Chapter 473 - Employee (3)

"So why did you join this organization?" I ate with my mentor in one of their cafeterias.

"The benefits and the opportunities to get promoted are better than other places," she didn't hesitate to reveal.

"Don't you have to kidnap or kill people?" I wondered.

"We mostly assign those kinds of tasks to our branches. People like us at the headquarters are different. Kidnapping or watching over hostages is the furthest extent that we'll ever be around danger," she shrugged.

This explained why my former captors seemed to be beginners at this. The life of a criminal wasn't so bad when you were placed in the headquarters. Most of the people in my department have never committed a crime, normal people in the first district. They were recruited from a normal job board, going through a formal interview process after passing the application stage. In fact, they commuted to this building from their houses like it was another day of work.

I was the rare exception, people pitying me that I ran away from my house to escape from my violent partner. Surprisingly, although these cases were rare, it wasn't that uncommon. I almost dropped my spoon when they told me their engagements kept on changing based on their compatibility together until they graduated from high school. I never believed Shelly when she told me people from lower ranking schools had the chance to change partners unlike us.

Eating some slices of pizza, everyone looked at me weirdly for eating the food reserved for hostages. But since I teared up every time that they brought up my cover story, they never mentioned it again. I actually liked the department I was assigned to, not having to go through intense training sessions like the others. Since I was still young, they didn't plan on assigning me any difficult tasks.

The most I was supposed to do was to attend the meetings with them and take notes to pass onto everyone else in the team. I could slowly learn how the organization worked this way, able to transition into a higher role when I got older. Since I had to follow everyone around to the meetings rooms, I was practically given more access than the regular employees. Enjoying my time here, I liked how they tried to give children a normal childhood.

"I'll give you a tour of this place," she rose from her chair.

Leaving my tray on the table to follow her, I was stunned in how this entire place was organized. Immersing myself in the futuristic first district, I couldn't take my eyes off in all the huge computations trying to hack into another organization with ease. Strings of never-ending numbers swirled all around the air in the first room I entered. Servants were busily put to work to make the whole infrastructure spotless while doing some menial tasks.

My seniors that I was working under were attempting to solve complex problems regarding the broken robots. Constantly chanting more spells to help determine where the mistakes were, my mentor led me to another place to not distract them from their work. I even got to look at all the cameras placed around the building. Managing to spot my old room, nobody caring that the hostage had disappeared.

Everyone was busy with higher piles of work since their colleagues were inside the infirmary for some reason. Once the tour was over, my mentor brought me back to my room. Flipping the screen on to watch a movie during the spare time, I almost jumped on my bed when someone else knocked on my door. Walking to unlock the door, I pressed a button to let him in.

"Do you have some extra time to watch over the hostages? We placed them inside a secure room and you only have to watch them from the other side of the glass. Over half of our workers are in the infirmary while others are busy with the work they couldn't do," he seemed to be out of breath.

"Sure," I wondered who else they kidnapped.

With the access card hanging around my neck, I entered the room at a safe place. I had some translucent screens floating in front of me, showing the scene of the people inside the room at different angles. A large keyboard hovered around me with its the controls being introduced by the person who asked me for help. Although I pitied the people being blindfolded while unable to use their mana with the chains clasped around their wrists and ankles, the features inside this room was cool.

"Are you keeping the blindfolds on them?" I thought it would be a good choice.

"The blindfolds are only temporary. They'll disappear soon since we'll need to confirm their identities," he pressed a button on the keyboard to see who his colleague had kidnapped.

"You don't know who they brought?" I was stunned by the lack of communication.

"They're spies who stuck in here," he sighed.

When he received a call that they needed his help from another department, he left me to confirm their identities on my own. Pressing a button to make the blindfolds disappear, the people in the other side of the room froze. Their jaws almost dropped while they stared at me in their uncomfortable positions, treated much worse than when I was a hostage. How was I ever going to explain this? Maybe I should have told him that I was busy today.