"If you don't believe me, Lady Shinomiya..." Yukinoshita Haruno was still explaining herself. It couldn't be helped. Although the Yukinoshita Family had managed to establish ties with the Doma Family through Sogo Doma, that didn't mean they could stand on equal footing with the Shinomiya Family!
Indeed, the Shinomiya Family had never gained any advantage against the Doma Family. In fact, over the past two years, whenever the Doma Family was involved, the Shinomiya Family would consciously steer clear. But that only proved that the Doma Family was too powerful—it didn't mean the Shinomiya Family was weak...
Moreover, precisely because the Shinomiya Family had suffered so many losses at the hands of the Doma Family while being unable to do anything about them, they had no choice but to seek profits from other conglomerates to make up for their own losses. As a result, the number of financial groups swallowed up by the Shinomiya Family had actually increased recently—
This had, in turn, enhanced the Shinomiya Family's prestige somewhat.
That was right. The Shinomiya Family might have had no way of dealing with the Doma Family, but handling other conglomerates was effortless for them—no wonder Yukinoshita Haruno was so anxious to explain herself to Kaguya Shinomiya. After all, the Yukinoshita Family belonged among those other conglomerates.
Of course, perhaps the Shinomiya Family would refrain from making things difficult for the Yukinoshita Family out of consideration for the Doma Family. But if they pinned their hopes on that, then the Yukinoshita Family could only pray that the Shinomiya Family would be magnanimous, or pray that the Doma Family would step in on their behalf. Either way, it amounted to placing the family's fate in someone else's hands...
"With the Shinomiya Family's power, I'm sure..." Thus, Yukinoshita Haruno could only do everything