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TVRWS 45
🕑 Added 2024-05-27 18:28:23 +0000 UTC45: Conglomerate
As Vivian's carriage made its way through the impoverished districts, it eventually arrived at an area dominated by massive structures. Hundreds of factories lined the streets, their smokestacks billowing fumes into the air and pipelines running along their exteriors. A prominent sigil adorned each of these buildings —the ostentatious "M" of the Moore Conglomerate— signifying the family's immense influence in the industrial sector.
Vivian recalled that part of the game in Robert Moore's questline where his father and sister deny him his inheritance of the family business. The reason was these factories were considered destructive to the environment by the Heroine who visits them one day, which leads Robert to confront his father about them and demand to halt the production lines until a solution is found.
This, of course, can't be received well by the head of the richest family in the Empire and causes a rift between the father and son. Vivian concludes that Matilda is aiming to ruin the family business and thus the bullying starts, which eventually ends up with Vivian's ruin, the count's house arrest by interference from the Royal Family, and Robert taking over the family business.
But now, even Vivian has to admit that if the situation were to happen in the future, House Moore would be at risk. Most of these factories work on coal power where early versions of the Steam Engine power up the whole industry. If left like that, it will worsen the quality of life in the surrounding residential districts and will weaken the Moore Family's stance when the Heroine makes her move against them.
Vivian opened her note and wrote down one more task to focus on in the future. Such a task will require a lot of innovation and diplomacy to get it done.
After a few minutes, the carriage arrived at a building so large and grand it was almost the size of the royal palace. In front of it, a large sign was adorned with golden luster and said one word.
"Moore!"
Located at the core of the Moore Industrial, Financial, and Trading Conglomerate, a clockwork environment prevailed on a massive scale, bustling with nearly ten thousand employees. They diligently contributed to the seamless functioning and success of every branch of this expansive business enterprise.
In front of the main building stood an open space where the carriage arrived. Several armed men wearing suits, capes, tricorne hats, swords, and pistols surrounded it. Known as the Moore Guards, this elite foot soldier force protected every Moore business. One of the guards, equipped with additional protective gear, swiftly approached the carriage and opened the door.
"Lady Vivian, it is a pleasure to see you in the Headquarters."
"Sir Adrian, it has been a long time."
This was the Head of Guards at the Moore Conglomerate. Originally a distant relative of the Moores, he is a fairly young swordsman who achieved much and managed to rise to this tank by gaining the Lord's confidence.
"You just missed the Lord. He told me to tell you to head to the upper conference room right away."
"Understood."
As Vivian passed, Logan and Adrian looked at each other and greeted one another with a fist pump, showing their deep friendship. As the two would see each other often, no further words were needed to be exchanged.
The Headquarters building was only two stories tall but extended on many acres of land left and right. Its front design resembled Roman architecture with many pillars holding the triangular ceiling and the rest of the building was pretty Elgardish with tall windows and a stone base.
The entrance could be reached by climbing almost twenty wide stair steps and it was made of five large gates.
A lot of hustle and bustle was going on all around the entrance as employees and clients came and went by but as soon as two lines of Moore Guards took to the center of the stairs, the central gate was isolated to let Vivian pass through with her companions and knights.
After passing the entrance, the building inside was unbelievably made of an incredible assortment of white and black marble slabs. In the center, the guards cleared a huge curved stairway, and Vivian climbed it until she reached the second story.
Receiving her was the face of her father painted on an incredibly large painting and surrounded left and right by shields carrying the family's coat of arms.
"This way, Lady Vivian."
Sir Adrian walked to the right and entered a large hallway where the windows were on the right and the building's chambers were on the left. The rays of the sun entered through every window and illuminated the large hallway with all its marvelous decorations from dark curtains to armor suits to vases and flowers.
Finally, the group reached a large wooden door that can be considered as big as a mansion's gate. Sir Adrian and Logan pushed the door right and left and opened it for Vivian to enter.
Seeing the inside, even Vivian had to gulp as it seemed this was a Full House situation in front of her. A large conference room was what she saw with some of the Empire's richest people gathered within.
This conference room alone could be considered as large as the King's throne room and that's no small thing to compare to. As Vivian entered, the head secretary walked to her and ordered the knights to shut the door behind them.
Vivian was led to the large oval table in the center of the room and there she could see all the figures gathered in the room. Aunts and uncles, businessmen and businesswomen, partners and associates, the room had them all and they were spread around in groups across the room.
Some of them even eyed Vivian with sharp looks and others went to greet her immediately. She started to greet them as confidently as she could and tried well enough to remember their names.
As for the secretary who received Vivian, he immediately retreated to a large door further into the room, and a minute later, Lord Julian Moore walked out steadily and firmly while sharply eyeing everyone and analyzing which partners would group up together this time around.
As he assumed the seat at the head of the table, things were very quiet and all the groups joined up together towards the table, each member to their seats.
"Since we're all gathered, let's start today's agendas." Count Julian spoke up in a calm voice that was heard by everyone around the room easily.
The meeting began and Vivian was surprised by the power these people would actually muster. Some of them spoke of funding wars while others spoke of constructing cities and investing in nations.
Nothing said in that meeting was trivial in any way. These people would bring up these subjects and then make their intentions clear like ruining a rival or acquiring the rights to certain production lines.
For the first time, Vivian felt intimidated by the atmosphere in this room. Even though she prepared to speak, what worth would her petty business venture amount to those big whales?
And just like that, the partners and associates meeting was concluded after two hours of conversing and everyone turned to Vivian, whose seat was the last in the right row of seats.
"The last item in today's meeting will be the establishment of ViTech, an enterprise suggested by my daughter Vivian and will be managed by her. The subject of enterprise will be research investment and managing developers."
"My Lord, if you excuse me, we already have many departments focusing on research and development. The best in the country at that. Wouldn't it be a waste of resources?"
The one speaking was Tristan Moore, Lord Moore's cousin and the director of the heavy industries department."
"Vivian has convinced me and I personally have no doubts that she will succeed. She is here today to gain the support of the directors and convince you with her new ideas." Lord Julian said.
"If she has your support to this extent, she could have just begun her work. Why drag the girl all the way here?" The Director of Trade, Agatha Moore, spoke while eyeing Count Julian sharply.
"Please, allow me to speak." Vivian stood up and walked to the opposite end of the table and faced the attendees, "Since I am speaking to my elders, I won't be comfortable sitting down, so excuse my action.
While I am inclined to greet you as Aunts, Uncles, and Family Friends as I am used to, today I meet you as the respected directors and the esteemed partners of the Moore Conglomerate."
Vivian's manner of speaking became calm and confident despite how intimidated she was by those dangerous characters.
"To be brief, ViTech, which is short for Vivian's Technologies, is an establishment that focuses on investing in researchers and managing developers. As its founder, my vision is not to pursue the same old style of research, but to completely pioneer into new fields that the competitors might beat us to. By no means I am undermining the huge funds you raise for the sake of development, I am just going to do it in a more efficient and academic way.
For the past few days, I have had some correspondence with some of the elite scientists and engineers in many fields, the ones who teach in all three royal academies and the other independent academies across the Empire. Aside from funding them like the usual, we laid out what can be referred to as a Pyramid Scheme of Development."
Vivian, who stood with her right hand on top of her left, moved her hand aside and snapped her finger for a blackboard to appear beside her from her Storage Purse. On it, she has a drawing and some diagrams for her business setup.
"As agreed with our partner professors, they will take the following approach. First, researches of trivial worth or unexplored potential will be handed down to their students for their graduation projects, and each student will have to spend one whole year on a project to look into its potential and understand its dimensions.
Postgraduate students will pick up from where the graduate students left and will be assigned the most favorable projects by their supervisors. Such projects may take time to develop but trusting our partner professors' vision, they will pick the projects with the highest potential for bearing fruits.
Finally, after reaching an advanced stage, the research will be handled by a professor no less. We trust them to develop the rough ideas into polished applications that we in the Moore Conglomerate can directly benefit from.
Our role as ViTech is to fund every researcher on the three stages of the pyramid and provide them with benefits they can't find on the job such as advanced labs, health insurance, personal security, and other moderate luxuries. In exchange, every single piece of research data will be documented and preserved by ViTech, which is a direct subordinate of the Moore Conglomerate, enabling all our departments and partners to benefit directly without any form of rivalry between the members.
And to not cause any hard feelings, each project will be patented to its researcher and will be given lifelong benefits till the day they draw their final breath on the scale of their achievement. In exchange, ViTech gains the right to develop and distribute the technologies we acquire as we see fit, the researchers will have to give up on that right for us or become a business subsidiary if they have any plans on getting into the big market.
That was the Investing in Researchers part, as for Managing the Developers, it will be almost the same thing. Still, we will have our own teams of professionals in the house which I am in the middle of assembling as of now."
Vivian was done explaining her grand plan and turned to the partners.
"While it seems like a long-term enterprise, we have already begun the development of a few key projects and we expect to open a new assembly line if the manufacturing department director accepts the final results of our research. As for what we need, we currently have a manager, a technician, and a crafting expert, so we'll need a number of personnel who can manage this enterprise until its gears are greased and tick like clockwork. Thank you for listening."
Vivian finished her presentation and retrieved her blackboard then walked back to her seat.
"I assume most of you see it as a hopeful project…" Lord Julian spoke but he was interrupted.
"Way too hopeful, my Lord… if you excuse me saying." Said a curly red-haired woman with nothing natural about her makeup.
"Miss Natasha may think that but I see that Vivian has presented a very lucrative offer to everyone involved." Tristan Moore replied with disdain towards the red woman.
"I am inclined to agree with Miss Natasha. Vivian's confidence was built on a lot of trust. Its method is untested." Agatha Moore sided with the red woman.
The directors and partners started to voice their own opinions. While some seemed in favor of ViTech, many seemed against it. Still, the final say was for the man at the head of the table and he was already in favor of it.
"Lady Natasha Ivanov, I assume?" Vivian spoke to the red woman directly.
"Yes, Lady Vivian, it is the first time we meet." Natasha replied with a big smile.
"I was embarrassed not to recognize you right away. As a valuable partner, you have my deepest respect for everything you bring to my family's business. Your brand of cosmetics is all the craze in the city these days." Vivian said while smiling.
"Lady Vivian, you're too kind. However, I don't see you using any of my products. That's not good advertising." Natasha said while sharply eyeing Vivian's minimal makeup.
"I would love to, Lady Natasha. Sadly, my skin is too allergic to chemicals so I can only rely on organic recipes." Vivian replied.
"How… sad! I'll begin putting in the effort to make the best that suits you soon, my dear."
"Oh, how kind of you! Thank you."
Vivian couldn't smile except with her lips as her eyes remained cold and indifferent.
Unfortunately, the Moore Conglomerate has a lot of dangerous weaknesses, especially that woman Natasha.
In the route of Ian Grayson, this woman actually makes an appearance and because of her harmful products, she ensnares the Villainess of that route into her own self-destruction before getting beaten by the Heroine's new brand of cosmetics that doesn't have as many chemicals and isn't dangerous to the skin.
One way or another, the Moore Conglomerate will take a blow in that route and it's better to do something about it soon.
"Since the discussion about the new subsidiary enterprise is over, I would like to give Vivian my persimmon to go ahead and I will give her a month to show me the fruits of her work. Let's not ask for anything grand, since what I am offering is personnel support and a funding of 1,000,000 pounds."
"That's reasonable." Tristan Moore nodded, "I am funding ViTech as well with 250,000 pounds. I hope that your promise about contributing to the manufacturing department is fulfilled soon, niece."
"Thank you, Father, and thank you, Uncle Tristan."
"The food manufacturing department invests 150,000 pounds."
"The mechanical department invests 150,000 pounds as well. We would love to see Miss Vivian succeed."
"Donovan and Sons for fabric manufacturing invest 100,000 pounds…"
"Hynshire Cattle Company invests 120,000 pounds…"
Even though the majority of the board members didn't show favor to Vivian's enterprise, the investments kept flowing until Vivian reached twice the amount of money she thought she would be receiving.
It seemed that rather than just giving her his support, Lord Julian wanted others to support Vivian and boost her first step in the merciless world of business.
As for Vivian, who went broke after paying for Voros' freedom, her funds now have reached 2,000,000 pounds.
But as Vivian recalled Voros, one of the secretaries came from outside and subtly approached Count Julian without raising suspicions from the directors or the partners and whispered something to him. Vivian took notice of that as she was conversing with one of the partners who sat beside her and noticed that for a slight second, her father frowned at her.
This was a quick one! She thought that he wouldn't hear about it at least till she left.
She has to nip this problem in the pud before a PR disaster happens since it seems like the members of the board will soon start hearing about her visit to the Black Market too.
So as soon as the meeting was concluded, Vivian chased after her father who was walking to his office.
"Father, a word if you may."
"I was just about to call for you."
"News travel, huh?"
"…"
"Daddy, may I ask you a question before we delve into the main topic?"
"Go ahead, Vivian."
Seeing as he was being patient with her, Vivian couldn't help but smile.
"Do you believe in the noble principle of Finders Keepers?"
