novelraw Chapter 328 - 270 - Groundwork
Chapter 328 - 270 - Groundwork
A successful hunt made their guild pocketbook all the heavier for the effort. Thankfully, for their guild's fledgling bookkeeper, the master accountant arrived the next morning to educate her on the ways of money--both in making and spending.
"Just to make sure, this Elijah guy really is the son of a famous CEO?" asked Holly.
"Yeah, he's the worst." She didn't like the way Shouri grinned.
Emily rolled her eyes and shook her head as the three members of the guild leadership awaited the arrival of their long departed financial officer.
It was another pleasant morning, one accented by the distant shouts of mercy from Vince, as he now had a trio of Fire Resonators who tried to run him into the dirt.
Their wait wasn't long, as a limousine approached the humble little guildhall. Holly hadn't ever seen such a vehicle before. It was elaborate and unnecessary, which made sense given who was supposed to be contained within.
Out stepped a blond man who met Holly's expectations. His flawless complexion, his perfectly coiffed hair, his suit free of even a speck of dust. The man smelled like money, if that was even possible.
Even more so, his two Resonators that accompanied him were equally as bizarre. First was some sort of reptile. The ancient aura surrounding the beast told Holly one thing: this was a dinosaur. Of course, a man of wealth would have a vanity project like that at his beck and call. The other Resonator was a honest to goodness rabbit.
Something was… familiar about the Lunar Resonator at Elijah Klein's side. Holly couldn't quite place where this air of familiarity came from. It was so very strange. It wasn't the bizarre aura of a cryptid, that much she was certain of. No, it was something she had felt recently. She just couldn't place it. The gentle darkness that surrounded the rabbit shrouded something more.
Elijah appraised the gathered trio. His eyes rested on Holly for longer than the two he drew familiarity with. As he studied her, his eyes rested on the four berries that graced the zalavan's head and a look of realization washed over him. "Ah, once again, our beloved guildmaster has done something insane," were the first words Holly heard from the man.
"Klein, shut the fuck up," Shouri replied with venom.
Whatever insanity Elijah Klein spoke of was nothing compared to the blase manner which the guildmaster referred to one of the most influential men on the planet.
With a resigned sigh, Shouri motioned to the man of the hour. "Holly, this is Elijah 'won't shut the fuck up' Klein. Klein, this is Holly, she's your replacement."
"Charmed." Elijah offered a hand to the plant girl, who reciprocated the gesture.
She noted his firm grip, it was almost crushing. The zalavan cursed her inability to put on any meaningful muscle.
Shouri guided the guild leadership into the office. Jade, Elijah's rabbit-in-crime broke off and headed to Colette's room. A move not missed by Holly.
While hella business was getting done in the office, the Fire club convened on the front lawn. The three girls stood around Vince, who lay in the grass. "Please have mercy," he whined, coated in sweat.
"Come on, it's not that bad," Mila scoffed, as she poked the wheezing boy with her foot.
"That was nothing, we should do two more laps." Vivi did several squats in place, still ready to go.
"If he's out, should we go back to our usual?" asked Rebecca of her fellow Fires.
The two other Fire maidens considered the prospect.
"Maybe," Mila mused.
"I'm down, if you two are down," Vivi said with a shrug.
That was when a new challenger approached.
"Ladies. Hope I'm not interrupting."
Vivi didn't know who the strange Earth Resonator who approached them was--but Rebecca and Mila did.
"You ready for round two old man?" Rebecca taunted with a toothy grin.
"Careful, I might make some teeth fly loose," said Kai, the kangaroo.
And that was how yet another peaceful morning devolved into a mess of obscenities, fire, rocks, and various forms of martial arts, improvised or otherwise.
When the window broke, the anguished screech of Taika made the impromptu fight club head for the hills. Their joyful spar turned into a desperate struggle for survival as they were hunted down by a wrathful Lunar.
None survived the morning and were splayed out on the front lawn as a warning to any others who dare inflict property damage on their humble guild hall.
After the broken window incident, the guild leadership resumed Holly's financial education. It was the perfect distraction too, since they now had a real world case to deduct from the guild account.
"So then you deduct the five hundred from here, and voila!" Elijah made a grand gesture of balancing the guild's ledger. He sat on the desk while he guided the plant girl behind the keyboard, quite casual for the normally formal man.
Despite that, navigation of their finances was pretty simple stuff when properly instructed.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"We rushed the replacement window, but for most things related to the guild, try to go through Miss Arkwright. The guild network has all manner of government contractors that can do the work at far better rates than private companies can," Elijah added.
The zalavan nodded; again, simple stuff that made sense with the power of hindsight.
"Did you have a chance to check out our plans?" queried Emily, as she leaned back in her seat.
Elijah hummed as he leaned back on the desk. "Given the space requirements, and permits required, it'll be quite the bill." The Klein heir continued to mull over that thought. "You'd need to talk to Miss Arkwright, first. See how much you could get off of government subsidies and contract work."
Klein took over the mouse and moved to the PTRS inbox. "Probably would need to take one of these bigger jobs. Perhaps you can cut a deal to take something big no one wants to do in exchange for the construction work. As far as I've been informed, the guild network has a lot of leeway in this regard," Klein explained.
Holly nodded, scrutinizing the emails in their inbox. Nothing stood out off the jump. She leaned back in her own chair, closing her eyes. "Maybe we can just call her," suggested the zalavan.
"Nah, she'd probably get mad at us," said Shouri.
"Why do you think that?" asked Emily.
"I just have a feeling," said the guildmaster.
Emily pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head in exasperation.
Thankfully, the answer to their questions of what to do came to them, in the form of a phone call.
Cheryth Arkwright
Shouri stared at his tuner in disbelief. He already believed somewhere in the wide expanse of the universe that Sahji was there, fucking with him. Events like this only served to strengthen that belief.
Taika grumbled to herself as she held the broken window caused by a group of trouble making Fire elements. Thankfully, the Revo Repo had everything they needed, and this wasn't her first time doing this sort of thing. Removing the window itself was much easier this time thanks to her mastered ad-Lib. She closed her eyes and picked up the sand paper with her mind and sanded down the rough edges of the exterior hole of the wall that once held the proud window.
She didn't have confidence she could carry the much heavier window with her mind, so she set down the broken window and hoisted up the replacement unit. She slid it into place and it fit like a dream, easily occupying the space the old window once occupied. Satisfied they had the right sized replacement, Taika pulled the window back out and applied some tape to the sill edge, then laid down a track of sealant going around the edge of the frame.
Back up the window went and she pushed it into place, the new window now holding firm with the layer of sealant she had put down. Next came the shims. Thankfully the little strips of wood were light enough that she didn't need to force them in with her hands, her mind would do the trick.
Another benefit of her ad-Lib was she had gained such fine control of it, that she didn't even need an electric drill. Screws flew up with the precision of thought. A mental drill spun them into the side. She was better than any hand drill, going as far as to do three screws at once. Granted, this required some intense concentration to manage all three, but thankfully Sahji spared her further heart ache and the window was secured to the frame of the building.
Satisfied with the installation thus far, she moved on to making it look nice. She put up painted wood to cover the shims and seals. The little Lunar element hammered in the final nails by hand. It wasn't that she couldn't lift the hammer--that was just on the edge of her carrying limit. No, she just liked the catharsis of slamming something with a blunt implement.
The Lunar fox stepped back and smiled to herself, pleased with her handy work.
Taika jumped at the sudden applause from behind her.
Solana stood, smiling at the fox, hands clasped together. "You're quite the handy-woman, dear. It looks beautiful," complimented the chef.
"Thank you," Taika mumbled.
"Would you like lunch? Hard work deserves a good meal," offered Solana.
Taika's stomach growled. Lunch did sound good. Before she could accept the offer, her gaze flicked to the office. She let her shoulders become slack. "Maybe later, Sho needs me."
Before Solana could ask what the problem was, Taika ran off to see what was horrible fate befell her Maestro.
As Taika burst into the office, she found who she expected; Shouri, Emily, Holly, and Elijah.
"Oh, Taika, good timing," Emily said with a nervous chuckle.
"Quite fortuitous you happened to walk in," Klein added.
Taika rolled her eyes. It wasn't good timing, she practically heard Shouri's rhythm scream in anguish from outside. She stepped in and made her way to her boyfriend. She took Shouri's hand and offered her rhythm to him. "Sho, what's going on?" asked the fox.
He accepted his partner's etude with ease and took a breath.
"Good news, and bad news," he spoke gently to his girlfriend.
"Okay, good news first," Taika said patiently.
"We're getting that combination cafeteria-clinic on the cheap," he said.
"And the bad?" Taika questioned.
"We're going to Nabhon to help with an emergency, tonight."