The sky was blue apart from a few chunks of cloud here and there.

Everything was silent. The wind soared through the gaps between the tall white leafless aspen trees. No tiny insects could be spotted. No bird could be heard singing or seen flying. They had all migrated to the south during autumn and would come back in spring.

In the middle of Tremblay guild’s Aspen forest, Isaac sought peace of mind.

He was sitting on a rock inside of a small glade. Trees surrounded it.

Isaac had just turned 15 that morning. It was the thirteenth day of January, a full week before the coup d’état on the Amon guild organized by Jacob Raider.

Since it was winter, Isaac was wearing a parka coat, a coat with fur attached to the hood.

He muttered, “I can’t believe I’ve turned 15 already. Time passes by so fast. I’m still just a kid who tries to meet everyone’s expectations, an orphan trying his best to get accepted as a Tremblay.”

A few kilometres away, Isaac could still spot the city's skylines through a thick fog.

The Tremblay guild was situated on the northern side of the Western continent. It enjoyed an abundance of snow every winter.

Isaac resided in the capital of the Tremblay guild, Aspen City. The city’s layout was very original. To fight against deforestation, the 11th prime minister of the guild had applied a rule in order to preserve a certain quantity of trees in each of the big territories.

As such, during the second war, when it was built because of the growing population migrating from the east, this city had to leave a giant square of 500 hectares. It was surnamed the Aspen Forest.

Just like most of the Tremblay guild’s population, Isaac had very white skin.

Isaac’s hair and eyes were brown. On his right arm, Isaac wore the magic all-purpose watch that his father had given him as a birthday present in the morning.

He then looked down at the big rock that he was sitting on. “This rock is where I got abandoned right after being born.”

Isaac observed the sky. It was about midday. He had been idling for a few hours. “Well, thanks to that, I was adopted as a member of the Tremblay family. My father and brother are very nice to me.”

A few meters away, a young man leapt into the glade.

“Oh, hi brother.” Isaac greeted him. It was his brother, Alex Tremblay.

His brother had a big nose and a long face. His blond hair and green eyes gave him a particular look.

“Hey, Isaac. Are you ready for your first mission?” he asked.

Isaac was stunned. “W-wait! It’s today?!”

“Yep! Come with me. We’re going to go help clean up the Underground City. By cleaning up I mean-”

Alex laughed upon seeing his brother’s face. “Haha, look at your face! Don’t worry, today’s your b-day. Luck should be on your side!”

…

After an hour of walking, 10 minutes of preparing and 50 minutes of driving, they finally arrived inside an elevator. There was a glass wall on one side, but they hadn’t yet arrived down at the Underground City.

Isaac hadn’t been informed about the details yet. “So, Alex, what is the city we are going to raid like? I’ve never been there before.”

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“Stop worrying Isaac. You’ll see soon enough. It’s pretty original, but it’s really not the place anyone would want to live at,” said Alex. He was leaning on the wall.

“This year, our faction, Snowrider, has been put in charge of this territory. There have been many reports of illegal activities in this city lately,” he followed.

Isaac was losing his patience. “Okay, but what does it look like?”

Light suddenly shone inside the elevator. Alex turned his head to look toward the glass wall. “Oh, look. We’ve arrived!”

There were still tens of seconds left before arriving all the way down. Isaac saw the city from above.

Except for a few obscure spots on the roof, a white light was illuminating the thousands of buildings. It was supposed to imitate the sun, but the whole city looked very grim. There wasn’t a wide variety of colours, the buildings were primarily made out of concrete. Many roads appeared here and there in between the builds. On the roads, a few old and rusty cars and trucks could be spotted.

“Alex was right,” he thought. “I definitely wouldn’t like to live here.”

Upon arriving all the way down, they walked for a bit, then entered a building titled “Comand Center.”

Alex told Isaac about their objective. “I guess it’s time I tell you about the mission. We need to infiltrate a building owned by a company called Antique Furnitures. They are actually an illegal slave trading company. We have managed to trace them back from the black market. All we need to do is gather some proof.”

“Slaves?” Isaac wasn’t expecting such a situation. “How are we going to do it?” he asked.

Another voice suddenly appeared in front of them. “It’s simple, you are going to disguise yourself as guards. We’ll turn off the lights above and around the building to let you enter secretly. However, once you get inside, you’ll have to be careful not to get caught.”

Alex smiled. “Oh, hey, Christiana.”

It was the same Christiana that would participate in rescuing Aaron Amon a week later.

She was going to help them in their mission from a distance as the adviser and hacker. Christiana was good at fighting, but she preferred staying behind whenever it was possible.

For about 30 minutes, Alex and Isaac prepared themselves for the infiltration. Just as planned, they disguised themselves as guards. The lights above the building were turned off, making yet another dark spot on the ceiling.

They decided to get in from the top of the building.

To get there, they used an S-Craft, a small silent aircraft powered by mana. It used wind magic to float in the air.

In the year 2220, there wasn’t any method to artificially create mana. Instead, people extracted it from magical animals to power up things that required mana such as this S-Craft.

Mana was a sustainable source of energy.

Many animals such as magic fishes replenished their mana easily. It could be extracted by simple machines but it took a while to gather any good amount. Because it couldn’t be artificially created, other sources of energy such as hydroelectricity were most commonly used.

*Paff!* Alex and Isaac jumped down from their S-Craft.

There was a small partition on the roof.

“Well, let’s go.” Alex opened the partition’s door.

A guard was resting on the other side. He was confused. “Huh? What are you doing on the roof?”

‘Oh no, we’ve already been found out!’ thought Isaac.

Suddenly, his older brother lifted his own arm up. Old plants nesting in between the walls and floor suddenly came out. Alex’s eyes glowed. The glow was dark green, indicating his flora magic.

As soon as Alex clenched his fist, the now very sturdy plants hurried to the guard’s body. They immobilized him.

The guard cried, “Hey, what are you doing?!”

“Where are the slaves?” Alex asked.

His emotionless face gave Isaac chills. ‘Is he going to t-torture him?!’

“W-what are you talking about?!” The guard was confused. Even though the two people before him wore the same suit as him, they were acting very strangely. Moreover, how could a kid get employed for security?

‘Impostors!’ he thought. The guard did not give in.

*Pah!* Alex struck his throat.

The man fell, unconscious.

“Sleep here for now.”

Alex turned to look at his brother. “Don’t worry, the next one’s all yours.”

“Uh… okay.”

The two brothers finally entered the old building.