I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21.
I asked Cho about the progress of the task I had entrusted to her.
“I did exactly as you asked. It’s caused quite a stir.”
“Didn’t I tell you it would go as I said?”
“But you seem to be in a good mood. Something happen?”
Perhaps because we shared blood, Cho was quicker than others to notice the shift in my spirits.
“I’ll tell you later.”
I want to boast to everyone that Cashion has accepted my proposal, but this isn’t the time to announce it yet.
I’ll make it public only when there’s no turning back. Words are strange things—no matter how careful you are, they seep out from somewhere.
So if it’s a secret that must be kept, the only answer is not to tell anyone, no matter how close they are.
‘If Kolkos and Julia find out before the marriage is even confirmed, it’ll be a disaster.’
Cashion wouldn’t change his mind easily about something he’d decided with such difficulty. The variable was King Karman.
‘Will he grant permission for the marriage.’
“What are you thinking about so intently? When you concentrate like that, I start to worry.”
“Are you worried I’ll sit idle on a pile of money?”
“This kid really knows how to talk back.”
Every time I thought deeply, work would come in for Cho, so I’d half-expected her to worry about me making money—but that wasn’t it at all.
Cho ruffled my hair with a wry smile.
“You keep asking me to do things the kid shouldn’t even be thinking about.”
She said it was because she worried that I might come to harm.
“That’s a lie. You love making money.”
I deliberately cracked a joke to lighten the mood, lest I become emotional and lose composure at her concern.
“Fair enough. So what job are you going to have me do to make money this time?”
Cho responded lightly to my playfulness. A few more light jokes passed between us.
“You have someone planted at the Phoenix Bank, don’t you?”
I broached the matter of business proper.
“Of course. But how did you know Julia was making under-the-table deals with the Phoenix Bank? She kept it very well hidden.”
Cho’s pride was stung that I’d discovered the connection between Julia and the Phoenix Bank before she had.
After Cho brought me the first report on the Phoenix Bank, she came back to me again, and I asked her to focus on the relationship between the Phoenix Bank and Julia.
Not long after, Cho uncovered evidence that jewels and buildings had been exchanged between Julia and the president of the Phoenix Bank.
“Really, how did you find out?”
“Ah, that.”
I replied casually. There was no point in making a fuss about it as if it were something grand.
I knew about the connection between the Phoenix Bank and Julia thanks to my experience in my previous life.
In the past, Julia had assigned me many errands. She’d treated me as little more than her maidservant or a marionette she could manipulate at will.
There was once when Julia came looking for me in urgent haste.
She said she needed to meet someone but didn’t have time, so she gave me something and told me to go meet them instead.
She said not to speak, just to stand there quietly, and that person would recognize me and take the item.
Without giving it much thought, I ran Julia’s errand. The person who came to meet me was someone from the Phoenix Bank.
I don’t remember their face, but the Phoenix Bank Badge pinned to their collar stuck in my memory.
I added the information Cho brought to that memory, and things fell into place.
“You said it was strange that the Previous Queen Consort owed a debt.”
“I did.”
“When your aunt looked into it, she said the Previous Queen Consort had never met anyone connected to a bank.”
Cho nodded.
“So I thought.”
I moved a pen from the table to the center of the desk.
“It was the right timing for a new person to slip in.”
“Stop beating around the bush and tell me. Time is money, don’t you know?”
Cho grew impatient. Her curiosity had been properly activated.
“Understood, Aunt. I never heard that the Previous Queen Consort struggled with debt while she was alive.”
“You were too young then.”
“But there was no record of it either. Third-rate journalists never miss a juicy morsel like that to sink their teeth into, yet there was nothing.”
“Maybe it was well hidden.”
“How could it be hidden? There’s a record that when the Previous Queen Consort went to Twilight Mansion, there were dozens of guards under the pretense of protection watching her.”
Cho rubbed her chin thoughtfully. She was forming her own hypothesis.
Then, as if remembering something, she clapped her hands together sharply.
“The debt was created after she died? So that was your hypothesis!”
“Yes! After her death, someone impersonated the Previous Queen Consort and fabricated a debt. And that debt was…….”
“The Phoenix Bank. So you’re suspecting the current Queen Consort, Julia?”
“Julia was the one who eagerly seized the opportunity when the Twilight Mansion came on the market and its connection to Phoenix Bank became clear. Consider one more thing: if people learn how the Twilight Mansion ended up for sale in the first place…….”
“The Previous Queen Consort’s reputation would plummet to rock bottom. For Julia, who’s constantly compared to her, it would be a win-win.”
I nodded vigorously. Cho was sharp, truly sharp. It was a waste for someone like her to drift around as merely an information broker.
“Hey, eyes. You just looked like a hunter laying a trap and waiting for the herbivore.”
Cho’s words were half right and half wrong.
I’d briefly considered how to tether her to my side, then abandoned the idea. Besides, she wasn’t a herbivore—she was a carnivore.
Comparing her to a cute rabbit or a deer with big eyes felt laughably off the mark.
“Let me wrap this up for you.”
I brushed off Cho’s remark as a joke and clapped my hands together.
Cho straightened in her seat, focusing intently.
“The depositors at Phoenix Bank all began withdrawing their money at once, didn’t they?”
“Of course. A Savings Guild appeared offering triple interest rates. Diana, I have to ask at this point—are you really going to pay those people three times Phoenix Bank’s interest?”
“It’s a promise.”
Cho regarded me with skeptical eyes.
I had sought out the depositors of Phoenix Bank to destabilize the bank itself.
Then I’d sent Cho’s subordinates to persuade them to transfer, offering triple interest in return.
More precisely, it was a Savings Guild rather than a bank. Creating a bank involves complicated procedures, while establishing a Savings Guild is far simpler, so I chose the latter.
People didn’t believe what Cho’s subordinates told them. So I pre-paid interest to a select few.
Among those who received interest, whispers spread: “Invest and you’ll strike it rich,” “This is a trustworthy place.”
Then people came of their own accord and deposited their money.
‘It’s one of the classic fraud schemes.’
But I wasn’t actually committing fraud—I’d pay every bit of promised interest as agreed, so there was no harm.
“Where are you planning to get all that money?”
“Aunt, you still don’t understand? I have plenty of money. It’s not even triple the principal—just triple the interest.”
Perhaps it would amount to the tip of an elephant’s tusk. Cho’s lips parted slightly. In truth, my personal wealth alone couldn’t cover it, so I’d decided to use Mother’s vault as my chance.
“Are you really thirteen? I can’t do business with you—you’re far too aggressive.”
“You’ve got it wrong. You should do business with someone like me. The kind who won’t suffer losses even if things fall apart.”
I lifted my chin, and Cho laughed, a genuine ha-ha. I let her bask in her pride in me for a moment.
“Keep going.”
She pulled over a chair and sat in front of me.
“Once the deposits drain away, Phoenix Bank collapses. But Julia wouldn’t just sit idle and watch that happen—not if she’s connected to Phoenix Bank.”
I believed she was connected. The reaction she’d shown when the topic of Phoenix Bank first came up was proof.
“Even if that weren’t the case, Julia made quite substantial investments in Phoenix Bank.”
On the surface, anyway. That way, she could legally collect dividends from the bank’s profits.
She’d created a watertight legal escape route for herself.
“Isn’t it problematic for royalty to invest all over the place like that?”
“She made the investment before becoming queen consort.”
“That makes it even stranger. Didn’t you say she was poor?”
“Exactly. That’s why the relationship between Julia and the Phoenix Bank director stinks of corruption.”
Cho raised both hands, signaling she wouldn’t pry any further.
“Phoenix Bank will collapse.”
“Fine, I collapsed it. But what about the Twilight Mansion? You didn’t orchestrate all this just because of the mansion, did you?”
“I did. Which is why I’m holding Phoenix Bank’s mortgage on the Twilight Mansion as leverage…….”
I smiled wickedly, my grin heavy with meaning.
“What? What is it? Tell me.”
Cho was bursting with curiosity about my next move.
“I’m going to buy it.”
“What?”
Cho finally dropped the cigarette she’d been holding.
***
After meeting with Cho, I became busier still.
Since word couldn’t get out that the Irenber Family was moving, I had to find someone to meet with the Phoenix Bank director in my stead.
I raked through the past searching for someone suitable to act as my proxy, but no fitting candidate came to mind.
At times like this, I resented my parents for not introducing me to a trustworthy retainer.
“I need a completely new face.”
The thought of asking for help from Cho’s subordinates, whom I’d worked with when establishing the Savings Guild, was dismissed outright.
‘Cho’s people are too rough around the edges. They don’t look like the type to acquire a bank.’
If you’re truly wealthy, your appearance doesn’t matter much—but when you’re a fraud, looking convincing is everything.
I had no one in my immediate circle, Cho wouldn’t do either, and I couldn’t give up, so—
“Let me start by drawing up conditions.”
What conditions must the person I entrust to handle the Phoenix Bank matter absolutely possess?
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serial)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 1101, 11F, 33 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Tech Tower 8th Building, 11th Floor)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
© Lee In-hye 2021
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder,
and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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