Isaac left the Communicator room and buried his body into his sofa as per usual. He then called out to Rizzly.

“Rizzly.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll be heading to the College in a few days.”

Clang!

Those words seemed to have drained all of Rizzly’s strength from his hands, as the glass he was washing fell onto the floor.

“Wh, why the College?”

Isaac cocked his head, observing Rizzly’s petrified expression.

“To play.”

“… I’ll stay and guard New Port City with all my might until your return, Sir Isaac.”

“No. I need instructors. Pick around ten or so, including yourself.”

“T, then I’ll provide you with the best instructors!”

The desperation in Rizzly was so great that it was akin to a man pleading with loan sharks. Out of curiosity, Isaac asked Rizzly why he was acting in such a way.

“Why are you so dramatic? Is there a reason why you shouldn’t come to College?”

“T, that’s…”

Rizzly hesitated, and it was at this moment Rivelia came up to the rooftop with a thick bundle of documents. While the two pairs of eyes were on her, Rivelia walked up to the table next to Isaac and dropped the documents onto the table with a slam, her foul mood in full blast.

“What is this?”

“These are the resumes of those who’ve applied for the Directorate of Security.”

“Hm. It’s more than I thought?”

Isaac mumbled to himself as he shuffled through the documents. Considering that each resume took up both sides of the paper, there were at least a hundred volunteers.

“There are 120 volunteers, to be precise. 40 of them are active agents while 80 are recruits who will be graduating from the College.”

“How many of them are non-humans?”

“None.”

“None? Not a single one?”

Rivelia responded to Isaac’s surprise with a hint of bitter smile.

“Only humans would be tempted by the offers of the Directorate of Security.”

“True, fine. You can go.”

Isaac gave a slack nod while keeping his eyes onto the documents. Rivelia’s brows squirmed.

“As a word of advice, I recommend you recruit active agents as a core and fill up the remainder with the recent graduates of College. We can reduce the time required to train them, and advice from the experienced agents will accelerate their transformation into elites.”

Isaac, who was looking through the documents in the midst of Rivelia’s advice, put the documents down with an audible ‘tap!’ and handed them over to Rivelia with an answer.

“They all pass.”

“What bullshit is this?”

“…”

Rizzly’s eyes widened at Rivelia, never expecting to hear such language from her. Meanwhile, Isaac faced Rivelia’s cold glare with an entertained look on his face.

“Didn’t you hear me? Tell all the applicants they’ve passed and that they should prepare themselves for training in College.”

“Haven’t you heard the message? Central will only allow up to 50 people.”

Listening to Rivelia, Isaac clicked his tongue with great annoyance and looked at her with even greater disappointment.

“Do you think the training I’ll make them go through will be that easy? You really think there won’t be a single person dropping out?”

“Don’t underestimate the agents of Central. They are the elites of elites who’ve gone through rigorous training. Which is why I’m advising you about the makeup of the Directorate of Security.”

“Shall we make a bet as to how many will drop out?”

“…”

The urge to shout out ‘Bring it!’ was barely held back by Rivelia’s instincts, which reminded her of all the suffering she’d gone through.

“What, are you not confident? Worried that those agents you are so proud of will give up? But you said that’s impossible? Or are those words just for show, and deep inside you admit to what I say? Is it?”

This was a trap. Both her gut and her brain were sounding alarm bells. But Isaac’s comment pushed Rivelia over the edge, and she accepted Isaac’s bet.

“Shit! Bring it!”

Isaac snickered at Rivelia’s outcry while Rizzly cupped his ears. He heard nothing.

“It’s been a while.”

Isaac greeted Duke Corduroy in front of him with a cheeky smile.

When Isaac declared that he was going for another round of vacations, Cordnell clung onto Isaac, demanding answers. But when he heard Rivelia was going with him this time, Cordnell muttered to himself that he may as well run the city instead out of despair. Isaac heard Cordnell’s words and happily agreed to transfer all authority to Cordnell. Cordnell stood soullessly, left behind with a document detailing the transfer of authority stamped with both Isaac and Rivelia’s seals. Isaac also dragged Rizzly along for the trip to Campus that he didn’t wish to attend and finally met up with Duke Corduroy.

“As I suspected, you weren’t just a brat.”

“So you knew all along?”

“It isn’t often you see someone with dead eyes.”

Isaac shrugged at Duke Corduroy’s answer. After a momentary glance, Corduroy continued to speak to Isaac.

“The College has always been tasked with training Central’s agents.”

“So you’re saying there will be people who won’t be pleased with my interference.”

“The training ground is shared by everyone. I can provide you with instructors if you wish.”

“No need.”

“… Really? It will be difficult to manage that many people by yourself.”

Isaac pointed at Rivelia in response to Corduroy’s comment.

“This damsel here will be taking care