Chapter 83 – The Later Talks of a Riot

[Iris’ POV]

When I returned to the employee area, I was greeted by a pale-faced Mimosa… I felt very sorry for making her worry about me.

“… Misa, I’m so sorry for making you worry.” (Iris)

Even though we were the only ones in the employee area, I called her Misa because that was the pseudonym we agreed to use when we were in the city.

“Alice, I was worried about you. I now understand your escorts’ feelings very well after watching you from over here. Well…” (Mimosa)

Mimosa sighed heavily. She could not bear the worry any longer and shriveled up. I knew it wasn’t possible for me to act placid and tranquil every time an incident happened, so I just stayed quiet and put a wry smile on my face.

We walked out of the store accompanied by Tanya.

“Well, I’m glad Lady Iris is safe and okay.” (Mimosa)

After walking a few more meters, Mimosa and I parted ways. Strangely enough, I did not really feel like touring the city anymore.

The next day, I noticed that I was strangely fatigued as I walked to my office as I usual.

Waiting for me was my desk with of course a large stack of documents waiting for me to look over. After looking at some of the papers for a while, I called up Tanya and had her bring in some tea so I could take a short break.

“… Tanya” (Iris)

“Yes.” (Tanya)

“I need a list of all of the problems that my excommunication has brought towards the company and in detail.” (Iris)

“I finished the report yesterday, and I have already ordered and inspected everything to make sure they are accurate.” (Tanya)

Tanya gave me a document filled with the data she compiled yesterday. As expected of Tanya. She’s such a diligent worker.

I flipped through the documents and looked through the data.

As a result of my excommunication, the total number of customers that were going to the Azura Conglomerate stores had decreased somewhat significantly.

All of the shops under the Azura Conglomerate, which I established, and all of the stores in the Armenia Territory had either been greatly or slightly affected.

It also gave the merchants in Armenia’s Chamber of Commerce a very hard time as they were associated with me through trade deals and the bank that I had established.

Although that crisis had already been resolved, the aftereffects of the excommunication were still torturing me and feeding away at my resolve.

Although I shouldn’t think of it this way, to be perfectly honest, the fact that the previous Pope and the Second Prince’s Faction did a significant amount of damage to my company is undeniable.

Another reason the Conglomerate started to decline was because of the lack of human resources. As soon as I become excommunicated, many core employees had suddenly quit because they didn’t want to be associated with a company that had an excommunicated person as the president. As a result, the majority of the stores run by the Azura Conglomerate were poorly maintained, which created a horrible impression on the local customers.

When I thought of this, my mind became very complicated as I needed to think of a solution to raise the reputation of the Azura Conglomerate fast.

As I thought about it more, I was suddenly hit by a fit of fatigue.

“… At that time, if Dean had not given me reliable connections with that priest and I was brought back into the church, the Azura Conglomerate may not even be a business today. … No, the Conglomerate in the Armenia Territories would still be maintained but outsourcing would be impossible.” (Iris)

Tanya nodded at my remark. In fact, as a result of the turmoil, I gained a connection with the most influential priest in the current church, Priest Ralph.

“… There’s no doubt that if it weren’t for Priest Ralph, Lady Iris’ claim would have lacked backing and Lady Iris’ evidence would have been deemed false and tampered. Lady Iris understands that fact, right? It’s a bit scary to think that all of the business under the Territory of Armenia would likely have taken a huge hit and most of them would probably have even been bankrupt.” (Tanya)

For Armenia, a territory that is very dependent on trade and economy, my excommunication would have destroyed its foundations and lost the citizens’ trust.

In fact, the president of the Chamber of Commerce stepped down from his position. I thought that it was perfectly understandable given the state of Armenia after my excommunication.

The problem is that now, most of the companies will not make their headquarters in Armenia and that will decrease the number of merchants passing through Armenia.

In other words, the 2nd Prince is trying to use the economy to destroy Armenia with a method that doesn’t involve the military.

That is my a speculation but I have no evidence backing that up.

In fact, now that I’ve gotten over the excommunication ordeal, the Azura Conglomerate can finally start releasing new products and reestablish its reputation and make customers gradually return to buy our products again.

“Our company’s business has gone down quite a bit because of the Second Prince.”

Hence the current problems.

However, it should also be known that the Second Prince’s company gained no momentum through the crisis.

Additionally, the quality and pricing are also similar between our companies. However, due to the Second Prince Prince’s taking advantage of the Azura Conglomerate’s crisis, they have gained a small customer advantage over us.

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I kept thinking back to how the false accusation led to a good majority of our customers not returning.

Because the management was poorly run for a short period of time, the customers had decreased in the long-term because they didn’t trust our company anymore.

On the other hand, it is a bit relieving that the Church is backing up our Chamber of Commerce now.

“Well. I have to resolve the consequences of our employees becoming negligent with their responsibilities as well as resolve the case of our total number of customers decreasing. Judging from the contents of the employment contract, it seems that the Azura Conglomerate is still doing a much better job than the Second Prince’s company. However, it seems many of our employees were dismissed because of the deterioration in management. Damme seemed like one of the people who was dismissed due to the poor management… It seems we have to cut down the number of employees quite a bit.” (Iris)

“Isn’t that something to be dejected about?” (Tanya)

“No. I thought that it was a waste to let them be so easily dismissed too. However, I know that it is inevitable to lay off employees when the management deteriorates. As the president, I cannot make decisions based off of my feelings and although I do feel very sympathetic for the people that did get laid off, I cannot blame the management at the time for making that decision. ”

Also, it is undeniable that the Second Prince’s company did gain many advantages because of the information that the ex-employees gathered during their time in the Azura Conglomerate.

I realized that I was drunk on my achievements and dismissed it easily without ever planning for this scenario back then.

“A trait of mankind is that the economic power and social status that one had built once is not easily discarded. In fact, the people who quit the Azura Conglomerate said that the payment of the contracts in the past was high but it worsened and there were multiple complaints filed about the worsened management. Overall, it seems that the cores of the company management quit and the decisions were left up to less reliable people.” (Iris)

Even during my excommunication, it seems like the Azura Conglomerate’s management was fine and running without any problems. I just complicated everything by my excommunication.

If things keep going the way it is right now, there will be a hurdle about employing new members of upper management.

“Is there any possibility that the previous workers of the Azura Conglomerate have any interest in working again for the Azura Conglomerate?” (Tanya)

“I wouldn’t bet on that small chance.” (Iris)

“… So. We will need to strengthen our security as well so that an yesterday’s outrageous incident does not happen once again.” (Tanya)

“Certainly.” (Iris)

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