by Leona Jarnefeldt 5th February 2021, 1:55 am
-Ten hours later, Silver Wolf Guild Hall-
After a grueling mission Leona finally reentered the guild hall with PG-13 following close behind her. She had not said a single word to him during the trip from Capital Crocus to the Phoenix Mountains. Leona was feeling tired and disappointed in herself after her failure to find survivors or research notes. She had completed the objective of finding ID cards that had belonged to the researchers, but she had been unable to complete at least one of the other two objectives for the mission.
Leona suspected that the attack on the camp was so sudden that the researchers did not have time to make any notes. They had not even had time to set up the camp properly when the attack happened. However, Leona did not make any excuses for being unable to find anything other than ID cards. When she gave her report to the university she gave them the truth based on what she had found and apologized for her inability to find survivors or research notes.
The university department head who had hired Leona for the retrieval mission did not show any discernible emotion during the report nor did they show any emotion after the report. He simply assured the Wizard Saint that she had done the best she could considering the circumstances. He politely thanked Leona for her time and effort, then spoke about "the cost of research" and how sometimes the pursuit of knowledge cost more than just money. Leona quietly accepted her payment and thanked the department head, then left the university to return to Silver Wolf Guild Hall after a physically and emotionally draining mission.
Now Leona was back in the guild hall and did not feel like doing anything but going to her room and sleeping until morning. However, she likely had a pile of paperwork waiting for her on her desk and it would be irresponsible to leave it when it needed her attention. Leona sighed and made her way towards her office to take care of it. PG-13 quietly followed behind her as the Wizard Saint and Guild Mistress made her way towards her office.
-Inside the Guild Mistress' office-
Leona opened her office door to find that there was indeed a pile of paperwork that demanded her attention. Leona walked in first and PG-13 dutifully followed. She set down her backpack and took off her sword belt but kept on her Argent Gloves, then sat down in the chair and began to read over the papers.
-Three hours later-
Working under the watchful eye of PG-13, Leona had finally gone over all the paperwork and had put everything in order. It had taken a herculean effort on her part to focus long enough to properly handle the administrative task, but she had done it. Now she was too tired to do anything else, even go to the cafe for a cup or two of coffee. She was in no mood to celebrate anything.
Leona silently got up from her desk, pushed the chair in, reclaimed her sword belt and backpack, and left the office to go back to her room and go to sleep before she had to wake up again. PG-13 followed her out of the office and towards her room.
-Leona's room-
Leona shut the room door behind her after PG-13 had entered the room. She faced her bed and saw that it had been left unmade like it was a lot of the time. That was just fine by her... she was usually too busy to make up her bed before going out on a job or going to her office to handle administrative functions. Leona took a moment to examine the left sleeve of her outfit, which had been cut by an ax earlier in the mission to Fat Monsterland. She would need to take it to get fixed by a staff member, but right now she was too tired to care about it.
Leona walked over to her wardrobe, opened the drawer containing her shirts, and pulled out her green tank top. She took off her outfit top and changed into the green tank top, then took off her socks and boots. She took off her sword belt and walked over to her desk and set it on top, then set her backpack in the empty chair. Finally Leona took off her Argent Gloves and set them next to the stack of GED study books on her desk.
The Wizard Saint took a deep breath and walked back over to her bed. She turned around and sat down on it, then swung her legs to the foot of the bed. She then lay down and tried to sleep. If she could even sleep, anyway.
Leona was disappointed over not being able to pull a miracle out of her hat and at least find a survivor of the research team to take back with her to Crocus Magicka University. They could have filled her and the department head in on what had happened to the research team, but in the absence of any solid evidence Leona could only speculate as to what had happened. She was pretty sure that they had been killed and reanimated, but she would have liked some details as to what led up to the camp being abandoned.
Leona might never learn the truth behind the events. Leona felt guilty about her partial success, but there was nothing that could be done about it now. She would have to accept things for what they were and move on.
However, moving on was easier said than done.
It would take awhile to move on from this. Even if Leona succeeded in moving on she was not sure that she could forget it. She would have to come to terms with what had happened if she wanted to keep being a Wizard Saint and Guild Mistress. Leona stared at the ceiling for a little bit longer before finally managing to go to sleep. Maybe she could sleep for awhile before she had to get up and find another job or do some more paperwork.
[Post Word Count: 1,029]
[Total Word Count: 11,501/11,000]