"And you must be Rain Rizwalde and Rever Ixion." Tamana beamed and motioned her hand towards the girl with pink hair. "This is the student council secretary, Aria Winslet."
Rain and Rever nodded in hesitation. The scene a while ago burned vividly in their mind.
Tamana chuckled, guessing what was on Rain and Rever's head. "Sorry about that. We were kind of bored on waiting for you two, so I decided to tease our stuck-up secretary here."
". . . I-I see . . . ," Rain uttered.
Rever raised his eyebrow, looking at Aria, who was bright as a ripe tomato with a face twisting in denial.
"Vice President, how many times do I have to tell you to stop with your jokes as people might misunderstood. I'm still an unmarried woman, you know. What will you do if I won't get marriages offers?" Aria lectured and playfully tapped a folder on Tamana's head.
"But you were so cute. Getting all flustered that I couldn't help myself." Tamana laughed.
Rain and Rever were bathing in cold sweat as the two girls were lost in their lovey-dovey world. The scene that Tamana and Aria were about to kiss was imprinted in their mind. They could only perceive the two women's actions as flirting with each other.
Tamana cleared her throat when she noticed the weird look on Rain and Rever's faces. "Alright, let's get straight to the point. The reason why you are summoned here . . ."
Tamana leaned towards the two men as she held her chin on top of her interlocking fingers while Aria each handed Rain and Rever a file.
Curios, Rain, and Rever opened the file.
The first thing that caught their attention was a huge picture of a beast. It looked like a bird and a cat at the same time. Its fur seemed so soft to the touch in shades of black like the night with long golden feather-like ears and wings. Ruffling the end of its tail were soft golden plumes, and patches of gold spots littered its feather-filled body.
(Pic)
‖ Mission: Win my POPO!!
Help, please! You have to help me! My Popo! My treasure! My love! My life! He had gone missing! I couldn't find him anywhere! He was just by my side a moment ago, and now he was gone. I feared the worse at what might happen to him! I would love to search, but I am away on a mission! He was last spotted in the garden! Please search for little POPO!!!
– FranticPetOwner ‖
". . ."
". . ."
Rain blinked. He didn't know what to say. It felt like the paper was speaking to him, and he could already imagine the face of an ecstatic man.
Rever was blunter. "And what do you want us to do?"
"Y-you! Don't you know how to respect your eld–!" Aria roared at Rever's nonchalant attitude, but Tamana raised her hand to stop her.
"We want you to find Popo," Tamana answered, voice sweetest as sugar.
Rever frowned. "Why in the name of the Arcane would we do that?"
Rain stared at the two ladies. He was willing to help if he could, but he felt that there was something more to this.
Tamana leaned on her chair, calm and proper still as she explained, "I bet you know the rules of the Academy, right? Each student is compiled to join a club. I bet you two haven't decided on which club to join, am I right?"
Both Rain and Rever looked at each other and nodded.
Tamana's smile grew extensive. "Well, just your luck! If you help the student counsel complete missions, you are exempted from these rules. Instead of laboring each day to attend and do club activities, you'll only need to complete missions on a weekly or even monthly basis."
Rain thought about it. It was a good offer, but he wanted to check the clubs first before deciding.
Rever's scowl deepened. "Why us? Don't you have other members to do this stuffs for you?" He wasn't willing to be an errand boy for the student council. Although he felt that joining clubs would be a pain, it was better than slave away for his seniors.
Tamana's smile dropped a little. "We do have other members doing Academy missions, but most are busy doing world missions since most of them are already in their third and graduating years. It's a bit embarrassing to say that we are short with hands at the moment, and any helping hand would be appreciated."
Rever lazily grinned. "It doesn't answer the question as to why it had to be us."
"Hmp! We didn't choose you. It was the Grandmaster who assigned you here. And don't get ahead of yourselves. The Grandmaster also assigned other students from the lower levels to help us out. If you don't like it, then go complain to the Grandmaster himself." Mia snorted, which garnered a quick glare from Tamana.
"T-t-the G-Grandmaster?" Hearing this, Rain and Rever felt resigned, and their shoulders sagged together with their expression. They were trapped and now felt obligated to help out if they didn't want to disappoint the Grandmaster.
"Rain, Rever, you don't have to feel so dejected," Tamana said in a soft, comforting voice. "Helping us have its advantages. Besides being exempted from clubs, you'll be compensated."
Rever's ears perked, and his spine straightened. "Compensated?" His face turned serious as his voice.
Rain only shook his head at Rever's reaction.
"If you turn to page three of the request form, you'll see lists of rewards upon completion. Besides this, the student council will give you monetary rewards depending on the mission's gravity. But rest assured, the academy missions are not at all life-threatening, unlike world missions."
Rain listened seriously while Rever flipped the file on page three. True enough, if they completed the mission, they would be rewarded with:
❶ One gold coin
❷ Ten bottles of Arcane Potion
❸ Five random duds and last;
❹ A favor from FranticPetOwner.
Rain was speechless upon seeing the list of rewards. Isn't it a bit too much for just finding a pet?
Overall the rewards would land five gold coins. That's five thousand silver enough to buy a small house! But of course, they still had to divide it in two.
"Wow, this guy must really love his pet," Rever mumbled to himself. Then he flipped the file and jabbed his thumb at his chest. "Alright! We'll get this done and bring this Potpot or whatever guy back in here! You can count on us!"
Rever then stood to his feet and grabbed Rain by the arm. "Come on, partner! Time's a wastin'! We have to search for this Poripori guy!"
Tamana blinked. "Ah . . . No . . . the mission doesn't have a deadline, so you don't need to rus–"
Tamana didn't finish her sentence when Rever zoomed to the exit, dragging the half-dazed Rain with one hand.
Everything happened so fast that they even left smoke in their wake while the two women were stunned. Didn't know what had just happened.
"I . . . I suddenly felt worried," Aria muttered.