Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita:Volume 3 Chapter 1

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Feedback is welcome, but keep in mind this is a very early draft. It's only part of the chapter and is missing images and notations

The Fairies’ Homecoming

Homo sapiens are an existence whose time has passed.

The numerous cities that once covered the landscape have been swallowed by nature.

The severe decay has made most structures unliveable.

Due to the gradual but relentless population decline, we’ve all but forgotten about politics, war, even crime and discrimination.

Another species, the fairies, have taken over from us.

So much so that nowadays the term ’humanity’ refers to them instead of us.

As a UN Mediator, my job is to maintain the relationship between fairies and us old-humanity, still commonly called simply ‘humans’ in a lot of contexts.

Although they possess scientific know-how far surpassing our own, they tend to get carried away.

In order to try and keep us safe from their enthusiastic personalities, the Mediator is one of the very few professions that has managed to survive to the modern era.

In our village, Camphorwood’s Mediation Office currently employs three staff:

The narrator, myself.

My grandfather, who is also the Office Head.

And the assistant.

A little while ago we had a little incident involving the assistant and the fairies.

It was a confusing afternoon, but thankfully everything worked out okay.
At the moment, he’s quietly doing some writing at the desk he’s been assigned.

It’s been a peaceful day.

The doll handing from the upper window-frame swayed side to side gracefully in the gentle breeze, while also looking a bit like a hanged corpse.

“Let’s make some tea!”

In our office, we have tea-time five times a day. There’s really nothing to do, otherwise.

It’s June, the season of that sublime fruit, the strawberry.

An expressive power that steals hearts. That sharp, noble colouring. That form that brings to mind the great artists of old times.

This virtuoso had more than enough allure to consume by itself, but when used as a baking ingredient, it brings out a kaleidoscope of new flavours.

And so today’s desert is full of strawberries.

Grandpa slipped a bookmark into the thick old volume he’d been reading and looked up.

“What’re we having for snacks?”

“A cheesecake with a lot of strawberries in it.”

“Looks tasty.”

The moist cheesecake base was topped with numerous strawberries, and overflowed with a strawberry-and-cream sauce. It was one of the best desserts I’d ever baked.
And what’s more…

While I started slicing the cake, Grandad brought the teapot and the assistant brought the milk jug to the circular table we use for tea-time.

“Assistant, pour the milk for us, please. Same amounts as always.”

“…” the assistant nodded.

He brought over the milk jug, which was being cooled by tap water, over to the table. It had a doll hugging the handle integrated into the design.

He poured cold milk into elegant, fine teacups that looked as if they could easily break if filled with hot water.

The amount of milk was different for everyone. For me just a normal amount, a little more for the assistant, and only a tiny bit for Grandad.

He then filled each cup with hot tea, and a fresh aroma filled the room, giving everyone a moment of ecstasy.

“Okay, let’s make a start!” I said.

“Yep.” Grandad replied gruffly.

The three of us surrounded the table, enjoying the ample dessert.

“You’re not going to ring it?” grandpa said, jerking his chin to the side.

He was signalling to a bell placed on one side of the table. It’s design made it look like a fairy was dangling the bell under it.

“You’re right, I forgot,” I said, tapping the bell and filling the room with a sound like a gently tumbling lapis lazuli.

And at that…

“Yess!”

The doll hanging in the window frame suddenly spread its arms and legs out, and slipped out of the rope around its neck.

“Thanks very much!”

The book Grandad had been reading snapped open, and a fairy stood with his hands spread in the air.

“Gracias!”

The fairy that was the milk pot’s decoration sprung across the table.

“I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Merci!”

“Fevah!”

The fairy that’d been stuck to a cork-board with a pin.

The fairy holding a cylinder so that they could fulfil their role as a pen stand.

The pair of fairies that had formed the two sides of a book-stand.

And finally, the fairy who had become the table-bell angel for us.

“You’re all pretty lively today,” I said.

These human-loving fairies had recently taken to, without us asking or anything, spending all their time working as everyday goods for us.

“Caake! Cake!” they nagged.

“Yes, don’t worry, I have some for you all”

Just our usual, rowdy tea-time.

“Assistant-kun, how’s your picture book coming along?”

“Picture book?” I asked, looking across at Grandad.

“I know it’s a bit late, but I’m trying to foster his taste a bit. I told him to have a go with a book or two.”

The assistant brought a sketchbook over from his desk.

“Wait, you’ve been ‘’’’’making them?”’’’”

“…”

The assistant passed the book over to me.

“You’re letting me read it?” I asked as I looked at the cover.

The title was “The Forest Friends” was written in giant letters.

The assistant nodded once.

I placed the book on the table so everyone could see it, and opened it to the first page.

The light pastel illustrations and test jumped out at me.

“Wow, your pictures really are amazing.”

A landscape had been drawn without perspective. Trees and shrubbery were spread across the page as if on a map.

Stones and trees were given as much emphasis as the drawings of the characters

A style that doesn’t emphasise characters, or that reflects a distance between the artist and the work. Something like that.

The main characters seemed to be a pair of small yellow baby birds.

The picture book started like this:

‘’’”Tenderloin and Wing were two chicks. They were great pals.”’’’

“This is a very peaceful story!”

The detailed illustrations had caught the attention of the fairies, who had gathered around, their cheeks stuffed full of cake.

Is it some scribbles” - “I think it’s a manga” - “This looks fun”

“We can’t think of any stories” - “We can, it’s just that the plot will be awful”

“But if we do that, the experts will get angry” - “We aren’t suited to it”

“Only the humans can do it.”

Is that so?

An ultra-scientific race which can’t do baking or sweets or make up any stories… very puzzling indeed.

Page 2

”Tenderloin and Wing were very hungry. They went to the forest to look for food.”

“Getting by day by day!” -“Are they scavenging buffs?”

“They’re a little bit pathetic”

The fairies’ comments were surprisingly harsh.

Page 3

They found an acorn! Tenderloin loves acorns, since they’re super tasty!

”Yep that’s true” —— ”I get that”

”I thought that one time” —— ”Affirmative”

”I long for acorns”

It’s not impossible to do baking with acorns, but considering how hard they are to open up, the reward they give you is quite small.

At least compared to walnuts.

Page 4

We discovered a mushroom! Wing can’t resist these.

“Whenever I find a mushroom, I sit on it.” —— “They do make good chairs, for sure.”

”They don’t come with desks though.” —— ”They’re for when you’re out walking, aren’t they?”

They do seem just right for fairies to sit on.

Page 5

A very big egg was on the ground. Tenderloin and Wing decided to make it into an omelette.

After this, there was a series pages showing the characters working hard to cook the egg into an omelette.

It was quite a well-written story, and before long I’d almost read the whole book.

Honestly, if he can write a story this good, I can’t see his taste needing any fostering at all.

Page 10

We finally finished making the omelette!

And what’s this? All our friends from the forest had smelled our delicious cooking and come to visit!

Page 11

A squirrel, a rabbit, a mole, a chicken, a deer, a mouse, a cat, a boar, and a lion.

Everyone’s gathered, now let’s eat!

“It looks like the next page is the last… uh?”

Grandad couldn’t wait, and had peeked at the next page already.

Judging by the story so far, I’m guessing they all eat the omelette together and then it’s happily ever after, but for some reason Grandad’s face had taken on a troubled expression.

“Show it to us as well!” I said, flipping open the next page.

“…”

This dreadful scene…

Page 12

Yum! Thanks for the meal, guys!

”Yum! Thanks for the meal, guys!"

The lion had eaten all the rest of the forest friends.

“Grandad, keep up with the taste fostering!!”

The assistant clearly has some dark stuff wriggling around in his subconsciousness.

This ending is just far too brutal!

“If you think about it, this is how things would actually turn out” Grandad whispered, so that only I could hear.

“This isn’t the time to get all philosophical. Just look at this bloodbath!”

The last page featured a pile of animal bones with a satisfied lion sitting next to them.

The lion was coloured brightly with pastels, which only made the scene more bizarre.

“Don’t you think the very concept of ’forest friends’ is nothing more than a fantasy that us humans created?”

“Let him think about that once he becomes an adult!”

“You’re right. I’d hate to think what’d happen if a normal child read this.”

But the fairies didn’t seem particularly bothered by this ending.

”The strong…” —— ”Eat the weak!”

”Very true!” —— ”A satisfying ending, is it not?”

”And so the lion ends up having the savouriness all to himself.” —— “The realism!”

If anything, they liked it?

“Very fun story!”

“…” the assistant said gratefully.

The fairies and the assistant were touching the tips of their fingers together, communicating in a way that only that understood.

In the end, we decided that it was better for the assistant to focus on reading, rather than writing.

◈

The caravan that was due at the end of May instead arrived a few days into June.

Townsfolk, who often have a lot of free time on their hands, were already gathering around the trailers that were parked in the village square.

The mood of the square was not unlike a festival.

Most people go down and see the caravans even if they don’t have anything they need to buy, as it’s the only real point of contact the village has with the outside world.

Even an introvert like myself comes down whenever I have ration vouchers to spend.

A temporary beer-hall set up in a tent. Open-air stalls filled with wooden crates.

Fruit, grains, milk products, herbs and spices, tools, clothing and even toys.

There were almost as many stalls as there were people.

A jar of lemon and pear jam. A summer blouse and skirt. A cooking knife. A big jar of sliced-up fruits preserved in rum.

I’d done all my miscellaneous shopping and started heading home through the crowded square, I bumped into Grandad.

He was talking to some people in the caravan, so I tried to slip past without interrupting them.

“Oi, come here!” Grandad called, stopping me in my tracks.

“Uh, yes, what is it?”

I was introduced to a tidy, slender man who looked to be around fifty years old.

Grandad introduced us, his tone changing dramatically between me and his guest:

“And I don’t believe you’ve met my granddaughter before…
That’s right, over here! This is the UNESCO Office Chief.”

Office Chief? Then this guy’s pretty high up, isn’t he?

“Nice to meet you, I’m his granddaughter,”

“You’re the darling Granddaughter, are you? I’ve been hearing a lot about you, you’ve been doing a lot of good work.”

That special aura that important people radiate was making me more nervous than ever.

“No, don’t think I’ve really been doing that much…” I replied falteringly.

“Heheh… Anyway, I look forward to working with you!”

I was a bit worried about the ‘rumours’ he alluded to, but I was in the wrong frame of mind to have a proper conversation.

“The truth is we’re starting a new project down at the UN. I’ve come down to conduct a meeting about it.”

“A new project?” I said, looking nervously at Grandad.

“It’s true. It’s called the Humanity Monument Project. It was planned decades ago bit it ended up in limbo until just recently.”

“It sounds like a big job…”

“It is, Granddaughter-dear. It’s a gigantic undertaking. In fact it’s global in scale.”

Global!?

“We’re hoping to collect the numerous records of our culture and store them in an ultra-high capacity medium, and then house them in a monument so that they can be available to future generations.”

“When you say ‘numerous’, there really is huge amounts of different types of information out there…”

“Yep. We want all of it.”

I was a little overwhelmed at the scale of what he was saying.

“We’re basically wanting a summary of the human race. The monument has to be solid enough to remain once we’re all gone. If, or when, in the future a new species takes over earth, we need it to be something that can help them along their way. So we’ll need to pile in as much of our cultural works, science and history as possible, Granddaughter-dear”

Getting called ’Granddaughter-dear’ is getting a little gross.

“It sounds like it’ll be a really difficult plan to carry out…”

All of humanity’s culture, science and history. It’s hard to see it as anything other than a pipe dream.

“Keep in mind that when we say ’all the records’, we mean this as an ideal more that anything. In reality what the project boils down to is trying to find and then compile as much data as we can.” Grandad added

“Do you mean as paper records?”

“Nope, we’re planning to scrape together all of the storage technology we still have available to us today, and then design a specialised structure to put it in. We’ll then input all of the information we’ve collected into that structure. And since this will be our monument, it has to be pretty sturdy as well. At the moment we’re thinking of making it the shape of a monolith.”

By definition, a monolith can be any kind of stone monument, but for some reason or other it’s usually taken to mean a black stone carved into special prism-like shapes.

In this case, the Office Chief probably means the latter.

“Are we going to be carrying this all out with human technology?” I asked hesitantly.

“It’ll likely take more than a few years” Granddad said, grimacing a little.

He’d know this project was a little large in scale for someone who was supposed to be retired.

“What if you were to borrow the Fairies’ power?”

“You think they’d give us something in line with our plan?”

“Very true.”

This time it was my turn to grimace. Fairy Technology is very much focused on what they’re finding fun in a given moment, and not long-term goal-driven behaviour.

“I know that you’re on very good terms with the Fairies. I’ve been hearing rumours of your exploits.”

“Oh no…”

“But I’m sorry to say that this time we’ll be declining your services on the Fairy front. In the first place, this is an undertaking that’s happening worldwide.
However, Camphorwood village is close to a huge amount of city ruins, and I have a professor next to me who has a bounty of knowledge and experience, as well as an unrivalled collection of books on all subjects. Your help will be indispensable for what we’ll be doing.
And then of course we will be counting on your help as well, Granddaughter, my dear.”

“Ah, sure.” I said, having trouble keeping up with the eloquence of this official.

The Office Chief continued. “Oh and also, for our investigation of these city ruins, it looks like we’ll be needing a little help from your village on the manpower front.”

“It’ll have to be a very extensive investigation.”

Numerous city ruins of an unknown era, most of which have been eaten into by forests, are known to take tremendous amounts of work to explore, and you’re very unlikely to find anything to make it worth your time.

“Wouldn’t we need a power sauce?” I asked.

Present-day humans are only able to generate enough electricity to carry out absolutely essential tasks.

“You don’t need to worry in that regard,” grandad answered readily.

“We’ve had a satellite in our sights for some time now. It’s in working order and has all the functions we need. We also have the access codes, so all we need to do is fire up the receiver arial and we’ll be good to go.”

“Wait, does that mean we can use all the power we want?”

“Nope, it’s just for the investigation. The satellite’s going to need to be shared around different sites worldwide, so it won’t be made available for civilian use.”

“Of course it is,” I sad, mourning the brief hope I’d had of modern convenience.

“So there it is, Granddaughter my dear. I’ll be counting on your help for the investigation!”

“Thank you sir.”

I was too tired to add any vigour to my response. I mean, the job he’s just given us is gigantic.

There’s still a decent chance that the project collapses before we have to start, at least.

“Excuse me, professor!” A villager shouted, panting from his sprint over to us.

“What’s the matter?”

“They’re saying a meteor’s fallen in a field over there!”

◈

“So this is the meteorite…”

Grandad and the Office Chief still had some more things to discuss, so me and the assistant were the first personnel sent over.

We were told to just set a perimeter and wait for our two seniors to arrive. They probably thought we’re too young to be trusted with much more than fending off rubberneckers.

However, when we arrived on site that damage was a little less than I expected.

The crater was in an empty paddock on the village outskirts. Barely any onlookers and no signs of a fire.

Doesn’t seem like we’ll have to take any action at all.

“Lets still set our perimeter, just in case.”

Along with the assistant, I set out marking the area with stakes and some rope.

“This is one hell of a sight, though.”

The crater was about ten meters in diameter, and in its epicentre was what looked like a black steel slab, about thirty centimetres long and stuck into the ground at an angle.

“It seems like a monolith,” I muttered, bending down.

It wasn’t hot, or even warm to the touch. Anything that flew in from space should head up from the friction of entering the atmosphere at high speed.

“This has to be manmade.”

The assistant nodded loudly in agreement.

Humans civilisation was indeed capable at one time of some impressive engineering.

“Maybe this was in orbit and finally fell down today…”

This was probably the most sensible explanation, but I don’t know much at all about space or planets, so I decided to wait for grandad.

Suddenly, my eyes were drawn to what looked like a barrage of torpedos combing through the grass towards us.

When they reached our feet they suddenly leaped straight up in the air.

“Surprise!”

They were fairies.

“You’re working hard!”

“Something fell down?”

“Seems like it, look there!”

“Ooh this is indeed very black-coloured!”

With very little concern for their own wellbeing, they crawled over the object, touching it all over to gather as much information as possible.

I heard some more rustling, and looked over to see another group of fairies arrive.

“Hello!”

“I came over!”

“Something fell down?”

“Let me join in?”

“Hmm, we’re going to need a roll call,” I said, urging the fairies to form a single file.

“Number one!”

“Number Two.”

“Trois”

“Left.”

“Right!”

They’re all in perfect order, hahah…

“Did you fairies have anything to do with making this monolith?”

The five fairies huddled together and whispered among themselves. Their representative came forward.

“This is the first time we ever seen it!”

“Is that right?”

Then this must be manmade technology.

Picking up the monolith, it was lighter than I thought it would be. Only about five kilograms, I’d say.

“Hmm…”

I shook it, and heard a rattling sound. It must have a hollow somewhere inside it.

“It’s rattle rattling to you?”

“Maybe it’s got a prize in it!”

“A secret compartment?”

“A little prize in a big box!”

“Very commercialistic!”

“My god, what era do I have to be from to understand you guys!” I said, shaking my head in exasperation.

“Huh?” a nearby fairy replied.

“This lightness and now this rattle-noise. I can’t help thinking this is just a piece of junk.”

My interest was rapidly diminishing.

“Oi! What’s it looking like?”

“Oh, hey Grandad. So this seems to be what’s fallen down.”

“What the hell are you doing touching it? All I said was to secure the… Oh, never mind. Pass it over, I’ll have a look.”

Grandad seemed annoyed that I’d gotten a head start examining.

“A monolith? We were told it was a meteorite. So this is what’s supposed to have fallen from the sky?” Grandad asked, brows furrowed in doubt.

“This was stuck into the ground right in the middle of this crater.”

“This is too light, there’s no damned way. This is too light to survive. You sure someone’s not playing a prank on us?” he said hurriedly.

“A meteorite is the sort of thing that fell and wiped all the dinosaurs in the transition from the Palaeocene Period and the Cretaceous Period. That transition is called the K-T Boundary, by the way. Compare that to how light this is. Feels like a cookie tin, if anything!”

“It doesn’t seem to be one of the fairies creations, at the very least.”

“A human creation…”

Grandad conducted a thorough examination of the object, holding it up and turning it around so he wouldn’t pass by any clues.

Finally, he tore his attention away from it, his interest exhausted.

“If we say that this really fell here…” I started.

“There’s no way. This should’ve by all accounts burned up in the atmosphere. This metal slab hasn’t got the imposing spaciness it needs to survive.”

Grandad lobbed the monolith back into the crater.

“Just some kinda prank”

“Yeah…”

“Lets go back.”

Grandad had started off towards home.

“Assistant, we’re going back to the office now!”

“…”

The assistant was looking at a mountain that was beyond the plain’s gentle slopes. At its base was a belt of dense vegetation.

I suddenly realised what he was enraptured by.

“That’s actually a city over there.”

“…?”

Although the assistant uttered words only very rarely, he often spoke using his moist eyes, his gestures, posture.

“Yep, an ancient city. Or rather, its ruins. Nobody lives there these days. There’s a lot of dangerous things there, and it’s swarming with feral dogs.”

“…”

“Huh? You think it looks awesome? Are you interested in cities, Assistant?”

Since the assistant spent his childhood all alone, maybe cities have their own special allure to him.

“Ooh, Assistant, you’re interested in city ruins, are you? Well do I have good news for you! What say you come with us two on a little expedition?”

It seems like Grandad had been mulling over the Human Monument project in his head.

The assistant stared at Grandad for a few seconds, and then gave a small nod.

“You’re coming as well, dearest daughter,” he made sure to add.

“Well I guess if you insist.”

“Are we going out?”

“We want to go too!”

“Are we allowed to come?”

“Sorry, but we humans have to get this investigation done all by ourselves,” Grandad replied, his voice much kinder in tone than the one he uses on me.

“Aww, that’s too bad”

Their round, clear button-eyes looked the same as always, but for some reason their expressions felt lonelier than usual.

“If you promise to lay off the mischief, we could allow one of you to accompany us as your representative.”

”It’s all good?”

“Only if it’s someone well behaved.”

“Yayayy!”

“We pick one out for you.”

“Gonna talk it out”

“Who do they mean by ‘Behave’?”

“No clue”

It didn’t seem like they’d reach a decision anytime soon.

“What should we do about the monolith?” I asked tentatively.

“Just leave it be.”

We left the crater and returned to the office. The fairies disappeared suddenly. They’ll declare their representative at a later date, I guess.

◈

A few days later, we’d already forgotten almost all about the meteorite.

As I was heading home a little before the sun started to set, I decided to detour down the main street so I could do some window-shopping at the supply convoy.

“What on earth?”

It was as if there was a festival on.

People I hadn’t seen before were milling back and forth, and scaffolding had been put up all along the buildings lining the street.

Workmen were rushing along the scaffolding, which was no less busy than the street below.

I’d never seen the town like this before.

Looking closely, carriages and hand-carts punctuated the streetside. Some of these were set up as stalls.

There were even private automobiles, which were extremely uncommon in these parts.

I was wondering whether it’d be okay to cut across the busy town square, when I recognised a lady from the supply convoy.

“Would you happen to know why it’s so busy here today?”

“Oh, it’s the Professor’s girl! Apparently it’s supposed to be some kind of festival.”

“Was there a festival planned for today?”

“Apparently they suddenly decided to have one,” she shrugged.

The supply convoy lady had been put in charge of food preparation, so we thanked her and let her continue on her way to the kitchen area.

I stood for a moment taking in this scene which was so unlike the usual morning rush.

This was a remarkably sudden festival.

I assumed that all these unfamiliar people were from neighbouring villages come to help set up, or involved directly with whatever this festival is meant to be.

The yells echoing through the square were much louder than usual, and there was a festive energy you never expect to feel in a village as quiet as ours.

I watched as a man carrying what looked like a bundle of rope run over to another worker, assumedly his colleague.

“By cable, do you mean this thing”

“Yep, that’s right, I remember seeing one of these babies hooked up. Musta been about twenty years ago now though!”

It sounds like they’re talking about an electrical cable.

Yet another man came by and dropped an armful of some flat ribbon-like cable on the ground in front of him.

“This is the right stuff, isn’t it? It’s got that same socket thing on it.”

“No no, this is just some decorative lights!”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“There’s little lights all along it, see?”

“What’re we gonna use them for, then? They gonna be our lighting?”

“These little coloured bulbs aren’t gonna be any use for lighting stuff up, mate.”

“So we don’t need them at all then?”

“No, don’t be too hasty now. Go hang them somewhere, the Office Chief told us to put out all the electrical stuff we could, remember?”

“Fair enough, I’ll just go find a house somewhere to chuck them over.”

He picked his bundle back up and dived back into the milling crowds.

”Hello, hello! Testing! Testing!!

“Gyaa!”

An explosion of broken sound echoed around the square. It felt like the stone building near us was about to shatter.

For a moment afterwards, everyone near us remained silent. After that, though…

“What the heck was that, is it broken?”

“Nope, it was just the mic clipping out.”

“Do you think it’ll be working by the time the festival starts?”

“I already said it’s not broken!”

“My eardrums have gone and torn themselves!”

“Oof, that was a surprise.”

“Put it up somewhere higher! God help me…”

The speaker that’d produced the terrible sound had been set up at ground level.

A few youngsters picked up the loud-speaker, which was shaped not unlike a lily-flower, and carried it off somewhere.

This sort of stuff happens when we take technology out of cold-storage like this.

“Oh, good morning Granddaughter, my dear!”

“Office Chief… it’s good to see you.”

I tense up at the sudden arrival of my boss’s boss.

He was wearing his usual getup of a three-piece suit, but was sporting a safety helmet instead of his usual hat.

“I see you’re missing your had today.”

“Yes indeed. You see, according to gentleman-studies theory, a true gentleman will in workplaces such as this don the embodiment of safety first (or ANZEN DAIICHI as they say in Japanese), the safety helmet.”

I didn’t realise they were researching that…

“Is this festival related to the monument plan you were talking about before?”

“You mean the People Monument? Indeed you are correct. We’re planning to supply some of the power we’ve secured for our investigation of the city ruins to your village, which will become our base of operations.”

“You mean we’ll be able to use power in the village as well?”

“Yes, and what’s more there won’t be any restriction on its use. The energy we’ll be sent from our satellite is effectively limitless. It seems just a waste to use it only on our investigation. And that’s when we came up with our ‘Come and Be Amazed at our Electric Summer’ festival. When we talk about the culture of us primates, well that’s pretty much just electricity, isn’t it?”

“The culture of primates? This event sounds like it’s built on some pretty big ideas.”

“This will only happen over a few days though. You could think of it as a return to a lifestyle of culture, if I do say so myself, haha!”

“A lifestyle of culture…”

Those were indeed welcome words.

I returned my gaze to the bustling square.

“So that’s what this flurry of activity is about?”

“Well, this supply of power is still a long way off, but I wanted to ensure we had enough time to prepare for the kind of festivities I’m hoping for. I informed all the surrounding villages and provided them all with transport here.”

Big VIP managers like the Office Chief sure think on a large scale.

“Well we do have a lot of empty houses here, so we shouldn’t have a problem with accomodation and such.”

“Indeed you do! This will surely become something we can all be proud of. There’s lots of young people coming as well, in fact. You know how young people are, get enough of them together and they cause a ruckus for the sake of it. By the way, I was going to ask if you could keep an eye on them for me just until the festival is over.”

“I’m actually going to be fully occupied helping with the investigation, so…”

“Ah yes, that’s right! You’ve cherished by the fairies, aren’t you Granddaughter-dear. You’re indeed an indispensable member of our investigation team. I would’ve liked your help here, but I’ll have to find a way to cope by myself.”

It certainly sounded like the festival was the main event for our Office Chief…

“Chief!”

One of the youths from the village was approaching us.

“What is it?”

“Members from the Boys’ and Girls’ Science Club are here to see you”

“Sure, could you please bring thing over here for me? Granddaughter dear, I bet you think I’ve been putting all of my energy into this festival, haven’t you? But that couldn’t be further from the truth. As you can see, I’ve managed to find some youngsters who couldn’t be more keen to help you out with combing those ruins!”

“I’m thankful to hear that, sir.”

After a couple of minutes’ wait, a band of elderly people were brought over to us.

“We’re looking for the Office Chief…”

“Oh, that’d be me! Could I ask who you ladies and gentleman might be?”

The band’s representative came forward sporting an impressive beard,

“We’re the Boys’ and Girls’ Science Club, at your service!”

The Office Chief’s reinforcements were here, and they certainly would’ve been youngsters a mere half-century ago.

◈

Preparations were getting more and more hectic as the start of festivities and our expedition loomed.

My current duties mostly boil down to getting hold of anything that Grandad says we might need out in the ruins. In other words I’ve become his errand-girl.

Making a list of the tents, rations, tools, materials and personnel we might need, getting accomodation for and feeding people staying here in the village until the expedition, a place for all the complaints from the locals about the chaos in the village to go, taking minutes of meeting after meeting, making sure everyone coming here gets properly briefed, writing all kinds of management documents, making every kind of tea you can think of…

There was a mountain of jobs that I have to do if I want this to run at all smoothly.

What’s terrifying is that because so much that’s happening relies on other tasks being finished on time, a single miscommunication from me could set off a chain of failures that could bring things to a standstill.

I am a cog in the machine that can never be allowed to rest.

“Hey, what did you decide to do about that problem we had?”

Whenever I showed my face at the office I get greeted the same way.

That problem? That other problem? The problem from earlier?

“There’s at least twenty that problems you could be referring to.”

“The total amount of staff for the investigation, of course. What else could I mean!”