After the end of the first case Thomas and Lucia had to take a break from their private detective business for several reasons. The biggest one being her brother Robert's marriage June which was to be a large affair that Lucia and Thomas had been recruited into helping Robert and his fiancée plan for and it would take up pretty much all of their time. The remaining time that they had would be spent on their other business ventures that they were starting up as well and looking for new agents to assist them. In which finding suitable candidates would be no easy feat.
Meanwhile at their office the construction company that was owned by Lucia's older brother was remodeling the entire property. Which meant gutting the inside of the building and replacing the entirety of the interior from everything from the walls,floors and plumbing. To even the floor plan of the entire building leaving only the essential support structure where it was.
The design of the new floor plan was done to the specifications of Lucia, though the actual design was done by a professional architect who only had to follow the specifications that Lucia wanted in the Office.
The changes of the design of the office would be as follows, the basement would be turned into storage with the hidden room being turned into a regular room that would function as the office's gun storage. As it would be able to be secured better due to the concrete walls that separate it from the rest of the basement. The other part of the basement would be storage for everything else.
The first floor would be turned into the business section that has a reception room which had several leather chairs, a reception desk as well as some decorations. The other rooms would be for meeting customers and other public functions. There would also be several other rooms such as a sitting room for meeting with customers and hearing their requests without having to go to a private office. There is also a small staff room that contains a small kitchenette in it.
The second floor would be for more private matters, as there would be a library, a storage area for artifacts, a study and archive room. As well as rooms that can act as workshops to help with investigations.
All of which is done in an elegant way that turns the building from looking like it would be owned by someone from the middle class to something that only the wealthiest could afford to own. Since during her second life Lucia has grown fond of the wealth her family has obtained and some of the fancier decorations. So she has decided to splurge a bit on renovating the building.
The renovation is expected to take around a month and a half to finish and during that time Lucia and Thomas were taking a nice vaction to Europe.
July 20th, 1920
The time went by and soon enough her brother's marriage was over, and Thomas and Lucia were back in New Bristel ready to continue their private detective business. Though for the time being they couldn’t take any cases as for why? There was no one that had come to them, but more importantly the two of them had decided that the two of them wouldn’t be enough to handle it, and having more people would be helpful. However, hiring an agent that would help them in cases was going to be a lot harder than hiring a receptionist or secretary, which they had done easily by recruiting people from their family's company, since there aren't any special requirements that they need for the two positions.
The requirements that Lucia had set to be an agent at the company, made it a lot harder to find someone. As they needed to be able to hold their own in combat against. Even when outnumbered by humans or non-human opponents. As well as larger monsters that are much stronger than humans are. Last and most importantly they need to have psychological toughness to not break when they are needed the most. They also needed to have some other skills that would allow them to pitch in during investigations.
Since Lucia was not looking for grunts that can only fight but well-rounded individuals who not only specialize in one area but also have some skills in a variety of areas. Though some parts are hard to judge, primarily physiological toughness which is hard to judge when interviewing someone and can generally only be discovered by spending time with them or going through traumatic or difficult experiences. To then discover what some are like and learn how tough someone truly is because someone that may seem tough and brave when first met, might end up running at the first sign of trouble. While inversely someone that seems weak, might be unbreakable and never break despite how tough the situation may seem. Though it is almost always in between the two extreme examples, they show how someone shouldn’t necessarily be judged by how they look or how they may first appear.
So because of those difficult qualifiers it meant that it would take a while before someone could be found that could be hired. Which also meant that cases would have to wait until they are able to find around 2 more agents. However even though there wouldn't be any casework to do for the moment, it didn’t mean that there wasn’t a lot to do.
As Lucia took the time to start training Thomas to make sure he can endure future cases as well as to teach him some things from her past life. His agent training included physical training to improve his physical fitness which will determine how effective a lot of the other training will be. So because of that his physical training served as the basis of his training. He was also taught how to use firearms, melee weapons(a bit), hand to hand combat, as well as psychological training to make sure that he doesn’t have a repeat of what happened last time. Where instead of trying to fight the creatures, he sat in the car mumbling out of sheer terror. Though to be fair, he wasn’t expecting it nor did he have any clue what it was so he can’t really be blamed for freaking out. Though it means that the physiological training will be even more important for him, as even if it wasn’t a major issue this time it won’t be the same in the future and breaking down in a middle of the fight might cause him, Lucia or anyone they are with to possibly lose their lives because they had become mentally incapacitated and unable to properly fight. Which would be the same as someone being killed or knocked unconscious, which could turn the favor of battle against them.
So Lucia had determined that she would make sure that they would at the very least ensure that Thomas and her agents (when they get hired), won’t break during combat at the very least. Though it would be nice if they would never break (physiologically) during a case, Lucia realized that might be asking for a bit much.
Besides teaching Thomas practical skills that she would teach all agents, she also taught him skills that she learned from her world, such as some martial arts and intelligence analysis and most importantly, the supernatural forces from her world and how they may be connected to this world.
Au: No I am not going to spell out everything that she knows for 2 reasons,
1 I don’t want to have a massive info dump that could last several chapters.
2: I haven’t decided upon it yet and I don’t want to have to worry about continuity errors.
Lucia debated on telling Thomas about her past life, she decided against it since even though he was like a brother to her, she couldn’t find a practical reason to tell him. Though she also left the option for the future if she ever determines that it would be beneficial to tell him or anyone else.
The two then spend the days in the fleeting peace that they have, before starting a never-ending war against the supernatural forces that wish to encroach upon the world and the cults that worship them.
