2 Rule written in stone

His secretary called him again and again, but none of the calls were picked up due to the phone being left behind in Hecathe's apartment.

"We only have a few minutes left! Where is he?!" A man anxiously asked as he glared at Hecathe's secretary.

Hecathe's so-called secretary was a man in his mid-twenties, wearing a dark blue-colored suit that didn't look too eye-catching, but it certainly had the professional and neat look to it that was much needed in an office. He had dark brown eyes that seemed to complement his black wavy hair. He had a clean shaved face and if one were to look at him, they would certainly not say that he looked ugly, however, they would also not compliment him for his looks.

The secretary gulped in worry as he tried his best to keep a smile on his face, "He said he's stuck in traffic. He'll be here on time." He lied through an honest face.

Hecathe was not a person who would carelessly be late to a meeting without any reason. Even though being late to a meeting was not a good thing, since Hecathe was Hecathe, his secretary wasn't too anxious about it.

The worst outcome would be the employees thinking that Hecathe wasn't serious enough with his work.

He redialled the number for the nth time and it went into voice message once again.

6:59 a.m.

1 more minute left.

Now it was all about the seconds.

"Let's head inside," The man nudged the secretary before leaving him behind to follow as he headed inside the meeting room first.

'Please come fast, Sir!' He prayed in his mind.

It seemed that God had heard his prayers.

He heard a bit of commotion and when he turned back to look at it, his eyes widened as relief washed over him.

The commotion was caused by the other employees who were scurrying away after greeting the President "Good morning!"

Hecathe didn't even glance at them as he kept walking slowly in a calm and leisurely manner.

He stopped in front of his secretary before looking at his watch and commenting, "Made it in time."

The secretary sighed, "Good morning, Mr. Osborne. You had me worried for a second there."

Hecathe smirked as he used another quote from an advertisement he had just remembered, "When you have a Zelium car on your side, even time would wait for you."

The secretary took a few seconds to react as he chuckled, "President, you should just take over the job of advertising manager."

"You think I'm that good?" Hecathe smirked, "But then again, I do look cool no matter what I do."

The secretary pursed his lips. He had the urge to refute the confident statement, but he didn't have enough time to fight over it.

"Let's just go."

Hecathe nodded as he wiped the proud smirk off his face and put on his business face that seemed to mimic a statue that would always be frowning and glaring at you.

It was a shock that he put on this kind of expression and still wondered why people were scared of him.

The secretary pushed open the door of the conference room and Hecathe's entrance immediately caught the interest of everyone who stood up and bowed in respect as they greeted him.

"Good morning, President!" They said in unison.

Hecathe nodded, "Good morning."

Only after hearing a response from Hecathe did they dare sit back down.

Hecathe straightened out his coat as he took a seat in his chair that was located at the head of the table. He cupped his hands together and placed them on the table before crossing his legs as he questioned, "Reports?"

A young-looking woman stood up as soon as she heard this and walked over to him as she handed over a blue file, "It doesn't look like they plan to defeat us with quality."

Hecathe carelessly picked up the file and the woman bowed her head before going back to her seat.

Everyone waited for the president to finish reading the report he had asked for and they carefully noticed his every expression. Since he already had a frown plastered on his face, it was hard to guess what he was feeling, but the employees had already adapted to it and even if it was only a small change in his facial expressions, they would still notice it.

If the frown didn't change, they didn't need to worry about anything and if the frown deepened, it meant... Whoever made the file could forget about coming back to work tomorrow morning.

It didn't take Hecathe more than a few minutes to flip through the file and after having read all the important parts, he closed the file and tossed it back on the table.

His frown... was no longer there...

Hecathe's lips curled up in an amused smirk as he spoke, "So they want to have a price war with us? Tch-"

"..."

If his frown changed into a smirk, the employees didn't need to worry nor did they need to say goodbye to their job and in fact, it didn't affect them at all!

If Hecathe's frown had turned into a smirk, it was probably someone else who was going to get screwed over by their president.

"Those disgusting worms!" Hecathe's eyes turned fierce as if he had suddenly transformed into a demon that was ready to devour everything in its path.

The woman who had given him the file raised her hand and after getting permission to talk, she stood up, "Their consumers have been complaining because of the side effects that were caused, however, they forced down the complaints and paid people to promote their vicious product more."

"Side-effects?" Hecathe scoffed, "So their customers died and they still didn't care?"

The woman nodded.

Hecathe sighed and the aura around him turned even more tense as if he had really been angered enough to break the neck of whoever he was mad at, "If they don't care about their consumers, it's clear what this is about. They want to have a war with us! They are basically provoking us at this point! Those spineless midgets."

It was silent as everyone hung their heads low, they didn't really have a reason to do so but their president looked a bit too scary when he was angry and so, their natural instinct had acted up on its own.

Another man who was previously sitting in his seat raised his hand and stood up, "We can't afford to follow their plan. Going in a price war is pointless."

"Of course, It is!" Hecathe slammed his hand on the table, "They want to have a price war?! Let them have a price war! Let's see who competes with them!"

His secretary leaned in and whispered in his ear as if he were conveying some sort of a secret, "Is it you? Are you joining?"

There were times when Hecathe wanted to smack his secretary on the head and this moment could also be counted as one of those times.

His secretary was great at his job most of the time but he was still dumb and oblivious at the worst moments.

Hecathe coughed as he tried his best not to raise his hand to smack his secretary, "We won't be joining this price war, but since they want to fight me so much, I'll give them another fight. Let's see who can make it till the end."

The others listened attentively to what Hecathe was about to say next.

"Have you found out their source of Zelium?" Hecathe asked his secretary.

His secretary nodded as he answered seriously, "We were able to locate one down, but there are probably more."

"One? Where is it?"

"It's located on the east side of Derton and it's probably their main source."

"Good!" Hecathe smirked. "Burn it down."

"..."

"Eh?!" His secretary was shocked and so were the other employees.

Hecathe, "Didn't you hear me? Burn it down! Make sure that nothing is left behind! Destroy it completely! If they don't have a source of Zelium, let's see if they still dare to provoke us."

"B-but... That's still Zelium." The woman who was still standing spoke up with her eyes wide open in shock.

"So what?" Hecathe's piercing glare laid on her making her feel as if she was about to be roasted like a turkey on thanksgiving, "You are right, it's Zelium, but it's not pure Zelium. Burning it down will be the best thing possible. I'll be saving thousands of lives."

"But..." The woman seemed to have wanted to say more but she simply gulped it all back down and kept quiet.

There was no arguing with the president: This was a rule written in stone.

Quite literally written in stone because all the rules in this company were carved into a huge stone pillar that was displayed in the main lobby of the company.