Time flew by. Days transitioned into each other without pause, seemingly. I was busy, busy, and more busy. Leo didn’t bother me much as the days went by. Though, he was notably distant. Not that I blamed him, nor did I care to try and close the gap.

  It was better for both of us if he kept his distance. After all, if what I thought was even true, if what He said was even remotely true… Then, yes, it was better if we never spoke again.

  The schedule I had set for myself progressed as usual. Tuesdays and Fridays I would work out and train with Liche and Joan. Both of whom improved at a decent pace in spite of my lacking direction. Mondays I would focus entirely on animating new dolls, Wednesdays were dedicated to visiting éclair and getting more information on alchemy, the occult, and just about anything I may have needed to know.

  Saturday nights were dedicated to diving into the sewers and below, which is where I encountered my first real issue. The sewers themselves were easy to navigate, and although shades were a rare occurrence, they weren’t much of an issue.

  The waterworks were an entirely different story. The waterworks were rather labyrinthine, with many side passages and alternate paths. Most of which were hidden behind mechanisms, sluice gates, or even past flowing water. The last few times I have been here, barring that time with Billy, I haven’t had an issue navigating this particular layer.

  Without Joan, Diana, or even Tabitha to lead the way, navigating this layer was an almost impossible task. Trying to find the right passage was a difficult task that was made worse when I had to find the right means to use that passage. Could it be the many valves laying about? A random lever nearby? Could it possibly be behind a ludicrous water puzzle, where I had to redirect channels of water to make an opening…

  Joan had been able to easily go through the puzzles, as had Diana and Tabitha, but… apparently, I was really bad at it. With no recourse, I had to brute force it with my superior numbers and plenty of explosive rounds. Guiding my dolls to push and pull levers or whatever needed to be manipulated. I felt a bit like those villains or mercenary groups that appear in tomb raiding movies.

  Complicated puzzle? Bash it or make it work with sheer manpower. Need to fill a reservoir? Get buckets and slowly fill the reservoir by hand. It wasn’t exactly smart, and it was like fitting a circle in a square hole, but hey, it worked.

  Each run netted me a bronze coin or two. Which was a little more than I needed for my bills. By the third week, I had all my dolls animated and equipped with spears. Which filled out a good portion of the cold storage. There wasn’t a need to keep them inside, so I had them meander inside the main area.

  A special array, the same kind of array éclair had used to magically saturate that cardboard of hers was used to help saturate the dolls I had set aside. Using the silver coins as batteries, I placed them inside the array and had the chosen doll stand by and absorb the magical energy passively.

  Interestingly, the coins had a stable output that could be measured. Bronze coins had the equivalent of a hundred units of magical energy. Passively they release only a hundredth of that energy constantly. So, a fixed one energy point.

  Silver coins had ten times the energy of a bronze coin. They too only radiated a fixed hundredth of their total energy. Which came to be about ten units of magical energy.

  There were special arrays that could measure magical energy in a person, an area, or an item. Normal people were in the tens, mages came close to a hundred, magical girls varied wildly depending on who they were chosen by.

  Rabbits and hunting dogs tend to be in the low hundreds. Support dogs tend to be in the middle range, around five hundred. Rescue dogs and foxes both were in upper hundreds, nearing a thousand. With tigers easily reaching a thousand units of magical energy on average, if not more. Sheep though were wildly varied and couldn’t always be measured.

  At least, this is what éclair told me during a quick visit.

  Dogs didn’t get stronger typically. Their statistics remained rather static, unless they use gold coins to boost themselves, but even that has a limit. There was also a limit to the number of silver coins someone could use, or rather, how many talents could be acquired. The limit expanded as you increased the ranks of talents, but éclair wasn’t too sure what the limit was.

  Rather than a hard limit, acquiring too many talents instead watered down the overall effectiveness of boosting talent. If too many talents were acquired using silver coins, it eventually became pointless to keep boosting talents.

  In much the same way, silver coins could be used to enchant items, but the more magical effects an item had, the less effective they became overall. Though, the limit was determined by the quality of material.

  When asked what was the better of the options…

  “Better to focus on a few talents you know you’ll use or need. Preferably, ones that synergize together.” éclair had said with a shrug.

  Something I wish I had known, and yet…

  At the start of the third week, I realized something interesting. On starting my next knight, I realized having my dance talent boosted did in fact help my sculpting. Dance was a multifaceted talent. Dancing was more than just moving the body, it came with spatial awareness, an understanding of how I could move my body in relation to my surroundings. How the body should move, and many more little bits and pieces I hadn’t realized.

  More notably, it gave me a sense of proper proportions and how to better sculpt a body or part. A full week was spent working on my second knight. I took my time, and after multiple failures, I finally produced a worthy result by the weekend. The knight made was head and shoulders above the rough work that was Cobalt.

  My new knight was slimmer. The armor plates that made up their form were more fitting and interlocked. The end result was less gothic, and more… I wasn’t sure what to place it, exactly. The helmet however, sported a pair of wings jutting out the side.

  As I put the finishing touches on the knight, I could feel Cobalt’s curiosity at their new brother. Cobalt was bigger, larger, and far more intimidating compared to this new knight. Yet, I was certain my new knight would function just as well, if not better.

  I held off on animating the knight, as I needed the silver coins to saturate my dolls. The process was fairly simple. I simply needed to wait, and when I had excess magical energy pump some extra into the array. Each doll didn’t take very long to saturate. Less than a day on average, but the hardest part was compressing the magical energy.

  A larger array had to be made, with plenty of reservoirs for magical energy to pool, as I lacked the necessary energy to elevate them straight into bronze rank. Coins could be used to help supplement and fill the reservoirs, but I had to activate the circle to get it going.

  éclair was more than happy to give me a breakdown on how much magical energy I would need, which came to roughly a hundred times what I had put into them.

  Through the second week, I easily managed to saturate the chosen dolls. Four total. Through the third week, I went through the process of using the silver coins and my excess magical energy to slowly fill and compress their magical energy. Luckily, as most of my time was spent sculpting, I had plenty of magical energy to donate to the array.

  With the very first doll I compressed, and ranked up, I came to a realization. First, the material and the doll itself were impeccable. At least compared to the stone golems I made back during the second event. The process of compression went without much fanfare and without any complications… alternatively…

  Alternatively, they had no further advancement. Even as full-fledged bronze ranks… I could tell immediately they couldn’t grow anymore. Saturating them with magic would marginally improve their combat power, but… I couldn’t compress their energy again, not without them exploding violently.

  If the cardboard was bad, I didn’t want to imagine what magically infused titanium would be like…

  Just the thought had me shuddering.

  At the start of the fourth week, I transitioned into saturating Cobalt. A task that would be frankly monumental. Throughout the fourth week, I alternated between sculpting and saturating Cobalt. Just before the weekend, Cobalt finished, and at the same time, I managed to finish the second knight after fewer failures.

  Creating a new compression array, a frankly massive one to accommodate Cobalt’s impressive magical potential was both time consuming and took up most of the cold storage’s space. Leaving me with little room for anything else.

  As it was, I didn’t really have anything else to do inside the cold storage, so I left Cobalt to cook. With the fourth week coming to an end, today being Saturday, and tomorrow being the start of the extended break.

  It snows regularly now. Covering the sidewalks, or icing up alleys. Temperatures dropped severely at night, often going well below freezing. The sewers though and the waterworks below were always rather warm, and definitely humid. As the end of the month approached, more lights and decorations appeared on buildings and in shop windows. The gothic buildings against the falling snow and the ice were a strangely fitting combination.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Nothing fantastic happened at work. Today being the final day for this month and the year. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The rumors had just about vanished and in their place was a certainty, not unlike a guillotine hanging above my head. Waiting for an unseen hand’s signal to come roaring down.

  It wasn’t a matter of whether it would drop, only when. And today was the day it finally came crashing down. I was standing in Leo’s office. He was giving me an off look.

  “Just give it to me.” I said after a long moment of silence.

  He sighs. “Fine, the executive wants to see you, in his office.”

  Leo had just come back from the annual meeting. A meeting that the heads of the various divisions had, usually with the executive. Typically, from what I’ve heard, it involved discussing the direction of the company, and if they needed to course correct.

  Leo hadn’t really filled me on the specific details of what had happened at the meeting, but I imagine it wasn’t good.

  “Right now?”

  “Yes.” He states and so…

  “Alright, wish me luck.”

  “Good luck.” He says and we part ways. I enter the elevator, and press the button for the top floor, the executive floor. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but… It blew any expectation I had out of the water.

  The floor was large, that was for sure. It was also richly decorated. A lavish carpet, bronze statues of minotaur wielding a variety of weapons, even wearing armor flanked the halls. Stepping inside, I could feel eyes fall on me. Though, I couldn’t see who was looking at me.

  Before me, a large desk manned by a single receptionist sat to the side of a pair of giant double doors made of black wood that glistened like obsidian. Soft piano music played from somewhere. Water trickled from a pair of fountains on each side of the room. Fountains that were filled with fish. I made my way forward, towards the desk and the receptionist locked eyes with me and spoke before I could even introduce myself.

  “Prima Belle, please proceed. The executive is waiting for you.”

  With those words, the large double doors slid soundlessly open. An errant breeze blew. The evening sun drooped low, bleeding into the room, framing the figure seated at a desk that took the center of the room. Slightly blinded, all I could see was their silhouette as I approached.

  I stopped before the desk, back straight, eyes forward. Closer, the sun no longer blinded me. If anything, it grew dimmer the moment I had entered the room. A man, rather, I wasn’t entirely sure if it was really a man.

  He wore the skull of a bull on his head. It seemingly dominated my attention. The bone glistened and was covered in an intricate web of bronze glittering lines. Like gossamer threads were covering it. Inside the eye sockets, bronze-colored eyes burned, assessing me.

  I stayed silent. I stayed quiet. I didn’t move as he looked me up and down. He knew who I was, why I was here. There was no need to announce myself or make myself known. He would speak when he wanted to talk.

  Minutes passed, or so it felt before he spoke. His voice had a brass thrum to it.

  “Prima Belle, I presume.”

  “I am.” I answered back calmly, despite the pressure pushing me down.

  He hummed. “At least you have some sense.” He said and leaned forward, placing both of his elbows on his desk. The pressure intensified, nearly making my knees buckle.

  He then continued to inspect me. The pressure slowly intensifying, yet I stood tall, knees unbowed. Eventually, just as I felt like I would break under the pressure, shatter like a glass figurine, he snorted, the pressure faded.

  “You have some spine it seems.” He takes a second to lean back in his chair. Giving me a good look at his suit. It was bone white. Ivory buttons. A red undershirt and white tie. It suited him, but his clothing made it hard to determine what lay underneath.

  “I am Taurus, head of the Taurus Company. The executive.” He says slowly, bringing me back to attention.”

  “Prima.” I say back, answering back his introduction with my own.

  “As you well know, there have been rumors swirling around you, as of late.”

  “I am aware.” I answered back. He eyes me but presses on.

  “Rumors of an inappropriate relationship with a superior. Of going above your station, usurping the leadership, essentially pulling a coup within your division.”

  He counts them, one by one…

  “What was most interesting though, was the rapidly spreading rumor of you crawling from company to company seeking work for your division.” His tone shifted. My own face hardened. Knowing that, of all things, that might be the one he took the most offense to.

  I did my best not to shift. My body solid like stone.

  “Do you realize what you’ve done wrong? How it is your little plan backfired?” He says, slowly, with malice creeping into his tone.

  “I do not.” Answer back as calmly as possible.

  “Is that so? Well, that isn’t surprising considering your history.” He says with an almost bored, dismissive sigh.

  “My history, sir?” I say back on instinct.

  “Indeed. After a certain shareholder of mine, a man you should know well, a certain Mr. Torres offered up your name. Ever since then, I had my secretary pull a detailed history of you.” Leaning back into his chair, he procured a folder and stretched his arm out. “Take it.”

  Carefully, I stepped forward and took it in both my hands. I wasn’t sure what to think, but as I opened it, I nearly swore.

  “How?” I couldn’t help but voice as I looked through the pile. It wasn’t just my interview questions, no, this was my entire work history. Including comments and words from previous employers, from those before and after me getting my new name. All from before I had even come to this city.

  Out of fear, I glanced at the final note, from my most recent employer, from Him. Only… to find what could be considered a rather generic overview. Clinical, lacking any and all flair.

  “As an executive, if I desire something, there is very little that will keep it from me.” He said, with an air of superiority, and honestly, it would have worked, but his file was missing the most important piece of puzzle.

  Had he known… Well, I don’t think I’d be standing here. Was this the mascots? Was this Usagi putting their foot on the scale? I swear, I could feel them watching this little meeting with glee.

  “That is… impressive.” I say after a moment, if he caught the oddity in my tone or expression, he didn’t make it known. Carefully, I placed the folder back on his desk, almost dismissively, he pushes it aside.

  “But I don’t think this explains what I did wrong.” I venture out. Not unlike how one would venture out into a minefield, toeing forward, praying that a mine wasn’t underfoot.

  “It does… You Prima, were taught and trained to be one thing. A tool. Your history proves as such, an excellent worker, capable of thriving in even the worst conditions, but you are missing a single, crucial piece of the puzzle.”

  “And that would be?” I ask, both curious and to humor the man.

  “Leadership. You were born and bred to be a follower, not a leader and it shows. Your actions are both straightforward and brash, uncaring for the surrounding social necessities. That, is why you failed.”

  I frowned. My feet shifted. I wavered between speaking up, or just accepting his words as is, but in the end… “How… how exactly did I go wrong?”

  He gives me a long, appraising glance.

  “The various clients Leo was working with, they were not independents. Rather, they were all part of a much larger organization. You, rightly explored their backgrounds and assumed they wouldn’t take issue, but you failed to look further into who benefits from their interactions with the young division leader.”

  I listened, engraving each word into my very soul.

  “Though, I doubt Leo fully understood who he was in bed with either. Nor did he realize the value of the relationship he had forged. Part of why I allowed him to keep his position. Now, it has become difficult to justify keeping that wastrel around, especially when he’s been planning a rebellion all this while.”

  His words, struck me heard. Like a hammer to a bronze bell.

  “You knew?” I say.

  “Indeed, how could I not? This is my kingdom, and what kind of king would I be if I wasn’t aware of everything happening under my rule?”

  “And yet, you let him do as he pleases?” I question, before I could even guard my tongue. Luckily, he found the response amusing.

  A low laugh left his lips. He was now lounging at his desk, an arm keeping his head up as he looked at me. I could see the laughter in his eyes.

  “Because he was of no threat, neither him, nor his little plan. Even had his plan come to fruition, I had plans in place. Plans that are now made moot, thanks to you.” He sounded accusing, and yet…

  “You don’t seem to upset about that.” I venture, once more into the field.

  “Normally, I would be, but this is a unique case. Your actions, though misguided, and elementary, were somewhat inspired. You’ve managed to defuse a live bomb in a short period of time, even made it manageable, even if none of my plans were to go through. And more than that, thanks to you, Leo has managed to fumble into something… interesting.”

  “Interesting?”

  “Yes, very interesting. Surely, you must be aware of the other great companies?”

  “Somewhat.” I admit, though, if I had to recall them on the fly, I don’t think I could.

  “Well, one of the major corporations deals in, certain media. Media that unfortunately, our corporation doesn’t deal in, or rather, we can’t do to their control. Leo, by happenstance, has put our foot in the door. Allowing us to not only expand into their domain but even claim a foothold. One even they can’t simply deny.”

  He laughed again.

  “And that’s why you didn’t fire Leo?”

  “Indeed, and in part, why I invited you to my office. And why I didn’t simply have you canned for damaging the company’s reputation.”

  “I suppose, that means you have an offer?”

  He laughs again, “Indeed. Your upbringing and history makes you a valuable asset, and I would have you become a direct subordinate of mine.”

  “A fixer.” I answer, all too calmly.

  “Yes. You will handle company affairs, wield my authority as your own. All for the betterment of the company…” He pauses, looks at me, and slowly, his relaxed posture shifts. “But, that won’t satisfy you, will it?”

  “No… it won’t sir.”

  “And what is it you want?” He finally asks.

  “The throne, and more.” I answer with full sincerity.

  Silence. A deafening silence. Every passing second, the silence only grows. As does that invisible pressure that emanates from the man. It grows and grows, threatening to crush me into pulp. I call on the ice, let it cover me, coat me. Yet, even that only goes so far. Every beat of my heart exasperates the widening cracks upon it as I feel my own resolve waver.

  And just before it could shatter, the pressure stops.

  He claps his hands, offering actual applause.

  “At least you have resolve…” He says, but… “I wonder if he knew that when he put you into his plans? No, that old coot’s too full of himself…”

  The amusement was back in full force. Including something more, a spark of interest.

  “Very well, I won’t compel you to take my offer, but a problem still exists. You have cost this company an immense amount of prestige with your dalliances. And recompense must be had. Do you understand?”

  “Fully, sir.”

  “Good. Should you complete this task, all will be forgiven. Should you fail, well, don’t bother showing up to work. Understand?”

  I nod along, and he seems pleased. He explains the details of what he needed from me, or rather, what he was asking of me didn’t seem too difficult at first glance. If anything it coincided with my own plans.

  “So, you were aware?”

  “Of course. If Torres could figure it out, so could I.”

  “I’m beginning to think I’m not all that special.”

  “And you aren’t. There are many more like you in the company, and many more throughout the city. If you even want a chance at the throne, your best bet is to get into my favor. Is that understood?”

  “It is, sir.”

  “Good, now, you are dismissed.”

  He gave his command and yet… “If I may, sir.” He looks at me, annoyance clear in his eyes. “How did you plan to deal with Leo’s bomb? From what I saw, it was well done.”

  “It was also foolish.” He says. “The combination of debt and the contracts we have with Terada meant that a mass firing would cause us to go into bankruptcy, but… you forget something important. If something were to happen to them before they could leave the company, well, would we have to pay them? And where exactly would Terada’s rights go if he were to suddenly meet an untimely end?”

  He practically teased… but… I understood fully.

  “You would, do that?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? After all, it’s for the good of the company, my kingdom, and all those living under my rule.”

  I opened my mouth to refute him, to argue, and yet… Could I? Had I any right to?

  “Now, leave. I will not say it a third time.”

  “I understand, and thank you, sir.” I said with grit teeth and walked right out.