To Live Again, For the First Time!

This was a common occurrence.

Sometimes Elijah had some things to deal with, and so that other people wouldn't come to disturb him, he would say that he had gone off on some important mission.

Well, it wasn't a lie, he did have an 'important matter' to get to, it was just a little closer than others assumed.

As in, in the same building close, but others didn't need to know that.

He didn't really have to explain himself. 

He is the boss, yet even if he didn't explain himself, others always seemed to do it for him.

Whenever he was gone, people just assumed he went off for important matters, especially since they believed this boss of theirs to be a major workaholic.

The same boss who had given his loyal assistant major headaches when he threw his biodegradable paperwork into the ocean because he didn't want to work on it, and even more so when they had to send a team to retrieve the computer with company documents that this very same boss had tossed into the ocean for the same reasons just months prior.

Elijah's subordinates believed that even when their boss looked to be doing something unproductive, he was in fact always working.

This was mainly due to various previous occurrences, that had been firmly itched into these subordinate's minds.

Every time that they had thought that their boss was finally going to take a break from work, they would be proven wrong no matter what the circumstances were.

If he took his vacation to the library to go for some reading, they would later find out that that very same library had been a hot spot for drug smuggling.

If this Big Boss agreed to go on a TV show 'for the heck of it', they would later find out that an expert assassin was hiding as a crew man in the set.

In other words, even if someone told them that their boss was in his office doing nothing, which wouldn't be entirely true, no one would believe them

Only a few select higher-ups and of course his personal assistant would know that he hadn't gone anywhere at all and some of the truths of the previous matters and how these rumours came to be, but even they wouldn't know everything.

Assistant Liam had been silent before he snapped out of his daze due to the cold glare from the man in front of him.

"I didn't know that my assistant was such a dreamer." Elijah commented with a warm, heartwarming smile.

All signs of previous annoyance seemed to have melted away in an instant, most would think that that previous expression was an illusion of sorts.

But Assistant Liam knew better than that.

That smile simply gave him the chills and what was even scarier was that he couldn't make himself hate it.

'Is this the magic of handsome faces?' He thought, lightly touching his own face which was adorned with a small frown.

"Do I not let you sleep enough or is it that you have another job you're more passionate about? Perhaps a dream you've always had since young? So much so that you have time to be daydreaming in front of me. Hm?" Elijah softly asked.

"NO SIR! I would never disturb you if this weren't important." Liam started to sweat profusely, activating *perfect assistant* mode.

"Ha. I see you've become better at changing topics now, I wonder who you've learned all this from." Elijah commented disdainfully.

'They do say what kinds of masters breed what kind of underlings. Who else could I have learned all this from other than you, my holy master? And clearly, it wasn't good enough if you still called me out on it. F*CK.'

Liam thought sarcastically, putting up a standard smile, which didn't seem forced at all, as he replied like a well-trained servant.

"I would never. Truly."

"Okay, okay. Now stop cursing me in your mind and tell me what you've come here for."

Liam calmly reported the information he was sent, he was already used to his boss's mind- reading-like abilities.

There was really no need to hide anything from him, to put it bluntly, it was a futile effort.

He was incredibly good at discerning when people had ill intent towards him, to the extent as to be able to determine just what kind of ill intent it was.

He would many times joke around with his assistant, but at the same time, this was also a show of his trust in Liam, and Liam understood this very well.

Elijah huffed when he saw the image of the suspected spy.

"Those old fogies have really gone senile." He shook his head and spoke with some amusement which hid the disgust in his voice.

"As if I would ever be attracted to an adolescent girl, even if they wanted to use a honey trap with a pretty face, shouldn't they have at least sent someone more developed? Do they really think that just because some of them have those kinds of tastes, they should impose them on everyone else? Disgusting."

"They've been on their high horses for far too long, it's about time that I deal with them too." Elijah lightly rubbed his chin as he put into motion some of the plans he had put on hold for various reasons.

He ran them through his mind before stopping when he found the results he had simulated acceptable.

"How should I proceed?" Liam asked, silently taking note of his boss's previous words in order to make some arrangements.

'Ha. Another pile of work follows this pile. It seems like the old ancestors were right when they said that there will always be another mountain higher than the one in front of you. I thought that they meant that there would always be people more skilled than you, but it seems like I've been mistaken this whole time.' He inwardly sighed.

"Of course you'll do it according to the regular procedure." Elijah knitted his eyebrows slightly, making the face of one who was talking to a nincompoop.

"Will do Boss. I'll get it done," Liam responded, ignoring his Master's gaze, backing off before closing the door behind him.

Sigh.

More paperwork to get to after this.

Why did I come here? 

It seems like my workload has only increased…

***

In the very same day, Emilin had an unexpected visit from someone she had yet to meet.

She had already been given her meal and so she wasn't expecting anyone else, after all, Calim had said that it would usually take 1-2 days for her to get 'an appointment'. 

She didn't know if there was something to be done before that either.

The person who had come in was a male with long whitish grey hair, tied into a loose pony tail.

He wore black rimmed glasses, which didn't seem to fit him very well as he had to constantly push them up his nose bridge.

His white robe and the stethoscope around his neck told Emilin that this man was either a doctor, or pretending to be one.

'Is he the hypnotist they were talking about? Moulan was it?'

"I'm Neo and I'll be the one taking you to Master Moulan's office where he will be giving you a preliminary examination."

If Neo had heard Emilin's previous thoughts, when she was questioning whether he was truly a doctor or not, he would have definitely given her a look of distain before slaping Emilin with the piles of his achievements and recognitions.

'I guess he isn't Moulan then. But Master Moulan? This is getting interesting.'

Emilin didn't know that the hypnotist Moulan was a master, but now, there were a lot more questions than answers and she was getting curious.

Questions like just how this organization got the support of a master, or even just what kind of organization this was.

'More importantly, now that I think about it, that Calim was quite disrespectful. He misled me to think that Moulan was just a normal physician. Isn't it quite rude to not call a master by his title? Though I guess it worked if his goal was to throw me off to begin with.'

"Then let's go." Neo ordered when he saw no response coming from the little lass seated at the 'waiting room's' guest bed.

Emilin quietly followed, not forgetting to remember this path to and from the doctor's office, connecting it to the path that she had taken from the room to the entrance as well as the one from the entrance to the cave.

They walked past various corridors, all of them looking somewhat similar, it was like walking through a complex maze.

Emilin was taken 2 floors up after having made it past the maze-like hallways of what she thought to have been the ground floor, which led her straight to a lobby like area with only one door at the end of the corridor area.

This whole experience made her question the structure of this facility. How come there was not just one but at least 2 floors above what she thought to be the ground floor?

There was already no visible facilities in this area…

"I will only be taking you this far, you can make the rest of your distance yourself. It's at that door, just knock on it twice and wait for someone to respond, don't knock any more than that or you'll risk offending the person who will be deciding on your life and death."

Neo promptly explained before leaving Emilin alone and heading straight for the elevator.

He didn't even bother to take another glance at this area, shooting straight like an arrow for the exit, which only made Emilin even more suspicious of the whole situation.

She made her way to the door and stared down

"Well, I guess it's just you and me then," Emilin said while looking at the doorknob.

*Knock* *Knock*