Chapter 61: Embezzlement of Corporate Funds

"Although it is somewhat difficult to say, according to the series of information I have gathered over the past few weeks, Akiwara Yuto truly has no dirt that can be exploited."

The person speaking was a young man, roughly 25 or 26 years old, wearing an ordinary business suit and looking like a common office worker.

At this moment, he was sitting in a booth at a cafe, reporting to a middle-aged man across from him.

After the young man finished this sentence, he took a stack of photos from the black briefcase he carried and laid them out flat on the table.

"Akiwara Yuto's daily routine is very regular. In the morning, he goes to a nearby convenience store to buy bento and bread, and then spends basically the whole day at home writing. The person who visits his home most often is his editor in charge, Asano Aiko. Besides her, the signed author of your editorial department, Imamura Yuto, also visits occasionally."

He paused, lowered his voice, and said, "Mr. Takei, I am very sorry, but at least for now, the other party has no bad habits, and there is nothing that can be exploited."

His name was Yamamoto Ryota, a private investigator mainly responsible for helping clients investigate civil-related information.

There are actually many detectives like him in Japanese society; taking Tokyo as an example, there are thousands of such agencies.

The emergence of these large numbers of private investigators is inseparable from the special background of Japanese society.

Because the police have no authority to intervene in civil disputes, some civil disputes must be resolved by hiring private investigators. For example, the job he took previously was to help a married woman collect evidence of her husband's extramarital affair.

If she could capture evidence of her husband sleeping with another woman, this woman could obtain a more favorable property division result in the court's divorce proceedings.

However, this job was not easy to do; because he was slow to get the photos, he was beaten to it by another detective agency. Therefore, upon learning of a new commission, he began his follow-up investigation without delay.

Unfortunately, the subject of this investigation, Akiwara Yuto, was once again someone who could not be swayed.

The middle-aged man sitting opposite held the photos, looked at the images, and fell into deep thought. If Akiwara Yuto were here, he would recognize him as Takei Kohei, the deputy editor-in-chief of *Tokyo Literature*.

Takei Kohei frowned. He picked up the photos, pondering as he looked at them, his expression becoming increasingly gloomy.

Ever since things ended on a sour note at the Akiwara residence last time, he had been considering how to deal with Akiwara Yuto, or rather, how to make him "submit."

Originally, he had no such intention; he only wanted to transfer Asano Aiko to see if he could make Akiwara Yuto change his mind, but that was just a hypothetical. If the cost were too high, he would have let it go.

But he had not expected the circulation of *New Novels* to soar all the way to the current 140,000 copies, only a step away from the 150,000 copies of *Tokyo Literature*. This caused many people's perception of Akiwara Yuto to change from a "promising newcomer" to a "monster-like genius."

This shift also caused Takei Kohei himself to face no small amount of pressure. Regardless, as the duty editor on the day Akiwara Yuto submitted his work, he was the first recipient of the manuscript.

In fact, he had recently heard some rumors—there were already people within the *Tokyo Literature* editorial department dissatisfied with him, and another deputy editor-in-chief even intended to use this as an excuse to attack him.

Therefore, to him, the higher the sales of *New Novels* and the greater Akiwara Yuto's fame, the more it felt like a resounding slap to his face. If it became serious enough, it could even affect his succession to the position of editor-in-chief, who was about to retire.

He absolutely could not tolerate this happening!

But he had to admit that he currently had no means. Ever since things ended on a sour note at the Akiwara residence last time, he had hired several private investigators, but the results only proved that Akiwara Yuto did not street race, did not drink heavily, did not frequent nightclubs, and his social circle was pitifully narrow. He was a total shut-in who only knew how to write, and no dirt could be found.

Moreover, even if there were minor flaws, it would be of no help to Akiwara Yuto's reputation. After all, the other party held the title of "genius author," and the public's tolerance level was extremely high.

Takei Kohei thought for a while, then put down the photos in his hand, rubbed his constantly tense brow, and prepared to pay and leave.

Another useless detective, not a bit of help!

But just as he was preparing to take out his wallet, Yamamoto Ryota, sitting opposite, took another stack of photos out of his briefcase. "Mr. Takei, although I didn't find any dirt on Akiwara Yuto, I did have some other gains while investigating his interpersonal relationships..."

"Other gains?"

"Don't be impatient, sir. Just take a look at the photos and you'll know."

Hearing the other party say this, Takei Kohei stopped the motion of taking out his wallet. He took the photos handed over by the other party and looked at them carefully for a few moments.

On them was a man with a somewhat bloated figure, holding a heavily made-up woman while drinking.

Because the photos were a bit blurry, it took him a long time to confirm the other party's identity, and he muttered silently: "Kikuchi Tai?!"

Yamamoto Ryota took a sip of coffee and said unhurriedly, "That's right, the other party is exactly the current editor-in-chief of *New Novels*, Kikuchi Tai. We spent quite a bit of time to get this photo, and furthermore, not only that..."

"Not only that?" Takei Kohei glanced at Yamamoto Ryota and found that the other party had no intention of continuing. He put down the photos and revealed that politician-like smile. "Understood. If it is useful to me, I will increase the commission fee."

"Mr. Takei is indeed a straightforward client!" Yamamoto Ryota revealed a satisfied smile and continued: "The woman in Kikuchi Tai's arms is named Yamanaka Narumi, the president of a design company. This company seems to have recently received the commission for the cover design of *New Novels*."

He took out another photo and placed it on the table. "Besides this, this Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi also purchased a luxury sedan worth 7 million yen, the one in the photo."

He slowed his speech and lowered his voice: "Mr. Takei, as a member of a publishing house, you must know the income level of an editor better than I do, so you should know what this means, right?"

Takei Kohei's expression became serious. He took the photo and, at the same time, sorted through the series of intelligence the other party had just provided in his mind: woman, design company, luxury car...

Recalling that he had heard Kikuchi Tai had previously overridden objections to outsource the cover design, a term suddenly popped into his mind—Embezzlement of Corporate Funds!

Only then did he realize that he didn't need to find any dirt on Akiwara Yuto at all; after all, the biggest trump card had already fallen into his hands. He would use this trump card to plan things out for himself.

Thinking of this, he revealed a "sinister" smile...

Teacher Akiwara, it looks like you will either have to join *Tokyo Literature* or become a "traitor" who leaves the Manga Club!