Villain: 10x Rewards Begins With The Protagonist's Mother

The car stopped in front of a towering glass building. The Raven Group logo sat at the top in polished silver, catching the morning sun.

Emma stepped out first. Dante followed and looked up at the building for a second before putting his hands in his pockets.

’Even in another world, I can’t escape having a job.’ He had a reluctant look in his eyes. Being a villain was already a full-time job. There was no way he was going to waste half his day in this corporate jungle.

’At least I’m a director.’ That gave him some relief.

In his memories, Natasha gave the CEO position to Emma and offered the Chief of Staff role to Dante. But that idiot refused it because he didn’t want to be close to Emma.

Thankfully, he didn’t do something even more stupid like insisting on working his way up from the bottom as a regular employee.

The moment they walked through the main entrance, every employee in the lobby put down their phones, cut their conversations short, and straightened up as heads turned in their direction.

"Good morning, Ms. Emma!"

"Good morning, Mr. Dante!"

Emma responded with a short nod, her usual cold expression already in place.

She had always maintained this image.

It started as a way to hide her weak self and protect herself from others. Over time, it just became her default and she built a reputation as a strict and serious leader because of it.

Only the people close to her knew the person hiding behind that cold mask.

Dante just smiled and nodded at whoever greeted him. He didn’t know a single name but he played it off naturally.

A woman with dark red hair and glasses was waiting for them by the elevator. She had a tablet in one hand and a stack of files under the other arm.

"Good morning, Ms. Emma. Sir Dante." Sasha gave them both a nod before looking at Dante with a face that was clearly holding back words. During the time they were away, Emma had asked him to look after the company but this guy hadn’t shown up even once.

"Ahem, I was sick. You can ask Emma." Dante read the redhead’s thoughts and let out a cough.

"It’s true." Emma said with a smile, giving Dante an amused look.

"Is that so? Are you alright now, Sir?" Sasha asked with some worry.

"Yeah yeah, I’m good. Why are you asking so many questions? Aren’t you a secretary?" Dante had an annoyed look on his face and walked into the elevator.

"Sir, how could you say that? Did you forget the three of us used to play together as kids?"

Sasha and Emma followed him in with smiling faces.

Dante ignored the two of them and pulled up the feed while pretending to look at his phone.

He hadn’t forgotten about Natasha’s suspicious behavior this morning.

On the screen, he saw Natasha getting into her car alone. ’Where is she going right after sending us off?’

Seeing him ignore them completely, a bit of confidence appeared in Emma’s eyes. ’If he’s like this, the wall slam should be no problem.’

"What’s first on the schedule?" She asked.

"The morning meeting starts in fifteen minutes. I’ve prepared the briefing notes." Sasha replied, handing the tablet over.

"Good." Emma took it and went through the notes. "Anything urgent?"

"The development team wants approval on the Phase 3 expansion and there’s a supply chain issue with the southern branch."

As they talked, the elevator doors opened and they arrived at the floor where the meeting was being held.

***

Forty minutes into the meeting, Dante wanted to die.

He was sitting at a long conference table surrounded by executives in suits, all staring at a projection screen while the development lead went on about quarterly targets and resource allocation.

The guy was pointing at a chart. "As you can see, the projected growth for the southern expansion is limited by the current logistics infrastructure. We’ve been looking into third-party solutions but the cost estimates are significantly above budget."

Several executives nodded seriously. Emma sat at the head of the table with her chin resting on her hand, listening carefully.

Dante stopped listening somewhere around "projected growth" and pulled up the feed again.

The screen showed Natasha inside a fitting room, standing in front of a mirror wearing a black lingerie set with a garter belt and stockings. She was examining herself with a dead serious expression, the lace and straps hugging her body tight as she slowly turned to check how everything looked from the side and back.

"What the—!" A sound escaped his mouth before he could stop it.

Every head in the room turned toward him.

Emma raised an eyebrow.

The development lead paused and looked at Dante with an uncertain expression. "Mr. Dante, do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

’Shit.’ Dante closed the feed and straightened up in his chair.

He had no idea what they were talking about. But he had Business Sense (D) and the business knowledge he inherited from the original Dante.

He looked at the projection screen for a few seconds and the problem jumped out at him immediately.

They were trying to build new logistics from scratch when there were already existing networks they could absorb.

’A D-rank talent is this good?’ He turned to glance at Emma. ’Then this woman must have known the answer ages ago.’

She met his eyes with a curious look, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Why build when you can buy?" Dante sighed internally. He just wanted to sit through the meeting in silence but this was his own fault for not keeping his mouth shut.

He just didn’t expect his master to give him a visual treat of that caliber.

He cleared his throat. "There are at least five mid-size logistics companies in the southern region that are struggling financially right now."

"Acquire one, integrate their infrastructure, and you cut the timeline in half for a third of the cost."

The room went quiet.

The development lead opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked at his chart, then back at Dante with some surprise.

"That’s..." He started.

"That’s the right answer." Emma finished, sitting up straighter. A sharp look appeared in her eyes as she looked at Dante from across the table.

"Run the numbers on acquisition targets in the southern region. I want a shortlist by end of week."

"Y-yes, Ms. Emma." The development lead scrambled to make a note.

A few executives exchanged glances. This was the same director who used to sit through meetings without saying a single word. He hadn’t even shown up to work for the past two weeks.

What the hell happened to him during that time?