亚瑟影院

Cleaning up, everyone started spending time with each other, talking as if they were at a normal family reunion (and in a sense, they were, in fact, at a normal family reunion). As for Grado, however, he decided to light up a bonfire and set up a charcoal grill. Dinnertime was over, but that doesn\'t mean that the reunion was done. The night was still young, and the family reunion had just begun.

While everyone was having a fun time talking to each other, Grado was lining up firecrackers outside. The bonfire was already alight, and he had already brought out a couple of bags of marshmallows.

Meanwhile, Satoshi engaged in conversations here and there, but his mind still dwelled on what his grandmother said. It was fairly obvious that she wasn\'t messing around when she said that, but what did she mean by me being  a Chosen One? Satoshi still couldn\'t quite put his finger around it.

When Satoshi turned around, he realized that his grandmother Lize was actually standing behind him. She was holding a cup filled with hot chocolate, handing it toward Satoshi with a pleasant smile on her face. "Are you still thinking about what I said a moment ago, dear?"

Muttering a soft thank you, Satoshi received the hot chocolate and took a sip of it. It warmed him comfortably, and he nodded at his grandmother.

"You shouldn\'t think too much about it. For now, just focus on the Official Beast Tournament. You\'re going to participate in that, right? After that, we can start unraveling the mystery of your grandfather\'s dream."

Satoshi still didn\'t understand what his grandparents nor parents were saying. Then again, he could more or less guess that they also didn\'t know the details, and that\'s why they were as clueless as Satoshi. The man wearing a huge flowy hat and a black robe was related to Satoshi; Grado and Lize could tell... but as to how he was related to him, they could only assume how.

Seeing Satoshi\'s troubled face, Shiroi decided to sit beside him, hoping that her company would at least make him feel at ease. She awkwardly stole a glance towards Satoshi, drinking her hot chocolate as she shifted her gaze in the opposite direction. A sigh left her mouth as she fidgeted. "Are you all right, Satoshi?" Shiroi asked.

Averting his gaze from Shiroi, Satoshi scratched his head before he responded with a soft yes. He suddenly remembered the time when he held hands with Shiroi, and somehow the memory made his face redden a little bit.

"You\'re special, Satoshi, even if you\'re grandparents were talking about you being chosen... that doesn\'t take away all your effort. You were incredible enough as it is, even without your superpower." Shiroi continued.

Before Satoshi could say anything, though, Grado entered the house with a huge grin on his face. "The bonfire\'s ready. Let\'s eat some marshmallows and light up some firecrackers, yeah?" He excitedly called out.

.....

Somewhere,

A man with a stylish mustache balanced a black cane on his hand made out of dried wood. He wore a satisfied smile on his face as he stood up, adjusting the collar of his robe. Recently, he had been feeling rather delighted since the development that he expected just got even better and better. He couldn\'t ask for a better situation.

"Sir Draco, I\'m here on behalf of Alfheim. The meeting is bound to start soon." The one who spoke looked like a butler, with his black hair and the tuxedo he wore that matched his hair color. His expression didn\'t shift one bit when he spoke, and he seemed indifferent to Draco, who was about to respond.

"Right, right, right." Draco brushed off the heads up as he stepped out of the room with a light skip in his steps. He was feeling more energetic than usual, probably because everything he wanted to happen played out in a satisfactory manner, and it was only a matter of time before everything would be ready.

"Sir, I hope you take this matter seriously... the other Managers are already more than prepared, and you\'re yet to reach the minimum requirement before the deadline." The man that looked like a butler pointed out as he opened the door for Draco.

"Don\'t worry about it, the butler; we\'re right on schedule. Now, it might seem like nothing much was happening... but I can assure you that he\'ll be ready... when the time comes, he\'ll be ready." Draco said these words with a sparkle in his eyes, but even then, the butler didn\'t respond at all.

The butler couldn\'t believe Draco\'s outward behavior. In fact, he found it ridiculous that Draco was acting like that. His reputation was on the line here, and one small mistake and he\'ll disappear from existence... but even then, he still acted as if he was having the time of his life. The butler couldn\'t help but sigh in disappointment. \'It won\'t be long before I\'m assigned to another Manager. Seriously, why doesn\'t he just take this job seriously?\' The butler said to himself, clearing his throat before following right behind Draco.

"But sir, looking at it objectively... he\'s not prepared." The butler continued.

"He will be prepared. Don\'t worry about it." Draco continued. "You just need to have a little patience, and everything will fall into place. We can\'t rush these things, you know... as you mentioned before, this is of utmost importance; we can\'t just overlook a few details and be done with it."

Upon saying that, Draco walked through the hallways of the huge building. His room was right behind him, and just like any other room, it was identical to others. The huge building had a couple of branches that led to other rooms as well, and these rooms converged into one room where all the Managers could meet with ease. The number of the Managers in total remained a mystery, but Draco knew there were more than seven of them. He hadn\'t met every Manager out there in existence, but he knew that they were preparing for that specific moment as well, just like him.

The room at the very center of the structure where everyone was present is called the Manager\'s Office... and this is where every manager was tasked to go whenever there was a scheduled meeting. Usually, these meet-ups were there just so every manager could flaunt their progress. These meetings are also a good indicator for a manager if they are falling behind or not. After all, those who were way ahead of the others would announce it, they wouldn\'t just keep it to themselves. These were the very essence of the meetings.

Draco is one of these so-called managers as well... and even though he was new, he decided not to rush through the process. He started the same as everyone... but even then, he was a lot slower than the rest. He really focused on the process rather than forcing results to happen, just like any other manager out there. But then again, he\'s a new Manager, so he still had no idea whether what he was doing was all right or not. Regardless, he chose to believe in himself rather than relying on other Manager\'s processes and whatnot.

"Why am I not surprised?" A man with white long hair and a semi-muscular build sarcastically spoke up as he shook his head. He was waiting by the entrance of the Manager\'s Office, shaking his head the moment he saw Draco appear at the far end of the corridor. "You\'re late. Again. You shouldn\'t ignore these meetings, Draco... you know that."

The man wore a white robe, and he held a huge scepter on his hand made out of white metal. He was none other than Alfheim, the man who called for the meeting.

"Come on, we all know you just called this meeting because the deadline\'s coming up. Why don\'t you just leave us alone... we\'\'re trying to prepare here as much as we can." Draco informally answered, scratching his head as he entered the Manager\'s Office. There were already a couple of high-ranking Managers in there, making him feel a little bit inferior to all of them. "This is why I hate attending these meetings..." Draco muttered to himself.

"Now that everyone who needed to be present is present... let\'s commence this meeting of Managers." Alfheim clapped his hand before he assumed his seat. "The First Selection is bound to start soon, I hope all your preparations are going well."

"Yeah, right, of course, all our preparations are going well... I mean, we lower-ranked managers have limited intervention compared to you guys... how is this even fair?" Draco complained, but he was only answered with a long dragged silence that filled the Manager\'s Office.