Wally Tona sat impassively on the couch, his legs crossed, and sipping on a cup of black tea.

  In between his index and middle finger was a lit piece of cigarette that slowly effused its pungent smell into the air.

  Sage Yeltz also sat, her swiveling chair tilted and facing out of the window with a peculiar expression that hovered between thoughtfulness

  They were currently in Mr. Tona’s temporary office, a development stemming mostly from the fact that Sage Yeltz’s office had become overrun with various machinery.

  In the sage’s hand was a stack of documents, each page infused with a certain level of ‘redaction’. This redaction was reserved for the most confidential of documents, as it directly required the magic of a mind mage or spirit world creature with the same abilities.

  Of course, Sage Yeltz was of sufficient rank to be able to read the document without much issue.

  “I can’t believe you would vandalise Commission property like that. Your office has become some sort of ridiculous eleven workshop.” Mr. Tona grumbled, glancing at the seat that usually belonged to him.

  He had found that his willful apprentice had invaded his office and taken over his seat a few minutes prior, and had tucked his tail between his legs to sit on the couch.

  “Haa… If you find it an eyesore, you can tell me where I can find a place with the kind of stable mana flow for precise experimentation that I need.” Sage Yeltz replied sarcastically.

  “You could buy one of the existing workshops. Or place your lovely little lab in one of the basement facilities.” Mr. Tona replied impassively.

  “No. That would be too troublesome, and it would attract more attention than I care for at the moment.” Sage Yeltz scoffed.

  Building a lab in your office is more ridiculous! Mr. Tona thought in his mind, clicking his tongue at the disrespectful attitude that his own apprentice was showing him.

  But he did not retaliate, nor point it out. He was being abnormally patient today for a simple reason. He had made a rather fatal mistake.

  And… he was curious…

  “…You want to ask about the boy?” Sage Yeltz suddenly said, throwing the redacted document at Mr. Tona casually.

  “Of course. The insane boy had already made that horrendous deal with Pultris when I checked in on him.” Mr. Tona replied, catching the redacted document flawlessly.

  “I’m curious how you managed to notice him losing that charm… Pultris had concealed the matter quite cunningly, and even I would not have found out until maybe tomorrow at the most.” Mr. Tona continued, stroking his chin as he pondered out loud.

  Sage Yeltz nodded at this, snapping her fingers to summon the particular charm out of the air into her hand.

  It had complex layers of geometric patterns inlaid with ignivite on its surface, creating an illusory and magical look.

  “Do you recognise this charm, old man?” Sage Yeltz asked.

  “…I assume that it’s a sort of isolating charm, one that relies on contract and mind magic to block oneself from external influence.” Mr. Tona said, showing his vague understanding of the relevant knowledge.

  “Mmm… Yes. That is what most people will conclude. So it seems that you’ve dulled further than I realised in your retirement.” Sage Yeltz replied drily.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Mr. Tona frowned at this statement.

  He had been puzzled that Yvette Yeltz had allowed Pultris to find himself a contractor from when he had met Aurelius.

  Even if this contracting had been done several loops ago, the strange decision clearly stemmed first and foremost from his own student.

  Djinns were considered to be sealed artefact with sentience, and Pultris was one of the most dangerous artefacts of them all, and this stemmed from his highly advanced understanding of his own seals, as well as his negative influence on any sort of contracts formed with him.

  His mastery of wind magic was comparable to a portion of even Venturis Himself. A simple product of the man’s genius in life, as well as a product of the various cursed flesh experimentations that he had done in his life.

  His cunning was also something that one had to be prepared against, given his immense intelligence and corresponding powers.

  Officially, there were no records of Pultris’s deeds in human rites until 50 years after he was sealed. Even the Ethics Committee and their investigation had failed to prove that any of his experiments even existed when Pultris had first been captured and executed.

  And in fact, even when he was being executed and when he was sealed as a djinn later on, no signs of flesh magic had been observed from this absurd creature.

  Only his resurrection as an angel which skipped many of the complications of such processes, as well as the fact that he revealed the power over flesh in an incident of possession 200 years back was proof that he had indeed mastered this darker aspect of magical knowledge.

  What was worse was that he could not be sealed with enough ‘completion’.

  So Mr. Tona was rather sure that there were strange undercurrents surrounding the fact that his apprentice had tied the strings of fate between a time looping boy and this overpowered, and ridiculous sealed angel without even informing the top brass.

  Recklessness was not his student’s style.

  “Page 9.” Sage Yeltz said nonchalantly, leading Mr. Tona to frown as he flipped through the redacted document.

  As a temporary hire, Mr. Tona was unable to parse through much of the information. They simply formed blots of darkness in his mind.

  However, he quickly grasped that the document consisted of information about the strange, sealed djinn, and his origins and powers…

  As he kept reading towards page 9, something… caught his eyes.

  Artifact B-254, █████████████ █████. Next to its redacted name and description lay a photo of a charm with complex patterns engraved on it.

  It was the charm that Aurelius was given.

  ???

  Aurelius walked with a pale fact, his body itself ‘handcuffed’ by golden threads that wrapped around him.

  Behind him followed the three cowering pirates, their eyes hollow with fear and obedience.

  The three of them had been tortured under Aurelius’s horrified eyes over the course of 30 minutes by Pultris, a process of dismemberment and ‘re-memberment’.

  Quinn, who had once been a respectable pirate, now had a string of drool hanging from the side of his haggard face, and his eyebags had become shadows with the depth of a well on his sunken eyes.

  Over the course of the previous night, Aurelius had been forcefully knocked out, and the three pirates were ‘contained’ further by Pultris, who had once again reinforced the ‘sealing charm’ to create a sort of cage for the three of them.

  When Aurelius woke up, the scene of three pungent, sweaty men stacked fearfully on each other nearly made him question the reality of his absurd situation.

  Why was he such a magnet for trouble?

  He could almost understand the Fae Queen and the troubles that followed as a result of Her plans and whims.

  But Pultris was something that was supposed to help him, not take over his hand and commit war crimes!

  He was in fact, much more afraid of Pultris rather than the Fae Queen.

  The Fae Queen likely saw him as nothing but a tool to be used or disposed of. But She was clearly someone who was ‘above’ him. She saw him as a human, something lesser than Her.

  This made Her feel detached, which was infinitely better than this psychotic creature known as Pultris.

  He was something that spoke in a casual, sometimes disarming manner, one whose greasiness and charm would slowly seep into oneself.

  But not only was he an absolute monster, who could torture people without breaking a sweat or moral quandary, he had a singular, more tangible goal, which he was beyond focused on.

  He wanted to escape from the Commission.

  And Aurelius was the one tool at his disposal. His one marionette.

  To the Fae Queen, Aurelius was just a piece of her plans. To Pultris, Aurelius was a partner, something to corrupt and make whole.

  It was infinitely more creepy…

  “We’ve arrived.” Pultris said in satisfaction, as Aurelius glanced up to the sign of the bar that read ‘The Funky Fish’.

  Suddenly, Pultris moved Aurelius’s arm to face the pirates, causing them to instinctively step back in horror.

  They had been domesticated enough to know that running was futile, however, the reaction that stemmed from the depths of their soul was hard to cancel.

  With a greasy tone, Pultris started, “Ah, before I forget, I would like an eye of my own.”

  “W-What do you mean, g-great s-sir?” Quinn asked, forcing a smile on his tearful face.

  “Like I said, your eye.” Pultris replied.

  With that, the golden threads on Quinn’s arm plunged into his own eye socket.