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Chapter 16

A look of puzzlement crossed Felix\'s face as he heard the knock.

\'Who could it be?\'

Today was the first day in a while when everyone gathered together to get to know each other better.

If Lena was at the door, she would have opened the door herself and come in instead of knocking.

There was no one who would come here at this hour, especially through the back door.

Except for one person.

\'Could it be... that mage?\'

As he pondered this, he quickly checked his watch and shook his head.

\'...Impossible.\'

It had only been about 2 hours since that guy left the request office.

For a mage with poor mobility, returning this quickly made no sense.

Moreover,

\'I did call him a neighborhood punk earlier, but...\'

In truth, Shane was not someone easily caught.

He was a despicable man who would do anything to escape, whether it was overusing artifacts, taking hostages, or using illegal stations.

That was Shane in a nutshell.

No wonder his nickname was \'Master of Escape.\'

"I\'ll get it."

Felix said and strode towards the door and opened it.

Click!

But there was the very man he thought couldn\'t possibly be there.

Carrying a man who had passed out and was foaming at the mouth on his shoulder.

"We meet again."

\'H-How...?\'

Felix was momentarily taken aback but quickly regained his composure.

Though he still didn\'t understand what was happening... there was the plan he had discussed with the others.

"...Come in."

That plan would proceed without a hitch.

To protect their livelihood and that of the other members.

***

Thud!

After tossing the unconscious man onto the table, I immediately checked the clock.

\'2 hours.\'

Fortunately, I never got caught by the patrol because I only walked on roads with few people.

Shane hadn\'t been particularly difficult to subdue either.

It had been a bit of a hassle to knock him out again whenever he regained consciousness and tried to cause trouble on the way... but all in all, this wasn\'t bad.

It was a sufficient record to make my presence known.

The problem was that the black-haired woman who was supposed to verify this wasn\'t here.

"Where\'s the woman?"

"...She stepped out for a moment."

"Is that so?"

I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in earlier and glanced around.

"Ahem, ahem..."

The others quickly averted their gaze when they met my eyes.

A suspicious reaction by anyone\'s standards.

\'What\'s with this atmosphere?\'

It seemed like they had been quite lively until just before I came in.

Just as I was thinking this, a man came and sat down next to me.

It was the guy who had picked a fight with me earlier.

His name was... Felix, wasn\'t it?

"What is it?"

I asked warily.

Felix scratched his head as if embarrassed, then extended his hand as if for a handshake.

"Hey, mage. I\'m sorry about earlier. I didn\'t realize you were such a capable person and said some foolish things."

...A sudden apology?

Feeling something was off, I scrutinized Felix\'s face. His scraggly beard and forehead scar still gave him a fierce appearance.

"To explain myself... we\'ve had many reckless people come here and die. It was a kind of concern, I suppose. You might see it as meddling."

But his expression seemed genuine. A bright smile, as if there wasn\'t a hint of ill intent.

"We\'ll be working together from now on... so let\'s try to get along, shall we?"

In my experience, people with expressions like this are always trash.

See, even now my heart is racing madly.

Thump! Thump! Thump...!

[Entering the awakened state.]

I looked at the hand he extended, or more precisely, at the blade hidden in his sleeve.

What a fucking world this is.

Now they\'re even trying to ambush me while pretending to apologize.

"Is this apology too? Or... another fuckery?"

"What?"

It didn\'t take long for him to understand my words.

But it was enough time for me to make the first move.

Bzzt!

In the blink of an eye, my electrified fingers gently touched his neck.

"Urghhhh!"

The electrocuted man fell backward, and that became a signal for the men who had been waiting for their chance to rush in.

"You bastard...!"

"Aaargh-!"

The number was about... twelve.

Fire, water, earth.

I mercilessly threw magic spheres imbued with each element and dealt with the ones that came out first.

The interior of the request office instantly transformed into chaos.

Whoosh!

"Gaaaah."

The one hit by the fire sphere screamed and jumped around.

Thud-!

The one struck by the earth sphere blacked out without even a groan.

As for those hit by the water sphere... they shook their heads with unpleasant expressions, but...

"What the... hell?"

They didn\'t remain standing for long.

The electricity I released coursed through the puddles of water around them.

"Urghhhh!"

"You dog... you fucking dog!"

They flapped about like fish out of water.

"Damn it. I didn\'t want to do this from the start..."

"...What kind of monster are you? How many elements can you handle alone?"

Some clever ones had managed to dodge and were still unharmed, but they seemed to have lost their fighting spirit.

"That bearded guy said we should get along... I didn\'t get to answer."

I looked straight at them and said,

"Please take good care of me too."

I put up the expression of the most charming and righteous man.

They couldn’t help but curse under their breath.

“Shameless, Fucker.”

"...Ungh."

It was at that moment that the door suddenly opened.

Click!

"Huh...?"

A woman with deep black hair and tanned skin.

Her eyes darted around, taking in the chaotic state of the shop.

And then.

"...This is."

The woman\'s face turned cold.

Not a trace of her earlier kindness remained.

"...I think I need an explanation?"

***

Lena, the current owner of the request office.

Only after hearing the whole story did her kind face return.

"I\'m sorry, I shouldn\'t have left. I didn\'t expect you to return so quickly. Nor did I think these pigheads would pull such a stunt..."

"No need to apologize. I caused damage too."

Of course, her friendly face was only directed at me.

Every time she turned her head, that demonic expression I saw earlier would resurface.

"Move faster! You little shits!"

The way her expression kept changing was like watching some \'inner demon\' emerge.

This woman was truly scary.

"Damn it, why me... I didn\'t want to do this from the start..."

"Still, we got lucky. Better than that guy with his hair completely burned off or those still lying unconscious."

"Hey, Theo! If you\'ve got time to complain, start sweeping here. There\'s a mountain of broken plates!"

"Damn it! Damn it all!"

The gang\'s cleaning speed increased noticeably at Lena\'s scolding.

The truly frightening thing here was that if I hadn\'t cleared up the misunderstanding, I might have been the one mopping the floor with them.

"...Don\'t take it too personally, though. They probably just meant to scare you, not kill you. They\'re thoughtless and reckless, but... not that malicious."

"I\'m not particularly bothered."

"Well, that\'s good then. Anyway."

Lena, who had been fidgeting for a while, finally seemed to finish her work and stood up.

She then placed her hand on the shoulder of the man sitting in front.

"Mmph! Mmph...!"

There was Shane, who was restrained with various devices all over his body and couldn\'t even speak.

Would he be handed over to the client in this state?

He probably wouldn\'t fare well there.

It\'s highly likely that the client is a family member of the man Shane had killed.

Clang!

After locking Shane in a room with an iron door, Lena continued speaking.

"Phew... Your verification is now complete. From now on, you\'re an official hunter of our Artis Request Office, and you can take any request you want."

Despite her words, there was still a hint of distrust in Lena\'s eyes.

In a way, it\'s understandable.

Trust and skill are separate issues, after all.

"When do you want to start working?"

I glanced at the time.

10 PM.

It was late, but with my training with Barundel finished and my schedule cleared, I figured I could handle one more job.

Above all, I hadn\'t yet accomplished my purpose for coming here.

I might be entering the Magic Tower soon, so it was better to resolve this as quickly as possible.

"Is it possible right now?"

"Now?"

"I\'m in a situation where I need quick cash."

"...Well, it\'s not a problem, but aren\'t you tired? After everything that\'s happened."

"..."

Come to think of it, my condition was unusually good right now.

Morning training, afternoon verification, and even entering an awakened state for combat at night, yet...

I soon realized the reason.

-The first stage is now complete. I\'ve fixed all imbalances in your body. ...You\'ll probably feel the effects soon.

This must be what Barundel meant when he said I\'d feel the effects.

I didn\'t have high expectations given how short the training period was, but the effects are more significant than I thought.

Was [The Hammer of Balance] always this high-level of an artifact?

"...It\'s no problem. I\'ll do it right now."

"You\'re an unusual one. Well then, follow me this way."

Lena led me to a cramped space behind the bar counter.

Business must be good, as request forms were piled up everywhere.

Thud!

"You can choose from these."

Lena said, dropping a stack of documents on a small round table.

There must be about 30 requests here.

I was trying to sort out as many things as possible that smelled like money, but I couldn\'t find anything that I liked.

All of this work involved assassination, smuggling illegal drugs, and arresting wanted criminals with small sums of money at stake.

But then.

"What\'s this...?"

Among the ordinary requests, one on visibly high-quality paper stood out.

Lena answered with an ‘Oh no’ look on her face.

"Ah, I must have mixed that in by mistake. Don\'t worry about that one. It\'s an absurd request we were planning to discard."

Grab.

I caught Lena\'s wrist as she tried to remove the document.

"Wait a moment."

"Hm? Why? Don\'t tell me... you want to take this one?"

Instead of answering, I began reading through the request.

Meanwhile, Lena added an explanation in a disapproving tone.

"It\'s an infiltration request, but it involves entering a Magic Tower. The risk is too high. If you get caught, your life is over right there."

"Who\'s the client?"

“Well, I don’t know who it is because only that piece of paper flew in. Usually, these types of requests don’t end well. I understand your skills, but… … I don’t really recommend it. It’s been a while since a precious mage has come in, so I can’t lose him right away, right?”

Lena was certainly right.

Infiltrating a Magic Tower? Forget the risk, it\'s practically impossible.

How could one fool the eyes of so many mages?

Even assassins specialized in concealing their presence would shake their heads at this.

But that\'s for normal circumstances.

My situation was a bit different.

"If all they want is to gather information... there\'s no need to sneak in secretly, right?"

The information this request requested was about the Magic Tower \'Aldeon\'... the one I was planning to enter as an apprentice.

"...What? What do you mean?"

Ignoring Lena\'s words, I focused on the last part of the request form.

My eyes fell on the section detailing the reward.

An artifact superior to the Bracelet of Holy Oil.

A \'Heroic-Grade\' artifact that increases the Holy Power stat by 20.

\'The Pendant of Holy Oil!\'

The mysterious client had offered that as payment.

I couldn\'t help but smile at this lucky opportunity.

"I\'ll do it. This request."

Although it meant becoming a spy at great risk.

If the reward was a Heroic-Grade artifact, it was worth risking my life for.