As planned, Indra & Dewi go to Jakarta on Saturday. They go to their city's Hunter Bureau with their parents. There's another A-Rank that goes with them, so there are 2 S-Ranks & 2 A-Ranks from their city.
They go to a military airport because they will use a military plane instead of a commercial one. It will be faster to use military facilities and they won't need to wait with the crowd. They can set off as soon as they arrive at the military airport, after all.
Then when they arrive at the military airport, they meet 7 A-Rankers from other cities in Bali. Indra checks their magic power and finds out that 1 of them is a B-Rank that almost as strong as an A-Rank. But he doesn't say anything because no one will believe him anyway.
"Do you usually have this many high-rankers?"
"No, this is the first time. We usually only send 1 or 2 every week and it's also normal to not send any high-rankers to Jakarta."
"No one in a week from the whole province?"
"Yes. It's also the same for other provinces. High rankers are very rare, especially in the case of A-Rank awakeners and even more for S-Rank. That's why this week is actually a rare thing."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Yes, it's a very good thing."
"But you don't look excited."
Indra can see the supervisor looks quite gloomy even though he said that.
"Well, it's because the high-rankers usually move to Jakarta or other big cities in Java Island. They usually get contracted by big Guilds in Java. Their offers are very good compared to the Guilds in other islands. We don't have any big Guilds yet, so we also lost some A-Ranks before."
"So not all of these guys will stay in Bali?"
"That's what usually happens."
"Hmm, it's always about money, isn't it?"
The supervisor just smiles wryly without saying anything. As someone from Bali, he wants their high rank hunters to stay in Bali and protect it. But he also can't force them to stay when no Guild in Bali has enough money to hire them.
Besides, it's not just the Guilds. Even the Central Government is involved in this. Those politicians and many of the country's wealthiest people live in Java. So they are doing many things to make sure Java has many high rankers to protect them.
Now, the supervisor of Indra's city, Gianyar, and the other cities' supervisors are gloomier than usual. It's because they finally have S-Rank awakeners, and 2 of them. But they will lose at least 1 of them because of the law that states each province can only have 1 S-Rank.
Even then, they can't be sure that the other S-Rank will stay in Bali. They're sure that right now the Central Government and other provinces' governments are thinking of ways to recruit these 2 S-Ranks since they informed the Central Hunter Bureau about them.
Indra just smiles without saying anything as he boards the airplane. They ride an airplane usually used by the military's high ranking officers. It's not that different from a normal airplane, except that it's owned by the military.
"Is it really alright to use the military's facilities like this?"
Indra asks the attendant assigned to him by the supervisor who can't join as he needs to stay.
"This is a special treatment for you two as S-Rank awakeners."
"Oh, so this isn't how you normally do it?"
"We usually just use commercial airplanes, business class."
"So if we aren't S-Ranks, all of us will ride commercial airplanes?"
"Yes. The S-Ranks are special existences, so the country wants to give you special treatments too. As S-Ranks, your importance is equal to the Generals, after all, because you are the strongest forces that we have against those monsters."
Now Indra understands why it's just him & his sister who sit in this 1st class cabin while the A-Rankers are in the other cabin. It must be a cabin for lower ranking officers that accompany the high-ranking officers in their trips.
"Hmm, well, I don't hate special treatments, but can we use a commercial airplane on our way back? It just feels like we are being out of the place here."
Indra says it while looking at his sister who seems nervous even though she can destroy this whole airplane and even this whole military airport alone. She was still just a normal citizen a few days ago, after all, so she still can't take all the changes.
"I understand. We will arrange it for you."
They take off soon and fly to Jakarta at a high speed. It only takes them an hour to arrive at the military airport in Jakarta. Some fancy cars have been waiting for them and there are even police cars that will escort them to the hotel.
Indra & Dewi are provided with different cars, but Dewi still looks nervous, so Indra tells them they will ride the same car. The staff members look flustered. It seems they are planning to tell them something on the way to the hotel.
Then after a while, they finally let Indra & Dewi ride the same car because there's nothing they can do against it anyway. A staff member sits beside the driver and they set off immediately. A police car opens the road, then followed by the hunter cars with the 2 S-Ranks in the front.
Then just as Indra thought, the staff member is telling them the schedule of what they need to do in the next few days. But if it's just that, then they won't need to be so flustered before. Indra finally knows the reason after a while.
"Mr. Indra & Ms. Dewi, some Guilds have sent you some offers. They are really hoping that you can consider their offers and join them."
The staff member gives them some papers that contain the offers from those Guilds. Among them, there's the Guild led by the S-Rank who stays in Jakarta while the rest are led by A-Ranks. The one led by S-Rank offers a Vice-guildmaster position while the others even offer the position of Guild Master itself.
"Is it okay for them to give such offers before we even know if we are truly S-Ranks. Also, isn't it prohibited for 2 S-Ranks to be in the same province? Yet he wants to recruit us to his Guild?"
"Even if you are not judged as S-Ranks after the 2nd test, you are still almost as strong as S-Ranks because the less accurate machine even measured you as S-Ranks. So many Guilds will still want you. As for the offer from the S-Rank Guild, they plan to build a branch in West Java and Banten. So you will be signed to either of those provinces if you join them."
"Heh, I bet the Branches' offices will be very close to Jakarta if they really make them. Well, it's a smart thing to do actually. But, is it really allowed for these Guilds to send offers when we have just arrived and before we even do our 2nd test? I'm sure we were told that we won't be disturbed and should rest before our 2nd test. Also, isn't the rule stated that hunters aren't allowed to make contracts with Guilds before they get their ranks officially?"
"T-these are just offers. The contracts will be done after the test."
"Heh, using the loophole, huh? But these offers are disturbing our rest. I don't want to read any of them anymore."
Indra returns the papers and closes his eyes. His sister doesn't even look at the papers from the start as she is more focused on sightseeing. Jakarta is full of buildings which are different from their place. There are tall buildings around the street which piques her interest.
But Indra doesn't care about any of those. He just wants to rest while thinking of his next steps. There are quite a lot of things to do after this, so he needs to think about them thoroughly to avoid making big mistakes.
'The 1st S-Rank Gate will appear soon. I need to finish my preparations before that.'
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