Chapter 112: Renting Out a Child Laborer

"I’m sorry. We had to report your existence as soon as we found you." Celeste answered, lowering her head with guilt.

A Witch family had to report every belonging to the Tower, and that of course included Shadows.

Though Magna wasn’t a Shadow, the Winterborne family was intending to make him one.

Also, if his family were to one day show up and demand him back, they needed to have an official document on record.

It was like adopting a child. Without the proper applications and signatures, you’d be counted as having kidnapped the child you found on the street, which would be a situation that could get you into quite a lot of trouble.

Magna, understanding their obligation, couldn’t bring himself to blame them, though the situation looked quite depressing.

"Actually, isn’t there a way to stop the Tower from taking him?" Rowena suddenly said.

Even Celeste, thinking there shouldn’t be such a way, looked at her with intrigue, waiting for her to explain.

She thought for a moment, then started to speak. "You can use a loophole in the Tower’s rules. Resource and property donation."

"What do you mean?" Celeste narrowed her eyes, not knowing how that would work.

She knew that regulation well, since it was quite popular for most Witch Families to donate part of their belongings, even spell patterns from time to time, to the Tower with the intention of gaining goodwill and standing in the Witch Society.

But she couldn’t understand how it would work in this case, since as far as she could tell, this would only mean handing Magna over to the Tower with her own hands.

Rowena started explaining the loophole in the system. "I’ve never used this feature of the system myself, but instead of a permanent donation, there’s an option to donate a resource or property for limited time use to the Tower.

Of course, for this to work, the Tower also has to accept this type of donation, since whatever is donated needs to be valuable enough."

She turned her eyes back to Magna and chuckled. "I’m sure he’d be worthy enough in the Tower’s eyes for them to accept this kind of donation."

Celeste thought it over, murmuring. "So you’re suggesting I rent him out?"

Then her eyes lit up, finally understanding. "That’s right. This way they wouldn’t be able to fully seize him, since he’d only be bound by a contract for a short period of time."

Rowena nodded. "I’ve heard a few times about Witches periodically donating their Shadows to the Tower for a few years this way, so their Shadow gains experience while the Witch gains goodwill."

It was actually a win-win situation for the Witch, which Celeste quite liked the idea of.

Still, it wasn’t her decision to make, so she turned to Magna. "What do you think? This should be better than a lifelong contract."

Magna started to feel a headache coming on as he listened to the two women.

The way they spoke so casually about renting out a child like a slave was probably normal for them, growing up in this kind of culture.

But for Magna, who came from Earth, a civilized society, it was just something unbelievable.

He now only had two potential choices in front of him.

One was to wait and hope the executive wouldn’t seize him, or let Celeste rent him out to the Tower like a legal child laborer.

While he was thinking that both options were equally shitty, something suddenly came to his mind.

"You said this Tower is where all the famous Witches live?"

Celeste was the one to answer. "They don’t reside there, no. But it is the one place where they appear most frequently. Are you interested in that?"

What she thought was Magna acting like a fanboy, excited to see some big shot.

But what he was actually thinking was very different.

’Isn’t this my chance to copy more spells, the strongest ones?’

Just by watching, he had already managed to copy the Faceless Witch’s spell, so he was sure he could do the same thing with any other Witch.

If he could just learn every strongest spell that existed in the world by living there for a few years like a slave, it might actually be worth it.

Not to mention the resources he would find there, since it was practically the headquarters of every Witch in the world, so the finest and rarest mana-rich food had to be there too.

The only thing nagging at him was what kind of treatment he would face there if he chose the rent route.

"What kind of living conditions should I expect? What kind of jobs will they have me do?"

Rowena answered for him again. "Well, you’ll definitely be treated better this way, since you’ll still belong to the Winterborne family.

They’ll train you and send you on missions for the Tower, but your chances of dying during those will be lower, since they also have a responsibility to protect their reputation by protecting other Witches’ belongings."

Her explanation didn’t exactly align with human rights, but it aligned very well with property law.

’I can think of it as mandatory military service for my country. I can live with that.’ Thinking that, Magna made his decision. "Okay, let’s do that."

Back on Earth, he had been forced to serve two years of mandatory military service. It had been hellish for sure.

Waking up before dawn every morning to boring, repetitive, exhausting training wasn’t something a shut-in like him could ever get used to.

But in this world, he was no longer that isolated game developer.

If he could use this opportunity well, he was sure he would reach the peak of power much faster.

"Alright then. Let me inform my mother to handle the application," Celeste said, her voice carrying a mix of quiet relief at finding a way to protect Magna, and faint reluctance at having to let him go for a few years.

She pulled a piece of parchment from her desk drawer and began drafting a detailed letter.

While she wrote using her blue-inked, gold-trimmed fountain pen, Magna watched with quiet excitement, thinking about his future.

He had just no idea what kind of storm his choice today would be, and his very presence in the Tower would soon ignite, not just within the Witch Society, but across the entire world.