But feeling there was still something he needed to confirm, Tak-hyeon set aside his admiration for a moment and put a question to Seong-ho.

"Which affiliate do you think would be good to list? You've already thought about that too, haven't you?"

Even the secretarial office had only just begun sorting through which company might work, having only recently landed on the method itself.

And yet Tak-hyeon seemed to assume that Seong-ho would have already gone beyond sorting through options — that he'd have made his selection too.

With even Do-beom watching him now, wondering whether it could really be true, Seong-ho slowly began to speak.

"Yes, I've thought that through as well."

"All right, then tell me. Which company do you think we should list to secure the funds?"

"Honestly, the answer is already set. It's to spin off a single business division from Ilhyeon Distribution and list that."

"Not Ilhyeon Distribution itself, but spinning off a division of it and listing that? What do you mean by that?"

"If the goal were simply to secure funds through a listing, I think any unlisted affiliate of ours would do. But funds secured that way would only amount to pocket change. We'd likely need to repeat a similar method several times over just to secure the amount we actually want."

At Seong-ho's words, Tak-hyeon nodded and turned to look at Do-beom.

Because the secretarial office, too, had been stuck circling this exact problem without making any forward progress.

To secure the amount of funds they needed, they would need to raise at least 500 billion won through a listing — and starting from that, the secretarial office judged, they would need to roll that capital over several more times before accumulating over 10 trillion won, at which point the succession could finally begin.

But securing that much capital was impossible through just one or two listing efforts, and as a result, the succession work through warrant bonds had been running into difficulty.

Watching Tak-hyeon's expression and Do-beom's reaction, Seong-ho smiled inwardly.

Right. This must be before they've found their solution.