(Julius Argenti POV)

It was dark when we exited the palace. From the mountain, away from the noisy city, we could see the stars in the sky.

Despite the darkness, there were still many tourists around still visiting the palace. We stayed for another half-hour more before reluctantly descending the mountain.

We had reserved a seat in a famous restaurant in the city earlier, so it was imperative we had to get there on time.

It was usually very difficult to get seating, but with connections to nobles and a week prior advance booking, it wasn't that hard.

In the restaurant, we enjoyed a full 5-course meal.

I had eaten at good restaurants back on Earth but this restaurant blew them out of the water. Literally. It was a place that primarily served seafood and it tasted heavenly.

Violet and James were satisfied after consuming their meals so they retired for the day. I wanted to collect all the information I could at this base. Amina also insisted on coming and I couldn't be bothered arguing with her.

I couldn't contact Moria for this information as he was out of commission. During the final battle, all the surviving S ranks suffered some level of damage to their souls.

Though physical injuries could be healed easily, soul damage was more difficult. The only way to recover soul damage was to rest. It would take a lot of time for the damage to recover.

Because of this, Veronica took over as Director of SUITE temporarily. Though she was a field agent, she could handle the management aspects of SUITE just as well.

We walked around the city until we found a small kebab shop hidden at the end of the street. We entered the shop and bought a specific meal and paid a specific amount of money.

The owner recognised us as SUITE agents and led us underground where agents of SUITE were working. SUITE had bases in every city that observed everything in that city.

"You must be Special Agent Argenti, who is this young lady with you."

A management agent saluted.

"Indeed. This person is Amina Moria."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realise it was you, Lady Moria."

He immediately apologised. Amina doesn't have any SUITE ID since she's technically not a part of SUITE.

"Don't worry about it."

Amina chuckled and waved off his apology.

"We're here to collect information on the current situation. Has there been any recent movements in any criminal organisations?"

"That's quite a broad question, Lady Moria. There have obviously been movements since the war recently ended. Could you specify?"

Just when Amina was about to reply, I put my hand up and signal to her to leave it to me.

"Can you find any information about Ataxia?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I heard this name while searching for information at the Newstein SUITE base. This organisation was new and has risen in prominence recently.

Its purpose was unknown but was rumoured to be working with SUITE's nemesis Vision.

The agent nodded while going through information on his computer.

"Agent Argenti, an agent localised in this city has recently reported that captured someone from this organisation. Would you like to speak with him?"

I nodded.

"Agent Owens, come in. I repeat, Agenti Owens, come in."

Suddenly the line went static. Our eyes suddenly widened. This meant one of two things. He was either captured or dead.

"Check his life signals."

"On it."

Every agent when they went on a mission had an artifact called a life signal that detected if that person's mana was present. An enchanter can only create these life signals.

If a life signal is activated, it meant the agent's mana had disappeared, thus meaning he was killed.

We weren't allowed to take it off under any circumstances because we'd be punished. However, this life signal had a flaw.

When a person died, their mana didn't immediately degrade into the surrounding mana. It could take from minutes to hours and even days depending on the rank of the person. We wouldn't be notified about his death until much later.

"Agent Argenti, his life signals are weakening. He's probably dead."

"That's a relief."

Though it may seem harsh that I was gladdened by an agent's death, it meant they couldn't leak any information on SUITE.

"What's his last known location and mage rank?"

"He was D rank and I've sent his location on your phone."

I nodded and immediately made to go to that location. I was the only one that could. I was probably the strongest field agent in this city.

The other SUITE agents of a higher rank were out in other cities completing other missions and quelling the chaos. Ausburn was a relatively peaceful city by comparison so only D ranks and lower were here.

As I was about to leave, Amina suddenly grabbed my hand.

"What?"

"I'm coming too."

"Absolutely not. You're not a SUITE agent and you could die."

"So could you. I'm not baggage and I know how to fight. I've trained with you and know how operations like these go."

"Umbra would kill me if anything happened to you."

"I don't care. I don't want you to die and we'd be safer together. We can even probably take a B rank together."

I stared into her pleading eyes. I desperately wanted to reject her, but I couldn't. I eventually gave up after seeing her beautiful blue eyes. Plus she was right. Having her around was definitely a boon. She wouldn't hold me back.

"Fine, but I'm taking the lead. You must do whatever I say."

But I was honestly worried about the opponent we would face. For someone to kill a SUITE field agent was an impressive feat.

Even though he was only a D rank, one of the first things we were taught as agents was how to escape attacking mages. Even C rank mages would find it difficult to hunt down a running D rank SUITE agent.

I was confident in my ability to escape a B rank mage, but I wasn't sure about Amina. Though together, we could probably defeat them. If it was an A rank or above, we were royally screwed.

We soon escaped into the dead of the night. I soon realised we might not be able to get back before dawn, meaning we would lose our chance to sleep before enduring arduous training.

We soon arrived at an empty building near the East part of the town. I was a building scheduled to be demolished soon.

We carefully navigated the surrounding area before entering the building itself. Amina had her {Hawk Eyes} constantly activated. It had other abilities other than complete focus, but it was also suitable for a wide search, picking up every detail and any movements.

The scent of bleach soon entered my nose. I hid behind the door as soon I smelt the odour. I couldn't feel any presence inside the room.

I signalled for Amina to follow my lead. With my weapon in hand, I broke the door apart. What I was greeted with was nothing. The room smelt of bleach.

It was completely empty except for some boxes leftover in the room. I could feel the lingering mana in the atmosphere left over from the fight. It was faint, but I could tell there was a fight here recently.

I tapped on the walls and felt their sturdiness of them. They were reinforced so that even D ranks wouldn't be able to break them. This is definitely one of their hideouts.

I opened each box but found nothing. They were probably here recently but evacuated this base after being compromised by our agents.

I searched the rooms but found nothing. I was about to give up until Amina noticed a USB on the floor. They must have left it behind when they left in an emergency.

I picked it up and planned to hand it to the SUITE base to see if they could pull any information off it. We searched the building but found nothing else.

After giving SUITE the USB, we returned to our hotel. It was nearly 3:00 am and I needed all the sleep I could get if I wanted to survive the day.