The Legal System

I went straight to the nearest open Internet cafe I could find and uploaded the files to my email. I needed to transfer them to my external disc later, since I would lose access to anything I had online when moving to a different world, but it would work for now.

Once done, I immediately crushed the pendrive, turning it to dust, and returned home. I no longer cared for going out for drinks, I wanted to start reading the files. I've never had any interest in law before, but since it was related to the organization, I was a bit curious.

As I opened the apartment door, I almost collided with the boy.

"You're back already?" He looked at me surprised. He was fully dressed, seems he was about to go out.

"Yeah, something came up. You're going to work?" I frowned.

As far as I could remember, he was supposed to be off today. But where else would he go at this hour?

"Mn," he confirmed. "Somebody called sick, so they asked me to come cover."

"Alright then." I took off my shoes and headed in. That sounded plausible. There was no need to interrogate him further about something so insignificant. "Have a good night then."

Without paying any more attention to him, I went to my room and turned on my laptop. Then, I finally could get a closer look at the files.

Just like that Alyssa girl said, it was incredibly long. The main document had over 10 thousand pages, and there were several annexes. And since it was a legal text, reading it would probably go much, much slower than usual, especially for someone inexperienced.

I was already getting a headache just looking at it. There was no way I would finish it in a week.

But of course, I still intended to read through it all before agreeing to anything. I had to make sure there were no clauses disadvantageous for me hidden somewhere.

For now, I opened the extra file, the one with the summary the girl prepared herself. I didn't trust its reliability, but I guess it was still a decent place to start.

The file was 54 pages long, and it described various laws in simpler terms, listing the articles it referred to, so that I could easily confirm it with the original source. I scanned it quickly. It really did seem to suit my needs well, as it mostly explained the regulations regarding visiting the worlds and disturbing the reality in a comprehensive and concise way.

It's almost as if it was tailor-made especially for me. But making such a document must have taken hours. She couldn't possibly be that bored, right? She must have had it prepared in advance, when she first came up with the idea of working with rogues.

Although it was relatively short, it would still take quite a while to analyze it properly. So, before getting to work, I went to get myself something to drink.

We finally had a normal coffee machine. I made myself a cup of strong, black coffee, and grabbed a notepad and a pen to note down any points I had concerns about or needed to research more in the full document. Prepared like that, I lit a cigarette and scrolled back to the beginning.

However, as I started reading, I quickly realized that writing things down was simply pointless. It seemed that I could literally print the whole file and bring it to the next meeting with that Alyssa girl to discuss.

Why? Because I didn't like those rules at all.

In the beginning, there was a short explanation about how the parallel realities work. There was no surprise there, it was all pretty much the same as what I figured out from the observations I made over the years. The parallel worlds located in close proximity to each other are very similar, and bound by the same reality laws.

Then, it was described how the worlds become unstable. Occasionally, it happens on its own, when the world is about to end. Such is the nature of things. This was fairly new to me. I kinda suspected things like that might happen based on my conversations with the boy, but I didn't have a clear confirmation until now.

The second possible reason for the world's instability was the presence and activity of outliers. This I was extremely familiar with. After all, that's what I've been doing my whole life.

But that's also where the problems begin. Because the TROA established and enforced plenty of regulations that were meant to eliminate such causes and reduce the premature destructions of the worlds. And among them, there was abstaining from the use of any abilities that could cause the disturbances of the reality. In other words, it forbid the outliers from breaking the reality laws.

Although that Alyssa girl previously told me that I would still be able to use my abilities even after I make the deal with the organization, in the very file she handed me today it was clearly stated that such actions were illegal.

Was she trying to fool me? But then, why would she make it so obvious? I didn't even need to read the original document to notice the contradictions.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, taking a long puff of my cigarette. I had a feeling that the negotiations were going to be such a headache.

Suddenly, my phone, which was lying on the side of the desk, vibrated and the screen lit up, displaying the new notification I received, a text message. I glanced at it absentmindedly.

And my eyes immediately widened. I quickly put out the cigarette in the ashtray and grabbed the phone.

It was a text from Evan.

The screen already went black again. I quickly pressed my finger on the back, unlocking the phone, to confirm that my eyes were not deceiving me and I'd read it correctly.

Unfortunately, I got it right the first time.

My hand tightened, and I gritted my teeth, barely stopping myself from throwing my phone on the wall.

The message was very short.

[Someone from the organization is here.]

Fuck.

I got too careless.

I quickly grabbed my shoes and jacket, and jumped out of the window.