Reborn as the Genius Son of the Richest Family

Chapter 1072: Records of a past war

Joseph Vanderbilt spent the majority of his days completely stuck inside his own room, never minding all of the happenings outside.

Even when the world almost turned upside down with the appearance of the Starry Explosion phenomenon, he still didn’t get out of his room, choosing instead to hole himself and focus on the mountain of records around him.

Ever since he saw that woman, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. He knew her. He just couldn’t remember it.

But what’s interesting was that even when he used his personal information network, they still didn’t find out much about the woman.

She was called Lylia, and she was Michael’s mother. That was all that was public knowledge about her.

However, despite this otherwise clean record, Joseph knew that there was something more in the shadows that was being hidden from public view. He wouldn’t have recognized her otherwise. She must have some kind of importance among the Upper Echelon society.

And so, he completely devoted himself to solving this puzzle.

Unfortunately for him, Lylia seemed to have covered her tracks pretty well. There were no records of name in the public records.

He became so desperate in figuring out her real identity that he eventually went through all of the women named ’Lylia’ in the history accounts just so that it would somehow jog his memory as to why she seemed familiar.

He went through the last year, five years, and more. He didn’t stop. He kept on going down the years, until eventually, he found something.

About twenty years ago, there was a great war that happened between the Conglomerates and the Black Market.

The Conglomerates wanted to destroy the unsanctioned trades happening under their noses, simply because their revenues were getting dangerously close to being in the Conglomerate levels.

The one that opposed them was the Cardinal Directionists, led by the four Cardinal Kings and Queens.

The Nonchalant Knight of the North.

The Icy Beast of the East.

The Sorry Mouth of the South.

And the Earthen Witch of the West.

Those four led the fight against the Conglomerates, defending their unruly and unlawful black market.

Now, the war between the two wasn’t straightforward. The alliances and factions were convoluted.

The conglomerates at that time were very fractured, with many heirs and successors fighting each other for sole rule of their kingdom. This was the main reason as to how the Cardinal Directionists were able to fend off the attacks against the five Conglomerates. They used their warring factions against each other. That was what they were best at.

They frequently got requests and missions regarding the assassination of many heirs and successors, and they took it without question.

But of course, eventually, they killed one too many heirs and it caused the Conglomerates to finally band together to deal with the Cardinal Directionists once and for all.

The Cardinal Kings and Queens were pushed into a corner. They were dangerously close to getting wiped out.

And when the Conglomerates granted them pardon in exchange for them relinquishing control of the Black Market over towards them, they refused.

They would rather die than let them tarnish the reputation of the Black Market.

So, they all decided to go out with a bang rather than submit.

They began killing heirs, successors, or any other person related to the names of the Conglomerates.

And on one such particular suicide mission, the Earthen Witch of the West found a Vanderbilt leisurely spending his time at a restaurant diner.

And instead of killing him... she fell in love with him instead.

That woman’s name was Lylia Terra. And the man she fell in love with was none other than Joseph’s brother, Bart Vanderbilt.

Lylia T. Vanderbilt.

The great Earthen Witch of the West, the woman who almost brought the five Conglomerates down on their knees, was the same woman that he saw a few days earlier.

And as he read more about the records about her, he found out that she was also the reason why the Black Market still existed to this day.

Lylia fought for her love with Bart and entered into the lion’s den of her own volition.

There, she met Yze Vanderbilt and demanded for him to accept her engagement with Bart.

At that time, she was enemy number one for all Conglomerates. She was at the top of the kill list. Yet, without fear and weapons, she marched by herself into the Vanderbilt Estate and declared her love like a lovelorn fool.

And somehow, it worked. Yze was amazed by her courage, and eventually decided to let her marry into the Vanderbilt family.

Now, this part wasn’t in the official records, but it was widely believed that this marriage was the reason why the Conglomerates and the Cardinal Directionists went into a stalemate.

Lylia negotiated with Yze and the two went into an agreement, which ended in the Cardinal Kings and Queens keeping their territory and their Black Market for as long as they don’t step into the territory of the Conglomerates and their business.

And with Yze himself endorsing this deal, the other Conglomerates had no choice but to comply.

That was how the war ended. Through... love.

And the product of the love between Lylia Terra, and Bart Vanderbilt was none other than the golden haired boy in charge of the company that was now taking the Royal Continent by storm.

Michael. Vanderbilt.

He was a Vanderbilt.

This realization hit like... well, an automobile going at top speed directly towards Joseph.

He slumped into his chair, in complete disbelief, as he tried to process this information.

And as he did, he couldn’t help but start to laugh. His guffaws echoed out of the room, alarming his guards. They wondered if him spending too much time in his room reading boring records had finally turned him insane.

But for Joseph, everything was now more clear than ever before.

No wonder that kid was able to achieve things at such a young age. He had the blood of the lion!

”He’s a Vanderbilt... haha... makes sense why he didn’t want to submit to me. I was a fool trying to tame a dog, not knowing it was a lion.”

Knowing all of this, there was just one thing that Joseph didn’t understand.

Why keep this a secret?

Why didn’t Michael advertise himself as a Vanderbilt from the start? If he did, even that Tri-star company would cower under their name and wouldn’t dare attack them.

In fact, if they submitted themselves as a Vanderbilt subcompany, then they would have been able to spread their influence to the world in less than a year! They would have had the help and resources to expand quickly into an Upper Echelon company!

As an heir himself, Joseph did exactly that. He used the Vanderbilt name to prop his subcompany to become a main arm of the Conglomerate.

But perhaps that was the answer.

Michael didn’t want to simply become a subcompany of the Vanderbilt conglomerate.

He wanted to build something of his own.

And as he had this realization, his father’s words echoed back to him.

”Joseph, do you understand why I haven’t chosen a successor yet? It’s because all of you are satisfied with that word. Successor.”

At the time, Joseph couldn’t understand what was wrong with being a successor of the top Conglomerate of the world. He was proud of being one.

But it was only now that he realized the truth. The reason why he wanted to become the successor of the Vanderbilt Conglomerate was because, deep inside, he knew that that was all he was going to achieve. That was his limit.

He knew that if he were to do everything on his own, from the ground up, he wouldn’t be able to succeed like his father did.

And that was why he didn’t deserve to be the successor.

But Michael... that kid chose to build his own company from the ground up, using only his wits, skills, and intelligence to create an organization that could contend with an Upper Echelon company.

Given his age, it wasn’t hard to see where he would end up.

Michael was exactly the successor that Yze was looking for! It’s because he didn’t want to be one in the first place!

While everyone was obeying the rules of succession, playing by the game, Michael chose to go on his own path.

And that path... may very well be even higher than the Vanderbilt Conglomerate in the future.

Joseph slowly got up from his seat, fixing his dirtied clothes.

”Alright, nephew. I can see what you’re trying to do. I will not interfere. Let the others see the truth.”

If he were to help Michael now, it would only diminish his strengths in front of others.

He just had to step back, and let the blood of Vanderbilt take care of everything.

His job now was to make sure nothing would interfere in Michael’s fight against the Tri-star company.