Suspicious Thoughts

A boy with golden hair was slumped on a couch, his eyes staring intently at a three-dimensional projection floating in the air in front of him.

A girl with purple and yellow eyes was doing the same next to the boy.

"Fei, who do you think will score first this match?" The boy asked without taking his eyes away from the screen.

"Blue," Fei answered without any hesitation.

The two people were watching a popular sport called 'soccer.' This sport had existed and retained its original state from centuries ago, with the only things changing were the states of the stadiums and the players.

With its lengthy history, there was bound to be some books on it in the library. As such, Fei, someone that read everything in the library, would definitely be at least somewhat educated on the matter.

Although information can be outdated, tactics are never obsolete.

Startled, Carlos finally looked at his companion. "W-What? Why?"

"Although Blue is inexperienced, their teamwork is much better than Red's. You can see the little signals that the members give to each other and the other's responses. But in Red, everyone is too high-strung, and some people aren't doing their parts well enough – these people could serve as weak links the opposition can take advantage of. Red recently had a change of leadership, right? You can see that he doesn't have much authority over the rest of the members. Everyone in the team is top-notch, so they probably think that they can do better with their own strategies. On the other hand, Blue's leader is very respected and has great strategies, though they are all very lowkey. The greatness of those strategies cannot be seen clearly when on the field; one has to view it from a bird's eye view to see. In addition—"

"So the previous win wasn't a fluke?" the young master asked, with his brain automatically filtering the additional information his bodyguard provided. He also didn't bother asking how was it that she knew more about the teams than he did. After five years of experience, he had gotten used to this.

"That is hard to say. There was a 52% that the last plan that Blue thought up would work, but it is apparent that there was some sort of unexpected circumstance outside of their imagination happened. You could see the nervousness in their actions after that event. For a while, they seemed to be a bit unconfident and careless, allowing Red to take the lead. But ultimately, Red was inferior due to their lack of—"

"I got it, I got it! Just stop talking!" Carlos growled. Although he had gotten used to Fei's overload of information, it didn't mean that he was okay with it. Besides, she just told him that one of his favorite teams was trash! (she never said that) How could he endure it?!

Fei slowly nodded, and the room sank into a deep silence, save for the sounds coming from the projection.

As Carlos watched the game, he couldn't focus. The mutant that sat next to him was giving off such a sad aura, looking at him with the eyes of an abandoned puppy.

Don't get tricked, Carlos! Fei's ALWAYS like this, acting so hurt whenever she was criticized by him. Don't get tricked! The boy reminded himself over and over again.

Finally, he turned around and puffed up his cheeks – like how he did when he was younger.

Ugh. I lost. Again. The boy's lips quivered. "Oh come on, Fei! Don't look so sad and cheer up!"

He hesitated. "I-I'm sorry for yelling at you… Come on… Speak!"

Fei's face brightened. "Master, you forgive me?"

"Yeah. So cheer up! Watch the match with me."

Before the bodyguard could reply, a sudden knock on the door of the lounge disrupted the conversation.

Carlos frowned slightly. "Come in."

The door opened, and a servant stepped in. "Young master Carlos, Sir Rochester requests for your presence."

Father? A bad premonition crept up the child's back.

"Why?" he asked the servant.

"The old master said that you will know when you arrive."

Carlos hands slightly trembled as gripped the hand rest of the sofa. He didn't want to go, but was there a choice?

There was a reason why he was so reluctant to go, but the boy was afraid that if he thought about the cause, he might jinx it.

What if the servant that informed him to go was actually a spy from his father, and the servant found out something wrong from his expression?

What if the servant saw through his thoughts?

As his thoughts jumbled into a mess, Carlos finally stood up and walked towards the door to begin his trek to his father's office. He had the luxury to not pay attention to his surroundings because the servant was leading the way, and top-notch bodyguards were protecting him from the dark, including Fei – well, I mean for Fei, she's in the light.

It wasn't long before the group reached the doors of the entrance to General Rochester's office.

Ah… I really don't want to go in… Carlos gulped as he watched a servant, different from the previous one, push open the doors.

His heart beat wildly whenever he thought of what awaited him behind those doors. At first, Carlos wanted to stall for time as much as he could, but thinking of the consequences of doing so, he decided to just go in and endure whatever came his way.

Oh, screw it! He shouted in his mind as he stepped into the room.

Looking at her master's shaking hands, Fei felt that there was something wrong with him. She didn't understand what that 'something' was, but she was worried.

After a second of hesitation, she followed her master into Mr. Rochester's office.