"Yes, Master." Tanaka continued his briefing. "But what's even more interesting is her family background."
The screen shifted, displaying photos of a middle-aged man and woman, along with detailed reports on their financial situation.
[Father: Kenichi Shiina, ordinary company employee, weak-willed personality, gambling habit, owes money to loan sharks.]
[Mother: Tomoko Shiina, housewife, extremely vain, craves an upper-class lifestyle, holds several online-loan accounts for luxury-goods purchases.]
Those strings of red numbers, representing debt, were genuinely alarming to look at.
"We've kept her parents under continuous surveillance for three months now."
Tanaka's tone was like that of someone presenting a feasibility analysis for a business project, cold and objective. "They are extremely greedy, and they have no bottom line whatsoever. With sufficient financial incentive, they would sell anything... including their own daughter."
Seiji Fujiwara looked at the detailed analysis report, and the flicker of interest that had just kindled cooled rapidly.
He leaned slowly back against the sofa, a trace of boredom in his voice.
"In other words, this hardly even counts as a hunt."
"It's more like... a purchase."
Hearing this, Tanaka instantly broke out in a cold sweat across his forehead.
He couldn't read his Master's mood. Was he displeased that the target was too easy, or...
"Yes, Master." He could only steel himself and answer. "It indeed... lacks any real challenge. But precisely because of this, it best reflects your current power. Your desires are the empire's directives. You needn't even appear personally. With a single thought, we will 'purchase' the most beautiful treasure in this world for you."
The flattery was pitched perfectly.
A smile returned to Seiji's face.
"Well put, Tanaka."
He waved his hand and shut off the holographic projection.
"I'm leaving this matter in your hands."
His tone was as though he were instructing a subordinate to purchase office supplies.
"Solve it with money. I don't care about the process."
"I only want to see results."
Tanaka felt as though he had received a pardon. He bowed deeply once more, his voice trembling slightly from excitement. "Yes, Master! I guarantee the mission will be completed!"
He withdrew from the study, his heart still pounding wildly.
He knew he had bet correctly again.
...
...
Meanwhile, far away at Shuchiin.
The campus after school was as lively as ever.
Mahiru Shiina, school bag on her back, walked home alone. She politely declined invitations from several boys who tried to strike up a conversation with her, and also turned down a few girls who suggested going to a cafe together.
It wasn't arrogance. She just wasn't used to it.
She was like a delicate glass figurine, displayed in a showcase called "school," receiving everyone's admiration and praise, yet always separated from everything around her by an invisible barrier.
Countless boys gossiped about her behind her back, exalting her as a goddess.
Countless girls envied her from afar, jealous of her angelic looks.
But no one had ever truly stepped into her heart.
On campus she was the perfect, ethereal symbol of "the angel."
No one knew that this "angel," upon returning each day to that home filled with debt and quarrels, carried such exhaustion and loneliness in her heart.
She gazed at the brilliant sunset on the horizon, and in her amber eyes flickered a trace of confusion about her future.
...
A weekend afternoon, bright with sunshine.
In the lounge of an exclusive hotel in Ginza with eye-wateringly steep membership fees, Mahiru Shiina's parents, Kenichi Shiina and Tomoko Shiina, sat awkwardly on plush sofas.
The decor was understated and luxurious, the air carrying faint notes of perfume and the rich aroma of coffee.
The surrounding patrons were all wealthy or distinguished, every gesture conveying a composure and elegance the Shiinas could not hope to imitate.
The Shiina couple felt like two earthen ducks who had stumbled into a swan lake, uncomfortable from head to toe.
Kenichi Shiina nervously adjusted his suit, the only decent one he had managed to dig out from his closet, the necktie tight enough to make him short of breath.
Tomoko Shiina, meanwhile, pretended to elegantly hold her coffee cup while stealing glances from the corner of her eye at the sparkling diamond watch on the wrist of an aristocratic lady seated nearby, her eyes filled with undisguised greed and envy.
"Dear, what do you think... that person from the 'Future Talent Cultivation Foundation' actually wants from us?" Tomoko Shiina asked in a hushed voice. "It sounds just like a scam."
"How would I know?"
Kenichi Shiina wiped sweat from his forehead. "But the other party booked out this entire place... they shouldn't be ordinary people. Anyway, let's be careful, don't get swindled."
Just as they were anxiously speculating, a gentle voice sounded before them.
"You must be Mr. and Mrs. Shiina, I presume? I am Tanaka, chairman of the 'Yamato Future Talent Foundation.' Apologies for keeping you waiting."
Tanaka had appeared standing before them without their notice.
He wore a hand-tailored grey suit and an understated Patek Philippe watch on his wrist, a warm and sincere smile on his face.
The composed aura emanating from him immediately made the Shiina couple feel tremendous pressure.
"Ah, Mr. Tanaka! Hello, hello!"
Kenichi Shiina hurried to his feet, wanting to shake hands.
Then, feeling that his status didn't warrant it, his extended hand stopped awkwardly in midair.
Tanaka smiled and proactively reached out, giving a light handshake, then sat down elegantly on the sofa opposite them.
"Please, have a seat. There's no need to be tense."
With those simple opening lines, he firmly seized the initiative in the conversation.
"Chairman Tanaka," Tomoko Shiina spoke up eagerly, a hint of obsequiousness in her tone, "we don't know why you've invited us out today, is it..."
"It's regarding your daughter, Miss Mahiru Shiina."
Tanaka came straight to the point, an expression of appreciation on his face.
"Our foundation has long been committed to discovering and cultivating future stars with top-tier talent around the world. And Miss Mahiru is, without a doubt, a pearl we have recently discovered."
He didn't mention money directly. Instead, he first placed an enormous compliment upon their heads.
The Shiina couple exchanged a glance, and from each other's eyes they saw confusion mingled with a sliver of secret delight.
"You flatter us. My daughter is just an ordinary student..." Kenichi Shiina demurred modestly, but the slight upturn at the corners of his mouth had already betrayed his inner smugness.
"No, Mr. Shiina, you're being too modest."
Tanaka smiled and pulled out a document from his briefcase. "This is the assessment report we commissioned from the world's top educational psychology experts, after analyzing Miss Mahiru's publicly available data at school."
"The report indicates that she possesses S-rank potential in multiple domains including logical thinking, artistic perception, and language acquisition."
"She is an uncut jade, a true genius."
Looking at that beautifully printed "assessment report" filled with all sorts of professional charts and data, the Shiina couple were thoroughly impressed.
"So..."
"So, our foundation hopes to provide Miss Mahiru with... an opportunity that will allow her to fully realize her gifts."
Tanaka paused deliberately at this point, and then cast out the bait that could drive any person mad.
"We plan to establish an exclusive 'cultivation fund' for Miss Mahiru. This fund will cover all of her future expenses for education, daily living, and... family support."
He gently pushed a budget draft toward the Shiina couple.
When they saw the long string of zeros following the total amount at the bottom of the budget draft, the Shiina couple's breathing instantly stopped.
It was an astronomical figure they could not have imagined in this lifetime, no, not even in the next lifetime.
Enough to immediately clear all their debts, and from then on live a life of extravagance, free from any worry about food or clothing.
Kenichi Shiina's Adam's apple bobbed up and down. He swallowed hard, his voice hoarse from being too overwhelmed:
"This... this... Chairman Tanaka, there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. What do you... or rather, what does your foundation, need from us... or from Mahiru?"
He had finally asked the most critical question.
Tomoko Shiina also stared nervously at Tanaka, terrified that the other party might propose some harsh condition they couldn't fulfill.
Tanaka smiled.
This was exactly the question he wanted.
"Mr. Shiina, you misunderstand."
A noble and compassionate expression appeared on his face. "Our foundation, and the anonymous philanthropist behind us who is dedicated to cultivating top-tier talent for the nation, have no requirements whatsoever for Miss Mahiru."
"Our only wish is to see this rough jade be carved into the most perfect work of art."
"However," his tone shifted, "the growth of a genius requires an absolutely pure environment, free from any disturbance. Family strife, outside harassment, even... financial pressures, will all contaminate that purity."
His words were like a precisely aimed knife, stabbing viciously into the Shiina couple's sore spots.
"Therefore, in order to allow Miss Mahiru to concentrate fully on her 'studies' and 'growth,' we hope she can move into an 'exclusive learning estate' provided by our patron. There, she will receive the most top-tier education in the world, and the most professional team will see to her daily needs."
"This..." Kenichi Shiina hesitated.
Having their daughter move out to live elsewhere... it sounded...
Seeing his hesitation, Tanaka immediately added, "Of course, as Miss Mahiru's guardians, the sacrifice you two are making has not gone unnoticed by our patron. Therefore, that 'family support fund' will be paid in full, in a single lump sum, to your account on the day Miss Mahiru moves into the estate."
This sentence was the final straw, completely crushing whatever hesitation remained in the Shiina couple's hearts.
Tanaka watched the unconcealable flames of greed in their eyes and knew the moment was ripe.
He pulled out one last document from his briefcase.
It was a contract bound with extraordinary care, its cover embossed in gold with the title.
"Guardianship Delegation and Cultivation Agreement."
"This is the agreement."
Tanaka's tone turned solemn and grave. "As long as the two of you sign here, it means that you are delegating, in full, the education, cultivation, and daily life management of Miss Mahiru prior to her coming of age, to our foundation."
"Once the agreement takes effect, the 'Angel Cultivation Fund' will be activated immediately. At the same time, this also means that during the cultivation period, in order to ensure the continuity of her studies and the purity of her environment, the two of you will not be able to visit or contact Miss Mahiru at will."
He laid out all the conditions in plain sight.
This was a naked transaction.
Trading their daughter's freedom and future for wealth they couldn't spend in a lifetime.
Kenichi Shiina and Tomoko Shiina looked at each other.
In that brief exchange of glances, there wasn't the slightest hesitation or struggle.
There was only the ecstasy of having reached consensus.
Kenichi Shiina, with trembling hands, took the fountain pen Tanaka offered him.
The moment the pen tip touched the paper, he didn't even bother to look carefully at the terms of the contract.
His mind was already filled with images of himself, after clearing his gambling debts, holding his head high at the gambling table.
His wife, meanwhile, had already begun to fantasize about herself, with the latest Hermès on her arm, flaunting her "having cultivated a genius daughter" before those aristocratic ladies who had once looked down on her.
Two strokes of the pen.
Two names were signed.
A commodity had been successfully traded.
Tanaka retrieved the contract, the gentle smile still on his face.
"A pleasure doing business, Mr. and Mrs. Shiina. Congratulations to you two for making a great contribution to the nation's future."
He stood up, gave a slight bow, then turned and left.
He left behind a greedy pair of parents already immersed in dreams of getting rich, who had even begun to argue quietly about whether to buy a sports car first or a villa first.
...