Chapter 80: The Audit

In the high-level conference room of the White Orchid Group, several middle-aged managers surrounded a young woman with puzzlement. This woman was so beautiful, beautiful to the point of feeling unreal.

She sat there quietly, seriously flipping through the company’s financial accounts. Her beautiful eyes swept back and forth across the paper, making one unable to help but envy the ledger held in her long, slender fingers.

The warm sunlight outside the window was a bit dazzling. An hour had passed without anyone noticing. The room was surprisingly quiet, with only the occasional sound of rustling paper, swish, swish, both rhythmic and pleasant to the ear.

“Gulp.” Someone swallowed, breaking the silence in the room. At this moment, the young woman also closed the ledger in her hands. She stood up, stretched languidly, her wonderful figure accentuated in the sunlight.

She glanced sideways at the nervous department heads and managers and showed a charming smile. “Don’t be nervous, everyone. I am just a friend of the General, here to help him carefully check the accounts. The main person in charge here is my father, Mr. Jellinek Cassia. I’m actually just a temporary guest accountant.”

“Miss Cassia, you are being too modest,” a department head said, bowing and scraping in agreement. What a joke. To be summoned by the big boss behind the White Orchid Group, Akado Rudolph—who was recently dubbed the ‘Napoleon of German Commerce’ in the business world—to review billions of dollars in official accounts, how could she be an ordinary person?

“Since you know I’m being too modest, then you dare to alter the whereabouts of nearly eleven dollars in the accounts?” Mercedes asked, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the highest-ranking department head there, her tone filled with an icy chill.

“Miss, I don’t know what you’re talking about. The accounts of the White Orchid Group have always been checked by Mr. Akado Rudolph himself. There have never been any errors in all these years,” the department head said, lowering his head to avoid Mercedes’s gaze, biting the bullet.

“When I was 9 years old, I started looking at my father’s company accounts. At 11, I started keeping my own ledgers. At 13, I began studying professional finance under the guidance of a private tutor,” Mercedes said with a smile. “For Akado to be able to create a giant conglomerate like the White Orchid Group in a few years, he is definitely no fool!”

Akado was indeed not a fool, but he was by no means a genius businessman. The White Orchid Group’s fortune was built on his embezzlement of Reichswehr public funds, and it grew because he knew in advance about many companies that were small now but would become incredibly famous in later generations. In terms of purely analyzing economic trends and controlling internal company finances, Akado couldn’t even be considered an amateur—he was pretty much a fool…

Mercedes paused, then continued, “If there was a deficit of 10 million, or 20 million, in the accounts, I could explain it away for all of you present. But for there to be a huge sum of money that vaguely goes missing at the end of every year, adding up to a billion over time, then there is only one hypothesis that makes sense. And that hypothesis is, Akado himself took this money! Am I right?”

The department head was visibly relieved. He looked up at Mercedes and then said in a low voice, “Miss Mercedes, I have great admiration for your professional ability. However, this matter involves Mr. Akado’s private affairs, so I implore you not to ask any further.”

Nodding, Mercedes once again showed a charming smile. “You see, a man must always have some secrets to be even more intoxicating, mustn’t he? I feel more and more that getting to know Akado is a very exciting thing.”

“With this sum missing, there’s no need to investigate the authenticity of the other accounts. As for how much you all have skimmed from inside…” Mercedes paused here.

“Miss Mercedes…” The several managers looked up at the woman who could potentially be their future boss’s wife, momentarily at a loss for words.

“Alright! I never said I was going to kick you out. Don’t look so mournful, as if a relative has died. I’ll take 100,000 US dollars back to report my work. You all have no problem with that, do you?” Mercedes stood up, walked to the door, and took her expensive-looking shawl from the coat rack.

“No problem, no problem!” Hearing that they didn’t have to spit out all the benefits they had skimmed, and that they wouldn’t lose this exceptionally respectable job, the several men, who were at least ten years older than Mercedes, bowed and waved their hands. “We’ll get it ready for you right away.”

Having her assistant carry a leather suitcase full of US dollars, Mercedes got into the Mercedes-Benz she had arrived in. Watched by a group of business tycoons worth millions, she left the headquarters of the White Orchid Group.

Nearby, the head of the White Orchid Group, Jellinek Cassia, had an undisguisable look of gratification on his face. He nudged the supervisor Akado had placed in the White Orchid Group, Borsa, with his arm. “My daughter, what do you think? Not bad, right?”

“If it weren’t for the fact that you have no background and wouldn’t be rejected by Akado, you think your daughter would have had a chance to rise? I would have much preferred to recommend my own niece to General Akado,” Borsa said, seeming quite indignant on behalf of his niece.

“I was talking about her methods and knowledge!” Jellinek Cassia coughed, blushing, and corrected him. “Who was talking to you about anything else?”

“Not bad. Basically, outstanding! I have to admit that although you’re mediocre in the business world, you are a success when it comes to raising a daughter,” Borsa nodded and said. “I’ll go back and give Akado a call right now to report the results! Alright?”

“I understand,” Akado said, putting down the phone from Borsa. A smile appeared on his face. He looked at Fanny beside him and continued with a smile, “Let’s continue. You said you wanted to launch a large-scale propaganda war next month to counter the campaign speeches of the Nazi Party leader, Hitler, in some regions. Do you have a specific plan?”

“I plan to expand the scale of the ‘War of Flags and Slogans’ propaganda campaign you planned in Berlin to cover all regions of Germany. To use a powerful propaganda offensive to destroy all our competitors, to fill everyone’s ears with our slogans! To cover everyone’s eyes with our posters!” Fanny said after some thought.

“Just that? People will get tired of this kind of propaganda bombing,” Akado said with a smile, waving his hand in dismissal of Fanny’s proposal.

“Then you must have some other good idea! You are the most genius person I’ve ever seen when it comes to propaganda!” Fanny said, hugging Akado’s arm coquettishly. “Don’t keep me in suspense, alright? Tell me, please.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you. Later, I’ll have Reinhard cooperate with you. At night, have the SS march through the streets with torches, in a neat goose-step. That aura will be even more intoxicating,” Akado said.

“You’re a genius, Akado!” Fanny said, a look of intoxication on her face after imagining the scene. “Have the Greater Germany Party’s MPs contact the mayor of Berlin and turn that night into a grand celebration!” As expected of someone who had been doing propaganda work for years, Akado had only given her a hint, and she had already perfected the entire plan.

“En, go on then,” Akado nodded and said. “I still have many things to do here. I’ll treat you to dinner another day.”

“Alright! Don’t be in such a hurry to shoo me away!” Fanny said with a wicked smile. “I know your Miss Mercedes is coming back soon. I’ll leave now, alright? Right! Akado, I’m applying to purchase several color cameras. I feel the interview with you should be even more unique!”

“That’s no problem,” Akado nodded and said.

Not long after Fanny left, Mercedes arrived at Akado’s office. Behind her followed the bodyguard and attendant Akado had arranged for her, a middle-aged man in an SS officer’s uniform, carrying a square leather case.

“I’m back,” Mercedes said, choosing a seat and sitting down. She then waved her hand at her bodyguard. “I’ve checked your accounts. Apart from the portion you took yourself, the small fiddles here and there are not significant. It seems your subordinates are still doing their best. I had them spit out a portion. You can save it up as pocket money.”

The SS officer placed the leather case on Akado’s desk, opened it, and turned it towards Akado. Inside were neatly stacked stacks of ten thousand US dollars.

“Thank you! I’ll treat you to dinner tonight,” Akado said with a smile. “Be my personal financial advisor. The entire financial group of the Greater Germany Party is enormous, with assets in the tens of billions of dollars. I need an expert in this field to manage it.”

“Alright! I’d like to try a restaurant that Mrs. Krupp recommended to me last time,” Mercedes nodded. “Being your personal advisor is no problem either.”

“That’s great!” Akado pointed to a pile of documents on the table. “I have an important meeting to attend in a little while. Could you wait for me for a bit in the reception room downstairs? Although this is very rude, please forgive me.”

“It’s alright,” Mercedes replied with a smile. “You attend to your business.”

As she spoke, she stood up. “I saw Miss Fanny’s car at the main entrance, and I also chatted with Captain Anna before coming in. Compared to them, I at least still have the chance to wait for you to have dinner together, don’t I?”

“Phew…” Akado let out a long breath. It seemed the women around him were all of the extremely intelligent type. He still had a long way to go if he wanted to have it all. “I…”

“I didn’t say it to make you explain. My dear Akado, I know what aristocratic life is like,” Mercedes smiled, as enchanting as a blooming rose. “I am the one placed by your side by the various financial groups. If I’m not mistaken, Anna is the one chosen by the military to counterbalance me… A man like you is destined not to have only one woman. I am very happy that as our respective chips, I am currently the most important one in your heart. Because only I can have dinner with you openly and justifiably, right?”

“I owe you all,” Akado managed to say after holding it in for a long time.

*TN: That’s it for the opening mass release chapters of this novel! Starting from the next upload, i’ll upload 2 chapter daily. if you want to access faster update, subscribe my patreon.com/caleredhair