Mr. Hollister adjusted his transparent glasses and cleared his throat again, louder this time, in an attempt to revive the room from the faint hum of tension.
He flipped through the pages of the Will document with care, each of the leaves crackling under his fingers.
He spat sprays of spit on his thumb and fingertips to wet them, before turning to a certain page and stopping.
"I think," he said with a deliberate voice, "we should proceed with enumerating the properties and holdings owned by the Late Chairman Moses Carter."
He glanced through the pages for the second time, nodded his head in awe before he began to read out what was contained in the list.
"All these I'm about to call out are not simple but prime assets."
Hollister began his normal introductory speech, but it didn't trigger fatigue in Rino this time, including all other listeners. Everyone of them sat up straight, akin with keen interest in what they might inherit from the great Moses Carter.
"It should interest you that the late Chairman had assets..."
Josh interrupted him.
Rino came to realize he wasn't the only one tired of this lawyer's way with words. This specific behavior of his always made him appear like a blabbermouth whenever it comes to a trivial matter, like the one at the moment.
"Get on with it!" Josh yelled.
"Okay. Okay," Mr. Hollister said, and began reading out the list.
"Late Chairman Carter had different assets in locations like Kago, Liforn, Texas, and Chigan, only located in our country, Esme."
Rino reacted as soon as he heard the name of the country.
Esme?
He had never heard of any country with such a name existing in his former life. Although he was yet to understand some things about his reincarnation, it could have occurred to him to check out his location.
But his mind was far from thinking in that direction, especially, as he knew he reincarnated in the body of the second son of Moses Carter—a prosperous conglomerate in Texas, U.S.
In his initial life, he had been a citizen of the U.S., but to think that it wasn't the same with the country he was awakened in, he decided to keep mute anyway, and just observe.
Or, did he awaken in a different timeline from the one on Earth? Was he in another world?
Well, those answers were left for another day as Mr. Hollister's voice called him back to the present.
"There are two luxury estates owned in the Carter's name: one of which is in Kago, while the other is in Liforn."
"There is also a penthouse in Texas, and he owns 40% shares in Aurum Pharmaceuticals, one of the best pharmaceutical companies in Esme," Hollister stated, and pulled his glasses down a bit to observe his listeners.
"And of course, the Late Chairman has a collection of antique cars, not just in singular form but in fleets, which are packed in your family garage," Hollister said, and turned to the next page.
"He wishes that those cars should be used for socialist purposes, except the private ones already owned by each of you."
"He had also left and hung around with several bank accounts, much weighty sums unimaginable."
Now, the trio in the midst had gotten a glimpse and an idea of what kind of wealth made up the Carter Group.
They listened further, still and expressionless.
When Hollister started distributing the shares, the blow came with an invisible force.
"All Aurum Pharmaceuticals shares have been shared to be distributed for 40% of these shares to belong to Josh Carter, while the rest of the percentage belongs to his wife," Mr. Hollister represented a perfect third informant of this information.
The rest of the distribution and holdings followed the same pattern, with none having to address any issue.
The estate that was located in Kago was handed over to Rose, in addition to the one in Liforn.
The penthouse was officially handed over to Josh, and the corporate accounts?
"The corporate accounts will be split into 70 and 30 ratio, with Rose getting the favour of the bigger ratio," Hollister said.
"Uh...getting a 30% share from $700M is not bad," Josh mouthed, shooting Rino knowing glances. "Besides, the other share is going to my mom."
Rino could only blink slowly, each line without the mention of his name hitting him like a stone hurled into a quiet lake. Not even once. Just once. His name had not been mentioned in any property inheritance.
To make things appear worse for Rino, Josh gave smug nods each time the document containing his overtaken of each asset was handed to him.
Rose, on her part, swirled the wine in her glass with slow motion, lazily sipping from it like her whole world depended on whether the wine was going to finish.
Even though all that was happening pained Rino, he didn't flinch. He wouldn't blink as well. He preferred his wound to rip open inside of him. He could bear it.
Of course, he should. This kind of feeling was a regular pain in his former life, so it shouldn't give him much stress to handle.
Maybe she is right.
Rino thought and stole glances at Rose, who also seemed to calculate his eye movement to return the gaze as well.
And each time she did, her response came with that same delicate smile from before, now twisted into full mockery.
Truly, useless sons get nothing, right?
That should be right. Besides, he had been called that name after the Late Chairman expressed disappointment in him for not wanting to engage in business, calling him a Useless Child at the end of his then rant.
Rino could make his thoughts peaceful as the buzzing sounds broke the atmosphere.
He felt the vibrating intensity on his body and realized it was his phone.
So, he dipped his hand into his pyjama pocket and pulled out his phone. Staring wide at him was a notification from WeBull, which blinked on his phone screen.
«↓ Transaction Successful | Your Halford Tech shares have been successfully sold ↑»
A smug grin wanted to spread across his lips that instant, but he withdrew the reaction. His enemies shouldn't know about his success, at least not yet.
He just kept his face cold, staring at the numbers—no, the figures—which were astounding. His hands trembled slightly but his face remained unreadable as he continued this stare.
«↓ +15.8% ROI | Buyer: Anonymous Hedge | Total Payout: $27M ↑»
Rino's eyes twitched in shock, his lips parted slightly in disbelief.
I wonder what kind of Capital the real Rino Carter had put into this trade, or was the pip points for the trade so high?
This time around, he couldn't suppress the grin that clawed its way to the corner of his mouth. He might have gotten nothing, but he knew he got a lucky digital businesses to play along with.
"Mr. Rino Carter," Hollister called, snapping him back.
"Hmm?" Rino shrugged.
"You also inherited three properties from your late father," Hollister said, placing a different set of documents in front of him. "These properties weren't included in the Central estate due to their legal standing and financial performance, but the Chairman had deemed it fit to gift them to your ability and capabilities."
Josh was the termite that bit into the wood first. He burst into laughter, his bass voice sounding harsh and barking.
"You're kidding, right? You gave him those? Like, father even knew about their chart performance, why give him those?" Josh asked, with laughter tinged in his tone. "Don't tell me father was also trying to make it clear to him that he's his bastard son."
The moment seemed so hilarious for them. Even Rose chuckled now, shaking her head.
"Shanties and rotten shell," she muttered.
Rino didn't look at either of them. To fully understand what their jests were about, he thumbed through the documents:
— A deserted Digital Innovation Hub in Medar, Esme, named Nova Nexus Tower.
— A crumbling resort, Silverstream Resort, located in Ratzh, Esme.
— A fallen digital finance firm that has gone bankrupt, Titan's Vault Bank, located in Lagu, Esme.
Now, Rino understood why he was mocked that hard.
From the fragments of memories he acquired, those locations were more or less known as remote areas that hasn't been predicted to embrace any form of development. That was why the businesses set up in that area died down not long after they started.
He wanted to question his luck of life when the phone, which he held in his hand, buzzed with another notification.
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«↓ Congratulations | Milestone Unlocked ↑»
«↓ You are the first investor to reach Tier 1 Milestone: 'Wealth Maker' ↑»
«↓ New System Awakened | Throne of Gold System ↑»
«↓ In this timeline, the user will be guided on some analysis before decisions could be reached. This is not a "what-to-do" system, rather, it is a "should-you-do?" instructor ↑»
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rino blinked. His guesses were right. Things turned out different after he arrived here, from the way the setting of the house features were, to other notable things he took note of.
But—
He continued staring at the notification to understand what it meant by those two phrases.
The system had mentioned that it wasn't a what-to-do system, meaning that it wasn't going to be Rino's decision maker. It wasn't going to tell him what and what not to do.
But, a should-you-do system?
Does that mean it was only going to be serving as a guide to achieve milestones in the investing business?
His thoughtful questions were unanswered, as the notification that blocked him from accessing his phone replaced itself.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
«↓ System Activated ↑»
«↓ Synchronization Activated ↑»
«↓ 10% ... [64%] ... 99% | Completed. ↑»
«↓ Binding with the user's memory ↑»
«↓ 5% ... [55%] ... [78%] ... 99% | Completed. ↑»
«↓ User: Rino Carter | Established ↑»
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The notifications had disappeared from his phone, just in time to prevent Josh from peering into what it was that made Rino ignore his jests.
But they now played in Rino's mind, anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
«↓ Starter Package Unlocked | $27M Investment Fund ↑»
My lucky jackpot.
«↓ Skill Unlocked | Wealth Vision (Lv. 1) ↑»
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josh slammed the table beside Rino. "Hey! We're laughing at you, not with you, genius."
Rino looked up, slowly. "It's good you learn to call me a genius." Then, he smiled.
Gathering the documents, he stood up to leave the dining room but halted in his tracks.
"You laugh at my misfortune for getting these properties from father, right?"
Josh raised a brow, wearing a smirk. "We call them sloths, brother. Liabilities. Dying assets."
Rino turned to him and repeated the word slowly.
"Sloths?"
"It's funny, right? How the lazy, useless child ended up getting these sloths."
"Don't blame yourself," Josh shoved a hand before him, smiling. "Save yourself the blame by just calling yourself a bastard."
"Good," Rino swallowed. "Watch me turn these sloths to gold."
With a final nod to Hollister, who simply stared, stunned, and a smile to Rose, Rino pivoted and walked down the pathway to his room.