"Regarding the agenda for this meeting..."
Huojin summoned a holographic screen, glanced at it, then dismissed it.
"I won't be following the usual procedure this time, but before that, there's one more thing."
The projectors in front of everyone activated automatically, displaying a live frontal view of Huojin. Meanwhile, the butler set the glasses and liquor bottle from his tray securely on the table.
Huojin continued calmly, "I'm giving each of you one chance. Anyone not on the attendance list, get the hell out right now. Otherwise..."
At that moment, the butler moved in a flash. As the contours of his muscles bulged slightly beneath his suit, he hurled the tray in his hand with tremendous force, sending it flying at the speed of a bullet.
Before anyone present could react, the tray, spinning through the air like a wheel of light, had already slammed into a patch of empty air and bounced off. They could hear bones breaking, along with...
"Aaargh!!"
A fully armed personal bodyguard was sent flying by the butler's strike, forced out of invisibility. He slammed into the wall, bounced off, and landed facedown on the floor, unconscious.
A narrow dent had been driven into his chest armor, and several of his ribs had broken. The pistol he had been gripping tightly also fell to the floor.
Huojin said, "I'll personally kill everyone here. All of you."
Everyone in the room felt the invisible pressure weighing on them steadily increase, and cold sweat broke out on their skin.
After a few people secretly signaled their invisible subordinates with their eyes, those guards also dropped their invisibility and left the conference room one by one.
No sooner had the door closed than two bodyguard-like robots entered and dragged out the guard lying on the floor.
With that, the conference room once again fell into deathly silence.
One minute, two minutes, five minutes... half an hour...
What exactly is he trying to do? It's been so long. Why is he just sitting there drinking?
Henry's mind was full of questions, and his lower back grew sorer the longer he sat. The holographic screen before him continued broadcasting every movement Huojin made as he slowly savored his "liquor."
But everyone around him remained motionless in their seats, even Elder He. He could only follow their lead and wait quietly, utterly unable to understand what was going on.
Only the time displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen let Henry know how much time had passed.
After leisurely finishing the last small sip in his glass, Huojin finally moved.
Huojin set down his glass and said, "There are ten minutes left before we adjourn. It's about time we discussed some business."
At that, Henry finally breathed a sigh of relief, though he did not know why he felt relieved.
Huojin tapped the tabletop with his fingertip again. Instantly, the projectors in front of everyone displayed more material.
At first glance, Henry saw numerous pages of information, containing both text and images, and thought Huojin intended to discuss business or work of some kind.
But when he looked closely, he was dumbfounded...
"How is this possible! How..."
A family head who, like Henry, had only recently taken office lost his composure after briefly reviewing all the information before him. He slammed the table and stood up in shock, losing all control of his expression, his eyes as wide as brass bells.
The information before him documented in detail all his secrets, including his schemes to seize power, murders for money, and tax evasion. There were even numerous photographs taken without his knowledge.
And it did not stop with him. He could even scroll through all kinds of secrets and scandals involving his relatives across nine degrees of kinship. Everything he knew was there, along with things he did not know.
Newcomers like Henry were not as dramatic as this family head, but they were hardly calm either, though they remained relatively restrained. Only the veterans in the conference room kept their composure, and some even took the opportunity to look up things they wanted to know.
"You standing there, sit back down."
As Huojin spoke, the man who had stood up felt his body suddenly grow heavy. His legs were already weak, and he dropped straight back into his seat.
"To the newcomers here, I can guarantee that I won't disclose any of your information to a third party."
As he spoke, Huojin's imposing figure rose in the shadows, and he began strolling around the conference table.
"Of course, you all understand this as well. Everything described in the material before you belongs solely to your own individual actions and has absolutely no connection to TOPS or any of the companies involved..."
Huojin's footsteps stopped behind someone, along with his voice. Realizing that Huojin had suddenly stopped behind him, the man's heart leaped into his throat, and guilty unease engulfed his entire body.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot. There's someone among you I still need to deal with in person."
The man, who had been forcing himself to remain calm, could not help looking back when he heard Huojin's words. But before he had even turned halfway, a large hand seized the left side of his face and pressed it hard against the tabletop.
"Aaargh! You... s-sir, what are you doing..."
"What am I doing? You know perfectly well yourself, don't you?"
Through the internal network, Huojin took over control of the conference room's systems from the butler, and all the information on the man's tabletop was shared with the other members.
"Secretly colluding with rebels, recruiting numerous gangs, illegally operating numerous dangerous Hollow-related businesses, conspiring with the Order of the Condemned to affect as much as 32.8% of TOPS's market, and so on and so forth.
"And even worse, you actually tried to usurp my position and then take complete control of TOPS. How naive of you."
As Huojin spoke, he increased the force of his grip. He could already faintly hear the man's skull beginning to crack.
Feeling the intense pain in his head and the inexplicable pressure on his mind, the man's desire to survive drove him to endure the agony and beg Huojin for mercy:
"I... I was wrong, Lord H-Huojin... sir, please, I'll pay any price, I..."
"There's only one price I want. Your life."
With that, Huojin lifted the man high by his head, but even he failed to notice that his own emotions were growing increasingly intense.
The Ether reaction within his body was rising exponentially, and even his specially made suit could no longer contain the Ether energy leaking from his body. A crushing pressure once again descended on everyone.
With cruel amusement, Huojin said, "Don't worry. I'll have those people send the report of your 'accidental' death and the documents transferring your estate to that nephew of yours.
"And naturally, he'll take over your position as well. After all, your youngest son hasn't come of age yet. What a pity."
After hearing this, the face of the man in Huojin's grip twisted even further as he tried to plead:
"No, no, no, no, you can't do this! You can't kill me! If you kill me, the city government and the Defense Force won't let this opportunity slip..."
"They'd have to find out first, wouldn't they? This is all routine for you people, idiot."
Under the complicated gazes of everyone else, the head held suspended in the shadows fell completely silent, and the man's entire body turned black.
Huojin tightened his grip, and the entire body instantly shattered into a cloud of multicolored particles that dissipated into the air.
Huojin dusted off his hands, then slowly returned to his seat and said:
"What a pity. One poor boss at our meeting will meet his end tomorrow at noon, committing suicide out of fear of punishment after all his illegal dealings are exposed. How unfortunate...
"Never mind. Time's up anyway. That's all. Meeting adjourned."
As soon as he finished speaking, all the lights in the conference room snapped back on. Huojin and the butler vanished the instant the lights came on.
Henry and the others sat on tenterhooks for another few minutes before finally relaxing, then left the room one after another.
Henry felt as though sitting through that nearly hour-long meeting had almost given him heart disease. He turned to Elder He beside him, who was also looking at him.
Elder He said, "Quite a surprise, isn't it, Henry? You never expected the man at the helm of TOPS to be such a brutal fellow."
Henry wiped the cold sweat still lingering on his forehead and asked, "Elder He, is this what you've all been going through?"
Elder He rubbed his head and replied, "More or less. He only kills one person every year or two on average. Don't take it too much to heart. You've seen how he behaves.
"Though I often can't figure out what he's thinking either, as long as you don't harbor any ill intentions toward him, he won't interfere with us too much."
"...I understand, Elder He."