“Well, it could be worse,” Mason consoled weakly.

Emilin didn’t even have to look at the photo on the screen to know she wouldn’t like what she was going to see.

The camera was directly connected to a computer so she could see the final result right then and there.

Seeing that Emilin was not responding, Mason sighed, finally realizing how stubborn this little girl really was.

“Don’t be like that! There has been a great improvement already, okay?” Mason exclaimed trying to unwrinkle the little girl’s face.

“Look, look, look! You can already tell what is being photographed, and this angle isn’t completely off, not to mention you can even take a photo without the glare now!” Mason pointed out Emilin’s many improvements in this short period of time, but that did not assist him in making her feel better in the least.

Emilin gave her teacher a look that said, “Was that supposed to make me feel better?”

Eyebrow lift and all.

I mean, is anyone supposed to feel good hearing that their efforts were not in vain as you have gone from ‘verified trash’ to ‘a noob could still do better than you’?

“…”

“Haha…” Mason seemed to realize that his words didn’t sound quite right and so he stopped.

But his words weren’t exactly wrong either.

Emilin had already learned everything she needed to, for now, all she needed was some more time to internalize it.

Sadly, it didn’t seem to Mason that she would make it in time for the job that was about to start in a few days extending for the following month or so.

Mason was sure that there would be more jobs in the future, but it was a shame that Emilin would miss this great opportunity.

Emilin ignored Mason’s somewhat troubled expression and kept going at it.

Mason had given her quite a lot of pointers here and there and everywhere, mainly because she needed that many.

Sigh.

Emilin looked at the newly uploaded photo.

They were indeed significantly better than the ones taken in the Hemafuji Mountain Range, but that didn’t mean much.

She thought to herself, ‘I shouldn’t be in such a rush. Calm down, take it slow. Improvement is made in small steps.’

Emilin was doing her best to calm her nerves.

She would still meditate at night before sleep, but now that she thought about it, she felt like she might have to consider changing it to the morning so that she could go through the rest of the day with a calmer mindset.

Or better yet, just meditate at both times.

The only problem was… the trouble in waking up.

Emilin wasn’t a deep sleeper, which was why she never seemed to get enough hours.

She needed more rest in order to make up for the inadequate quality of this rest.

That and a whole lot of sugar and coffee.

As Emilin closed her eyes to calm down as Mason had also indirectly suggested, she took in a deep breath.

She could feel her hand cooling off, little by little, and it was at that time that a phone ringed.

That being Mason’s.

Emilin didn’t bother opening her eyes as she was trying to concentrate on cooling her nerves, but that soon changed as she heard her name being spoken.

The conversation had gone something like this… 

(Though of course, Emilin could only hear Mason’s side.)

“Oh really!” Mason seemed so excited that his voice was even a pitch higher than usual.

But that changed really quickly due to what the other side said.

“Tomorrow? So soon?” Mason frowned.

“Well, I’m not sure if the prep for Emilin on this side has been enough,” Mason was in fact sure that it was not enough, but he didn’t want to say it out loud.

“Well, I guess this opportunity doesn’t come by often… we’ll prepare right away.”

The other side had spoken for a bit, and Mason seemed convinced.

‘I wonder what kind of opportunity they are talking about,’ Emilin thought to herself, having completely forgotten about her so-called meditation.

This seemed a whole lot more interesting.

Interestingly enough that even her thoughts on her hand dissipated along with the itch that had still been bugging her once in a while.

They exchanged some more words before the other party dropped the call and when Mason looked up, he was instantly met with Emilin’s curious stary eyes.

Like a curious babe whose eyes screamed, “tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”

Mason smiled.

Emilin only had such a gaze because this conversation of Mason’s also seemed to have something to do with herself, if not she would not be so openly nosy.

Emphasis on openly.

As a girl, she was still inclined to gossip and such, wanting to know everything that was happening around her, whether it had to do with herself or not.

But she still knew her limits.

Yet, the moment her name was mentioned, it shouldn’t be considered being nosy anymore, right?

This was just her caring for her own related matters.

“That was from Owen who was calling in Margo’s stead. They wanted to inform us that Margo had gotten us an opportunity to go to her farm! This is a high-tech farm we are talking about! We will be able to take the photos of all these animals that are going extinct, and all in the same location as well,” Mason was clearly very excited.

Emilin scoffed inwardly.

‘You mean you will be able to take a whole lot of photos. What the hell am I able to do?’

But she was still quite excited.

This was going to be an experience most of the world wouldn’t be able to come by.

It was only natural that she would be excited.

“So, when are we going?” Emilin asked, showing the same enthusiasm as Mason himself.

At moments like these, Emilin had sadly not even thought of her loyal and hardworking disciple, who was still being wronged due to Liam’s words and actions.

As he strongly argued with the little girl, Daisy, so that she would not defame him and create misunderstandings between his Master and himself about him looking down on her, his Master was already planning to leave, having forgotten about this important baggage called Xander.

***

“I see, so it is true. Then Margo and Xander must have already made contact. The person that asked TWO to investigate Margo, who may be TWO himself must have also made contact with her seeing as Xander didn’t seem to have ever done investigations on the people he met. Is it another character who is close to M? After all, TWO only seems to associate with those kinds of people.”

And by that, Elijah meant people who were associated with M.

He had already heard of everything from Liam, who promptly skipped the parts that had to do with the process by which he acquired the information.

And he was rather happy with the lead.

“Let’s not interact directly with the targets right now, less their guard goes up. The hackers that we got to tamper with the security system of today will only be a paper sheet if they really decide to investigate and by then, you won’t be able to show your face around here anymore,” Elijah sighed.

Sadly, Margo was meticulous on the part of the security cameras. 

There was no real blind spot other than on the upper floors where people were given some privacy in their own rooms as well as in the bathrooms.

And on an even sadder note, their hacking defenses were quite literally worth as much as a wet tissue in front of TWO and his backer.

“Since we can’t make any direct contact with the target, just leave some people here to scout things out. Also, get them that VIP thing so that they can observe and install some gadgets in the rooms for closer inspection. Use the micro-ones. I don’t want teacher bugging me about this matter,” Elijah had already decided to abandon this area and leave it for his subordinates.

He had something more important to attend to.

Liam noted the things he had to do down so that he could do them when his Boss finished talking.

“Preform some more observations and don’t get caught. Since the people won’t be able to come here in a day or two anyways, make sure they come discretely,” Elijah didn’t want things to go wrong this time, but he didn’t elaborate since he trusted that Liam would know what to do.

Only, he didn’t know that the Xander, who had come every day for the past few weeks, would cease to come for the following days.

Leading to the misunderstanding that Liam had already been exposed when both Rita and Daisy had in fact told Xander nothing, while Xander didn’t dare tell Emilin about this incident for fear of misunderstandings.

The real reason why Xander wasn’t going to the cat café in the following days, was in fact because though Emilin had forgotten about him… Margo had not forgotten about this person who always seemed to follow Emilin around, had also extended a friendly invitation.

“Meanwhile… I should go meet that good teacher of mine,” Elijah was already half speaking to himself, in a soft and deep voice.