Mea Culpa [Job/Aiyana]

The shock was relieved when Aiyana admitted that she was technically immortal. This meant that Anubis’s disguise was malfunction. “Ah...” she chuckled. “Of course. You couldn’t be one of the mortals.” This was Anubis speaking now as she was speaking of humans as an inferior race which in her case was true. She was a Goddess, and humans were created by beings like her. Since it was obvious telling Aiyana the great big lie was not going to be useful for either of them, Anubis decided to keep her secret to herself. It was too much for even a Celestial Spirit, to understand. So with a smile, she ducked Aiyana’s question of ‘why’ she used a disguise and instead got to her feet, nodding promptly at the nine tailed fox to let her know that she was ready for the job. “Alright then, let’s not waste any more precious time. My disguise is nothing important, so let’s forget about it.” She sounded like a cheerful guild member once again.

Now that she had the job details sheet in hand, Anubis scanned the page and memorized the important things. She folded the paper and handed it back to Aiyana. They were supposed to go to the abandoned guild, which was the ‘Haunted Guild’ according to what the job location part told her. If the guildmaster did not have any form of transport prepared, the very obvious means of traveling to the Haunted Guild was by train, or the shortcut by boat. Although Anubis was a fan of getting the quicker way of things, she could not be bothered to climb onto a boat, which she had a feeling was going to be small, especially not with someone who had nine tails to fit in a limited space. “I’d suggest the train.”

Thankfully, Aiyana had a better suggestion - better because it was essentially faster - which was the guild pet. Since Freya had never gone on a ride on any kind of animal that could fly, she was a bit thrilled. The fact that the guild pet had not been used for a job made her feel even more excited. With a relieved sigh, she said, “That sounds like a better form of travel than by train or boat. I hate having to see so many people.” All I want to do is kill them. She kept the last part to herself, otherwise Aiyana might have a bad impression of her and this was their first job together. Freya sat back down, resting her hands on her lap as she nodded at her guildmaster. The ‘Sphinx’ would be arriving soon. Of course it was called the Sphinx, the guild itself was called ‘Pharaoh’s Call’. It was almost noon. Freya was not someone who easily got hungry, but for some reason, she thought lunch was a good choice of subjects to talk about right now.

“Have you had lunch?” she asked casually. Even though Anubis wasn’t human, she still had to keep her human body in good, healthy condition, otherwise it would start doing strange things like skin getting less firm. The last time she saw this was one morning when she woke up and entered her bathroom. A few strands of hair were white - signs of aging. It was clear that human bodies could not cope with her age. She was a little over six times older than the regular human life expectancy. Thinking of this, Freya began to feel a bit sick. She brought her hand to her lips to cover a slight cough. “Maybe we could grab lunch on our way or just have it later if you don’t feel hungry as well.”

Upon discovering that her guildmaster was a second generation dragon slayer, Freya’s lips formed an ‘O’ in surprise. “All this time in the guild and I didn’t know you were part slayer until now!” Freya had only learnt about slayers and their capabilities very recently, not because she was interested at first, but she stumbled upon this great book - a fictional novel about a dragon slayer and his lover. This made her want to know about dragon slayers, as a result. She spent a night at the library researching about dragon slayers, and slayers in general. If you were a dragon slayer in this world, you could call yourself a tough cookie apparently. However, second generation dragon slayers were different. They weren’t initially selected or born to be dragon slayer, but they chose to be one. That’s where the difference was. They got themselves a ‘dragon slayer lacrima’ and became a dragon slayer. In other news, the guild pet had just arrived and was ready to take them on a ride to the Haunted Guild. The sphinx was a beautiful yet mysterious creature, in her honest opinion, just by judging from the looks of it. Freya had never really expected it to look the way it did because the only picture she had in mind whenever she thought of a ‘sphinx’ was the one of the entrance of a pyramid. She almost made an inappropriate comment about it boobs, but refrained from saying anything that might make Aiyana think of her in a different way. In fact, she was determined to impress her guildmaster today, and none of this boob talk will help. She really thought the sphinx’s boobs were lopsided, though.

“Hello,” she said with a mini wave at the magnificent being. “I personally think the frame of your glasses match your eyes,” she added. Now it sounded like she was checking the sphinx out. Freya immediately turned to face her guildmaster before she said anything weirder than that. Fortunately what Aiyana said next made her brows shoot up. No food at all? Anubis in her natural form didn’t need food, but were celestial spirits that transcendent, even more transcendent than Goddesses? The only reason Freya needed to eat was to keep this human body of hers in a healthy condition. This made her wonder what exactly Aiyana was doing here on Earth among the humans when she could be doing other things? In fact...what exactly did a celestial spirit do? Wasn’t she just a spirit? That meant the only difference was that she wasn’t a corporeal being, didn’t it? Thousands of questions clouded her mind now that one piece of information led to the possibility of something else that was originally not the case and instead of asking Aiyana anything to clear up her confusions, Freya sat there with a frozen smile hanging on her lips as she said, “That’s actually good. You don’t have to waste time or money on food,” with a slight laugh at the end. Now that the sphinx was here and everything, it was time for them to depart the guildhall and head over to the job location. Freya climbed on top of the sphinx while Aiyana simply teleported onto it. “Alright,” she said to let the guildmaster know she was ready for the ride.

Now this was a part of Fiore that Freya hadn’t actually set foot in, and it was intriguing. The atmosphere was rather gloomy and it was eerily silent, of course, since this place was supposedly ‘haunted’. Freya had never been anywhere that was claimed to be ‘haunted’ so this was a first. Her first mission with her guildmaster in which she rode on the guild pet for the first time, to her first place that was haunted, and it was even the first time the guild pet was used on a job! A job full of firsts, this was exciting. Adrenaline rushed through her dead veins as she took a few more steps towards the daunting establishment. It was deserted, clearly, and gave off a ‘do not enter’ vibe, which made it all the more thrilling for Freya. For starters, she was a big fan of doing things she wasn’t supposed to. But this was a part of the job, so she was sure nobody cared. Lilac optics darted from one place to another, observing the surroundings as she approached the building, with Aiyana close by. Otherwise she wouldn’t go close to such a place. After all, she was only a novice in this world. She couldn’t take things on her own or enter mysterious places without a stronger companion. Not yet.

Even though they were standing in broad daylight, it felt like it was getting darker the more they approached the guild and a discomforting feeling washed over Freya, brows knitting into a frown. If Aiyana had planned to just walk into the guild, then she didn’t mind following this plan, but what if it was a trap? Freya wasn’t a fan of falling into traps. She didn’t like them, so she tried to avoid them. And if that was the case right now, she would prefer staying out of the trap, unless Aiyana could do something to make it feel like less of a trap. Freya considered speaking her mind, but breaking the silence might give them away too early. She did feel like hearing out Aiyana’s plan before they were inside the empty guild building, but the dilemma was too real. Should she break the silence, or break door? Prevention was better than cure. “So, Aiyana, if you have any plans on how we’re going to do this, I think now’s the perfect time to say it,” she said in a hushed tone, just in case there was anyone listening to them from the shadows. The sun shone brightly upon the gloomy cursed lands, the dangers hidden within the darkness for the two (three if you count the sphinx) new visitors to explore.