When I opened my eyes the rays of the morning sun greeted me. The exams had passed by in the blink of an eye, and I’d collapsed the moment I’d gotten home. Mental exhaustion was a thing even after reincarnation.

There was no time for meditation this morning. I had arranged for a teleport to the Academy that would arrive soon. My heartbeat quickened as the minutes went by and I made my preparations. I had been looking forward to this for a long time.

Today I was going to the Zodiac compound in Koshima.

I fixed odds and ends on my shirt, and double checked that I had my Zodiac employee card on me. My dad had already gone to work, but my mum stayed with me as the portal opened.

“Remember to text us if you’re going to stay there for longer than expected.” She said gently.

“I will.” I nodded.

I also had a spar with Amanda after the library visit.

There was a chime, and I knew it was time to leave. I gave my mum an extra-long hug and Gold flapped onto my shoulder. He’d felt left out after he couldn’t join yesterday’s trip.

I scratched his neck as we entered the portal.

The Koshima academy hillside came into view, and I could see a couple of students walking close by. The dome was used by clubs on the weekend, and I could see the odd person sitting on the grass and relaxing.

I walked towards the entrance and made my way into the city.

The landscape really changed when it was the last day of the weekend. Fue was the day that everyone slept in and lazed around. There was the occasional person heading to work, a tired expression on their faces, but the streets were mostly empty.

My footsteps echoed on the stone street. I could see the shopping district ahead of me, with the guild building to my right. Far beyond lay the noble district and it’s wall.

Neither of these were my destination today.

I took a turn to the left once I reached the guild.

Koshima City was large. I didn’t know which way was north, and which way was south. I judged my location based on the academy as a starting point.

There were several other buildings around me and the guild, but I didn’t know who they belonged to or what their purpose was.

To the left of the academy was the ugly part of town, otherwise known as the industrial area. The colourful paint jobs and vibrant atmosphere disappeared from the buildings as I walked towards my destination.

This was where the compounds for each company were located. I was starting to see people in robes and masks, going back-and-forth from their houses to their jobs.

There was no rest for these workers.

Walls appeared around me and each one blocked off a different company from the world. They weren’t as big as the walls in the noble district, but they were far more intricate in their design, proudly displaying insignias of their respective corporations.

Each one had a gate, with guards checking the identification and papers of the incoming employees.

It was different from my home city. Over there we only had one giant compound, but here the level was clearly higher. There were several large compounds in sight, and I could already see a couple of silver masks mixed in with the sea of bronze and tin.

Each mask was shaped differently depending on the respective corporation that they were part of. It was a form of identification, and reputation.

There were knights as well and each of them had an insignia instead of a mask to denote their rank.

A few of them gave me curious glances as I made my way through the throng of people. It was starting to get crowded as they made their way to work. Armies rarely took a day off, and even if they did it would never be every single soldier off duty at the same time.

They had to be ready to teleport at any moment.

A familiar insignia came into my view.

It belonged to Athena.

Zodiac’s corporate rivals had a large presence in Koshima. In the street their employees stood up straighter than the others, and I could see that a lot of them had new armour on. Each one strode among the crowd with confidence, and even their wall was higher.

Size didn’t matter, but they were showing off theirs.

As I made my way past the compound, I saw a blue glimmer at their entrance. It drew closer to me, but the people around me ignored it.

I looked down at the source and saw it tiptoeing towards me cautiously.

It was a cat.

I had seen it before when I was walking with Amanda to her house. It had been sitting on a ledge nearby. Its fur glowed a vibrant blue and it circled me curiously, letting out a small purr.

“Be careful.” I spoke to Gold.

I didn’t want him to get eaten.

He squawked in response and to my surprise the cat ignored him. The blue light trailed from its body and surrounded me as it made its way through my legs. It purred again and then looked up at me.

I didn’t know if I should move or not. Back on Earth the cats I met would do whatever they wanted, but if I made a sudden movement, they would snap at me. I was never sure if that meant they liked me, or if it meant that they didn’t.

Those cats also hadn’t been glowing.

For all I knew this cat could teleport me with a thought.

“Okay.” I chuckled to myself. “That’s just silly.”

The cat was glowing blue, not purple, and nobody would keep an animal that dangerous so close to them. It was probably just an ordinary magical cat.

“Hello there.” I raised my hand in greeting.

It ignored me.

“Okay then, do what you want.” I wasn’t hurt at being ignored.

Okay… maybe I was a little.

I took a step forward and the cat followed me. Every few steps it would rush between my legs as though chasing something, and I stopped for fear of tripping over it.

Gold kept a wary eye on the predator below him. I did as well. It looked like it was concentrating on other things, but I didn’t want it to jump unexpectedly and grab the puffer.

“Harpo!” A female voice called out from beside me. “There you are.”

I turned around and found myself facing a robed figure. She was wearing a tin mask with three eye holes.

It was a Zodiac mask.

“I’m so sorry.” The girl knelt down and gestured at her cat. “Harpo, come here. Psst.”

The cat looked at her for a second and then turned away.

A smile crossed my lips at the cat's antics. It was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one that had been ignored. I looked at the girl and then down at the cat.

She’d named her cat Harpo?

A shift in the mana around me broke through my thoughts. I activated my mana sense on instinct and turned towards the source. It was the tin-mask. The girl was glowing, and a gentle stream of magic flowed from the centre of her robes towards the cat.

Its eyes glowed blue and it turned towards her, meowing.

She meowed back and I stared at her, then I looked closely at the magic she had formed. It was blue, similar to water, but lighter and less solid.

I hadn’t seen this element before.

A stream of water appeared in front of the cat, and it looped around the girl’s robes.

The cat glided through the stream onto her shoulder, and I was reminded of a waterpark ride. Except the cat was inside the water itself and not on top of it.

The stream disappeared the moment the cat’s feet touched down on her robe, and she stood there awkwardly. Her back and head were hunched forward to give the cat room to move, and I could feel her embarrassment emanating from her in waves.

“That’s pretty cool.” I looked at her mask. “I’m actually heading to the Zodiac compound myself, but it’s my first time here. Could you help me?”

I gestured around me at all the compounds. They stretched out as far as I could see. The girl looked up to face me.

“I can help!” Her voice was chipper, and she stood up straighter.

The cat jumped off her shoulders, but it stayed next to her on the ground. Its eyes strayed towards me before it took off again down the street.

“No!” The girl rushed after it. Then she turned back. “Quick, the compound is over here.”

She went in the same direction the cat was going and I quickly found myself in front of a wall. The girl stopped as the cat bounded up the stone. It made its way over the wall, and I saw the Zodiac insignia edged into it.

The cat had led us right to it.

“Ta-da! the compound.” The girl’s shoulders puffed up proudly.

“You’re an excellent guide.” I humored her. “Is the nature library near here? That’s the main reason I’m coming in today.”

“Ugh, lucky.” She walked with me up to the entrance gate. “I got stuck with the morning shift. The sun isn’t even halfway up in the sky yet!”

She stabbed her foot on the ground and I heard a cough beside us. We were already at the entrance and the security guard was looking at us with a bored expression.

I brought out my papers and identification and was allowed through. He didn’t mind that Gold was with me. To my surprise he waved the girl through without checking her identification.

The cat was waiting for us on the other side, licking its paw.

“How many times have I told you not to do that?” The girl chided it. “Oh- the earth library is that way.”

She pointed towards a distant building. This compound was built in a similar way to the one I knew. It had eight spires spread equal distances from each other and it also had a central spire that was huge.

“Thanks.” I looked at the cat. “If I see you later, please try not to eat Gold.”

The cat meowed at me and then walked off into the compound. The girl followed it and her robes billowed in the wind, clearly too big for her.

She didn’t look that old, but I couldn’t see much through the robes and mask.

Normally, you had to finish your high school or university education to get a tin mask. That girl hadn’t sounded that old and if that cat was the same one I’d seen in the noble district, then she probably lived near Amanda.

Gold squawked and I nodded. “Even if we see them again, I’ll make sure the cat doesn’t get you.”

I wasn’t sure if cats really did eat birds. I hadn’t owned one when I was on Earth. I did know that they killed them, so that was still a worry.

We made our way towards the spire that the girl had pointed at. I had expected there to be a separate building for the library, but I realised that was foolish.

The nature spire was in exactly the same position that the one in my home city was. I placed my hand against the door and turned it to liquid.

There was a man waiting for me in a bronze mask.

“Greetings.” The man waved at me. “The front gate notified me of your arrival, please note the guests must be accompanied at all times.”

“Of course.” My dad had let me know beforehand.

Zodiac took its skill security seriously. One wrong move and somebody could steal their entire library.

We made our way up the stairs and I felt butterflies in my stomach. It wasn’t just the thought of visiting the library. It was also my first time going past the first floor.

I had only ever gone as far as the cultivation room.

The bronze mask stopped in front of a door on the third floor and placed his hand against it. It flung open and I saw a symbol glowing within its material, but the sight of the room in front of me stole my attention.

There were books as far as the eye could see.

The room was bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside.

Magic danced through the air, and I could see it glowing within the bookshelves. Green, orange, and white. Books of all shapes and sizes greeted me. There were stacks of scrolls, and regents churned with magic all around me.

The bronze mask waved me through and then looked at me as he closed the door.

“Welcome to Zodiac’s nature library.”