Edna sat on the stairs outside the house and seemed to be in deep thoughts when Nel sat beside her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
Edna continued to stare into space as she replied "I miss him a lot". Nel squeezed his face trying to understand what she was talking about and she noticed his look.
"My master" she said. He scoffed at her words and she turned to him frowning.
"What does that mean?" she asked. "I don't know which of your master you're talking about since you called almost everyone.....'Master' back then" he replied.
She looked away from him and suddenly had a serious look on her face "I was thinking about my real master. The one I learned under."
Nel kept quiet for a while after what she said. He knew that Edna held her master in high esteem and even when he suddenly disappeared causing a huge casualty to their clan, she still supported him and believed he would come back.
"Do you still think he would return? It has been way too long since he last showed up. I don't know why you have so much faith in him but someone who ran away when his clan was in trouble instead of helping them doesn't deserve this much respect from you" he said without looking at her.
She smiled before replying "I am the only one that can give him this amount of respect and that is why I must". They were both quiet for a while each lost in their thoughts. "Are you like this everyday?" he asked turning to face her.
"I can only be like this today....because today is his birthday"
She opened a small box beside her which contained three glassbead and took one out "take, keep it with you when you go out. The second one is for the kid."
Nel collected it and stood up, he was about to leave before he perceived a pungent smell which caused him to quickly cover his nose. "What is this?" he asked in consternation "Are you burning that crazy incense because of him? In this house?" he shouted angrily.
She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes, "Can't you see I came outside to burn it? You are the one who came to meet me here, how can you start shouting because of this little thing."
Nel paced around angrily trying to calm down before saying "You call this little? Do you know how dangerous this is? You almost...KILLED ME!!!!!" .
He was clearly losing it. Edna didn't react at first and kept looking on but after a while as if she had just heard him she suddenly turned to look at him shocked. "Are you still having smoke repulsion? At your level you should have passed that stage" she said.
He calmed himself down and looked at her before answering "this is going to be the first rule and probably the last for you as long you stay here. No burning of incense or smoking!! Not only me but even master won't take it likely with you next time" he said before storming inside angrily.
Edna watched his back until he entered the house before a mischievous smirk crawled on her face.
Helen stood up and walked towards Hilde "It is almost time for the meeting" she whispered to her. "Okay" Hilde replied before standing and following her to the meeting hall.
They were all seated and waiting for the director to arrive before their former director entered. The hall was quiet as everyone stared suprised. He laughed at their expression before talking, "Why? Were you all expecting me to not show up anymore?" he asked.
"We are just surprised after seeing that someone else has taken over the ownership of this organization" Hilde replied when no one answered his question. He nodded his head signifying that he understood her before he continued
"I know it must have been shocking, but I will still be coordinating all our work here. He bought the organization so it belongs to him now he has a lot of companies like this so don't worry I'll be the administrator, but I want to ask you a question" he paused and everyone shifted their attention towards him
"How did the manager get fired immediately the new chairman took over" he asked. Helen answered almost immediately he asked "it is because he was very annoying, he was busy scolding innocent workers who didn't do anything wrong. The chairman was obviously infuriated with such behavior so he fired him" she said.
"Is that so? I always warn him to be careful he never listened to me, anyway we need someone to fill his position. Hmmm..... Hilde can take over that post and Helen would be her assistant, do we all agree?" he asked. Everyone answered in the affirmative and Hilde felt suprised. She never imagined they could all nominate her for the position "I guess the glass bead is for good fortune" she thought to herself smiling. She stood up and said "I won't let you down, I promise"