The lobby is full of people as always. There seems to be some business going on here. It was strange though that the neighbors didn't think too much when the building is being built or does the magicians already created a fake memory for them to remember? With their ability to wipe out a certain part of the memory, it wouldn't be a wonder if that really did happen.

Yaya is currently reading a book on the lounge on the first floor. She seems to be sipping a juice in a cup which made me thirsty. My problem is money, I don't have money at the moment which is a blunder for me right now.

I approached Yaya and look at the book she is reading.

"Book of Absolute Zero: Arcane techniques of Ice Volume 3"

A grimoire? No, it looks like a catalog instead of a real grimoire so I doubt it easily to be a grimoire. It doesn't look so old and thick and the cover didn't look ancient either.

Yaya noticed me easily and she adjusted the gla.s.ses she is wearing for reading.

"You have bad eyesight?" I asked Yaya.

"Nah, my right eye is a bit blurry after a certain experimentation in magic go haywire. My eyesight is well during normal times but it is blurry if I am reading so I used gla.s.ses to read. Want to read the book? It's about Ice magic which would be helpful for you if you want to learn ice magic."

She closed the book she is reading and hands it out to me.

"I think it would be great but I came here to ask something, where is Volta by the way? I don't see him around the place."

"Oh, Volta? He is out on a mission in Busan after the Magician Council in Korea requested help from all free magicians to exterminate mobs of monsters in the area. Since Volta is a monster hunter, he was adamant in going."

That is Volta for you, as long as there is a monster in the vicinity, you know who to call.

"Is that all you want to ask?"

"Actually, no, I still have a question. What kind of good jobs are available right now? I want to get my hands on a good job so that I can reap the rewards of my labor."

"Jobs huh? Oh, I have a perfect job for you. You are still a high schooler, right? Then this job is something you have to look at."

What is this? Is it about going back to school this time?

"There is an anomaly in a school lately. According to the intel, some students awaken the power to use magic but usually, it is just an awakening that lasts for a day. It is not an actual awakening that we have experienced before so we call this an anomaly. 

Normally, we don't really see it as something troublesome to deal with but lately, more and more students awaken magic and it no longer lasts a day. Most of the magic they awaken belongs to their certain roles at school as if they are a painter, then their power would awaken related to the painting industry, only in a dark way.

This caused the council to ask a magic-user to go undercover at the school and make sure to find out the truth about their awakenings and stop them from wreaking havoc. Wanna take the job Kazuma? This will give you two books of grimoire, 500,000 yen, two seeds of magic learning bean, and 5 cores of Tier 5 monsters. What do you say? Wanna accept this one?"

The rewards are tempting and it sounds like a good job for quite a while. However, the main problem lies in going to the school. I have been traumatized for the bullying and even though I already developed myself to be a bit of courageous, it's not something easy to forget. But what I am getting gooseb.u.mps is the magic awakening. From the looks of it, they awaken the dark side of magic. If I hadn't encountered the Shadow, I might not really care but now, I am a bit curious if this event is somehow connected to the Shadow.

I think the Shadow is also the one who caused the rift of darkness to open in the cave last time and the remnant of his soul might be the one that caused it. There is a high possibility that Shadow is somewhat involved in this event. My reluctance is replaced by the courage to stop Shadow's plans.

"Looks like I have found the job I will be accepting for today. My only inquiry is that if I don't want to expose the magician world, how can I do that if they managed to see me when fighting against the students?"

"No worries. Five of the teachers there are undercover agents sent to deal with the events as they suspected the enemy might be a teacher but they were wrong. Now, they are trying to ask backup from magicians that can go become a student. In the case of battle, they will a.s.sist you in many things like mind tampering to those students who managed to see you and the battle and those kids that are inflicted by the power of darkness. The school is big so it would take a lot of time."

"Then, I think there is no more problem. The job is now mine. What steps I should do next? Which school is it?"

"We will process the quest immediately. The school is the Eastern Sakura High."

I froze when I heard the school's name. What are the chances that the school I left for quite a while would be the school that would be the location of my mission site? Will I be meeting my bullies again? Looks like Erina would be really delighted to see me again despite the fact that I am not delighted to see her.

"What is wrong Kazuma?" Yaya asked.

"Nothing. It's just that the school that is infested by the awakenings is the school I am also attending and dropped out with. You don't need to prepare a uniform, I still have mine."