Chapter 199: This Is Why I Hate Business
Jake spoke up in a respectful tone while bringing his head up after a few seconds.
"My apologies, but the meeting room is currently being used by the shareholders for an important meeting and it is off-limits to anyone else."
Mark tilted his head to one side with a glare as he also reduced his pressure, and his aura calmed down.
"You\'re telling me an area is off-limits in my own building? Are you trying to insult me right now or are you trying to say that you just don\'t know who I am? just know that regardless fo what answer ou give, you will still be the one in the wrong. Do you think I couldn\'t get rid of you easily if I wanted to?"
Mark did not want to use his Killer\'s Aura skill here because he knew that it would be too much to start having a contest of power when they were trying to have a civil conversation. But Mark\'s regular Aura as he narrowed his eyes was already enough to make some of the B and A ranks behind Jake start to sweat. Jake managed to stand his ground as he continued talking.
"The shareholders have instructed me to keep all non-shareholders from joining the meeting. Mr. Hugo is permitted to enter the room since he is currently the acting CEO of the company, but you do not have the necessary clearance."
Hugo immediately felt extreme anger fill his entire body as he heard what the guard said! How dare someone make such an order!
"And who made such a stupid order?"
"Mr. Sinclair passed the order."
Hugo\'s brow twitched as he heard that name, and he tightened his hands into fists. Sinclair was the person backed by the other shareholders in the company to take over as the next CEO. Sinclair has been the rising star of the company for a long time now, and he has risen high in the company.
It would be difficult to get rid of someone like that because he was backed by many shareholders, so he was using that to his advantage and doing whatever he wanted. That bastard.
Jake was adamant that Mark would not be getting past him, and Mark flexed his fists tightly as he was one moment away from slamming Jake into the next building, but a hand suddenly touched Mark on the shoulder, and Mark turned around to look at Hugo. Hugo shook his head and spoke gently.
"Please wait in the room at the side. I will talk to the shareholders and make things clear. Joy, Ryan, please remain behind with Mark and make sure that no one approaches him while I am gone."
Hugo knew that the guards might try to provoke Mark even more when he left, so it would be best if those two stayed with Mark to prevent anyone from getting close to him. Hugo didn\'t want Mark to fight on his first day back at the office. Ryan and Frieda nodded to Hugo in agreement, and Hugo finally turned to Mark expectantly.
Hugo and Mark stared at each other for some time and Mak tried to understand what the hell Hugo was thinking. Why the hell was he going along with this bullshit from the shareholders? Mark couldn\'t get anything from Hugo\'s stare and Mark finally sighed and walked to the side with his hands in his pockets. He would wait for some time and see if Hugo could handle this.
If he could not, then Mark was going to handle it himself.
Joy and Ryan followed Mark into the waiting room. They remained standing, and Mark settled down on a couch inside the lavish waiting room with a sigh as he loosened his tie slightly. Mark looked around the room, and he began to get flashbacks of when he was a little boy and he would come with his dad to the company building.
Whenever his dad was having a meeting on this floor, this is where Mark would wait for him. It was probably the most comfortable place in this entire office.
Ring~!
Mark heard his phone go off, and he immediately picked up and spoke into his AirPods.
"Pat, what do you have for me?"
Pat\'s nonchalant voice came through the phone and spoke quickly. Mark could still hear the sound of keyboard keys in the background, and from how frequently Pat was pressing the keys, Mark knew that Pat was most likely playing an online game.
[Good news, or maybe bad news. Depends on how you look at it, I suppose. This is why I never wanted to be part of your company, the business world is messy as fuck. You fucking NPC, get the fuck out of my way! I\'ll send the data to your phone, and you can take a look at it.]
The sound of machine guns was also echoing through the airpods and Pat shouted at eh screen again as a large explosion went off.
Mark got a ping on his phone, and he thanked Pat before clicking off the phone and taking a look at what Pat sent. Mark read through everything quickly, and both Frieda and Ryan were stunned to see the deep frown that appeared on Mark\'s face!
Mark\'s aura flared for a moment as a great amount of anger surged in his chest, and Frieda\'s arm tensed as her fight-or-flight response was about to kick in at any second. But Mark was able to rein in his anger before things went too far, and he took a calming breath as his aura relaxed once more.
Mark glanced at Frieda, and she quickly looked away and stared at the wall stoically! Her face was perfectly blank, but inside her mind, she was shouting in dread as she hoped that Mark wouldn\'t talk to her! She didn\'t want to be close to him at all!
It was already bad enough that they were in the same room like this; she was one second away from simply bolting out of there from the pressure that he was releasing!
\'Don\'t talk to me. Please don\'t talk to me. Please don\'t talk to me! Please don\'t talk to me!\'
"Frieda."
\'Fuck!\'
Frieda cursed in her mind as she turned to Mark gently and gave him a nod in response. Mark tapped his finger against the hand of the couch as he asked her an important question.
"How normal is something like this in the company? Is it common for a mere shareholder to tell the acting CEO what to do, and does Hugo go along with it often?"
Frieda was silent as she heard what Mark said; she knew that how she answered here was important! Mark was basically asking her if Hugo was losing power in the company! Even though Mark was the son of the former CEO, she did not have any loyalty to Mark! Hugo was her employer, and Hugo was the one that she needed to protect!
Frieda was about to speak up and say that it was not a common occurrence, but she was beaten to it by someone else.