Interlude Seven: Theodore

Thursday – 8:30

Theodore had been busy the entire week. While many might assume that a manager's job would be easier than the people he employed, it was more often not like that. He was responsible for juggling all of the agents and targets, as well as calling different departments for various reasons. In addition, he needed to be in contact with the other agencies that worked with TRUCK-KUN.

He was glad to be on the verge of retirement. The position he held wasn't meant for the elderly, and he was now struggling to even get out of bed most mornings. Hopefully, Theodore would make things easier for him and take over his position. Otherwise, he might need to ask the twins to take over, and while they made great agents, they didn't have the leadership ability that Tobias had.

Theodore was pretty sure that Tobias would accept but wasn't completely sure how he would react to knowing the truth of what happened. He would need to tell him eventually, but he would have to be careful bringing up the subject.

Ring! Ring!

Sighing deeply, Theodore answered the phone. "Yes?" He didn't want to take any more calls today, but it was an essential part of the job.

"Hello," said the voice that Theodore instantly recognized to be Isaac, the director of ISEKAI. "How are things proceeding in regards to your retirement?"

"Things are proceeding smoothly," Theodore replied. "Tobias seems to have opted to get it over with as quickly as possible. We might even be able to celebrate a new board member in a couple of days. I will let you know once everything is finalized."

"Make sure that you do," Isaac said. "On another topic, I was approached with an offer that could theoretically double our output within five years. It would be great for the business if it could be maintained, but I would like to ask your opinion first. Do you think that your agents could transport double the current amount of souls per year? "

"Well," Theodore responded after giving it a little bit of thought, "the trouble would be paying all of our employees since we wouldn't be able to recruit double the amount of agents in such a short amount of time. Therefore, we would need the current agents to be active for many more hours each day and this would lead to having to pay them less per hour since we wouldn't be able to afford to pay them fully for the long term due to the disproportional time spent between taking on multiple targets at once. Additionally, it would burn the agents out more quickly. There might be a solution, but I will sleep on it and let you know at the next meeting."

"Very good. Make sure you do that," Isaac said before hanging up the phone.

Theodore put the phone down, and then closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair in contemplation. It was about Tobias though. Isaac's question could wait until later. Besides, he was pretty sure that he would be able to come up with a workable solution without much effort. Alternatively, he could present the question to Tobias, who had shown a knack for dealing with tricky situations. However, Tobias probably didn't have the luxury at the moment to discuss the issue at length.

Terry had told him that something strange was going on with Tobias, and if Terry thought so, then it must be true. However, without knowing what it could be, it would be safer to proceed as normal. If he made any sudden moves or asked any abrupt questions, it may simply be like adding fuel to a fire. Especially in a situation like this, where Tobias needed to focus on making a critical life decision, it would be best to not bother saying anything that would either set him off or distract him.

Theodore was fond of Tobias, and normally he might have been hesitant to pass down to him all of the stress and troubles that a manager had to deal with. However, as much as he liked Tobias, he was fonder of TRUCK-KUN and would do anything to preserve it.

Absolutely anything.