004 Being A Sole Heir.

Bruce took the glass in front of him that was filled with water and drank from it slowly and placed it back on the table to refill it from a mug close by.

Then his gaze wandered back up to the 10 well-suited managers on each side of the long table that they were sitting at.

All of them were the respective leaders of the branches of Wayne Enterprises. Each of the man here held tremendous power as well as responsibilities that were expected of their standing.

Well, he said man but he also should comment on the 3 women being present here as well before someone ended up making this an unfair power gap between genders. He was not gender specific after all.

That matter aside. While Bruce looked at them, they also had their eyes on him nearly constantly.

And even when he was at the center of attention in the seat of power that was placed in the middle at the end of the v-shaped table, he still kept himself pretty calm and collected.

Yet in their minds, it also felt like this kid in front of them should be nervous at the very least. But he wasn't and a few guessed him having been taught this behavior prior to this moment.

Everyone here held some power in one way or another, and everyone knew that the most power came from that very seat. It didn't matter that the head was a mere underaged boy now.

Some wanted to say things at the start and ridicule this very meeting.

But when they looked at the butler on his right side of the boy who sternly glanced at each of them, they remained quiet.

They knew of Alfred and remembered how he visited a few times with the previous company head.

In the end, while these people would lead Wayne Enterprises for the upcoming few years that would pass until Bruce's coming of age, there would still be a few changes that Bruce would act out right now before giving them free reign.

That is what he was here for in the first place. After all, he still held 80% of all shares of everything in this company, while another 10% were in Alfred's possession.

He couldn't just let these people destroy everything that his father, and ancestors before him, together with the hard-working men under him had built.

Especially not while he would be gone for a while. That was his very own responsibility as an employer. He had to make sure things went at least according to some guidelines.

History showed that many regents of old kings once destroyed the very same kingdoms in a similar manner - short and destructive misuse of power.

And with them holding 10% of the shares from the company, it was well enough power.

Though it seemed petty that each manager only held a 1% share from the bigger pie with their respective branch, one should still be mindful that even those 1% equal 100% of said branches under them and that was a tremendous fortune for anyone to get their grubby hands on.

Each manager, therefore, still held tremendous power. If they even collaborated they could overthrow Alfred's involvement that had the same say as them with his shares.

Yes, Bruce put Alfred as a watchdog to keep an observing eye on these people. Especially now.

After all, he already had some suspicions about a few of them after making a few quick investigations when tackling the matter of the company that was entrusted to him.

His father's notes did help a little in that regard as well. But inevitably now was not the time for that, nor could he openly act against them yet.

All that brought them to this very same meeting.

To make everything legally correct and secure with him going into his "regency".

For that very same reason, there was another person invited to explain the situation. That said person was right beside him as well and was just about to end his current legal speech.

The mentioned man smiled after being finished and leaned back on his walking stick.

"I presume everything has been understood and everyone agrees? Should there be any objections, please voice them now so that we can take them into consideration..." The man asked shortly. Knowing well enough that these people don't have much of a say in the matter.

The managers looked at each other and a few whispered to each other. Pretty daring if one considered Bruce being right in front of them.

Then a woman with long blonde hair that looked to be in her 30's was curious enough to voice something out.

"You mentioned a rebranding of each branch in these documents. What is the young head thinking about?" Her eyes actually went over to Bruce while asking that question after tapping on the papers that lay in front of each of the managers.

Bruce still remained calm when seeing her intense stare behind those framed glasses.

'Emilia Sterling, Wayne Technologies...No presumed direct wrong behavior...' After a short analysis in his head, he started to give her an answer.

"As everyone is in the known, all present here are representing Wayne Enterprises. But I believe it is time to enter a new era and accept fresh winds..."

These words meant more than just simple rebranding. And they would someday know exactly what he meant by them.

"And, how do Wayne Technologies, Wayne Biotech, Wayne Aerospace, Wayne Industries, Wayne Medical, Wayne Electronics, Wayne Minerals, Wayne Shipping, Wayne Foods and Wayne Financial sound to you? Isn't it a little bit... self-centered?" Bruce pinpointed each and every single manager of each branch.

These 10 were the main branches and under them were a few other sub-branches like Wayne Biotech being the parent of Wayne Chemicals or another example would be Wayne Minerals being the parent of Wayne Steel, Wayne Oil, and other resource companies.

Thinking about it clearly, it was unbelievable to have so many arms that stretched so far over the world, that everything somehow still worked in tandem to a single goal.

And it is also why he still has to keep these 10 people doing their own thing. He could not sustain all of this on his own. He needed valuable manpower and firing all the corrupt entities would only become a quick downfall without placing a foundation beforehand.

Well, there was one thing that did work without much of a hassle and that was Alfred. He was the man responsible for the Wayne Foundation which held each of the newly established Thomas and Martha Foundations.

But he didn't count on those for anything since they were basically charities, nor did he believe that Alfred would betray him anyway. It was a weird feeling that he had, yet he saw this middle-aged man as part of his family.

Of course, if things happened, they happened. He couldn't act on everything. For now, though, he would give these people the carrot and a lot of leeway.

Depending on how some of them would act and worsen their actions, the harder would the stick hit later.

Anyway, the managers looked confused at his words, and a few raised their brows.

"For example, Wayne Aerospace will be renamed to Terra Nova, we will also try to further technologies pertaining to said outer space."

Now everyone widened their eyes.

Some thought this was the whim of a child. A few already saw the costs involved. And others were curious to see where the new young head would actually go with this.

Especially Emilia smiled with an interested look on her face. It was something that her branch would end up being involved in after all and getting more funding was always something not to scoff at.

"And before anyone says anything, yes it will cost us at first, but when were we the ones that hid from progress? Soon the dividends would come back manyfold..." Bruce tried to lessen the backlash from those greedy for money. He already saw some scowls on their faces.

"There are also other projects I'm aiming to progress in. I do expect some results in the time I will be gone. So I leave a lot of work to you that I would like to be done...." Now his gaze became very intimidating for a mere child.

The coldness that shone in his deep blue eyes could freeze anyone looking too long into them. A clear boon to his extremely high willpower. Some of them even averted their gaze at him.

"Continuing on, Wayne Electronics will be renamed into...Tesseract. And its branch Wayne Automobile should be named...Tesla. Yes, that should be good enough to give some credit to one of the fathers of electricity here on Earth. Both will start cooperating with Wayne Technologies to create efficient electric cars."

"That would make our branch suffer!" Now a man said when hearing that. Obviously, it was the one that was in Wayne Minerals. The oil would sell less and he could clearly see the favoritism the tech branch was getting.

Bruce looked at him. "It would barely make a dent, besides, the governments around the world are already changing towards renewable energy. Keep up with what is needed...and oil has many uses that will still be needed."

He simply ignored any other discontented arguments with either silence or facts and went on to explain what his goal was in its entirety.

Electric cars, renewable energy, and many environmental projects towards our dear mother Gaia. There were even projects to make radioactive materials reusable again to reduce radioactive waste.

Those few things alone would eat a large chunk of money but the potential in them was near infinite. Especially when they enter the early space-faring era.

The other projects were kept secret and a few of the managers were given certain special documents from Alfred together with the other papers.

Back at the rebranding task, he gave most of the other managers whom he didn't actively assign a new name some leeway in naming their branches. The only restriction they had there was that they should be easily discernable and not have "Wayne" in them.

Wayne Technologies was one of them.

Why did he do this? Simply so that the general populace would start forgetting and not put everything on Wayne Enterprises if something went bad.

It was sadly a move to keep the integrity of this company that had joined the investment market. It would have been so much easier if they weren't in such a situation in the first place, but what was done, was done.

How much of said things will be done in the next 10 years was up to them. He calculated that he could only involve himself in their progress after he made sure his education was done. 7 years give or take should be enough for that.

The last 3 years until he can take full control would be invested in personal projects and also helping them as well as slowly strengthening the foundation he aimed at.

Was he too optimistic? Maybe. But he also gave his orange level of Intellect a good push of faith.

Especially when knowing what his alter ego was able to do. And with all those other scientists and inventors who exist here, there is always something of the possible in the impossible.

Tony Stark for example was a monster when given enough time and information in that regard.

--

With everything told, he left the conference and he could already hear them bickering behind him when he was out of the room.

Well, it didn't matter what they were so agitated about now. Even if he lost everything, he would make sure to rebuild most of it on his own if he had to do so.

So after sitting inside the limousine outside the building complex, they took a drive towards New York.

After all, they still had to bring their lawyer Matt Murdock back to his office.

"Thank you for taking some of your time for this, Mister Murdock", Bruce said now while watching out the window.

"Not for that. You are paying me quite well after all and who am I to deny myself an interesting job offer?"

Bruce glanced at him and smiled a little. "I presume some of them will break said contracts the moment I will be overseas. But maybe that will still take a little while."

"All the better. Then we will be able to make a few examples of them. But I have to say, why me? You could have gotten the best of the best. But you came to our office?"

"Well, the best of the best is sitting right beside me, no?" Bruce said back immediately. "I did my research in that matter."

"I see. Well, then I hope for you that everything doesn't go too badly. As I said before, you only need to tell Mister Pennyworth and he will contact me."

"I hope it won't be needed. There is going to be a lot of work for me to do after all. But thank you."

Murdock sighed. "Don't push yourself so much, kid."

Bruce chuckled a little. "Mister Murdock, is that worry I hear? You kinda sound like my father..."

"Yet you do exactly the opposite, Master Bruce.", commented Alfred while looking into the rear mirror.

Murdock also chuckled a little when hearing the butler's words. "Sorry, looks like you are a hardy one. But that's also good."