Ai was right; I was nervous. I’d never attempted to do something as illegal as this in my life, but I knew there was no going back now. This would be my first job… and the first step I take in this world.

I watched as the eyeball signaled me to leave the room. They immediately phased into the wall after that. Hesitantly, I twisted the door knob, surprised when it turned out to be unlocked.

What greeted me outside were another set of guards slumped against the wall, seemingly unconscious. I cringed. “They won’t be waking up anytime soon, right?”

The red-winged eyeball sighed at my uneasiness. “Worry not, little thing. They will be under a slumber for a while, and by the time they finally wake up, we would already be done. That is, if you do your job right.”

‘I would’ve felt better if you didn’t include the last comment.’ It was then that I was reminded that I still felt uneasy around Ai (definitely not because of that crazy blast from when they were angry that first time we met, no). I looked around, searching for the other flying eyeball. “Um, where’s Be?”

“They’ll meet us there, they have the key to the room.”

“… So it’ll just be the two of us handling things for a bit?”

“I would prefer you do not handle anything in my presence,” the eyeball said before narrowing their eye at me. “Why, got a problem with staying with me?”

I quickly shook my head. “N-no, not at all.” I turned away to avoid eye contact. Then I hesitantly decided to add something else. “But didn’t you say that Ce was the one who would meet us there…?”

I grimaced when the eyeball started to get angry. “That… is none of your concern. I’ll deal with them later.” I waited for the eyeball to calm down, realizing that maybe it was best not to ask questions sometimes. After a couple of seconds, I could hear Ai sigh.

“Come, little thing. We must make haste,” the eyeball started flying out of the secluded area, expecting me to follow behind them. I didn’t know whether or not I found their presence any better than the guards that initially escorted me here but I decided not to comment, knowing it was too risky.

As we made our way down the hall with Ai making any passersby fall asleep, I had more time to admire the interior design of the nicer area of the building. Although it looked old, it still had a medieval aesthetic to it, almost reminding me of a museum. It was unfortunate that I didn’t have a camera with me.

Although it was clearly not the right occasion to be snapping pictures… and certainly didn’t lead to positive thoughts either. I tried to focus on the more important things.

As expected, the trip to the room was silent. I opened my mouth to ask about something relating to alchemy but immediately closed it when Ai sent me a warning look that dared me to say anything stupid.

‘Maybe I’ll wait to chat with Be.’

Just as we turned a corner, I was hit by an awful stench. I covered my nose in response, scrunching my eyebrows at the horrid smell.

“This place blocks a lot of magic users from using their mana,” the eyeball answered my thoughts. “If provoked, it could hurt the user.”

Then they paused to look at me.

“It’s dangerous here, so it would be better if you stuck next to me,” Ai said and I stared at them incredulously.

‘You’re the most dangerous one here!’ Of course, I didn’t say that out loud because I didn’t plan on making another enemy, especially one with enough power to banish me to oblivion. Like they almost did to Be the other day.

I pretended to listen to the request while still maintaining arm’s length distance. “Absolutely.”

“If you’re going to lie, at least try to make it sound convincing.” Ai rolled their lone eye at me. I pinched my lips together, deciding it was best that I didn’t reply.

The conversation was luckily put to a stop when we slowly found ourselves at the older side of the building, which despite its appearance, was built with what I assumed was more mana ‘technology’. The influx of mana was starting to make me feel a little tired, and I looked at Ai to see if it was just me— until I remembered that the eyeball was powerful enough to barely feel a thing.

As we walked further, I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Be waiting for us at the end of the hallway.

“Looks like you and the human made it without trouble,” the yellow-winged eyeball grinned when we reached them.

Ai frowned. “I still think that having him take care of this is a mistake. We don’t know if he’ll even do a good job.”

“Come on now, Ai~ Have a little faith in him, will you?”

I frowned as the banter continued. I didn’t want to stay here and listen to them talk forever, especially with the possibility that the guards will maybe wake up a bit early and find out I was missing. I slowly crept to the locked door behind Be, hoping that they’d change the topic very soon… which seemed to do the trick as both eyeballs turned to face me now, surprised.

“What are you doing, human? You don’t have the key yet!” Be spoke out first

I extended my hand out and sighed. “Hand it over and let’s get this over with.”

Ai still stared at me with a doubtful look. “You know what you’ll be doing, correct? Do not touch anything else besides your box and never use alchemy, not even a little bit. Do I make myself clear?”

It almost sounded like I was being lectured by a parent and I nodded with a nervous grin. Ai frowned at my uneasy response but didn’t say anything else. Then, Be pulled the key out of a mini portal, dropping it in my palm.

“Good luck, dear human,” Be smiled as they watched me unlock the door. “We’ll be waiting outside so call for us if you need anything.”

“I will,” I mumbled before stepping into the dark room. Hesitantly, I looked around before entering further. I was hoping to look for a switch to turn the light on, but then I remembered what Ai had said about touching things so I abandoned the idea; I wanted to limit as much unwanted attention as possible.

I squinted, adjusting my eyes to the dimness. It didn’t take long for me to get used to it which was due to having spent a significant amount of time in the dark dungeon beforehand. I started walking around the room carefully, wondering which area I should check out first.

“Find anything yet?” I could hear Ai’s voice from the doorway.

I sighed annoyed. “No.”

I walked deeper until I could see a wide shelf along with a large table right in front of it. As if sensing that I’ll find whatever I’m looking for there, I walked more confidently until I was standing directly in front of the wooden table. I observed what seemed to be a variety of random things ranging from quill pens, papers, piles of books and clipboards. However, none seemed to be of interest to me.

I could now hear the eyeballs bickering amongst themselves in the hallway but I wasn’t paying attention to them. Once I was done with the table, I walked over to the bookshelf, or what I assumed to be one; as I got closer, I noticed that only one side was full with books—the rest of the shelf had crates upon crates stacked upon each other.

‘Could it possibly be in there?’ I thought as I approached the stacks of crates, wondering if I should risk toppling them over if I wanted to pull one out. However, my curiosity soon led me to check the sides of the shelves where I noticed that there seemed to be many drawers… I was confused because I was not used to seeing this many drawers at the sides of bookshelves, but I thought it was worth checking out.

I opened one of the drawers, peering inside. My eyes widened when I saw a few boxes… with names on them.

I grinned. “Bingo!”

“Human? Did you find it?” I could hear Be’s excited voice from outside as I continued opening the drawers, checking out the names of each.

“Not yet…! But I think I’m getting closer.” I directed my attention back to the drawers, pulling out every one. I was starting to grow a little desperate when I couldn’t find one with ‘my’ name but luckily, it seemed that the last drawer was the key.

I pulled it open in a hurry, sighing of relief when my eyes landed on the box I was searching for.

“Hey? Hey, human! Did you find it?” The two eyeballs were still yelling from outside, getting impatient.

“Wait,” I hissed, carefully deciding whether or not I should pull out the box from the drawer or open the lid instead and take out its contents. I decided on the latter, wanting to see for myself what could be inside.

Almost a little too curious, I carefully placed my hands around the edges of the lid and removed it.

I frowned.

“Guys...”

“What is it, human?” I heard one of the eyeballs urge. “What are you seeing?”

“It’s empty.”

***

A/N: The trial will be taking place next chapter :)