[It's a job he'll happily defer to literally anyone else he felt was reasonably official; Sephiroth's training included many things, but being a guard for the Board of Directors was not part of his expected daily duties.

Fear of consequences he can't currently predict will keep him compliant for now, as properly obedient as any could hope from a SOLDIER. Rufus was indeed safe in his company. Rebellion is years away, and Rufus' presence was living proof that he'd been right to not listen to the reassurances that he could do what he wanted with his future.]

.. I'll do my best, sir.

[And he would. With extreme, violent prejudice, in the unlikely chances anything attacked in a library.

But he shakes his head slightly; if there's pearl pieces at all and it isn't all a lie, he had no proof.]

Afraid not. The information given didn't grant a sense of scale, if it's a shard of an ordinary pearl then.. they could well be inside any book here, as well as on the shelves or around them, and the ..creatures assigned to assist don't seem particularly useful for this purpose.

[The common brown toad he'd selected is held up where it sits comfortably on his hand. The toad, unfed, is uninterested in helping yet.]