It was a last-minute assignment to conduct an ambient mana survey. Luckily, it was summertime, and the location was a remote swamp that stayed hot and humid year-round. So it was at its worst.

  Nico naturally assumed he was being punished.

  Official reports listed Tellur as a low-risk region for rifts. D-grade at most: the kind that barely warped reality and unraveled without incident. Tasking an A-rank alchemist was excessive, but he couldn’t refuse. He knew because he tried, and learned it was a direct order from Central, with his name already attached.

  Nico’s eyes narrowed as he stepped into the guild’s conference room.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, accusatory on principle.

  “Someone’s assistant had to pull an all-nighter for this mission briefing,” Kai replied without looking up, fingers tapping across his laptop.

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  Nico looked him over. Tidy wolf ears, glowing skin, sleek tail... This man was well-rested. At least he had the decency to be indignant on his staff’s behalf.

  “So Central requested you too,” Nico said, offering somber solidarity.

  Kai was also an A-rank alchemist. One who specialized in strong-arming his way out of assignments he didn’t want. Nico had misjudged this as overkill; this wasn't a survey. It was an extermination.

  “No,” Kai said. “Not too.”

  The fox’s ears tilted.

  “Central requested me,” Kai clarified. “I requested you."

  Nico saw red— in bold text as the projector turned on: Status: Unknown.

  A short list of C-rank alchemists filled the screen, each marked with a last-seen date. The entries stretched back decades.

  “One of the Arcanite Sages from the Forged Nation has been signing off on Tellur’s annual mana surveys,” Kai said.

  This was worse than Nico thought. And he already thought he was being punished. The only thing that could make it worse was actually encountering the Sage bored enough to show up in Tellur.