Terra Cyber Services HQ, Vale.
Within the unassuming building that served as the headquarters for one of the most important startups in the world, Taiyang moved towards his office with great reluctance while talking on his scroll.
"Damn it! Ignis! When are you going to reveal the truth about this damned company to the world?"
"When I have graduated from Beacon and have full control over my life according to the laws."
If it were not for his mindfulness about his public image, Taiyang would have cried bitterly then and there.
Unfortunately, the retired huntsman and teacher of Signal Academy could not do such a thing lest he bring down all the efforts his adopted son had made in the past two years to establish this company from scratch and make it into a juggernaut in the IT sector.
"...Do you know how much paparanzi was outside our building this morning? Those vultures are starting to sniff around for our actual home now."
"I know. Don't worry about it, Tai. I'll take care of them. You just focus on what you have to do. You remember the script I gave you?"
Taiyang smiled wryly as he walked into the Director's office and sat down in his chair, looking through his terminal, cursing himself for agreeing to Ignis's idea two years ago.
"Yeah. I have it with me. I'll memorize it again before speaking with the Interview crew from VNN."
Taiyang paused before speaking again.
"You know, you should be here as well. While I am the public face of the company, literally everybody knows that you are the one who designs the software we deal in."
"Besides, you need a break as well. Ever since joining Signal, I haven't seen you take some time off even once. If you aren't tackling the syllabus, then you are working with the engineering teams in the company, or spending time with Ruby and her crazy experiments, or spending time with Yang, helping her with her own project."
"You literally haven't taken some alone time for yourself once in the past two years since you joined Signal, and it is not a healthy thing, Ignis."
Ignis chuckled at the man's words.
"I am fine, Tai. I don't take a break because spending time with the girls is me taking a break. As for the company? That is more of a hobby and a way for me to earn passive income, which means it is also fun for me. Especially since we don't have some stupid board of directors to answer to."
Taiyang could not help but nod at those words.
It really was a good thing that they hadn't gone IPO and kept the company completely private and under their sole control, allowing them to operate it however they wanted.
Back then, two years ago, this was all just a pet project that Ignis came up with when he was bored, back before he joined Signal Academy and had a lot of free time.
He created this programming language called 'Python' and an OS called 'Linux'.
To demonstrate its effectiveness, used the Scroll that Qrow gifted him on his birthday to rewrite its OS with Linux and then demonstrated the use of Python by recreating a popular Scroll game using this new programming language.
The video he took of the final product was posted on the CCT network, and everyone in the household promptly forgot that it even existed.
Then, one day, they got a call from a prominent industry in Atlas who wanted to contract them to rebuild their assembly line's code with the new code.
That is when Ignis and Taiyang realized how viral that video had become in the mere month they had forgotten about its existence.
Ignis took advantage of the opportunity and immediately set about establishing Terra Cyber Services and asked Taiyang to be the Director for now, since Ignis can't legally hold such a position yet, despite being the person who created the main product that they would be dealing in.
Poor Taiyang thought it would be easy and agreed to it readily, only to regret that decision later on.
Sighing tiredly, Taiygan took out the script that Ignis gave him and looked through it one more time before grumbling again.
"This looks a lot more complicated than what I remember reading last night..."
"That's because I've changed the terminology a little bit, along with adding and removing a few things here and there to make it more professional."
"And what am I to do if that Lavender girl asks questions outside the script that the VNN gave us? We know how adventurous that reporter is and how many lawsuits VNN has been forced to handle because of her daring actions in the past."
"Then you improvise and answer truthfully. We really don't have anything to hide, and our product is something that people who really know the need for Cybersecurity and utility cannot ignore, based on what we have seen so far."
".....really, kid. How can you be so carefree when dealing with something as large as managing a company?"
Ignis once again chuckled at the man's words.
"Like I said, Tai. This company is more of a hobby and a way for me to make some good money. After all, I already recovered the millions, my entire savings from my time in Mistral, I spent on setting up this company in the last financial year, and now we are running on pure profits."
"...Fine. Be that way and throw all your problems on me, why don't you?"
"I thought that was the duty of an 'adult' like you? Isn't that what you said back then when I came up with this idea in the first place?"
"....."
Taiyang fell silent.
Suddenly, there was a knock on his door.
"Come in."
The door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with blue hair and eyes.
"Mr. Xiao-Long? Your ten o'clock is here."
Taiyang smiled at the woman and nodded.
"Thanks, Ms. Aqua. Send them in."
The secretary nodded and left while Taiyang placed the scroll on the desk.
"The VNN is here. Time to face the music."
"Good luck."
Ignis cut the call from his side, leaving the man to sigh before straightening and putting on a polite smile while the door opened, revealing the most famous, and sometimes, infamous, reporter in Vale, Lisa Lavender.
'This is going to be a really long day.'