The Tower of Trust opened officially from 9 o’clock, but given that a small department of the Commission employees had to actively keep in touch with different time zones in the Western continent, it was unofficially open for what was essentially 24 hours.

  According to Sage Yeltz, 7am was actually when the night shift commissioners ended their day, and would actually allow them to use the Commission facilities quite freely before the official day started.

  At least, that was what Seraphine mentioned when they had met up the previous night to sign their ‘employment’ contracts at the Tower.

  “Hm, surprisingly punctual.” Sage Yeltz commented, walking into the Tower lobby with her usual scowl and bringing with her the strangely floral aroma of coffee.

  She was wearing some casual attire today, with a flowing, rather stylish trench coat matched with a neat collared shirt and pants.

  “Morning, kiddo.” Seraphine greeted with a small wave, following behind the sage enthusiastically, holding a cup of coffee of her own.

  Aurelius probably should have considered getting coffee first given that he could barely manage a wave right now. In fact, it was a struggle to even stand in the unholy hours of the morning that cloaked the city.

  Despite that, Aurelius reached into his pocket to pull out the glowing soul imaging orb.

  “Toss it over.” Sage Yeltz demanded, taking a sip of her coffee, and making a ‘give me’ gesture at Aurelius with her hand.

  A brief pause ensued in the empty lobby as Aurelius stared in a daze at the orb and at the sage.

  “...No.” Aurelius replied, standing up a little straighter in defiance.

  “I’ll just take it then.” Sage Yeltz said with irritation, waving her index finger in a circle in the air, summoning a small ball of water.

  The water extended into a thin, glowing line in the air, becoming infused with mana, and swirled towards Aurelius without hesitation.

  Immediately, it bound his hands and started to drag his hands which cusped the orb towards the sage.

  “W-Wait!” Aurelius yelled out, horrified at the impatience of the sage.

  He was her apprentice in the first place! What kind of mentor resorted to such… coercion without even hearing out what the other party had to say!

  “I’ll give it to you. Just like wait!” Aurelius cried out desperately, struggling not to fall as he was dragged ever closer to the scowling sage.

  “Explain.” Sage Yeltz commanded, taking another sip of her coffee without a care in the world.

  “I just wanted to remind you about our agreement Ms. Yeltz! The one to do with my contract with the Commission!” Aurelius yelped, taking a short time to recover from the immediate assault that Sage Yeltz had inflicted on him.

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  Sage Yeltz released the spell wordlessly, walking over leisurely to Aurelius and plucking the orb right out of his hands.

  With a snap of her fingers, the orb immediately teleported away in a line of geometric shapes.

  “Hmm, yes. I did say that.” Sage Yeltz pondered.

  “But first of all, you should mind your bloody manners when talking to your elders. Second of all, the Tower is not going to stay quiet forever. I have things planned for today already.” She explained candidly, giving Aurelius a light smack on the head.

  “We can discuss this in detail during lunch, and we can see if we have the time to visit the vault again.” She declared, walking past Aurelius casually.

  With a ‘follow me’ gesture, she continued towards the Commission magic elevator, prompting Aurelius and Seraphine to follow behind.

  However, as they stepped into the lift, Aurelius’s eyes caught something interesting.

  “Ms. Yeltz…” Aurelius started nervously, earning him another murderous glare from the sage.

  “What is it this time? Should I just send you back to the Academy?” She growled in irritation, inserting her commission ID and pressing a button for one of the basement levels.

  “...Nevermind.” Aurelius replied, shrinking back into the corner of the elevator.

  If he told her what he had noticed, the woman might actually send him back to the Academy, or… worse. Silence him by slicing up his tongue or something psychotic along those lines.

  “You better fuckin’ spill what you were about to say. I can sense unpleasant thoughts from you.” Sage Yeltz threatened, turning around to face him in annoyance this time.

  Aurelius, now pale, deliberated on his words carefully. And as the elevator gave a cheerful ‘ding’, Aurelius revealed a truth that was probably better left unsaid.

  “T-The price tag is still attached to your coat ma’am…”

  ???

  “Koff. Alright, we’re here at the Commission archives.” Sage Yeltz announced, her keys rattling as she opened up its door.

  She was still slightly reddish in her cheeks from what had transpired on the lift, but had elected to ignore the issue altogether after discreetly snapping her fingers to take care of the tag.

  As the door opened, Aurelius found himself overtaken by the smell of old ink, and yellowing paper. Dozens and dozens of steel shelves stood in front of him, each one almost twice as tall as Aurelius.

  There were magic ladders attached to each shelf, with each steel ledge stacked full of documents and books, all presumably categorised with some obscure systems.

  “Even considering what I know, it’s a little difficult for me to find all the materials that I need to help your situation, boy.” Sage Yeltz declared.

  “I usually get my materials using the Commission record systems, but the archives are, as you can imagine, filled with undocumented books and papers.”

  “So you’re going to take today to find some research and documents relating to your damn circumstance, and maybe even help to label some of them for the sake of the Commission record system. I’m paying you guys as interns after all.”

  “We’ll wrap up at 9 am, and report over to the gym to do some training.”

  “I will explain to Seraphine some of what your ‘special circumstances’ are before I send her off to help you find the materials for research.”

  “So, get lost.” She growled, using magic to push Aurelius down one of the shelves of documents and books.

  With a snap of her fingers, she then proceeded to drop a clipboard and a filing document on his head through teleportation, leaving Aurelius to the horrors of paperwork.

  ???

  …Hmm Aurelius thought.

  He had not been too enthusiastic about the work at first, but eventually found himself enjoying the work a decent amount after a while.

  The magic ladders were actually quite convenient, with them essentially flying him around the stacks of paperwork with ease.

  And the clipboard, where charm had been attached, could summarise the contents of the boxes of documents for Aurelius to jot down.

  While he had yet to find any useful documents relating to his case, he had actually catalogued around a shelf full of documents already within the last hour.

  “Huh?” Aurelius wondered, scanning another box of documents, finding an ominous title in the information popping up.

  “Trial information for the criminal… Pultris?”