It only took Samantha a couple of seconds to collect herself and straighten out her skirt before dawning her professional persona once again to lead the way.
While I wore a faint smirk at how flustered the woman had been inside the elevator, Jennifer, on the other hand, was in full Yandere mode, well, at least internally.
On the outside, she continued to wear her polite smile as she allowed the receptionist to lead us down the hall, which ended at a large oak door.
But inside, she was fuming, something that only I was privy to, thanks to my Telepathy skill. In the span of 45 seconds, the woman had come up with dozens of different methods of killing Samantha, making me reevaluate her with a curious eye.
’I never realized she had such tendencies, hm, learn something new every day,’ I mused while pulling up my hood to hide my face and shoving my hands into the Kangaroo pocket of my hoodie.
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Having my hood up was becoming second nature again to me, which was both a good and bad thing. Given my age and size, it wasn’t difficult to tell I was a child; however, at the same time, it was slightly suspicious for the common person.
Even more so for any Returners, that was why I tended to act like the child I was supposed to be. I won’t say it didn’t come off as strange because even for me, it was, yet I was forced to keep up appearances…just in case.
For that same reason, I generally had my perception expanded and was always on the lookout for Returners. Sure, there were only a little over a thousand, but that didn’t mean big cities like London wouldn’t have more than a few people from the Origin Timeline floating here and there.
Just look at what happened in Edinburgh; mind you, that was because Jennifer could be considered a high-value target, but still, it was a stark reminder that other Returners could pop up anywhere at any time.
With that thought in mind, I tucked myself behind Jennifer, acting like a shy child wishing to be shielded by his mother while the woman in question stopped to allow Samantha to open the door to the conference room for her.
After three knocks from the receptionist, the voice of an older man cleared the barrier and entered the hallway.
"You may enter; we are all ready." The middle-aged man stated in a clear tone, one which commanded the obedience of his staff and signaled to me that this man was the authority figure for the publishing company.
’Hm, this should be interesting,’ following behind Jennifer, I calmly peeked around her right leg and observed the room.
As to be expected, I was in a relatively large yet plain space, with only a few photos of popular book covers on the walls. Taking up the majority of the floor plan was a massive circular table with a neat ring of chairs surrounding it, approximately 16 chairs, a little over half of which were filled with the staff members we were supposed to meet today.
’I already knew everyone was here because I could sense them with my perception, but I’m kinda shocked we got them all here, heh; they must be worried about the reason for the meeting being called; otherwise, why would the President show up.’
Glancing around the room quickly before popping out of sight and using Jennifer as a shield again, I easily recognized the face of the man in charge of founding Shoomsery Publishing, Nathan Newsom, along with the President of the company, a middle-aged woman named Sherry Amsterdam.
Nathan was sitting at the head of the table, Sherry was to his right, and the other four higher-ups from Management were people I didn’t recognize. Without visual recognition and previous knowledge about their exploits, I afforded them almost no attention apart from scanning them for Particle radiation.
When the results came back negative, I focused only on the task at hand, as this was the make-or-break moment. One false move and I’d be forced to go nuclear, something that I didn’t mind doing but still found bothersome as it was both time and energy-consuming.
’Che, if only I had all the skills and techniques I had in the Origin Timeline, this would have been a cakewalk instead of me trying to walk on broken glass.’ Clicking my tongue, I followed behind Jennifer, who thanked Samantha for showing her the way and then took a seat on the opposite side from the Publishing Company staff.
The moment she did, all eyes fell on me, making me sigh internally as I played the "meek child" role, flinching back thanks to being out in the open now.
"The meeting room isn’t meant for Children, especially ones who haven’t even entered primary school yet, Miss Rowing. May I know why you are considering bringing your son with you as a good idea today?" Taking the lead and steering the conversation, Nathan spoke with clear aggravation and annoyance in his tone.
’Come here and sit beside me, Cal…Mr. Newsom, this isn’t my son, but my Student, whom I’ve brought along to experience the world of business.’ Glancing up at Jennifer from under my hood, I didn’t bother looking at the dickhead across the table and instead sent a mental transmission to Jennifer.
"I apologize, Mr. Newsom, but this is my Student, Cal, who is the reason for this Meeting today; come sit by me, dear Cal. Don’t be intimidated or timid." Pulling out the chair beside her, Jennifer once again gave an Oscar-worthy performance, changing around the script I gave her to suit the current conversation better; better yet, she even introduced me as the reason for the Meeting, which was actually the next thing I wanted to tell her, so technically she was ahead of the game, and it hadn’t even begun yet.
’Very well then, we shall play it at your pace then, my slave,’ I thought with a sinister grin.