Levy's Every Word
Chapter 2: Gratification.
What had been intended as a means of taunting her teammates, had become a dream come true for Levy; for there was a quest from the National Library of Fiore; seeking the assistance of a mage gifted in Letter Magic (which was the parent magic of Solid Script). Levy couldn't be more elated; as to finding the job before another did. For although she was tagged Fairy Tail's 'book-worm', she knew an offer like this couldn't have been on the board for long; as there where some, like Freed Justine, who also preferred the solace of a book more than anything else; and would have probably defiled his deference to Laxus, to go on such an 'adventure of the psyche' - as Levy now called it. So, ripping the request off the quest board, Levy immediately ran to Mirajane, to secure the job with the client; for Fairy Tail couldn't possibly be the only guild that had gotten the offer. No sooner had she done this, that she ran to her teammates, informing them of the prospects of their new mission.
A half-hearted, 'Yay!', was their response.
They hated going to libraries; and now felt wrong for calling her 'smile' a bluff. Levy, of course, was all joy. The National Library of Fiore was famous for it's vast collections of books. It had books on practically everything; and Levy couldn't help day-dreaming about reading novels from her favourite authour. So, ignoring her teammates' lack of enthusiasm, she suggested they set off right away; and almost casted a spell on Droy, when he so much as suggested she chose another mission.
After many more wails from Jet and Droy, and countless ebullient exclamations from Levy, they were finally off to Crocus. Their conversation during the train ride consisted mainly of tales from Jet and Droy's missions over the past seven years. Most of which, comprised mainly of slaying one creature or the other; catching bandits; or executing stakeouts. This greatly surprised Levy; who hadn't realised just how much they preferred missions involving fights, and other forms of confrontation; than their usual translation works, decoding of spells, or at most, recovery of stolen items (which was always done with stealth). She had to admit, all their previous missions as Team Shadow Gear, were always more suited to her abilities than theirs; even when chosen by Jet and Droy themselves. And it became obvious, just how much they cared for her in the past. They always did put her interests first. She became angry with herself; for denying them of all the trills that came with the kind of missions they undertook in her absence; and now felt guilty for making them go on another vapid job.
Their journey to Crocus had taken a whole day; and it wasn't until the next morning, did they finally arrive at Crocus. They decided to sort out their accomodation issues first, before going to the national library.
The members of Team Shadow Gear were a frugal bunch, who had no need for high paying jobs. They would have settled for an inn, or a guest house, had the capital had any; but Crocus was a city of fine architectural design; everyone seemed to have an exquisite taste. It was, after all, where the King lived. The first hotel they tried checking-into, was relatively cheap; but upon seeing their guild marks, the receptionist immediately turned them away; for it was the hotel they had stayed during the Grand Magic Games. And as the security personnel kicked them out, he blatantly made them know the hotel was still undergoing renovations after Fairy Tail's last stay at the place. The second, while less hostile to the Fairy Tail mages, was more expensive, which Levy had expected, owing to it's five star status. What she hadn't expected, however, was being made to pay a security deposit; which was normally, only paid to a landlord, when one rented a house. Furthermore, they were made to sign a document, vouching to replace any item they were to break during their stay. The manager was so sure they would inflict some sort of damage, or the other, that he took the liberty of calling a construction company ahead of time. All these was done despite Levy's many assurals that, the members of Shadow Gear were a civil bunch - she obviously had to skip the part where she defended her guild's honour, for there was no redemption for it.
Having met all the requirements, they were taken to their rooms; and Levy recollected, with much relieve, that they were to earn half a million from the job; and having left their bags in their respective rooms, they headed for the national library.
On arriving at the library, they were met by the Cheif librarian, who seemed astonished that the job had been taken by mages from Fairy Tail - of this, he had no prior knowledge; and of which, he expressed his greatest displeasure; fearing for his own job; for the library was frequently visited by the nobles of Fiore; and he would be held responsible, should it suffer any damage. So, he began adverting to them signing an indemnity aggrement; which was to state that, Fairy Tail was to be held responsible, if anything should happen during the course of their mission, and was telling Miss Vardy, a reference librarian, to prepare the contract, when Jet, who had just had quite enough, decided to express himself; but Droy, knowing the results of such an outburst, decided to beat him to it.
"Sir," he began, "we are very much aware of our guild's infamy for destroying our client's properties, but I employ you not to stereotype every member of Fairy Tail as being so reckless and ruinous. We are members of Team Shadow Gear, and I assure you, that if you were to check our past record from the last decade, you'd no longer hold us in contempt for the actions of some of our guildmates," - Levy was to later find out that Jet and Droy had been of the most exemplary conduct over the past seven years; not having lost a single dime out of recklessness.
The cheif librarian, impressed by the civilities of Droy's manner, decided they need not sign the indemnity aggrement; and after liaising with them for five more minutes, he excused himself, and left; leaving them with Mrs Vardy, who was to take them to another section of the library; where they were needed.
"Hello, I am Mrs. Vardy. I'll be your guide and instructor during your mission here. Seeing that Mr Reynolds has already related to you the chief part of your being here, I'm just gonna add a few more things. During the course of this mission, you're not allowed into the acquisition unit or the serials unit," she said, pointing to the doors leading to the aforementioned.
"So where, are we allowed into?" Jet asked; with sarcasm evident in his tone.
"The cataloguing unit," Mrs Vardy replied in a grave voice; before continuing their walk.
It became obvious to the Fairy Tail mages, that working with this woman, wasn't going to be fun - and that she hated their guts; for she kept on repeating the fact that they wouldn't have been hired, was it not for such short notice. But Mrs. Vardy's hatred towards the Fairy Tail mages, wasn't at all peculiar to them; for she hated all mages, and the use of magic in general.
Mrs. Vardy was an ill-humoured woman; stringent, and dedicated to her job. She was always the first to resume and the last to leave the library; not even the Chief librarian, was as dedicated as she was. She fancied herself superior to all; and lived only to give out orders. Her hatred for magic in general, was born out of the fact that she had lost her previous job to a mage.
Since the advent of magic and it's varying forms, non-wizards have found it increasingly difficult to retain their jobs; for their gifted counterparts - the wizards, always seemed to be able to perform every task with more speed and proficiency. Though nowadays, such preference for mages was no longer the case, it was understandable, that Mrs. Vardy still held on to the inclination; seeing how she had been a victim herself.
As they followed behind, Jet said to his teammates in a low whisper, "I'm surprised she doesn't know how to use magic; for she certainly fits the description of a witch, quite well."
Droy and Levy struggled to stifle a laugh - Jet had certainly lightened their mode; and Levy decided to keep her eyes on the prize. Her main reason for coming on this mission, was because she wanted to read a book from her favourite author, Jones Griffin; who had died six years ago. Upon her return from Tenrou island, Levy was devastated when she found out; and later heard that he published a book prior to his death, but only two copies were ever printed; one being kept in a museum built in his honour, and the other, donated to the national library. But the guild had been busy with the Grand Magic Games and other events, since their return, so, Levy hasn't had the time to visit the library. And with how unpredictable things could sometimes be with the Fairy Tail guild, Levy was determined to read the book before she got stuck in another seven years stasis, or worst. Her plan was to complete the mission as soon as possible, and then find his book. She decided to asked Mrs. Vardy, how long the job was to take.
"Well, giving the extent of the damage, it should take a couple of days," she then added, with a disgruntled tone, "but seeing that you're going to be using magic, it shouldn't take you more than a few hours."
Knowing she had stared-up their curiosity with the mention of damage, she explained further, "The former cataloguer was fired two days ago, owing to his inadequacies. He catalogued most of the books wrongly, and in a library this size, a book categorized wrongly, might as well be lost. I hope you wouldn't repeat the same mistake, Miss Mcgarden."
"Of course not, madam" was Levy's reply.
"At length, I expect you to be done by the end of the day, or hiring you would have been all for not."
"We'll do our best, ma'am" said Levy; whose nervousness around Mrs. Vardy grew by the minute.
"Alright, here we are," Mrs. Vardy said, opening the door to the cataloguing unit.
The room was filled with books at every turn, some of which were still in their cartons; Mrs. Vardy explained that they had just received those from the acquisition unit; and that after they had finished classifying them, they were to be taken for arrangement on the shelves; to this, Jet and Droy were assigned; for it became obvious to Mrs. Vardy, that neither had any literary experience; when Droy stated his preference of comics over novels; and judging by the look of boredom on Jet's face, she concluded he was no better than his counterpart.
The cataloguing unit, had only two staffs; which seemed rather odd, considering the amount of uncatalogued books Levy now stared at. She supposed they used to be three, but even then, the work force wouldn't be adequate to compensate for the task.
Seeing the awe on Levy's face, Mrs. Vardy, with great condescension, decided to give an explanation.
"The former cataloguer, had done more than just wrongly categorise some books. After getting fired, he decided to vent his anger on the shelves. Thank goodness nothing was destroyed; but knowing it could be easily rearranged with the catalogue cards, he decided to destroy our records of the books, hence, we'd have to catalogue them again."
Her explanation seemed to have served it's purpose, and Levy simply replied with an, "Oh".
"You'll be working with Miss. Susie Aide, and Mr. Richard Thompson," Mrs. Vardy said, chiefly to Levy.
Miss. Aide waved at the mages, while Mr. Thompson only sent a glance, before returning to his work. Their personalities could be already distinguished; and Levy was glad that the only available chair in the room, was next to Miss. Aide.
"You two," Mrs Vardy said refering to Jet and Droy, "pick up those books, and their catalogue cards; and come with me. I'm going to show you how they are used to place the books on the shelves."
Jet and Droy obliged and followed her; Levy sending them a 'I am so sorry look' before they left.
Levy soon settled into an appropriate speed; writing down a description of the books allotted to her; the author's name, title of the book, publisher of the book, place and date of it's publication, number of pages, and so on. The job soon became unceremoniously tiresome; for she had to also read through every book, in order to give a proper classification; and even with her Gale force glasses, she couldn't finish each one fast enough. Magic really wasn't making things any easier or faster; for the piles of books remained unaffected by all Levy's efforts. She soon stopped writing manually, and started using Letter magic to imprint the info onto the catalogue card instead. This change seemed to have greatly increased her speed, and Levy was confident that she should be done before the sun sets.
Miss Susie Aide proved to be an aggreable coworker as Levy had hoped. She was pleasant and sweet; and enjoyed sharing tips with her co-workers; most of these now directed towards Levy, for Mr Thompson hardly said a word or two in reply. He had a 'just shoot me' expression on his face, which Levy couldn't tell if it was because of the book he was currently reading, which had a ginormous cover, or because of Susie's endless enquiries into how he was fairing.
Levy, also tried to engage Mr Thompson in a conversation, as she didn't want to put an embargo on his character, before getting to know him first. He seemed to respond nicely to Levy's inquiries into what he was reading, but had nothing to say to her after Levy purported she preferred prose over poetry. All further inquiries where negated with his lack of response; Levy remembering her incentive for taking the job, decided to mind her own business and focus on the task before her.
It was now three in the afternoon; when Mrs. Vardy came into the room to inform them that they could take a lunch break. Levy had decided to skip lunch, but after many persuasive grumbling sounds from her stomach, she decided it wasn't such a bad idea; and so following Mr Thompson and Susie, she was led to the staff canteen, where the other library staffs were already assembled. She sat with Susie and Mr Thompson after collecting their lunches; and tried looking for Jet and Droy, but they were nowhere to be seen. She decided to inquire from Mrs. Vardy, who was seated with the Chief librarian at a table not too far from theirs.
"Have you seen my teammates?" Levy inquired politely.
Mrs. Vardy let her know that Princess Husui Fiore had come to the library that morning and upon her request, Jet and Droy were relieved of their duties and had accompanied the princess back to the palace to help fetch some borrowed books for return; and seeing as their mission didn't initially have anything to do with arranging books on shelves, she had no other choice, than to let them go. She also didn't forget to add the fact that she had been surprised to know that the princess was already acquainted with the Fairy Tail mages; but had concluded it was a consequence of their winning the Grand Magic Games, that had afforded them the privilege of meeting with someone of significantly higher status.
Levy simply agreed with the fact; and purposely left out the part that the Dragons' invasion had been somewhat the princess' fault; and that she now felt indebted to the Fairy Tail mages, whose efforts, had been principal in stopping it.
Returning to her table, Levy couldn't help but think how ironic the mission had turned out to be. She still had a few more piles of books to finish after lunch, while her friends were off, probably having the time of their lives at the castle.
By six, that evening, Levy was finally done. Jet and Droy had returned an hour earlier; and had related to her that the princess had wished to see her, but Mrs. Vardy had told her that Levy was 'pleasantly occupied'. They had to leave her to her work, however, when Mrs. Vardy came in, and scolded them for being a source of distraction.
Finally done with the books, Levy could not hold back a yawn; as she exclaimed, "I'm so tired".
This got an asseveration from Susie, while Richard, cataloguing his final book, made no response.
Susie and Levy decided to call it a night, leaving Mr. Thompson to his work; after wishing him a good night, to which, he merely nodded.
After receiving a cheque from Mrs. Vardy, they met up with Jet and Droy by the library's entrance; who were engaged in a conversation with some of the other library staffs; Levy remembered a certain book she had been dying to read; but was too tired to care. Bidding her farewells to Susie, she left with her teammates, for their hotel rooms; where Levy intended to do nothing, but sleep.
Please endeavour to comment below; I'd love to know your thoughts on the story so far.
And thanks to those who commented on the previous chapter; your input was very encouraging.