As they stepped inside, a tall woman with slender shoulders and cascading auburn hair was the only other person they could spot, sitting behind a counter at the very back of the grand hall they’d entered into.

She didn’t even look up to acknowledge them as they’d entered, and spoke rather bluntly.

"We’re not open to the public right now. Come back tomorrow if you have any business with the city hall," she said in a hoarse, blunt voice, without the slightest trace of courtesy.

Rohan and Elane frowned, but they continued moving towards her desk regardless. They hadn’t known that it was currently a Sunday, so public offices were closed both inside and outside the Origin Realm.

But they weren’t there as normal citizens of the Federation right now, as Elane had already made very clear to Rohan.

"Are you deaf or something? I said we’re closed."

At this point, Elane let out an offended snort at the blatant disrespect the woman had shown, and Rohan was also annoyed by the way the woman was speaking to them.

They didn’t respond, and Elane arrived in front of her desk, noticing that she wasn’t even doing any work, instead she was filing and clipping her nails.

With a swift motion, she placed the VIP card down on the counter with an exaggerated thud, giving the woman no choice but to shift her attention to them for the first time since they’d entered.

She looked particularly aggrieved that her self care had been disturbed. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She stopped what she was doing, put down her nail clippers and nail file, and finally looked at the pair.

Almost immediately, her face contorted with disdain.

"Two newbies? No wonder. Guys like you always come in here acting like you’re hot shit." She let out a sharp sneer, not even glancing down at the card Elane had placed on the counter yet.

"I’ve already said it twice, but just in case you really are deaf, let me spell it out for you."

She bent down underneath the desk like she was going to reach for something, but came back up empty handed.

...And showed them her middle finger. She tilted her head to the side and smiled condescendingly.

Right now, Elane was practically seething, and Rohan wasn’t doing much better to control himself.

Elane was the first to speak up.

"How much do you like your job, lady?" She asked, to which she earned nothing but a snort and a laugh in response.

"Buhaha! Am I really getting threatened by some little brat right now?"

She could hardly believe her eyes.

But Elane didn’t say anything extra, instead pointing down at the card that had been sitting silently on the counter the whole time.

"What? Still refusing to leave? Do I have to force you to?"

Elane’s patience finally snapped.

Her eyes turned cold, so cold that it made the woman’s mocking smile waver for a small moment and lose a little of its edge.

"You can try if you like," she said flatly. "But I was asking how much you like it, because you won’t be keeping it for much longer."

The woman’s sneer returned half a second later, but it looked more forced now.

"Oh, I’m shaking!" She leaned back in her chair and crossed one leg over the other, still refusing to look down at the card on the desk.

"You know how many idiots come in here claiming the exact same thing? Every other day there’s some washed up drunk or fresh faced Awakened who comes in here acting like they know somebody important, or are somebody important."

Rohan had stayed quiet by now, but his mood was worsening by the second.

"If I say we’re closed. We’re closed."

"Elane," he suddenly spoke sharply.

She didn’t take her eyes off the woman while responding to him.

"Just shove the damn card in her face if that’s what it takes!" He snorted, already having enough of this farce.

That made the woman snort.

"What, you think some cheap little prop is going to chan—"

Her words died in her throat as Elane picked the card up and really did shove it so close to the woman’s gaze that it almost smacked her.

The colour in her face drained not long after.

Her posture was next, changing so fast that it was almost funny to watch.

She swallowed hard, extremely nervous, and stood up so fast her chair slipped over behind her.

"I... I apologise." Her voice was still naturally hoarse, but now it had lost all of its earlier bite, and she started to stutter a little.

"It’s too late for that."

Elane dismissed her.

Sure, she knew that she was probably blowing this whole thing out of proportion, but she didn’t give a damn about that. Neither did Rohan.

Even though this whole situation could have been avoided by simply responding with a simple, "We’re not here on public business," the first time the woman jeered at them to get lost.

But their adrenaline was already high and their emotions were tense because of the priceless treasure they were hauling around, and the woman unfortunately became the catalyst that sent them over the edge.

It wasn’t entirely on them either, as despite all that, the woman really was acting like a dick towards them for no reason at all. Government employees came in all the time on weekends to do their business, in fact, it was weekends that they most often visited since that was when the city hall was least busy since it was closed to the public.

So the woman really had no reason to treat them so poorly right off the bat, other than her own personal prejudice towards them being newbies.

"I don’t give a damn about your reasons for treating us so poorly, or what you have against newcomers. But I’ve had enough of this. Point me in the direction of your Appraisal master already so we can be done with this." Elane spoke.

At this point the woman was too timid to offer any additional words, and quietly pointed her finger at a door offset to the left side of the hall.