61 Chapter 57 - A Peculiar Note
-Krack!!!
"You fucking idiot!! Why then do I leave the company in your care! 25%?!! For something as groundbreaking as that!!! You should have secured it with a 50% share!!! And now, now they're having a whole ass 75% to themselves! Tell me Donovan, what then did I invest into this company for?!"
-Drip!
Donovan who had his head slightly bowed to a third generation master in his mid-twenties, had blood dripping from it due to a fresh wound that said young master had inflicted upon him when he threw his glass of wine at him.
The youth reeked of booze and strong female perfume and judging by the smudge of lipstick present on the collar of the disheveled white shirt of the suit he was wearing, it was obvious that their CEO had once again spent his entire day frolicking about.
"I apologize for that sir but regarding that, it was the best deal we could've come up with, especially if you include that we're still just a fairly small to mid-sized company" Donovan began.
"Trying to bargain with them would mean that we would lose the deal and they would eventually go on to find another company who would be willing to accept all of their demands without any objections. I was doing what was best for the company" Donovan replied calmly, almost as if already used to this peculiar scenario.
"I don't care!!!" the brat roared in defiance, all of Donovan's reasoning going through one of his ear and out the other.
The youth in question was named Alex and he was the last child of a popular business mogul which was quite well known in all of Arcadia.
His father, as a way to forcefully raise his immature son to be responsible, decided to have him take up the position of CEO at one of the many businesses that he had a few shares in with a few well-placed connections here and there.
Realm-Lore Elixirs however, had been the unfortunate company that had been chosen to house and maintain Alex's money-floundering tendencies, even though he was now their CEO.
Despite Donovan's best efforts to mitigate this stupid young master's destructive habits that was plaguing their company, there was only so much he could do when he was only second-in-command.
As a result, instead of progressing gradually, the staffs at Realm-Lore Elixirs were more or less, constantly struggling to maintain their company and prevent it from going bankrupt instead.
Alex who had now stopped his back-and-forth pacing along with his grumbles and yells, suddenly had a sinister grin form on his face.
"You know what Donovan. It's fine! Really!" he started.
"What I need you to do now is quite simple. Out of that 25%, I want 24% of the profits. You can use the remaining 1% for whatever you need it for" he declared with a greedy look in his blue eyes.
"But sir-"
-Slap!
"Who are you to go against my orders Donovan?! You will do as I command!" Alex yelled after landing a heavy slap on Donovan's face.
Donovan however, stood unmoving despite the youth's temper tantrum and just maintained his bowed head, as if already used to all this.
"Are we clear?" Alex asked authoritatively.
"Yes sir" Donovan responded calmly.
"Good. See, everything works out when you listen to me" Alex said while gently patting Donovan's cheek. n.(OVeLB1n
The third generation young master then walked out of the office, leaving Donovan to clear up his mess.
After he did, Donovan slowly raised his head up with a tired sigh.
'Another day. Same old bullshit...' he thought to himself.
He then moved over to his table and requested for the cleaner via a small round orb that was projecting a small screen with transparent buttons to issue commands, usually referred to as a holographic communicator, to come clear up the mess that their so-called 'CEO' had caused.
After switching off the communicating device while also loosening his tie, Donovan heard a knock on his door, followed by a feminine voice.
"Donovan... May I come in?" Rose asked from the other side of the door.
"Come in" Donovan responded casually.
It was already nightfall and most workers and staff members were not presently at the company so Donovan found no need to maintain his professional ethics anymore.
Rose who had been given the go-ahead, immediately opened the door and just as she had expected, Alex had once again gone overboard, judging by the messy state the office was in.
The windows had been shattered, the blinds and curtains torn and the floor was littered with fractured and shattered glasses of what Rose had surmised to be a broken wine bottle and a wine cup.
"You're hurt" she gently said while moving over to him.
"It's nothing..." he responded casually.
"Sit down. Let's have this treated" she gestured to the chair, to which Donovan promptly listened and sat down.
"I don't know why you put up with his shit" Rose voiced with a tinge of annoyance in her tone while now dabbing a swab of wool across his head.
"I do it because I'll be removing him from that position very soon" he responded without even batting an eye.
"A year is a long time Donovan. Even if you're stealthily converting all of the company's assets to your name, it'll take as long as that for it to be completely done" Rose replied, this time retrieving a low-grade potion from her spatial ring and passing it over to him.
"I can wait that much. I've already waited out four years. What's one more?" he stated as a matter-of-fact, immediately downing the potion afterwards.
"Haaa... What am I going to do with you Donnie?" Rose responded while looking straight into her long-time friend's eyes.
"It's alright Rose. Really. I can take it" Donovan responded calmly.
"If you say so..." she replied, now getting up from her crouching position.
"I'll be heading home then. My kids are probably starving by now. See you tomorrow Donnie" Rose said while waving as he walked out of his office.
"Good night Rose. Drive safely and say hi to the kids for me" Donovan replied with a small smile.
"Will do!" Rose responded, her voice echoing through the corridors.
Now, as a wave of quietness descended on his office, Donovan noticed a folded piece of paper sticking out of his trouser pocket and almost immediately, he remembered the very odd thing the silvery white-haired boy had told him after the negotiations were done and finalized upon with the Duke.
"You have a severe thorn in your path, don't you? I can help you get rid of him faster. Read this paper and you'll find all you need to put him down for good".
Those were Flynn's words as he stealthily snuck a piece of paper into Donovan's pocket, even as they were all leaving the conference room after negotiations had been done with and finalized upon.
Donovan who had been caught off-guard by this sudden gesture from Flynn, watched as Flynn himself, along with the black-haired youth who was called Aiden, put a finger across their lips along with a gentle wink, as if to tell him to keep it a secret.
Now that he was now alone, Donovan decided to peruse through the contents of the sheet of paper.
As he unfurled the paper, his eyes immediately got stuck to the first sentence with bewilderment as he read it.
***
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Alex Manchester. Real scumbag, isn't he?
Well, there's an insanely easy way to get rid of him.
Contact a detective from The Tower and have them investigate a small-time dark guild called the 'Purple Haze'.
That's all you need to do really.
After that, you can sit back and enjoy the show.
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***
Donovan was beyond dumfounded at this point as he reread the note over and over a few more times.
After seemingly recomposing himself, he then began to wonder once again who the hell these youths were.
The first two he had met had created a potion that would leave their name in the history books forever.
The other two who he felt had just been there for formalities, had now given him a note that contained information about someone, who by all means, they should never have had any reason to come in contact with.
Donovan as a result, kept wondering over and over about the events that had happened today, wondering just where the Duke had found such geniuses and how his sons had known about his peculiar situation.
He even wondered if the Duke himself, knowing fully well that he definitely had the resources to obtain confidential information about their company's affairs, had also known about their company's insufferable situation with their highly incapable and extremely useless CEO.
However, even that felt odd because why then did he even approach their company if he had known how incompetent Alex, their figurehead CEO, was.
After seemingly thinking for a few more minutes, Donovan's eyes landed back on the piece of paper 18:11
in his hand and with a sigh, he spoke.
"Well there's no use thinking about something that I have no answers to..."
"That being said, this is worth a try. I literally have nothing to lose so let's see how it goes" he said to himself, this time while getting up from his chair and leaving his office with the intent of also heading straight for The Tower even though it was now late into night.
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Hey Flynn?" Aiden spoke while tapping on the buttons of his controller to evade a sword strike from the AI-controlled enemy.
"Mmm?" Flynn voiced while responding to his brother, his focus completely on the screen as he controlled his character to pull a special attack to repel an oncoming projectile from another AI-controlled enemy.
"You think Donovan will do as you wrote?" Aiden asked while countering and attacking with a powerful sword strike at the medieval knights that were planning to attack his in-game character.
"Honestly, that's really up to him. If he does, then good for him. He'll become the CEO in a week's time. If he doesn't however, I guess he'll eventually become the CEO in a year's time as was explained in the novel" Flynn explained calmly, all while obliterating up to five mobs who had charged at his character with quick parries and clean sharp strikes, a testament to his pro-tier gaming skills.
"Either one works for us really, especially considering we aren't at a disadvantage at all now that the contract has already been signed... but... I figured it'd make things even easier if Donovan became the CEO as soon as possible" Flynn concluded with a lengthy explanation, all while simultaneously dispatching a few more mobs in the game he and Aiden were currently playing.
"I see..." Aiden responded with a thoughtful yet understanding expression on his face.
Both of them continued their co-op game in silence, dispatching waves upon waves of AI-controlled mobs.
"Aiden..." Flynn suddenly spoke again after a few more minutes had passed.
"Yeah?" Aiden responded.
"Your character's about to die..." Flynn said with a blank look on his face.
"Dang it!" Aiden cursed in annoyance, realization dawning upon him.
My music playlist has to be one of the most interesting things I experience on a daily basis. Take today for instance;
One minute I'm jamming to a punk rock, the next minute I'm waltzing to an oldie, then followed by a banger anime opening, a Daft Punk song, a good ol' R&B that did a good job of calming me down, the rare heavy metal song that I have no idea that I still even have popped up, followed by an old song again that invoked a strong nostalgic feeling, and as soon as that ended, instantly once again, I'm bopping my head furiously to a recent pop song. (o^^)o o(^^o)
Absolutely fun though!
Caeruleum_