Cecily swung her practice sword over and over in front of the mirror. She was one of only a handful of people in the practice hall. It was 6:00 AM on a Saturday.

Shit, that was bad, she thought. She felt slightly off balance. She put down the wooden sword and repeated the footwork. She did it correctly this time, but her movements were too stiff. In her mind, she saw Ava parrying a goblin’s blow and cutting its head off. The sight had repulsed her when she’d witnessed it, with blood spurting out of the goblin’s neck as its head rolled on the grass.

But now Cecily realized how incredible Ava’s swordsmanship was, how quick and smooth her movements had been.

Cecily took a deep breath and picked up her practice sword.

I’m not exceptional within my own team, let alone within Hopkins as a whole. I need to improve. I need to work and work and work until I hit the fucking top.

She practiced cuts, thrusts, and parries over and over again until sweat was pouring down her face and her hands could barely keep ahold of her sword.

Come on. One more time. Ava had said it took at least two months of practice for someone to become even half-decent with the sword. But two months was too long. Cecily had to get good now. She raised her sword again with trembling arms.

“Hey.”

Someone tapped her shoulder and pulled her sword out of her hands. She had no strength to hold onto it.

“What do you want?” Cecily asked Raine. She looked back at him and saw the two iced lattes in his hands.

“Want one?” he asked. “After you take a seat, so you don’t drop it.”

“Well…” She was about to refuse, but she actually did want something cold to drink. And coffee sounded good.

Fuck it. They sat down on a bench to the side and drank coffee.

“How did you know I was here?” Cecily asked.

“I practiced here earlier,” Raine said. “I’m sure you didn’t notice.”

He was right; she hadn’t noticed at all.

“Anyway, how are you feeling?”

“Tired, obviously,” Cecily said. “Otherwise, I’m fine.”

“That’s good,” he said with a nod.

She waited for him to say what he was there for. Instead, they just spoke about random topics like books, swordsmanship, and food.

After fifteen minutes, he said goodbye and headed for the door. She was left wondering why he’d come.

. . . .

Raine knocked on the door.

“Yup, on the way!” Kayden said.

A few seconds later, the door opened.

“Morning, what’s up?”

“Not much. In half an hour, I’m going with Grant and Arnett to a popular biking path outside the city. You want to join?”

“Yeah, why not? I have nothing to do anyway.”

Kayden asked Reo, who also agreed to join.

Raine had decided to be the sanity checker for the day. He made sure everyone he knew was doing alright. Almost all of them had been attacked by goblins on their first job. He’d planned on asking Max, Lukas, and Vick to join as well, but they were outside of Rialis City.

In 30 minutes, Raine and his friends went downstairs and rented bikes from a store nearby. He didn’t want to spend money on a helmet, so he brought his arming cap.

Everyone but Raine carried a dagger at their hip, which made him realize he should also get one soon.

“On Thursday, I shot two goblins in the fucking face,” Arnett said as they cycled through the city. “I was like ‘Damn, I’m good’ for three seconds before I started thinking about whether or not I really had to kill them.”

“I probably would have felt the same in your situation,” Grant said. “But yesterday, I was terrified and pissed at the same time, so I didn’t really have room for guilt. Two people almost died, and my team leader’s horse got killed.”

“Shit, that must have sucked,” Kayden said.

“It did. But in a sense, my team was lucky.”

“You’re talking about the Irving team, right?”

“Yeah,” Grant said.

“It’s not that you were lucky,” Raine said. “It’s that they were extremely unlucky.”

He’d overheard a conversation about it while getting coffee. One of the new teams had met a group of elite goblins in the Irin Forest. Three people died, and the rest were injured, including the team leader.

“I’m working my ass off to not die like them,” Arnett said.

“We’re all doing it right now by cycling,” Raine said. “Imagine running out of stamina in the middle of a fight.”

“That’s a fucking terrifying thought,” Arnett said. “I’m suddenly thankful for all the trips we took around Mount Rialis.”

They soon reached the southern gate and left the city. They were heading to a short mountain so popular for biking that it was called the Cycle Mountain.

On it, the path inclined enough to give them a challenge but not enough to tire them out from one trip around the mountain.

To build their stamina, Arnett suggested they cycle around it once more.

Instead, at the urging of Grant and Kayden, they did so three more times.

At the base of the mountain, they slowed to a halt to catch their breaths. Raine’s lungs burned, and his legs felt like jelly.

“Let’s never—” Arnett paused to breathe, “—let’s never do that again. Ever.”

“Nah, let’s make this a regular event,” Grant said with a grin. “I’m sure we’ll have better stamina than all the other new employees by the end of the month.”

“Hey, by the way,” Kayden said. He and Grant were the only ones able to speak normally. “When the newbie month is up, should we return to our original team from training?”

“Why not?” Arnett said after taking a deep breath. “My current team has some whiny bastards.”

“I’m all for the suggestion,” Reo said, wiping sweat off his face with a handkerchief.

“I don’t really know if I’ll hunt after this month is up,” Raine said. “I’ll probably just go to translation.”

“Not a bad idea,” Grant said. “I’d do the same if I could.”

“Hey, but I hear you can’t make the big bucks from translation,” Arnett said. “You can with hunting, though.”

“I’ve heard that too,” Raine said. He sighed. “So a small part of me wants to hunt, but the rest says translation is the way to go.”

Arnett shrugged. “It’s up to you. But if I were you, I’d try to make my millions fast and retire early. A lot of hunters apparently do that.”

“My team leader is a millionaire at 26,” Reo said. “He spent seven years hunting and now he’s semi-retired and only works to help out new employees.”

“Jeez. Now that’s the life I want.”

The five of them continued to talk on the slow cycle back to Rialis City.

. . . .

“So we have a lot of options for work in the Irin Forest,” June said, opening her notebook. “The Guilds just announced that the Expansion started ten days ago, so most of the new teams are flocking to the safe jobs.”

“I can understand why,” Raine said.

“They’re cowardly,” Edgar said.

“Most are just being realistic,” Cecily said.

Raine took a seat on the sofa with a glass of water in his hand. He’d already poured everyone else one.

“Anyway, what requests are open?” Raine asked June.

“There are about six or seven that seem decent, but two of the requests are better than the rest,” she said. “One involves escorting a small group of people to New Annapolis.”

“New Annapolis is...where?” Kayden asked.

“Past the Cycle Mountain,” Raine said. “It’s about 28 miles from here.”

“Yup,” June said.

“So there’s New Annapolis, and I know there’s also New Boston to the east,” Kayden said. “Is there a New New York somewhere around here?”

“I eagerly await the day I see Newest York City on a map,” Raine said.

June smiled wryly. “Anyway, the second request is more dangerous. With several other teams, we’ll protect some loggers as they cut down trees at the edge of the Irin Forest on Wednesday.”

“Goblins will attack once they start,” Ava said. “If we’re unlucky, there could be some elite goblins as well. It’s going to provide valuable experience, but it’ll be dangerous as fuck for you four.”

“Oh, and both requests pay well,” June said. “But we’ll get about 40 more vurs per person for the second request.”

“That’s clearly the one to take,” Edgar said.

The rest agreed.

“I should get a bow now, right?” Kayden asked.

“Yup,” June said. “Let’s all drop by L. Kingswood on Monday.”

Soon after that, June said goodbye and left the apartment. The others took their time leaving.

“Hey, anyone want to head to the archery range with me later?” Kayden asked.

“Not me,” Edgar said. He pulled a bottle of tequila out of a cupboard and went into his room.

“I’ll go,” Raine said. “I never got the chance to learn in training.”

“I’ll pass,” Cecily said, getting up.

“Hey, try to avoid overtraining.”

“Of course.”

She headed out.

Ava yawned and leaned back in the sofa.

“I need some fucking coffee,” she said. “Oh, and do you have a chessboard here?”

“Nope,” Raine said.

“Shit, you need to have one. It’s an essential item in the New World to stave off boredom.”

“I stave it off plenty well with books.”

“You possess a rare superpower.”

“Very rare,” Kayden said. “I see you in a new light, Raine.”

Raine sighed.

“You know, you guys have your own places. Why are you two lounging here?” he asked.

“That’s a good question,” Kayden said. He got off the armchair. “I’ll go take a look at the bows in the store. See you in about an hour at the archery range?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Ava lay down on the sofa with her feet dangling off the side.

“What the fuck am I going to do all day?” she said.

“Make money?” Raine asked.

“The request hall closes at noon on weekends.” Ava glanced at her watch. “It’s 12:30 now.”

Raine shrugged.

Ava lay there swinging her legs for a while. Then she said, “Hey, you want to play chess at a cafe? I’ll bring my board.”

“Sure.” He had nothing to do. He’d already practiced his swordsmanship and studied Ephrian in the morning.

Ava leapt off the sofa. “Cool. I’ll see you at Yuu’s Coffee in like fifteen minutes.”

. . . .

Song Hyun-woo shook the hand of the young blond man in front of him.

“I hope you’ve been well, Count Hayes,” Song Hyun-woo said. They went to the sofas at the center of the office.

“I have, although this past week has been quite hectic,” Hayes said with a smile. “How was Earth?”

“As peaceful as ever.”

The two took their seats. Cups of hot tea were already prepared on the table.

Two folded pieces of paper were on it as well. Song Hyun-woo passed them to Hayes. “The one on top is a thank-you letter from Dartmouth. Hopkins delivered your donation last month.”

“Thank you.” Hayes glanced over the letter.

“The other letter is from Gallagher.”

Hayes nodded and put both into his coat pocket. “I hope Gallagher heeds my advice and applies to Dartmouth. How is he, by the way?”

“He’s doing well,” Song Hyun-woo said. “He’s still among the top five in his class, and he recently scored well on the SAT. He’s expanded his circle of friends since you last wrote to him.”

“Great.” Hayes picked up the cup of tea in front of him and took a sip. His brows rose. “Fantastic tea as usual.”

“Thank you,” Song Hyun-woo said.

“I should really find the time to visit Earth again after the Expansion.” He drank his tea. “I hope Beverly Hills wasn’t too badly damaged by the Duke.”

“He avoided bombing anything this time.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Both worlds are safer now that you’ve captured him.” Hayes put down his cup. “But to my understanding, he’s a rather difficult person to obtain information from.”

“You could say that,” Song Hyun-woo said with a nod. “However, most of his value to Karlis doesn’t lie in what he knows.”

“That’s true,” Hayes said. He leaned forward in his seat. “The king hopes for this transaction to be mutually beneficial for Karlis and Hopkins. We'll give Hopkins one million vurs for the Duke.”

“I’d argue that’s a more appropriate price for the Duke’s right hand man, not the Duke himself. Two million vurs is fair.”

“Ah, I can’t accept such a price,” Hayes said, shaking his head.

“Iurisia took the Grey Baron for two million three years ago.”

“The Grey Baron isn’t nearly as tight-lipped as the Duke.”

“Their values are similar nonetheless.”

Hayes frowned. He sat in silence for a few moments. “One and a half million.”

“One million and eight hundred thousand. He isn’t a prisoner worth 500,000 less than the Grey Baron.”

Hayes took a moment to think. “Again, the Duke is tight-lipped. Even if most of his value stems from who he is, part of it still comes from what he knows. Karlis can offer no more than one million and seven hundred thousand vurs.”

That was still 200,000 more than what Wang Yan told him to get.

“We have a deal.” Song Hyun-woo smiled and offered his hand.

Hayes shook it.

“I still have trouble believing the Duke used a portal twice in the span of two days,” he said.

“I had a similar reaction initially, but even Shields has confirmed it.”

“I’ve been thinking about it constantly since I heard of it. Where did he find the resources to do such a thing?”

“That’s the question.” Song Hyun-woo pulled a box of cigarettes out of his pocket and offered one to Hayes.

“Thank you.” Hayes took the cigarette.

They smoked and looked down at Rialis City through the huge window in Song Hyun-woo’s office.

“Which Follower do you suspect opened the portal?”

“I have three in mind,” Song Hyun-woo said. “All are Followers of Light.”

Hayes smiled wryly. “Of course. Which ones?”

“Maria Rose, Elwood Summers, and Kay of Milesbury.”

Hayes’ brows rose. “I’ve met Elwood Summers. He didn’t strike me as someone easily manipulated.”

“Shields was indirectly responsible for his parents’ deaths.”

“Ah.” Hayes frowned. “And Maria Rose is quite an unpredictable person. How about Kay of Milesbury? I haven't yet met her.”

“Neither have I. She’s usually described as easy to read and kind to a fault. She and Elwood Summers were in southern Karlis for all of May and June.”

“Where are they now?”

“In Rialis.”

. . . .

“Please stop doing that,” Elwood said.

Rico grinned.

“It’s fun,” she said. She ripped another page out of the book and folded it into a paper plane. She tossed it into the forest.

“Bye bye,” Kay said, waving at the paper plane flying away. “I think it’s fun too.”

“You’re wasting paper. Please stop,” Elwood said.

“Oh, that’s true. It’s not good to waste paper.” She took the book out of Rico’s hands.

“Aww,” Rico said. “Now what do I do? I’m bored.”

Elwood sighed.

“You aren’t a kid anymore,” he said. “You have to get used to traveling without entertainment.”

“That sounds miserable,” Kay said.

“You’re supposed to help me out here.”

“But it’s true.”

Rico puffed up her cheeks and looked ahead.

“Bored,” she said. “Bored, bored, bored...oh. What’s that?”

Elwood followed her gaze and squinted.

“It’s...a person,” he said. “Two people, actually.”

They were lying on the grass at the edge of the Kanthil Forest.

He sped his horse to a trot and went off the road.

“Hello, are you two alright? I’m a—”

Ah...dammit. He looked back at Kay and Rico.

“You two should turn back.”

“Why, what happened?” Kay asked. “Are they okay?”

“They’ve passed away.”

“Oh.” Kay sighed. She and Rico rode back to the road.

“Earth,” Elwood said, and the ground beneath the two bodies slowly moved to the sides, creating a four-foot-deep pit with them inside. Then the earth covered the bodies. The blood on the grass was the only sign that they had been there.

Elwood rode back onto the road, thinking about the bodies. There had been no weapons on them, but they’d worn sword belts. Their helmets and heads had been smashed. One blow to the head each. It was unlikely to have been the work of a regular orc.

Great orcs are already venturing to the outskirts of the Kanthil Forest. Elwood sighed. We should hurry up and get the sword out of here as soon as possible.