A Handsome K*nky Gangster Reporter - Chapter 92

#92

I quickly extended my hand toward her, gesturing to request the article. Marry smiled shyly, as if she already knew everything. She gently placed a sheet of paper on my palm.

“Here you go.”

For some reason, Marry’s joyful smile annoyed me. I immediately lowered my gaze and quickly began reading the article she had meticulously written.

“Damn. It’s perfect.”

The news article was a perfect piece of straight news, flawless. The story about a police officer accepting bribes and letting lawbreakers go was written very well. The information was presented objectively, following the 5W1H principles. I had to find a flaw, but since the article was so good, there was nothing to criticize. Marry’s growing skills made me proud, yet also frustrated. I couldn’t avoid that feeling.

“You did a great job.”

Ah, even though I tried to mimic my boss, who liked to find faults and disliked others when working, we had very different personalities. Even if I tried to imitate him, I couldn’t do it perfectly on the first try.

I lowered my gaze to the table, trying to calm my still-beating heart. Tomorrow I had to finish an article for the paper, and there was still much work to be done. My hands trembled, disrupting my work. At that moment, Anna suddenly made an unexpected statement.

“Oh, I thought the young master was going to propose to our boss or something, so I was looking forward to it. Why did a man suddenly kneel? Doesn’t that mean anything?”

There’s a saying that it’s more annoying when a sister-in-law forbids you than when a mother-in-law advises you. Marry was like that now.

“Didn’t I tell you? Claude isn’t that interesting.”

Marry supported Phillip, while Anna defended Edmund, saying his value would soon decline.

“Don’t you know that a man depends on a woman? If a man who lived recklessly can change drastically because of a good woman, that’s very interesting, isn’t it?”

“Hey. Do you still like bad boys even though you’ve had a bad experience with your ex-husband? A dog doesn’t stop being dirty. I think even if he married a crown princess, the crown prince would still be a playboy and wouldn’t stop cheating.”

Marry suddenly clapped her hands, as if remembering something.

“That’s right. You know, an emperor can have two official concubines besides the empress.”

“Oh, right.”

Anna hesitated for a moment, unwilling to admit her senior’s words, and pouted.

“However, this is the position of crown princess, isn’t it?”

“Crown princess or whatever, even if there are two other women in my husband’s life… just thinking about it makes me want to… tear everything apart and kill them all!”

They glared at each other, arguing passionately about the pros and cons of the crown prince and Phillip.

“Geez, this isn’t an important issue, so stop arguing…”

I tried to intervene to end the argument, but Anna and Marry simultaneously shot me sharp looks and shouted.

“Boss, just be quiet!”

I shut my mouth, and Anna and Marry continued their heated debate about the crown prince’s and Phillip’s merits and flaws with enthusiasm. In the end, they still didn’t agree.

Why do you two have to decide? It seems like it should be my call. I felt my opinion wasn’t valued in this discussion.

‘Ugh, I better focus on work.’

I needed to focus on my work, but my gaze kept drifting to the shoes Claude had given. How useless this man was. If it was a woman’s shoe, there should be some embellishments to make it beautiful. How could these shoes be so plain and unattractive?

Did he even understand the meaning of giving shoes to a woman he liked? This man, doesn’t he know?

***

After work, Anna made her way to the market. She planned to pick up some quick snacks and fruits before heading home.

Tap-tap.

Someone carefully tapped her shoulder from behind.

“Hmm?”

Anna turned around to find Philip standing there, flashing a captivating smile as he brushed his blue hair back.

“Ms. Anna Ray. What a coincidence to run into you here! I was so pleased to see you that I thought I’d say hello.”

“Oh, hi there.”

Anna glanced down to see Phillip holding a large basket. Inside were ingredients like a long baguette, lettuce, and apples. Given how busy he was, it seemed unlikely that he’d be out shopping himself. What was going on?

“Are you shopping too, Your Highness?”

“Yes. Lately, I’ve been learning to cook from a chef, so I wanted to see and buy the ingredients myself. I’ve been coming to the market quite a bit.”

Phillip blushed as if he were revealing an embarrassing secret. Anna was taken aback by this unexpected side of him. Normally, she would have just thought, “Oh, okay,” and moved on, but this time she couldn’t help but ask further.

“Learning to cook? Why?”

With all his wealth and a successful business, why would someone like him bother with tasks that could be done by staff?

Upon hearing Anna’s question, Phillip tightly gripped the basket and slowly hid it behind his back.

“Actually, I’m learning so I can cook a meal myself when I propose to the woman I like.”

Phillip tried to cool his red cheeks by fanning himself with the hand that wasn’t holding the basket. The scene made him look like a shy young man, nervously revealing his feelings. Seeing Phillip’s bashful demeanor, Anna instinctively clenched her fists. Her heart, which had been firmly supporting the prince and the boss, wavered suddenly.

‘Yes, a family-oriented man is the best. To think there’s someone with such a sincere heart. Prince Edmund, I’m sorry. A woman’s heart really is like a reed.’

She decided then to start supporting Philip along with her senior, Mary, at the office, hoping that the relationship between Philip and the boss would progress further.

***

A few hours before Anna and Phillip met at the market.

Phillip, as usual, stopped by the office to pick up the proof for tomorrow’s newspaper. Just as he was about to grab the doorknob, he overheard the staff passionately arguing.

“She’s really going to be the princess! If His Highness really wins the boss’s heart, she could rise to the position of empress and live in luxury for the rest of her life!”

It was Anna’s voice supporting the prince.  

‘The prince? Does His Highness have feelings for Hailey?’ 

Phillip pressed his ear to the door. Then Mary’s voice was heard.  

“Still, if the boss wants to live as freely as she does now, I think Phillip is a better choice. The Dunger family has quite a bit of wealth too. Being a princess just means there will be a lot of scrutiny and always having to act gracefully. With the boss’s personality, it would be very frustrating.”  

“But he’s the most wanted man in the country?”  

Last month, Golden Wild Goose Daily conducted a fun survey among single women. They held a popularity contest among famous single men in the Morris Empire and announced the results. At that time, Prince Edmund came in first place. The second was the Duke of the North, and the third was Claude, if Phillip remembered correctly. Philip was outside the top 10, likely because of his lack of title. His subordinates were quite upset about it back then.  

‘Titles can be bought with money.’

Actually, Phillip didn’t pay much attention to such surveys at that time. But now, it was different.  

He listened intently to the staff’s conversation, wondering if Hailey’s feelings might be swayed. People often become interested in someone they previously didn’t care about when they hear them talked about frequently. Especially if it’s someone like Hailey, who seems oddly uninterested in romantic matters, the staff’s opinions couldn’t be dismissed so easily.  

‘Anna, huh?’  

It seemed he needed to show Anna just how great he was as a man. If necessary, he would use money to win her over.  

Even though he had resolved not to be obsessed with Hailey in this life, Phillip found his resolve wavering. His inner thoughts kept intruding at the most inconvenient times, offering advice.  

“Make that woman your ally. That way, you can have Hailey all to yourself.”  

The sweet whisper seemed to know his innermost desires. Taking a deep breath, Phillip closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again.  

A few hours later, he “accidentally” ran into Anna while she was leaving the market and greeted her with an innocent smile.  

“It seems it’s fate that we met here. Would you like to have dinner with me tonight? I’ll treat you to something delicious.”  

“Oh, there’s no need to go through all that trouble.”  

“I’m very grateful since you’re one of Hailey’s favorite staff members. You’ve helped Hailey so much, and I really appreciate it.”  

“Well….”  

“Oh, who knows? Maybe because of the dinner I treat you to tonight, Ray might say something nice about me to Hailey later?”  

Phillip’s words caught Anna off guard. She usually liked to chat with her senior Mary and her boss about which man suited them best, though it was mostly for fun and half-serious.  

Could this man be approaching her because he knew about that?  

With her natural tendency to be drawn to bad men, Anna fully sided with Phillip because of this incident.

***

In the past, when Phillip had completely taken over the Hylon casino and had a secret organization under his command, he began to suspect and be wary of Hailey, even though outwardly he pretended to follow her due to his father’s curse. While he was considering the possibility of seducing Hailey to make her easier to control.

“Boss, women go crazy for a big piece of jewelry like this! How about it? Wouldn’t it be better to give this necklace as a gift?”

One of his subordinates, Lloyd, lifted one of the items that was set to be auctioned off the next day and suggested to Phillip that he give it to the newspaper owner as a gift.

Black Scorpion also ran auctions, and the items they auctioned were mostly on the edge of legal and illegal. Sometimes, they even handled forbidden items from the Morris Empire for the entertainment of the wealthy for one night.

Phillip glanced at the large blue diamond dangling from the necklace. With a gem this size, anyone would be tempted.

“No way. This item is so famous that too many people want it. I’ve already spread the word that it’s going to be auctioned off tomorrow.”

People loved items with dramatic stories. And this necklace was infamous for the misfortunes of its previous owners. With so many wealthy and idle collectors currently after it, the demand for this necklace was high.

“Ah, but with this piece, the newspaper owner would fall for it and come rushing over, right?”

Lloyd, known for his coarse mouth, licked his lips regretfully and put the necklace back into its original box. He said the necklace was made during the Royan Emperor’s era, and it certainly looked finely crafted and historically valuable.

“Starting bid should be around 1,500 gold coins, that seems reasonable.”

“Yeah, that amount should be enough.”

As the auction progresses, the price will surely go higher. There’s a rumor that a noble with royal connections is also interested, so the price might even go up a bit more if a few people pretending to be guests get involved in the bidding.