[ Queen Mansion, Star City ]
The secretary was just like the song says—coming and going quickly. He handed Thea a large stack of documents, and Moira Queen instructed her to go back to her room and look at them carefully.
Following her mother's orders, Thea returned to her room carrying several large volumes of documents.
This is the foundation for my future livelihood. I must take a careful look at it. At the same time, she took out her notebook and began jotting down job resumes of several important executives. She even made a simple personality analysis based on their respective working styles. Who knew which department she'd be assigned to tomorrow? It was always smart to be prepared.
What? Why were only a few executives listed? Would she be sent to work under security guards or janitorial staff? How could that be possible? She was the only heir. Her mother wouldn't arrange for her daughter to become a security guard! This was a transmigration story, not an urban drama about the return of the soldier king!
Carefully analyzing Queen Consolidated's current situation, she noted that the group had over 30,000 employees and branches all over the world. Its primary business was in steel smelting and non-ferrous metal mining. The company held a 7% steel market share in the U.S. and 4.1% globally—a respectable player in the steel industry.
Additionally, Queen Consolidated had diversified into weapons R&D and biopharmaceuticals, achieving some preliminary results. However, the research hadn't yet translated into economic returns, and the annual investment remained a significant financial strain.
Flipping through financial statements, Thea noticed that this year, the company had heavily invested in real estate. Originally strong in cash flow, it now showed signs of tightening. That was not the operating profile of a healthy enterprise. Mapping the purchases against Star City map, Thea realized all of the land acquisitions were in the slums. Was this what Robert Queen had asked Mom to do?
Apparently, Robert had secretly bought up land in the slums to prevent Malcolm Merlyn from using his earthquake machine to destroy them. What kind of logic was that? Thea couldn't understand. Robert had known Malcolm for years—and still hadn't realized the man had no bottom line and zero moral restraint?
He hoped that by holding the land himself, Malcolm would refrain from acting? How naive. Malcolm didn't care about whose name was on the deed—he just blew things up. He wasn't even mentioned in the notebook Robert left for Oliver. If he had been, Oliver might've "whooshed" an arrow into Malcolm from a rooftop in Season One and wrapped the whole series up in a single episode instead of twenty-three!
Looking at the stack of land deeds, Thea felt a headache coming on. Six years from now, Malcolm would attempt a Whitebeard-level shake-up, demolishing half the slums—land that would still be under Queen ownership.
Star City was disaster-prone. In Season One, Malcolm's earthquake machine killed over 500 people, including his own son, Tommy. Season Two, Deathstroke unleashed a mob of evolved soldiers to turn the city into a live-action DOTA match. Season Three brought a viral outbreak from the Demon's Head of League of Assassins. Season Four saw a mad magician nearly drop 15,000 nukes as Christmas gifts to destroy the world.
And here we are, investing in slum land in hopes of gentrifying into prosperity.
Biting the end of her pen as she stared at the charts, Thea felt despair. The purchases hadn't stopped with Robert's death. In just the two weeks since her transmigration, her family had acquired three more slum properties.
It seemed Moira Queen was faithfully following her late husband's wishes—a road to ruin. Queen Consolidated would keep hemorrhaging money into these bottomless pits. If she didn't lose a kidney by the end of it, it would be a miracle.
No wonder Ray Palmer, a.k.a. The Atom, managed to easily acquire Queen Consolidated by Season Three. That the company even lasted eight more years despite this level of fiscal recklessness was impressive.
In order for future Oliver not to mooch off his girlfriend and for me to avoid becoming a security guard—a fine job, but not for a company heir—this policy has got to go.
Easier said than done. Right now, she was a nobody. I can't exactly tell the board that my real father will get drunk and build a doomsday machine. No one will believe me.
Her only chance was to climb the ladder and change things from the top. As for stopping her father's plan in time, maybe she could prevent the season one disaster with her current influence. But what about Season Two and Three? So many force majeure events—she wasn't invincible.
With five years left before the plot truly began, Thea resigned herself to take it one step at a time.
...
[ Next Morning ]
The next morning, Thea woke up early and applied light makeup. Thankfully, her muscle memory from original Thea soul remained intact. Her new consciousness just had to fill in the blanks.
She stared at her wardrobe, torn. It was her first day at work; she needed to look formal but not too mature. She settled on a short beige blazer over a navy-blue pencil skirt that reached her knees. The outfit gave her a professional edge while preserving her youthful vibe.
Slipping on black heels under five centimeters high, she tested a few steps. Stable. The initial discomfort had faded. Her control over this body was getting stronger. A glance in the mirror confirmed it—she looked sharp and ready.
Moira Queen had been waiting downstairs for some time. She knew her daughter well. Thea's personality could be described charitably as "free-spirited"—less generously, she could be stubbornly contrarian. The more you told her not to do something, the more she'd want to do it.
Moira had fully expected pushback. She'd even mentally drafted a whole persuasive speech. So when Thea descended the stairs in formalwear, calm and composed, Moira was both relieved and elated. No scissors, no Molotov cocktails—just her daughter ready for work.
They got into the car. Thea kept asking about Queen Consolidated's current operations. She was aware that not everything could be found in documents. That curiosity made Moira beam. It meant her daughter had read the files thoroughly. If she'd asked Oliver, he wouldn't have known which way the boardroom door opened.
Trying to make up for the coldness of the past few days, Thea even leaned in more affectionately than usual. By the time they reached the company gate, Moira Queen was practically glowing.
Her two children had been making her miserable for twenty years—one always in trouble, the other emotionally distant. Now, despite the grief of losing her son, Moira found solace in her daughter's maturity.
She was genuinely looking forward to the competition between Queen Consolidated and Merlyn Global—no, she was excited about the competition of heirs.
Smiling brightly, Moira pulled Thea through the doors of Queen Consolidated.
To Be Continued...
---xxx---
[POWER STONES AND REVIEWS PLS]