"Interesting. I haven't t a woman yet who dared refuse ."
Without the slightest hesitation, Naoya Zenin picked up the brush and swiftly signed the list.
"My cousins may all be disappointnts, but they were born Zenin and they'll die Zenin. That old fossil of an uncle of mine is making a complete spectacle of himself by letting them beg for scraps out there."
The mont Oda saw the mocking sneer that slipped onto Naoya Zenin's face, he shuddered.
Sure enough, this young master was still the sa as ever. Soone who loved humiliating the weak under the banner of strength.
By the next day, news that Naoya Zenin had sponsored Maki Zenin and Mai Zenin would spread through the entire school.
Mai, the younger sister with the more compliant temperant, might grit her teeth and accept it.
But Maki, the hot-tempered older sister, would absolutely refuse the sponsorship money.
That would be the sa as single-handedly going against the entire angel investnt system.
At that point, it would no longer just be a grievance between her and the Zenin Clan. It would beco a grievance between Maki and all of Jujutsu High...
The end result would definitely be expulsion...
Ah, poor Maki. But then again, who told you to provoke Naoya Zenin...
The middle-aged man could not help feeling sorry for that upright, stubborn young lady.
After all, he himself had beco this villain's lackey for the sake of money. So when it ca to the people brave enough to stand against Naoya Zenin, he could not help but place all his hopes on them, wishing with all his heart for this villain to be dragged down from his pedestal and made to suffer the punishnt he deserved.
Maki was still fighting to grow stronger, while he himself was still helping a villain like this do his dirty work. The sha of it was unbearable...
"Hm?"
Oda suddenly rubbed his eyes and stared at the sponsorship list in disbelief.
"Y-Young Master, did you fill sothing in wrong? Why is the signature here listed as anonymous?"
Anonymous sponsorship?
If public sponsorship could at least be called hypocritical self-promotion, then anonymous sponsorship was just being a good person without leaving a na behind.
With Naoya Zenin's vicious and rotten personality, shouldn't he have publicly sponsored them and completely crushed those twin sisters in the court of public opinion?!
"Oda, do you know what the most painful kind of tornt is?"
Naoya Zenin elegantly crossed one leg over the other, laced his fingers together, and a cold gleam flashed through those amber eyes.
"It is... letting her think she's found hope when she's at her most desperate."
The young nobleman in a haori spoke in a low, icy voice. The corners of his lips curled up slightly into an almost cruel smile.
Oda swallowed, and a fine layer of cold sweat seeped out across his forehead.
In that instant, he suddenly understood Naoya Zenin's intention.
Anonymous sponsorship.
That way, Maki Zenin would think soone was willing to support her despite the Zenin Clan's threats. It would let that runaway girl kindle hope, maybe even lower her guard, accept the money wholeheartedly, and start feeling admiration for her mysterious sponsor.
But the mont the truth ca out, once she learned that the money had co from Naoya Zenin...
That humiliation, of being toyed with and pitied, would be enough to crush any proud soul.
And even worse...
If Maki Zenin and Mai Zenin really used that money for research, or even managed to produce so kind of result, then Naoya Zenin could withdraw the sponsorship at any mont and send the twin sisters crashing down from the clouds in an instant.
That was real tornt.
Oda's fingers trembled slightly. All at once, he felt that he had still underestimated just how vicious Naoya Zenin was.
"Y-Young Master... are you really planning to do this?"
Naoya Zenin lightly tapped the tabletop with his fingertips. His brows drew together slightly, and his gaze turned cold and dangerous.
"Oda, since when did you start questioning my decisions?"
Oda felt his heart turn cold on the spot.
Because Young Master Naoya had seed unusually easy to talk to today, and had even rare as it was praised him, Oda had gotten so carried away that he had started overstepping his place.
So the one who had mistaken despair for hope was actually himself?!
What kind of lowly status did he, Oda, have, to dare question Naoya Zenin's decision?!
"Forgive , Young Master!"
The terrified middle-aged man instantly dropped to his knees and began frantically kowtowing and begging for rcy.
"I-I'll take care of it right away! I'll make sure it's done perfectly! Please rest assured, Young Master!!!"
Wait, are you a pussy cat?
Do you really need to get this worked up?
He had not even said anything especially harsh just now, had he?
But now that things had co to this, the young nobleman could only clear his throat, cross one leg over the other, and say leisurely in an arrogant tone, "Three minutes. I'm only giving you three minutes."
Right.
He had almost forgotten.
Naoya Zenin's popularity in the Zenin Clan was abysmal. Even though he was the heir to the next clan head, he had always been a loner, and there was no reliable lackey by his side.
It was simply because this young master was far too arrogant and cutting. Even if his succession was practically set in stone, none of the servants were willing to gamble their livelihoods and lives on him.
Originally, it had been the twin sisters, Maki and Mai, who attended to Naoya Zenin. But this noble young master simply despised won too much. He treated won as nothing more than tools for chores, and with Maki determined to beco independent, it was easy to imagine just how viciously he had bullied her throughout their childhood.
And there was even less to say about the male servants. Even if Naoya Zenin beca clan head, that would only be an outward title. The internal power structure of the Zenin Clan was tangled and complicated. Naoya Zenin looked down on everyone by nature. The only people he had ever truly regarded highly in his life were Toji Zenin and Satoru Gojo. Not only did he not bother building good relations with his relatives, he actually enjoyed making enemies everywhere. One day he would curse his uncle for being useless, the next he would sneer that his cousin was ugly as hell. Following a young master like that ant your future career path was nothing but a dead zone where all you could do was crawl along the ground.
So, looking at the trembling Oda, the transmigrator thought he should give the man a little benefit now and steady his morale first.
Otherwise, he really would not have a single errand runner left by his side.
With that thought, Naoya Zenin suddenly had an idea.
He patted Oda on the shoulder, straightened the collar that had been soaked through with cold sweat, and softened his tone as much as possible as he said, "Maybe you should give up your work in the Kukuru Unit and serve full-ti instead, Oda. You should start thinking about your family too."
Those words of concern instantly made the servant's hair stand on end.
He could not help lifting his eyes to Naoya Zenin's face, only to find endless chill hidden in those amber eyes.
Why was the young master suddenly bringing up my family?!
Was he threatening with them?!
Give up my work in the Kukuru Unit?
It was true that Young Master Naoya paid generously, and the wages for working under him were excellent. But he had never liked servants under him having minds of their own, much less acting in his na. Young Master Naoya despised useless people, and soone like Oda, a middle-aged nobody who had accomplished nothing, was exactly that.
Could it be...
Had Young Master Naoya already realized that I wanted to switch sides?!
Cold sweat ran down Oda's back.
It was true. Lately, he had often found himself wondering whether his life might have turned out differently if he had served Young Master Jinichi instead.
After all, Young Master Naoya really was too much of a bastard.
Young Master Jinichi might be ugly, but at least he was reasonable. The other day Oda had even seen him casually handing out waterlon slices to the servants, and his reputation in the Kukuru Unit was excellent. Basically, aside from his looks, he outclassed Young Master Naoya in every possible way.
But those thoughts had never gone beyond his own head. A coward like Oda would never actually dare switch loyalties.
And yet, what he never could have imagined was...
Even that had been perfectly seen through by Young Master Naoya?!
Oda's face went deathly pale on the spot. He silently swore that he would never dare speak ill of Young Master Naoya behind his back again, then hurriedly snatched up the docunts and ran off to deal with the sponsorship money.
Watching the servant flee in a panic, Naoya Zenin finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Success.
Unlike at the earlier eting, this ti his lines had not failed the check and made the situation get even worse.
Playing the role of a thoroughly villainous scoundrel was an enormous strain on him.
And just now, this transmigrator had not only passed the system's check perfectly.
He had also successfully conveyed the ssage he actually wanted the servant to understand.
After all, in the original story, if Maki Zenin awakened as [Toji], the first thing she wiped out was the Kukuru Unit.
If Oda kept working in the Kukuru Unit, then his family really would end up burying their son.
This transmigrator had already thought it through.
If he truly could not stop Maki Zenin from awakening, then the first thing he would do was imdiately sever himself from the Zenin Clan.
He would straight-up change his na and abandon his identity as the Zenin Clan's young master on the spot.
After all, the price of Maki Zenin awakening was fulfilling the binding Mai Zenin left behind before her death, which was to destroy everything belonging to the Zenin Clan.
So all this transmigrator had to do was cut off his father-son relationship with Naobito Zenin.
As for the Zenin Clan...
If Oda obediently listened and did his job, then he could be saved along the way.
Everyone else could fend for themselves.
To be honest, Naoya Zenin also wanted to keep living as Kyoto's young master.
But he wanted even less to end up as so roadside stray dog, beaten to death with one punch by his absurdly overpowered cousin.
Because if the plot unfolded as it should, then sooner or later Ogi Zenin would drive Mai Zenin to her death, and Maki Zenin would successfully awaken her [Heavenly Restriction].
So the only thing he could do now was raise his favorability as much as possible, so that when this future [Toji] was about to strike, she might rember the past and spare him out of rcy.
But when your starting favorability was already in the negatives, how exactly were you supposed to grind it back up...
"Don't tell I really have to die before we can reconcile?"
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