Concealed Knight

YON-JU ICHI

Raiden looked at me as if we did not know each other at all, as expected of him. From his suit, yellow necktie, and a brooch of crossing swords, everyone immediately recognized him, just how intimidating his presence was. 

All the employees stood, bowed, and curtsied at the Knight. In my view, it showed how supreme he was, such a sight to behold. "Raise your heads," He commanded as the employees followed,  He walked in front, next to me, I could feel the tension between Raiden and Ren, I was in the middle of them, "Greetings, Citizens, I am Sir Raiden Jin, a Knight from the House of Jin," He introduced himself, he then sat in front of me, at the center position,

"Please, continue," He gestured pointing at the board. Ren cleared his throat; he looked at me first and started to speak, "The Heads are the only ones participating in the ball at the Schwarzburg's Manor, the Heads shall wear formal attire, a ballgown for the women and suits for the men," He continued.

"They shall also attend with their respective partners," He continued. "Understood,"

I was busy this week; I even started to forget about Raiden; him just popping out of nowhere made those feelings come back; I have not seen him in a long time, I miss him, even his simple gestures make me flutter. I do not want to have this kind of relationship with him; I want to apologize and hug him; there is nothing I could do right now; I can watch him from afar and reminisce on the past alone.

I feel lonely. Still, I have to be strong; I need to be happy in my way, I should not be affected, he will observe today, and I will see him again at the inauguration; it would be challenging work to hold back, but I need to do this.

"Miss Wijndelts?" Ren tapped my shoulder; I did not notice that I was dozing off, I looked at him, and to the others, Aia was looking at me worriedly; I cleared my throat, "Uhm- Excuse me for a moment, I'll be back right away," I hurriedly went out the boardroom and went to my office, I drank some relaxant.

I looked at the mirror and saw how frantic my reaction was; I took a deep breath and headed back to the boardroom. I took a deep breath before entering; Ren was still discussing; I got back in front, Raiden's eyes darted to mine, I gazed away.

"I apologize, Executive Eijiri," I mumbled in his ears; he just smiled; he then handed another handout for the staff to review; he went to my direction and seated beside me, "Are you alright, Kerstein?" He asked; I nodded.

"It's fine if you don't feel well, we have already seen your effort, you could take a break." He suggested, "I wish I could rest, Mister Eijiri, I want to help more, to make up my absences in the past," I retorted.

With a sigh, the atmosphere in the room tensed up; Raiden had his brows furrowed; he tossed the handouts from the table, "I do not understand your plan here, Executive, do you just plan to work on the services, how about the safety of the guests? This is absurd, you should at least present me a better version of this," Raiden complained; Mister Ren stood from his seat, "I apologize, Sir, we have requested from the forces and is just waiting for a reply," He explained, Raiden was still dissatisfied.

"You should have requested early, you know how busy we are in this state of time," Mister Ren could not reply, he was humiliated in front, he lowered his head, I was irritated, all of us are doing our very best, yet he complained without even know the reason. "We are doing what we can, Sir Jin, it was just bad timing that the Executive requested for the forces late," I countered; in return, Raiden raised his brow.

"It's not about how late your beloved Executive submitted a request, it is the irresponsibly of him, as the Head Executive he should know what comes first if he can't manage it all in a get-go, he should've at least assigned a different worker competent enough." He challenged directly, looking at my eyes; I had no words to speak anymore, what he said was true, still, he should not have humiliated the Head Executive in front of everyone. "That is your job, you should understand that for the least,"

I attempted to tell him that, but a hand grabbed my hand and lightly squeezed it; it was Mister Ren, "We apologize, Sir Jin," I frowned in disbelief as Head Executive apologized. Was Raiden's humiliation nothing to him? Even if he made a mistake once, he should not have made it so personal; they were former friends, after all. I just sighed and also bowed, "That, at least you've learned, follow me up for the following details, for this meeting, everyone shall leave," He declared, immediately they started to leave the boardroom, I then started to pack up, with Aia and Mister Eijiri waiting for me at the door. I was near the exit when I hear his voice.

 "Directress Wijndelts, you shall remain," I instantly looked at him with a horrified look; what does he want now? "Sir?"

As I looked at the door, Ren and Aia looked at me with worried faces, almost near to say that they wanted me to get out of there and run for my life; still, we, with no power to object, stayed in the room.

I have a gut feeling that this was going to happen; he would use his power again to detain me and do what he wants to be done; controlling someone would be such an easy task for Raiden; we looked at each other seriously, but I was the first to avert my gaze. I am bad at hiding emotion; it shows how affected I am seeing him here; just a simple action from him can make me weak; what more if he does something unbelievable.