Management Hub
*Step* *Step*
Calm but loud steps echoed across a room that seemed to have no end in sight. The room was filled with bookshelves, filled with rows of books, while the shelves themselves were huge and infinitely tall that seemed to have no end.
A man wearing black was walking around the library-like room, examining the surrounding books with a still expression. Behind him was a woman with blue hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a blouse with a blazer, long black tidy skirt reaching her knees and heels.
"Sir, we should get going. You're forbidden from coming here." The ponytail women said in a worried but strict tone.
The man ignored the woman's suggestion "Don't worry, Fate is busy right now and his workers won't stop me even if they find me." He calmly replied.
"But sir, once Fate learns of this, he will punish you. As Death, you 're not allowed to see the lives of the living until they die." The woman protested with worry.
"Calm down. I am here for Alan's book. He died and his book is mine." The man continued to examine the surrounding books.
The woman sighed. "Sir, his book should have teleported to you when he died under normal circumstances. Yet you-"
"Yet I interfered, and he died earlier than the book's prophecy. That's why I'm here to retrieve it personally."
The woman really wanted to sigh at her boss's uncaring attitude towards the whole thing but stopped herself, as it would be disrespectful. "Sir… I've been meaning to ask, why did you take Alan's life and turn him into a Reaper? Your action broke several rules and taboos."
"First off, I make the rules regarding the dead being Reapers so I technically have broken no rules." The man amused his assistant with her questions.
"Sir, it's taboo for gods to interfere with mortals, especially killing them without permission from the others."
"Just don't tell anyone." The man replied with a wink to his assistant, making her frown slightly.
The two walked in silence for a few minutes as they walked around the enormous library until the man broke the silence "Hey Aqua, why do you think this library is the tallest building in creation?"
'Oh no… ' The blue ponytail woman named Aqua had a bad feeling about her boss's question "Um… I don't know, sir."
Alan stopped walking and turned to Aqua with a small smirk on his deadpan expression "Because they have so many stories!" He answered with a raised voice.
"..."
Aqua stared at her boss in silence.
"..."
The man stared at his assistant in silence.
*Sigh*
The man eventually turned around with a sigh and continued walking, realising Aqua did not find his joke funny 'She could have given a smile at least…'
The two continued their walk "Sir, will Alan be okay? You assigned him to Beth... "
"Yea, he'll be fine. All my managers are very professional," the man answered in confidence.
'Yea… but Beth…' Aqua dropped her questions regarding Alan, seeing that her boss was quite vague in his answers.
The two walked for another few minutes...until the man said, "Do you know why it's so hard to go into this library?"
Aqua was about to sigh but held it off "Why...sir." She asked with deep regret.
The man stopped once again and looked at his assistant with a small smirk "Because it's always overbooked!" He said in a raised but neutral voice.
"..."
Aqua stared at her boss in silence.
"..."
The man stared at his assistant in silence.
*sigh*
The man turned around and continued to walk 'What am I doing wrong…"
The two walked in silence until they found Alan's book.
-----------------------------------------
Alan was clearing up the ants in the neighbouring houses in complete silence.
[Congratulations! You have guided…]
Even the system messages didn't frustrate him, as all he was thinking about was the first house with the abusive husband.
'What can I do…' He was trying to figure out a way to help the poor woman but couldn't do anything, so he cleared the ants in the neighbourhood while he thought of a solution.
The cat tried to stop him but he explained to her he'll return, which the cat seemed to have trusted.
But Alan felt completely hopeless.
'System, how do I touch living beings?' Alan looked for the system for help.
[A Grim Reaper may not interfere with the living.]
Alan sighed 'Is there no way?'
[You will need permission from management to interfere if the living is interfering with the job of a Reaper.]
The system prompted.
'Permission from management...Okay system, how do I contact management?'
[If requested, you can teleport to your management Hub.]
'Okay, system, take me to my management Hub'
[Proceeding…]
The system seemed to load as it was silent for a few seconds
[You are placed 7th in the queue to management Hub]
'So there's a queue hm… right, there are other Grim Reapers like me. So the Hub is one-to -one?'' Alan wondered as he continued clearing the ants from each house while waiting.
[You are 6th in the queue to management Hub]
[Congratulations! You have guided…]
Sadly, the system still notified Alan of every soul he guided, despite his teleportation queue.
[You are 5th in the queue to management Hub]
Alan finally finished his clearing of the wealthy neighbourhood but during his clearing, he had seen quite a few strange, embarrassing and questionable things from humans.
In one house, he accidentally walked in on a couple doing their nightly activities even though it was late evening, but he quickly ran out apologising constantly.
[You are 4th in the Queue to management Hub]
He walked in on a family having a whole buffet that even made his non-existent stomach hungry that if he could, he would have been salivating.
[You are 3rd in the Queue to management Hub]
He saw some children watching a cartoon together while they were screaming in excitement.
[You are 2nd in the Queue to management Hub]
Finally, there was an elderly couple just hugging each other by the couch, watching some old film together, making Alan think about the life he could have had with Alice.
[You will now be teleported to the management Hub]