"Is Jason not here yet?"
Liam looked around curiously to try to find Jason, but he saw that Jason was nowhere to be found. Juliet smiled at how easily Liam had accepted her apology, but she raised a brow when Liam suddenly looked back sharply before turning to her with a slightly disappointed expression. Liam had a look that was telling Juliet not to ask him what he had just done, and she decided that it was better if she didn’t ask!
Honestly, Liam was just being paranoid. He had already gotten used to Jason popping up on him at the most unusual moments and scaring the shit out of him, so he had been trying to catch Jason before he could do it again! Liam kept his senses sharp all this time just to try and catch Jason in the act, and Liam swore that Jason wouldn’t be able to sneak up on him anymore!
Liam had actually planned to be there when Jason and the rest of the superhumans came back from the Yellow Gate, and he had even tried to use Jason’s appearance as a publicity campaign to help Jason’s image online. But Liam had been pulled out from the Gate site after he got instructions from his superiors to leave the site to that strange organization called JPR Constructions. Liam had met with Fredrica, the head of the JPR operation in America, and he could say with certainty that he did not trust her. Fredrica wasn’t willing to tell Liam anything about who they were or what they did, but it was obvious to Liam that they were far more than just a simple construction company. But regardless of what they were, Liam knew that they were far higher in the government hierarchy than he was, so he had to leave since this was outside his jurisdiction.
After he left, Liam got the news that he was going to be promoted to the new Director of the SMD, and that had to be the most shocking thing that had happened to him in the past few days. Liam never even thought that he would get a promotion, but he was somehow now the Director of the SMD since Milicent was going to be facing time in prison for her actions against Jason.
And now that he was the Director, Liam already knew that the first thing he had to do was to make sure that he put as many resources as possible toward taking care of Jason’s needs. It sounded like something silly, but this one act could determine the whole future of Riverdale, and Liam knew that if he didn’t play his cards right here, he would lose one of the most important superhumans in the world. In just the past few days since Jason was announced to the rest of the world as a superhuman stronger than even the Rulers, the economic and financial sector of Riverdale had gone from average to one of the fastest growing in America! The financial district had seen more than twenty new companies migrating into the city, and there were even large companies that were moving entire headquarters into the city in the coming days! Liam had gotten calls from SMD branches and superhuman guilds all over the world asking about Jason’s movements and if his guild was interested in collaborations, and this was the busiest that the SMD and government offices in the city had ever been! And it was all because of one man!
That was why Liam needed to make sure that Jason was taken care of! Even without doing anything, Jason’s mere presence was a boost to their economy that they couldn’t lose no matter what, and Liam had even been prepared to pay Jason hundreds of millions every year just to keep him in the city if he needed to! So when Liam heard that rumors were going around the internet that Jason was dangerous and that the civilians wanted the government to put sanctions on him, Liam had almost lost his damn mind! Were these people insane!? They were trying to ruin all of Liam’s hard work before he could even set anything into action! It was so foolish that Liam couldn’t even wrap his head around what had started the rumors!
Jason was the last person that Liam could see using his gifts for evil, and Liam knew that most of the subordinates in Jason’s Legion were monsters or humans who had been trying to kill him first! Liam had even seen Jason spare the life of Katarina, even though Katarina had tried to kill him! If that didn’t show that Jason was completely reasonable with his powers, then nothing would! Liam had set aside a task force on the internet, and he made them take down every negative article or social media campaign that tried to paint Jason in a bad light! Liam wasn’t going to have something this stupid affecting the country’s relationship with Jason! What would they do if Jason decided to leave America because of this!? It would be the end of their fucking economy!
Liam could only imagine the sheer chaos that would take place if Jason decided to go to some other country like Russia or—god forbid—Germany. The president would probably have a fucking meltdown!
But when Liam heard that Jason’s guild, Monarch, had put their headquarters in the city, he felt a surge of relief pass through him! This meant that Jason was willing to stay in the country even with all the controversy and nonsense flying around on the internet! Liam was just glad that Jason was mature enough to ignore the fools spreading hate, and he hoped that this conference with the press would allow them to see Jason in the same way that Liam did.
Jason’s power was very dangerous in anyone’s hands, and it had the potential to end the world if used wrongly, but if there was one person that Liam would happily trust with such a dangerous power, then it would be Jason.
"Liam."
"Oh, god!"
Liam jerked and turned around sharply when he heard Jason say his name, and he glared at Jason in anger! Jason had a perfectly neutral expression on his face, but Liam could see the smile hidden in there! Liam knew that Jason was fucking doing this on purpose! This bastard was fucking laughing at him! Liam sighed and put a hand to his forehead tiredly.
"You’re going to send me to an early grave, Jason. And when you do, I’ll come back from the other side just to haunt you for the rest of my undead life."
Jason scoffed at the silly joke before he took Liam’s hand in a friendly greeting.
"It’s nice to see you again. I heard you’re the head of the SMD now. Congrats. I couldn’t think of anyone better for the position, so I’m sure you’ll do a great job."
Liam chuckled in slight embarrassment at the praise and thanked Jason for the kind words. It was always nice to hear that someone had so much trust in your abilities, so this meant a lot to Liam. Liam just wished that his colleague from New Jersey, Florence, had been as happy for him as Jason was. Florence had called him a few hours after his promotion was announced, and he thought that she had called to congratulate him. But the only thing she told him was that she would surpass him very soon before she cut the phone angrily. Liam knew that Florence was a very competitive person, and this was her own way of saying she was looking up to him, but it wouldn’t have killed her to just say a single congratulations! They’d known each other for a long time, so it was the least she could say!
"Hey, Juliet. Is everything ready?"
Jason spoke up as he turned to face Juliet, and his manager smiled and told him that everything was set! They were only waiting for him to get ready so they could start the conference! Jason nodded, and he looked down at the robes he was wearing. He had on a black uniform with gold trim that was normally reserved for high-ranking members of the army in Radagan, and he had also been given an S-Rank defensive robe artifact that he draped over the whole thing. Jason looked very formal, but the uniform was actually very comfortable, so he decided that he was going to keep it on.
"Alright, let’s just get started. I need to finish this quickly."
Jason started moving towards the exit, and Juliet called out for everyone to get ready!