"It turned out to be way easier than I expected," I said, sending a glimpse at Lucius' face. With how tense he was, I assumed that we would meet with a lot more trouble just trying to come into the inner part of the city.
"Right now, there is only one way for me to describe your approach," Lucius muttered, throwing me a dissatisfied look. "Doesn't know any better," he said before pushing forward.
"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked.
If I did something bad, sure, you can scold me. But how about telling me what did I do wrong in the first place?
Even if something was going to happen later and he would wait for it to happen to, treat the entire situation as a lesson... How about telling me what to expect instead of hoping that everything will play out nicely?
"You will come to regret acting up later," Lucius said before turning his face away from me and pushing deeper into the city. Even though I wasn't satisfied with cutting the discussion short like that, with Lucius dropping the topic, there wasn't anything I could do to keep it up.
Surprisingly soon, we reached the building that we were aiming for.
It was the logistic center. It was located almost right by the gate. All it took us to reach it was a simple, two-minute-long stroll.
"I didn't expect we would reach it so soon," I expressed my surprise, taking a glimpse of Lucius' face.
"Contractors don't really like to linger in the inner town. Inner town citizens and inner disciples don't like contractors," Lucius sighed. "Locating the office right at the outskirts was a kinda obvious choice," he explained.
The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Outside of the question that pushed its way to the forefront of my mind.
'If everyone hates everyone in this kind of scenario, why not put the office in the outer city?' I thought.
Since those two groups of people really didn't like to mix, then why force them to do so?
Yet, what was even worse, was how I could answer this question completely on my own.
'It is to give the inners a way to boast before the contractors while motivating contractors to work even harder,' I thought as Lucius finally stopped gazing at the doors and moved ahead.
'It's pretty empty,' was my first thought when we finally entered the building.
Instead of premises bustling with contractors hoping to dump their haul and get themselves two more weeks to bring another bit, there was hardly anyone outside of the two of us and the local service.
"We came here to fulfill our quotas," Lucius announced in a loud voice. There was no hesitation nor surprise on his face, suggesting that he already expected this kind of sight.
"Just a moment!" someone shouted from the depth of the building.
"How can it be so deserted?" I asked, unable to figure the answer out on my own.
"Did you even listen before?" Lucius looked at me as if I was the dumbest person in the room. "Contractors hate the duty of reporting here. As we are well-hated by everyone in the sect, most of the contractors opt to visit at night, when the sect disciples are mostly sleeping," he explained.
"Wouldn't that make the disciples that want to have some fun intentionally wait for the night to fall?" I asked, only to shake my head a moment later. "No, that's not it. If everyone comes by night, what happens to those who will be late with their quotas? Like, because of the queue?" I asked another question instead.
"The first question... Well, you can consider this a periodical thing. Every few months, contractors' habits change, and then the disciples take a month or two to get used to it," Lucius smiled at his own thoughts as he explained. "On the other hand, the office isn't as bad for the contractors. They appear to be the last people in the sect that understand the importance of our mission," Lucius said, nodding his head to a passing servant carrying a stack of documents in his hands.
"In other words, people don't really mind here if you are late by an hour or two. Usually, they are closing the doors the day after the submission date, so you have twenty-four hours more to submit it than you would expect," Lucius finally explained.
"Okay, you might come," the attendant from before finally arrived. Despite the feminine voice, it actually turned out to be a relatively young man.
He graced us with a kind smile as he pointed at his counter. "Come on, I'm not going to bite!"
Encouraged by his words, we approached the counter.
"We wish to fulfill double quotas," Lucius said, pulling out the pouch with his stones before sending me a meaningful look.
'I guess it's my time,' I thought, reaching out and passing on a stacked pouch to the counter.
"This is for the missing first quota and for the current one," I quickly explained, worried that they might forget about the last part.
"Don't worry," the servant nodded his head with a kind smile. "I know what a double quota is," he said before unveiling the bags and letting all the stones out on a special tray. He then quickly counted its number before scribbling something on a paper that the counter hid from my eyes.
"Since this is your first quota, you should be aware that you can send a message or some personal items to your beneficiary," the man raised his eyes from the counter and looked at my face. "Just remember, passing any cultivation materials will be subjected to a hefty tax. They will need to be delivered to your beneficiary, after all," he warned.
"I didn't know that..." I muttered, taken by surprise. I then looked at Lucius, puzzled why he didn't tell me about something like this in advance.
"Just letter," Lucius shook his head, not surprised by the situation at all. He then turned his face to me and shook his head. "He only wants to send a letter. But I will give him one day to think about what to write," Lucius added before nodding his head. "I hope you can wait until then,"
"There is no need for that," I said, shaking my head.
As much as I wanted to send Mia a letter.... How was I supposed to do so without the ability to write or read?
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