The Daughter of a Conglomerate Family Has Debuted - Chapter 276

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Cael Arden’s face was filled with dissatisfaction as he entered the company meeting room.

“Aren’t they idiots?”

Really, aren’t they idiots? What’s there to nitpick about such a good opportunity? What could they possibly negotiate in a discussion anyway?

Cael Arden scoffed, mocking the Day Entertainment staff and Ryu Ji-ye who hadn’t arrived yet. Naturally, today he and his staff had no intention of accepting their proposed contract condition modifications.

‘Why should we?’

If they didn’t like the conditions Cael Arden offered, they could just refuse. But people who nitpick this and that and seem reluctant to sign wouldn’t have come all the way to America to schedule a meeting.

They probably had some pride and were scheming to contract in a slightly more favorable way.

‘They must be confident.’

Cael Arden chuckled again. Unfortunately, these people were definitely not an easy team. Only businessmen who made contracts that thoroughly benefited Cael Arden were gathered here.

They knew very well how much buzz and importance Cael Arden’s first album in a long time would generate after his movie success.

They would never compromise or make concessions in contracts.

Shortly after, staff brought news that the Day Entertainment employees and Ryu Ji-ye had arrived.

***

Now sitting face to face with Cael Arden and his team, I was certain my expectations had been correct.

Despite clearly sitting across from each other having a conversation, they showed no enthusiasm at all.

We came here to coordinate contract conditions, but they talked about recording schedules, guide track delivery timelines, and upcoming promotions instead.

As if we had already signed a contract.

“We’ll do massive SNS-focused promotion. We’d like you to appear in the music video too, but we’ll leave that to your decision. Let’s coordinate that separately. What do you think?”

The employee from Cael Arden’s side, who had been speaking mechanically like a lawyer making arguments in a courtroom they’d already won, finally stopped talking and looked at us.

It didn’t seem like they meant to hear our side now, but rather wanted an answer about whether we’d appear in the music video or not.

‘Look at those expressions…’

It was just a collaboration proposal, but from their way of speaking, they were completely in control as the dominant party.

It’s been a while since I’ve been treated like this, but maybe because I’m not particularly desperate? They look quite ridiculous thinking they’ve already won.

I looked around at Cael Arden and his confident employees.

They seemed to think that in this business setting, employees from a small startup company in an eastern country who made K-pop idols they looked down on would be truly incompetent people.

But was that really the case?

A startup company had grown their first idol group large enough to discuss collaboration one-on-one with Cael Arden. Everything they did generated huge buzz and results, constantly setting new records.

An extremely calculating CEO who knew the success formula for idol groups and utilized it 100% with massive capital, and trustworthy employees that such a CEO carefully selected one by one.

I guarantee our employees weren’t just sitting quietly listening, intimidated by their momentum.

[Group Management System]

※Day Entertainment

-Staff (*Group buff active!: Master of Persuasion)

-Artists

-Others

Just how much nonsense were they going to spout?

Before coming here, I had attached group buffs to the employees who came with me.

Master of Persuasion.

This was a low-grade buff that came out most commonly when rolling buff random boxes, so I considered it a dud that I just collected without any particular use for.

But it turned out to be quite helpful when attached to employees in situations like this.

In settings like this, there’s rarely any need for me as a singer to state positions or participate, and it’s mostly coordination between staff members.

Actually, in Korea, our employees rarely had occasion to use this buff.

At least in Korea, FLORA had already established itself as a solid tier-1 idol group, and with industry insiders being mindful of my background and CEO Kim Ja-in’s influence in the entertainment industry, despite being rookies, we never faced disrespect or unreasonable demands anywhere.

So I was using up all the Master of Persuasion buffs I thought were just accumulating uselessly in this meeting with Cael Arden.

The collaboration proposal with Cael Arden was definitely a good opportunity. But that didn’t mean we needed to be dragged along.

Fortunately, our employees seemed to share my thoughts, maintaining silence with smiles in response to Cael Arden’s staff. An aura of absolutely not giving up control emanated from them.

With a brief silence, our employee easily broke the atmosphere where Cael Arden’s side was making one-sided demands, and opened their mouth while maintaining their smile.

“First, we can discuss music video appearance after successfully finalizing the contract. Nothing has been decided yet.”

We’re not desperate either, so don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

I really came here prepared to refuse if things went wrong. I had firm conditions I wanted, and if Cael Arden didn’t accept them, I’d refuse without regret and focus on comeback preparations.

As I looked at Cael Arden with the composure that comes from not being desperate, his eyebrows twitched with displeasure.

I showed him an expression of complete indifference, engaged in a brief, subtle power struggle, then turned my gaze away.

As expected, Cael Arden’s staff looked quite flustered. It was natural since they had been proceeding with the conversation thinking the contract was already completed.

Of course, the Master of Persuasion buff helping our employees guide things toward the atmosphere we wanted also played a part in making them look foolish.

From now on, I would just sit quietly and smile. Just as Cael Arden kept his mouth shut and communicated through his staff, I also had no intention of interfering in the contract coordination between employees.

“To be honest, it’s true that we’re thinking positively about collaborating with you all, but, um…”

Our employee paused as if it were a difficult topic to discuss, then opened their mouth with an apologetic expression.

“Yes, what’s the point of wasting time when we’re all busy? Actually, we’re planning to refuse this proposal unless it’s a featuring with all FLORA members participating.”

At our employee’s words, Cael Arden’s staff frowned as if they’d heard an unfunny joke.

“Are you testing us right now? If you’re trying to make a recklessly bold deal, you’d better give up. This isn’t some marketplace where you haggle over pennies.”

“Did it sound like we were testing you? We don’t do such rude and thoughtless things in such an important meeting. We didn’t fly all the way to America to play games either.”

Maybe it’s because this is America, the land of the free. Their way of speaking to business partners is quite free-spirited too.

We were acting with reasonable courtesy, but perhaps because they thought they had the upper hand? They defensively pushed back at even the slightest pushback, finding it uncomfortable.

Our employee smiled lightly and spoke as if telling them not to misinterpret.

“We’re also currently working on our next album and refusing most proposals. Looking at FLORA’s current trajectory, we think how we perform with the next album is a really important crossroads, so we’re putting our heart and soul into it.”

Actually, we had just started, so it was a bit ambiguous to say we’d put our heart and soul into it, but since our employee said so, I nodded lightly in agreement.

“In this situation, we’d also like to accept this proposal, thinking of it as a precious connection we’ve collaborated with, but during album preparation periods, we tend to avoid individual member schedules for various reasons.”

This was somewhat like throwing bait to test them.

Actually, there was no reason to avoid individual schedules, and it was just my opinion heavily influencing things, but anyway.

There are plenty of groups that avoid individual activities for several years, including album preparation periods, to prevent teamwork breakdown.

The employee looked truly regretful and sorry but unable to compromise on this point, then opened their mouth to them again.

“So we’d like to propose – would collaboration with all of FLORA be difficult?”

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