The shadows of night hung over the sky. Noelle, who held Lucian up, followed a silent Fei. She only watched the road ahead, only events of everything ran through her head.
Everything derailed, as Fei stopped in her tracks. Noelle assumed it was their home, a tiny but humble abode.
"This is where you two live?"
Fei only nodded after a moment. She slowly opened the front door. Standing to the side, she let Noelle walk in first.
"What a lovely place, small but lovely." Noelle commented once inside. "Miss Lirong, how long have you two lived here? Ah, that's right. No need to answer that."
"U-U-Uhm…"
"Hm? Yes? What is it?"
"W-" Fei looked towards the ground, her entire body shook as if it took every nerve to speak. "W-W-Why are you, you… H-Helping- U-Us?
"Hmm… Well, first." Noelle tilted her head whilst a tiny smile appeared on her lips. "That jacket you are borrowing is the guild's property. It is made specifically for me. Secondly, tis my duty to take care of the adventurers; be it punishment or helping them out when needed."
"I-I… See"
"May I ask for you to show me where I can set him down?"
"Y-Yes…"
Once Lucian was set down on their bed, Noelle walked out of their room. And minutes later, Fei appeared in front of her with her jacket neatly folded in her palms. With that, Noelle gave her farewells and left to the streets. From there on, she jogged towards the Adventurers' Guild
Loud voices rang out as she neared, one to be recognized as Alice, her teacher. And another… Was a familiar receptionist's voice.
"You can't force me to work longer than what I am assigned!"
"I can and I will! We need all hands on deck! I am your superior Thran, if you disobey my orders so help me I will-"
"No means no! Take these keys and you help yourself!!"
"Uh, Mister Allen, what is going on here?" Noelle asked the closest person when she made it to the source. She only witnessed Thran make a huff and heaved the keys towards a bewildered Alice.
"Lady Alice was trying to force Mister Thran to help us out. Mister Thran in defiance told her no, and he would if he got paid extra." Allen answered, crossing his arms and shrugging near the end. Haru, who was under his wing, watched the scene unravel even further.
"Thran, if you walk away now, you'll lose your winter bonus."
"You cannot do that! Only the Guildmaster…" Thran stomped his foot, only for a certain someone to enter his sights. "U-Um… Guildmaster…?"
"Haha, Teacher, go easy on him."
"I am not going to go easy on him. The amount of disrespect in this one, despite his sorry butt is older than you, he needs to be reprimanded. Hmph."
"Mister Thran, if you help us, we'll pay you double for the amount of hours you do. And don't worry, you won't be doing more than what you're used to."
Thran covered his face, would it be worth it? He weighed each pro and con on a scale, during which Alice started to vigorously tap her foot. One more question popped inside his mind. "If you do not mind, how long will you have me work?"
"As lo-"
Noelle interjected Alice's words. "We can't give you a time range, unfortunately as that sounds. However, it won't be constantly working when you're dealing with adventurers." She explained whilst waving her hand in front of Alice. 'In all honesty, it's way more beneficial to him than it sounds.'
"...Please, keep your word in this." Thran mumbled, he covered his eyes then shook his head. "Mister Sai is already inside." He sighed disheartedly. In his next move, he opened the front doors and held them open.
Minutes later, they all strolled in. At the front counter, Sai stood tapping his quill on it. His ears perked up as soon as the familiar steps closed in.
"Welcome back all of you!" He welcomed them with a grin. "I hope- What is that sm- Oh." His facial expressions contorted into a disgusted expression. Immediately covering his nose once a step was taken.
"What's with that expression ya- What the-"
As if a chain reaction had started, Alice grabbed her nose and twirled to look at the culprit; Haru, her ragged clothes and more than messy hair. Her body jumped in shock.
"Thran, go get her a bath- Just go all the way to the left of the corridor. And a fresh… Set of clothes-"
'I thought I was told it would be something I kept doing… Forget it, forget it…' Thran internally complained. From the stench alone, he did not want to bother; it took a bit of beckoning but Haru followed him.
Minutes passed. Everyone caught up, both Alice and Sai peppered the other two with questions. Why did it take so long? The adventurers who joined were sent in first. Did anyone get hurt? Noelle dismissed this question with a wave of her hand. Once the third question was sent out, they changed their surroundings to the back counters.
After all were settled in their seats, Alice popped up. "So, that's why the legendary flash took so long, huh? I thought it was just old age getting to you." She said whilst resting her head on her hands.
"Haha… I did offer to pay them… Most of them will get it."
"Yeah, yeah. But seriously, it would've been better if you started it. You worked Sai and I to the bone."
"Excuse you? I had to do most of the paperwork while you did whatever the heck you did!" Sai exclaimed whilst slapping the table. "Oh don't give me that look! You know what you did!"
"Whatever old dog."
"Just because you look the youngest here, does not exclude the fact you're an old decrepit being."
"...I'm only 10 years older than you, therefore-"
Noelle brought her hands together a few times, interrupting them both. "Alright, alright calm down you two! Let's get straight to work, Sai may you come with me?"
"Great. Even more paperwork."
"You'll be compensated for your time."
"Nah, don't worry, I'm jokin'. Ha, at least it gets me away from a skeleton."
Thus, their jobs at hand proceeded. Noelle and Sai dove into the mounds of paperwork. The former with a much greater speed, finishing nearly triple of the latter. And soon, a pile appeared. After it was spotted by Noelle, she called for Alice to come.
This repeated many times, from her heaving them. Dropping them to Sai's area. He repeatedly pulled out documents, requests, and any type of paper. Very often, his eyebrows furrowed alongside a frown. His thoughts were mysterious to those who witnessed it
On her way back to gather more, Thran and Haru blocked her way. Alice took a good look at Haru before saying anything. Neat, blonde hair, wearing a white dress shirt and pants. "You look nice, did this elf do anything weird?" She asked in a joking manner.
"Um… No…" Haru responded whilst scratching her neck. 'I thought they bought me… Is this what those who got sold experienced…?' Her hands subconsciously started to pick at each other.
"What are you trying to imply?! I was just doing my job, I did-"
"Calm down, calm down, now come along."
'For the love of…' Thran facepalmed spiritually, was Alice purposely trying to get on his nerves? He watched as she walked away without a care in the world, only turning around to make sure she was being followed.
Once back in their temporary room, she patted the table, whilst looking at him. Next, a briefing escaped her lips. Once a stack neigh high has been reached, the papers are to be handed to Allen. Along with her explanation, she made sure to gesture at the height.
"You got that? If needed I'll repeat myself." She said whilst nodding.
"Has Miss Alice always been like this? I thought she was much more dignified than this." Thran blurted out, looking at both Noelle and Sai. Though, it did not matter as they were absorbed into their work.
Obnoxious bickering ensued, even when they were sent off to Allen. Fast, the empty halls were shaking with spiteful words. Could it be an elf thing? Everyone thought once words entered each ear.
Elves were notorious to be territorial over their lands; could it also be over their work? That question remained when it went on for over an hour.
"Can you two be quiet from now on? I need to talk to Miss Haru over there…" Noelle asked, leaning back in her chair as exhausted bags appeared under her eyes. "Thank you…" She covered her face then stood up.
"Never in a millenia did I expect for my own student to boss us around."
"How is your own student more reliable than you?"
"..."
'Those two… Nevermind…' Noelle thought. "Miss Haru, you don't need to be on guard around us." To try and make her more comfortable, she sat on the ground with Haru.
"You just took us from that camp today. We can't trust you that fast…" Haru mumbled without bothering to look her in the eyes.
"Hm? Oh, I'm not saying you should trust us, you just need to lower your guard. Miss Alice, Mister Thran, everyone here won't harm you at all."
"How can we know that?"
"Ha…" Noelle rubbed the back of her head before responding. From an outsider's perspective, the answer is pretty obvious. Saving her, giving her little basic necessities; it seemed to not matter. "It'll take more time…"
"Can we ask you a question… Miss Noelle was it? What was your purpose to take us in?"
"Hm… Well, you were the only one who didn't seize up in front of us. All the other prisoners were too terrified to get close or to speak."
"Why did you save all of us?"
"It was needed… That organization, group or whatever they were." Noelle tapped the floor before following her words. "They were too confident and dangerous."
"Not to save anyone?"
"That too. The guild's main purpose was to stop them."
"We see…" Haru brought her knees to her chin, hugging them and falling silent.
With a welp, Noelle stood up. Rather unfruitful, that was to be expected. Little bit later, her eyelids started to feel heavy. Slowly, she began to nod off, becoming an alarm to call it a night.
Night rolled to morning, yet Noelle's eyes stayed closed. Her soft breathing indicated her sleepiness.
Alas, the sun hit the midpoint in the sky. Stirring Noelle awake. Around her, stacks of paper lessened, and sorted. Alice greeted her with a steaming mug, a platter, in addition warmly smiling.
"Good afternoon, sleepyhead. Here, have this. Whilst you were in dreamy land, we got work finished." Alice said while setting the mug and plate down.
Her words resonated inside Alice, causing her to shoot up. Frantically whipping her head around.
"Hey, hey calm down. You worked yourself to exhaustion yesterday. Don't worry we're still on track with everything."
"Teacher, why did you not wake me up earlier?"
"Like I said, you needed the rest."
"She's right, travelling, monitoring the entire operation and fighting? You needn't take everything upon yourself." Sai expressed without looking at them. "Finish your lunch there, then you can worry about work. In the meantime…" He raised his quill and tapped a stack of papers. "Lady Alice, you have work to do~"
"..."
"Get to it~"
"Don't ravish yourself with this situation."
"Oh, I will dash myself with this… It's the only time you'll listen!"
"Bah!"
A loud bang followed Alice's anger. The poor door to the room became the victim. In moments afterwards, Noelle grumbled and finished what she was given. Before going back to work, she stretched her body.
Now the rest of her day flew by. Only the same as the night before, papers, papers, screeching from the elves. Attempting to get Haru to open up, but leading to a failure yet again.
"Good morning~ How are the two professional authors doing?"
"Tired, but we're finally almost done." Sai responded, rubbing his wrists whilst leaning back. "Did we get any reports from the guild employees?"
"We got one yesterday. It's actually that right there." Alice pointed at a certain paper on the table. "Noelle, it's likely something you need to read."
The contents of the report caused Noelle to pinch the ridge of her nose and let out a long sigh,
"Welp, Teacher, can you hand me three blank papers?"
"Sure, but, what was the contents?"
"The King isn't allowing them to interrogate certain members they found. Those "members" were guards. Next to that… I'll deal with it once we're out.." Noelle quieted her voice.
All collectively mumbled a single word, "great." In minutes, she whipped up a short but concise note, then over the course of a few hours the next two papers were lengthy; during which, she tapped her forehead a couple times throughout.
At last, the last "form". Without thinking, she struck the first page and tossed it to Sai.
"Um, Lady Noelle, that isn't a form you need to sign."
"Huh? Wait, let me see that." Noelle outstretched her hand, beckoning to Sai to give her the folded paper. "'To Lady Noelle, GuildMaster of Vertealle..' Do you know who wrote this?"
"Lady Kazusa."
"Are you sure it is her?"
"One hundred percent."
"She's really showing her age… I am in disbelief, who knew she writes like this… I painted her as one, to always show her anger even in written form." Noelle mumbled in disbelief.
Somewhere across the lands, a certain demi-human coughed vigorously. Her hands gripped onto a plate. An urge overtook her muscles, to throw it and shatter it into a million pieces.
"What does it say?" Alice popped her head over Noelle's shoulder. "Come on my student, open it!"
"Alright, alright calm down."
[ To whom this is addressed to, I, Kazusa: Guildmaster of the illustrious NuwaNushi would like to make a request; you may reject it; however, it is recommended not to. It is of importance for groundbreaking research in biology and science. ]
"Huh? This is more formal than I am comfortable with."
"Keep going."
[ Now that must have captured your attention. Unto the request, I plead to you, keep an eye on a certain someone named: Fei Lirong. You may have met her, or have seen her but, allow me to write her details. A snow white haired demi-human. Her left ear has been slashed, just above the halfway mark. Blue eyes that have a purple tinge around her pupil.
Past that, you may be curious and question the purpose of this; that will be answered. My son, Shun, the head researcher for the kingdom and his daughter found some uniqueness within her blood. Most demi-humans have but few particles of mana in their blood, this much is next to non-existent in usefulness. ]
"Noelle, your eyelids are sliding. Keep reading, it's going to get to the point." Alice commented, tapping Noelle's shoulder to wake her up. "Good, you can get some rest after this." She continued once Noelle wiped her eyes.
[ But the research, which can be found in the papers sent at a later date, has proof that Fei Lirong's cells are drowned in Mana. Furthermore, we suspect an operation has been conducted on her. In your spare time, if it has come, do research on Hoffman's Experiments. It will enlighten you.
Thys truly, Kazusa Shizuka.]