Chapter 317 Attack at the Hotel
Daniel nodded in response.
The next act of the farce began, with the old yakuza from the Kuroki gang attempting to play the 'misunderstanding' card. Statements like "We don't really know that Kato-dono is Magitek's apprentice" and "We didn't find any medal on him! It's because of this petty thief that caused us this misunderstanding!" were thrown around, conveniently omitting the reason they dragged Kato out in the first place.
Having had enough of the charade and eager to get back to sleep after 18 sleepless hours, Daniel decided to cut through the nonsense.
"So why did you drag him out in the first place? If you hadn't, this whole farce wouldn't have begun," Daniel inquired, and the translator relayed his words to the occupants of the meeting room.
Though fully aware of the reasons behind Kato's incident, Daniel continued his questioning. The Syndicate Union manager had already reported all information about Kato, detailing the incident, Kato's relationship with the yakuza gang as a debtor, and the exorbitant interest exceeding 100% of the original borrowed amount to him.
"That was because he's our debtor," the old yakuza answered without fear, having prepared for this scenario. He then turned towards Tetsu.
"Tetsu, tell him what you did," the old yakuza ordered.
"Yes!" Tetsu, the yakuza in question, began recounting all that had happened throughout the year. He was remarkably honest and didn't conceal any wrongdoing. Perhaps he had resigned himself to the fact that he might not leave here alive.
In essence, he admitted that all this trouble was caused by him alone, and the gang had no knowledge of it.
As Daniel listened to Tetsu's account, he observed Kato's face, which displayed a mixture of anger and frustration. Daniel could only imagine what Kato was thinking. Even though he had experienced oppression before, the context was different now.
[It seems the old yakuza has decided to discard Tetsu, and Tetsu appears to be very loyal to that old man.] Reiko, Daniel's ghost servant sent her telepathic message to Daniel, commenting on the current situation.
After hearing the entire account through the translator, Daniel let out a knowing smile. "Seriously, and you don't know jack shit about it? Talking about lousy management, where did all that money go? Don't tell me your top earner didn't even give you a cut?" Daniel inquired.
After a brief pause, during which the translator relayed Daniel's words in a deliberately down-tone Daniel's rude manner, the old yakuza seemed a bit flustered.
He hadn't anticipated Daniel posing the question this way. If he admitted to receiving a cut, Daniel could find fault with them. If they claimed ignorance about the cut, even if they survived this ordeal, their reputation would hit rock bottom, making it exceedingly difficult to survive in their line of work.
"Lord Magitek, I didn't send all the supposed cuts to my boss. It's because my boss is trusting me, and I use that as my leverage to skim…" Tetsu wanted to continue, but Daniel held his hand out, stopping him from continuing.
He then checked the time on his wristwatch and saw that it's already 2 am in the morning, and he hadn't even caught a wink of sleep.
"Let me help you here. I don't care about the sob story you wanted to tell me or how you messed up big time. What I care about is how you guys are going to compensate my apprentice. Because… from what I know, he has already paid you more than 10 million yen, and surprisingly enough, his debt is still there. And from what I checked just now from your server." Daniel paused then punched in some commands into his console.
"His debt is still there and hasn't reduced even a single yen. And the last update on the status of his debt is the same day that it got registered. This means you haven't updated anything about it? How is that possible? And when I compare this to the account of the gang, it is clear that the gang always receives the payment on time, but all of those are interest rates. And he has already paid you more than 10 million yen! Don't tell me that your interest rate is 1000% of the original amount?" Daniel asked directly without sugarcoating as he showed the data he hacked from the gang server to the meeting room, then continued.
"I know that borrowing from you guys would have a very high interest rate, but… 1000% interest rate and not updating your debtor's paid debt account. Don't you think it's too absurd? I'm not going to ask you this for the sake of justice or morality standpoint, but from a business perspective." Daniel paused and punched in some commands into his console then continued.
"You have the shittiest business management I've ever seen! I think you've survived until today and even made some profit, but you might have already used up your nine generations of luck that your ancestors had accumulated. That's why you happened to mess with my apprentice." Daniel concluded and showed the people in the room the similar accounts that he had dug up from the secure server.
Of course, Daniel knew that at this point, the Kuroki gang just used debt to extort as much money as they could from Kato and even tried to use this debt to gain ownership of Kato's house since it has a considerably large area and is in the business district.
That's why he didn't bother to dig for another type of account, and only the loan shark business of this gang had account books that were stinking to high heaven. All of this was presented to the group in the meeting room to emphasize why it is a very bad idea to have any business deal with this gang.
Even though most of the people in the room knew the truth and Daniel's blatant intent to discredit the Kuroki gang, they didn't bother to correct them since this time it is Kuroki gang that messed up and offended the one whom they should not offend.
"Yes! Mr. Magitel! We will pay compensation along with canceling the debt and give back all the money that Kato-Dono had paid us so far." The old Yakuza quickly admitted his mistake and offered compensation to remedy this situation.
"That's more like it," Daniel said then turned toward Kato. "Kato, do you have anything to add?" Daniel asked, but his hand was opening the data he had mined from their server that indicated the gang even had some properties on the Japan mainland.
Kato, looking at Daniel who was choosing the best properties the gang had, like choosing a menu before receiving some instruction through telepathy, nodded and began to say what he wanted.
"I need a few properties from the Kutoki Gang. One of them must be a property in the mainland," said Kato.
After Kato stated these conditions, the old man and Tetsu's anger rose, but they didn't dare to show any sign of hostility before quickly keeping all of their ire in check.
"Just so you know, all of these properties are for my master to use as an experimentation ground, laboratory, workshop, and doing some rituals. As an apprentice, I need to repay my master's kindness, don't you think?" Kato asked with a smirk.
Damn! And you use our properties to pay!? Who told you to be this shameless!! is what both the old yakuza and Tetsu thought but didn't dare to express it.
Boom!
At this moment, the sound of an explosion echoed from the outside, followed by gunfire and the screams of people who might have witnessed the atrocities happening outside.
"What happened!?" The manager of the Syndicate Union branch quickly asked the security through the phone.
"The… The onmyo! The onmyoji attacked us! They are the onmyoji from the Kuroda clan!" The security guy from the other side said in alarm.
"How many of them!?" The manager inquired.
Boom! "Argh!" The sound of another explosion echoed through the phone, ending the call along with the life of that security guard.
"Ugh… And here I thought I would be able to have a good sleep." Daniel uttered, he was the calmest about this situation, followed by the two witches, Pride and Gluttony.
Boom!
Suddenly, a large monster made out of paper tore through the hard wall of the Syndicate and roared menacingly, startling the people in the meeting.
Bang!!!
A large caliber bullet burst the head of that paper giant, turning it into paper scraps and tearing apart all the magic, enchantments, or magical rituals the onmyoji had put in place to build that paper giant.
The shot was fired due to Daniel's natural instinct toward surprise attacks as a hunter. He always shot first at anything that dared to surprise him and directed its killing intent toward him first, then asked questions later… if it survived.
"That is… Onmyo Shikigami! Your gun can kill a Shikigami in one shot!?" Gluttony uttered the name of that construct, expressing surprise at how effective Daniel's weapon is.
"Huh? Shikigami? What's that?" Daniel asked in confusion.
Gluttony paused, thinking of a good explanation that could help a Western mage like Daniel understand.
"It's like a golem made out of paper, but more bothersome and harder to kill than a normal golem." Gluttony explained.
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