Unlike many other planets, the Bureau was situated on a small moon, Mira. The planet the moon revolved around at one point had life. Zetania was now just a frozen wasteland. What made Mira ideal was that it stood at the root of where all mana flowered through the universe. It allowed the Bureau to siphon and control where souls went.

Dalton looked up at the night sky, seeing the green mana river paint the sky behind the background of the white planet the descendants of Mira called home.

It might have been a nice night to walk, but that wasn’t the case right now.

Dalton was yanked. To coerce him into coming, Malcolm had chained him like a prisoner.

“Hurry up! You’re worse than trying to walk a cat!” Malcolm barked.

Dalton glared at him. “Let me go home. I have a girlfriend to return to.”

Malcolm snorted. “Don’t lie to me. I know for a fact that your girlfriend is not even here tonight.”

“Ho-how did you know that?”

Malcolm frowned, scratching his beard. “Do you think just because I sleep, go to whorehouses, and wave my gun, that I’m dumb? Sure, Ozul thinks of you as a rival to his conquest, Louise sees you as a bug, Satoshi wants to kill you and sell your organs for potions, and Eira doesn’t see you as useful yet. But none of them see your potential!” He hit his chest. “I do though!”

“There is a lot to unpack there, but did you say that Satoshi wants to sell my organs?”

He hadn’t seen him since the first day, but Satoshi had caused him trouble with that CEO.

“Enough talking! None of that is important anyways, because I’ve watched Satoshi fail to kill you!” He grinned. “Because I’ve been watching you. Now come! We have a place to go to!”

Malcolm yanked him again. They had walked from main street where there were many shops. Malcolm even pointed out his favorite whorehouse, it had a bright neon pink sign written in cursive on top of a building that looked like it would fall if you blew on it.

In fact, it was shaking quite a bit, and Dalton could hear what was either the moan of the building as it tethered to falling down, or the sound of people getting off.

“It’s called Afterglow,” he said.

“Uh-huh. It’s shaking quite a bit. Do you think we should move before it falls?”

“It’s not going to fall! And right now, is two for one special going on, so you’ve got a lot of vigorous men going at it.”

It sounded disgusting.

Dalton turned to him. “I’m not going in there. There is no way you’ll make me.”

“Calm down boy. I would never take you in there. It’d be suicide if I did. This isn’t our stop.”

They continued to walk in a much seedier neighborhood.

Dalton matched Malcolm’s pace. “Can you tell me where you are taking me?”

“No, it’s a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

“I can tell. From your face, you’re probably a party pooper.” He slapped Dalton’s shoulder. A glint in his eye. “I’m going to change that, and don’t try to take the key from me. It’s not going to be in my pocket, it’s tied around my big magnum.”

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Dalton stopped. “Why would you tie the key around that?”

“Because I assumed you would never touch it. By the way, I haven’t taken a bath for a few days, so there’s another deterrent for you.” Malcolm tugged at the chain. “Come on now, you don’t want this to take longer than it has to.”

“I don’t want to go at all.” Dalton ignored the tug. “I just want to go home.”

Malcolm sighed. “Alright, I guess the stick won’t work, so how about a carrot? What do you want, other than going home? You want to do something right?”

Dalton was about to tell him off, but he stopped himself for a moment. There was something he wanted. He had a few potential jobs that had contacted him about an interview.

“I want tomorrow off.” Dalton paused. “A paid day off.”

“I’m not the one that usually handles that.” Malcolm scratched the back of his head. “That’s usually what Eira does.”

“But you’re the boss.”

He seemed conflicted by it, but gave in. “Alright, alright. You have the day off, but you have to do what I want.”

He held out a hand. “Deal?”

They shook on it. Dalton then gestured at the chain. “Can you take this off?”

#

It was a lot faster to walk without the chains. The deal they struck had also helped give Dalton a push to get whatever this was over faster.

For the sake of getting out of the Bureau, for the sake of getting a better job.

Their destination was a warehouse at the end of the star port. The front doors were guarded by people in trucker hats. Malcolm asked him to wait outside while he went to talk to the guards.

They weren’t happy to see him, and one of them even spat at his feet. He couldn’t hear the conversation, but he didn’t care. The more he knew the more likely he would run off. While he waited, he scheduled an interview on his smartphone.

“Hey!” Malcolm called to Dalton and gestured with his chin to come.

The two guards leered at him as he passed. They entered a dark hallway, there was light at the end.

“So, we’re here, are you going to tell me what I’m about to do?” Dalton covered his eyes with his arm

“Yeah. I guess the time is ripe,” he said as they passed through the blinding threshold.

As his eyes adjusted, Dalton lowered his arm. There was a crowd of people in the center of the very empty warehouse. While he couldn’t see what was happening, there was something that caught his eye that gave him pause.

“Does what I have to do have something to do with that?” Dalton pointed.

There were two hanging trucks. The crowd suddenly cheered, and one of the trucks fell with a giant thud, shaking the floor.

Malcolm slapped his hand on Dalton’s shoulder. “Today, you’re going to play a game. A game that will determine our department’s future.”

#

“No,” Dalton said. “I’m not going to do this. Screw the day off!”

“You don’t know what you’re even about to do.”

“Oh, I don’t need to.” Dalton pointed at the truck. It was being raised, and he could see blood dripping on the bottom of the grill. “Whatever it is, it’s going to be that isn’t it?”

“You don’t understand. Only you can do this.”

“Why?” Dalton brushed his hand away. “Nothing I can do is extraordinary. And nothing is worth my life.”

“Well, that’s not true. It’s in your contract that if you die, you get a nice cushy isekai life.” Then he mumbled under his breath very quickly. “All terms apply based on your ranking in the company.”

“You know I caught all of that. Since I’m in the lowest, my guess is my isekai life will be in a medieval world where I have to farm or something.”

“Well, that’s not true.” He turned his gaze away.

“Alright, come on. Tell me. What happened to the last guy that died in our department? I know from Ozul and Eira that at least twenty have died. I bet you killed some poor sap. I’m not going to be another number added to our shitty department.”

Malcolm clicked his tongue. “Look, do you really want to know that, or do you want to get better clients? I know that the quality of clients lately have been….terrible.”

Dalton snorted. “Terrible is a polite word.”

“Well, you want better ones right? We’re here in the Transportation Departments favorite illegal gambling ring.”

“Illegal gambling ring?” Out of all the places Dalton thought this was, he would have not guessed that. “The Bureau is corrupt isn’t it?”

“Is the sky blue? Yes. Of course, the Bureau is corrupt. It’s been corrupt since the latest Director took the reigns. The former Director would have never done this, but he wanted to retire and get isekai’d as a girl to become an idol. He was a very passionate man.”

“Is everyone in this Bureau nuts?”

“Yes.”

There was a click, and Dalton looked down to see shackles around his wrist.

“God dammit! Let me go!”

“No.”

It didn’t matter how much Dalton threw his weight behind it. Malcolm pulled him with ease up the stairs to an office. So, Dalton went on another tact. He lunged at Malcolm, intent on strangling him to knock him out.

Malcolm saw that coming and stepped aside. Dalton hit the door and rolled into the office. His eyes met with a tiny man’s. The tiny man wore a black suit that matched his chimney hat. His eyes were a set of different colors, one red, the other green.

“I present you with my champion,” Malcolm said.