The two and a half hours that Jack had to look through the archives seemed to vanish in a flash. After what he had read there wasn’t too much more that he was able to find that seemed relevant to his case. There were some interesting facts such as that the portal ruins had been an entire small town that had to be destroyed to remove whatever was causing the problem. The only other thing he found was that there was some kind of system that was used to convert people but no actual information on what that method actually was. Thinking about those remnants though, perhaps it was some type of mental torture that would reprogram the person involved trapping them in their body as it did so. Perhaps if the piece he had picked up wasn’t broken the same thing would have happened to him. Cursing his carelessness Jack promised that anything involving this case would be picked up at a distance with a spell if at all possible.
Outside of that, it seemed that whatever effect the breach had the manner in which it was spread was severe enough that the whole town was quarantined. When they were unable to solve it even with the quarantine in place one of the ancients was called in and they scorched everything involved. It occurred to Jack that the scorched earth policy was likely why the land remained unreclaimed as of right now. From the history that he could remember any time the policy was invoked, the land needed to be left unworked for some time. Often any ware from fifty to a hundred years before the mana flows had correctly restored themselves.
Making his way out of the library Jack continued northward he had the two agencies that he had to visit today still. Pulling a small draft of mana into himself Jack quickly shoved it out into a quick cast to find what time it was exactly. The burning pain made its way through him in a quick jolt as hazy numbers floated in front of him.
9:47
No rest for him it seemed. His stomach grumbled unhappily at him, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since midday the day before. Having missed dinner to meet the Fawlers and he had skipped breakfast this morning to make it to the library by its opening. He would have to pick up a small something on his way. “Or, it may just have to be a hungry day for ol’ Jackie-boy.” he thought to himself as he patted down his jacket and felt his near empty money pouch. It wouldn’t be the first time Jack had gone hungry in his life, not even close. His slightly sunken cheeks and diminutive frame holdovers from the malnutrition in his youth. Luckily the mana that Jack now channeled into his body daily had fixed some of the worst issues but he would always live with the aftereffects of the neglect of his childhood. Jack shook himself out of his dark memories, letting himself dwell on the past wouldn’t help at all right now.
Jack’s journey to the north end of town, where the agencies that he had spoken to the previous night were located, took him a couple of hours. There were two that had agreed to allow him to check over mission records, the Northward Hunters Association, and a branch of the Adventurer’s Guildhouse. Quickly checking his notes, it seemed that the Guildhouse was closer, so Jack headed over that way.
Going into the Guildhouse Jack saw all of the receptionists currently had lines leading to them. He moved over into what looked like it would be the quickest line. His poor luck seemed to be in full swing, as the person who was right before Jack was either extremely incompetent or trying to extend how long they could talk to the receptionist. Eventually one of the other workers’ ques was empty and they called Jack over to them. They were a short and squat naga with clan patterns visible on the scales that covered their face. Jack was unable to determine their gender. While he was able to enhance his sense of smell, the only way to reliably distinguish naga genders, he had not interacted with enough members of the species to be able to distinguish which pheromones meant what.
“What can I help you with today sssir?” They inquired. Their hissing voice laced with boredom.
“Hi, my name is Jack Bertrand. I spoke to someone last night about being able to look through your mission records to see if a Dilacy Fawler had taken on any requests here, and if so, who she had worked with.” Jack replied.
“One moment, I will have to check with my manager about that. If you could wait here for jussst a minute I will be back ssshortly.” With that, the naga called out to the receptionist that Jack had been waiting on originally. “Jane I will be right back, I jussst need to go get Barty for our guesst here.”
The young lady manning the other line nodded her head in acknowledgment, still dealing with the same customer who by this point had gone far beyond the bounds of possibility that they were just incompetent. Sighing a bit as he saw the unhappy expression on Jane’s face, Jack knew he was going to do something potentially foolish.
Taking a closer look at the job petitioner he seemed to be a fairly young Agier-human crossbreed. Not overly tall with a round face and dark copper hair. They were kitted out in many top-of-the-line pieces of equipment, along with wearing some truly atrociously gaudy jewelry that was a fad among the youth. Everything he owned was spotless, with not the slightest amount of wear or tear present on the equipment. While it would often be hard to judge the age of a crossbreed by looks, the way that he presented himself spoke of the cockiness and inexperience of a pampered youth.
All of this combined with the fact that Jane had not dismissed him, made it highly likely that he was the scion of some wealthy family or power. However, Jack had not gotten to where he was in life by always doing the intelligent thing. He had found that he got far more satisfaction from doing what he felt was right than what was smart, and purposefully antagonizing some wealthy brat was certainly not the smart thing to do.
Jack leaned on the counter and cleared his throat loudly. “Ahem. Hey kid, hate to break it to you. You’re really not going to be getting anywhere the way you’re going. It’s pretty clear to everyone watching that she is just humoring you at this point. Perhaps she just doesn’t want to hurt your feelings or she’s just scared or who knows why, but I’ll tell you this for free. Whatever you are hoping for you aren’t going to be getting it here.”
The youth, stunned by the sudden disrespect, turned at sputtered at Jack. “Wha- why I never! You sully my good name with such implications!”
Snorting Jack taunted the poor kid “Really now, even a half-blind elephant would be able to see how you are falling over yourself to try to impress the girl. Honestly, it would be funny if it wasn’t just so sad to see.”
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“What? So you think you are better than me? Huh? Is that it, you bastard? You think you are going to come in here and just show off how much better you are and have Jane swoon at your feet or something?” The kid shouted nearly incoherently.
Jack was surprised at how quickly the guy fell apart. It was as if the kid had never had anyone heckle him before. Jack had expected that it would be at least a couple minutes of arguing before the kid got anywhere near this point, not just two sentences. Jack noticed out of the corner of his eye that the receptionist had started to pale at the scene going on in front of her.
“Hardly-” Jack started before he was interrupted.
“Well then what is it? Who do you think you are to talk to me this way, huh?”
“Me? I’m nobody-” Jack was once again interrupted before he could get more than a couple of words out.
“That’s right! You’re nobody! And if you ever want to work in this town again you will get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness like the nothing that you are!”
By this point, Jack couldn’t help but stare in absolute incredulity at this kid. It seemed almost as if he thought the sun shined out of his ass.
“By the Ancient Ones, what is wrong with you kid? Did you get dropped on your head or something as a child?” Jack shouted. “I was going to let you know that the reason you weren’t going to get anywhere, the same reason I wouldn’t get anywhere with the nice young lady here, is… guess what numbnuts? You got the wrong damn equipment between your legs.”
“Huh?” came a spluttered response.
“I’m saying boyo, that she doesn’t want any of your twigs and berries, your salami and meatballs, whatever. Simply put she isn’t interested in fucking a man, you gods bedamned ass. Did you really not notice even as you were talking to her, her eyes were lingering on the attractive ladies who had come in to either post or pick up work? Hell, most of the time she was sat staring at a fine lady who walked out just a few minutes ago.”
By this point, the entire building seemed as if an archmage had cast a silence spell upon it. Even the slightest bit of noise would have seemed to be an explosion of sound with how quiet it had become. The kid looked over at Jane who was now a deep bright red. Her entire face now lit up as if a fireball was beneath her skin.
“Erm…” Came the kid’s voice, nearly a whisper but still clearly heard in the stillness that followed his and Jack’s shouting match. His own face now starting to take on the same color as the receptionist’s. “Is that… true?”
Jane not saying a word, just nodded her eyes shifting guiltily to the side.
“I see. I am sorry to have been bothering you then. Please excuse me, I mean my behavior.” He said embarrassed both about his display and the fact that he had been pursuing someone who would have no possibility of romantic interest in him. Whirling he glared at Jack. “And you!” He growled, “I will make sure that you pay for this embarrassment!” With that, he turned and stomped his way out of the building.
“Well… that definitely could have gone better,” Jack stated what was obvious to everyone. While thinking to himself “Hopefully this won’t come back to bite me in the ass too much. Though with my luck I don’t doubt it will.”
“Umm…” Jack heard from behind him, turning to see the receptionist, Jane. Her face still flushed from being involved in the show that had just occurred. “Did you have to do that to him? I mean, while it is true I am not interested in him that doesn’t mean he deserved to be publicly embarrassed like that! He’s a nice guy, if a bit… foppish”
Jack shrugged “I didn’t really have the intention for that to blow up the way that it did. Yeah, I probably could have been more nuanced in how I first called him out on his behavior. But really, I barely said anything at all before he exploded. He might be a nice guy, but if that is his level of self-control, then he needs a serious wake-up call on how life works before he gets much older.”
“While that may be so, I don’t appreciate people who harass some of our most important clients.” A sharp voice cut in. Looking over, the naga who had left a minute ago to fetch her manager for Jack was back. They were accompanied by an extremely tall and thin individual. Their skin so pale that it was almost see-through, with dancing swirls of light underneath. They wore a dark business suit with the only decoration being a thin chain leading into a breast pocket. A vesper.
If there was a species more uptight and nitpicky than vespers, Jack hadn’t heard of them. “And here I was thinking my luck couldn’t get any better today.” Jack groaned sarcastically in his head. “As I just said a moment ago, I had no intention for that to happen. I simply wanted to let the kid know that all he was managing to do was make a fool of himself.”
“So you say.” Snapped back the vespers biting tongue. “But what it looks like from here is that you went out of your way to needle and antagonize the son of our largest business partner. Were you perhaps hired by one of our competitors to drive a wedge between us?”
“Huh?” Jack let out a noise in confusion. “Look I can guess that the kid comes from money, but I have no idea who he is nor I’ll be honest do I care. I just need to do a quick look through your last couple months of mission records and I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Have no idea who he is you say? Ha!” the manager laughed derisively, “You want to look at our records, is it? You have to be the worst corporate spy I’ve ever seen. You come in here and get into a shouting match with Carlos Telipar-Ross, in the middle of our lobby no less. The n you think you will be looking at our records to find something that you can take back to your employers? Not a chance! You will vacate these premises immediately. If you aren’t willing to do so under your own power then I’ll have the guards toss you out!”
Jack cursed under his breath, it did indeed seem that stinking his nose in was already coming to bite him back and it hadn’t even been a few minutes. He raised his hands in a placating manner. “Look, I am very sorry that I got into a heated argument in your lobby. I really do need to look through the last couple of months of mission records for the ruins up north. Is there anything I can do to make up for what happened?”
The manager looked at him as if he was the biggest idiot in the world. “Yeah. Sure. You can look at the last few months of records if you get hit with an archmage’s lightning. How about that? Sounds fair to me.”
Jack grimaced, “I see. Well, thank you for your time. Please have a wonderful day.” It looked like this would be a dead end here unless he figured out some other way of getting to their records. He turned and started the walk out of the building into the frigid air. As he turned, he noticed the vesper bend to whisper something into the naga’s ear. Quickly going through the steps to draw it he spun mana both internally and externally, he enhanced his hearing and very slightly bent the air to carry sound better.
“Considering his behavior toward Mr. Ross-Telipar I want you to seal all the records involving him for the next few months. Better safe than sorry.” The vesper’s voice no longer carried the snide tone it had earlier.
“You think he was here for Mr. Rosss-Telipar?”
“Of course, or to hurt his family at least. I mean really, coming in here and causing him to lose his composure in public like that? He likely used something to make emotions more volatile. Besides, the name alone should have been a tip-off to us. As if anyone from the Bertrand clan would ever name one of their scions Jack. Jack Bertrand, ha! He came in here with a fake name basically meaning useless noble. If he could find a problem in the records after that? Well, let’s just say a minor embarrassment would likely become a much larger problem for the Telipar family. So, let’s just get those records behind some extra wards until this blows over.”
The last thing that Jack heard before he stepped out into the street and released the magic was the naga’s response. “Of course Barty, I’ll see it done immediately.”