The boy appeared to be around thirteen years old. He had rare black hair and black eyes. His skin was smooth, pale, and so flawless he could have been mistaken for a girl. His large, dark eyes were round and filled with a mysterious kind of depth—even Louis found himself getting drawn in just looking at them.
But the boy's expression hardly changed. His gaze was steady, his eyes cold. For someone so young, he was oddly calm. Almost unnaturally so. He was like a doll—quiet and emotionless.
The captain who is still holding the boy in his arms, was now trying to write a request letter with one free hand, stirring through the mess on his desk.
The desk was a complete disaster.
Even Louis as the vice-commander, wasn't particularly good at keeping things neat—but the captain was no better.
And with all the documents, requests, and formal letters constantly arriving from the royal capital—most of which the captain ignored out of irritation—the paperwork just kept piling up.
At this point, no one could tell where anything was. Not even the captain himself.
They had been so busy with magical beast subjugation that the mess had been left unattended for far too long, and now the office was in complete disarray.
"Ah—"
Louis let out a small sound before he could stop himself.
The stack of papers, which had been piled up so precariously, began to collapse—almost as if it were scripted. It was a familiar sight by now. Still, the way the chaos spread from the desk down to the floor made Louis feel utterly hopeless.
But then, something strange happened. The bundles of documents that had started to fall suddenly began to float in the air.
Louis saw it with his own eyes.
The boy who is still sitting on the captain's lap, had eyes that lit up.
In the dim office, lit only by a few candles, the boy's black eyes began to shine. The captain who is sitting behind the boy, likely didn't see it.
And then the papers, letters, and documents all began to move on their own. In a matter of seconds, the once chaotic desk was neat and organized.
To top it off, a blank request form fluttered to the surface, right in front of them—as if saying, "Here you go. Please write now."
What a useful power, Louis thought.
A cleaning spell. Every home should have one.
He wanted two.
But the boy had said it wasn't magic.
"I'm not from this world," the boy had explained. "That's why my language, culture, and the way I use power are different from yours."
It was a shocking statement.
And yet the boy said it with a calm, cool expression, as if it was nothing unusual. His tone wasn't that of a child—though he had said he was eighteen, so technically, maybe he wasn't a child.
His voice… it reminded Louis a little of the captain's.
After the boy—Shiao, was it?—had suddenly lashed out emotionally, he had gone completely quiet again. Then, without warning, the captain had picked him up once more and left the office with him in his arms.
That too had been a shock.
And now, with the captain gone, Louis had to write the request letter to the royal capital in his place.
That was possibly the biggest shock of all.
Someone please… write it for him instead.