I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 149: The Leverage

"Women are scary when they’re angry," Maurice says deadpan.

Silence falls.

The Montrose children don’t dare to laugh. They only look at one another, holding back their smiles.

Leila glares at Maurice long enough to make him squirm. He presses his lips together and mutters, "I’ll definitely pay for that later."

Satisfied, Leila turns her attention back to her son.

"What happened after that?"

"Silvia pouring her heart out to Jessica happened last night," Arthur says. "This morning, Silvia went to work and found Ryan unusually sweet and apologetic. She saw it as an opportunity to lure him out of his office."

"But it didn’t work at first. Ryan refused to leave his office, and both women were close to giving up. Near the end of office hours, though, Ryan suddenly asked Silvia if she wanted to go shopping."

Arthur exhales. "She immediately agreed. She hid the bruise and swelling on her face as best she could and went shopping with him."

"She texted Jessica and left the office door unlocked. Since it was near the end of office hours, once Ryan and Silvia left, the rest of the staff also went home right on time."

"We can all imagine what happened next. Jessica went up to the office and retrieved the evidence. She was successful. She gave me the evidence and it was safe with me ever since."

Arthur pauses.

"As for Jessica, when she was leaving Ryan’s office, she ran into those four men. Apparently, after learning that Ryan had slept with her, Greg had installed a tracker on Jessica a long time ago."

"He was notified when Jessica entered the office while Ryan was absent."

"So Greg sent hired thugs to bring her to him. He wanted to know why she was in the office without Ryan."

"She panicked and ran."

"And you know the rest."

Arthur exhales again.

"Whoa. What a night for Jessica," Julian comments.

The rest of the family agrees silently.

"What did she do after that?" Leila asks. "She couldn’t possibly go back to her place. That would’ve been too risky."

"You’re absolutely right, Mom," Arthur says. "After learning that she’d had a tracker hidden in her bra, she figured that everything she owned might have a tracker on it too. So she asked me to check everything on her. I did, and luckily we didn’t find any more trackers."

He pauses. "But she was still afraid. And rightly so. It was too risky for her to stay anywhere familiar. She needed to disappear."

"So Sam arranged for her to stay in one of our sister companies in real estate," Arthur continues. "They had several empty apartment units that were still for sale. Sam bought one under someone else’s name and placed Jessica there."

He exhales lightly. "To stop her from spiraling, from being afraid and paranoid about not being able to go anywhere, I gave her something to focus on. I gave her the task of combing through the evidence she retrieved."

"Well," Arthur adds, "not the originals. I’d already made copies of everything. She was combing through the copies."

"And once again, my decision paid off," Arthur continues. "I sent Sarah to help Jessica. So for the next few days, the two of them were busy combing through the evidence. And what a treasure trove it turned out to be."

"We found out that even though Ryan is stupid, he’s meticulous. He documented everything. Every transaction, every transfer. Dates, detailed descriptions of what each transfer was for, even phone call recordings complete with transcripts. I mean everything."

Arthur exhales softly. "Even Sarah, the most meticulous person in my office, had to tip her hat to him."

"Unfortunately," he adds, "he only had evidence on the Blackwood dealings with Stille. No one else. I guess Greg was cautious and never gave Ryan authority over any other dealings. Just the ones involving Stille."

"But," Arthur grins, "we did get a bonus."

"Among those recordings, we found one where Stille and Ryan were talking about the Baroness. Both men were cruel and sick when it came to women. I think they bonded over that." Arthur’s expression darkens in disgust.

"They were talking about their women, and Stille described how the Baroness was in bed."

Arthur exhales again. "I’m not going to repeat what they said. It was vile. I’m a man too, but I don’t condone that kind of behavior.

Leila clicks her tongue loudly. "Tsk. You’re not even the same species as those men. Don’t ever compare yourself to them again." She’s clearly upset.

"Wait," Theo interjects again.

Arthur looks at him, smiling faintly. He can already guess what Theo is about to say.

"Was that why you asked me to call the Baroness and arrange a meeting between you and her?"

Arthur is already nodding by the time Theo finishes his question.

Theo gasps, then laughs. "You brought the recordings? You let her listen to it?!"

Arthur nods again, smiling this time.

"Arthur!" Leila exclaims. "She’s the Baroness! How could you let her listen to that?!"

Arthur shrugs. "I didn’t want to. But I saw no other option. It was the fastest and surest way for the Baroness to cut her ties with Stille and Ryan Blackwood."

"I didn’t bring the whole phone call, just an audio clip of the part where they were talking about her."

Arthur can still remember the look on the Baroness’ face when she heard it.

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He could feel it. The air surrounding him became hostile. The breeze did not grow stronger, but it sharpened, almost as if it could cut his skin.

The Baroness remained seated, but she gripped the armrests of her chair until her knuckles turned white. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes filled with cold fury.

The Baroness was completely enraged. She had never been this humiliated in her life. The air around her once again responded to her rage. It swirled upward and blew everything behind her into a cluttered mess.

They were sitting inside the Baroness’ living room, in her luxurious apartment.

Arthur watched it all with amazement. Maeve hadn’t been lying. The Baroness did know magic.

I guess her resonance is wind? he thought.

It felt strange for him to see someone using magic outside a dungeon, where mana was scarce. He had been practicing his fire magic exactly as Teacher Theo had instructed, but it was difficult because of the lack of mana.

He had been using his inner mana to practice, and it exhausted him easily.

Now, right in front of him, another human was wielding magic freely. And in his mind, just as freely as Teacher Theo.

I wonder which one of them is more powerful.

Arthur had always regarded Theo as Teacher Theo in his heart and mind. To him, Theo was his teacher. Calling him by name felt disrespectful. He had only agreed to do so because Theo himself had ordered it. But deep down, Theo would always be Teacher Theo to him.

Arthur cleared his throat, then called out gently, "Your Ladyship?"

The wind instantly died down.

The Baroness’ eyes which had been closed this entire time, slowly opened. She took a few deep breaths.

When she finally looked at Arthur again, her usual composure had returned, with no trace of her losing it just a few seconds ago.

"I deeply apologize, Arthur, losing my temper. It is unbecoming."

Arthur smiled slightly. "I understand completely, Your Ladyship. It is a wonder that you can still calm down. If it was me... I’d probably couldn’t" He bowed slightly, to show his appreciation.

The Baroness looked at him and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

"I do not want to insult your intelligence, and please do not insult mine."

She pauses.

"Tell me, what do you require of me?"