Meeting Room A. April 19, 20XX. Thursday. After school.

Synchronous footsteps are heard from a distance nearing to where they are. Among those, a hurried, angry stomp is coming from the party of those powerful steps.

Majarlika’s puffed voice rings through the hallway of the school. “Hurry, hurry! Break formation if you must, just get to my Fedina quick!”

The footsteps become louder and clearer within mere seconds. They have arrived at the meeting room. Everyone who is not part of Majarlika’s family kneel before him to at least appease him, making sure that they are not blocking his path.

“Where is she? Where’s my daughter? … Oh my god… Fedina!” Majarlika rushes towards his daughter and hugs her tightly yet carefully. “Who slapped you? What did they do? Tell me everything, I will make them pay.”

“Ap’pa.” Not long after she utters the word, she bursts into cries. “I’m sorry huhuhu hik!”

“Why, why are you saying sorry?”

“My betrothal…”

“Your betrothal what? … Where’s your betrothal necklace?”

Fedina’s brother clap his hands loudly as if saying, “Ah!”

“What is it, hijo?”

“Majarlika, you see, this all escalated pretty quickly. Let me tell you what happened.” He looks at his sister and says, “Leave it to me, sister.”

Then, retells the story from the moment he walks inside the Dean’s Office and then relocating to this very room where they are currently in. “I called my wife and they asked for proof because they didn’t believe Fedina when she showed pictures of her wearing her necklace,” he recalls. He narrates the whole conversation and how everything has transpired perfectly and on point.

The fuming Majarlika stands up abruptly and walks to the bunch of trembling people who are now cramped in one side of the room. “Who’s the Dean?”

“… I-I.”

“Who’s this Eugene? … And this Ms. Delevan? … And you, I assume you’re the person with too much precious time.”

“M-my Lord-”

“I am not a Lord, nor yours.”

“I-I apologize-”

“Barbo! Get her daughter and slap her hard.” He commands one of his troops.

The other obeys. He grips the arm of the now awake Ella and forces her to stand up. He raises his hands and slaps Ella before she even prepares for the impact.

“Ella! My Lord- Majarlika, please she’s just a child.”

“My daughter is also a child,” he says. He walks to the stunned Ella, he instructs Barbo without looking at him. “Look her up, along with the others that she has locked up.”

Barbo drags the wide-eyed muted Ella out of the room while her mother can’t do anything but to cry silently and regret her decisions.

“Father, it was actually the Madam who chose a clean and swift end for this country,” he informs him.

“Really? At least we’re on the same page on that one.”

“But I gave her an ultimatum. If she says my name, I’ll at least give the people time to evacuate before we close the pipes. But I think she has no idea or do you, Madam?”

“I,” her eyes quiver, “please give me a chance. I’ll correct everything I’ve done.”

“Then confess to everything. If I think that you are still hiding something, another idea might pop in my mind. You know, closing the pipes to your birth country.”

“Or maybe, husband, you can not close the pipes but just declare that we will no longer supply Madam’s birth country because she pissed off the whole Majarlikan society. Let’s see what will happen to all her relatives. A thief might be the least of worries for them.”

“Correct, dear wife. You really are the brains between the two of us. Why don’t we do just that, father?”

“Mijo is right, that’s much better. Ready the announcement,” he says to no one. The person in charge of his decrees understands immediately without being addressed specifically.

“There’s also a meeting that will happen, father. I forgot which names they said but I definitely heard the names before,” says the now calm Fedina.

“Don’t worry, MIRASMIVA, everything that had happened were recorded.” Mijo Adven shows Fedina the crushed recorder.

“But-”

“This is connected to the motherboard. As long as the motherboard is intact and functional, we’ll be able to retrieve the files,” she winks.

Fedina does not say more, she only nods her head and exhales loudly.

“Take everyone out. Make sure that they don’t contact anyone. Also, do it discreetly as possible as to not alert those they are supposed to meet. I’ll make everyone pay,” Majarlika declares.