"I understand, Chairman. Our legal department will follow up on this matter," said Sara as she pushed up her glasses with a gentle smile on her face.
Edward nodded and turned his gaze to the head of Devon Corporation's PR department.
Devon had many internal divisions, including the Public Relations Department—an essential branch tasked with managing crises, facilitating partnerships, and more. Being such a large and influential company, Devon naturally attracted its share of malicious attacks and slander. That's where the PR team came in—they were the professionals.
Devon's solid public image across all regions of the League was due in no small part to their efforts.
"Chairman, I've looked into the matter. The only potential challenge is that some netizens might sympathize with the family whose child has uremia and needs a kidney transplant. But we'll handle it," said the PR director—a rather handsome man—confidently.
"As long as it's handled well. Be mindful of public opinion. I know people tend to side with the disadvantaged, but how you manage that is your department's job," Edward said calmly. Devon wasn't some hollow title—it was a real powerhouse.
His father had always stressed, "Only those who get things done and do them well are promoted." Because of this, the internal atmosphere at Devon was strong and competitive. Employees were encouraged to demonstrate their capabilities.
And since this man had stood out from the many in the PR department, his competence was unquestionable.
Even if this situation was a little tricky, Edward trusted that he could handle it.
"Understood, Chairman." The PR director didn't say much more, but his expression was full of confidence. After all, from a moral standpoint, the foundation was clearly in the right.
The incident was fairly straightforward:
The Chairman's charity foundation had to choose between multiple applicants and decided to help the most urgent case. The family not selected responded by attacking a foundation staff member—stabbing her three times and sending her to the hospital.
Granted, the attacking family had their own tragic story. They were poor. The family's breadwinner had uremia and required monthly dialysis. Though a kidney transplant was possible, they couldn't afford it. So, they sought help from the increasingly popular charity foundation.
However, Nicole—following the foundation's internal guidelines—had determined that another applicant, a child with congenital heart disease in critical condition, required more immediate assistance. That family was placed on the waiting list instead.
Furious, the unchosen family attacked Nicole, stabbing her three times. Her stomach was injured, and she was now bedridden and in tears every day.
"This incident has been a wake-up call. Kode, I want all foundation staff to be equipped with basic security. We can't risk another emotional outburst from a desperate family. Nicole survived this time, but what about next time?" Edward said seriously.
He didn't want the entire staff to feel like they were walking on eggshells. They were there to do good—not to live in fear.
"Understood, Boss." Sitting beside Corona, Kode nodded solemnly.
They didn't have to worry about the Pokémon employees—most of them were powerful and could handle themselves. Not to mention, the ones Kode hired were Psychic-types. Regular humans didn't stand a chance against them.
But since hiring Pokémon was expensive, Kode had also brought on a few kind-hearted humans to reduce costs. Nicole was one of those who had originally applied to be a volunteer.
Edward nodded. Since the matter had been resolved, the foundation issue was temporarily wrapped up.
"I'll make a personal donation of 50 million again this month," Edward added.
He donated to the foundation every month. He had more than enough money—even without tapping into Devon's funds, the profits from Ghost Pictures alone were enough to fund multiple projects. These days, Ghost Pictures' monthly net profits were in the tens of millions—sometimes even exceeding 100 million.
The main reason was that they had secured cost-free licensing deals for highly profitable IPs. Tom and Jerry, Sherlock Holmes—these had all become major IPs under Edward's name, consistently generating massive revenue.
"Got it, Boss," Kode nodded. Edward's regular donations—ranging from ten million to over a hundred million—gave the foundation plenty of flexibility and allowed them to help even more people.
"With that settled, let's move on…" Edward glanced at his watch. It was almost noon.
"Chairman, you have a partnership meeting this afternoon," Kennedy interjected.
Edward's mouth twitched. He had been hoping to let everyone out for lunch and sneak away early himself—but clearly, Kennedy wasn't going to let that happen.
Edward shot him a glance.
One of his deepest memories of Kennedy was from when he was young, watching his father try to sneak away from work, only to be hunted down and dragged back by Secretary Kennedy.
Even his father had once said, "Kennedy is someone who takes his work very seriously."
That was likely why his father had given Kennedy a 0.1% share in Devon's profits. It might not sound like much, but given Devon's current valuation, that was an astronomical sum.
In fact, Edward knew his father intended to give Kennedy 1% of the shares held by the Stone family, as a reward for his years of dedicated service.
"Alright, I got it," Edward sighed. He didn't have much choice. With his father and older brother off digging for rocks, the responsibility of running Devon fell entirely on his shoulders.
It wasn't until 5 p.m. that he finally wrapped up his duties and got to leave work early.
"Boss, the preliminary actor screening for Alien is complete. Would you like to take a look?" Zoroark hurried over the moment he stepped out of the building, a file in hand.
Edward glanced at the folder and felt his eyelid twitch.
"Give it here," he sighed, taking the document and flipping through it.
Most of the casting process was done. All that remained was for Edward to choose the final leads.
As the writer, director, and investor, Edward could basically do whatever he wanted. If he felt like casting an animal protection vegan environmentalist as the lead, nobody could stop him.
But he wasn't going to do that.
Thankfully, in the world of the Pokémon League, there wasn't quite as much "magical ideological warfare" going on.
(End of Chapter)
(TN: The author was even more savage in the raws.)