บท 4: Miss S.?
"Wait, let me think this through. After all, I could be putting my life on the line, I cannot afford to be too careful." Arthur read through both of the petitions and their details as closely as he could for the second time.
"My current power is nothing but a glorified vocal manipulation skill, granted it can be used to confuse some people but ultimately, I cannot use it to defend myself and what I need now is definitely a method that I can use to take care of my own safety.
"After all, there's no telling what I might encounter on these assignments. There's no guarantee that they'll be safe." Arthur turned back to the page and he paid special attention to the rewards given by the two petitions. "The second petition will enhance the Available Petitions, I suppose that means it'll open up more client list or upgrade the petition system in some manner. Currently, I have no want for more petitions. I might need this in the future when I'm more familiar with the working of the Midnight Emporium but definitely not now.
"That means the better option for me at the moment will be Petition One. The reward enhances Ability and Magic, thus giving me the means to better protect myself. That would appear to be the natural choice.
"Furthermore, Petition Two has the added complication of involving a maze. Granted it doesn't say that explicitly but with a hint that obvious, it might as well just state it outright."
Another factor influencing Arthur's choice was the consideration of gender. Like most men in today's society, they believed it was easier to deal with female than male because if things went south, they could use brute force to overpower them.
In other words, between the choice of dealing with a female or male client, Arthur leaned towards the former. Alas, little did Arthur know, it was usually the female who were more vicious in the history of mythology.
"But wait, how am I supposed to accept the petition? I need to go find this Miss S.?" Arthur thought about it and since everything began with the book, he returned to the tome, saying, "I shall accept Petition One."
Arthur waited for several minutes but nothing happened. He looked around the store and there was no visible change. The letters on the book had remained unmoved as well. "Did I do something wrong? Or is there anything else that I was supposed to do?"
Just as Arthur was wondering what to do, there was a sound echoing inside the store. Arthur turned his ears towards it to try to zero in on the source. After a while, Arthur managed to confirm the sound came from outside the open door.
There were two different sounds overlaying one another. The louder sound was that of lapping waters, like waves gently crashing against the shoreline. The softer sound, one that Arthur admitted sounded more sinister, was like the brushing of scales against each other.
Arthur could not really tell what it was but it didn't matter because he would be meeting the individual creating this unique combination of sounds soon. Based on the petition description, this should be his very first client, Miss S!
'Wait a minute, Miss S... Scales... What kind of creature has scales and starts with the letter S? Snakes!' With that realization came a sense of danger. One could say Arthur's prey instinct kicked in. He scrambled to find something to defend himself from the possible threat but there was nothing particularly useful around him, except the Book of Thoth. However, he failed to see how a book was going to protect him.
In his desperation, Arthur turned towards his sole power that he had available to him. Perhaps he could use the prince's voice to scare the client or... better yet, record the client's voice to save himself somehow? The plan failed to come together in his mind but he decided to go along with it for the sake of doing something rather than nothing. After all, what did he have to lose other than one of the pre-recorded voices in the Whispering.
The sound of water became clearer and closer, telling Arthur he had to come to a decision soon. While it pained Arthur to do so, he had to delete his parent's voice from the Whispering. In the context of his assignment, the three other voices might serve some unknown purpose in the future, while his parents' voices were useful to no one but himself.
As Arthur eliminated his parents' voices from the Whispering, a shadow appeared at the door.
Arthur heard his client before he saw her. "Why is the door left open?" A haughty voice said. Then, the voice turned the corner and Arthur finally saw his first client.
Arthur was expecting a snake lady but Miss S. was as faraway from that description as she could be. Her head of lustrous black hair, that was definitely not a nest of snakes, rested fashionably on her shoulders. She wore an open-shoulder dress to show off her sexy collarbones. The dress was an earthly color and it fitted the woman's figure snugly like a second skin. The dress hit the floor, thus covering her legs from plain view.
She had a pair of sharp eyes like she was constantly examining her environment. Her nose was of average height and when she entered the Midnight Emporium, her lips were turned down in a condescending sneer.
"What has happened to this place? It used to be a house of treasures but now it's hollow as a viper's heart." The woman's voice couldn't exactly be described as soft. It wasn't throaty or hoarse either. Instead, it sounded like her voice was always pointed with barbs.
She took a glance around the store and tutted with dissatisfaction. Finally, she turned her attention to the young man who was standing behind the counter. Under her pointed gaze, Arthur froze up like a rabbit caught in the gaze of its predator.
The woman walked towards Arthur with her dress trailing behind her. When she was close enough, she asked, "So new guy, are you the one who accepted my petition?"
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