Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

The people in the room stared at the big screen in silence. They were carefully listening to the words of the man that was talking on the screen.

No one said anything and they all quietly listened to those words. They were familiar with the man talking in the video. Who wouldn't know the face of their neighboring country's president?

They frowned more and more after any single sentence that the man said. The atmosphere in the room was cold and heavy, reflecting the mood of the people in the meeting. 

The video ended after a few minutes and the people in the room started arguing over that person's words.

One man slammed the table angrily.

"What makes them think that they have the right to request such a thing from us?"

A woman massaged her eyes with two fingers.

"Do they think we would let such a thing happen? Really, they don't understand the situation at all."

Someone else tapped the table with his finger.

"How can they create such a mess because of some mascry getting stolen?"

"He said he had a friend request? This looked more like he was ordering us, not requesting."

"Or maybe threatening."

The people in the room, sitting around a large table, argued and gave their opinions about the situation. It was obvious how irritated and annoyed they were.

After a few moments, the woman sitting on the head of the table clapped her hands, making everyone look her way.

"Everyone, please calm down."

She waited a few seconds for everyone to stop speaking before continuing to talk.

"You all heard the latest message of Bordkly's president that was sent to us a few hours ago. There were other official messages attached to this one, all about the same request: They want us to let their agents and detectives enter Hainston in order to cooperate with our agents and solve the mascry problem."

The woman paused for a moment after saying those words, and that one moment was enough for voices to rise again.

"That's absurd!"

"We have to go there in order to examine the mines, why would they want to come here?"

"Didn't they ask us to find the thieves? Now they want to send detectives? Ha! Ridiculous!"

"There is no way such a thing would happen!"

The woman sighed and opened he mouth again, talking in a loud voice for everyone to hear.

"Their request was accepted."

"...."

"...."

"...."

Silence descended in the room. 

People all looked at the woman in confusion without saying anything, probably too shocked to talk.

"The request was accepted?"

The nonchalant voice of a man brought back everyone to their senses. The woman turned towards the man who was calmly listening to everything and smiled slightly.

"That's right, team leader. The president agreed to it after much thought, sir commander also accepted the request."

voices started to rise again.

"The president accepted it? Why?"

"Why would our commander let something like that happen? He must know how dangerous it is!"

"Are they making fun of us now? First asking for compensation, and now sending their agents here. Everything for some mascry!"

"Shouldn't commander try to change the president's mind? Why did he agree to it?"

The woman sitting on the head of the table sighed after listening to the others' complaints. 

She didn't try to stop them. She let the people say whatever they wanted without interrupting. 

They were all high-ranking members of SMF who had spent their lives protecting this country and its people, it was natural that they would get mad after hearing such news. 

After waiting for a while for their anger to subside a little bit, she opened her mouth once again.

"I know how you must feel, but please try to understand the situation. There is a possibility of a war breaking out between us and Bordkly. I'm sure no one here wishes for that to happen. We need to take one step back if we want to avoid such a thing. And I'm sure the president and our commander both know what they are doing, we only need to trust them and follow their orders."

Contrary to her intentions, the woman's words didn't calm the people's anger at all. Instead, it made them even angrier.

"Why should WE take one step back? Aren't they the ones who started everything from the beginning?"

"First they call us terrorists, then call us thieves. And WE are the ones who take one step back and risk their citizens' lives in order to achieve peace."

"It is ridiculous!"

"They are killing our people, our soldiers, in the borders! THEY attack us! And WE are retreating to achieve peace!"

"The commander better has some kind of plan, I'm sure he wouldn't do such a thing without thinking through it completely."

The woman smiled bitterly and took her eyes off of the angry people. She turned around and looked towards someone else who was only watching the others without saying anything. Besides him sat a woman who also didn't join the other's conversation and looked at them with a bored face. 

The woman smiled slightly and opened his mouth.

"You two are awfully quiet. Aren't you angry like them, team leader Dains, captain Neal?"

The two of them turned towards the women. The team leader silently looked at the woman while captain Neal shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm from Monster Hunting Division, I don't really understand this stuff. I don't even know why I was invited to this meeting when my job isn't even related to it."

"Pffft!"

The woman burst into laughter. She covered her mouth with her hand and leaned towards captain Neal a little bit.

"You say you're not angry, but you seem quite annoyed? I've never seen you answer back to the others like this! Is that how you talk to your superior?"

Captain Neal flinched after hearing those words. She glared at team leader Dains on her side and bit her lips.

"I'm sorry."

She muttered those words and lowered her head. 

"Hmm?"

The woman tilted her head at that strange reaction, but didn't talk to the captain anymore and instead stood up from her seat. 

People stopped arguing for a moment after seeing her stand up and all of them looked at her. Using this momentary silence, she announced something in a loud voice.

"Bordkly's agents will arrive tomorrow. The preparations have started. Orders will be sent directly to each division in a few hours. Also, unit 5 of the Special Units will be in charge of dealing with and directly monitoring the guests."

"...."

"...."

"...."

Silence descended in the room once again. Everyone looked at the woman once, before peeking at the Special Units' unit 5's leader. 

She looked at the team leader and continued.

"I'm sure you'll be able to complete this mission as flawlessly as always."

The team leader nodded his head without any change of expression.

"Yes."

"Then, the meeting ends here. You can go back to your works."

The woman nodded her head with a smile and left the room.

People started leaving the meeting room after her one after another, while still discussing among themselves. 

"Team leader Dains!"

Captain Neal called out for team leader Dains and ran towards him before he could exit the room. 

The team leader slightly tilted his head and looked at her.

"I wanted to ask you about that mage in your unit-"

"I'm sorry but I've got to go and prepare for tomorrow."

"Wait-"

But before she could say anything, the team leader exited the room and entered the elevator at the speed of light.

"...."

Captan Neal looked at the closed doors of the elevator and clenched her fists.

'Really now! Why does he run away every time I want to ask about that mage?!'

She was quite annoyed by the situation. Captain Neal took a deep breath and closed her eyes. 

She attended all of the meetings they had during this week, that was something rare for her to do, only to get the chance to talk to the team leader about that boy.

She knew it wasn't the best time and situation to talk about something trivial like that, but she couldn't just wait for things to end and ask about him on a peaceful day. 

Because such a day would never come. There was always trouble in SMF, there wasn't a single peaceful day here.

However, he always ran away as soon as she wanted to bring up that topic.

She only wanted to ask him why he asked her to help that boy because she didn't see any point in teaching him. 

She couldn't just ignore the request of the leader of Special Units' unit 5 and stop teaching that boy all of a sudden, so she wanted to have a talk with him. But she couldn't talk to the team leader. 

Even the deputy team leader avoided her the whole week, not even answering her messages.

'I was too annoyed that I even talked disrespectfully to the deputy commander...'

She covered her face with two hands and sighed, hoping that she hadn't offended the deputy commander.

'I'll pay them a visit tomorrow. He can't run away anymore if I go to his own office, right?'