Chapter 748: The Determination to Rectify

Akado reached out his hand, stopping the entourage of guards behind him who were about to draw their pistols. He smiled and pulled off his fake mustache, then asked the little girl of about ten in front of him, “I’d love to know, how did you figure out my mustache was fake? Would you be willing to tell me?”

“I was supposed to go to the theater to learn ballet, but then Britain and Germany went to war. I saw German planes flying all over the sky in Elham, Kent. Because of the war, I dropped out of school, so I came back to the Netherlands and got a job selling newspapers at home,” the little girl said with a sigh, seeming to miss her school days in England. This time she spoke in Dutch, her words flowing quickly, sounding much more melodious and pleasant than her somewhat halting German.

Akado waited for the little girl to finish chattering about everything she wanted to say before returning to the main topic: “I’ve seen fake mustaches when I visited the theater. Yours looks very similar to the ones I’ve seen.”

The Führer’s personal interpreter quickly translated the little girl’s words. Akado smiled again after hearing them. Then the interpreter translated the last few sentences for the guards around them.

After hearing this, the German guards, whose hands had been on their guns, finally breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the disguise had just been accidentally seen through, and it wasn’t some terrible security breach. As they celebrated their seemingly good luck, they returned to a lower level of alert.

“Now that the war is over, why don’t you go to school?” Akado handed the stack of newspapers he was holding to the interpreter beside him, signaling him to take them. He then asked the little girl to walk with him to the other end of the street. As they walked, he said, “I don’t come to Rotterdam often. If you’re willing to take a walk with me, I’ll pay you 10 Imperial Gold Marks.”

“I am in school, learning German and some geometry and mathematics. I will only walk with you to the end of that street,” the little girl said. She seemed quite cautious. After hearing the translation, she did not refuse Akado’s offer and walked beside him. “Do you need help finding a place? Or perhaps I could introduce some of the sights?”

“I have no interest in the scenery, nor am I looking for any particular place. Just tell me some of the things you know,” Akado said, tearing off the fake mustache from his mouth. He instantly felt much more comfortable. “Do you know about the German factories on the outskirts of Rotterdam? Tell me about them.”

“Your country has built quite a few factories here. In the beginning, they hired a lot of workers, and some people applied. Everyone had a job, and everything seemed to be going well,” the little girl said, seeming to know a lot about this topic. She began to speak eloquently, “Our family is of noble descent, so we still had a little bit of money. We went into partnership with a German and started a factory. But in the end, the German took the factory away and didn’t give our family a single cent.”

When the interpreter relayed these words to Akado, he was taken aback. He had indeed encouraged the free combination and strengthening of capital to create more competitive large enterprises, but such blatant extortion was explicitly forbidden in the occupied territories.

In the first few years of the rise of the Akado Group, he too had once broken some rules and had secretly used means to seize some people’s assets. The purpose of doing so, to put it bluntly, was to save time and to be able to organize production capacity more effectively without wasting time. But in the following years, Akado had taken the lead in banning this practice that undermined the rules of competition. Now, “secret confiscations” within Germany had become much less common.

But he hadn’t known until he had investigated. A casual question had startled him. Those businessmen were law-abiding within Germany, giving the Führer, Akado, plenty of face. But in the German-occupied territories, these big capitalists, who would sell out their own fathers for profit, immediately revealed their ferocious fangs.

What was even more despairing was that it was obvious these people were colluding with local government officials, had bribed the bureaucrats sent by the Empire to govern the new territories, and even had countless connections with the Wehrmacht, making these institutions turn a blind eye and acquiesce to their “lawlessness” here.

“This is completely out of control! They’ve shattered the Empire’s fundamental plan for integrating the industry of the occupied territories. They’re practically buying time for the Americans and the Soviets! If these bastards don’t get me killed, if they don’t drag the whole of Germany into the grave, they’ll never wake up! It seems I’ve been too civilized. Some things should not be left to these people to handle themselves!” Akado said, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists after hearing the interpreter repeat the little girl’s words. “At least on this matter, Stalin is worth learning from. I should have them all hanged!”

“So I dropped out of school and can only sell newspapers here,” the little girl said. She couldn’t understand Akado’s rapid German, and the interpreter certainly wouldn’t translate the Führer’s curses for her, so she just continued talking to herself. “So I don’t like you Germans. You made it so I can’t afford to go to school, and you cheated my father out of his money. Our family sold our house and squeezed into a building where the poor live, listening to them curse every day. The neighbors are all talking about the German factories cutting wages. I hear them say that sometimes their wages are not even as much as I make selling newspapers.”

As she said this, a proud look appeared on the little girl’s face, and she showed Akado a pure smile. “I can sell a lot of newspapers every day. My mother says I’m a very good newspaper seller.”

You’re not just a good newspaper seller, you’re also a master at digging pits. With just those few sentences, heaven only knows how many wealthy tycoons you’ve just buried alive. Maybe even some big names from the Imperial Ministry of Economics have been doomed by your words today. Even if they don’t die, they’ll probably be skinned alive… As he translated, the Führer’s personal interpreter wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He could already feel that the tall, thin Führer beside him was on the verge of exploding, that he could turn into a bloodthirsty beast at any moment and devour hundreds, even thousands, of unlucky souls.

“Ger!” Akado beckoned to a trusted aide in the distance. This lucky fellow, who had once been the Führer’s driver and was now a colonel, strode over and stood by Akado’s side, waiting for his new orders. Akado explained the situation to him and then ordered, “Arrange for your most trusted subordinates to investigate this for me in secret! Then bring the results of the investigation to me! Remember! No matter who is involved in these matters, do not conceal anything. Report it to me truthfully. Understood?”

“Yes, my Führer!” Ger saluted, then turned and walked into the distance. By the time Akado turned his head back, he found the little girl beside him looking at him with a mixture of surprise and fear. Only then did he remember that Ger’s “my Führer” was a phrase that all students in the occupied territories were taught to shout on their very first day of school.

“I have no intention of making things difficult for you. If you don’t mind, would you walk a little further with me?” Akado said, trying hard to suppress the towering rage in his heart. After all, no one would be in a good mood after learning that a group of bastards was spending their days undermining him.

“Please don’t do anything to punish my family or my neighbors. They are all very good people,” the little girl said, seeming to be afraid. Her voice had lost its melodious and charming tone. She spoke to Akado cautiously, her beautiful big eyes staring at the slightly angry man.

“I will not do anything boring to your family,” Akado said. He then signaled the interpreter to translate for the little girl. He then had someone go and find Frank Alston. He had known who this little girl was from the very beginning and had intended from the start to give this little girl, whose fate seemed to have changed, a relatively complete future.

Frank Alston arrived quickly. In fact, his car was not far behind Akado’s. He walked to Akado’s side, a fawning look on his face as he awaited his orders. Compared to Akado, who was not wearing a uniform and did not have a throng of guards, his face was much more recognizable in the Netherlands.

Immediately, some noblewomen in fur shawls or men in suits recognized Frank Alston. This man, who had invested in three motorcycle production lines in the Netherlands in one go, had always had a good reputation here. He had appeared in the newspapers countless times and was called by the Dutch “the only truly conscientious German businessman.”

“The file you gave me, I read it last night. Krupp’s youngest son has business here, and the Bismarck family has also gotten their hands in. You didn’t write any of this in it!” Akado said coldly to Frank Alston. “I understand your thinking, Frank. I understand it very well! You gave me information on some small fry, but you didn’t give me the information on these people.”

As the Führer of the Empire, if Akado had wanted to come to the Netherlands for an incognito visit and had not obtained all the information he wanted to see, then he would have been a truly pathetic Führer. The three independent intelligence agencies under his command—the SS Intelligence Bureau, the Wehrmacht Intelligence Bureau, and the mysterious Führer’s Residence Intelligence Analysis Office, which was subordinate to Akado personally—would all have to be disbanded.

The reason Akado hadn’t pointed this out from the beginning was because he had had the same thought as Frank Alston. He had also felt that it was unnecessary to touch the foundations of these acquaintances. After all, they were all in the same boat. But now Akado understood. These people had not been polite with him at all. They had even been more ruthless than the other small fry.

So this time, he decided to carry out a harsh rectification.

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com