Judging from the pattern of body swaps, they typically occurred at night.

And they lasted more than four hours.

These four hours were Rinji's window to take care of matters using Kaguya's identity.

The identities of the two spies planted beside Kaguya were relayed to her that morning by the intelligence agent she'd previously hired. Once Rinji swapped into Kaguya's body, he casually assigned the two men a task that got them out of the house.

Then, he contacted the people he'd already arranged to do the cleanup.

At precisely 1 AM, the two spies became corpses.

"It's pretty clear by now. The people monitoring Shinomiya were mostly sent by Shinomiya Oko, the eldest son. He probably uses the same method on his other brothers."

During this period, Rinji had learned a fair bit about the internal structure of the Shinomiya family.

The eldest son, Shinomiya Oko, had the strongest support and the highest chance of succeeding as head of the family, with a business empire spanning across Japan.

The second son had less influence, but with effort, he could still challenge Oko for leadership.

As for the third son...

Though in a slightly better position than Kaguya, who had almost no status, he was still relatively weak and unlikely to win the power struggle.

Worth noting, both Kaguya and the third son were children of the second wife.

"I think the third son's name is... Shinomiya Un'yo. He might be someone useful. Should I pull him into my plan as a disposable pawn, or eliminate him altogether? I'll keep him as a pawn for now to maximize usefulness."

The Shinomiya family was a massive conglomerate capable of swaying Japan's economy. Crushing them was easy for Rinji, but the consequences would be huge.

Plus, their industries were tempting. Rather than wiping them out, better to let them fall into his own hands.

---

Back at Kaguya's residence, Rinji began making plans.

"Money aside, I need to bring the Shinomiya product lines and tech under my control. Given Japan's geography, the best approach would be to cut off their overseas material supply to force reduced output."

As Rinji sorted through the plan in his mind, a smile appeared on 'Kaguya's' face.

"Let Shinomiya expand her influence in Tokyo, then use that influence as leverage to transfer the Shinomiya family's business channels under her name, thereby causing disruption to the Shinomiya family's supply chain—ideally, form this plan into a complete 'system.'"

A system that would gradually devour the entire Shinomiya family's industry until collapse.

The day Kaguya herself would return to the Shinomiya main house was drawing near.

---

December 31.

A café in Minato ward.

It had been a week since they started swapping bodies, usually switching every night for four to five hours.

"Happy birthday, Shinomiya."

"You're a day early, but thanks anyway."

"This is your gift."

Rinji handed Kaguya a delicately wrapped box.

"Eh? I didn't expect you to be so thoughtful..."

"Oh, it's from the president. He asked me to give it to you," Rinji said. "He's interning with uncle today, learning how to run the company."

"..."

"He originally planned to give it to you in person tomorrow, but since you're sneaking back to the main house tonight, I'm passing it along."

"Still, thank you."

Even though it wasn't her actual birthday, receiving a gift from Shirogane still made Kaguya very happy.

Her birthday was on January 1st, New Year's Day.

It was no exaggeration to say she had never celebrated her birthday.

Because she was always at the main house on that day, and the people there treated her like air. Forget a celebration—she rarely received gifts.

It was hard to imagine a rich heiress living so pitifully.

"Putting that aside, I actually wanted to ask you something today."

Kaguya looked at Hayasaka sitting beside Rinji, then fixed her gaze on him.

"What exactly have you been doing with my identity?"

"Nothing much."

"Then why are so many of my house's servants suddenly gone? And why do the others look at me like they're afraid of me?"

"They're scared because you're the lady of the house. As for the ones missing, maybe they resigned due to health reasons."

"That makes no sense."

"Nothing strange about it... by the way, Shinomiya, did you notice anything else?"

"Well..."

Kaguya thought for a moment and shook her head.

"Nothing else, really."

"You're so slow."

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

In truth, Rinji had not only removed the spies planted by the main house around Kaguya, he had done much more.

Because the so-called "more" was the core of the plan, removing the spies was just a prerequisite to avoid drawing attention once the plan started.

First, he allied with several large Tokyo companies.

Due to Rinji's interference, the Shinomiya family couldn't touch Tokyo businesses, so they abandoned control over some companies. Many of these relied on the Shinomiya conglomerate to operate.

Playing the part of Kaguya, Rinji stepped in and picked up these abandoned pieces, forming partnerships.

Some were formal contracts, others were outright acquisitions.

This part of the plan cost a lot of money—all out of Rinji's own pocket.

Then came the real key.

Using these companies as leverage, and relying on his overseas network, Rinji rerouted part of the Shinomiya family's foreign raw material supply to these companies, reorganizing resources before distributing them again.

This effectively gnawed away at the Shinomiya family's lifeline. Once operations began, their physical industries would be critically damaged.

Of course, this was as far as he could go within seven days.

"That's all for your situation, Shinomiya. Now let's talk about mine."

Rinji narrowed his eyes.

"The president and Kei have been looking at me weirdly. What did you do while using my identity?"

"Well..."

"Don't look away. Talk to me properly."

"I won't."