Three days had passed since James died. When questioned about his absence, Drusus announced he had been transferred to a different factory.
This evoked a strong emotional reaction from all the workers, except Shunya and Damien. Damien had been avoiding Shunya like the plague since the night they split up. Shunya didn't attempt to reconcile with him, either.
The workers sat in the banquet hall, chattering excitedly about the great priest who was going to visit the facility later that day.
"Do you think you'll pass?" asked a young blonde boy as he scarfed down his meal of chopped goat liver. "Well, I hope so," replied a tall, seedy boy "I can't be lugging blocks around for the rest of my life.". "I've practiced a few spells here and there, and I'm not too bad," the blonde boy said, finally putting his spoon down and pointing towards his friend's hair. "Inferno!"
The tall boy screamed and swatted his hair as it caught on fire. The blonde boy laughed and splashed some water on his head, extinguishing the fire.
Seated far away from this chaos was Shunya, who was busy reading the anarchist's cookbook on his phone. *Mercury Fulminate would be a useful weapon, but getting my hands on mercury would be hard* He thought to himself. *I should stick to Molotovs for now.*
"Alright listen up!" Drusus yelled at the noisy room "The High priest has arrived so yeh better show some respect to him!". The room quieted down in an instant. "So, yer all to form a line and wait outside my office" Drusus continued "He's gonna give yeh a grade and depending on that yeh can choose which magical school to enroll in. Of course, if yeh have a grade worse than D yeh might as well stay here" Drusus ended his announcement with a gruff laugh.
The workers followed his instructions, forming a line and walking towards the office. Shunya noticed that the corridor leading to James's room was blocked off. *Looks like they're really trying to cover this up * he thought.
The line reached Drusus's office and waited. "Jack!" a voice from inside the room called. A white faced boy walked up to the door and went in.
There was dead silence for a few minutes, interrupted by a loud cheer from inside of the room. The boy exited the room, glowing. "I'm a B rank! Now I can go to the alchemy school in the capital" He exclaimed, beaming.
"Next, Zachary!" the voice from inside called out.
This went on for a few more minutes, Shunya passed this time on his phone, this time on a chapter dedicated to guns. *Would a smith and Wesson be enough to hold off a wizard? * He wondered as the line in front of him thinned.
"Next, Caleb!". Not immediately recognizing his new name, Shunya continued to read his book. The person behind him impatiently tapped his shoulder, hissing "Go!". Annoyed, Shunya waved his phone away and walked to the room.
The office was pretty bare, only having a chair, a table and a shelf in it.
On the chair was an old man who seemed to be the priest , dressed in luxurious looking clothes. "Come forth child" He said in a low voice. Shunya stepped forward. The priest held his hand over Shunya's head and closed his eyes . He opened his eyes. "You have a high affinity for magic, but not an ounce of mana in you." He said, disappointed. "What does that mean?" Shunya asked, confused. "Well, if you had mana proportionate to your skill level, you would be atleast an A tier wizard. But your mana level isn't high at all" He explained " Even if your mana levels were just average, you'd still be a low B tier. But you have literally no mana".
"Is there any way to solve this? I just need more mana right?" Shunya asked. "Well, noble families usually give their children mana potions to avoid this sort of thing but they are really expensive, about 30 gold per bottle" "30 gold?" "That would be 150 coins for you." "How many mana potions would I need to live up to my potential?" Shunya asked. "If you take 25 of them over the course of a few years, you would probably reach that level." The priest said as he looked at Shunya with a pitying gaze. "But it would be more economical for you to save up and invest in another skill, like swordsmanship".
Shunya got up from his chair and left the room. Slightly dejected, he walked back to his workplace, where he saw several workers crowding around Damien. "Hey Caleb!" the blonde boy from before waved at him, trying to get his attention. "Oh, hey Trevor," Shunya said, having learnt the names of all his coworkers in the previous three days. "Damien is an S rank!" Trevor said, holding up a paper scroll with a fancy looking S on it.
"Oh, that's great!" Shunya said, gritting his teeth. "He's giving us a party right now! Order all the food you want" Trevor beamed as he turned back to Damien.
Damien ordered a whole round of drinks on his tab and slid over to Caleb. "Hey, I'm sorry about the whole James thing" he said "I know you were just trying to protect me and all but-" "Shut up" Shunya interrupted him "Caleb?" "I didn't kill James to protect you, I did it because I wanted to" Damien laughed nervously "Come on Caleb, you don't need to lie." "You're an S rank right? Use your truth appraisal skill if you have even a shred of doubt on me" Shunya said, bluntly. Damien frowned. "But why did you kill him?" "Its none of your business," Shunya said as he got up from his seat and walked away. He settled on a seat facing the door.
He felt a tap on his shoulder. Shunya turned around "I told you it none of your.. oh" he said as he saw that the person behind him was Drusus, holding two large glasses of beer.
"Thought I'd get yeh something to drink," he said as he sat down next to him. He glanced towards Damien "Did yeh two have a fight or something?" He asked Shunya. Shunya sighed, "Yeah… you could say that." Drusus laughed and pushed a glass towards him, "Cheer up! Its not like yeh have to deal with him for much longer after all". Shunya looked at the tall glass "Why are you being so nice to me?" Shunya asked, curious. Drusus took a big sip of his beer and sighed, "Well, yeh kinda reminds me of my younger self. I was born without mana too , so I worked on increasing my physical abilities to the max" He explained "People called me a brute and nobody gave me any respect, but now I manage the city's largest brewery!" "This is a brewery?" Caleb asked, surprised. He had tried to ask everyone what exactly the place was, but was usually just met with confused glances. "Of course it is! How else do ya think we get so much cheap beer?". *Well that does make sense* Shunya thought as he sipped his beer. It was warm and sweet, with just the right amount of bitterness to it. He finished the entire glass in one gulp. "Wow," Drusus chuckled, "You're quite the drinker, aren't ya?". Shunya suddenly got an idea. "Ow my head hurts" he complained "I think I need to go to my room" "Take care of yerself, if the hangover's too bad you can skip work tomorrow " Drusus reassured him.
Thanking Drusus, Shunya hobbled over to his room, letting out a few convincing groans, and closed his door. He summoned his phone and looked up homemade explosives.
*This is gonna be a fun holiday * Shunya smiled to himself.