Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression-Chapter 209: Blue Lantern [3]: End of story

[Present Day]

"And that's how we turned out like this," The old man finished his story before snapping back to reality, "ah, I'm sorry, I must've been boring you with my story."

He then stood up and muttered quickly, "instead of me, why not talk about you, you...look..."

The old man suddenly froz as he looked at Ethan's face.

Ethan turned to him with a small smile before asking, "what is it?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"N-nothing," the old man shook his head before mentally thinking, 'must've been my imagination, after all, no one would make that expression for someone they barely know.'

"About this trio," Ethan calmly started, "do they still visit the restaurant?"

"It's been a while now since they last came," the old man shook his head, "since they finally gained what they wanted and no customer seems to be returning here, I'd say it's their win."

Ethan nodded, placed a hand on his chin for a while before saying, with a smile, "can I order more

of this ? It seems I'm hungrier than I thought."

"Right away," the old man quickly picked up the plate, placed it on his tray and walked back to the kitchen, leaving Ethan to his thoughts.

"Leonard, Chad and Andrew," he repeated the names with a smile on his face, though, that smile stayed far from his eyes.

Of course, it was obvious enough that they had done this because of him, but why stoop this low.

It wasn't as if Ethan was close to the old man or anything, at most he was just a customer who stopped by here anytime he was celebrating something or willing to spend more than usual.

"How childish," He muttered as he leaned back with a sigh, "and to think it's just over a few words exchanged."

Being from the smith family, he thought the smith Brothers would have enough self control to not act out of pettiness but he guessed wrong.

They were used to everything going their way and it had been for the longest time. Though Leonard basically made his wealth away from family, the smith name had been more than enough of a help.

He was used to people bending the way he wanted, them barking when he wanted and kissing his ass how he wanted but Ethan hadn't.

Even during their days in the university, he had been the only one to not fight for his attention.

The kid had always been so engrossed in his studies, though he clearly didn't need to, with him being a genius and all.

Ethan had naturally stood out and that rubbed him the wrong way.

"So instead of facing me directly, he chooses to act petty and target those I've interacted....with," it suddenly clicked, if the Smith brothers and their human puppet had targeted this restaurant, then what was stopping them from targeting Newton Academy.

After all, they had provided him a job and although Mrs Harper had said everything was fine, he suddenly had the feeling that it wasn't.

"Athena?" He called out as he placed his phone on the table.

{Yes?} She immediately replied.

"Can you research on the current state of the Newton Academy?" He said, "I need their financial records, bank statements, teacher's salary and their general state currently."

{On it,} she answered and immediately got to work.

***

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the old man hesitantly stop taking out the ingredients for the salad from his fridge before turning to Mrs Harper.

"Audrey?" The old man called out after a moment of hesitation causing her to pause while doing the dishes and turn to him.

"Hmm?" She answered.

"You said the kid outside used to work for you right?" The old man asked, "what kind of person do you think he is?"

"Ethan?" She thought for a while before answering, "he was a pretty good teacher, but at the same time, he was also a big nerd."

She paused for a while as she thought of how to describe him properly.

"I guess you could call him an introvert, since I've never seen him make friends," Audrey continued, "but at the same time, he doesn't seem to struggle with making a conversation."

"I see," the old man nodded before carefully looking at her and saying, "but that's not what I'm asking."

"No?" She muttered, "then what?"

"I'm asking if he's quick to anger or has a bad temper or something?"

"Hmm?" Audrey tilted her head before saying, "not that I know of, why do you ask?"

"Then, I guess it was just my imagination then," the old man let out a sigh of relief, "because I could've sworn I saw a dark look on his face after I explained what happened with those three."

Audrey Harper paused for a while before looking back at the old man and saying, "and you told him because?"

"Nothing," the old man went back to taking out what he needed for the salad, "he just looked realiable."

"And you just want to hang all your problems on this 'reabliable' looking person?"

"How low do you think of me Audrey?" The old man asked with a frown on his face, "I just thought it felt nice to have someone to talk about it to, since everyone refused to give us a chance to even explain."

Audrey let out a long sigh before walking towards the old man and hugging his side, "we'll get through this uncle."

"I know," her Uncle smiled before gently patting away her hand, "now go finish those dishes, after all, they won't do themselves."

With a chuckle, Audrey let his uncle go and walked back to the sink and finished up the dishes.

Though if her memory served her well, there actually was a time she had seen a scary expression on Ethan's face, but even she wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not.

"Ah by the way," The old man spoke again, "what do you think about him?"

"What?" Audrey asked.

"That Ethan kid," the old man turned to her with a grin on his face, "what do you think of him."

The answer was a towel to the face as she fumed.

"Are you crazy?" She said, "I have a child that's almost his age."

"What's wrong with that?" The old man took the towel off his face, "you're still beautiful aren't you?"

***

Ethan looked at the encrypted files before him with a frown on his face, it was just as he expected, the Newton Academy was far from doing fine.

Hell, he was even surprised that they hadn't closed down yet.

For some 'unknown' reason, the community support to the academy had been cut off, the donation agencies that usually helped with stuff like books or even classroom equipments had suddenly cut them off.

According to the financial records here, Mrs Harper was using her personal funds to keep the academy afloat, a well that was quickly running out.

"As I thought," Ethan placed a hand over his lips, "they really are petty."

The records before him showed that the Smith brothers, mostly Leonard, had made some calls offering them favors in return for cutting the Newton Academy off and like dogs to a bone, they quickly flocked to the offer.

Most the teachers, at this point, had quit and the few that remained were either thinking of quitting or were genuinely loyal to her.

{What do you want to do?} Athena asked.

"I wonder," Ethan muttered, "isn't there a rumor ongoing about Leonard's  technology closing a deal with a housing company? It'd be a shame if that deal just fell through."

{It really would,} Athena nodded in agreement.

It definitely wasn't a rumor, because it was just one of the files Solterra's CEO had sent him.

He hadn't thought much of it and had just ordered him to do what was best for the company, but now?

Now, Leonard Smith was going to have a taste of his own medicine.

"As for Andrew and Chad..." Ethan muttered before pausing, "speaking of which, what does that bum do?"

{Chad works at Aegis Solutions,} Athena informed, {formerly the biggest cyber security company in the US until OmniTech came along, they're currently trying and failing to clone Sentinel.}

"I see," Ethan nodded in understanding before smiling, "then, in light of pushing the cyber world forward, why not offer them a bit of aid in return for promoting one of their employees to errand boy."

{Right,} Athena nodded in agreement, {and it'd do that employee good if the position he was promoted to was to be beneath someone he hated and looked down upon the most.}

Yep, Ethan was definitely influencing this AI's personality a lot more than the Internet was.

Ding!

The bell above the restaurant's door let out a ding as it was pushed open allowing someone to walk in.

Ethan turned to notice a girl in Newton Academy uniform walking in, she had ear pods on and didn't notice him until she moved close enough.

"A customer?" She muttered in question, looking at him.