My consciousness and senses started to recover. Although as I was doing so, I felt cold breathing on me. ...Wait… Cold breathing? Oh no… I hope this is not what I’m thinking of… Please… I opened my eyes, prepared for the worst.
“Mooorning cutie! I didn’t know you took naps on road trips!” Crystal was bent over on top of me watching me directly as I woke up.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” I screamed from the top of my lungs and quickly got away from her, getting out of the ship. Beginning to pant and inhale to obtain my own air, I held my head and just… tried to piece the situation together trying to figure out what just happened. What the hell is wrong with her?!
“Crystal? What the h-... What are you doing here? W-Where’s Michael?” Geez, am I glad no one else is here to see this! Especially Natalie.
“Isn’t it obvious?! I noticed you finally accepted my idea, so I was really excited to watch you work on it!” She smiled wide and started wagging her tail, much to my disgust.
“Uhh… okay…” I shook myself in instinct over this awkward nonsensical mess, and Crystal continued. “Michael is over there!” She pointed forward, and as I looked there, I saw Michael chatting with a human couple, and a bunch of resources for building houses.
“Alright, t-thanks Crystal… But please don’t scare me like that again.” I said while staring at her, giving her the look.
“Awww, fine then!” She giggled, and then I just went to see Michael and those people to get this over with.
“Ah, you must be Mr Matt?” The woman looked at me with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, judging from your Shielder badge you must be very good at your job.” She showed me her hand, offering a handshake.
“Ah, yeah, nice to meet you.” I shook hands with the lady, it seems like everyone is obsessed with Shielders, no wonder Michael decided to hire me... I imagine I must be his money making machine.
The man looked at us. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, my man. Now give me a handshake as well, but stronger!”
“Uhh, sure.” I awkwardly shook the man’s hand with more force. The woman then started to laugh a bit. “Sorry dear, my husband likes to show off sometimes.”
“It’s fine, really. I was just wondering… What kind of house are you looking for? I’m pretty sure I can do whatever. If you didn’t know, I contributed a lot to the construction of Silver T. Big.”
“Damn, dude!” The man got surprised a bit, as if seemingly caught off guard. “That’s a lot of skill huh! But fortunately for you, we’re not looking for anything special at all, just a regular family house since we plan to get kids later.”, “Ah alright, I can do that. So a living room, a kitchen, four bedrooms and two bathrooms sound good for you?” I replied as I pulled out a small notebook and started writing a sketch of what I had in mind.
“Yeah.” The guy nodded. “That sounds about right. We already processed the payment with Mr. Michael over here so everything’s ready.”. “Ah, alright.” Cracking my fingers for mental preparation, I studied the area a bit. It was definitely possible to build the house and there’s plenty of space. But then I felt a quick tap on my shoulder… Oh no…
“Hey Matt!” Crystal smiled and looked at me. “I figured I should help you with work! You drank coffee earlier this morning, right?” She looked visibly excited, as if planning something.
“Uhh… Yeah why? Plus, how would you help? You don’t know how to build houses.” Tilting my head, I looked at her curiously wondering what she could be up to.
Crystal started looking even more enthusiastic. “Alright, then I’ll help you with my magic! Here we go!”
Crystal put her hand on my chest as her body started to glow, emitting a cyan light. I felt my heart beat faster, my eyes opened wider, and my tiredness from recently waking up went away that quickly. Needless to say… This was extremely confusing. Afterwards, I held my head, trying to understand what was going on. “Crystal? What did you?...” I just looked at her, not knowing what was going on.
Crystal then gave me a wide smile. “Silly! That’s a speed spell! Monsters are good at magic, right? Plus I’m pretty good at it. So, here’s a funny challenge: How about you try your best to build the house? See if you can do it in under a minute?” The woman heard our conversation and asked, “Under a minute? Wait, did you use a speedup spell? Oh my! I hope Mr Matt is alright!”
“Yeah… I’m fine. Let’s see here… A minute. Uhhh...” Thinking about the situation, I thought if anything I’ve learned is that no matter how insane Crystal is, she’s always right in her own way, so I might as well give this a try.
Without thinking properly, I just tried to build the house. I wish I could say I was doing it with the experience of my career, but this was now a new part of my life, doing things in new ways to complete tasks more efficiently, somehow.
It seemed like the use of the tools and placement of the resources were instantly processed by my brain, I didn’t need to think about what I had to do and just did it so naturally or ‘instinctively’. It just happened. Yet I did it well, somehow.
Soon enough, before I could realize, the entire house was made, just like that.
I held onto my knees and panted, catching my breath and recovering. Even under a speed up spell, it was exhausting work, you know? “Geez… I’m not sure how I did it, but I did it. It’s all done.” [Pant.]
Michael laughed. “Yes yes, good job Matt! Your friend over there gave you such a good spell that you didn’t even need my help, this will be perfect for business…. Eheh...”
“Yeah!” Crystal followed Michael’s laughter with her own. “Unfortunately, you didn’t do it in under a minute, it took you a minute and four seconds!”
The Man chuckled. “Pfft, that’s funny, but it’s just fine. Now how about we go in and check Matt’s work out eh?”
“Yeah sure honey! Let’s go.” The Woman walked forward and opened the door, then I and the others followed in. Michael, Crystal and the couple started to look around the house, inspecting it. To be completely honest, it made me nervous, I had never built a house before, just structures for companies and stuff like that. For business, not for families.
The area was filled with complete silence. No sounds outside. No one said anything. It started to worry me… “Mr. Matt? You really built this by yourself?” The Man looked at me. “Yeah? I mean you saw me just now, even though it was… fast. You know.”
“This is great!” The Man smiled. “It looks and feels so well built, silent, plus the materials are pretty fancy looking.” The Woman nodded and smiled as well, continuing their thoughts. “Yeah! You did a pretty good job! This will be great for our future family, absolutely no regrets from hiring you guys!”
At that moment… I just… smiled. Completely filled with happiness. I did a good job. I really did it! They liked it, even though it was my first try, although I have to thank Michael’s good materials and Crystal’s magic.
“Ah, thanks, I’m glad you like it.” Crystal giggled. “Ha! You’re blushing!” “Huh, am I?” I just rubbed the back of my head embarrassed. Not gonna lie, I was probably blushing too. So then Crystal was right. The smiles, compliments and happiness of other people really do make me happy in return.
If that’s so, then I will make sure to build houses for everyone who needs it, ones that are protected from the Emptiness completely. With Michael’s ability to advertise them everywhere and providing the best materials, and also Crystal ‘enhancing’ me with her magical spells, I’m sure I can do it. I’m very sure we’ll be able to save this world.
Well then, I don’t need to think about this too deeply. We left the house, and Michael looked at Crystal as soon as we got out. “Hey, your name is Crystal, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, why?” She looked at him, visibly curious. I already know where this is going, but I don’t think Crystal gets it yet.
“Your magical skills, your ability to make Matt work faster, if you could work with us, there would be a lot of money for us, and you, too. How about you join our little company, Miss Dragon?”
Crystal pouted and started to think… “You know, I was thinking about that… To be honest, I was one of the first to discover something big… So I think it’ll be nice if I helped. Plus, I could spend more time with Matt!”
“Ah, sure, Crystal. I guess that’s fine too.” I chuckled a bit. “Perfect! With three of us working together, we’ll work even better. Now then, how about we go and get some drinks to celebrate our first success?”
“Yeah, sure. I guess we can do that.” Michael and I got into the spaceship, we started to drive while Crystal followed flying above us.
So far this is going well and I’m glad Natalie allowed me to change my work time. Although I wonder what she’s up to, since Crystal is here… …Meanwhile…
Back in the office, the background ambience noise of air conditioners and keyboard typing filled the area as somebody in specific worked hard.
A Terran lady who had to do most of the things in here. That lady... is me. Natalie Rose. I don’t have the most exciting job, but I enjoy it nonetheless. I admit I get too focused on it though. More than I should.
I’m just doing boring paperwork right now… Well, more like I was. Looks like I’m finally done.
I got up from my seat and walked out of my office. To my surprise, Dennis was standing in front of my door… For some reason?
“Dennis? You alright?” I looked at him wondering what’s wrong with him. “Ah, uh.. Hey boss! It’s just I needed to tell you something, but I guess I got lost in my mind…” He frowned and started to scratch his head, swishing his tail a bit like an innocent puppy.
“Weird. But what is it? You’re my assistant, I need you to be more… stable, I guess.”
“Ah, well. I got news that there’s gonna be a mass meeting of Shielders regarding Emptiness. I was told to inform you.”
“I see. Thanks, Dennis. Did you tell Arthur?”, “Yeah, I told him. The meeting is today at 6 PM at the top floor auditorium of Silver T. Big. I think that gives us enough time to get Matt and Crystal. I don’t think they work that long.”. “Alright great. Thanks! Please give Matt and Crystal a call and inform them about this as well.”
Dennis smiled at me. It’s unfortunate that Crystal decided to follow Matt’s choices, but those two do a lot here so I guess they have an excuse to do something else.
Inhaling deeply, then sighing, I went to get some tea in the lunchroom. Arthur was already sitting in there, just casually reading a newspaper.
Upon retrieving my desired tea, I sat down at the same table as Arthur, in front of him. “So, what’re you reading, Arthur?” I told him, I needed to talk about something to relieve stress anyway.
“I’m just checking the comics… I already checked the news and words of Emptiness are everywhere. And I thought it was a secret… Bah. It’s tiring, but that is to be expected.”
“Yeah, that makes sense... I’m a bit worried but I think we’ll all figure out a solution. That’s probably what the meeting is for anyway.” I sipped some of my tea. To be honest, my heart is beating pretty fast right now, this whole situation has been giving me anxiety but I just hide it behind my ‘tough’ boss persona that my job demands.
Arthur put down the newspaper. “So, Matt and Crystal don’t know, correct? We should probably tell them. I heard that it’s only word of mouth between us Shielders to sort of make this a low profile meeting.”
I looked to my side for a bit then at him. “I ordered Dennis to tell them. Those two are very responsible despite their appearances, I’m sure they’ll go.”, “Ah, good, good…” Arthur just yawned a bit, and pulled out his phone while I continued to drink the rest of my tea. We didn’t say anything else, and nothing much else happened for the remainder of the lunch break.
Eventually, the time had come. 6 PM… Arthur, Dennis and I took an elevator to the top floor early to avoid traffic. Loads of people made it there. Some early, some on time, some late.
The top floor consisted of a huge auditorium. Bright lights illuminated it entirely and there were comfortable seats for everyone. At the end of the auditorium, a man stood with a mic and some speakers.
He poked the mic a bit to test it out, but it made a horrible, loud screeching noise. Everyone shook a bit and covered their ears. He lowered the volume. “Sorry about that.” He said. Quite clumsy for an introduction, but otherwise this man is the chief of Silver T. Big. ‘Robert Sails’ is his name.
“Unfortunately the situation hasn’t gotten any better. Not much has been found out about how to deal with Emptiness… Regardless, our scientist team has found a rather shocking discovery. That Emptiness outside has expanded and completely consumed Colderes.”
Complete silence filled the auditorium. I just gulped the saliva in my mouth nervously, completely unsure what to think. Some place I had been in not long ago was hidden from our view, along with the detectives that tried to investigate it. “So then, if anyone has any ideas, please speak up.” I thought nobody would say anything, but to my surprise, Arthur who was sitting next to me stood up. “Excuse me sir, I have an idea.”
“Alright, please walk over here and let everyone hear.” Arthur nodded. “Of course, sir.” And walked towards the microphone.
“I figure at least most of you already know who I am. I used to lead the world and all that jazz. Well… To put it short, my soul is stored in a magical and technological device. Let’s call it ‘The Ultimate Artifact’, if we could perhaps protect the world with a combination of magic and technology from everyone, we might not be able to save the universe, but at least our planet The Ultimate Artifact has such capability.”
Everyone started to talk to each other, the area filled with chatter.
“Well, that’ll be a real pain in the arse, but it seems to be the only option we have now.” Robert answered, we could hear his gulping echo across the room thanks to that mic… It certainly didn’t help.
He continued, “It’s really unfortunate we reached this moment in our lives, but it is what it is… You can all go home now, we’ll make plans for Arthur’s idea.”
To feel so helpless and useless despite being a Shielder… I don’t know how my life ended up this way, I feel so awful.
Also, I have no idea where Matt and Crystal are. I don’t see them anywhere. ...Meanwhile, away from here...
”...Matt?” “Matt?”
I felt my back get slapped, although it didn’t hurt. “Huh? What? What is it Crystal?” Widening my eyes, I looked at her. I see we’ve escalated to physical assault… Ugh.
“Yooo Matt, never realized how small you are… [Hic]... But duuude, my phone has been making a lot of noise over the last few hours… I ain’t got any frickin’ idea what’s going ooon!! [Hic]”.
“Huh? That’s weird.” I reached into my pocket and took a look at my phone, but when I tried to turn it on, turns out the battery was dead.
“Ugh, I probably forgot to charge my phone last night.” [Sigh…]
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