My name is Junior Officer Hoshano, a member of the respected and feared institution, Milium Secret Agency. I was a Private once, but my superior are retired after an assassination attempt in his home town by a bomb planted on the street. I got promoted not long after saving his life by killing two assailants near the scene. A heroic deed was done, they said. Because of that, my rank was pushed up earlier than expected. Early enough to warrant a little party with my friends and family. Those fun times did not last long though, because I learnt it the hard way that ranks comes with its burdens. It includes heightened amount of desk jobs, meeting, and scope of work. My job description is so thick, I could kill a dog with it.

Right now I am designated as the leader for a covert operation. We are five man large, including me. Four of these men will be my subordinate for the duration of the mission, which takes place in our neighboring country, Federation of Peace and Freedom. Our starting point is located in a major city called Baraks.

After crossing the border by using our connections inside of that country, we traveled for about an hour using cars. To keep a low profile, my team and I changed into civilian clothes as we approach our destination.

My first reaction upon reaching Baraks was a mild annoyance towards its smell. Filth is everywhere on the streets and pavement, as if public order hasn't been established for years here. No police in sight patrolling, everything feels low security and high risk. It just so happened this city's horrid condition is perfect for the breeding grounds of criminal activities.

These people gather around and plan insidious acts all day. They formed gangs and create their own rules that governs their member as if it's above the law. Those gangs are segregated by familial connection, race, language, and even genders. It's said that newspapers in this area have its own dedicated page just for death by murder.

Our covert operation dictates that we need to interact with one of the gang here. Someone there is interested in investing her money towards "hard mana". I wasn't into mana investing before but now I must, because there's mandatory research point in the mission briefing. But even before understanding what "hard mana" is in the simplest way possible, I somehow need to study on an ancient yet still used currency.

Simply, all of the countries in the island of Ha has agreed to ease the burden of commerce by adopting a single and universal form of exchange called La. To illustrate the state of our economy, a single bottle of fruit juice will cost you around 1.5La. This currency is as old as magic itself. It is untraceable, unhackable, and can be relied upon even when a government collapses.

To perform a transaction using this currency, all you have to prepare is yourself, and a little amount of mana. You need to write the full name of the recipient, the amount of La being transferred, and then make a confirmation by smearing the surface with a negligible amount of mana. If you happened to be the recipient, you can always check your current balance by imagining it in your head. Somehow this system of transaction could stand the test of time and still in use daily to this day.

As you can see, there's a problem with this system. It doesn't cover cases in which a group of people need to have an account. This problem was solved by cheating magic a little bit. It seems that an account of a person isn't actually tied to their physical body. It is actually bonded with one's soul. Scientist and magician alike have no idea what "soul" really is, yet we found out that you can tie a La account to a set amount of mana instead. The procedure on how to set it up and use it is complicated, but I need to understand that there's a common requirement for it. The requirement being, a very large amount of mana, which is proportionate to how much La it's going to hold.

Now hard mana is perfect to be used as an account holder, because its power density is higher compared to liquid mana. It's also easier to move around and store because they're produced in bite-sized blocks, courtesy of J-MEF. I have seen and touched it before. It's never above the size of your palm, squishy yet not brittle, and emanate a faint blue color.

The gang we're going to meet was told to have an internal problem. Probably relates to their book keeping, because they're very eager to create a group account as soon as possible. Without our help, it is simply impossible for them to create one because the market for such large amount of hard mana is regulated by Federation of Peace and Freedom. They need to "outsource" from other countries. It just so happen that we are in the business of hoarding hard mana. The price per block is of course inflated beyond reasonable range, but it doesn't matter to them. We are going to exploit their desperation, these scummy smelly bastards.

We are now still waiting for their arrival to our place. This place is quite special in Baraks, because it is the only functioning government facility besides the hospital, The City Hall. Throughout the years, even before the separation of Federation from Milium, this place has been our go to location to meet with the criminal underbellies of this country. It is secluded from police surveillance, has a running electricity, and connected to an undocumented mana pipeline which is running straight into Milium. Although its quality isn't as good as the original, this pipe should be able to transfer most of hard mana from my country in liquid form. Yes, it sounds weird to say "liquid hard mana", but on certain temperature, hard mana could be made liquid and will have viscosity similar to honey. I don't fully understand the reason why we are not using "liquid hard mana" for daily usage, but I've read it could corrode and damage pipes much faster than regular mana. We are not doing regular activity here, I'm sure those old pipes could handle a bit more liquid hard mana before it breaks.

Although I did say we are located in city hall, we are not actually in the building itself. Our meeting is suppose to happen in its basement away from prying eyes. Even we need to take some detours first to get into its secret entrance. We haven't used this place in a long while because businesses with gangs in Federation feels sluggish lately. Not a lot of new customers and repeat orders, despite us having a large amount of hard mana ready to be used. But they don't know the second part, that's why we could hike the price as if its scarce.

Walking away from my lonesome, I open an old door with no signs or markings on it. Plain, white, and inconspicuous. Behind it is the main room of this basement, a large space filled with end of those old pipes, protruding out of a wall. The walls are grey because its just cement with no paint. Ceilings is high above our heads, it feels industrial with all of the ventilation system clearly seen without covers. I guess this room was a storage for mana delivery once, but no one is using it anymore because mana mining is only viable in J-MEF as of hundred of years ago. One of my men, his name is Danny, is collecting our liquid hard mana and stores it on the floor to cool its temperature down, making it solid again. The other three are readying their weapons for when those gang members come, as a precaution.

Private Danny

This is our last batch of hard mana boss, I think we are not going to get any more sent our way.

Officer Hoshano

Good work Danny. Is there any discrepancy that we need to account for? Also how long have you been there collecting those hard mana?

Private Danny

I haven't weigh it down yet, but I think we are missing some amount while its on transfer. There's a pipe leak somewhere.

Officer Hoshano

Thankfully we have prepared this moment by planning to send more than we need. Now your job is to cool all of that shit and place it somewhere presentable. We need to be ready in ten minutes.

You two, Manny and Zanny! Stop fucking around with your guns and help Danny out! Move those asses!

Vladimir, you guard the door and signal me when they come in, understand?

Danny, Zanny, Vladimir

Sir, yes Sir!

In ten minutes those people will come through the door and make a deal with us. I am a bit anxious because this is my first time dealing with a gang member. But I have trained for this situation before. As long as I am being straight to the point and doesn't joke around, everything should go smoothly.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

Ten minute have passed since then. Someone is knocking on the plain door, one I used to get in. Vladimir is right beside it, peering outside to check the identity of our guests. He opens that door a bit with his handgun right behind him. I can hear him murmuring with out guests, probably exchanging passwords. After a short conversation, Vladimir give me a nod and open the door.

Out from it, is three woman in tight, black and white dresses, wearing hats and shades, handling a beaten up man with cloth gag in his mouth. These women looks respectable and professional, as expected from higher ranking members of "Black Flowers". From the surface they are seen as a dangerous bunch of female warriors with dangerous-readily-available-connection all over the country. They are known to manipulate and steer the influence of politics in every day Federation's lives with seduction, money, or even physical confrontation as we are seeing right now. I still don't get why they are bringing this man in, but I bet it has something to do with us.

Madam Celeste

You men sure always pick a unique place for us ladies. A damp basement below the filthiest city in all of Federation. If I didn't know any better, I could take this as an act of insult!

Officer Hoshano

Good evening, Madam Celeste and companies.

My name is...

Madam Celeste

Doesn't matter. You are not my usual handler anyway, so let's get this over with. Are the products ready for us to take, or are you trying to wage war with us?

Officer Hoshano

The products are ready madam, we suggest you to inspect it before we concludes our deal.

Madam Celeste

As always. You, go there and check it out.

One of them nods and walks right past me towards Danny, he's in charge of managing those cubes after all. I can see that woman is carrying some kind of device. It's probably a detector to test whether the hard mana was real or not. This will take a while because there are a lot of hard mana cubes there, but we have expected this so now everyone can just wait for ten minutes or so.

Let us not forget the man in gags here. He is bound by several layers of cable ties, panting, and decorated with bruises near his eyes and cheeks. I'm quite familiar with this kind of injury, it's definitely caused by a fist fight. Rather than a fist fight, it might also come from torture or one sided beating. He is wearing black pants and white shirt with pocket, reminiscent of a junior government worker. His face however doesn't indicate that he's in junior years at all. Such contradiction is confusing for me to analyze without proper context. I think I need to be the one that starts a conversation here, an inquiry of his purpose here. After all, why would they bring a beaten up man to us if they can hide it somewhere instead.

Officer Hoshano

Madam Celeste, can I inquire why...

Madam Celeste

You may not. Government lackeys like you should shut up and do your job.

The only thing you need to know is that our male friend here is a gift for your higher ups. Tell them that he has classified information and location of all pre-separation mana pipes that's connected to Milium. He plans to spread this information to the public, but we stopped him before anyone get the chance to see his papers. We burned those papers of course.

Can you say all that to your superior, lackey?

She just got me off mid-sentence. What an ego these bastards have. I don't think it's necessary to treat me like some manservant and discard any sense of manners. I really want to put people like these in their place, but my duty for this mission stops that train of thought. Instead, I need to focus on finishing this job as soon as possible.

This poor man is then tossed towards me. He lies there writhing, quietly. This part doesn't exist in the mission briefing, so this man's fate is entirely within my control. Truth be told, we have all of the schematics for old and new pipelines going in and out of this country. Objectively speaking, I have no need to keep this man alive. If I decided to bring him back, he'll be some added paperwork at best.

Officer Hoshano

He's just a liability for us then. Let's finish this, Vladimir give me your hand gun. This one will be quick.

Madam Celeste

Suit yourself lackey. After all, you men only know how to kill instead of solving the real problem.

Vladimir approaches me then hands me his personal hand gun. His looks like an old model that's inaccurate to shot and bothersome to maintain. It's not loaded yet and the magazine is full with 12 bullets available. Although I can use mine, this beaten-up-man doesn't look like someone who's worth a single bullet from my hand gun.

I glared back at Celeste, thinking that this woman is worse than I thought. Her jab at my pride isn't surprising, but having your line of thinking get cut off by an insult is never pleasant. I cock this gun back halfway to see whether it still has bullet or not. I do that while staring at her, not averting my eyes even a moment. She knows that I'm pissed by her attitude, maybe that's what they want from me.

I put the barrel of my gun straight into his mouth, forcing it open until I reached the front of his throat. He screams and jerks around, yet it doesn't change my aim which is pointed straight onto his brain. I can see his eyes bawling and mouth filled with water, almost choking himself with it. What a pathetic way to go, these scum don't deserve to die honorably.

knock knock

A faint knocking on that plain white door disturbs our concentration. Everyone's gaze is directed straight to the source of that noise. I release some pressure from my index and then make an upward nod towards Vladimir who's standing beside the door. He recognizes my sign and points his rifle at the door. We are not making a sound, everyone is on the edge of their toes. This silent conversation is broken by a single sentence, uttered outside that door. It's a female voice, calling unto us.

Male Voice

Delivery!

Suddenly the light is cut off and darkness surrounds us immediately. I can feel adrenaline filling my back, lightning fast. Hand is twitchy, eyes closed, and ears are sensitive enough to hear leaf falling down. Someone is ambushing us and we are not prepared enough for this.

Fuck.