“You would do no such thing.”
As soon as these words sounded, all eyes in the control room turned backward to see Harrison, who stood with unwavering focus, his gaze fixed directly on the screen displaying Atticus.
“D-dad!” Isabella stammered. ‘When did he get here!’ She thought in shock, surprised that none of them had even known when he entered the control room.
Upon seeing Harrison, every one of the operators stood up from their seats and immediately bowed their heads, greeting simultaneously, “Vice principal!”
Harrison’s stern expression didn’t change as he responded to their greetings with a simple nod.
He suddenly turned his gaze toward Isabella, who still hadn’t recovered from the shocks she had experienced today.
“Address me by my appropriate title, Isabella,” Harrison said sternly to Isabella.
Isabella, not believing what she just heard, shot Harrison a ‘really?’ look, clearly surprised at what he had just said.
‘What were you expecting, Isabella? You grew up with the man,’ Isabella thought.
Despite knowing exactly how Harrison behaved, it was still shocking, very shocking that even with all the crazy things going on currently, her father’s focus was on correcting the way she had addressed him.
‘There’s simply no curing his stubbornness,’ Isabella thought.
With a small sigh, “I apologize… Vice principal,” Isabella greeted.
Many of the operators in the room struggled to stop themselves from laughing at the interaction between father and daughter.
This was the tamed Isabella they all loved seeing!
Seeing Isabella listen and address him by his appropriate title, Harrison nodded, pleased.
Turning his gaze back toward the screen, he continued his earlier words, “No one is allowed to interfere in anything,” Harrison commanded.
Hearing his words, every single operator in the room kept their mouths shut.
None of them expressing any objections despite the fact that many of them wanted to.
The reason was simple: Harrison was not Isabella. They all knew him too well.
One could only imagine how a man who didn’t even allow his daughter to call him ‘dad’ in public would react to his underlings questioning his orders in public.
And none of the operators currently present in the room had any intention of finding out.
Harrison gazed at the silent room and seeing that no one present had any objection, he nodded, satisfied. He then decided to explain why he gave the order.
Harrison had never liked giving orders to his underlings without an appropriate explanation, especially if they didn’t understand the reason why he was giving the order.
It was a terrible way to lead. If you don’t explain why you do what you do, how does your underlings learn from you?
It was simply a way of fostering foolish underlings that wouldn’t be able to think and act by themselves, always needing you before they do anything. It was bad leadership.
“The reason we send them into the middle of nowhere with little to no explanation, the reason we throw different waves of challenges at them without any warning, is all because of one reason: to foster the next generation that will carry our mantle and, more importantly, raise it sky high.”
“Your job as operators is very simple: observe,” his voice resonated through the room.
“He had no outside help. He achieved everything by himself alone. He accomplished everything with his own power.”
Harrison paused for a bit, gazing at all of them currently listening attentively to him, and then he continued,
“The one thing you’re not supposed to do as staff of the academy, as the people fostering the future of humanity, is clip the wings of those about to take off.”
As Harrison finished his speech, every one of the operators bowed their heads lower and simultaneously exclaimed,
“Thank you for the teachings, Vice Principal!”
“Good,” Harrison said.
Then without saying any other thing, he turned his gaze back toward the screen at the top displaying a white-haired boy that was currently running through the forest with thousands of rabid beasts directly on his tail.
His expression was completely neutral, but only he knew the turmoil that was raging within him at that moment.
***
In a watchtower made of earth, two girls sat on two high chairs overlooking the forest.
The first one with wild, chestnut-colored curls cascading down her shoulders, with freckles all over her cheeks, sighed, “Sigh, another boring day.” She said to her colleague, while using both of her hands to rest her chin on.
The second girl possessed a serious look framed by sharp, icy blue eyes. Her sleek, ebony hair is neatly tied back in a practical ponytail with a faint scar on her cheek.
She completely exuded a no-nonsense demeanor. She simply kept facing the forest, keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble that could suddenly appear.
The first girl continued, not minding the lack of response from her colleague, “At this point, I don’t even know why we still do this.” She said.
Despite the fact that 3 weeks had passed without any sign of the horde of beasts, the students never once let their guards down.
The rangers under Aria’s unit were the ones in charge of keeping a lookout, always rotating on a two men/women shift.
“Despite how pointless it all seems, we still have no idea when those beasts would attack us again. It’s best to remain cautious, Elara,” the second girl, Dina, finally responded but her gaze was still focused on watching the forest.
Elara suddenly rested her back on her seat, dramatically releasing a deep audible sigh, exclaiming, “I’m tireeeeeeee,”
“Quit whining like a little girl. Our shift will soon be over,” Dina retorted.
Elara, still frowning looked away in annoyance while folding her hand on her chest as though throwing a tantrum.
Then she suddenly remembered something and exclaimed, “Those Revenstein guys are so hot!”
Dina couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she muttered, “Not this again.”
“You can’t blame me, Dina! Even you know I’m right. They’re all so hot, especially our leader. Ahh, the first day I saw him I almost went mad,” Elara exclaimed.
“It was love at first sight,” she added, clasping her hands together on her chest while blushing slightly. “Ah, I want to see him!”
Dina shook her head slightly at Elara’s ramblings, then she turned her gaze to the side in annoyance leaving her to continue daydreaming.
Just as she was watching over the forest, suddenly, she spotted a figure in the distance, running out from the forest.
