Chapter 2: The Magician

  Following the street signs, Shade walked alone, observing the moon and stars in the night sky.

  Few carriages were still out at night, most belonged to high class residents that were on their way back home from a banquet.

  Shade was clothed in a simple white shirt and black pants. All of his clothes were old. They all once belonged to one of the older male former residents of the orphanage.

  After arriving at the correct street, Shade looked around and tried to find the building belonging to the organization called Silver Moon.

  He noticed the large signboard mounted on the front of a dark building made of bricks. He felt somewhat nervous as he walked towards the entrance.

  “This should be it.”

  The door flew open before Shade was able to knock, out walked a woman wearing a black veil.

  She had a beautiful black dress that was rather tame in its design compared to other frilly dresses that noblewomen usually wear. Shade thought for himself… A mourning dress?

  Shade moved to the side to allow the woman to walk out with her servants. Not one of them turned around to close the door… Thanks for leaving the door open for me.

  A woman wearing a black long coat with her black hair tied into a ponytail stood at the entrance and looked at Shade. When he turned around, he was surprised by her sudden appearance.

  “New employee?”

  The woman that stood in front of Shade showed no emotion. She spoke with a monotone voice. Her beauty stunned him for a moment.

  “Yes, or at least I think I am! Nice to meet you, my name is-”

  “Good, follow me. Close the door.”

  Shade tried to introduce himself but were cut off by the black haired woman.

  He decided to simply forget his new employer’s rudeness as he closed the door… Maybe she had a bad day. Maybe the woman that just walked out was a terrible customer.

  Shade made excuses in his mind as he followed behind the woman in the black coat.

  He was led to the reception hall with an enclosed space separated by a counter. Shade was led behind the counter and went through a door and into a hallway.

  There was one door to the left and another to the right. The woman with black hair opened the door to the right and spoke to one of the two inside.

  “Andrew, man the counter.”

  “Yes!”

  Behind the door was a large room with multiple desks. One of the people sitting inside doing office work stood up quickly and rushed out of the room after answering the black haired woman.

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  The black haired woman looked at Shade and said only one word with the same monotone voice as before.

  “Follow.”

  “Yes!”

  Shade answered energetically with a pounding heart. This was the first time he had tried to get a job. He was quite nervous.

  After closing the door. The woman continued down the hall and stopped at a dead end.

  There was a silver full moon made of metal as decoration for the wall… A dead end? What an unnatural dead end. Shouldn’t there be another door or room or something?

  Without caring for Shade’s reaction, the black haired woman touched the full moon decoration, and the wall started to slowly sink to the floor, revealing a stone staircase.

  Shade couldn’t string together a full sentence. He couldn’t even utter a single word.

  The pair walked down the staircase and reached the bottom, a glistening white grand hall supported by multiple white marble pillars submerged in water.

  Large white stone slabs made a path forward. Except from the stone path, the rest of the grand hall was a giant pool of water with an unknown species of silver fishes swimming freely.

  After walking for about one hundred meters, they reached a large circular platform with three bridges connected to it. One bridge led forward, one to the left, and one to the right.

  Shade didn’t make a sound, he simply looked around in disbelief. The black haired woman stopped at the edge of the giant circular platform.

  “Take the right. Open door.”

  “Huh? Yes! Thank you.”

  The woman turned around and looked at Shade with eyes that could see straight through him. She pointed at herself with her right index finger.

  “Silver.”

  “Huh? Is that your name, miss?”

  Shade asked a question which was met by an expressionless face.

  “No. Code name. Avoid using your name.”

  Though she didn’t show any emotion, Shade knew that she was expecting something from him… Is she telling me to make a code name? Why? And why does she speak so weirdly?

  Though confused, Shade decided that it was best to simply do as he was told. He had a hard time thinking of one.

  His thoughts started to wander… Why do I need to make a codename! Where the hell am I? Is this a cult? Maybe a nickname? A title?

  Shade couldn’t think of a codename, instead, a memory surged forward replacing his thoughts.

  …

  In the orphanage’s kitchen, a couple of years back, the kids noticed that they barely had any money.

  The older kids discussed on their own while Catelyn and Shade tried their best to keep the youngest children occupied.

  “Everyone, look at this!”

  Shade threw a coin into the air, caught it and then threw it from one hand to the other, successfully catching the kids’ attention.

  After flipping the coin into the air again, he caught it a second time and let it slide down his arm into his white shirt then showed his two clenched fists to the kids.

  Shade then asked a simple question to the five children in front of him.

  “Now where is the coin?”

  The youngest children started guessing, neither Vanessa nor Sebastian was interested.

  Shade opened his left hand first. Alice and Karl got disappointed, they guessed that the coin was in Shad’s left hand.

  Then he opened his right hand. Mina, Rick and Will acted smug at first, but after seeing no coin, they started questioning if their eyes worked.

  “Sorry~ You are all wrong! The coin is in~ Catelyn’s hand!”

  “What?!”

  After Shade spoke with a flair to his words, the kids screamed in unison. Catelyn stood next to Shade and opened her hand. In it was another coin.

  If it wasn’t for the fact that they kept the kids entertained, the older residents would be angry by the fact that those two decided to play around with coins.

  Mina looked at Shade and coughed. She had always been weak since she came to the orphanage.

  Even though everyone was used to her coughing, it didn’t stop them from worrying.

  “Wow! You two are like Magicians!”

  …

  Though still confused, Shade had decided on his codename.

  “Magician. I want that to be my codename.”

  “Alright.”

  After hearing Shade’s codename. Silver turned around, jumped into the water, and didn’t resurface. Shade noticed that she had disappeared when the water ripples had cleared.

  Though Shade felt somewhat surprised, after having seen a moving wall, and a hidden giant temple in the ground with unknown silver fish swimming about, he recovered rather quickly.