The Versatile Master Artist

Anna turned her head, facing the shareholders in front of her.

”Gentlemen, many of you were invited by my elders to join the ’Oil Painting’ magazine, and your academic achievements stand as examples to us all, as my predecessors and teachers.”

”My elders trust you, and I respect you.”

”At this moment, the 136-year history and fate of ’Oil Painting’ magazine are in your hands. I don’t wish to talk about how the ancestors of the Ilyena family are watching over us from the Celestial Kingdom, such empty words. As respected scholars, I believe my predecessors understand better than I what the true soul of this magazine is. Are we truly going to abandon years of persistence for momentary financial gain?”

Anna clasped her hands and placed them on her knees, bowing deeply to the shareholders beside the table.

”I plead with you, my elders, help me, please.”

”Stop trying to play the pity card and morally blackmail us...” Hellefi muttered.

Anna shook her head: ”If you really don’t want to continue holding shares in the ’Oil Painting’ magazine, I am putting two of my ranches, one in Australia and one in North America, up for sale, along with all my current liquid assets. I can raise about 120 to 130 million euros in cash within two months. You can consider selling your shares to me.”

”I know there’s still a funding gap of several tens of millions of euros compared to the acquisition offer from Krug Bank, but this is already over a hundred times the price you paid when you bought the shares from my aunt.”

When the elders of the Ilyena family initially sold more than half of the magazine’s shares, they had considered the possibility of outsiders taking over.

At the same offer,

Anna holds the right of first refusal to purchase the shares.

But they couldn’t have imagined that decades later, as ’Oil Painting’ magazine continued to grow, its value would soar from a hundred thousand Austrian Crowns to hundreds of millions of euros.

Miss Ilina really doesn’t have that much money.

She might be one of the wealthiest landowners in Austria, and in terms of pure figures, even wealthier than the Krueger family.

But financial markets differ from personal actions.

Bankers and landowners are also different.

Mr. Krueger controls the oldest private bank in Europe and has various private equity funds, which can easily mobilize over ten billion euros in cash flow to forcibly acquire the companies he desires.

Even among those billionaires on the Forbes list, there are very few who can easily come up with hundreds of millions of euros.

Meanwhile.

This situation happened too suddenly.

Even with various inheritance taxes diluting it, the total assets of the Ilyena family that passed down to Anna should definitely exceed 170 million euros.

Perhaps it even exceeds 500 million euros.

But trying to dispose of real estate in the short term, even at a significant discount, is challenging due to issues like taxation, cross-border fund transfers, and a series of other problems.

The funds Anna can raise are only this much.

”The Bible says, ’If there are ten righteous people in the land, the city of Sodom will not be destroyed.’ Today, as long as any two or three elders are willing to stand behind me with their conviction, then the belief that ’Oil Painting’ magazine was founded upon—allowing every beautiful piece of art to speak for itself and every beautiful soul to be heard—will not extinguish.”

”I, Anna Ilina, a member of the ’Oil Painting’ magazine’s board, vote against the Krug Brothers Bank’s proposal to acquire the magazine.”

Miss Ilina no longer showed any softness.

Her eyes glimmered with determination, as she raised her left hand high.

As the girl’s words faded.

The conference room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop, only the increasingly clear sound of the wind outside the window could be heard.

No one spoke.

Many were stunned by Miss Anna’s powerful and decisive remarks.

”The true hero, even if his wax wings are destined to melt in the daylight, would still fly fearlessly towards the distant lands like Icarus.”

Chairman Brown looked at Anna.

The old Sir suddenly recalled a passage praising the hero Icarus in a collection of Nietzsche’s essays that he read in college.

Icarus, in Greek Mythology, is the son of the great inventor Daedalus, who, driven by his dream of flight, used wings made of wax to soar into the sky, only to eventually fall as the sun melted his wings.

This ambitious banker who personally orchestrated this acquisition plan, Sir Brown, was also moved by the momentary display of unwavering conviction on Miss Ilina’s face.

Such an outstanding girl.

”As expected from a girl raised in a noble family, isn’t it?”

There are countless second-generation rich kids out there in the world.

This kind of decisiveness and composure in handling matters is incomparable to ordinary nouveau riche.

Whether in terms of morality or money, Anna has presented a solution that is convincing within her capabilities.

If it were Sir Brown, he couldn’t have done better than the girl standing before him.

Standing from an elder’s perspective, Sir Brown almost wanted to applaud Anna for her wonderful speech.

He envied and admired Anna’s aunt, who has passed away, for raising such an excellent niece.

Standing from an opponent’s perspective.

The silver-haired gentleman glanced at the shareholders who wore faces of hesitation and inner conflict but ultimately remained silent without responding.

He shook his head with a cold smile.

”Even if she were truly Icarus, it is nothing more than efforts destined for failure.”