian shook his head while listening to Cassandra raging outside. Things had happened out of the blue, and no one would have ever imagined that she, the head of the Goldstein family and the female president of the group, would behave violently. Apparently, the rumors about the disturbance that occurred in the Karjan family’s room weren’t just hearsay.

However, Gillian wasn’t mad at her. Instead, he felt an overwhelming amount of pity towards her as her expression had turned evil for a brief moment. She wasn’t someone who should have been able to make such a face because she had always been haughty, like a queen. The reason why she had created such a fuss was because of the huge incident that happened in the morning.

Are they really the Rothschilds?

Gillian obsessed over the question regarding the real owners of the Group during the short time it took for his laptop to reboot. Over the past two years, he had attended two Bilderberg conferences and had often met the club members in London’s The City. Also, he had met the head of the Rothschild family several times before, but he hadn’t heard a peep.

The real owners had revealed one of their names as ‘Ethan,’ but had concealed his identity. Gillian found it strange. Under the assumption that the group’s capital was either Asian or Arab, there were obvious reasons why the group needed to hide the owner's identity in the early days. However, there would be no major damage even if they revealed themselves since the group was now managing over one trillion dollars, which was the largest amount of assets in the world. Like the Jonathan Group, the Gillian Group couldn’t join Cassandra’s side. Instead, they had to be concerned about any counterattacks from the Rothschilds.

In any case, the group’s owners had given instructions. This time, it was a unilateral order without an investment proposal, but Gillian understood the premise behind it. He unconditionally supported the directing department as they had geniuses from various fields. They must have dragged all the oil money for… today, the day to wield the power of money behind the scenes. Gillian’s fear towards the real owners grew larger as he thought about them.

They are thorough yet insidious… I can’t stop shuddering when I think about them.

Click. Click.

He kept typing on the keyboard. He couldn’t send Ethan’s terse message straight to the Front Office, so his job was to create an appropriate pretext.

<Owner[1]: I sent you an email.>

<Gillian: Yes, I checked it. CAC40 [2] and DAX[3] are currently plunging together.>

<Owner: I expected that. Germany’s major banks have turned their backs on the Goldstein Group, and the trend will remain the same for a while. Use all the moveable funds except the one that went into North America. We should make them move within the range we want even if we have to use a short position or a cycle business[4].>

<Gillian: FT-SE100[5]’s movement is also alarming.>

<Owner: No, just focus on France. Check the proposal for details.>

Then, Gillian heard another uproar in the hallway.

He ordered tersely, “Check what’s going on.”

The bodyguard came back and reported, “Cassandra is yelling at the bank president of AP Morgan.”

Gillian clicked his tongue.

I never expected that the most powerful family could collapse just like that.

However, he realized no one had survived after being fingered by the group’s owners.

***

To Jonathan, what was happening now was more like a fantasy than the time when the Asian financial crisis happened and he received the first email from Seon-Hu. However…

“Ha…hahaha”

Jonathan couldn’t be happier by the infighting within the Bilderberg Club. In addition, he was impressed by Seon-Hu, who was controlling all of this behind the scenes. People said the Bilderberg Club was the strongest world government, but the true controller who worked in the dark was Seon-Hu.

However, Jonathan couldn’t understand the loyalty of the Karjan family. Seon-Hu had told him not to worry about it, but he had always doubted their true intentions. He recalled the day when the Russian financial war ended. His competitors had come to his office every day begging for money until then.

“But that’s weird. The Goldstein family didn’t have a partnership with Silverman and AP Morgan Group. There must have been a valid reason why they refused,” Jonathan said.

“Jonathan, what’s going on now is… not moving based on the order of capitalism. I’d like to call this retrogression,” a man across from him replied.

“Haha, there’s no need to talk like a smartass about the situation since we both know about it. I have eyes and ears too. Do you think I don’t know what’s going on in the Bilderberg Club?” Jonathan asked.

The guy opened his mouth to say something, but remained silent.

Jonathan continued, “You are talking about ten billion dollars as if it’s nothing. Six years ago, I risked everything to earn that much. I would’ve been buried underground if I had failed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not interested in the Bilderberg Club’s internal conflicts. Aren’t AP Morgan and Silverman in the same situation?” Jonathan questioned.

The man nodded. “Yes, our family is in a precarious state. However, you must know of my family, the Goldsteins.”

Jonathan replied, “I don’t have enough time to study history. How about we do this? I’m willing to support you with one billion dollars under the condition that you transfer these shares.”

Jonathan handed over the list he had prepared, and the man jumped up in anger. Jonathan was planning on extorting the Goldstein family’s core businesses for just one billion dollars!

“The trend has already crumbled. You need to keep at least one or two shares to leave for your family’s posterity. No other group will offer such a deal except for mine.”

“...I guess it’s not up to me.”

The guy showed Jonathan his phone. When Jonathan nodded, the man handed Jonathan his phone that was currently connected on a call with Cassandra.

<Cassandra: I’ve wanted to meet you.>

She was short of breath.

<Jonathan: I heard that you are going through a rough time.>

<Cassandra: It’s temporary.>

<Jonathan: Then, should we talk later? After things get better?>

<Cassandra: Don’t beat around the bush, and just tell me what you want. If you cooperate with me, things will really be ‘temporary.’ You must be seeing money rolling all around you.>

Jonathan read the list he had given to the man, then he only heard the sound of her heavy breathing.

<Cassandra: …When can you send ten billion dollars to us for support?>

<Jonathan: Oh, I forgot to tell you one little thing. It’s one billion, not ten.>

She retorted immediately.

<Cassandra: You bastards must have conspired for this! It must have started last year, right? I knew it!!!!>

Her cry was so sharp that people who weren’t close to the phone could hear her. The guy from the Goldstein family looked more startled than Jonathan as he didn’t expect the head would scream at Jonathan. Cassandra White Goldstein was the current female head of the family and had never acted this way before.

<Jonathan: You should come to terms with reality even if your world is falling apart.>

Jonathan replied cunningly and added one more parting statement.

<Jonathan: If you are here to beg, show me your sincerity.>

Jonathan hung up, and the phone rang again, but he didn’t answer.

“Looks like negotiations are over, so go back to wherever you came from.”

Jonathan gave the man his phone back and kicked him out. Then, he could no longer suppress the raucous laughter bubbling out of him when the guy left. This had to be his favorite order ever that had been issued by Seon-Hu. He hadn’t imagined Seon-Hu would instruct him to provoke the Goldstein family in such an extremely rude way.

***

(This is from Seon-Hu’s point of view.)

This was a war between powers.

[England’s, Germany’s and France’s price index of stocks are plunging at once.

Because the Central Bank of Germany foundered the Goldstein family by denying their loan payment delay, the European stock markets declined quickly. England plunged by 4.1 percent, Germany by 5.2 percent, and France by 7.9 percent. England and France are experiencing their biggest drop since the IT bubble burst, and Germany is now suffering the most it ever has since the mark shock. The global institutional and individual investors are rushing to sell their shares in the industries that had maintained an upward profit trend. Meanwhile, banks and various stocks of the groups that are falling sharply, including the Goldsteins, Rothschilds and Karjans, are getting sold the most.]

Randomly, the Rothschild family’s banks were also involved in the fight. Jonathan had originally planned on blocking the gains that the Rothschild family would obtain from the Telestar and Gold and Silver Investments, but it was no longer necessary. His plan of using the Jonathan Group as a last resort was on hold for now.

Colton was reading the same article as I was while visibly trembling. He was certain of his family’s ruin, but he had hope in his eyes when he looked at me.

“You can bring in the fund resource again.”

He meant that his family would revive as if nothing had happened if I did that. As he had mentioned, Cassandra must have been looking for the family’s supportive forces to replace the Karjans. Since the Rothschilds and the Karjans were fighting, she likely couldn't find anyone in Europe. North America was her only option.

However, could that be possible? After all, the Bilderberg Club was just a group of interests that came together for each member’s benefit. She had to avoid joining that battle and had no choice but to listen to the news here and there without understanding the situation of the small and medium-sized banks that were not members of the club.

For instance, this was one of the news stories.

[German credit rating agency Aeri has demoted Goldstein from AAA to A, and the British credit rating agency City-R has demoted them from AAA to BBB.]

The Goldsteins were counter attacking, but they were relatively weak. They had to admit that they were in a bad spot. It was not only the banks under the Karjans and Rothschilds, but every bank that was intertwined with them would also try to retrieve the money. The attack was similar to the ones that hit Korean businesses during the IMF crisis.

“Your sister must be feeling one of two ways. She’s either extremely distressed or has already gone crazy. Don’t you think she’s probably the latter?” I asked.

However, Colton stayed quiet as he was deep in thought.

“Is your deal still the same?” he asked.

“Your family would barely survive, but if you still want them…” I replied with a shrug.

He interrupted, “Let’s talk about the real issue here. How should I prove my loyalty to you? Even though I’m alive now, I’m not confident that I’ll be able to survive your future surveillance…”

1. Seon-Hu. ☜

2. France’s leading stock price index) ☜

3. Germany’s leading stock price index ☜

4. ‘자전거 거래' is a type of transaction that involves selling and repurchasing the price of the shares someone possesses to raise the book value(net value of a company’s asset found on the balance sheet). ☜

5. Britain’s leading stock price index ☜

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