I walked into work with my old suitcase. The old suitcase I had retrieved from the police station lost and found. It was heavy. Not just physically heavy, but emotionally heavy. Like yesterday, nobody barred my way towards the elevator. Like yesterday, I rode it up to my floor without issue.

  I stepped into the office, and I could feel the air. Just how stagnant and dead it felt. Nobody looked willing to work. They walked about like those sentenced to die; Terada was no exception. It made my heart clench. It hurt to see them like this. Even Samantha was avoiding me, though that should be expected.

  I didn’t blame her. I didn’t blame any of them. I did this and I would make it right. I stepped into the office and Leo was waiting for me there. He offered me a drink, but I declined.

  “Leo, once everyone is here, I need you to call everyone in, one at a time, starting with Terada.”

  I hefted the suitcase down, and only then did Leo notice it.

  “What’s in the suitcase?” He asked.

  “You’ll find out soon enough. Just… do your job.”

  He looked like he wanted to press, but blessedly, he didn’t. He came back shortly after with Terada, the man looked even worse for wear, like he hadn’t slept at all yesterday. It hurt seeing him like this… yet… No. Best not to dwell on that. Not now.

  “You needed something?” Terada asked. He sounded like he was coming down with something. Like he was about to catch a fever or worse.

  “Yes, in light of what has happened recently, I’ve taken the liberty of making some corrections to our budget.” I reached for the suitcase, unlatching it.

  Terada stared dully at it, only to widen his eyes when he saw what was inside. Cash, a lot of cash money. Cold hard cash. Stacks of it. While he stared at it in shock, even Leo appeared shocked at my casual display of wealth.

  I counted out a portion of cash and offered it up.

  “This is compensation for hours worked and unpaid benefits up to this point. Of course, this is nowhere near what you’re owed, but this can be considered a start.”

  He opened and shut his mouth for a moment or two. “I can’t. I can’t accept that.” He started and moved to push the money back towards me.

  “Terada, you’ve been using your own money to pay for our meals and for the nightly bar visits. You deserve this. If anything, consider this money I’m giving you, as your budget for food and drinks for the month.”

  With those words, he didn’t immediately refute me. Mutely he took the cash, looked at me, then Leo.

  “Thank you…” He muttered, bowed, and left.

  He had plenty of money, but feeding all of us was costly. He may be a martyr, but he had a family of his own to care for with his pay as well.

  “Prima, where the hell did you get this cash?” Leo asked, his voice shaking.

  “Savings.” I answered back calmly.

  “You can’t be serious!?”

  “I am, this is everything I have, for the time being.”

  He looked ready to retort, but he stopped himself and took a moment to collect himself. “Okay, fine, what exactly is the plan here?”

  “It should be obvious.” I start, he looks unamused. “I’m paying the shortfall we have with my own cash to keep the workers motivated. Things like pride, or corporate culture mean nothing when a worker is starving and penniless. No, the best way to motivate a working man, is with cold, hard, cash.”

  “Okay, I get that much, but… that is a lot of money. There is no way you’ll be able to keep this going.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. If we can make quota this month, I think we’ll manage.” I answered firmly, but… Mm… that was a bit of a lie. I could probably rope Liche and Joan into hunting below again, but I can’t expect them to do it for free. I’ll need to make another knight or two and really push myself to get enough bronze coins to pay for next month. That is, assuming I could even get work.

  “But why are you using your own money?” He asks again, choosing not to press me on how we’ll manage.

  “Simple really, the company owes a massive amount of back pay to each worker in this division. Unpaid overtime, unpaid vacation time that went unused, and various other unpaid benefits, including the money they owe Terada for our nightly outings. Which, are supposed to be covered by the company.”

  “And how does that help?” He asks.

  “Well, with some financial wizardry, I can use my money to pay the workers what their owed. Then, I can turn around and get the company to reimburse me for paying on their behalf.”

  He stared at me like I was an exotic animal. Or… something really stupid. Like a monkey on a beachball.

  “You… that will only work if you can surpass the quota and earn additional budget.”

  “I know that, and even if this month and the next month are tough, I’m certain we can turn this around.”

  I really wasn’t though…

  Leo continued to stare at me, but I couldn’t deal with that now. I had work to do. “Leo, get the next person in. I want this all done before lunch. So, chop-chop!”

  He blinked and went ahead and did it. Each person was brought in, cash was handed over along with a brief conversation. Nobody asked how or why I had a suitcase full of cash and simply accepted what I handed over. I even gave Liche and Joan a portion. Not that they needed it, but image was important here.

  I received a lot of strange looks, namely from Samantha, Tom, and Kenta. As I looked at the suitcase, a final bundle was left.

  “Here.” I offered it to Leo.

  “You can’t be serious… I’m not even hurting for cash!”

  “No, you’re not, but… you have unpaid wages as well.” He made to argue, but…

  “Fine, whatever.” Took his cash without further complaint. “Now what?”

  “Well, you can hold down the fort. I’m going to be visiting the various offices throughout the city to try and get us work.”

  He frowned and said nothing as I stood and walked towards the door. Only for him to cut me off just a step before I reached said door.

  “Let me drive you.” I quirked an eyebrow, it was odd of him to offer that. “You’ll get done faster.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  “Fine. But we need to get moving.”

  “Of course.” We went down to the parking lot under the building. He led me over to his car, a fancy sports car type car. The doors swung upwards instead of out. He offered a hand, but I rolled my eyes and ignored it and stepped in myself.

  Undeterred by my rebuff, he moves towards the driver’s seat, and we get moving. At the first office, as I was preparing to leave, he spoke up.

  “You don’t have to do this, you know that right?”

  “If I don’t, I lose my track for citizenship, I lose my place of residence, and I doubt I’ll be able to find work in this city.” I replied back, listing each of my reasons for pressing on. Though, those were just excuses.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Leo didn’t reply, and I took the chance to enter the first office of the day… It went as expected. From there, we visited office after office.

  It was about what I expected. Leo would drop me off before finding himself somewhere to park. Each place followed a similar pattern. I would announce myself, state why I was there, that no, I didn’t have an appointment.

  What followed was just petty, but I handled it with decorum, or so I think. Time spent sitting in reception areas waiting on a response, only to be rebuffed. The few times I was called into an office, it was only to be belittled or laughed at. Still, I took it with dignity. Even as I was forced to apologize or degrade myself for just scraps. Anything to push forward.

  Company after company, we kept going. We didn’t stop for a late lunch or dinner. With each place visited, Leo grew notably more upset with each stop. He practically growled by the end of it. His foot practically married to his car pedal as he slammed it down.

  A miracle we hadn’t gotten into an accident to be honest, but at the end, it wasn’t for naught.

  “Is that everything?” He asked. We were back at the office, and I was looking over the contracts I had managed to secure. It was past the time for clock out, thus, leaving us alone inside Leo’s office.

  “Just barely…” I admitted. “We’ll need to pull some serious overtime in the coming weeks, but… I think we can manage.”

  Serious overtime was pushing it. We’d have to essentially kill ourselves at this rate. The influx of cash should make a big enough difference that a single month shouldn’t break them… Should, being the imperative word in this case.

  “The pay is shit though, you know they’re taking advantage of you, right?”

  “They are… But it’s not like I have a choice.”

  At my words, Leo went silent.

  “Prima, I…”

  “Don’t.” I warned. Sensing what he was going to say.

  “Look, I’m just saying if this doesn’t work out, maybe I can just ask my father if he can do something.”

  I sighed and looked at him.

  “Really? You’re just going to rely on your father?”

  “Of course, I have connections, why wouldn’t I use them? I may not know much, but you clearly know your job. Why wouldn’t he stick his neck out for you?”

  I continued to stare at him before letting out a huff in amusement.

  “Didn’t know you cared.” I answered back, perhaps a bit too caustically. “But no, I won’t do that.”

  “You won’t? Why?”

  “Because this is the bed I made and now, I have to lie in it. Also… pride I suppose.”

  “Seriously? You let all those people walk over you, for pride!?”

  “I did, and is that an issue?”

  “Of course it is! You owe nothing to this company, to these people working here. Why the hell should you put your neck and dignity on the line for them!?”

  “What are you suggesting I do then? Give up? I caused this mess; I might as well take responsibility. Or, were you expecting me to leech off these people like you did?”

  “That would be a hell of a lot better than what you did today!”

  “Of course you would say that.” I reply, the mockery in my tone clear as ice.

  Leo frowns. “The hell do you mean by that?”

  “I mean, Leo, that you obviously wouldn’t understand. After all, you’ve never worked for a single thing in your whole life, haven’t you? Always relying on daddy to solve your problems, am I right?”

  I pressed; he went silent. So, I continued.

  “It’s obvious to me, that you’re nothing more than a child in the body of a man. A spoiled brat that doesn’t understand what it means to work for their dime.”

  The words overflowing out of my mouth made me sick, if not because of how they reminded me of a certain someone. Meanwhile, Leo had taken the chance to take his sunglasses off to stare at me. His eyes wide, like he couldn’t believe what I was saying. A part of me wanted to stop, to shove my hand into my mouth, but… a darker part of me wanted to continue, to see him break.

  In the end… I continued.

  “I mean, you let me walk all over you, take your position, what kind of man would just let someone do that, let alone a woman like me? I doubt you’ve ever had any kind of hardship in your whole life Leo, so, I don’t need you to tell me that what I’m doing is stupid. After all, there is absolutely, no, fucking way you could possibly understand what it is, I’m going through right at this moment!”

  As I continued, my voice rose. Up until I was standing, nearly glaring him down. He shook, confused, stuck between whether he should be angry or not. If he should lash out or not. As if what I had said, was so completely out of left field, it was as if he had seen a talking rabbit of all things!

  “I mean, look at yourself Leo.” I finished, adjusting my tie, merely out of habit. A poisonous smile on my lips. “Do you really think you can achieve anything as you are?”

  He was silent. He didn’t speak. He just stared at me. Seconds passed with nothing happened. Neither of us moved. I could see his eyes shaking. Like he was on the brink. I should have kept my mouth shut. I shouldn’t have kept speaking. I could tell, he was near the breaking point, but…

  I didn’t.

  “Going to cry?” I stepped closer. I raised my hand, as if to reach for his tie, and he flinched back. I opened my mouth to put the last nail in his coffin, to truly break him, but… I could see myself in his eyes. My own reflection looking back at me.

  My eyes looked dead. Almost frozen over. Without light. A wicked smile, dripping with poison.

  I blinked. I felt cold. I felt like Ice. I exhaled frost. Had I been pulling on the ice? Had I been doing so unconsciously? I looked down at my hands, then backed up.

  “Leo, I…”

  I didn’t get to finish. The spell was broken.

  “I always knew you were an ice queen, but I didn’t know you were also a frigid bitch.” He spit out, “I’m done, fuck you, fuck all of this, fuck everything!”

  I stared in horror as he threw his sunglasses down, even going the extra step to stomp them and grind them under his heel. He glared at me, his steel grey eyes cutting straight through the ice to my heart like a knife. Something inside me cracked.

  Then, he left.

  I could only stare as the door shut behind him.

  “What the hell did I just do?” Even thinking back, it wasn’t just the ice, I’d clearly chewed him out, hell, I just about broke him!

  I just went totally mental on the man! What was worse, was even now, I was trying to justify what I had just done…

  But… looking back…

  “Fuck…” Leo wasn’t the only victim. I had about destroyed Terada as well. The hell was wrong with me!?

  I stared at the door, at the broken sunglasses. Back and forth for what felt like an eternity before I stiffly moved myself into the chair behind the desk. I stared at the documents. I stared at the computer still clicking away. Only, eventually, as I stared at the monitor it shifted, changed. With a blink, I realized that the screensaver was playing. I’d completely stopped working, and simply… blanked.

  I stared at it numbly. I still had work to do, but… Just looking at the stack of papers made my head hurt. Then there was the pain in my chest… I could feel the cracks in my heart widening even more.

  With a sigh, I stood up and left. Back at home, I didn’t do much else beyond falling into bed, idly staring up at my ceiling. Replaying everything in my head, over and over again.

  I was always good at bottling away my emotions. Keeping cool when the situation demanded it. I’ve been under stress before, but… I’ve never blown up like that. Well, I did once, and last time it resulted in me becoming a murderer…

  Considering that, I suppose what had just happened could be considered a good end to the day…

  However… there was no way forward, not that I could see. There was too much work for too little pay. If we did it all, we’d just barely make quota, if that. I wouldn’t have time for much else. Sure, I had motivated the team with cash, even spoke to them one on one to assure them this would likely happen only this month, but…

  Near every single one of them mentioned that if this happened again, they’d quit. Not in those exact words, but it could easily be inferred.

  If not for Terada vouching for me, they’d have already left. Especially after they saw what I did to him. It wasn’t hard to surmise that I gave the man a dressing down, and not a single member of the team was happy about that.

  They didn’t mutiny, only because I had spoken the same words they had all wished to say to the man. If anything, they were only doing this out of embarrassment, since they didn’t have the courage to confront him themselves…

  I likely wasn’t going to be back in my apartment this month. I likely wasn’t going to be able to visit my warehouse this month…

  Inadvertently, I thought of Cobalt, surely he would be fine, being an ice golem. I didn’t need to treat him any differently from an object… I had to make sure to clean out my fridge as well before I left…

  Also… about Leo… I crossed the line. I meant every word. I had vented to him, pulled out every single issue I had with the man and forced him to confront it.

  I didn’t feel bad for saying what I did. I felt bad for how I said it. There was a better way to do it, but I didn’t… I hadn’t… Instead, like before when I bullied him into giving me his position, I chose the quickest path.

  Was it just the ice? Or was it my own instincts getting in the way?

  I knew I wasn’t a good person. When I worked for that man, at the beginning it had been a small startup. Together, we built it up into something huge, but the truth was, I did most of the work. I bullied, I beat, I did everything I could to get ahead, to push our company up the ranks. All the while sticking to my own twisted rules, deluding myself that I was better than him.

  It was what drove him to eventually confront me, what led to me eventually lashing out, killing him.

  By no means was he a good man either, but… a murderer he was not.

  In doing what I had done, something had changed… A change so fundamental, I just knew I would never come back.

  Coming here, being here… felt like a betrayal, and yet, even with me losing everything, my purpose, my goal, I had believed I could maybe, just maybe go about this in a different way.

  I wasn’t even sure where it went wrong. None of it made any sense. I still hadn’t managed to piece together the puzzle…

  Made all the more frustrating when I never ran into issues like this back when I was working for Him. Whenever I made a move, it always worked out. There’s no way that… Could he have been?

  No… He was always rather lazy. He knew how to talk and schmooze. All He did was talk to investors and wheel and deal. I did all the groundwork, I was the one that built the company. All He did, was enjoy the fruits of my labor. I allowed it, believing that we were in this together, that He understood where it was we were steering our ship…

  But was that really the case? Had I… misunderstood something?

  Liche’s talk earlier, made me wonder. Question. But… I also knew, that I wasn’t currently equipped with the ability to handle this… I had no idea where to even begin analyzing my past. Not yet, but… Given time, surely? Surely, I’d find some way forward, after all, I now had a guiding light. A proper means to push forward.

  And surely, maybe, even the mascots knew that? After all, why else would I be chosen?

  With a final sigh, I settled into bed. I tossed and turned throughout the night, dreading tomorrow. With all my heart and soul. And yet, paradoxically, looking forward to it, wondering how it would all end.