The administrative office of the Rust Hall service division sat tucked behind the central watchtower, smelling permanently of old ink, damp parchment, and wood smoke. A junior proctor named Liu sat behind a scarred oak desk, peering down at the tournament ledger with a look of lingering disbelief on his face. He dipped his ink quill into a ceramic pot, wrote a final entry at the bottom of the parchment, and rolled the document into a tight cylinder.
The crisp, heavy snap of a wax-sealed transfer scroll opening broke the quiet of the office, followed immediately by the metallic chime of a polished silver badge resting on wood.
Proctor Liu pushed the silver-trimmed badge across the table toward Ye Chen, shaking his head with a mixture of amusement and mild irritation. The badge bore the in
