After signing the contract, the gruff man picked her up by the wrist, and dragged her back through the hallway they had come from.
Being dragged across the open space where the receptionist worked was an experience not to be forgotten.
The receptionist had a scowl on her face the whole time she was in their line of sight, but would go back to her professional smile to continue dealing with the hunters in line.
She was further dragged into the same room she entered earlier.
"As the Guild Master said you will work for me now, I am Repairer Chandu."
"No time like the present, I expect you to pay attention and as I say."
The repairer went to his desk and grabbed a hair elastic to pull back his long hair into a ponytail.
"Hmm… what should I call you?"
Curling his pointer finger against his chin in wonder, "How about Lil' Chick? Nah, you said you do art do stuff. Hmm…this is hard."
He smacked his forehead with enough energy it would have broken a rib or two if she got hit, "I got it you will be Lil' Art."
"I have a name…," she started to say but Repairer Chandu glared at her, "...but you can call Lil' Art."
She gave up. She needed the money and he somehow got her a job. 'Don't piss him off, she needs this job and the money. Can't make him made don't…"
While Azalea was suffering from internal strife, Chandu was thinking about his rashful behavior.
'Yes, he got the girl the job so as to stop his future suffering from being extended. What was something she could do that would actually benefit him?"
After a long moment of silence between the two a knock came at the door interrupting their internal thoughts.
Chandu looked at the girl then at the door, "That is part of your job answering the door and dealing with customers.
Azalea walked across the floor making small noises as she tried to quickly put on a customer smile she had seen the receptionist use.
"Hello, how can we help you?"
A long frizzy haired man almost tripping over his own foot forced his way through the door, knocking over Azalea in the process. The man though skinny had the power to knock her over just by bumping into her. 'Were all hunters strong?'
As she fell to the floor ignored by the others in the room, the new man forced his way up to Chandu with defiance in his eyes.
"Where is my staff? I was told it would be done. I can't go on any longer without it."
"You just ran over my apprentice, I don't want to help you anymore." It seemed that Chandu was lazy and wanted nothing to do with work. "Help my apprentice up and she'll help you instead."
"Is she a Man-I?" The man whispered, "You know how much I hate the Man-I."
Getting up on her own and closing the door behind her, Azalea overheard the conversation and became severely confused. 'What is Man-I?'
Chandu looked taken aback, offended even, "Do I look like the type of person a Man-I would work for? No, she is just my apprentice."
The man was violently spun around to face her, and pushed in her direction.
Scrunching his nose, the man sniffed loudly, "You smell like a Man-I."
Chandu cleared his throat in a threatening manner, and the man squeaked in an unbecoming manner.
"I am here for my staff, it should be ready by now," the man demanded.
Azalea turned to Chandu to ask where it would be, to get this man out of the room as soon as possible.
Chandu catching on to her thoughts spoke in a reminiscent voice, "It is in the back room remember. Here I'll show you again."
He guided her to the wall behind his desk, and rotated one of the lamp shades in a circle and pressed down on the lightbulb as if it were a button.
"What you are looking for is in," He pointed to the display wall.
The back of the room opened up into a large workshop, dwarfing the office both in size and lighting.
A ginormous workbench was in the corner a blast furnace right beside it, with a wall length of storage for materials comprised of hundreds of drawers, in the middle of the room were shelves for the larger materials and different types of tools, and on the other wall was where finished products were hung up on display shelves.
There was only one display shelf occupied by a twisting wooden staff with a giant purple orb at the base and gnarled roots sticking out of the top.
She went towards the display, taking the rude man with her to collect his staff, while Chandu walked to the back to tinker and grab materials.
"Sir, this is yo-," Azalea reached to grab the staff for the man, but her hands slapped to the side.
"Do I look like I would let a Man-I touch my staff? Don't think you can hide it, I know what you are," the man sneered knowingly as if he spoke a forbidden truth.
"Here are the materials that we agreed upon for payment." He snapped his finger and on the table in front of him materials manifested in the air and fell on to the hard surface. He spun around and left quickly not wanting to be anywhere near the room she was in.
After the man left, Azalea was stuck on the word Man-I. The man had used it in such a rude manner, It had to have meant something.
Possibly, it was just her imagination, but she felt like the man had been glaring daggers at her as he left.
Walking to where Chand was and watching him craft a small object in his hands. She left to walk to his office, not wanting to disturb him.
After pulling out her phone from her pants pocket, she started reading and researching what repairers work consist of.
After some time, and many articles, Chand stood up from his bench and walked over. She could hear his footsteps walking towards her, he stopped and stood over her shoulder.
"That is poorly made, but I guess it should be a good reference for beginners. Don't worry too much, you won't be doing much of that anyway. Your job is mainly to manage orders and the materials."
He walked away back to the workshop to a sink that was hidden from her view to wash away debris and grime from the project he had worked on. His eyes landed on the pile of materials on the table, "I'll show you where those belong later, I want a brake."
She looked up at Chandu as he came back into the room, sat down in his chair in the dimly lit office and asked, "What is a Man-I?"
Chandu hesitated to answer, almost as if he was about to say forbidden knowledge. His face contorted in an irregular shape she had never seen before, and then he sighed as if he was about to give bad news.
"Man-I are…It is a term more an insult to non-Hunters. Basically it means you are mana inept. Prideful hunters use it when they think they are better than civilians."
He shifted in his chair a little and rubbed his chin, "Hey, Lil Art, I made you a gift to help keep you safe while you work here. Just wear while you are near the Hunter Association, it should help keep the freaks like earlier away. It's on the workbench in the corner. "
Azalea walked to the workbench, and picked up what Chandu had left behind. From what appeared to be a pile of scraps and garbage was a half mask.
She picked up a mask from the pile of leftover tid-bits of what was used to make it. Brushing off the shavings to get a better look at it, the half mask itself was a beautiful color changing base in the light from purple to black with deep red accents and designs and engravings. The red line swirls were written in an unknown language throughout the mask, only shimmering when the light landed properly. There were hook like attachments for it to fit around the ears.
When she put it on, it fit snugly on her face covering from her nose to her chin.
She took her phone out of her pocket to take a photo of herself with it on.