As the two of them returned to the office, they found Korrn waiting with Lina beside him.
“Where did the two of you go?”
“We… uhh…” Mirelle stumbled, and Vierna noticed her hand trembling—they had, after all, sneaked into the cafeteria during working hours.
“Frau Mirelle here was telling us about the cafeteria, Herr Korrn,” Vierna said quickly, stepping between Korrn and Mirelle.
“You are aware this is working hours, aren’t you? And the cafeteria is not your place of duty.”
Vierna steadied herself. She forced her tone to remain calm, even as her heart raced. “Apologies, Herr Korrn. But while I was there, something disturbed me.”
“Oh? And what was that?”
“The fact that the ingredients were so bland shows the baron hasn’t given you enough credit. Food is the source of life, and no one can work on an empty stomach or a bad lunch. The baron should’ve sent saffron and venison at the very least—something worthy of effort, not gruel fit for beggars.”
Her eyes lingered deliberately on Korrn’s overindulgent frame, gauging whether the remark might strike a chord.
Both Mirelle and Lina stared at Vierna, wide-eyed. Her fiery gaze showed not a trace of hesitation as she spoke.
“How right you are, Crysta,” Korrn laughed. “I always thought the same, but the baron was practically really stingy with the budget. It’s bullshit. This tax office is the heart of Haustwitch—we work so hard we’re practically skin and bone.” He brushed his bulging stomach with a chuckle. “You’re one of a kind. Keep that up and you’ll have a bright future here.”
“I will. Thank you, Herr Korrn.”
“Mirelle, let the two of them into the filing room. Their task is to rearrange everything using, uh…” He waved his hand vaguely.
“The District–Name–Date Indexing, Herr Korrn?” Mirelle said quickly.
Vierna looked at Lina as the conversation unfolded. Lina glanced back at her, as if she had something she wanted to say but held it in.
“Yes, that.” Korrn nodded in satisfaction, as if he’d meant to say it all along.
“Understood, Herr Korrn.”
The three girls excused themselves and headed to the filing room. Inside, towering cabinets lined the walls from floor to ceiling, crammed so tightly they seemed like gray stone cliffs pressing in on every side. Each drawer wore a number tag, and the sheer volume of them gave the sense of staring into a forest of iron trunks, each one guarding its secrets. Papers littered the floor and spilled from half-open drawers, as if a storm had torn through the room and left twenty years of tax records scattered like fallen leaves.
“These files are old tax records,” Mirelle said, her eyes scanning the room. “When the previous officer was fired, he took revenge by turning this place into chaos. Twenty years of history, all scrambled, and now basically a giant pain in the ass.” She yawned, as if even the act of staying awake was too much effort. “Your job is to put everything back in order. Ideally, it should be done by tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?!” Lina’s mouth fell open at the sheer number of files they had to sort.
“Yeah, I know.” Mirelle scratched her head. “Sorry. But that’s how the tax master keeps in shape—by delegating the work and sitting on his ass all day.”
The girls laughed awkwardly, unsure how to respond to the blatant insult.
“The process itself is simple,” Mirelle went on. “First, sort everything by district. After that, organize the dates—starting from the earliest, about twenty years ago, up to last month.”
“But the deadline is a bit… challenging.” Vierna picked up a sheet of paper.
“Just try your best, okay?” Mirelle patted her back. “We’ll also cover ‘how to kiss Korrn’s ass so he lets you off the hook for not being able to handle twenty people’s jobs’ tomorrow when he gets angry.”
“Haha, thank you, Senior,” Vierna said. “About the dinner?”
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“Oh right. We will go on midnight. That’s the ‘normal’ time to go home around here. I’ll let the others know; I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.”
“I hope so.” Vierna smiled. “All right, let’s get into it.”
“Good luck, girls, and welcome to heaven.” Mirelle smirked, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“Glad to be here,” Lina sighed heavily.
The three girls set to work arranging the papers. Mirelle stayed for a while, correcting their mistakes and offering quiet guidance. Once she was satisfied they had gotten the hang of it, she excused herself from the room.
“Lin… are you okay?” Vierna asked, her voice low with concern as she followed Mirelle’s retreating figure. What exactly had happened in Korrn’s office? she wondered.
“Huh? Ah—yes, Vierna. Sorry. We should use our aliases now.”
“Oh, right. But yours is Aline so if I call you Lin it would still make sense” Vierna smiled
“Haha. Yeah you’re right, too bad I can’t call your real name.” She smiled bitterly.
Noticing the frown in Lina’s face, Vierna leaned in. “Did Korrn do something to you?”
“Well, that old swine certainly tried.” Lina brushed her hair back. “Luckily, I know how to avoid men like him. I was popular in my village—teenagers used to hit on me. Let’s just say something always hit them back.” She chuckled.
“If that pig dared to do something to you I’ll give him what he deserve.” Vierna’s voice burned like a flare.
“Aww, cute... but don’t worry. I can handle him.” Lina patted Vierna’s head. “Also, I found something worrying.”
“Oh? What is it?” Vierna kept stacking papers.
“Tomorrow they’re sending people to Rolbart village.” Lina’s tone wavered.
“That’s good, right? We can finally head to our assigned location.” Vierna’s chest lifted at the thought of at last doing what they were meant to do.
“But Korrn says we’re not going—said we’re too smart for such grunt work.”
“What?”
“Yeah. He can’t let someone as smart as you and as beautiful as me go to a backwater village.” Lina shuddered. “It seems he was easy, flatter him and you’re on his good side.”
“That sucks. I never thought flattering him would backfire this spectacularly.”
“And the worst part—most of the office staff are assigned elsewhere tomorrow. Korrn left only us here.”
Vierna rubbed her chin. “Hmmm… maybe we can switch with the people bound for Rolbart. Mirelle said Henry and Sylia are headed there—maybe we can ask them.”
“Are you sure they want to switch?” Lina rubbed her chin.
“I don’t know,” Vierna said while stacking another pile. “Mirelle invited us to some kind of dinner tonight, we would meet Henry and Sylia too, perhaps we could ask them to switch with us?”
“We can try. Hopefully they’ll agree.” Lina handed Vierna another sheet.
“And if they don’t?” Lina asked.
“I don’t know.” Vierna’s voice wavered. “I just hope we can find a way to convince them. Maybe you could promise to date one of them to make it easier? I’ll do the same if I have to.” She tried to ease the tension with a laugh.
“But I only want to date you…” Lina said quietly, almost somber.
“Aww. Haha—well, it’s just for the mission.” Vierna nudged her gently. “Let’s just hope we can persuade them later.”
Lina nodded. For a moment she stood in silence, then said, “By the way, why are we taking this so seriously? If everything goes smoothly, we won’t even be here tomorrow.”
“But Lina—taxes are important to the Reich. Do you know that Haustwitch—”
“Nooo, not the nerd thing again.” Lina covered her ears. “Please, I don’t need a tax fun fact, Vie—Crysta.”
“But Aline, it’s very—”
“It’s boring. Let’s just stack the papers without facts, okay?”
Vierna muttered about how people their age only wanted flashy magic and didn’t care how the Reich stood. It was something she regretted more than she would admit.
She stacked another paper, her gaze lingering on the mess of files that still surrounded them. Then tonight’s dinner isn’t just a farewell feast, she thought. It might decide everything.
The girls pressed on with their chore. Hours crawled by, as slow as a snail on crutches, every second felt like a torture by paper cuts. Lina’s only saving grace in this purgatory was teasing Vierna—sometimes slipping a paper into the wrong stack on purpose, just to watch Vierna scold her and insist that even this menial job was essential and deserved care.
At last, as the sun was swallowed by the night and the moon rose as the lone lantern in the sky, Mirelle returned. She wasn’t alone; trailing behind her was a boy not much older than herself and a girl about the same age.
The boy had black hair that should have framed a handsome face, yet his dark eyes told another story. Fatigue clung to him, his back hunched as though the weight of sleepless nights bent his posture into something older than his years.
Beside him, the girl carried herself with a bright, practiced cheer. She smiled quickly as if joy alone could keep shadows away. But her messy hair and wrinkled uniform betrayed the effort—signs of strain no mask could fully hide.
“Hey… wow, you guys work fast,” Mirelle said, observing a few neat piles of papers. At least the floor wasn’t littered anymore.
“Hi, senior. Hahaha, well you can thank me—Crysta here just sla—”
Vierna smacked Lina’s head before she could finish stealing credit for work she hadn’t done, despite spending the day teasing instead. Lina smiled sheepishly, like a child being scolded by her sister.
“Hahaha… I see why Mirelle likes you two,” a boy said. “My name is Henry. Pleasure to meet you.”
“And my name is Sylia, hehe…” the girl waved brightly, as if she hadn’t just worked until eleven at night.
“Hi Henry, Hi Sylia, hehe your name reminds me of my mother.” Vierna smiled.
“Haha really? Was she also pretty like me?”
“The prettiest.” Vierna gave a somber smile.
“Anyway, should we go?” Lina asked, noticing Vierna’s pained expression.
“Yes, we should,” Mirelle said. “I know just the perfect place for us to hang out.”
The five of them closed up the tax office; they were the only ones left inside. Taking to the street, they headed toward a tavern. As they entered, the patrons noticed their uniforms and quickly looked away. Being a tax officer here was like being a pariah.
They sat at a corner table, away from the hearth. A perfectly normal dinner about to begun.
What would happen in the dinner?
