Then a crack broke the silence, and the next instant, the stone shattered.
"...Huh?"
"..."
"..."
Suddenly the receptionist’s expression went from boredom to panic in a matter of seconds.
She alternated her gaze between James and the pieces of the stone scattered across the floor.
"What the hell did you do?!"
"Me?!" he replied, just as bewildered as she was. "I just put my hand on it like you told me and this piece of junk broke on its own."
"Classification stones don’t break ’on their own’!" the woman shot back, pointing at the fragments. "And this one had been here for over a hundred years!"
"I already told you I didn’t do anything," he said with annoyance.
"James is right," Rosalía cut in, stepping forward to stand beside him. "We all saw what happened."
The receptionist wanted to keep pushing, but the words got stuck in her throat.
Because, after all, as much as it pained her to admit it, she too had seen what had just happened.
There was no logical explanation for it, and getting into a fight she wasn’t going to win, over a stone that was already broken anyway, was the last thing she needed that day.
So she let out a long sigh of pure frustration and brought a hand to her temple.
"You know what? Forget it," she said, exhaustion heavy in her voice. "I don’t have the time or the desire to figure out what the hell happened here."
"..."
"You’re already registered," she said, opening a small box on the table. "Take this and get out of here already before you decide to break something else."
The receptionist pulled out a small metal tag, about the size of a large coin, tied to a cord, and tossed it to James.
James caught it in the air.
"That’s your mercenary tag," she said, frowning. "And you’d better not lose it because I’m not giving you another one."
"Thanks," he said, looking at the small piece of metal before slipping it around his neck. "And seriously, sorry about the stone... Though I still don’t think it was my fault."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, just get out."
James accepted that without further argument, turned around, and left the room while Rosalía followed close behind.
"I’m so sorry for the trouble," Rosalía said, giving the woman a small nervous smile. "Thank you for everything, and have a good day."
And once the two of them had left and closed the door, the receptionist was left alone, staring at the remains of the century-old stone scattered across the floor.
"Damn it," she muttered, letting herself slide down against the wall. "They’re going to fire me..."
Meanwhile, James and Rosalía walked back toward the main hall in silence, exchanging the occasional glance.
"That was weird," he said, still a little incredulous.
"Agreed... I’ve never heard of a classification stone breaking before," Rosalía agreed. "I didn’t even know that could happen."
"And does that make me someone special, or just someone who breaks expensive things?"
Rosalía let out a small laugh.
"I don’t know, but I think it’s best we don’t dwell on it," she admitted, scratching the back of her neck. "So let’s just act like nothing happened, okay? You’ve got your tag, which was what mattered."
"Fine by me," James replied with a shrug. "The less attention I draw, the better."
Both of them made it back to the hall, where the mercenaries were still going about their business, completely unaware of the disaster that had just occurred in the back room.
"Oh, and since we’re here, we should check the job board," Rosalía said, stopping. "You never know when a well-paying job might show up."
"Sounds good," James nodded. "You go, I’ll wait around here."
"Great! I’ll be right back."
Rosalía gave him a smile and walked off into the crowd, heading toward the large board covered in papers.
James watched her go, and once he found himself alone again, remembered he still had unfinished business.
His gaze went straight to the table at the back, where Faust had been sitting just a few minutes earlier, but to his bad luck there was no one there anymore.
He scanned the hall until he finally spotted her, but to his misfortune she was already heading toward the guild’s exit.
’Damn, she’s leaving,’ he thought, frowning. ’If I let her go out into that crowd, I’ll never find her again...’
James cast one last glance toward the board, where Rosalía still had her back turned, focused on the papers.
’From what I can see, she’ll be a while,’ he thought. ’If I hurry, I should be back before she even notices I left.’
With that thought in mind, James turned and ran toward the exit, after Faust.
A couple of minutes later, Rosalía returned to the spot where she had left him, a couple of job postings in her hands and a smile on her face.
"James, look, I found a couple that pay really well! There’s an escort job and another one that—"
But when she looked up again, the words died in her mouth, because the spot where she had left him was now empty.
She blinked, still confused, scanning the hall with her eyes.
"...James?"