Chapter 3: 3

Chapter 3: The Mageka on Duty (Part 3)

“What’s the matter, Sakura? Still a rough day at work?” Catching my frustrated sigh, Kou gave me a concerned look.

“Is there really a day that’s not rough?” I replied after yet another sigh. “How about you? Everything’s still the same at work?”

“It’s alright, just another minor issue to deal with today.” Nevertheless, Miss Optimistic uttered a sigh as well. “I don’t get it. Why does she keep making these careless mistakes even though I’ve already walked her through a million times?”

Seems to me that’s more than just a “minor issue”. 

“That ‘newbie’ again? But it’s already been half a year since she’s hired. How come she hasn’t been improving?” I knew just exactly who she was referring to judging by the tone of her voice.

Oh, I almost forgot to say: we were both working in the same district, Central - different companies though. The two of us were aged twenty-four too. Yet unlike me, an average clerk, she was an assistant manager who was in charge of supervising a small team. It was our routine to meet up at the Central Waterfront Promenade every day after work - well of course, only when we were able to escape from the claws of overtime working.

“Who knows… but deep down, I think she has the potential. She probably just needs a little more time to get used to her job.” Holding a coffee cup in her hand, Kou smiled gently. Her soft raven black hair waved like smooth silk in the breeze under the sunset, looking as gorgeous as a portrait hanging right before my eyes.

“It’d be an honour to have superiors like you… is your team currently hiring? Look, I really, really wanna join.” I remembered telling her this over a dozen times.

And I wasn’t kidding. To me, this opportunity was to die for - I would quit my job and head straight to her company if her team had a single vacancy.

“Haha, however I’m afraid my team’s duties would be a huge bore to you. They’re all simple document processing anyways.” Kou giggled. “Just hang in there. I’m sure you’ll earn yourself a promotion soon.”  

I couldn’t pull myself together in spite of her warm encouragement. “I’ve been listening to the same speech of yours for almost a year and a half, yet my career is getting nowhere…”

Ever since I started working, my monthly salary had been stuck in a salary rut at about $12K (~USD 1,500), and I had only been lucky enough to receive a few hundred dollars (~USD 50) of increment six months ago. Nonetheless, it was much too trivial compared to the current inflation rate, plus there was no urge for new hires so far, nor was anyone planning to retire within the company in the near future - the so-called “promotion” seemed nothing but wishful thinking to me.

“You see, it wasn’t easy finding this job for you,” Kou added, given the defeated expression on my face. “Please don’t let my effort go to waste.” 

“Yeah I know about that…” The level of academic qualifications I attained was purely a result of my hard work since I arrived in this world, but it was all Kou’s effort for opening this door for me. “Referral from a friend of yours as I recall? And they went through all the trouble to let me in.”

“Right, you still remember.” The sincere smile emitted through her lips was as soothing as a warm pond of water, but… 

“Ugh, you’ve been brainwashing me for over a hundred times already! It’s like you genuinely look forward to the day I finally repay you for this.” I protested. This is indeed the fact! I wasn’t planning to keep this in mind, yet it somehow wormed its way into my brain after her countless “reminders”. What a failure of me!

Still, she did help me out a lot so it was only natural for me to repay her in some way.

“Oh? Has it been that many?” Her head tilted to one side as she gazed into the sky, looking all innocent.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know!” I couldn’t hold my temper whenever she acted like this.

“But I really don’t…” And she was still faking it.

Moments of silence sipped in as our routine quarrels faded.

Sensation of the evening wind brushing against us was ever so cosy. Not only did it give us a peace of mind, but it also brought back some memories from the past, stored in the depth of our hearts. It reminded me of the time when I was a mageka in Glace, my time in general was well spent on stuff I was genuinely fond of despite the occasional irregular time-offs. On the contrary, my life at the moment was somehow more organised, however, I wasn’t enjoying the slightest bit of anything I was doing.

The initial intention for my arrival here was to lay low for a bit - from a couple veterans which I offended, and carry on with my life as a mageka. Who knew things were going to be this different from what I had expected in the first place.

I honestly didn’t want to lead a meaningless life, nor did I desire to head back yet. Then… 

“Sakura,” Kou suddenly whispered my name. She took a thorough scan through my face and continued, “You look troubled.”

“N-no, not at all!” The way she stared made me so uneasy that I immediately turned my head around to avoid further eye contact with her.

“Mm, I count that as a ‘yes’.” I could see her smirking from the corner of my eyes. “It’s the way you act that gives you away every time.”

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“Don’t get me wrong. It’s only because of the way you sounded.” I tried to talk my way out of her accusation.

“That line came out of your mouth too, so there must be something.” It was like she could see through my heart, she always knew what was on my mind.

“Okay, okay, fine! There is a little something on my mind, so what?” Knowing I couldn’t pretend any longer at that rate, I finally gave in.

“Mm-hmm, honesty is the best policy. Here’s your reward.” She grinned and proceeded to stuff her coffee cup into my hands.

You just want me to hold it for you huh.

“So, tell me, what is it that bothers you?” She sounded just like those dispute resolution advisors.

“Can’t you read my mind?” Instead of giving a straightforward answer as she wished, I deflected the question back to her.

A challenge for her it is! Well, a small payback based off of my resentment to be exact.

“Hmm… is it ‘here’ or ‘there’...” She closed her eyes and spread her arms in the air before my chest as if she was about to cast a spell. Moments later, she finally narrowed down to her final answer, “I’m guessing… it’s ‘there’!”

“Here” and “there” was a little secret between us, where the former referred to events happening in the mortal world, and the latter meant things surrounding magekas and magic in the other world, aka Glace.

“Half-half.” Her overly accurate instinct had always left me resigned. It isn’t some kind of top secret anyways, wouldn’t hurt to tell her right? And so I came clean to her about what had been bugging me down to the core.

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“Mm-hmm, I knew you’d be worrying your pretty little head about this.” 

“How did you know?” I asked out of surprise.

“Mind-reading.” She responded without a doubt.

“Mind-reading? You know magic?” Half my surprise dropped fake.

“Of course!” She nodded approvingly, as if what she said was factual.

“Quit the lies! You know nothing about magic!” I’m not one to be fooled!

“You never know, right?” Her lips curved into a seemingly profound smile.

“I called your bluff! I knew you can’t perform magic since day one.” From the day we first met, the fact that she possessed nearly zero magical powers had been already engraved in my mind.

“Maybe it’s because I sealed my powers?” She fought back.

“You can’t use magic with your powers sealed…”

“Or maybe I’m special?” Kou still refused to cease.

“Ab-so-lute-ly impossible! Stop joking around! Can we please get back on track!” I really can’t stand this anymore. What were we on about before this absurdity?

Soon as my wrath bursted, she put up a poor look while twiddling her fingers. “But I’m not joking around…”

“Whatever! Just get back on track! Now you know I’m troubled, then what?”

Debating with her always exhausted me, for I wasn’t the best at dealing with people like her. And I still couldn’t fully get the hang of it, albeit knowing her for three years.

Seemingly needed time to sink in, she silenced herself.

“I was just wondering when I can actually do things that I enjoy. Now I’m basically forcing myself through a life I don’t wish to lead. To be honest, this feels no different from being a walking dead.” I voiced out ahead of her as she was still on mute. Guess I did wish to have a listener by my side all along.

If this went on, I feared the last thread of enthusiasm in me would rot away, turning me into an actual “zombie”. I once tried to convince myself to fall for the job, yet my heart conflicted.

What should I do then?

Sighs scattered through my whining.

“Simple. Can’t you just do as you wish?” Kou abruptly spoke when I was drowned in frustration.

“...which means?” What she said sounded easy, however, was harder to achieve than you could imagine. Regardless, her thoughts sparked my curiosity, given the array of bold extraordinary ideas residing in her funny little head.

“Starting a business!”

I swore I could hear her saying “isn’t it obvious?”.

St-starting a business? What came into my mind at that instance was the old times back in Glace, when I used to run a business and take requests directed to magekas. But this is unfeasible here, isn’t it? I must have misinterpreted what she meant.

“Wait a minute. Do you mean… going back to being a mageka?” I presented my guess out loud, yet assumed Kou would assure me that my imagination ran wild.

“Are there any options other than this?” To my surprise, she didn’t debunk it as I expected.

What’s with her tone… it sounds like I’m the odd one here.

“Q-quit that! Are you being serious? Enough with the jokes girl, I can’t put up with this.” I even faked a laugh or two after. Is it April Fools today?

Nonetheless, she simply gave me a firm nod and said “I’ve got this”.

Can it be that she knew all along this has been bothering me lately?

“Then, let’s continue our discussion at home.” All of a sudden, Kou got up from her seat and signalled her desire to leave, right when I was about to dig deeper.

“Why the hassle? You can just say it here. There’s no need to change venues! It’s not like someone’s eavesdropping on us.” I halted her.

“It’s because…” She kept me in suspense for a while, and said, “I’m hungry. I wanna go home for dinner.”

Her words left me in shock.

“You just wanna eat, don’t you?!” I couldn’t help but to question her true intent.

“I’ll leave tonight’s dinner to your hands. And I wanna have baked pork chop rice.” Not only did she ignore my question, but she also shamelessly raised her own request.

“Hey, answer my question! And I’m not your waitress, don’t expect me to take your orders!” I absolutely hate it when people knowingly ignore me like this!

“I can’t wait, let’s head back now!” She went on with her act and hummed as she hopped away like a kid, “Going home… for dinner… baked pork… chop rice…”41Please respect copyright

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