Let's Not [Obliterate]

Chapter 58: Busy People Delegate

It took a moment until she was let in by a confused looking young receptionist wearing a prim and proper, tight and high-quality attire. “Door’s open,” he said, and returned to his spot behind the counter after Theora had entered.

She looked around the entrance hall for a moment — all made of dark wood, staircases on the left and the right leading up into the second floor, a door behind the counter perched in the centre between them leading back into reserved areas of the guild, as well as two more doors on the sides of the first floor.

“I would like to ask about Fragments of Time,” Theora said, after returning her gaze to the receptionist.

He looked back at her with a politely concealed frown, hesitated for a moment, then picked up a pen. “May I know your name?”

“Theora.”

His pen fell from his hands and landed on the paper with two soft clacks. He cleared his throat, and nodded, not bothering to write it down. “I understand you are here for re

“I…” she stammered, but then said, “Understood.”

He activated yet another Skill, causing his finger to start glowing, and then grazed over some lines in one of the documents in front of him. “Says here your contract’s been prolonged? This is your main project now, give it priority. If it turns out it has nothing to do with magical items, drop it immediately, and turn over any acquired knowledge to Theora. Otherwise, gather all you can find on the topic and integrate it to our archive. Dismissed.”

The girl swallowed, clamping down on the door she was still holding in her hands. “I’ll… go to the library right away, then?” she asked in a whimper.

“Of course!” the man thundered, and she jerked back and immediately let go off the door, scuttling behind Theora and leaving through the entrance to the office. “Tch,” he puffed when he heard the door fall shut again.

“Thank you,” Theora said, turned around, and left as well, trying to catch up to that girl. “Hey, wait!” she softly shouted out, and a moment later, she’d caught up.

Ulfine was looking up at her with scared and puffy eyes, close to crying. “Y-yes?” she asked.

“You don’t have to do this at all, if you don’t want to. I didn’t expect the task to be delegated to someone who might not want to do it,” Theora explained. “I can go back and rescind.”

The girl softly shook her head, eyes wide. “N-no, I… It’s okay. I can do it. I’m good at research.”

Theora couldn’t tell if this was a lie or not. “Tell me if at any point you change your mind,” she said. “You are heading to the library now, right? At the very least, would you mind if I accompany you for today? I would have trouble finding places to research on my own.” And, she would have trouble talking to these people, but she kept that to herself.

Just now, Theora had told that old man she was busy, so she felt somewhat bad for deciding to join Ulfine anyway. On the other hand, just having that girl run off all alone to do her bidding felt almost equally bad. It was a good idea to get to know these places anyway, since Theora didn’t know how much longer she’d need to stay in Hallmark. And having someone who could guide her would probably cut the time needed in half.

“S-sure,” Ulfine said, and nodded. Then, her eyes went wide again. “Ah! Forgot my notebook. I will be right back, then we can go.”

The girl ran back towards the office, reconsidered half-way, and then took another route that didn’t require her to meet her boss. 

Theora stared after her as her back vanished around a corner. She sighed a breath of relief. That felt almost like a lottery win. Theora had no clue about ‘Fragments of Time’, and typically, she’d just hit the libraries and spend months in them, reading everything herself if nobody else could outright tell her. But with things as they were, she could barely sleep five hours a night, much less sift through thousands of documents or ask scholars about their opinions.

If this girl really was willing to help, Theora thought she could try to rely on her. That way, she’d be able to pursue both of her tasks at once. This was good. Having Ulfine on her side meant that it was only a matter of time until she’d find out about those Fragments.

A moment later, the girl returned, having fetched her notebook, and smiled at Theora, in a much better mood now.

“Let’s go!” she said. “Time to solve a mystery!”