"Sir, we've arrived at the town."

I got out of the carriage and paid him money.

"Thank you for the ride." I said.

"My pleasure."

I'm currently in a town quite an end away from the academy. I departed in the afternoon after the new student and professor Yasmin finished their visit to my classroom.

If I recall correctly, the house that I was told to be at, should be in a small alley next to an inn called 'The Sleepy Adventurer'.

It is already late at night, so it's hard to see if I'm at the right place. After walking through this town for a bit, I arrived at a large building with a sign with the exact name I was looking for.

I walked inside the small alleyway that was to the left of the building and continued walking down the alley until I came to a dead end. At the dead end is a door. This should be the place.

I knocked on the door.

"Who is there?" I heard from behind the door.

"It's me, Robin Cilhood. I'm here to speak with Mr. Wagner." I responded.

I heard the door unlocking and it then opened. Behind it was standing a very large man, who looked like he's had his fair share of fights.

"Did you make sure nobody was following behind you?" the man asked me.

"No, I made sure of it."

I made my way inside and was led to the basement of this place. The place looked like an abandoned house, everything was filthy inside and there was barely any furniture.

"He should be behind this door, which goes to the basement."

I opened the door as I was instructed and behind was just a table and two chairs.

"Yo, agent RC. I was expecting you." said the man who sat on one of the chairs. This man is Michael Wagner, he is overseeing my mission and is also the one who relays any updates and new information on missions to the higher-ups.

"Michael Wagner."

"Hey, don't just use my name like that, call me MW. Just like I call you RC." he said almost jokingly.

I don't understand the usage of abbreviations for our names and I don't see the merits in it, but he insisted on using them. But I must obey him since he does have a higher position than me.

"I received your letter yesterday telling me to meet with you. I also received the second letter from you." I said.

"First things first. I haven't told ya in the letter why I asked you to come here. Well, I'll tell ya now. Cardinal Francis wanted you to personally report to him on the status of your mission."

"Wait, the cardinal himself? But why would he? Aren't you already giving him reports?"

"If I had to take a gander, I'd say it's probably something pretty important."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"How am I going to report to him directly? As I only have a limited amount of time, I can't waste anymore travelling all the way over to Tellingen and back."

"Don't you worry about that, pal! That's where this comes into play."

Michael then points towards a glass ball that has been on the table the entire time.

"You'll use this communication device to report directly to the cardinal. I'll set up the line."

He then pours magic into it, trying to set up a communication line between us and the cardinal himself. Then the ball lit up and we could slowly see the face of somebody appear.

"Michael. You contacted me. What do you need me for?" said cardinal Francis through the communication device.

"You asked me to get agent RC over here to report personally to you?"

"That's true. Robin Cilhood, how is your mission going?" he asked me.

I knelt in front of the ball first, then began my report.

"I haven't yet been able to secure the artifact yet due to unforeseen interference, however I still have a plan that I'm currently setting in motion and I believe the success of the mission hasn't been fully compromised yet."

"I see. Michael must have already informed you that you have about a month to finish the mission."

"Yes, he has. But is it not possible to send in more agents to assist me in the mission? One month would be barely enough time for me to finish alone. Sending more people would greatly increase the chances of success."

"I've already said that it is not possible anymore at this time. Besides, our other agents have their own missions."

"Didn't you tell me in the beginning that this mission was very important? Why would you just send me in alone?"

"Are you questioning my authority right now?" the cardinal angrily shot back.

"Michael!" he said.

"Alright. Sorry pal, orders are orders." Michael said. He then kicked me in my chest, causing me to fall to the floor coughing.

"As I've said, one month time to succeed. You wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your family now."

When he mentioned this, I got angry and frustrated at my own incompetence.

"You better not fail us. You know what is on the line for you." After that, the cardinal broke the connection between us.

"Jeez. Look at how pathetically you're now lying on the ground. But yeah, that was it for our meeting. Ya better go back and continue your mission."

I picked up my bag again and made my way out of the building.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It's the next day and I went to one of the stores in the town. The store seems to sell various magical tools and gadgets at first, but it is also owned by an agent from Tellingen. He's been acting as a source of information for other agents here.

"Hello there, if it isn't Robin." said the young-looking man behind the counter.

"Good day, I'm here to collect what I asked for a few days ago."

"I'll get it for you right away."

He went to the back and then returned with a black box.

"It's inside this box." he said.

He then leans in closer to me and started whispering to my ear, "By the way, from what I've heard, the people at the academy will start their research on the artifact in a few days, meaning it will temporarily be outside the vault."

"Thank you for the information." I said.

Then he began talking out loud again, "Man, I'm jealous of you. You get to have all the action on the field, meanwhile I only get to hang out in my small shop."

"I get you would think that, but you wouldn't want to be in the situation I'm in right now."

"It seems exciting to go on missions and execute all those intricate and complex plans."

"Trust me when I say you have it easy."

"Alright, alright. No need to get so serious about it. I know your job isn't easy and that some would rather not do what they have to do, when they get the chance. But hey, everyone has their own good reasons to do this."

"Yeah… we all have our reasons…" I said, while thinking about yesterday night. I left the shop and headed back to the academy.