125 First Lesson 3 (1/2)
Half an hour passed since the first spokesperson began presenting. By this time, the tension caused by their arrival already eased up, a bit. Gone was the surprise written all over their faces when they saw a woman not even in a proper attire waltzing in after the Albarez' heir. Everyone started donning their business faces, seriously focusing on the speeches and making sure to show Gio that they were doing their job and contributing to the company properly.
Now, inside the glass room, Sofony and Gio were sitting next to each other nearest to the presenter's podium. Since the girl in the green dress was quoted as a representative, they kindly gave her copies of each proposal which she only wryly smiled at and put on top of the able. Quite a few presenters had already spoken about their projects and currently, in front of them, another representative, a bespectacled young man from a company involved in micro-finance, had just started introducing himself.
Half an hour ago, when she had just taken her seat, she looked around sneakily to observe how people with high statuses and corporate background to speak of behaved. After studying everyone's faces for a while, Sofony who surprisingly only felt tense for five or so seconds recovered and then realized something. It didn't matter whether they were presenters or shareholders. Each and everyone dressed so sharply as businessmen and businesswomen in this place were the same. In the sense that they're all so eager to promote themselves or impress him.
She was not someone who knew every in and out of this world, but at least she could fill in the rest of the blanks and guess that Gio was most probably just way above them in terms of standing, wealth, and capabilities. It was most likely why these people here immediately switched to minister-look bowing at the entrance of a king. She learned that it was really a lesser being's natural instinct to either look up and yearn for pointers and praises from this person or yearn to surpass him.
Sofony couldn't tell for sure which ones here belonged to which. But since all of them could be silenced and intimidated by his mere presence at the doorway, it means Gio was at least someone who could bring them fear or garner their respect. Of course, the reason could also be that this bunch was aware of what kind of person he was and what his trained group of men in black could do.
This was probably one of the reasons why despite being a bit out-of-place due to her current getup, the previous nervousness were all gone.
She immediately realized this. Her man was the one ruling them. Why should she be intimidated by these people? She was someone who had even forced their pig city mayor into coma, why did she have to deem herself inferior in the presence of these high-ranking business people who were ultimately still a group of non-hosts? It was even laughable that before stepping this conference room, she was being nervous for so long at the thought of meeting them. Hadn't she already promised to stand strong and become someone who could stay with him wherever he goes?
She momentarily closed her eyes, quite hating the fact that she was still slowly learning and not wise enough.
Within the half hour that passed, the number of presenters that had stood in front grew proportionally with the number of presentations Gio and the other board members had rejected. Within this timeframe, there were moments when she was daydreaming or thinking things through. The visit to the laboratory had never left her mind.
Time passed and as the bespectacled young man continued talking, Sofony's mind just couldn't stay in one place. It was because out of a sudden, she remembered the list she sent to Gio some time ago. It was the long column of names of business spies and all sorts of people that wanted to sabotage and semi-cripple the Albarez Conglomerate. If she was not mistaken, not few were shareholders and trusted tenured employees. Since she was already here, why not help him sort and straighten these people out?
In Sofony's mind, she was already contemplating whether to hypnotize everyone here to swear absolute loyalty to Gio after this conference.
Sofony's eyes subconsciously narrowed at the man currently talking about their company's project, beautifying his words in order to entice the members of the boards to vote and push forward its acceptance. The girl who had been notified of another discrepancy then stared seriously at the wall of texts and numbers projected in front. Her left and right brows almost met as she furrowed them. She also noticed that there were a number of inconsistencies and wrong calculations in the presentation.
It was a puzzle for her. These people knew Gio Albarez' reputation thus everyone given chance to present was supposed to the best out of the bests. Actually, the previous people who tried their luck getting Ever Victorious' owner's approval and cooperation really did their best. Of course, sometimes someone's best was just not really enough. There were still some not accepted.
However, at least, these people's mistakes were very probably things they only accidentally missed out during their planning and drafting phases. If Sofony didn't have the system constantly blabbering insults and criticisms to her ears, given her newbie and almost non-existent knowledge about Country F's business world, she would have thought that their suggested projects were awesome and flawless. Of course, when she was informed of the problem, she still remained silent. Ever since she stepped into this cold room filled with business attired ladies and gentlemen, since she was only someone acting like a wallflower there, she never opened her mouth.
It was basic etiquette not to do so if not ask, especially if one was not really supposed to be part of the discussion.
However, while she believed that it was not her place to comment any correction or objection, this was not the same for the others who were part of the board and who, despite not having a system like her, were made veteran in this field by time. Among these people, Gio was one of the youngest yet his tongue was also the most ruthless. Sofony who saw him speaking like this for the very first time only blinked for three seconds and then held her breath for a while. But after some time, she thought that compared to being a ruthless killer, this was actually no biggies. In fact, she should try to learn from him.
Oh, well, that was for the previous presenters.
About this current one... Sofony looked at the person next to her and gauged his expression. Nothing could be glimpsed from his face. When he noticed her stares, he simply stared back and tugged the corner of his lips up at her, leaving her to wonder when he would also butcher this daring representative's works.