Date A Mysterious Being

Chapter 29 - Gift

DEM Industries, UK head office.
Several men were assembled in a conference room on the twentieth floor. All of them were on DEM's board of directors. They sat around an enormous elliptical table with complex expressions on their faces as they sifted through the papers in front of them.
However, that was to be expected.
They had already received reports from a number of sources. The documents at hand merely noted the particulars of the incident.
After DEM's managing director, Isaac Westcott, had improperly wielded his authority in Japan, the DEM Japan branch office and its associated facilities had been half-destroyed. Not to mention the fact that a number of their precious Wizards had been injured or killed, and the cherry on top was that their secret Realizer technology had been on full display for everyone in the area to see. Anyone who could go through these reports and not so much as arch an eyebrow should probably immediately quit the company and take up a new career gambling.

However, not everyone looked upset. One man sat leisurely in the chair at the farthest end of the room.
He was a young man in his mid-thirties, wearing a jet-black suit. Disturbingly dark eyes peered out through the gaps of the dark gray hair which hung down across his forehead, looking out at the conference room. Sir Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott. The very DEM Managing Director who was the subject of discussion.

"What on earth were you thinking, Westcott?!" one board member cried out wildly, hand shaking as he slammed the documents in it against the table. He was a middle-aged man with glasses. He was one of the younger directors, but even so, he appeared to be older than Westcott.
No one in the room reproached him for his aggression toward the MD. Although their feelings varied in degree, everyone was thinking the same thing.

But Westcott himself, looking out at them from his seat at the end of the table, didn't seem the least bit flustered. He merely shrugged, slightly. "I don't understand the intent of the question, Murdock."

"I ask that you not play dumb with us!" Murdock yanked up the papers he'd thrown onto the table to brandish them in front of his face. "Improper interference with the SDF, personal use of Wizards and equipment, instructions for an attack mission that would endanger the general populace, turning a corner of the business district into a battlefield?! At minimum, the cost of the damage is one billion pounds! And now the Japanese government has something significant on us! How exactly do you intend to rectify this situation?!"

"Not a problem," Westcott said. "We got results in line with the scale of damage."

"Results? And what would those be?" Murdock demanded.

The corners of Westcott's mouth slid up. "Rejoice. We succeeded in inverting Princess."

"...!" Murdock and the other board members stared in wide-eyed surprise at Westcott's evident pride. "Are you serious?! Do you not understand the situation here?!" Murdock shouted, his face colored with anger. "One wrong step, and this could very well develop into a threat to the continued existence of DEM Industries! What is this about a Spirit? How exactly will a Spirit save our company in a crisis?! We are through going along with your little games and smug self-satisfaction!"

"Oh?" Westcott wore a mechanical smile on his face, but now one of his eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
But Murdock apparently didn't notice. He turned to look at the board members gathered in the conference room.

"I'd like to ask all of you one simple question! Can we actually allow him to continue to do whatever he pleases? If this keeps up, DEM Industries will be ruined in the not-so-distant future! We should be taking measures to ensure that doesn't happen!"

"Measures?" the man sitting across from Murdock asked.

Murdock threw out his arms theatrically and proclaimed, "I. Am. Demanding the dismissal of Managing Director Westcott, right here and now!"