Employee (9)

"What do you want from us? Lucius wanted an exchange with me.

"I want the freedom to visit and go wherever I want during the weekends and holidays," My terms were simple.

"You know how we can't do that. I heard you got kidnapped as soon as you left the school," Lucius knew everything that happened from his younger brother.

"We're doing this for your sake Rika. You know how it isn't safe for you," he wanted me to ask for something else.

"It's never safe anywhere," I clenched my hands into fists.

"If I get kidnapped again, I know how to escape. There's no threat from monsters anymore and it's rare for fairies to come to this dimension. Why is it so hard for you to accept this fact?" I didn't like how they always thought I was helpless.

"I'm better at this than you guys who can't escape from this room," I pointed out.

"You should really start educating her more about the first district," Claire mumbled.

"I can't disagree with my younger brother. As soon as she learns about something, she immediately gets into more trouble," Lucius sighed.

"But she's drinking poison and putting drugs into her own food because she doesn't know," Ben agreed with Claire.

"She eats anything without any suspicion," he added when Lucius was still reluctant.

"It's soda and sugar!" I knew I would get sick if I actually ate poison and drugs.

I wondered why they were putting this act in front of me. I knew my body was frail against the food that I had no tolerance against. Unfortunately, it was likely I would die from a small dosage of poison or drugs for the same reason. They were trying to control what I ate even from the other side of the room where they were prisoners.

"I had enough of you guys treating me this way," I gave up on the exchange.

"It's not like I'm a small child who can't do anything on her own," I argued.

I slammed the door after locking the door behind me. Trying to calm myself down, I took a walk around the building. Sitting down on a bench inside the company library, I decided to borrow more movies. I didn't want to talk to those terrible people anymore. Looking up when I noticed the chairman sitting beside me, he watched me explore what other things were available here.

"I recommended you to be able to take the test to become my heir," the chairman warmly smiled at me.

"I read all the reports about you and you've done more for the organization than the other employees who have worked here for years," he looked proud.

"When is the test?" My eyes glittered.

"It will take place from tomorrow evening. We only give candidates a short notice, so they won't prepare too much beforehand," he gave me some time on my own.

How could I not like this place? They constantly gave me more chances to prove myself to them. I happily skipped to the room again to watch over the hostages. After thoroughly checking on the security, I could plan on how to approach the test. Maybe the rude people there could even give me some tips.

"Guess who's taking the test to become the heir to this organization?" I bragged in front of them.

"The chairman came up to me to let me know I'll be taking the test tomorrow," I smiled.

"You seem like you're close to the chairman," Claire commented.

"You want some tips on the test, right?" Ben instantly hit the mark.

I nodded my head, "once I become the chairwoman, this whole place is mine!"

"We only know that there's three rounds. One of them is fighting against all the other candidates," Ben looked at me like it was better to withdraw from the test.

"That easy?" I could easily pour lots of mana into some spells to make them more powerful.

"You're planning to use disintegration, aren't you?" Lucius guessed from my grin.

"What are you going to do if they don't let you use your mana?" He tried to point out.

"They're probably not going to let us fight to our deaths. That's only for our branch offices," I shrugged.

"Anyways, I'm going to get ready for tomorrow's test," I locked the door behind me.

Walking into the testing room the next morning, I was stunned. Why were there a bunch of desks with paper stacked on top of them like I was taking an exam? Sitting in a desk with my name floating on top of it, I realized all the other candidates were adults. Since this organization placed more importance in someone's capabilities than age, none of them looked at me weirdly. As expected of a sophisticated criminal organization, it was like a normal company.

"Everyone in their seats," the chairman stood in the front of the room.

"You have three hours to complete the first round in front of you. Best of luck," he sat down on a chair to supervise us.

Opening the booklets, my eyes widened when the questions were mostly open answer. It was mostly situational questions on what you would do when you encountered something. I sighed in relief as I wrote an essay of my ideas. I expected something like complex math questions, but it wasn't the case. Once the time was up, the booklets went to the chairman as he started to read over each answer. After he finished grading each booklet, he rose from his chair to announce the winner for this round.