「Guard: A foreigner?」

The guard scowled as he read the introduction letter.

「Guard: This is not forged, is it?」

He eyed me with suspicion.

「Allen: No.」

You fucking cunt.

He stared hard at me and grunted.

「Guard: Wait here.」

He walked off.

I was standing at the outer gate to the royal palace. All the other guards were scowling at me. I remained uncomfortably still.

Fucking waste of time. There was nothing like a pain ring to put you in a positive mood.

Finally, the guard returned with an important looking magician. I could tell by the fancy magician-styled clothes. And the long gray beard. The magician sized me up with a glance and asked.

「Magician: Allen Smith?」

「Allen: Yes.」

I replied, nodding.

He stared at me for a second, his eyes brightening up with mana.

「Magician: Hmmm. Yes, the signature matches.」

He nodded, stroking his wizardly long gray beard.

「Magician: I am overseer Lorinthar, follow me. We have a few things to clear up before I let you join your group.」

We walked to the right, across the outer courtyard. We stopped in front of an entrance to a long building.

「Lorinthar: Before we start I’ll need you to accept a temporary Oath.」

I grimaced. Fucking Oaths.

「Lorinthar: It’s both to protect you and the Kingdom. Unless authorized, you’ll be unable to discuss publicly what happens inside here for the following two months. I’ll renew the Oath each month for as long as you remain under our employ. Is that fine?」

It was as Violet had warned me about.

「Allen: Fine.」

Lorinthar nodded and weaved the Oath spell. I endured the unpleasant sensation and accepted the terms.

Great. Another luggage to weigh down my mana regeneration. Thankfully it was only temporary.

It’s work. I told myself.

Satisfied, the overseer escorted me inside the building, we passed several rooms with people immersed in enchanting and discussing their work, some of them shooting glances at me. The noob.

The magician stopped in front of a room. He frowned, noticing its emptiness.

「Lorinthar: Where d–」

* BOOOOM *

A loud sound echoed from outside. Lorinthar grimaced and took a deep breath.

「Lorinthar: This way.」

We walked out from the other entrance at the far end of the building, and there they were. Three people, coughing while standing around a burnt dummy. The one in the middle was holding a metallic staff with what looked like an Aetherium crystal.

A fucking wizard staff!

「I told you, the protective spell should go first!」

「But then it cripples the fireball!」

「Hrrmm!」

They were arguing with each other and had yet to notice us. The overseer cleared his throat to which the three guys turned to face us, blanched and straightened their backs.

「「Overseer Lorinthar.」」

They saluted the magician, their faces turning serious.

「Lorinthar: Starting today, you’ll have a new colleague.」

He gestured at me.

「Lorinthar: He’s been imparted with the knowledge of magic generators so you’ll no longer need to share with the other groups.」

The overseer gave me a do-your-thing look and I stepped forward.

「Allen: Allen Smith.」

I said, with the flat tone that my apathy provided and started shaking hands, starting from my left.

The first was a man in his forties, with black short hair and a day old shave.

「I’m Bart, my specialties are spiritual displacement and spiritual energy manipulation.」

The one in the middle was a younger blond guy with a sharp chin and hair parted in the middle. He looked haughty.

「Klenn. Spiritual manifestation and matter energy manipulation.」

The last was a dwarf, he was bald but was compensating with an overly braided ashen beard. He grunted as we shook hands.

『I’m Vezlaz, I specialize in spiritual interference.』

He spoke telepathically into my mind then winced and frowned.

「Vezlaz: Huh…」

Did he notice my pain? He’s a sharp one. My corporate smile betrayed nothing.

And with that, we were done with the introductions.

「Lorinthar: Good, I’ll leave you to your jobs. I don’t need to remind you how dire the situation is.」

Is it really so dire? I glanced at the retreating figure of the overseer.

「Bart: So you’re the 【Proxy Magic】 expert.」

Bart stated, appraising me or something.

「Allen: And magic constructs.」

Klenn smirked.

「Klenn: We all know magic constructs, right Vez?」

Vezlaz grunted.

「Allen: Specialist.」

I stressed out. I hadn’t spent all that time with Grohm for nothing.

In any case, my brilliance would become self-evident.

「Klenn: Bah, we just need you to link our spellwork together.」

Klenn said, looking down on me as if he was hot shit.

I narrowed my eyes. We had just introduced ourselves and I already wanted to punch a coworker’s face.

All the signs of a healthy and positive work environment.

「Bart: Come on, let’s get to work.」

I followed the three enchanters back inside, we entered the previously empty room and sat down before the table full of rings, metal parts, schematics, and leftover food.

Klenn tossed the magic staff against some crates across the wall and pushed a smaller box on the table toward me.

「Klenn: Okay newbie, have fun. These are boring rings with deflection and clear mind spells, link them together while we think up what to do next.」

I looked inside the box, there had to be half a hundred of them. I pressed my lips.

「Allen: Boring.」

I said with the appropriate amount of excitement and got to work. The enchanter sneered and started brainstorming with the others.

Fuck you.

I had already come up with some interesting ideas I wanted to try, but I didn’t want to show off from the first moment. I’ve had bad experiences with doing so.

The usual result would be colleagues clamming up–LIKE SPITEFUL MAGGOTS–and shooting down all my superior suggestions. Klenn was the perfect candidate to exhibit such a behavior.

If I learned something from my previous career is that I have first to KIL– worm my way in into the group before revealing my power level.

The power armors and the deadly implements will have to wait a little more.

The fastest way to get points in a work environment is to bring food for your colleagues. Which is why I had prepared a bunch of small puff pastries. Well, actually, I had Elaida make them for me. My fight against apathy was still a work in progress.

While I wasn’t paying attention, the discussion had derailed into gossip.

「Bart: Did you hear about how Noirdant fell?」

「Klenn: Yes, I heard from someone who spoke to one of their soldiers. Someone sabotaged them from the inside.」

「Bart: Maybe more than one, they said various people were turning crazy even before the wall was breached. This was days before the demons showed themselves.」

Klenn scowled, shifting on his seat.

「Klenn: I don’t like it. Do you think maybe they used some kind of poison?」

Bart scratched his chin.

「Bart: Or a form of mind control. Demons have strong spirits… if they snuck inside the city under disguise they could have imprinted a geas on anyone with a weak will. What do you say Vez?」

Vez grunted, not saying anything. At least not verbally.

「Klenn: You might be right Vez. We’ll carve them a new one!」

Klenn laughed.

I scowled, wondering what joke I had just missed. I felt excluded.

Which, made me think about Yusdrolir. I couldn’t help but make a comparison. He had brought a ring for me to enchant but I was too brain-dead these days to make anything with it. He was probably feeling left out.

I should make him feel like a true Weije Sleiss.

A fucking wage slave.

They continued trading gossip, rumors of a mysterious mana spike happened months ago somewhere, bullshit stories of storytelling ghosts and adventurers and the latest exploits of Darian the hero, who apparently had apprehended a notorious thief who stole from the corrupted noblemen for the benefit of the poor. To avoid losing his head he swore a capital “O” Oath to the hero, in doing so appeased both noblemen and the populace who would have rebelled against the injustice.

I thought that Darian was busy fighting against the demon armies, where does he find the time to pull these stunts?

Whatever. I put down the STUPID ring I had just enchanted annexing the two spells. I need food.

「Allen: Snack time.」

I announced, taking out the wrapped cloth with the savory pastries from my pouch and revealed its contents to my colleagues.

Bart eyed the pastries with predatory eyes.

「Bart: For us?」

I nodded.

「Allen: Celebration.」

I heated the snacks back to their crispy glory. I took one first, so to show they weren’t poisoned or anything.

Klenn inclined his head, suspicion painted on his face. Or perhaps a simple distaste for plebs like me.

I tensed. Don’t punch him in the face. Do not punch him in the fucking face.

「Klenn: Are those… miniature pizzas?」

Klenn said snatching one of the mini pizzas.

I had brought some variety, mini pizzas, ricotta and herbs, and more.

「Klenn: I guess I’ll take a bite.」

He said, chewing the crunchy treat. He seemed pleased. Vezlaz too was grunting appreciatively.

I relaxed.

「Bart: They taste good!」

I nodded and turned off the pain ring. The hurt and the anger flowed away, leaving space to the numbing apathy. I needed a little rest to recover my stamina.

I was slowly developing a tolerance to pain so I had to increase the intensity, which also came with augmented murder-killing urges.

Nothing I hadn’t already experienced at work, though. It’s good I had taken that meditation course.

「Allen: Rest.」

I said, slumping on the desk and closing my eyes.

「Klenn: Hey, you’re not here to slack off!」

Klenn complained, followed by a Vezlaz's grunt.

「Klenn: What? You think he’s in pain? He looks fine to me.」

「Bart: Klenn, I don’t think you should antagonize our new 【Proxy Magic】 specialist. We’d be having much less trouble if you hadn’t pissed off all the others…」

Bart said with a hint of passive-aggressiveness.

「Klenn: Hmpf, they’re all pampered special snowflakes flaunting their Oath-bound magic as if they were skraggin princes! We were called upon for our merits, not just because our rich daddies pulled some strings to have us learn the secrets of magic generators.」

「Bart: Don’t mind him, Allen. He’s actually a good guy.」

Bart said, directing his voice toward me.

「Allen: M’kay.」

「Klenn: Can’t he speak a full sentence? Foreigners are a blasted disgrace.」

「Allen: Two weeks.」

「Klenn: What’s that? The time it takes for you to speak a full sentence?」

He said mockingly.

I took a deep breath and reopened my eyes to stare at the asshole.

「Allen: Recovery.」

I said through gritted teeth.

Vezlaz grunted again.

「Bart: So Vez was right, you’re in pain? How did you get hurt?」

I rolled my eyes and spoke.

「Allen: Magic.」

The most efficient answer. I closed my eyelids again.

「Klenn: Hmpf. He’s just another glorified slacker.」

I should’ve spiked Klenn’s pastries with magical laxatives. Too late now.

I unfocused my senses, letting the awareness tune out everything but my spirit body and I resumed my aura control flexing exercise.