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Mazaròl Lions : Chapter 13 "Humble Tigers"


Two of them get out of the room quietly. Based on how this woman in front of Elio called him, his name is probably changed into that now. Tanzanite is his new name with probably a new position in this company as well. Is this really how they promote someone? Elio asks himself and closes his eyes. Somehow he accidentally lets out a loud sigh as he looks down to his feet which catches the attention from the woman in front of him. “Oh. Are you tired?” She turns around and asks Elio immediately. The look in her eyes is full of concern but Elio is still afraid to believe that this person is actually showing her kindness or not. “I’m fine.” Elio replies coldly and looks away from those bright eyes of hers. At first, Elio thought that this woman would just pass it away but it’s not. Yep, even though Elio can predict all of the answers before, doesn’t mean that he can predict everything, especially women.. “It’s fine if you’re tired from the test. I know how tough it is. I will just lead you to your room for today.” She says once again with full concern in her voice and eyes. No, Elio. Don’t. She is just pretending. Elio says to himself as to determine himself to not fall in the same hole twice. But her last sentence caught his attention. At this moment, this person is going to show him some things that are probably regarding his new promotion place. “Where are we going?” Elio coldly asks and only glances at her. “Well.. since you just got promoted, I wanted to get to know more about you.” She quickly replies and puts both of her hands behind her. She answers it without blinking her eyes which means that is not a lie. One of Elio’s twitches from the response and still refuses to look directly at her. “Exactly three of you since it’s extremely rare that all of Onyx candidates pass the test. Usually just one or two of them would pass.” She continues but her smile fades away a bit from her own words. So I was right that Onyx is actually the group name and it will be the same for the group’s name. Then this person's name is.. Based on her answer, Elio finally decides to turn his head towards her. When he looks at her directly, her smile only grows wider and brighter than before. “Congrats for your promotion, Tanzanite.” She says and from her smile it can be clearly seen the cincere on it. Once again, Elio doesn’t fall that easily. To shrug it off, he decides to ignore it and takes this chance to counter her. “Your name is Sapphire, correct?” Elio asks, still with his usual cold tone to others. Right after Elio asked her that, the surprised look on her face can easily be read by Elio which caught him off guard as well. “Wow..” She slowly replies in amaze “You are really smart! Hahaha” she says with excitement which Elio didn’t predict before. He thought that this person would just get angry or annoyed just like that specific ‘person’, his interviewer partner. Her reply also makes Elio lose words of how to respond to it. “I’m really excited to know more about the three of you! Oh my gosh..” She says and leaves only Elio freezed and confused there.         “Alright, alright..” She talks with herself trying to calm herself down and finally looks back at Elio once again “Want to walk around?” She asks him and that finally melts the ice on Elio’s body as he replies with only a nod.         “Yay! Let’s go!” She says excitedly and with that bright smile again. This person is weird.. Elio thinks inside himself and just follows her from behind. Before taking another step forward, Elio just realizes something. He has never been in this place. It’s not the floor where he got his first test previously. When he gets out of the room, there are only left and right hallways and furthermore there will be intersections between. Somehow Sapphire can read what is going on inside Elio’s mind and she once again bends down to take a proper look at Elio’s face which makes Elio jolt from his position. “You look lost hehe.” She says and chuckles sweetly and that somehow makes Elio’s heart skip a bit. Huh? What the- Without any second, Elio’s thought gets interrupted by the sudden move from this woman called Sapphire once again.         “Since you said you’re okay from the test, let’s go to the cafe, shall we?” She says and holds one of Elio’s face which is something that he never expected before. With the sudden movements, Elio can’t react much and he only looks back from his hand, the one is being held, and her face. Well, at least twice which makes her chuckle once again. “Come on.” She continues and drags Elio’s hand with her and Elio just follows her without a word. She drags him to one of the nearest lifts, not really far from his room before, and they both wait in silence. While waiting for the lift to come, Sapphire is still holding Elio's hand and that actually makes Elio start questioning his thoughts before. Is this person usually like this? Is this her character or something? This is our first meeting and how can she do such a thing?? So many questions are popping out inside his brain right now and he doesn’t realize that the lift is already there. “Tanzanite?” She calls Elio out while waving her hand in front of his face. Fortunately, Elio quickly snaps out of it and automatically looks directly at her. She shows him the pure and wide smile followed by her sweet chuckles once again. “Come on. The lift is here.” She says and pulls Elio to get inside the lift. When he gets inside the lift and stands up beside her, a bit behind her, she finally lets go of Elio’s hand. She pushes the button to the first underground floor of the building Thankfully, Elio’s mind is coming back and working as usual so he immediately looks at the lift buttons. It’s a bit different from all of the lifts he used before. This lift has 2 underground floors on the options and 5 floors just like previously. Not only that, what's running through my mind right now is that this person pushed the button to go to the second underground floor which he never knew before. The sound of lift pulls out which means they arrive at the chosen floor. “Alright, we have arrived.” She says and holds the button to let the door stay open. Elio walks out first and once again, the position of this lift is right in between hallways again. “This way.” She says as she walks out from the lift and Elio follows right behind her. Right after both of them make a turn, they meet a huge double iron door in front of them. “Please identify yourself.” The automatic speaker says as the system is sensing both of us presence. Sapphire moves closer to the where the sound is coming from and a small space on the wall swaps. The security system needs to check someone’s both thumb fingerprints at the same time and their face. While Sapphire is doing the security check, Elio looks back and only to find another huge iron door. Basically, this room only fits for those four lifts to get into this floor, huh? Elio says to himself and looks back at Sapphire who is already done doing the quick security check. “Identifying..” The system says and navy blue light pops out “Have a great day, Sapphire!” it continues and the sound of the gears start to open the door for them. “Sorry, I need to bring you here first since we are going for a walk.” She says and looks at Elio with an apologetic face. This person in front of Elio, from the very first beginning, keeps showing such a pure and sincere face to him which it gives him a complicated thought about how to respond to it. Right after the door is completely open, Elio gets greeted by the sound of gun shooting. Both of them get inside of the room and Elio’s eyes widen from the view of this room. It’s a gun shooting area where those members who are allowed to get in this place to practice and train themself. He looks at where the sound is coming from and there is someone holding a sniper on his hands. “One of the most deadly sniper rifles, M twenty four.” Sapphire says and taps on Elio’s shoulder to draw his attention. “Pretty cool, right?” She says with a smile and gives him another tap on his shoulder before starting to walk back. Just having eye contact with her until she is the one who breaks it. “Feel free to look around if you are interested. I need to pick up something.” She says and walks away from him, leaving Elio there standing like a lost child. The loud sounds of a sniper rifle repeat once again and that takes Elio’s attention Wondering how this person's practice results, he quietly takes a peek at his target and his jaw almost drops on the floor. The targets only have one place that got shooten and it’s right in the middle of it, perfect score. To be fair for someone that only has a life just like the other common students, this is Elio’s first time to come and know about the shooting training area. After a quick peek at the targets, Elio takes a look around and walks toward the room that is opposite from where Sapphire just got into. He sees the sign of ‘weapon racks’ on top of the door and his curiosity crawls inside of him. Wanting to know and get in there but he is not sure if he is allowed to do so until someone suddenly calls out at him. “You must be new here.” That is the person who is still in the shooting spot. He calls Elio out without looking back and reloading his sniper rifle which caught Elio by surprise. Elio stops his step to get closer to the weapon rack’s door and only to stare at his back. “Your footsteps.. are too loud for me.” He says and looks back at exactly where Elio is standing right now. Once again, this person successfully left Elio speechless in amazement. Thankfully, Elio’s face can cover it up so that person might not notice it. That person puts down his gun on the counter and walks toward Elio with his hands in his pockets. “You want to check that out?” He asks and glances at the weapon rack. Before Elio can answer that, there is a sound that comes from the door behind him. It’s Sapphire, she shows up with a suitcase in her right hand and neatly folded coat in her left hand. “Oh. Did I interrupt something?” She says as looking back to back from Elio and the person in front of him. “Nope. I just asked him if he wanted to check that out.” He replies and takes out left hand from the pocket then pointing at the weapon racks room with his thumb. “Oh! Do you want to, Tanzanite?” She turns her head and looks at Elio. “Ohh… This one is that Tanzanite, huh?” He says and looks at Elio with a grin which sends a shiver toward Elio. Based on what he just said and Sapphire previously, it feels like Elio’s name, three of them obviously, has been ringing around this company. “Have you introduced yourself yet?” Sapphire asks the person in front of Elio. “Ah. Now you’re saying it.” He replies spontaneously and slaps his head lightly “Sorry, where is my manner.” He continues and looks at Elio. “Aquamarine. You can call me anything you like because it might be too long.” He says with a smile on his face and a hand to offer for a handshake. Elio looks at him weirdly but still accepts his offering anyway. “Tanzanite.” Elio says with a flat face without smiling at all which makes Aquamarine chuckles awkwardly. Both of them let go of their ‘awkward’ handshake and Aquamarine looks at Sapphire. “Well.. at least this is my first time hearing his voice.” He says jokingly to Sapphire that he receives a small chuckle from her. “Just need some time for both of you to get along.” Sapphire says and smiles at both of them. Aquamarine smiles back at her with full of sincerity, clearly can be seen on her face, and looks at the things Sapphire is holding on to. “Oh. these are yours.” Sapphire says and turns her full attention to Elio as she is giving both the suitcase and the coat. Elio raises one of his eyebrows first and looks at those things. “Thank you.” He simply says and tries to get those things from her. Before he can reach both of the items, Sapphire takes back the coat and only gives him the suitcase first. “Almost forgot. You need to open and wear that first.” She quickly explains. Elio only nods his head and takes the suitcase carefully from her, he probably already knows what is inside of this. Yep, he is right. What he finds inside the suitcase is a suit that has the same color as Sapphire and of course the badge too. One Sapphire Tiger badge that he needs to wear just like when he was in Onyx Wolf before. “Welcome to Sapphire Tiger, Tanzanite.” She says welcomely and obviously with that bright and wide smile of hers. He puts down the suitcase on the floor and takes out the suit first. After taking it out, he wears it and it’s no longer surprising that the suit fits on him. Done wearing his suit, Elio just about to take the badge and clip it on his suit, Sapphire suddenly takes the badge from his suitcase and clips it on him. Once again, without noticing it and without warning at all from her, Elio’s heart skips a beat from it and he only can stare at her. “Perfect.” She says after done clipping the badge at the left side of Elio’s collar and thankfully Elio doesn’t stare too much at her. He quickly responds by casually brushing his suit’s body and the shoulder parts. However Sapphire is still in front of him, staring at his action makes her chuckle a little. “Wear this. It’s getting cold outside.” She says and hands the coat from her left hand to Elio. Before taking it, Elio looks directly into Sapphire's eyes with a questioning face. “Outside?” Elio asks confusedly and slowly takes the coat from her hand since she already hands it at him. “Yep.” She quickly replies and suddenly she just realizes something “You don’t want to? We can hang out around the building if you’re not comfortable with it.” She continues with concern in her tone. However, that’s not what Elio means by asking that question to her. When he wants to make clear what he is confused about, it seems like Aquamarine gets the idea already. “Ahh.. he might be confused because after all this time in Onyx Wolf, you can’t leave your room, right?” Aquamarine says and chuckles as he is proud that he can get the idea quicker than Sapphire. What he just says is right, that is the question that popped out inside Elio’s mind before. “Oh! I forgot to tell you, didn’t I?” Sapphire says with a surprised look after taking her face away from Aquamarine and looks back at Elio “Well.. since you’re now in Sapphire Tiger, you’re allowed to go outside, Tanzanite.” she explains nervously. Elio can’t believe what he heard just now. He thought that he was going to be prisoned by this company for his entire life and now he finally got a chance to go outside of the building without any work related. “But.” Sapphire continues and honestly that is already predicted. What can you expect with this strangely weirdly strict company of mafia or robber thing? “If you want to go out, please let me know. I might need to accompany you or somebody else will do as well.” She quickly explains. “Basically when you are going to leave the building, at least you have someone to go with. That’s all. Just don’t go alone.” Aquamarine adds the information. “Hoo..” Elio replies and nods his head while wearing the coat. He actually feels a lot better and relieved of the given permission. At least, he has something else to do when there is no job at all from the company. Wait.. job..? How is the system working again? Should it be different? Elio asks himself and looks at the two persons in front of them. They look like they don’t have any particular work at the moment since they are here and Sapphire just asked him to go around with her. “Alright, ready?” Sapphire asks Elio and that makes him snap out from his thoughts. “It’s already around..” She looks at the watch on her left hand “three thirty. Wanna grab a coffee or something?” She asks and looks back at Elio. “I’m fine with anything.” Elio simply replies. Just that simple response from Elio, Sapphire’s smile is already beaming at him. “Good!” She says excitedly “You come?” She turns her head toward Aquamarine. “Nah. I still have something to do.” He replies and points at where he just had practiced before with his thumb. “Damn, hardworking person.” Sapphire says jokingly and nudges Aquamarine’s elbow. “Yea, yea, whatever. Have fun you two.” He says and gives goodbye waves toward Elio and Sapphire. With that, Sapphire and Elio get out from the shooting room and head toward the lift once again. They both go to the first floor and not to be surprised again, the first floor is totally upside down from the first time Elio got in here. These things won’t surprise him anymore unless.. “Oh.” Sapphire suddenly speaks up when they are just about to leave the building “For the identity check, we will sign you up later after we get home from our date, okay?” She says with a big grin on her face while looking up at Elio. Yes, she’s a lot shorter than him and it totally changes Elio's points of view while looking at her acting like this. His heart sure skipped a lot today.. Not long after what she just said to him, once again he realizes it a bit longer than usual. Wai- wha- Date?!?!

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