"Kazuyachi! Have you got your report ready?" — as annoyingly as ever, Masaru ruined my peace.
"Do you think I'd forget about the report like you did last week? It's ready. The meeting is in room 7.10, right?"
"How rude, yet I just cared for your mental state that might get shattered after Yamazaki would scold you…" — Masaru sighed – "as far as I remember, yes, room 7.10."
Suddenly, a voice started speaking behind our backs — "should we go then, if you currently have no orders?" — it was Ogawa that stood behind us like Death itself. It was a real talent of his.
"Could you please stop doing it…"
Ogawa tilted his head in bewilderment, he was unaware of his very own assassin skills.
"Well, I have nothing to do right now, what about you, Masaru… huh, your PC is already turned off?"
"He-he, I predicted this situation and turned my PC off in advance!"
"…" — both Ogawa and I, just stayed silent and looked down upon him. Disgrace — that was on our faces.
"Say something! Why does it look like you both look at a trash bin?"
"Don't insult the trash bins" — quickly responded Ogawa – "they are actually useful for our society, not like you." — I instantly started nodding after he finished his sentence.
We then turned our PCs down and went to the meeting room. In total, we have 3 types of meetings. The first one: solely with our team and is held once every week. One with the whole department, with all the other teams apart from our one, and is held once every month. The last meeting with the entire company, although it's more like a festival thing. Our superiors just held a few speeches about how great our year was, and we then just go and eat stuff once they are finished, this one is held, obviously, once in a year. The main reason for those meetings is to check how many orders we completed. Someone from the team is assigned to prepare a report and then hold a brief presentation during the meeting. This week was my turn. Anyway, it's going to be really quick, the last three weeks were troublesome for us. We barely got 10 orders for this period and could only complete two of them. As we arrived at the meeting room, I saw Yamazaki inside it. He seemed more tired than usual, to my surprise, he didn't even make fun of us. We exchanged greetings and waited for the rest of the team to come.
12:00. It was time for the meeting to start. I stood up and came forward, as I predicted, my presentation was quick. The last week was way the worst this year, only one order and we couldn't fulfill it. Yamazaki was upset, so much that even I pitied him.
Sigh – "Kazuya, Furuya, Masaru, you got any order currently?" — asked Yamazaki. All three of us simultaneously shook our heads — "then I got a job for you." — Yamazaki took a letter out of his folder and gave it to me — "I want you to visit this client and take his order."
Hm. Winast Utsuedji. I'm not familiar with that name. But since Yamazaki directly gave it to us, it means he is not an ordinary client.
"I am sure his request will be a pain in the ass, but he pays a lot, so, please, try your best."
"A pain in the ass? Why?"
"The client is rather stubborn and eccentric. Be ready to hear any kind of nonsense, try to ignore him if it's possible, and focus on the order."
My ass felt something was wrong with this story. Nevertheless, we had no choice but to accept it. We rarely visit our clients in their world personally, that is my second time doing it.
…
chuff
"Stop snorting already. It's annoying."
"I won't! I don't want to go anywhere, let me alone!" — Masaru was upset that he got assigned to this task, mostly because he didn't want to travel.
"For real, even Ogawa is okay with it… Ogawa? What are those things?" — he had brought 3 thermos flasks, probably filled with coffee, with him.
"I can't be sure if they have coffee there, so I had to prepare myself for the worst scenario."
"Is coffee the only thing that concerns you in this matter?"— I asked, and he simply nodded.
He kept silent for a moment. It looked like he really thought about the answer, trying to remember what usually bothers him.
"It will be… a very long list. Starting from a sense of The Sense, ending the question of why does every time everything go wrong."
"It was a rhetorical question…"
"Mr. Yamazaki, is it you?"
Saru gave a thumbs up to Ogawa beside my back, looking very proud of him, as he was his father.
…
We were greeted by a servant right ahead, and he led us to our client. At first glance, it was an ordinary world, the citizens here looked very similar to the people on earth, except that those here had a slightly gray skin color. This applied to the flora as well. For the few moments we were outside, I hadn't noticed any familiar looking colorful flowers. Everything was gray and lame. We came to a palace. For a God to live among the mortals is not a common sigh, but whatever. The palace was enormously big and different from the outside world. The floor and walls are made from gold, a red carpet is lying in the middle of the corridor from the very beginning to the very end of it. The ceiling was probably 50 meters high, every 10 meters there was a big chandelier. There were massive columns on each side every 50 meters, with brilliant looking carvings on them that reminded me of the ancient Greek columns, the Doric style if I have to be precise. Besides, every once in a while there were either sculptures or portraits on each side. If we add the enormous length of the palace, a man could have a feeling he is passing through the same place again and again… but we are used to it, our company's building is not really any different. At least I thought so, until I noticed the astonished face of Masaru. Finally, we came to our client. This hall was big enough to fit all our colleagues from our department, and there would still be enough space for more offices. At the end of it, right in the middle, was a throne.
…
"Welcome, humans!" — the man who was sitting on the throne stood up and greeted us, making us blind by the amount of shiny stuff he had on himself — "please, have a seat!" — he led us to a big table, full of various dishes, but all of them were gray and lame looking — "before we begin with the business, let's have a meal, shall we?" — he waved his hands like a generous master to his visitors.
Confused by the situation, I looked at Ogawa and Saru. The face of Furuya was blank as always. However, Saru seemed rather inspired by the sudden offer. It is not usual to have some kind of dinner before a meeting. Even more, it looked… kind of awkward. However, looking at Winast I decided that he just wanted to be as generous and as hospitable as he could.
With us three not exchanging any words with ourselves, we kindly greeted our client back and accepted his offer. As we started eating, we realized that the food tasted just like it looked. The only thing I felt here was the salt and pepper, no flavor at all. However, it would be considered an act of rudeness if we declined the offer, so we had to eat everything…
Ogawa didn't seem too keen on the food either. He remained silent, but… have you ever seen a man chewing rubber?
ptui
Suddenly, I felt a menace from the side. Until I could do anything…
"This is trash." — said Masaru, breaking the silence.
"…"
I didn't know how to react. Preferably, I'd crush his head on this table, but it would only make the situation worse than it already is.
"Please, Lord, forgive us for the inappropriate action of our colleague" — I hurried to apologize before we'd get kicked out.
"Tis fine" – the client reacted with a rather calm voice — "'tis the reason I called thee here. Mine own people suffer from this kind of food sith the very beginning. I wolde ask thee to kindly solve the matter."
"It's not our fault that their creator is colorblind and has no taste. How are we supposed to solve your very own failure? We have no divine powers." — angrily spouted Masaru.
"Besides, what's all this weird language about?"
Although Masaru was incredibly rude, he was absolutely right. We are restricted in power, changing the world's structure is barely possible for us.
"The environment is alright" — responded Winast, — "the only thing that is absent here are the diverse animate beings and crops. It is indeed my fault that everything took the wrong path. I wish I could resolve it myself, but I lack knowledge in this specific part of the world structure. As if t'was not enough, other Gods chuckle at me and refuse to help."
Ah, now it makes sense, no way in hell would a God like him care for his creations. He simply wants to restore his status in the eyes of his brothers in kind.
"And you want for the process to happen without a big fuss, am I right?" I bluntly asked him.
He simply nodded with a serious expression after a brief moment. Bingo.
The client stood up and then said — "then, shall we go to a more suitable place for a discussion?" — He led us to a meeting cabinet, where we sat on pretty armchairs. "Thus" — he started — "what service could thou suggest to me?"
"If you allow me…" — Ogawa suddenly took the opportunity to speak — "I would suggest thee few men specialized in agriculture, diverse animate beings and dozens of crops, everything in big amounts to achieve a festinate development. It shall cost you in total 30,000. Although, if thee don't want the entire universe to e'er wist about thess, the price shall increase to 50,000."
"People, speak in a normal language, I beg you!" — cried poor Masaru.
Winast leaned on his back and raised his head, looking at the ceiling for a while, and then answered: "I shall accept thee offer. I knew I can trust thy company."
…
When we returned to our office, we found Yamazaki sitting bored and depressed next to a window.
"And, how was it?" he asked us right away – sigh, "probably a fail, right?"
"No, Mr. Yamazaki, sir, it was a success!" — proudly responded Masaru — "how did Ogawachi say it? If you allow me…"
"Why did you stop? Please, continue." — said Ogawa while patting Masaru's shoulder.
"Eh, well, hm, I can't recall the rest."
Sigh, of course you can't, wish you could know how to stay silent sometimes — "we got an order for a total of 50,000."
Yamazaki, entirely astonished, jumped from his chair, hugged us and said — "Then, boys, proceed with the work!"
…