The divination commission has hired a new jade abacus engineer to maintain their Matrix of Prescience, a new maintainer. As a reward for doing a great first job, Fu Xuan decides to give him a divination, but the divination goes awry as the vision it...
She hid when I called out to her, only allowing me to catch a slight glimpse of flush face. These past couple days she'd been acting odd, avoiding me. Perhaps she really did see something horrible during the divination, or maybe I did something wrong.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Stop spacing out, maintainer."
My attention was turned to Huixing, the little Vidyadharan girl who was the director of the Matrix of Prescience Ultima. Under her management, we'd been retuning all of the gear here in the commission. I turned my attention back to the Matrix.
Miss Huixing... are all the rumors about Diviner Fu and General Jing true? You've been working at the commission for a couple centuries right? Do you know?
Huixing looked up from the clipboard in her hands, and her eyes upturned to me, giving me a subtly judgmental look. She disliked small talk during work. Her eyes turned back to her clipboard a second later, an uninterested expression on her face.
"As far as I know, the master diviner and the general are just really good friends, or perhaps rivals."
I see. I wonder if that's true...
But I've spent enough time with her to know that, even if she hated small talk during work, she couldn't resist gossip. She looked up from her clipboard and pulled it to her chest, stowing it away and waddling up to me. Her voice had now diminished to a low whisper as she glanced back to where Diviner Fu disappeared, a slight smirk on her face.
"Why? Are you interested in Fu?"
N- No way! Even if I was, there was no way Diviner Fu would ever...
Her smirk turned into a pout,
"Hmm... I'd say she's more receptive to you than you think. I'd be willing to help you if you were actually interested in Fu."
Her tone came off sharp and her brows furrowed, her expression turning from curious to judgmental.
Diviner Fu? To me? There's no way...
"..."
She glared, her silence extending a moment too long.
"Perhaps you're right, maybe Diviner Fu is too far out of reach for you after all."
She returned her gaze to the clipboard, and with her hands, she gestured me to continue working, once again disinterested.
***
About an hour had passed since my conversation with Huixing.
"That's the last one, maintainer. Good job. Go take a break. Your next shift is in 2 hours."
I stood up and brushed the dust off my knees. Packing away my tools, I began walking through the commission, towards a little café meant for those of us on break, and a certain girl who always seems to be on break...
"Maintainer! Finally! I was waiting for you! Come play Celestial Jade with me!!"
That girl was waving at me, yelling and bothering our co-workers.
You don't need to yell, Qingque! Your shrieking is bothering other people.
"C'mon, don't be like that~ Let's get to it!"
Yeah yeah. I bet 500 credits...
Just as our game was about to begin, Qingque's hand paused and began to tremble. Wondering what was up, I turned to her face, a look of horror plastered over it as cold sweat ran rivulets down her cheek.
What's up Qing-
"W- We're on break, master diviner! Haha yeah, our maintainer over here was the one who suggested we- "
"It's alright, diviner Qingque, I didn't come to take away your break... "
I felt a soft voice from behind me. I turned my head and there she was, diviner Fu Xuan. She pulled up a seat and sat down right next to me, giving me a momentary glance before quickly averting her eyes towards the Celestial Jade table.
"...rather, I came to join you."
As she finished, she turned towards me, head slightly dipped, her eyes upturned, trying to meet mine, but failing and glancing away.
"J- Join us?!"
Qingque was absolutely flabbergasted. Her face, once filled with fear, was now in great shock, as if she just foresaw the end of the universe.
W- We'd be delighted to have you diviner Fu. Please, you can have the first turn.
In a show of respect, I gave her the first turn. Keeping composure was difficult though. She's sitting right next to me, I could feel diviner Fu's heat. I could see the glow of her skin from the corner of my eyes. Not staring at her was a struggle, a struggle which I lost.
"..."
She was pouting, staring back at me. W- What's wrong, diviner Fu?
"Didn't I tell you to just call me 'Fu' when we're not working?
Ah, you're right... diviner Fu.
Her pout drew into a frown, but she quickly hid it from me, turning to Qingque. She must've been mad that I refused to call her just, 'Fu,' but she was my superior after all. It was just... uncomfortable.
During our whole exchange however, Qingque just stared on in bewilderment and confusion, as if everything she'd ever known was a lie. She closed her eyes for a moment, resetting her mind, before opening her mouth:
"Can I call you just Fu when were off work as wel-"
"No."
Instant sorrow. Qingque was about to cry.
"But whyy--!! Why can the maintainer, but not me~~??"
"W- Well..."
She glanced towards me, her expression clearly asking for an out.
Why don't we get started with the game, diviner Qingque?
Qingque turned to me as I suggested we begin. She looked for a moment too long though, perhaps wondering why diviner Fu gave me such a permission and not her. Her expression wasn't sad or curious though. She looked at me, expressionless.
We began the game in silence, and ended it in silence.
