I Don’t Want to be a Villainess

When I got home and asked Yang Hye-in for my smartphone, she hesitated a lot but eventually handed it over. It seemed like she wasn’t just worried about me using it carelessly; there was probably a reason behind it.

…Even though it must have been the chairwoman’s orders, the way she easily surrendered at my single word made me think there was something more to it. And yet, Ye Sara herself seemed clueless about the authority she held.

But that was also a bit strange. Within a month, I could roughly gauge Ye Sara’s power just by asking a nearby employee. If Ye Sara had set her mind to it, she could manage the surrounding staff effortlessly.

How heavily was she systematically gaslit?

Well, I could figure that out later. Right now, it was more important to understand “the maximum amount of power I can wield.”

“So… market capitalization… Eugene Electronics.”

I grabbed the smartphone and started typing in the search keywords one by one while rolling around on the bed. Yang Hye-in was standing right next to my bed, clearly worried that I might search something strange.

After trying to grow my meager salary by investing in stocks and crashing to a -50% loss, I knew that just because a company’s market cap is high doesn’t mean its stock price will go up, nor does a low market cap mean a company is bound for delisting. Of course, it’s true that companies with high market capitalizations and a lot of cash assets are less likely to go bankrupt.

So back then, I had tried to glean some information about market caps, business rankings, and the key businesses each company promoted, albeit superficially.

At least, when it comes to the “electronic products” sector, the gap between the first and second-ranked companies was staggering. If I remember correctly, there was about a 4.5 to 5 times difference in market capitalization. For reference, the first-place company had roughly 500 trillion won. The second was just below 100 trillion.

So I naturally thought that Eugene Electronics, which was the biggest in the Eugene Group, was around that level too.

But I was wrong.

“So… one, ten, hundred, thousand…?”

As I counted the digits in the long number, I was startled and shot up from the bed.

Eugene Group was proudly ranked number one in South Korea’s business sector…

When it said ‘number one in South Korea’s business sector,’ I naturally assumed it was modeled after the actual number one company in South Korea. Of course, the creator stated, “This is all fictional and has nothing to do with reality,” but isn’t that what most works claim?

What I had overlooked was that the creator took the word “fiction” incredibly seriously.

Indeed, what was called “fiction” in this indie game was literally “fiction.” The Eugene Group was a company that was entirely different from any company in the reality I lived in.

“Three thousand six hundred… trillion…?”

Three thousand six hundred trillion won.

That was the size of Eugene Group’s market capitalization.

“Three thousand six hundred… three thousand six hundred…?”

I felt dizzy as the number sank in.

I mean, wasn’t that roughly the scale of the world’s largest computer company? Could it be it wasn’t a Korean company as a model but an American one…?

This was completely over-the-top! Even if you wanted to include an absurdly large conglomerate, how am I supposed to win against such a giant?!

In the game, it seemed like Ye Sara handled everything herself—

Ah.

I get it now. It was all about Ye Sara taking the fall, which allowed it to conclude that way. The story was about breaking down Ye Sara personally, not about destroying the entire Eugene Group.

And eventually, the chairwoman of the Eugene Group would end up abandoning Ye Sara. After that, Yoon Da-ho could get engaged to whoever he wanted, and no one would care.

I quickly searched for the other subsidiaries of the Eugene Group.

Even adding them all together barely scraped 200 trillion. Sure, that was still an astronomical figure, but it paled in comparison against Eugene Electronics, a mind-bogglingly huge company.

In contrast, Homyeong Group’s best-performing subsidiary, Homyeong Electronics, was worth about 150 trillion.

It wasn’t just a scale difference that Homyeong Group could handle…

…So that’s why they were so serious about the engagement. Even as the next chairman of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, he still bowed his head to me.

Though, he still had a lot of attitude, but I could excuse that as he’s just an inexperienced kid who hasn’t learned how to be humble yet.

But why was the chairwoman of Eugene Group so insistent on marrying me off to the prince of Homyeong Group?

For everyone else, I start to feel like I can guess, but the current chairwoman of Eugene Group, Choi Na-kyung’s thoughts eluded me completely.

…

“Maiden.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Yang Hye-in responded immediately to my call from right next to me.

“How much inheritance have I received?”

“Yes, the shares amount to 5.7% of the market capitalization.”

…Simply put, that was about 205 trillion won. A level of assets that could run a small country for a year. Just hearing it sent my head spinning.

“And there are some cash and real estate, but… I don’t know the details. I’m sorry.”

“You at least know a part of it, right? What’s the most representative real estate?”

“The most representative piece of real estate… is this mansion.”

Yang Hye-in hesitated for a moment, then quietly replied as she looked up at me.

“……”

Ah, I see.

Now I understood why the employees in this mansion had to obey my words.

But still, it left me with questions. When one of the spouses dies, the estate is typically divided between the children and the surviving spouse. Unless specifically stated in a will, the usual division is 1.5 for the spouse and 1 for the children… or so I found out from just searching online.

Let’s consider a scenario:

If Ye Sara’s father didn’t get along well with his second wife and knew he would die before his child, then…

He might have secretly bestowed a significant portion of his estate onto his only daughter before his passing, without his spouse’s knowledge.

…Even so, lingering doubts remained. If that were the case, the current chairwoman would know that all the important assets went to her stepdaughter after the husband’s death. She undoubtedly couldn’t just take them, but she would be the sole protector managing those assets since Ye Sara wasn’t an adult yet, meaning she had plenty of time to handle them—

Ah.

…Is that it?

Keeping the stepdaughter locked up like this and isolating her from the world was likely a plan to make Ye Sara submit.

To turn her into a broken doll who only obeys her words so that once she becomes an adult and can exercise her rights to that wealth, it would be to her advantage.

Was that why she was pleased when I addressed her as “Chairwoman”?

Maybe putting Ye Sara into an engagement with Yoon Da-ho had something to do with a manipulative plan to control her. Was she willing to get her hands dirty…

Chilling thought.

“Here you go.”

“Yes?”

“I’m done using it.”

When I handed the smartphone back, Yang Hye-in hesitated before accepting it. She tucked it into the pocket of her maid apron and then, after a moment of thought, bowing slightly, retreated out of the room.

As always, the door closed silently behind her.

I stretched out on the bed and contemplated.

First, let’s figure out how to use that immense fortune.

Assets gifted over ten years before death are separate from inheritance. If the 5.7% stake and properties were in Ye Sara’s name well before then, they wouldn’t be included in the estate divided during inheritance. That means the current chairwoman wouldn’t have any way to access them.

However, if I just tried to pull them from the bank, the chairwoman would certainly do anything to stop me. There’s no guarantee I could even visit a bank.

…This is a problem, knowing it exists but having no way to access it.

Well, there’s still time. I can take my time thinking it through. If Ye Sara’s father was clever, he’d have set up all sorts of safety measures.

Thinking that, I got up to change my clothes.

*

Whether it’s good or bad luck, it was impossible for cars to enter the school premises.

That meant I had to get out at the school gate and walk the rest of the way. This was completely unrelated to the amount of property I had, as other kids had to walk too. In fact, most kids attending Hwayoung High School lived nearby. The school itself was built in a wealthy area that’s easily accessible. So even though it’s a school attended by a lot of wealthy kids, it wasn’t common to see cars bustling in front of it.

The unfortunate part was that I already dug deep into the minds of the students after the entrance ceremony yesterday. Not only had I not made any friends, but I had also ended up fighting a classmate who was my fiancé in the hallway. And, that fiancé happened to be a pretty boy who would probably steal the hearts of most girls in this school.

Though it’s just speculation, given the adults’ scheming, my image wasn’t great, and I wasn’t satisfied with being engaged to a handsome and wealthy boy who could easily become an idol among my peers. Reflecting on what I said yesterday, it wouldn’t be surprising if the other students thought I was deliberately looking down on them.

Moreover—

“Hello~!”

After being seen off by the maid Yang Hye-in, I took some reluctant steps into the school when someone suddenly slapped my back, causing my vision to tilt forward.

“Ahh, wait a minute!”

The person who hit my back screamed and quickly hugged my arm to stabilize my balance.

“Ah.”

But before I could even register that the first person in my life to hug my arm was a high school girl, my left arm reminded me that there was a very clear reason to feel painful.

It was the very same left arm that had been grabbed by Yoon Da-ho yesterday and got bruised.

As I grimaced, the girl holding my arm jumped away from me in shock.

I squinted and looked at her.

…I wasn’t glaring at her; it was purely the brightness that caught me off guard.

“……Yoo Ha-neul.”

As I called her name, Yoo Ha-neul thought I was angry and instantly lowered her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I rushed in thoughtlessly!”

“……Nah, it’s okay.”

My back still tingled, and my heart raced rapidly from the shock of almost falling over, and though my bruised left arm throbbed, there wasn’t anything that felt dangerously severe among the three of us.

“R-Really?”

“Yeah.”

After a sigh escaped me, Yoo Ha-neul scratched her head awkwardly.

“Um, yeah, so… hello?”

And she bowed her head once more.

I smiled at Yoo Ha-neul slightly.

“Hello.”

“Can I walk with you?”

“Sure, that’s fine.”

As I said that, Yoo Ha-neul stepped beside me, appearing a little more composed than earlier. It seemed like she didn’t want to talk much because of what had just happened.

After walking a few steps, I started to feel awkward and thought I should initiate a conversation when I suddenly heard a voice from the other side.

“Um, um…”

It was a voice I recognized.

Turning around, I found Lee Soo-ah standing there, emitting a faint glow, though not as bright as Yoo Ha-neul.

Looking somewhat nervous, she glanced at Yoo Ha-neul by my side and appeared a bit taken aback. Well, it was indeed surprising for someone to see me with another person.

But she quickly shook her head back and forth and then came over to me, asking, “Can I walk too?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Did standing next to me require permission?

…Hmm, rethinking it, having some random stranger silently stand next to me would feel extremely unpleasant.

“Thanks. Oh, and…”

As if just realizing she had forgotten the most important thing, Lee Soo-ah slightly flushed and said to me:

“Hi?”

“Hi.”

Am I making her nervous just by being the daughter of the number one conglomerate?

…Then I recalled the market cap of the number one conglomerate being 3,600 trillion won.

Yeah, I guess there’s reason to be nervous.

“Hi, I’m Yoo Ha-neul. Are you Sara’s friend?”

“Sarah?”

Watching that sociability even confound people to the point of exasperation had me thinking yes, indeed, the heroine is a heroine.

Lee Soo-ah slightly looked up at my face, making an expression as if she was seeking my approval.

“She’s the only classmate I took a photo with during my middle school graduation ceremony.”

When I said that, Lee Soo-ah’s face flushed further, but a bright smile broke across her face.

“Yes, that’s right. You’re my friend. I’m Lee Soo-ah.”

Well, that shouldn’t be a big deal. Friendship isn’t something that’s always formed through mutual agreement.

…Except for the old man I met once claiming we were friends; I’d report him to the police without hesitation.

“Really? Then we’re friends too.”

Yoo Ha-neul said that and smiled brightly. At least, that’s what I thought. It was hard to see clearly.

With me in between them, the two lightly shook hands.

Surely, having to walk sandwiched between people who didn’t particularly like me could be called unfortunate.

But if I had at least one person to talk to and smile with, wouldn’t that be better than silently sitting in the back seat of a car?

That’s what I thought to myself.

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