In the Lupi di Castiglione Guild, Michelangelo Rizzo sat behind the desk in his office, intent on the usual bureaucratic chores, although that day many of those chores concerned the test that Adventurers eager to enter his Guild would have to take.
He had been sitting there for a whole afternoon, writing and signing all those papers. He put down his pen, took off his eyeglasses, which he wore only in such cases, leaned back in his seat and sighed. With his head turned upward, he closed his eyes to rest them two minutes. He massaged his hands, which had been moving incessantly through the computer keyboard for hours. He was amazed every time how a level 90 like him could fight for hours against monsters and not get tired, while in front of the bureaucracy he had to take a break. He found himself thinking about how ironic that was.
The knock on the door brought him back to reality. He opened his eyes, sat back down composedly and with his hands in front of the keyboard. As if he had not stopped for a second. He coughed slightly and spoke. "Come in."
"Still working? Strange. Usually you complain about too many papers and sleep."
"Yet here I am, working hard." He replied with a small smile. He did not want to give his friend, Alberto Ricci, the satisfaction of being right. "How is the preparation for the test going?"
Alberto walked in and sat in the chair in front of the desk. "It's going well. Slow, but well. You really wanted to splurge this time, huh?" He took the bottle of wine that was already there on the desk and poured it into the two glasses that were next to it. The two used to talk about anything from Guild duties to personal things over a glass of wine. So Michelangelo had become accustomed to leaving a bottle and two glasses on purpose for these kinds of occasions. " I will never forget the headaches you have given me with this exam." He took a sip from the glass.
Michelangelo took his glass and spoke. " You're right, I'm sorry. But I think it's only fair to renew the exam once in a while. We would both get bored if we had to have the Adventurers take the same exam over and over again. I don't know about you, but I would fall asleep." He took a sip as well. "How come you're here anyway? I'm happy to take a little break from these papers, but something tells me that's not why you came."
"You'd be surprised, but no. I just came here to take a break, figuring you were already taking a break too."
"And you were wrong." 'You were absolutely right, instead...' He thought immediately afterward, showing a poker face. "Well, then." He raised his wine glass toward his friend. "To a good, well-deserved rest."
Alberto smiled and bumped his glass with Michelangelo's. "To a well-deserved rest."
As the two were drinking, someone else knocked on the office door.
"Come in." Michelangelo said, downing the sip.
Through the door came a smartly dressed girl holding a bundle of papers that even covered her head. Michelangelo blanched.
"Mr. Rizzo, I brought you all the recruitment applications." Said the girl in a fatigued tone. Michelangelo wanted to cry.
"Linda, need some help?" Alberto asked, trying to hide his amused tone, clearly because of his friend Michelangelo's reaction and not because of the poor girl who was struggling to even walk straight.
"Yes... I can manage... Thank you, Mr. Ricci." Linda left all the papers on the desk. The two Adventurers had to raise their heads at least forty-five degrees to get a full view of the column of papers rising above them.
Michelangelo swallowed, "Thank you, Linda. You may go. That is, if you have nothing else." He said, uttering the last words nervously.
"No, that was all, Mr. Rizzo. Have a nice day." Said the girl, vanishing.
Alberto stood up, almost as if to admire the incredible height of the stack, which, however, did not exceed his head when he was up. His small smile disappeared as he sharpened his eyes on the sheet that stood above them all, which did not escape Guild's notice.
"Is something wrong?"
Alberto Ricci picked up the file on the stack and looked at it for a few seconds before speaking.
"Sometimes I wonder if fate really exists. This is one of those." He handed the file to Michelangelo, who took it with curiosity. He opened his eyes wide.
"Samuele Rua has applied for recruitment to join our Guild." It was not so hard to believe, thinking about it. They were one of the most famous Guilds in Italy. The odds of him applying from them were quite high, but it was still incredible to him.
"Is it chance or fate, do you think?" Alberto asked him.
"Chance or fate, it doesn't matter. It's our opportunity."
He peered inside the file. He looked at everything: the profile, the class, the statistics and finally the skills.
"He is a light mage...it must be an advanced class, but why did he get it now? Usually you have to go up to at least level 30 to get a class advancement." He thought aloud. He continued reading finished with the skills. "Interesting skills, but nothing more. Why hide it, then? Why didn't the president allow this file to be accessed?"
"It must be about his class, perhaps." Suggested the deputy chief.
"You think so?"
"As you said, it's strange to receive a class advancement at such a low level, but it's also not such a big deal. The guy must be an introvert if he asked the president to hide something like that."
"Do you think the president would have agreed? No... it's not like that to me. Otherwise they would have had no reason not to agree to give me his file from the beginning. You're right, though. It definitely has something to do with his class."
"Last time I suggested it might be a Gift, but nothing like that pops up here. Do you think it's related to this?"
"Do you think so?"
"I think there's a good chance it is. Last time they had to deny you access to his file, perhaps not expecting you to be interested in him. They may have wanted to turn the tables, especially now that in order to send a recruitment application they needed to attach the file. It may be that now they are just hiding his Gift."
"It may be. This is just a copy, after all. I mean, we have not received any answer to our theory. Until I know the truth, he will be treated as one of the many Adventurers who applied to join the Wolves Guild."
"Speaking of the many Adventurers..." Albert cast a glance to the Guild leader's left.
Michelangelo looked at the stack of paperwork, then at Alberto with pleading eyes. The latter did not fall for it and immediately turned away. "I rectify the toast from earlier: to a good work." He said, breaking all his friend's hopes. He turned and walked toward the door. "Then again, I have work to finish, too."
Michelangelo Rizzo took the glass of wine and downed it all at once, hoping that it would be enough to make his afternoon at the office a little more pleasant.
END OF CHAPTER.
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Michelangelo Rizzo had interest in Samuele Rua and now he will have a chance to get to know him. Just look at the randomness...
I know this chapter is very short, maybe even the shortest chapter so far. The next one will be much longer, though. I promise.
If you enjoyed the chapter, comment, review and leave a power stone.
See you tomorrow, same time. Bye!