Chapter 10 - Hope... Or Not

I rushed to the Hall of Records. This was it. My chance to rise above being the idiot who broke everything and did nothing. Maybe, just maybe, I could finally be more than just the guy who swept the floors.

When I reached the Hall, the clerk behind the desk gave me an uninterested look, as if he didn't even want to deal with me. I handed the letter to him, trying to act confident, but he just took it with a bored expression.

"So, this is the guy, huh?" the clerk muttered to himself as he read the letter. He glanced up at me. "Alright, you can take sect missions from now on ."

I couldn't help but smile. Promotion. This was the moment. Maybe I'd finally get to do real work. Maybe I could even get a decent rank.

He looked at me for a moment, then slid a small piece of parchment across the desk. "Rank F. Take it or leave it."

My smile faded. "Rank F?" I repeated. I was expecting something... better. At least Rank C. Something that didn't sound like the absolute bottom.

The clerk looked unimpressed. "Yeah, Rank F. You're lucky you even got that. LeeOn might think you have some potential, but you're still a joke in the grand scheme of things. Rank F is where you'll start. It's the bottom, kid. You can take missions now, but don't expect anything exciting. You'll be doing the grunt work for a while."

I stood there, holding the promotion slip, the weight of Rank F settling in. It sounded like the kind of place they sent people to do all the mind-numbing tasks. But... it was still something. Better than nothing, right?

I walked out of the Hall of Records, my heart heavy but my mind determined. Rank F. Maybe it wasn't glamorous, but it was a start. And if I played my cards right, maybe, just maybe, I could make it work for me.