"Hey? You're back this early today?"
Alya was passing Gauss's room when she noticed the door was open. She peeked inside and, seeing him still in his room at noon, looked a little surprised.
"Yeah. Something unusual came up today, so I didn't take another job." Gauss set down his book and looked toward the doorway.
His routine over the past few days had been to turn in the previous day's job first thing in the morning, then immediately pick up another suitable one to save time.
But today, he couldn't stop thinking about the job the Senior Council Member had told him about, so he hadn't gone to the notice board to look for work.
"Oh?" Alya's expression turned considerably more serious.
As Gauss's longtime teammate, she knew her buddy's temperament all too well.
These past few days, he'd either been killing goblins or on his way to kill more. He simply couldn't sit still.
Or else, he'd be out practicing magic in some empty space.
For him, sitting quietly in his room reading like this was indeed an unusual break.
Usually, he read in his spare time while traveling, whether in a carriage or on the back of a bird.
"Funny you should say that. I've gotten the new spell, 'Will-o'-the-wisp,' down pat today, too." Alya seemed to be in a good mood, smiling from ear to ear.
It wouldn't take much to figure out why she was so happy.
The girl wore her emotions on her face; she wasn't one to hide how she felt.
In just a few days, she'd gone from buying "Will-o'-the-wisp" to mastering it. For her, that was much faster than before—even faster than she'd expected.
It was so quick that even she found it hard to believe.
"That's good progress. Congratulations." Gauss