The sun rose slowly that day. Theo had already woken up long before the lazy, glowing disk first showed the faintest glimmers of its awakening. Attempting to be on his best performance for Mission Impossible, the obsidian-haired mage was pouring over his studies like one possessed. His blue eyes were highlighted with dark eye circles from his state of exhaustion. But still, he pushed on, drawing rune after rune in the air. As was common sense to everyone who had a brain, the little ceremony yesterday was a waste of time. He had to make up for it with far more harried work on his part, due to that lenience. Picking up the black dictionary in one hand, he flipped through the well-thumbed pages. âWhat is that rune for âdeliveranceâ again?â he muttered to himself. Scanning down the pages, he found the looked-for word, and with a murmured curse - he knew this one - added it to the glowing, floating symbols in front of him.
Engrossed in his work, he didnât realize it when the sun had reached the zenith of its daily travel. Hours later, when he next glanced through his window, he was in for a shock. Theo leapt out of bed - just remembering to lock up his dictionary and check his appearance - before making his way out of his room. His stride was long and unhurried, and to him, at the very least, he looked every inch the nonchalant persona that Theo had crafted for himself. He was wearing his customary clothing, as such an affair was not worth the trouble.
Perambulating down the stairs, he mentally ran through the magic that might come in handy throughout this âadventureâ. Hopefully, he would have someone useful as a partner, not like the C-rank or D-rank idiots that currently made up his team. Theo noticed that about everyone had ambled into the bar by the time that he arrived, but instead, positioned himself calmly at the edges of this gathering. While he wasnât as antisocial as he appeared, the fact that he was here to listen to someone else speak greatly grated on his mood.
The guild masterâs voice was every inch as loud and obnoxious as he had remembered. â
Welcome everyone!â came his booming voice. While Theo was actually listening, he was paying more attention to the other members in his guild - those that he would, with great pleasure, be thinking of enemies. Here was the time to pay them back for all of those days they were too loud, and Theo would be taking quite perverse joy in taking down his own teammates. There wasnât a chance for him to really⊠allow his annoyance at them to show for much of the time, so this was a gift from heaven. That is - if he wasnât paired with one of them.
When the straw basket came around his way, he carefully plucked out one cream-covered paper, before folding it into halves without glancing at its contents for the time being. The guild leader then took the chance to warn them about the consequences, before giving yet more instructions. He inwardly rolled his eyes - the guild master seemed to love hearing his own resonating, deep voice.
Theo, leaning against the nearest wall, surreptitiously unfolded the paper to see the name of his partner. â
Not Sotofu. Not Elysia.â he inwardly chanted, while his face remained emotionless. There were two names on the paper - of course his, and one that started with the letters âElâ. With as much haste as he could muster, he continued to open up that maddening slip of paper - to give a sigh of relief when seeing that his new partner was a âEliza Victoria Hellsingâ.
So, had this person, he vaguely knew it was a female, done anything to irk him in a few weeks that he had been a member of the guild? Truly speaking, the only fact that he truly knew was that she liked white feathery wings and had a dislike of killing. That, and she was an A-rank. He gave a mental shrug. If she couldn't, he would do the âdisablingâ himself. It wasnât as though he had any qualms or morals to trip him up in combat. Whether or not they would be able to return to the guild-house intact or not was their problem.