As always, Magic Lady looked gorgeous. It was almost like she was some kind of movie star in a movie in which she was supposed to look gorgeous.
"Mr. Freeman," she said with a smile. "I am positively surprised by your success. You have managed something that fewer than one percent of our Enforcer Trainees can accomplish. This is a great achievement!"
Kyle just looked at her without amusement.
As he looked at her, he also realized that he didn't feel any Ether coming from her, but that wasn't anything surprising. He also didn't feel a lot of Ether coming from the Duchess of Twilight.
"Yeah, before we proceed with fucking my Karma, can we talk about Sebastian?" he asked.
Magic Lady's pleasant smile didn't change.
The next moment, all the water vanished, and Kyle found himself in a forest.
It was almost like he had blinked, and the world had changed.
"Oh, hey!" Kyle heard from his right.
Magic Lady and Kyle had arrived right beside Sebastian in the Twilight Duchy.
"Mr. Wendler," Magic Lady said, looking at Sebastian with a smile that was actually genuine for once. "I'm glad that you also managed to get this far."
"Wasn't easy," Sebastian said with a laugh.
Then, Magic Lady looked back at Kyle. "You wanted to talk about something involving Mr. Wendler?"
"Yeah, you know how he is also supposed to become the Overseer? Problem is, there's only one spot, and I took that," Kyle said. "Sebastian has been a great help, and genuinely, without him, I wouldn't have gotten to this position."
"We're not quite sure what he should do now. If he ascends, he technically broke his contract, but there's also no point in him becoming an Overseer. You know what I mean?"
Magic Lady just kept smiling. "That is not an issue," she said, turning to Sebastian. "Our goals have been achieved. Wasting such a talented employee isn't acceptable."
"Mr. Wendler, you have been a great asset to our company. I can see that your personal power has also reached impressive levels, and the best thing is that you have not advanced yet. That shows patience and a sense for strategy."
"Because of that, we would like to offer you a promotion. Instead of an Enforcer Trainee, we would like you to remain with us as an Enforcer Adept."
Sebastian sighed in relief.
For a while, he had feared that he would be stuck here or killed.
"What do I have to do?" he asked.
"Enforcer Adepts are students of our company. You will be joining other Enforcer Adepts in training. You will be sent to different worlds with different missions, and if your achievements are exemplary, you will receive another promotion."
"If you want to go further on your journey than anybody else, becoming an Enforcer Adept is the right choice. Naturally, you will receive payment in the form of augmentations for your power."
Sebastian wasn't sure about the offer.
It sounded nice and all, but there was still something that irked him.
"Will you guys give me orders that lower my Karma?" he asked.
"There will be the occasional order," Magic Lady said, "but the company promises that you will only receive a cumulative negative Karmic load of two levels over your stay with us."
"Could you explain in more detail what that means?" Sebastian asked.
"One karmic load represents one entire level between different Karmic Blessings or Curses. For example, going from neutral Karmic Luck to the first Karmic Curse represents one Karmic load. The first Karmic Curse is a reduction in total luck."
"If we were to give you orders that push you from neutral Karmic Luck to the second Karmic Curse, we would have used up all our allotted Karmic loads, which means we would no longer be allowed to give you more orders that will result in a loss of Karmic Luck."
Kyle snorted. "No such luxury for me," he commented.
Magic Lady didn't look at Kyle as she just smiled at Sebastian.
Sebastian glanced at Kyle with guilt and shame.
He knew that the company would completely destroy Kyle's Karma, and yet, he was about to sign a new deal with them.
Sebastian felt like a traitor.
"Can I see the contract?" Sebastian asked.
"Of course," Magic Lady said.
The next moment, a huge stack of papers appeared in front of Sebastian, and he quickly read through them.
After he was done, Sebastian sighed.
The offer was actually really good.
It seemed like the company was valuing Enforcer Adepts rather highly.
Without saying anything, Sebastian signed the contract.
But he wasn't happy.
"Hey, dude," Kyle said, making Sebastian look at him. "Don't feel bad. It's not like I'm going to die here. It will just take… some time to recover. Also, I signed the contract."
"I know," Sebastian said with a sigh. "It's just that… It's unfair."
Kyle shrugged. "I was the one who promised the Duchess of Twilight that I would become the Overseer."
Sebastian looked at Magic Lady again. "Is there a chance I will see Kyle again?" he asked.
"We do not kill our employees, " Magic Lady said with a smile. "While his job will not be easy, the troubles will only be temporary. In order to rebuild a factory, you need a lot of work, but after it is rebuilt, there won't be any work left."
Kyle and Sebastian looked at each other.
"I want to know something," Sebastian said.
"Yes?" Magic Lady asked.
"What is he supposed to do? Why did you send us here?" Sebastian asked.
Magic Lady scratched her cheek, looking like she was evaluating something.
"I believe I am free to tell you as much, but I will not share confidential information," she said.
"We are all employees of the Array of Stars, a powerful union of Seekers."
"Seekers?" Kyle asked.
"That is the common term for people who want to become stronger and who have attained some success on the path to power," she answered. "After becoming Transcendents, you two also count as Seekers."
Sebastain and Kyle nodded.
"As for this world into which you have been sent," Magic Lady said with a smile.
"This is one of our worlds."
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