Chapter 589

PS: Finally finished updating, I'm exhausted!

Just as Kimura Aki suffered a mental collapse before that bag of charcoal ash serving as ironclad evidence, going limp on the ground, the scene fell into a strange silence.

But this silence was not empty; rather, it was filled with countless gazes—those from their former colleagues,

partners, and the powerful figures they had racked their brains trying to curry favor with. These gazes, at this moment, were colder and sharper than any court verdict.

The first to break the silence was an elderly man; he expressionlessly adjusted his golf cap, and in a voice not loud but enough for those around to hear, said indifferently to his assistant: "Notify the group: Mitsubishi UFJ is to immediately cease all cooperation talks with the Hope Foundation. Also, in my name, withdraw from the support association for next month's 'Karuizawa Classical Music Festival' where he serves as a director."

This sentence was like a writ of social death sentence. It meant the Kimura family's credit in the financial core circle had been thoroughly zeroed out; all cooperation based on "reputation" instantly collapsed.

Immediately after, in the crowd, Onoda Kimiaki's younger sister, Nippon Dentsu director Odano Yuriko, had already taken out her phone, her fingertips flying across the screen, obviously posting a message in some high-level group.

It was she who had just called her brother Onoda Kimiaki!

Trouble! How wonderful!

This trip to Karuizawa wasn't much otherwise, but just for the chance to personally witness Uesugi Muneyuki's on-site investigation, it was worth the price of admission!

"Brother, confirmed: Kimura embezzled a friend's inheritance and is suspected of murdering the heir. Her family enterprise's credit is bankrupt, personal character extremely risky. Recommend Dentsu and affiliated companies immediately blacklist her, remove her from all social activities."

Her message would, through Dentsu's omnipresent media and PR network, and the Onoda family's personal network, rapidly permeate every corner of the Japanese business world.

The Kimura family would be thoroughly banished from all social circles that value "face."

That young man acted even more directly; he even carried a hint of excitement at discovering a "viral hit," recording a voice message into his phone in a low voice: "Dad, I'm handsome, right! Heard that? The Kimura family is done! Embezzlement and murder, caught red-handed! Our SoftBank Group and Wish Foundation's previously considered cooperation with their fund—hurry up and stop it, too unlucky! Right, I've got to hurry and delete the group photo with them from the charity gala off INS————!"

Even Mai Xuejie beside him was made to laugh by this guy.

Such a fast cut-off!

But this also conforms to the laws of Japanese society; for an existence like a murderer, the cut-off must be swift, thorough, and must erase all traces of public association.

And that Imperial Household Agency Councillor Tokugawa Narimitsu, who had been silently observing, merely turned slightly at this moment, reporting the entire matter to Imperial Household Agency Director Maeda Toshisuke, his tone carrying a hint of undisguised disgust.

On the Imperial Household Agency side, Maeda Toshisuke also reacted immediately: "Immediately report the conclusion of this matter to the Emperor, and also check the Imperial Household Ministry's relevant charity registers and enterprise lists granted imperial perusal; any connected to the Kimura family and its affiliated enterprises are to be uniformly erased."

The two words "erase" represented the final judgment from the very top of Japanese society.

This meant the halo symbolizing the highest glory and status that the Kimura family had striven for generations to touch had thoroughly dissipated at this moment, and could never be touched again.

At this moment on site, the surrounding whispers surged like a tide, no longer suppressible: "Truly know the face but not the heart—Nakajima Sensei was her father's best friend and partner back then!"

"For money, they could even strike at the deceased's orphaned daughter, simply a devil!"

"In the future, any occasion where their family appears, I absolutely will not attend."

"She was still quibbling just now; looks like she's cut from the same cloth, such a family style."

"Done for, the Kimura family is thoroughly done for, no foothold in Japan anymore."

These discussions were no longer merely about a murder case, but about betrayal, greed, and bottomless depravity. In this stratum that regards "face" and "reputation" as a second life, the Kimura family's behavior had crossed every red line.

Kimura Aki stood dazed in place; she listened to these undisguised judgments, looked at those once amiable uncles and aunts whose gazes were now cold and even contemptuous, and felt as if she had been stripped naked and thrown into an ice and snow landscape. The family background, wealth, and social circle she had always relied upon turned to smoke and ashes in mere minutes.

She was no longer a rich young lady, but a "criminal's daughter," a person spat upon by the entire stratum.

Amid the cold gazes and whispers of the surrounding powerful figures, Kimura Aki's psychological defense line finally thoroughly collapsed.

She no longer attempted to defend herself; in its place was a venting mixed with despair, anger, and enormous grievance.

"You—you think I wanted this?! She screamed shrilly, tears ruining her exquisite makeup, voice trembling and hoarse. "Yes! I did it! I proposed it! But none of this should have happened!"

She abruptly pointed at that villa, as if accusing an invisible ghost.

"Dad knew afterward, he truly felt guilty! He told me to settle it privately, even gave me fifty-eight million yen! He said, as long as it's within this figure, settle if we can, we're sorry to Uncle Nakajima and Mizuki————"

This figure caused some of those around to stir slightly; this was indeed a huge sum sufficient to show sincerity.

"But—but—" Kimura Aki's voice carried a sob, filled with complex emotions of regret and self-exculpation, "How could I come up with that much at once? My investments in Ginza failed, those limited-edition bags, those parties————I owed a lot of money! And coincidentally—the money Dad gave just happened to fill my hole! So—so I only planned to give her ten million————I thought, a suddenly appearing illegitimate daughter who hasn't seen the world, ten million should make her grateful, right!"

"But she! Yamashita Mizuki! Why did she refuse?! Aki's face showed genuine, offended anger, "She was a friend I played with as a child! Although we hadn't met in many years, how could she be so insatiably greedy? Why did she have to suddenly appear and disturb the life I barely managed to maintain?!"

"She said this villa is worth at least two to three hundred million, we have to give a fair price! Otherwise let Dad's reputation be ruined, let our family lose everything!" Aki's voice was full of fear: "Do you know what that means? It means we'll be driven out of this circle, means I can never shop in Omotesando again, can't enter high-end clubs, will be mocked and abandoned by all friends! I'll become like her————

No, even worse than her! I'd rather die than live that kind of life!"

Her fear of losing her wealthy life far outweighed her fear of taking another's life.

"That night————I got her drunk, watched her fall into a stupor————my hands were shaking." Her voice lowered, carrying a trace of trance, as if returning to that criminal night: "I knew she was Mizuki, that girl who used to follow behind me calling 'Sister Aki' when we were young————I had a moment————truly————regretted it."

"But, when the drug took effect, when she lay drunk there, when I thought of how she would ruin my everything upon waking————a thought suddenly emerged: if she disappeared, everything would end. Dad's assets would be safe, my life could get back on track————everything would be as if nothing happened."

She raised her head, her face a bizarre smile mixed with tears and twisted expression, looking at Uesugi Muneyuki and everyone around.

"Look, now it's all over————all ruined by you————haha————hahaha————"

Her laughter was like weeping, exceptionally piercing in Karuizawa's fresh air.

"Uesugi Muneyuki, today my luck was bad, I ran into you, but don't get cocky, you and us are the same kind of people, you have Peerage blood flowing in you, we're originally people of the same world! The fear of class descent, you old nobles should understand better than anyone! Why help an outsider destroy me?! You meddling like this, you'll get your comeuppance sooner or later! One day, you'll be torn to pieces by those lunatics you personally sent to prison!"

Hearing her say this, the faces of several people nearby showed angry expressions.

But Uesugi Muneyuki gazed at her calmly, not a ripple in his eyes.

"Miss Kimura, you're mistaken on two fundamentals. First, our Yonezawa Uesugi Clan's family teachings tell me that true 'nobility' guards justice and life, not vanity maintained by crime. Second—"

He raised his chin slightly, voice clear and cold: "I've seen too many souls rotted by selfish desire. Regrettably, you're the same as them, merely another pitiful specimen."

"Inspector Yamato, please." Uesugi Muneyuki had by now lost all interest in this woman, and Inspector Yamato had already nodded; the detective beside him took out a pair of fine silver handcuffs and firmly clamped them on her wrists.

"Miss Kimura Aki, we now formally arrest you on suspicion of murder, suspicion of illegal property appropriation, and other charges!"