Chapter 27) Explanations are in order. Or, Manager in the Middle
Ahhhh…
Alice something or other set her hands on her hips, and stuck her head forward with a frown, any moment now she would be stomping her foot if I didn’t say anything.
"Hi Ali… Boss. I would love to talk but I got a new trainee that just came through the gate and is probably wondering what's going on." I began slowly drifting back, more away from her than towards the entrance room.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes. Go deal with Bernard... While I observe.”
The way she said it seemed to imply she better like what she saw.
As I floated along the top of the hallway I could see her walking along the edge of the drop off a bit behind me huffing in annoyance every now and then as we went. When I got to the entrance room I could hear her gasp from behind me and decided to drop down toward the man rubbing at the top of his head with a big grin on his face.
“Hi there, you can call me Tex. Let’s get you set up for your new job.”
The man looked up with a questioning look, then flinched. “Ah.” He pointed up above. “I hate to get involved, but she doesn't look all that happy Tex, maybe you should deal with her first.”
“Tex! What... Why is all this stuff here?”
The guy who I guess was Bernard nodded at me. “Yeah. Not happy.”
Alice something or other took a step off the top of the wall with one foot, and set it down on the floor off to the right, without bothering to drop down during that step. One moment she was up high and the next she was down here with us.
Looking around, she seemed more surprised than angry, which I took as a good sign.
I drifted over a little closer to the new guy and tried to keep my voice down, “Be cool, my boss is here and I need to keep her happy.”
He gave me a surprised look and slowly nodded. “As on Earth so in Heaven, I guess. Is she the boss boss, or just your boss.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I whispered again. "My boss, I think she said that she's a minor goddess of life. And I got no idea how high up that is, but it sounds middle management."
Bernard nodded and pressed his fingertip against the side of his nose as we watched Alice something of other poke at some of the stuff on the shelves, taking down a set of strap on steel ice shoes, and turning around to hold them up while looking at me with a questioning look.
But she stopped with her mouth half open to look at the table with “Starter Gear” written on all sides and walked over to give the contents a look.
Bernard joined her. “Looks like a pretty good set of stuff. Hey, is that really money?”
He reached out for the sack but paused to give my boss a look like he was asking permission. She nodded and her grabbed the sack, took a step back, and began to pour out some of the coins into his hand before looking around for me.
“How much is this all worth?”
I bobbed up and down. "No idea. One of the people that came through said the fat copper coins should buy about two and a half bucks worth.”
He began counting the coins as Alice something or other wiggled the clawed metal device around in the air between us. “Ice cleats? I don't think any of the three exit portals you could have chosen were in winter conditions."
Then she just stared at me with one eyebrow up. I guessed she was giving me enough rope to hang myself with.
But if you’re in trouble anyways, be bold, not rude but bold. Chances are they already decided what they want to do to you, you won’t be able to change their minds by knuckling under. Most likely they are just dragging it out for the entertainment value of watching you squirm.
Being bold robs them of joy in bullying you, and they're prepared for justifications, so why not? You might even trip them up enough they actually listen to you.
"Well, I used all three gates…"
Her eyes went wide, but I continued before she could say anything.
“Then I found another one and opened that so people had as many choices as I could get them, but the new one is even worse than the other three since it's some kind of death game…
She held out the flat of her hand at me, then folded it up until she was holding up one finger like she was telling me to shush while she looked over at a carefully listening Bernard.
My boss looked from him to me, “Ah…”
Bernard nodded as he poured the coins back into their bag and set it down on the starter table. “Do go on Tex, I think we would both like to hear all about the death game I might choose.”
Alice something or other went pale, then red. “What Death Game?”
She really looked surprised.
"Ah. I went over to the Defunct Mage Dungeon and got the exit gate added to my Panel, along with the starting gear and the three spell unlocking squares. The exit gate over there saves up ten people and then makes them compete in contests with the loser getting killed until the last person standing gets to leave the castle it happened in. But two out of the three I had to choose from are death traps as well.”
Shoot, if it does work that way, does that mean nine people have been stuck there waiting for who knows how long for a tenth person to arrive for another round?
Alice’s face looked more and more horrified as I went on, while Bernard just sighed and looked resigned, “So what’s the other choices?”
I drifted over his way. “Another bad one and the Plane of Slaughter. You start in a city which sounds like it might not be too bad but then you have to leave the city regularly to fight monsters until you get to tenth level. Which might go pretty fast, two of the guys in the city full of walking skeletons got to level third pretty quick-”
My boss interrupted me in an exhausted tone of voice. “How do you know that? How do you even know anything about where the gates go? What the hell am I even doing here?”
Alice something or other leaned against the starter table before turning and lowering herself to the ground. Leaning back against the solid slab that held up one side of the table she pressed both of her hands against her face.
With a heave of her chest, she began softly crying.
Somehow, whatever is wrong with the setup here, I'm starting to think she isn't in on it.