It takes the pair approximately half an hour to get to Hyacinth's door. Not because they forget where it was, but because someone kept running off.
Sirius knocks on the door, holding a finger to Korlin's face.
"What?" a muffled voice says beyond the wall.
"May we come in?"
"...If you want."
-Well now I feel like I'm intruding...
Sirius glances at Korlin, who gives him a hearty thumbs-up. Slowly pushing open the door, a room almost an exact replica of his own sprawls out before him. Apart from a notable number of books, some differently placed plants, and rearranged furniture, the fancy room remains the same.
The girl, Hyacinth, sits at her paper-cluttered desk reading an ancient-looking tome.
"What is it?" The girl asks bleakly, her voice soft. Her eyes are fixated on the text; apart from her question, it's impossible to tell if she noticed someone enter.
"What are you reading?" the amber-eyed boy replies. He doesn't want to just straight-up tell her to 'come teach us how to do our new jobs.'
"Does it matter?" Her glacial response is setting the mood for the rest of the conversation.
"I suppose not..."
An awkward rift is torn between them, only silence filling the void. She has no desire to commute with the boy.
-How am I supposed to talk to her??
"Uh," stumbling on his own words, thinking of how to best portray himself, he ends up on words of gratitude. "Thank you, for earlier."
"..."
"Without you, I would probably be out in the streets with nowhere to stay. So, thank you."
"Rawlin wouldn't let you leave even if you wanted to. He was just testing you."
-Wouldn't let me leave...?
"What do you mean?"
"He's been searching for Witch Spawns for months now. Even if you ran away, he'd track you down and bring you right back."
"..."
"In other words... Whether you like it or not... You're trapped here." She closes her hefty book and sets it down on the desk. "That's just the kind of man he is."
Dread tickles the back of his mind, threatening to take over at any moment. Trapped? Why does he want us here? What's he going to do to us? These swelling thoughts almost spill out into words, but he suppresses the urge to voice these concerns.
"I see..." He taps nervously on the door frame. "Do you, perchance, know why-"
"I don't. If you want to know, you'll have to ask him yourself." She sighs and gets out of her seat. "Alright, let's get started."
-So she does know why we're here...
She walks past Sirius, who politely opens the door for her. Wavy, shoulder-length, violet hair lightly bounces as she steps, almost in a childish way. In contrast, her expression is dull and lifeless. She's very pretty, but in a reserved, monotone fashion.
Without a word, he begins following the gelid girl.
Following the two, Korlin runs up from behind and leaps onto Sirius's shoulders. Sirius stumbles around, almost falling flat on his face. Barely able to stand, Sirius adjusts himself upright with the boy on his traps.
-I thought my neck was going to snap...
"Sorry about that. You alright?"
"Y-yeah."
Korlin pats Sirius on the cheeks and points forward.
"Onwards!"
"What am I, a horse?"
"Neigh. You are a steed."
"...That might've been the worst-"
They trot a fair distance before their jolly journey ends at the biggest linen closet they've ever seen. It's like a vending machine for cleaning supplies and tools.
"Here is your equipment. Try not to break it."
Her voice reminds him of a depressed tour guide he had a couple of years ago on a school trip.
"Right..."
Without a second to lose, she starts walking off to the next location.
She stops at one of the many bathrooms.
"In here, clean everything if it needs to be."
"Does anyone even use this bathroom?" Korlin asks.
"No."
"..."
She begins towards their next stop.
In the main foyer, she motions them toward the staircase's railing.
"Once in a while, dust it. Along with other shelves and tables."
"..."
She takes them to a few more spots and briefly describes what to do.
Mirrors? Wipe them down. Crumbs on the floor? Sweep them up. Trash getting full? Take it outside.
The whole experience is oddly underwhelming. The simple explanation of basic chores leaves both boys with dragging boredom.
"Question," Korlin proposes.
"..."
"What do you do around here? Are you a maid?"
"Never in your dreams."
"Then...?"
"I run errands. Occasionally."
"..."
"..."
"That's all?"
"Basically."
"..." Korlin gives Sirius an exaggerated grimace.
The final stop on the five-star tour is in front of a door with a massive lock on the handle. A foreboding and ominous air exhausts out the door; something important must be locked inside.
"And here is Rawlin's room. You can clean the lock or something."
"Can we go in?" Korlin queries. "I want to see if he has a wardrobe of blindfolds."
"Not a chance. Entry is forbidden to everyone except himself."
"Aw, come on... Who even is this guy??" he basks in annoyance.
"Who knows..."
She begins her advance to somewhere else.
"So..." Sirius changes the subject. "How did you end up here? How'd you meet the lord?"
"That's none of your concern."
"...Ah."
Disappointment is a word that comes to mind. But surprise is not, he expected such an answer.
"So now what?" Korlin tries to liven things up.
"We're done. That was all. You can go clean if you want. Not that you really need to."
"Do I get paid if I do?"
"Why would I know?"
"How often do you get paid?"
"Once a week."
"How often do you run these... errands?"
"Once every two months or so."
"...Huh." The boy is unsatisfied with her answers. "What's your relationship with Pholy?"
"Husband. Are you done talking yet?"
Sirius pats his sulking companion on the back. She isn't nearly as entertaining to him as Pholy is. Her deadpan voice and expressions completely contrast Korlin's upbeat and childlike personality.
Awkward silence practically echoes through the halls. The two boys continue following the girl for no particular reason.
"Oh, right," Sirius begins, shattering the cumbersome vibe. "Would you be willing to teach us reading and writing?"
"No."
"You like reading books, right?" His question actually grabs her attention. "Do you have a dictionary or any easy-to-read ones? Anything would be helpful."
She continues walking down the hall, lightly bouncing, as is her style of movement. After pondering a moment, she gives her response.
"Follow me."
Sirius grins with gratitude, not that she sees it.
Entering back into her room, Korlin immediately does a somersault for no particular reason. Sirius feels a little embarrassed. Hyacinth responds to his stunt with a brief, dumbfounded stare.
Shaking off Korlin's shenanigans, she approaches her massive wall of books. Each and every one is neatly organized on the shelves, which do not hold a single speck of dust.
Hyacinth scans through the shelves and lands on a thick, green book.
As if an echo of before, the book is just outside of her reach. She hops up and down, trying to grab its spine. Her quiet frustration is amusing to watch.
Sirius instinctively goes in for a redo, hoping for a better response than last time.
He walks up, and she once again halts her bunny hops. Once again, he notices how she isn't much shorter than him. Sirius gets on the tips of his toes and barely wraps his fingertips on the book. He slides it out of its space on the shelf.
She looks embarrassed with a slight hint of irritation. Nothing like the revulsion of her last response.
-Progress!
A shallow amount of pride swells up in Sirius, but it quickly fades.
"...Thanks. You can use that. Have Wilphrey help you out, he's good at teaching."
"Oh, yeah..." He doesn't know what he was expecting her to say, but it wasn't that. "Thank you."
"Mm." She goes over and falls back into her chair. She picks up her book from earlier and searches for the page she left on.
Without a word, she leaves the boys with the singular option of leaving the room.
It's time for studying.
Thud
The thick book slams onto the desk and sweeps dust out from under it. Korlin sneezes.
"Are you allergic to dust?"
"I'm allergic to dictionaries."
"Ah, of course. My bad."
Sirius opens the weathered book; its pages are cold. Immediately upon peering inside, the learning curve is both apparent and daunting. Symbols and characters are inked onto the page in a downward slope from left to right.
Certain characters repeat themselves multiple times throughout the front page. It appears this language will have a letter system with something akin to an alphabet. That gives him a vague sense of relief, as the thought of learning a certain number of characters is much more manageable than if it were something along the lines of kanji or hieroglyphs.
Still, as he is now, this is all gibberish. Complete and utter nonsense.
"Damn," Korlin whispers in awe and intimation. "I've always wanted to learn a new language..."
"Why didn't you?"
"Too much work."
"..."
"Also, a lack of need and motivation. But this looks so awesome!"
"It does..."
"That's it," Korlin breathes out slowly. "I'm going to give this everything I've got! I'm going to learn this like nobody has ever learned before... Will you join me?" He is deepening his voice to try and sound cool.
"Sure... Though I probably won't have as much motivation as you."
Korlin is smoldering, majestically looking out the window. "...That's quite alright, child."
"...Do you want to start?"
"...As you wish."
"...Right..."
Korlin frantically scours the room and grabs writing materials. He sits down at the desk and smiles stupidly at the page, an inkclaw ready in his hand. His eyes dart around the paper. He blinks repeatedly. Then, he stares into the unknown void that is the book.
"I don't get!"
"We need a reference of some sort..."
"I doubt they have Witch Spawn translations in this world."
"You're probably right..."
The two try to decipher and continue making baseless assumptions on foreign letters. Connecting words with similar lengths to those on the pages... None of them are correct.
"Auegghhhhh," Korlin moans. "We're getting nowhere!"
"I just realized something..."
"Did you crack it?!" His waning mood rises instantaneously.
"Uh, no..." Sirius scratches his neck. "The opposite, actually."
"Pardon?" It drops just as fast.
"You're speaking the language you did on Earth, right?"
"Yes...?"
"...And the Timekeeper gave us those gummies that let us speak and understand this language..."
"Yes..." It takes a second to kick in. "Oh my god... We're not actually speaking an Earth language right now, are we?"
"Mm."
"Now that you mention it... Your mouth doesn't fit with the words you're saying."
"Really? Say something."
"Uh... Oh!" he clears his throat and equips a narrator voice. "In the Age of Ancients the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons..."
Sirius observes the boy's mouth as he speaks. It's true. The way his lips move does not match the words he's speaking.
"You're right..."
"...But then there was Fire! And with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course-! Light and dark... Then, from the dark-"
"Ok, ok! You can stop!"
"Hehe, sorry. Anyway, so, we're saying this is pointless to try and understand...?" He takes in a nice, long breath and lets it all out. "I give up."
"What happened to learning like nobody has ever learned before?"
"This is beyond my abilities. A shut-in like me has no chance of learning a new language. I was a fool to believe that after years of neglecting education I would be able to learn."
-That's a bit dramatic...
knock knock
"Pardon me."
The door to Korlin's room opens, revealing an aged gentleman with snow-white hair thrown in a perfect bun.
"Wilphrey!" Korlin's fallen spirit instantly ascends at the sight of the man. "Can you teach me magic, please?"
"Blunt as ever... I heard you were learning something far more important, no? I've come to assist in your education."
Korlin drags his feet over to his bed and collapses. He sulks.
"You heard from someone?" Sirius asks.
"Yes, Miss Hyacinth informed me. She requested I aid you."
-She did?
Sirius releases a pleasing smile. Something about her helping makes him feel fuzzy.
"Well, thank you. I look forward to your help."
"Me too," Korlin mentions, his face stuffed in bedsheets.
Wilphrey smiles warmly, wrinkles forming at his eyes. "But first, Lord Rawlin would like to see you in his study."
"The lord? That's right, he wanted to see us..."
Korlin hops off his bed and plants his arm on Sirius. "What do you think it's about?" he asks, a mixture of excitement and curiosity.
"Don't know..."
Sirius's shoulders tense, preparing for the ensuing encounter.