- Bad Luck

"Amoray, what is the meaning of this?"

The stoic middle-aged man stood before the cold young woman, his expression even colder than it usually was.

Amoray, who had just been delving deep into her own thoughts, was thrown completely off guard by this line of questioning. She hurriedly stood to display her respect, but this didn't help her understand what her superior was getting at.

"Sir Engnaril!"

Amoray's back stood tall and straight as though she was a soldier rather than the office worker she truly was. She was maybe a bit too eager in her actions because her button down shirt almost threatened to burst. Luckily, the material was flexible and durable enough to hold up.

Engnaril, though, didn't seem to notice this in the slightest. Instead, he pulled out a tablet that looked as though it was pulled right from Earth's technological age. And yet, when one looked at its screen, there were nothing but floating Force Art nodes. It was impossible for a layman to understand just what it was that they were seeing. But, Engnaril read through it as though it was written in plain and simple English.

"According to this, there was an indefinite visa approved for entry into the Guild's territory today. Didn't I tell you that all such processes should be stopped? This is a sensitive time, only those who had already been accepted into an affiliation should be allowed here at this time. You don't usually make such mistakes, what is happening?"

Amoray blinked in shock. So, it really was about that.

"Sir, I did everything according to your orders. But, it would cause problems if everyone who came was simply turned away, so subordinate adjusted the entry requirements to make it so that it should be impossible to enter. Subordinate has no idea how one slipped through, I triple and quadruple checked the algorithm."

Engnaril frowned.

Though Amoray didn't follow what he asked her to do exactly, this was part of the reason she had risen through the ranks so quickly. She understood how to not only follow orders, but how to also choose the best method to do so as well.

In this case, she was once again thinking of the larger picture.

The Force Crafting Guild was already labeled as quite uppity and noble by outside sources. It was just that they provided such a necessary service and they were so powerful that the quibbles of the commoners hardly mattered.

However, even for their Guild, simply turning everyone away without cause or reason would breed more resentment than they were willing to handle. After all, they were just a small branch of the main Guild, even if they enraged all the powers in this region and ended up getting destroyed, there was little the main Guild would be able to do.

Of course, getting revenge for the main Guild would be as easy as snapping a finger. But, by then, they would already be dead. So, how would that help them?

To make matters worse, it was unlikely that the powers in this region would do such a thing. It was more likely that they would try to suppress the Guild in various ways and that would be even more annoying to deal with.

In truth, the odds of these things happening was very small. But, there were always a few madmen who couldn't understand logic and reason, only to go about doing as they pleased anyway. Though these madmen would often suffer terrible fates, it wasn't like their victims could come back to life.

This was all to say that maintaining a balance and at least a façade of fairness wasn't a bad idea for the longevity of the Guild in this region.

So, rather than just turning everyone away due to the special guest they were receiving, Amoray decided to modify the algorithm that decided whether a visa would be granted or not to make it so that it would be impossible for anyone to be granted access.

And yet… Somehow… Leonel was still approved.

"Show me his documents." Engnaril said coldly.

"Yes, sir!" Amoray reacted quickly, finding Leonel Morales and passing everything on to her superior.

She had just been about to look through them after realizing what happened. But, she suppressed her curiosity.

Engnaril flipped through Leonel's answers, realizing that each one only got more and more sarcastic as he went on. He could almost feel Leonel's contempt for them all, and yet he didn't miss even a single line. Engnaril had turned his fair share of people away for accidentally missing questions, and most of them had been annoyed with the long process like Leonel. Yet, Leonel himself hadn't made this mistake.

'There's nothing special about these answers. Could it be a mistake with Amoray's change to the algorithm? But that was unlikely with her thoroughness. In addition, there were 10 877 people who tried to gained entry today, yet only one of them got through? If it was a problem with the algorithm, there would have been more than this. Unless…'

Engnaril suddenly through of a possibility.

"Give me his biometrics."

Amoray was stunned. Biometrics were saved and stored, but once again to protect against public outrage, there was a large burden that needed to be proven to allow them to be accessed. After all, no one wanted themselves to be laid bare like this just to visit a place.

But, this was the way of the world. 'Rules' were only for the weak.

Engnaril got his hands on everything from Leonel's teeth X-rays to his blood samples. What he saw made him widen his eyes. By the end of it, his pupils simply couldn't constrict any further.

'… What bad luck… A talent like this shouldn't be in this galaxy. Where did he come from? And why on this day of them all?'

What he saw could all be summed up in two lines.

Age: 21Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

Dimension: Tier 1, Fifth

Before Engnaril could even think of making a decision, his tablet vibrated and a voice began to speak.

"Engnaril, Lady Anya is prepared to take her Force Crafters Exam."