Next Move

Lillianne and Blaze finally saw each other again after the mess of that night. She felt a slight nervousness when he met her eyes. On the other hand, the man looked so calm even though his eyes looked darker than usual when he spotted her.
'I hope he doesn't fire me, though.'
That was all she was worried about because she would never feel guilty about what happened. She didn't think it was wrong. The man was originally hers anyway.
"Good morning, sir," she said, getting up from her seat to greet him. She tried to act as natural as possible.
"Yeah. Bring me the overview report about my schedule for this week and some documents I have to review," he said as he walked away, entering his room.
“Yes, sir!”
Lillianne took a deep breath before starting to prepare some of the materials he requested. She did the same before knocking on the door and stepping inside.
The boss had occupied his throne. He waited for her while reading the newspaper.
"This is what you asked for, sir." Lillianne placed the documents in front of him. "Anyway, sir, about that night, I--"
"Don't discuss things that are not related to work here. I don't want to bother with that," He cut her out. "I have also stated my points, that in the future, I will remove you from here right away if your matters caused internal problems for Pageant Corp," he warned without looking at her. His eyes were still glued to the pages.
"I am sorry about that, sir. Anyway, regarding your schedule this week, here I will read..."
***
Meanwhile, another part of her was also facing the same dilemma about a few miles from the Pagent Corp building. She was seen standing in front of dozens of children who were busy drawing. Her gaze was specifically focused on one child who was sitting alone in one of the far back corners of the classroom.
'Daughter and Father are the same, they are very difficult to talk to. I couldn't believe that they weren't actually biologically related. Their characters were similar to each other.'
She grumbled in her mind again, still constantly thinking about methods she could use to approach the kid.
'Elara suggested that I use my witchcraft to approach her, but, the problem is, I can't even think of something like that with this child. I still barely have a clue about her even though I've been here for more than a week.'
However, just standing by and watching will not do anything good. She had to keep looking for the way. The sooner you act, the better.
Lillianne got up from her seat. She pretended to examine the children's drawings. She even made several comments about it, trying to only give praise even though sometimes she couldn't help but want to criticize them.
She finally reached Evelyn Davies' desk. As expected, that girl was always different from the others. Look at how she was very surprised and quickly hid her drawing when she noticed Lillianne's arrival.
"Why are you hiding it from me, Evelyn? I am curious to see it, though. I bet you have created something cool," she said, showing her gentlest smile.
The child shook her head. "No, I don't want to. My drawing isn't good anyway..."
"Oh, come on, let me see it. Who knows, I might help you with some suggestions to make it better."
"No. It's okay, Miss. I will do it myself," she refused quickly again, still clutching his drawing book.
'Should I use my magic just to peek at what she is drawing? Argh, forget it. It's not worth it anyway. That will only drain my energy even more.'
She was tired. It was not easy to carry out self-replication all this time and every day. Thus, she had to use it smartly so as not to waste even a little.
"Okay, then. Good luck, Eve. Don't forget to collect it when you are finished, okay?"
The girl didn't answer and just nodded shyly at her words. Meanwhile, Lillianne returned to the front of the class. Her energy felt increasingly drained. She had to get lots of rest or else her magic would break and ruin her plans.
"Okay, time's up, kids. It's lunch time. Come to the front of to collect your drawings. Do it in an orderly manner, okay?"
The children immediately obeyed her orders. They orderly came forward carrying their drawing books. Evelyn Davies, as usual, was last. She looked very alert as she placed it on the table, quickly hiding it behind a pile of belongings from her friends.
'Something is clearly wrong with this child, Leander should be so protective of her. But I don't understand why with her father's great care, she still grows up lonely like this. Does that man even know how to take care of a child?'
After the classroom was empty, she immediately checked the pile of drawings to find Evelyn's. She wondered if she could find any clues from it.
'Wow, she is better than I thought. I think this is the best among her friends. She is so good.'
The drawing also seemed to tell something to her, though. She saw a small family consisting of a father, mother, and their daughter walking on the beach. Evelyn even portrayed how happy they were at that time.
'Maybe I can make use of this.'
***
It was planned that there would be changes to the Pageant Corp logo in the next few months. As CEO and owner of the company, Blaze was the person who made the final choice for the new logo. There were five choices given by the creative team.
"These two are what confuse me. I will think about it tonight before making a decision, so that it can be implemented immediately."
Blaze closed the document after staring at it for almost an hour. His two subordinates did the same thing.
"I agree with that, sir. Of the options available, these two are the ones that stand out the most. They also represent Pageant Corp better," said the secretary.
They turned their attention to the assistant. What they didn't expect was that the man flinched slightly when he met the secretary's eyes. He seemed to have been observing her since earlier, making him to be caught off guard a little.
"Uhm, y-yeah, sir. I was thinking the same thing. These two are the best choices so far," he said awkwardly, trying to act natural.
'What's wrong with him? I noticed he has been watching her since earlier,' Blaze thought.
'He has started. As expected from him,' Lillianne murmured, secretly laughing. 'You are doing well, Theodoros. Keep going!'
"Now we move to the potential model that we will use for launch." Blaze ignored that, and then continued with their discussion. "As previously explained by the creative and marketing team, to coincide with the company's anniversary, our newest product will be launched. This product will be marketed on a large scale so we need a brand ambassador who is popular enough to attract people's interest. The recommended candidates are..."
Blaze looked at the faces of his subordinates again in turn. At that time, again, he noticed his assistant glancing again at Lillianne who seemed very focused on their discussion. He subconsciously frowned at that.
'What's with him all of a sudden?'
Meanwhile, Theo noticed that the pair of eyes continued to watch him with distaste. It was hard for him not to be afraid and still observe Lillianne.
'Sorry for lying to you, sir. I hope you won't be so jealous that you will kill me. But what should I do, this is an order from Her Majesty that I must obey.'
***