Chapter 207 - Chapter 207: Wolfpack
The meeting room of Cavendish Construction, which had become the venue for the extraordinary shareholders' meeting, held only a very small number of people.
Arthur and Isabella, Michael and Elizabeth, Lilia and Natalia. And the Marquess Cavendish with his butler. The branch manager of the Salieri Trading Company and Aurora. Aside from them were the company's executives and the person responsible for taking the minutes.
The Marquess was suspicious of Aurora's presence, but after being told that Aurora also controlled the management of the Salieri Trading Company, he agreed to her participation.
Based on the latest shareholder register, it was confirmed that the participants held more than half of the company's shares. Arthur and the others held 49% of those shares. When this was announced, the Marquess smirked.
(I thought they might bring other shareholders along, but it seems they didn't. After all, they are nobles from the Western region. The shareholders who didn't want to be glared at by me in the Royal Capital chose not to attend.)
The Marquess thought so, but in reality, the period until the meeting was short, and those who received the notice only did so today.
Even with such a misunderstanding, the situation remained favorable to the Marquess.
However, there was no anxiety on the faces of Arthur and the others.
The Marquess's irregularities were listed one after another.
"Here is the evidence that company assets were transferred to individuals and payments to subcontractors were intentionally delayed. Considering these facts, it is clear that Lord Cavendish is unfit to serve as president."
In response to Arthur's opinion, the Marquess refuted.
"Regarding the transfer of assets, the auditing firm has already given an evaluation that there are no problems. As for the payment delays, each individual case must be examined, but there were likely jobs with defects."
"It seems there is a difference of opinion, but we will investigate that thoroughly later. Regarding the motion to remove the Lord from the presidency, let us now vote on the proposal."
Upon hearing Arthur's words, the executive in charge of the meeting proceedings said,
"Those in favor, please raise your hands."
Arthur and Aurora raised their hands. Even the Marquess was surprised by this.
"What? Lord Sowell, what is the meaning of this?"
Aurora's bright red lips moved as she was asked.
"The shares held as collateral are under a contract where we hold the rights during the collateral period. Is there any problem with exercising that right?"
"That is nothing like that——"
The Marquess rushed toward Aurora with the intensity of someone about to grab her, but the butler stopped him.
"My Lord, such a contract does indeed exist."
"Grrr, but..."
The Marquess halted. If he had stepped forward just a little more, he would have been kicked by Isabella, but because the butler stopped him, that future was erased.
However, even so, the future remained dark.
When Aurora smiled as if victorious, the Marquess's face turned bright red.
"This company cannot stand without me!"
"Oh my, do not worry. Lord Cavendish will be arrested soon regardless. It would be better to worry about yourself rather than the company."
"A-a-arrested!?"
Startled by the unexpected words from Aurora, the Marquess was left speechless.
Rumors like these had caused the stock price to fall, but if there were signs of a national investigation, the Minister of Construction should have reported it. Since there was no such report, he had assumed it was merely a rumor of harassment.
That was why he was so surprised.
"Are you surprised as if you thought you would receive a contact from the Minister of Construction if there were signs of an investigation? But even the Minister must love his own skin."
Hearing this, the Marquess understood that he had been discarded. He likely confessed everything in exchange for the collusion being overlooked. And that was the correct conclusion.
The fact that the Marquess had been exploiting public works had already been reported to the King. Now, they were simply waiting for the King's judgment.
Confronted with the facts by Aurora, the Marquess fell to his knees and wept on the floor.
When I began thinking about Arthur's story, I intended to use the Wolfpack tactic, but unfortunately, the topic of buying up securities came up at that moment, causing me to hesitate. However, since Wolfpack is a different thing, I decided it was fine. I didn't steal it; I originally planned to use the fact that foreign investors in Japan bought up small-cap stocks using the Wolfpack tactic someday. No, if I write this excuse too elaborately, I might be suspected even more.