Chapter 61: The Board of Directors
…
One year ago.
Inside the secret room of a certain hidden underground facility, three cloaked men were sitting down at a round table, playing card games with each other in a quiet manner.
"Woodman will be retiring soon."
A man with a hoarse voice spoke, which resembled the sound of bellows.
The man in question was Elliot Baldwin Woodman, the founder of Ratatoskr, and he created this organization for the sake of saving Spirits and helping them live a normal life in this world. When he discovered Shido Itsuka, a boy who had the powers to seal Spirits, he suggested that they pour all their resources into helping him.
Nevertheless, Ratatoskr wasn't entirely a non-profit organization that would help a highschool boy flirt with multiple girls for free.
"That's great news, right? He will give up his shares of the company then."
Another man with a husky voice followed, a hint of excitement in his emotion.
As he stated, it was common knowledge that Woodman held 51% of the shares of the company Asgard Electronics Inc., which had replaced the DEM and became the No.1 supplier of Realizers in the world. If he retired, he wouldn't be holding on to his shares.
"Yes, but he's planning to entrust them to that little red-haired brat."
The third man with a raucous voice spat, his displeasure apparent in the air.
These three men were the board of directors of the Round Table of Ratatoskr, and their names were Gillian Almsted, Roland Clayton, and Fraser Douglas.
During the Beast Incident, Shido and the former-Spirits reacted properly and effectively during the mission, resulting in zero casualties and gaining valuable information about the newly appeared Spirit. As it turned out, it was mostly thanks to Kotori Itsuka's excellent leadership as the commander of [Fraxinus].
Therefore, Woodman decided to utilize this opportunity and retire with his love-sick secretary, Karen Mathers, in a peaceful transition of power. He had finally accepted her request of starting a family together.
However, his decision was leaked, and these directors were not very happy.
(The directors of the Round Table provided the funding necessary to facilitate the day to day operations of Ratatoskr. Despite this, they did not share Woodman's altruistic goal of saving Spirits; they only participated because of the potential power that the Spirits could bring to them. For example, they were promised to have their lives prolonged with the reiryoku collected by Shido Itsuka.)
"Then what should we do? That brat will definitely get rid of us once she owns the Round Table!"
Clayton uttered in agitation.
(In volume 12, Clayton used an unauthorized remote to activate Dáinsleif without Woodman's permission, almost killing Shido.)
"No, she will get rid of you. But I can help you avoid that."
"Don't get fresh with me! You supported the idea as well, so don't think she will leave you alone."
"Fine fine, let's help each other out, alright?"
Almsted took out a document, and the words "The XXX Formula" were on the cover. He turned the page, and the picture of a tiny Realizer was revealed next.
"Are you crazy? That red-haired brat has an Artificial Spirit in the ship that can oversee everything in the system. If we make a move, they will know immediately and stop us!"
The other two objected right away.
"Who says we have to do it?"
Almsted spat in disdain.
"What do you mean?"
The other two asked.
"This is where my undercover agent in DEM steps in." Almsted smirked in a devilish way. "Plausible deniability, see?"
Hearing his words, the other two leaned closer.
….
"And they cut it off."
Marina declared as the recording ended.
"They are the ones funding the crew of Ratatoskr, but don't let that deceive you: They are expecting a much larger return, and they won't hesitate to throw you and Kototi under the bus if you were to become a threat."
Shido and the others looked at each other in astonishment. Even Miku and Rio could understand the seriousness of the situation.
"These guys are trying to overthrow Kotori? Unforgivable!"
Shido's voice was trembling with anger.
"Yesp, but if we are gonna sabotage their scheme, we need more information."
Rinne spoke calmly, but her eyes were filled with fury no less than Shido's.
"Is it safe to assume that they summoned Ren and controlled her?"
Mayuri raised her hand and asked.
"If that's true, they must have summoned Ren to the real world at some point." Marina replied nonchalantly. "However, Maria told me that she had kept an eye out for the possible reiryoku wave on Earth, but no activation of Spirit Formula has been detected since Mio Takamiya disappeared."
Hearing this, Shido figured that everything wasn't that simple, that much was certain.
"Should we go take them down and force information out of them? My power will come in handy."
Miku suggested.
"Don't! This could be a trap."
Marina stopped her.
"A trap?"
Shido asked in confusion.
"Think about it: These sneaky old bastards recorded each other in the beginning, but when they were about to lay out the details, they simultaneously cut off the transmissions!" Marina explained, frowning her refined brows. "In other words, they could be expecting Maria to monitor them, and wanting her to know that they were the culprits!"
Actually, Maria didn't even know such recordings exist, it was Marina who discovered them.
Yesterday, when she was teleported back to the system of Fraxinus, she noticed a bug implanted in a hidden spot, which Maria never suspected even once; after all, that was her birthplace. In addition, she never considered the directors as a potential threat either.
But Marina, who came from outside of the framework, noticed it right away.
She hacked further into the system, detecting suspicious activities one by one, and eventually, she dug out such recordings from their secret accounts.
To her enjoyment, she found something useful: The three old bastards had quite a handful of nasty trade deals and businesses underground. Even compared with their counterparts in the DEM, they were no less shady in the slightest.
She was certain that those guys planned on taking these secrets to their graves, totally not expecting an artificial Spirit to discover them. But, they miscalculated one thing: Marina was a much better hacker than Maria!
Not fully satisfied, she hacked into the firewall of DEM next, digging for the undercover agent that was working for them. However, she didn't find what she was looking for, simply some more shady deals under the table. It didn't make sense, considering that she had the power to hack into anything and detect everything.
Therefore, Marina decided to play it safe for the time being, simply collecting all the evidence and storing them in a secret file. Also, she duplicated the files somewhere else just in case.
Nevertheless, while she was doing all this, Maria gave her a call from the other world, causing her powers to stumble slightly and nearly expose her position! Fortunately, nothing detected her, so she was safe to continue.
By the time she made it back home, she contacted Maria and explained everything, telling her to switch positions with her at a later time.
"These old selfish men ….causing trouble even after Westcott is dead…" Miku barely held back a growl. "Darling has been trapped here for over a year because of them!"
Now that she thought about it, life had been really unfair for her Darling: Under the influence of Ratatoskr, Shido felt that it was his responsibility to save those Spirits by sealing their powers, barely paying attention to his own well-being. If it was for the sake of saving humanity, he would gladly give his life away; such was the resolve of this kind-hearted guy. As long as there were people saved by him, he would consider his life meaningful.
However, when he was rendered as a threat, he was brutally stabbed in the back with Dainsleif, a massive cannon of destruction! Ironically, the remote of such a deadly weapon was in the hands of his beloved little sister!
Adopted.
Until now, she didn't even know those guys were behind the scene, considering that Kotori purposely kept it from everyone else. She couldn't imagine the amount of pressure was on the petite shoulders of this little girl.
To be fair, Shido was indeed a massive threat to humanity when his powers went berserk that time, and the decision of terminating him made by the directors was actually reasonable. In fact, Shido himself understood their grievances and forgave them, more or less due to Woodman's pleading.
But this time, no signs of a catastrophe occurred, it was simply an old man wanting to retire and live a quiet life, also promoting Kotori in the process. However, those directors felt that their positions of power and portions of the pie were threatened, thus, they decided to sabotage her and everyone on her side.
Even Shido, who was usually kind and gentle, couldn't help but feel livid upon learning the tip of the iceberg.
"If you wish to do something about it, then come to the virtual world with me."
Marina said with a snap of the fingers, then a Nervegear flew into her hands. It was the one that Maria had created earlier.
Rinne gave Shido a look of reassurance, telling him that everything would be fine. Therefore, he decided to take it.
"Time flows at a much slower rate in this special simulation, the ratio is about 1:1000."
Marina explained as she handed the high-tech device to Shido, who felt nothing but shock. This was even more efficient than the pocket dimension of [Eden]!
"Now come, and put this on your head."
Marina pointed to a bed, signaling him to lay down. Compared to last time, it seemed so much easier for him to dive into the virtual world, mostly thanks to her refined technology.
"Good luck, Shido."
"Rio will cheer for papa."
Rinne and her daughter waved.
"Can I join Darling?"
Miku asked.
"So far, we only have one Nervegear. We will make more later on."
Marina answered lightly.
[Starting operation: Partners—Marina Arusu, Shido Itsuka. Simulation location—-Tengu City. Countdown—20, 19….]
With the melodic voice of a female, which was none other than Maria, sounding off in his ears, Shido took a gulp nervously.
"Nervous, Darling?"
Miku asked in concern.
"How could I not be?"
Shido gave a wry smile. He remembered being trapped in the virtual world and almost never coming back, can't blame him for having a bit of PTSD.
"Humph! Don't worry, me and Maria have made sure to clear all bugs before this."
Marina proudly made a cute noise.
"Here, hold my hand."
Miku grabbed Shido's hand with a warm reassuring smile.
Returning her grip lightly, Shido was amazed by how soft her delicate hand was. In addition, the uneasiness in his heart had calmed down considerably.
[10, 9, 8...]
What is Marina's deal, anyway?
He asked in his heart.
"Hey, did you know?" Suddenly, Marina's face turned serious. "Before diving into this device, you need to shout out a certain command, or you will be stuck in the boundary line between reality and virtuality."
"What? Tell me right now!"
Hearing such a shocker, Shido yelled and demanded an answer. Miku glared at her agitatedly as well. But, Marina stayed silent and simply smirked, ignoring his voice of protest.
"Pffff…."
For some reason, Rinne and Mayuri were covering their mouths, barely holding back their giggling noises.
[3, 2, 1...]
When Shido and Miku were about to freak out—
"—LINK START!"
"Are you freaking kidding me?"
Shido and Miku cried.
Everyone else burst out laughing.
In the next moment, Shido's consciousness took a bizarre turn and entered the virtual reality created by the mischievous Artificial Spirit.
…
A/N:
Thank you all for waiting with patience, I am finally back and done with my stuff! Hope you guys have been good :)
Life has not been kind to Shido, has it ? He was forced into such a dangerous operation, and didn't even have a say in all this? It was due to his kindness that he agreed to do it, after all, he couldn't bear seeing those Spirits in pain. He would never consider the existence of Spirits a mistake.
Once again, that's what I admire about him. But still, he deserves better, and can become better.
