Quick Meeting

"Father... What are you doing here?"

Both Cossette and Arthur's bald master, which is her father, stared at each other with a shocked face. They were silent for a few seconds until the man finally spoked up.

"Cossette... Why are you here?" He placed the two children down, and eyed her with an anxious expression. He was unexpectedly looking at her, scared.

"Huh?" Furrowing her brows, Cossette crossed both of her arms. "You stupid father. Mother had been trying to find you for 8 years. You better give me a proper explanation or else, I'll send you to your grave." She said with a threatening tone.

"Hey..." The man raised both of his hands in defeat. "You shouldn't say anything threatening to your father like that... You're hurting my fee--!?"

Suddenly, a black light flew passed him with great speed, giving him a small scratch on his cheeks.

"Heeek!" The bald man backed away, scared. "H-hey! That's dangerous! You shouldn't do that to your fathe-!?" Before he could even finish his sentence, a sharp ice spike suddenly appeared on the floor.

He was barely able to dodge this, as the ice spike grazed him on the arm.

Cossette was shocked seeing this happened. Immediately, she tried to look around to the surroundings to see the one who created that spell.

"You! Why are you here?"

With her ice spear out, Alicia prepared her stance and aimed the her spear's tip towards the man.

Cossette snapped out from her shock and raised her voice to gain Alicia's attention. "Alicia!? What do you think you're doing!?" She asked, summoning a dark barrier that she copied from Athan to protect her father.

"What do you think I'm doing? That guy is the one who kidnapped both Athan and I when we were just three! He even tried to sell us!" She answered Cossette with an angered tone. Intense bloodlust began to exclude from her body. It was slightly more intense than what Arthur can release.

""...HUH?!!""

Both Arthur and Cossette's jaw dropped. They were too dumbfounded after hearing what Alicia just said.

For Arthur's case, this was the first time he had about this. In each of his regression, there wasn't even one time that his master was able to meet Athan... Or maybe, this actually always happen in each of his regression, and he just didn't know about it.

Next, they both turned their heads towards the man and glared at him.

""Explain!!"" Their voices went sync.

***

"Miss Roosevelt, are you sure that the person you asked for help is trustworthy enough? What if he betray this company? We won't be able to rise up if he does."

An old man wearing a wearing a business suit, eyed Eleanor with a worried gaze. He looked to be in his late-forties. Although he looked old, he was quite intimidating. If Eleanor didn't know who this was, she would've just looked down without staring at him in the eyes.

As for the other people inside the meeting room, they silently observed her with a disappointed expression.

But...

"Does her taking over her father's long time business really a good idea? I mean look at her immediately trusting that infamous asshole. Are you really that easy to tri-"

With her medium-length light-brown hair hung loosely down to her shoulders, and she carried herself with unmistakable poise. Her eyes were framed precisely with eyeliner, but anyone wouldn't even think she needed any makeup to look bold and assertive. Even just by standing facing her, would make her look intimidating.

She was quite a beauty, but almost her entire persona was incredibly intimidating. She looked like an extremely capable woman who was impossible to approach under normal circumstances.

Comparing her to the neat and innocent that was Eleanor, this woman was like a the opposite version of her.

"Watch your tongue, Miss Kelly." The old man from earlier spoke and glared at her, making her stop talking. "If you say something like that ever again, I'll cut your tongue my own." He said to her, threateningly.

"U-Uncle Moss! I-it's fine... she's only saying that because she's worried about me. There's no need for you to get angry." Eleanor motioned her hands to stop her uncle. She was worried that he might actually end up doing what he said for real.

Seeing her act, the old man named Moss heaved out a sigh and patted her head. "You should learn that letting anyone disrespect you will only make them disrespect you more in the future. Disciplining them is sometimes needed. You should remember that."

"Yes, Uncle." Eleanor nodded her head with a smile. She was about to say something when she suddenly heard a faint voice coming from the direction not far from her.

"This is why I hate idiots..." A girl, who's probably around the age of 12, mumbled in her breathes before letting out a deep sigh.

"What did you say to her, brat? Just because your family and many investors in the company is supporting you have the ability to talk like that to M'lady."

Moss turned his attention to the child with a frightening expression. He felt like he wanted to throw this child out of the window, but stopped himself from doing it. He would've have actually did it if it wasn't for the fact that Eleanor was watching.

"Like I said, having an idiot as our leader will only become a hinder for the company's growth. Or are you saying that I'm wrong?"

"You are indeed correct, Danica. It's seems like Mr. Moss don't understand the company's current situation properly." The one who said this was an arrogant-lookinh man with dirt brown hair and blue eyes. He was beside the short-haired woman from earlier. His named was Ronald.

They both smirked at Moss after seeing the expression he was making.

Moss was on the verge of losing control of himself when suddenly, a black portal appeared right next to Eleanor.

"Elle, I'm here..."

Not long after, a silhouette stepped out of the void. With golden-yellow eyes that glistened underneath the lights of the room, long-cascading reddish hair, and fair skin, a male figure leisurely walked in of the room.

Stepping out of the void, Athan casually looked around and bowed his head slightly.

"This should be my 184th meeting..." He mumbled under his breath with his fingers was under his chin.

"Lucius... What happened to you?" Eleanor looked at Athan with worried eyes after seeing a few bruises on his face and a band-aid just above his eyes.

Hearing this, Athan made a gesture and said, "This is nothing. I just had to deal with some people before I came here."

Indifferently staring at the man who had just entered the room, Moss mouth opened. "Are you the one M'lady was--" Before he could even finish his sentence, Athan spoke.

"Yes. I'm Lucius Granhart. The second son of the Granhart Family. I'm just here to fulfill my deal with your niece, Mr. Moss."

"I didn't even--"

"I already heard many things about you from Ms. Eleanor, and about the current situation of this company. Your niece made a deal with me... There's no need to know what the deal is about. Also, please refrain from asking unnecessary questions. I will only answer the questions that needed answer." Athan spoke in a calm, yet in a somehow serious tone.

Moss stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. "I understand... Talking about unnecessary things will only waste our precious time. Why don't we start our meeting then?"

Although he was not showing it, Moss felt satisfied after seeing Athan being serious about the matter in company in his eyes.

Soon enough, everyone took a sit and carefully observed Athan, who remained standing up, with the whiteboard behind him.

"Anyway, I'll start by saying that I've already paid with every debt that this company has in the bank and the other investors from properties. To how you'll deal with those properties, I'll let you guys' can handle it."

When the people heard this, including Eleanor, they all heaved out a sigh of relief. They didn't know what the deal was all about, but they were somewhat thankful that Eleanor was able to convince this guy to help them.

"Anyhow, according to my own research... You guys are too dumb to handle your own properties properly." He taunted, disappointedly.

Soon enough, many of the people inside the room began to complain.

"-Huh, what did you say!?"

"-This bastard is for real taunting us!"

"-This fucker..."

Hearing their blabbers, Athan just ignored their words and continue on speaking.

"Most of all, you guys are too scared of being in debt or going bankrupt. How the hell would you guys be able to improve, let alone save you guys from the current situation of this company if you lots are scared with that?"

When they heard this, all of the people from earlier went silent. Although they wanted to refute, they couldn't deny him that they were actually too scared thinking that they would be drowned by debts or getting bankrupt.

"Tell me, do you guys know how much I've paid to buy and invest on my first property? You can also include that property's taxes." Athan said. "No? Well, when I first invested myself on real estate, I only paid the bank for less than 50,000. As for the taxes for the property, I haven't paid any for 6 years."

All of the people inside the room, including Eleanor, was stunned.

"Haven't paid any taxes? How is--"

The little girl was about to ask him a question when Athan spoke.

"That's what I'm about to teach you people," He said to her while squinting his eyes. "I won't ask how you, a little child, get here, but... Next time you're about to ask questions, learn to raise your hand. Didn't your school teach you that?"

Because of his words, it threatened to make the people inside the meeting room to laugh, which they did later on after he continues.

"Also, to everyone who was born with special abilities, please refrain from using any [Mind Reading] abilities on me. Because, unlike any normal school for childrens, you won't be able to cheat your way through this meeting and easily get some answers. Not to mention, I'm warning you, if any of you guys try to do it, you'll either die or go crazy."

Although he said this with a serious expression, the people took his words as a joke and secretly laughed, while staring at the little girl.

Soon after the laugher died down, Athan began his explanation.

"To make my explanation more easier, I'll tell you the story on how I bought the huge apartment building right next to the beach using 21 million and debt a year ago." He said, silently staring at the shocked faces of the people inside the meeting room.

"W-wait! Isn't the buil-"

Before the woman from earlier could continue, Athan spoke.

"It supposedly should have cost lower, but around this year, it now went past through 100M." He said this as if it was nothing.

"Anyways, I'll give you guys a quick scenario." Athan took a marker from the table and began writing something on the white board.

List:

-I Bought the place with 19M

-15M in debt

-With 4M equity

-Remaining 2M is invested on the building

"Thus, the bank gave me a loan based on the net operating income, which is about 700K. Later, the bank gave me a 400K in debt, the payment. Meaning, that property could make 300K annually."

700K - 400K = 300K

List:

-400K is the payment for 15M

-4M is equity, or the money that I've raised from other people

-300K is the payment from the 4M

"Now, what you get when you buy housing is what you normally called as 'depreciation'." He said, crossing his arms.

Then, the arrogant-looking guy, Ronald, from earlier spoke. "Really now? How sure are you even with this--"

Before he could finish, Athan spoke, "This strategy will surely succeed as long as the person who was using this 'trick' know how the rules work." He rolled his eyes. "Also, didn't you graduated from the famous school on the neighboring country as a Real Estate Entrepreneur? You should have known what I meant by what I said if you didn't just waste your time playing around with some whore and try to learn from famous entrepreneurs there."

"You bastard..." Ronald eyes' twitched in anger. He was sure that he'll kill this guy later on after the meeting. He would order his men outside to beat him to death.

"How dare you say that to Ronald?" The one who spoke was the little girl, Danica. "Do you even know who--"

"His parents are one of the most influential people in this company. Though, who do you think is more influential? My family or him?" Athan turned his head to Ronald. "Hey, deal with your little admirer here, you lolicon!"

His sentence made Ronald glare at her.

When Danica noticed this, she sat back down and went silent.

Seeing this, Athan felt satisfied. "Anyhow, since this place might end up getting overwhelmed in the market, we could only focus on Real Estate for now. Also, I'll tell you guys a few more strategies later on after this. I'll also explain many things like the real importance of 'corporations'."

He continues, "I guess I should continue now. We already wasted some of our precious time, we can't waste more. I still have something to do."

Thus, he finally decided to continue his explanation earlier.

The whole time, Eleanor couldn't help but look at him with awe and admiration. She was correct for asking him for help.

As for Danica's case, everytime she was about to raise her hand to ask questions, Athan would immediately answer her questions beforehand without her being able to say what she wanted to ask. Not only that, his answer was always correctly related to each questions. It was as if he could see what was about to happen in the future for a few seconds.

"Child, is there any question left that you wanted to ask? If not, shut your mouth already so that I could continue." He said without even changing his calm, yet serious demeanor. "Seriously, why would anyone even let a child enter such an important meeting? Are they perhaps an idiot?"

When the girl heard this, she could only bit her lower lips to force herself not to say anything. The only thing she could do is glare at the young man hatefully.

As for Mister Moss, he was just silently staring at the young man and the child simultaneously while remaining indifference. Even though he wanted to laugh at the child, but because of his pride, he dared not to. He could only thank the young man deep in his heart for making the spoiled brat embarrassed.

Few hours passed by...

When the young man was finally done with his explanation, Moss squinted his eyes as he observed him more carefully.

In his eyes, Athan was like a business genius... No, he was more than that. He felt like Athan was hiding more, and was merely holding back whenever he talk. Based on what his instinct was saying, Athan was a marketing genius, charismatic, smooth talker, a great entrepreneur, and probably many more.

"Hey, Elle." Athan lightly tapped Eleanor on the shoulder. Before she could even say something, he continued, "Can you do me a favor? Close your eyes and cover your ears. Also, go out of this room and don't open the door." Athan pulled her lightly to his back. "No matter what happens or what you hear, don't turn around."

"Umm.... Yeah." Eleanor nodded and did what she was asked. She went out of the room, while covering both of her ears and closing her eyes. She didn't know why Athan ordered him to do this, but she trusted him.

Satisfied, Athan turned his attention to the others. "Before we finish our meeting, I would like to fire some people," He said, putting on his white gloves as he looked around at his targets.

"Wha-what do you-?!!" Before the person could even finish speaking, Athan picked up a pen on the table and threw it towards the man's back.

Without him even able to let out a scream, the arrogant man, Ronald, from earlier fell dead to the ground immediately.

"You! What are-- ack!?"

The woman on the left side just right beside Athan died after he kicking her hard, that her head got twisted in a 180 degrees.

The others who saw this panicked. They were all staring at the man, stunned... speechless, and many other kinds of emotions that involves shock.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨!!? 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺! The dignified secretary of the arrogant young man, who was belittling Eleanor earlier, thought. Thus, she began to activate her special ability, Mind Reading.

"The bitch secretary, Kelly, of the arrogant bastard from earlier will try to use her ability to read my mind, but..." Athan mumbled to himself as he turned to look at her.

𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦... He thought internally, taking the pen out of the dead young man's head.

At the same time-

*BAAAM-!!*

-Her head did exploded after saying those from his thoughts.

Without wasting much of his energy, he took a step back. "Next, the bald asshole will try to attack me on my right while I was off guard." He once again mumbled to himself, dodging the hand of the bald guy he mentioned and using the bloody pen from earlier to stab his neck.

𝘈𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭, Danica, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺, 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 [𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨] 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘦... 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘸𝘰, 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺.

"Aaaaaaah-!!!" The little shit screamed so loudly, as if she was a bad spirit that was being exorcized by some priest.

Taking the pen out of the baldy's neck, Athan calmly took something out of his briefcase and placed them on the table.

*-Thud!*

Next, he turned his attention to the remaining people and spoke, "The people I eliminated here was a spy from one of the companies that wanted to destroy us. If you have any questions, then... Shut up, and don't ask any of them. Just read the folder in the table and remain quiet."

After that, he turned his attention to the old man from earlier. "Also, Mister Moss. I want talk to you about something related to Eleanor on private tomorrow. I won't be giving you any business card because, I already know that you've made a research about me. Just go visit my building tomorrow, we'll talk there."

While the room room remained silent, Athan turned around and lightly pulled Eleanor away from the bloody office. "Let's go, Elle. I'm kind of getting hungry, where do you want to eat?" He asked her in the most gentle way as possible. He acted as if none of those in the office ever happened in the first.

"Mmm... Yes!" Eleanor's expression suddenly brightened. She innocently nodded her head simultaneously.

"How cute..."

Athan smiled and rubbed her head. Messing up her hair had put him in a good mood.

Not a short-tempered girl. Unlike Cossette, Eleanor didn't get angry about her hair getting messed up. She just eyed him with an innocent watery eyes.

Frankly, she pursed an awkward smile after seeing Athan's gentle smile. "Don't bully me, humph!" She pouted her lips as she tried to remove his hands by shaking her head.

This continued until the two of them got home--

"I'll have to deal with some guy first..." Athan suddenly mumbled out loud.

Eleanor heard this and turned her head to his direction. "Mmm?" She tilted her head to the side as she looked at him with a questioning gaze.

3...

2...

1...

He's here..." Saying this, Athan pushed Eleanor to the wall, as a knife went past through the back of his head in a hairbreadth.

"L-Lucius!?" She turned bit red seeing him so closed to her with their faces an inch away from each other.

Taking something out of his pocket, Athan threw the pen from earlier in the air. Soon enough, the pen stopped midair.

*Thud-!*

A second later, it fell down. Soon, a man with a pen on his forehead, appeared on the ground.

"That should be for today."