Silence was the only response Aron received from the other two people in the room as they contemplated his idea and attempted to come to terms with it.
It was their first time facing such a morally gray decision. And although many people who'd reached the lofty heights of the three people in the meeting room had done so after many despicable deeds, neither Sarah nor Felix had ever had to make a choice like the one before them. They had been given their high and mighty positions simply because of their friendship with Aron and his trust in them; they were the only two that had stayed by his side besides his family when everyone else had abandoned him during the Rottem Morgan debacle, after all.
Thus, they had never been faced with such difficult decisions before. They were completely unlike Aron, who'd had to deal with the death of all the people that had died in the Eden-Esparia war. That said, he had only managed to overcome that without any significant guilt thanks to the system doing all the hard work in the background and adapting his personality. But at the time, he hadn't realized what was happening, nor did he think it was strange to feel no guilt over the conflict; instead, he had found it justifiable, as the Esparians were standing against him and interfering with his goals.
"But wouldn't that attract too much attention? If someone that, as you said, is deserving of death immediately got a position of power in one of your companies, wouldn't it negatively affect your image? You'd also bear the hatred of those who were previously harmed by those criminals," Felix mused. He had thought about it, not from the perspective of the criminals in question, but from the people that would be affected by the choice.
"For them to earn legitimacy, they'll need to be from the industry in question. So they'll already have a bad reputation, but can't be in prison. So I think I have the same question as Felix." Sarah had reached the same conclusion as Felix.
"But do they really have to be from the industries in question? I've already created a precedent of making people CEOs no matter their age or experience, so what's different about making underqualified people presidents of a subsidiary company?" Aron said, pointing at them as the main examples of that precedent.
"We can be explained by people investigating our past, as they'll discover that we're your friends. They might come to the conclusion that we were your only choice at that time, since you couldn't trust anyone but us with your money due to our history," Sarah said. She couldn't deny that her position was entirely due to nepotism, though she at least had somewhat of a background in business management. But who in their right mind would be dumb enough to entrust such a huge business to a newly graduated student?
"It also might make our companies a target for the people they might've harmed. That won't be good, because as far as I remember, we've already got quite a big target on our back. The Morgans alone are looking for anything they can use to attack us," Felix added, reminding Aron of the Morgans, who were weirdly quite determined to bring them down. And their silence only indicated that they were planning something devastating.
"That's true," Aron agreed.
[Why don't we find someone who has a good reputation in those fields, but isn't president material yet? We can also filter them out based on their position and drive—we'd look for people who can give up anything to achieve their goals. That way, we wouldn't need to do more than just slight personality adjustments to guarantee loyalty and confidentiality,] Nova interjected. She was talking about making the potential presidents sign a runic contract to avoid future problems, something he hadn't used since the VR reprogramming had started being widely implemented. But she wasn't willing to allow anyone into Aron's inner circle that had even the remotest possibility of being a backstabber in the future, and the personality adjustments weren't quite as ironclad as runic contracts. At least, not as new as the technology was now, anyway; perhaps they would be an option in the future, but she was focusing on the now.
"I think that'd work best for our image, while also allowing us to gain quite willing and hard workers," Sarah said. She was completely ignoring the morality of the so-called 'mild' personality manipulation.
'Looks like my friends are growing up,' Aron thought as he realized they were slowly becoming capable of making tough decisions... at least as long as they had solid reasons behind them. "Let's go with that, then. Nova, you can start looking for people who fit the description," he said, putting a start to the search for specific kinds of people. He would wait for a few options to be found before he decided which among them would luck out and receive the offer of their lives.
[Yes, sir,] Nova said, and a portion of her computing power immediately got to work as she used Pangea for the task. It had long become the most-used social media app and had more daily users than even YouTube. Pangea topped them by about two hundred million more daily users.
"Now that that's solved, we need to come up with a decision on when and where we'll build the new conglomerate headquarters," Aron said, moving on to the next topic. Then he noticed the strange looks on his friends' faces and asked, "You two look like you've got fish bones stuck in your throats. Spit it out—what's wrong?"
Sarah and Felix looked at each other, communicating without words, then Sarah asked, "You haven't... 'adjusted' us, have you?"
"Of course not!" Aron said. "You two are my oldest, closest, and best friends, and I completely trust the both of you. Now let's get back on topic, there's still a lot to do today."
Felix cleared his throat. "Since the new HQ can't be at the city center, how about we build it close to one of the ports and surround it with a 'company town' for our workers to live in if they want?" Felix proposed. That would be his dream, as well as a heaven for the workers.
"I suggest we build it on an island, instead," Sarah chimed in, only changing where it would be built. Instead of near one of their ports, she thought it would be better to build on another island.
"Let's see the proposals and plans Nova comes up with before making a decision between them," Aron said, leaving Nova to come up with plans based on his friends' suggestions before they come to a decision on where to build.
[Can I also include my suggestion in those proposals?] she asked.
"Sure, since it'll increase the options we have, and also might have an insight we forgot to take into consideration." Aron completely trusted Nova and wouldn't treat her as a simple worker or servant.
The meeting continued as the three friends hashed out the details on what would be the most important place on Earth in the future.
...
While Aron continued his meeting, Rina was in the middle of a phone call. Her father had called, asking why she wasn't returning home and spending her time in Eden instead.
"Father, I don't really have to be there for the work to get done. I can give all the orders remotely, and have been doing it for quite a while without a problem," she said.
"Are you seeing someone there?" he asked. He'd had his suspicions for some time, but couldn't find any proof. Nothing had been made very obvious between Rina and Aron, and he wouldn't send a private investigator to investigate his daughter—and heir—as it would only show he didn't trust her.
"...yes," she replied. It was time for her to just reveal the truth and let the chips fall where they may. She wasn't worried about her father's approval anymore, nor did she think it was necessary in modern times.
She received nothing but silence in reply, and it stretched for quite some time.
