Dinner that day at the cafeteria was… tense to say the least.

  The dining hall had a high ceiling, and numerous tables and chairs for students to enjoy their food at any time. The cafeteria, situated on the furthest side of the hall were run by a few external restaurant chains and subsidised by the Academy, allowing for rather high quality and affordable food.

  Aurelius, Tiberius and Lucina were seated on one of the numerous busy tables of the dining hall opposite the jolly Wally Tona, eating their food awkwardly. He had insisted on joining them for dinner at the Academy cafeteria, insisting that he had heard great reviews about the food in the Academy.

  The Headmaster, Dr. Wilkins had announced tightened security measures around Academy grounds earlier that evening, with commission mages helping to erect a few enchanted boundaries on the school grounds.

  Additionally, the Academy hired a small mercenary firm, with the two high ranking commission mages, Mr. Tona and Ms. Yeltz taking command over them.

  His presence had attracted much attention. Or as much as an old, unkempt man wearing a trench coat around a bunch of teenagers could attract. However, the curious glances cast their way didn’t seem to bother the old man one bit.

  But it did bother the three friends. Quite a bit.

  The Commission had taken up the responsibility to prepare several precautions for Aurelius and Tiberius, each more disruptive than the last.

  They had placed him and Tiberius in one of the empty, dusty dorm rooms on the top floor, stating that it would make it easier to “corner assassins". Aurelius would now be forced to climb up like a hundred more steps, or pay for the elevator. Both choices, given Aurelius’s lazy nature and spending habits were equally evil in his eyes.

  Additionally he was actually pretty sure that several of the rules were made up by Mr. Tona by his own whims. He was the one who had received the instructions after all.

  For example, the note: “Don’t visit The Stumbling Stag under any circumstances.”, seemed rather specific.

  If he had to guess, Mr. Tona had probably been banned from the tavern or had some feud with its owner. There was no real way that The Stumbling Stag was some sort of… fae hideout or something. Right?

  All in all, he hardly trusted the old man with his safety.

  “Ah, my new colleague finally arrives!” The sleazy geezer welcomed, prompting the three students to follow his gaze towards a parting sea of students.

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  “Sure, old man. Good to work with you again.” The sage grunted, as the muscular figure trudged closer to their table.

  “Your bloody ass got off easy. Can you even imagine the paperwork that I had to do? For one, Ms. Livia fucked away to god knows where without cleaning up after herself, and it took so much fucking time just to get that FUCKING spell under control. She really needs to learn to be CONSIDERATE.” She grumbled, launching into another trove of curses and complaints about paperwork, completely ignoring the staring gaggle of students around the room.

  Do these people need to follow us to the damn cafeteria? I didn’t know that commission employees were so lacking in COMMON SENSE! Aurelius grumbled to himself.

  As if reading his mind, the sage’s eyes turned to glare at him, immediately freezing Aurelius’s movements.

  Through narrowed eyes, Ms. Yeltz scrutinised him, making him shrink with each passing second. Tiberius and Lucina looked far into the distance, blinking awkwardly as they mumbled polite greetings to the commission sage.

  “You were thinking something rude. Don’t let me catch you like that again.” She growled finally, snapping her fingers to teleport a small bowl of noodles to her seat.

  “Ah, I forget that your spirit contractor is reinforcing the teleportation boundaries within the Academy! I don’t suppose you can fetch me a glass of orange juice from the counter?” Mr. Tona teased, seemingly oblivious to the fearsome woman’s foul mood.

  The man, much to Aurelius’s horror, didn’t even wait for a reply, simply tossing the sage a silver coin.

  Aurelius, Tiberius and Lucina watched as the silver coin glinted in the lamplight as it traveled through the air, bracing themselves for the retribution that the ill-tempered sage would bring.

  To their surprise, the response was more extraordinary than even their expectations.

  “Tsk, fine.” She replied, calmly.

  W-What? Did she just agree to this old fart’s ridiculous request? The thought shot through their minds as their jaws dropped in shock.

  The sage proceeded to teleport away his coin, summoning a glass of juice from the drinks display, leaving the silver coin neatly on the payment counter.

  “Bleh, this is apple juice. Have we been slacking on teleportation recently?” Mr. Tona asked incredulously.

  The icy glare from the sage seemed to freeze the air around them, coaxing out cold sweat from Aurelius’s pores, even when the gaze was directed towards the senile old man.

  “I thought you preferred apple juice.” She finally said, her imposing figure shifting around as she took her seat.

  “No, I like apple cider. There is a clear distinction arising from the addition of a wonderful, magical substance–Alcohol.” The man replied, taking a sip of his glass.

  Tiberius, bewildered, blurted out a question on the minds of everyone on the table.

  “What even is your relationship? Isn’t she your superior in the Commission?” He asked, his curiosity overcoming his fear of this impressive figure charged with babysitting them.

  This question earned him a frown from the sage and a hearty laughter from Mr. Tona respectively.

  “HAHA, Oh, I think you’ll like this one, Yeltz! What a hilarious question!” Mr. Tona said.

  “Shut it, old man.” She growled.

  With an affectionate slap on his back, he finally explained their relationship.

  “Ah, this bawdy lady here used to be my apprentice!”

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