I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 68: Collapse of the Soviet Union (6)

I scoffed and yanked her by the collar, dragging her down onto the floor.

“What are you even saying, you old hag.”

Flailing on the floor, she snapped back at me indignantly.

“...That! Exactly that! Come on, I’m one of the youngest-looking thirty-somethings around these days! Young lady, don’t you think that’s a bit harsh? Look, my skin’s still firm and—”

“That’s because you’re old.”

“Gck.”

Well, to be fair, she did look suspiciously youthful. But teasing her was just too fun.

Melting into a puddle of mock defeat, Si-hyun grumbled as she dug through her bag and tossed me some documents.

“Here. Collected the money.”

It was proof that the funds from the CDS contract with Leeson had been safely transferred to the bank. Seeing the confirmation that cash had flowed in, I smiled in relief.

What is a “default” anyway? It’s just failing to repay debt.

And since I already knew Leeson wouldn’t be able to repay, I had to extract {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} my cash while he still had any funds left.

“Mm, good. As expected of someone who used to swing a bat in back alleys—you’ve got the instincts of a true debt collector.”

“....”

“What, you gonna glare at me like that, traitor?”

Yesterday, she’d reset her “Days Without Betraying Me” counter to 1 after telling my nanny I sleep naked. Si-hyun sighed.

“...How long are you going to milk that one?”

“Until I die is a bit much... so, let’s say until you turn forty?”

“Sigh... Being a double agent is hard enough. If you keep this up... I might just... develop some bad intentions, you know?”

“Ahaha, don’t worry. Our basement’s pretty spacious.”

“Ugh.”

After a bit of harmless teasing, I rolled around on the bed in just my underwear, focused entirely on my game.

Come next year, I’d barely have any free time. Thankfully, Civilization was the kind of game I could play solo whenever I had a moment.

Si-hyun stared at me playing, then finally spoke up.

“...But you haven’t been going to school lately. Is that really okay? You only show up during exams these days. Shouldn’t you be studying...?”

“It’s fine. Grandpa gave me permission. Honestly, I was bored out of my mind at school anyway, so this works out.”

Grinning, I stretched my arms. Grandpa no longer nagged me about school or told me to “be a good girl and study hard.”

It wasn’t because of some “women don’t need college” mentality or anything like that. It was because he finally realized I was the single greatest genius in both classical and modern finance.

As a result, I had plenty of free time these days. I could even sleep in as much as I wanted—waking up in the morning was a delight.

I did feel a little bad for Myrian, who now had to go to school alone...

But hey, shouldn’t she be grateful a pretty girl like me even hung out with her in the first place?

‘Ugh, aren’t I just amazing?’

—Ughhh... It’s an honor to live in Yoo Ha-yeon’s era...

I thought of that meme with the purple-haired anime girl making that exact face, then looked into the mirror.

An absurdly beautiful young woman, glowing in her prime, was smiling like an idiot back at me.

‘Kinda unhinged. I should tone it down a bit...’

Clearing my throat, I turned my ear toward Si-hyun’s running monologue.

“So then I’m fighting in Osaka’s nightlife district, outnumbered 17 to 1—”

“Mhm.”

“And while I’m trying to open a Swiss bank account by luring in some European guy, the police start investigating again—”

“Oh wow, really?”

“So I used the German bank account I set up earlier with Seon-jun oppa’s help... Um, young lady, you’re not listening, are you?”

Having just finished recounting her heroic tale of how she hid and moved my slush funds (which I hadn’t been listening to), Si-hyun pouted.

“What? I already got the report.”

“Well... but still, the story’s fun.”

I tilted my head and asked,

“By the way, why do you call Yoo Seon-jun oppa? You’re older than him.”

“...Huh?”

“Is it because he’s good-looking? Is that why? Damn, we’re doomed.”

Knew it. Something felt suspicious about the way she’d been talking.

“I mean, that’s not exactly wrong, but I’m not saying I feel that way. And besides, you call him that too, young lady.”

Hm.

Did I?

...Oh. I did.

Perfect memory doesn’t lie. Feeling vaguely annoyed, I randomly pulled Si-hyun into a hug and buried my face in her soft, pillowy chest.

“Tch...”

Family, huh?

Maybe Chairman Yoo Seong-pil had already half-accomplished his goal.

***

“Four people walk into a room to play poker. Suddenly, a bomb explodes and all four are blown to pieces. The audience is shocked.

Now let’s try it differently: Before they sit down to play, you show a man sneak under the table and plant a bomb.

Then they play, unaware. Right as the game ends and they start to rise, one of them says, ‘Let’s have some tea.’

That—is suspense.”

That’s a famous quote from Alfred Hitchcock. And by his logic, this current situation should be oozing with suspense.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and nobody knows. And that debt is growing by the second.

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But to me, it felt slightly different.

[Following the year-end audit of Barings Bank, Nick Leeson successfully avoided detection of the 88888 account.

It seems the auditors failed to identify any discrepancies in the falsified records you mentioned, young lady.

According to an on-site employee, the audit team refrained from raising concerns out of fear they’d reveal their ignorance of derivatives.]

Rustle.

Shockingly, Nick Leeson had survived.

Sure, he had a mountain of debt and a trail long enough to lasso the moon, but somehow he hadn’t tripped on it yet.

And even more shockingly, Leeson would barely be punished for this. Aside from a short prison stint, he’d come out of this relatively unscathed. I mean, the man was still alive even before I died.

Hell, even in my past life as a shut-in loser, he had more money than I did.

Barings Bank would suffer less damage than in the original history—after all, I owned it now, and I wasn’t going to let it get nuked—so the outcome wouldn’t be much different.

...Hm.

This wasn’t really suspense. It was too ridiculous. More like a slapstick comedy.

“Aha, I’ve read about that too. Bergson’s theory of laughter, right? It’s only funny when the audience is emotionally detached and the situation is unrealistic...”

“Yeah, that’s right. How do you know that?”

“I’ve worked for you for years, haven’t I? I try to keep up with your hobbies.”

“Then how come you still suck at video games, huh? Is it ‘cause you’re old?”

“....”

Heh.

I laughed and brushed off Si-hyun’s grumbling. Then I gave her a new directive.

“Alright, Si-hyun. Time to begin the operation.”

Her vaguely playful expression turned serious. She exhaled softly and nodded.

“...Understood.”

We’d had a few relaxed months. But now, the busy season was upon us.

If we wanted to strip the flesh from the corpse of a giant, we had to be ready.

“How much capital can we mobilize right this second?”

“Two billion dollars. It’s been placed in the U.S. for easy access.”

A lot, and yet still not enough. My Alpha Fund had hit $2 billion in capital during Japan’s bubble era—and most of that was now needed for Eastern Europe, Russian bonds, and other critical investments. Even with the massive profits from the CDS contracts, I still didn’t have enough liquid cash.

“Call Ha Yeong-il and max out the leverage. And... schedule a meeting with Quantum Fund.”

It was time for the shorting of the pound.

The British pound was vastly overvalued.