When the introductions were made, the chamber's silence could have swallowed me whole. With the deafening silence, the only sound was the faint hum of the mana lamps overhead, continuous as a heartbeat.
Exile Quinn Kaiser, Branch Manager of Westford's Association, sat across from me like a man carved from stone. His silver eyes were sharp enough to cut through excuses, and I was already regretting every joke I'd ever told in front of serious people.
'If, and I'm just saying if I ever marry Reddy, I'm not against it, but we don't know the future, then am I supposed to arrange a corporate negotiation for her hand?'
He'd been reading my answers back to me since earlier… my metaphors, my survival analogies, my borrowed war strategies, little of it was mine, even though I was the one who made Reddy write it, and each word had felt like another nail in the coffin of "Aria the harmless rookie."
But now that Reddy was here, he wasn't even looking at me anymore.
His eyes had shifted toward the corner of the room, where a certain brunette menace leaned against the wall like she owned the place.
"Riddle," Sir Exile called her out, his voice low but weighted. "What are you doing here without permission?"
Reddy pushed off the wall, bowing her head just slightly, not low, never lower than needed, just enough to be presented as polite.
"My apologies, Branch Master. I've come against the regulation." Her tone didn't waver. "But I urge you to understand… Aria is My proxy. I couldn't let her be here without me."
Sir Exile's brow twitched the slightest fraction. His gaze flicked to me, then back to her. "Proxy?" He asked her with narrow eyes, saying it like testing the word on his tongue.
I could pretty much tell they weren't really talking about the official term that the word 'proxy' was supposed to be used with. This was something more personal; it seemed like Reddy was defending me right now.
"Yes." Reddy's eyes didn't flinch a micrometer. "Since I was the one who wrote them, I knew her answers would be exceptional enough to draw the attention of the higher-ups. My intuition was correct."
'Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no! What do you even mean by exceptional answers?'
Why was she building me up like some prodigy? I wanted to slink under the desk right about now!
I just shoved my hands deeper in my pockets and prayed no one noticed me slowly melting.
Reddy looked at me, momentarily surprised by my uncharacteristic fluster, and turned her head away… probably to not get a blush in this important moment.
"Teacher." Then she did the unthinkable. She tilted her chin at the branch master and asked, "Weren't you intending to recruit her into the Association?"
"Huh?" The unforeseen words promptly made my brain crash.
'You mean, recruit recruit?'
As in, hey, rookie, come sign your life away to the Adventurers' Association HR department?
'Are you for real, Reddy?'
I glanced at Exile, then back at Reddy, then at the very nice wood grain of the desk, desperately pretending I wasn't suddenly sweating.
For half a second, the offer glittered in my head. Association membership meant authority. Connections with all of the city's important and powerful people.
Power, unlike what I can have as just an adventurer or freeloader.
If I had the Association's seal behind me, I could bargain with guilds, negotiate resources, maybe even strong-arm the city into giving me favorable treatment.
'It could be good… no.'
Like a cruel slap slapped out of nowhere, I remembered my other world.
The smell of stale coffee on those sleepless nights. My wrists are sore from typing pages and pages full of formatted code.
The betrayal printed in black-and-white emails was still as fresh as yesterday in my mind. I remembered being chained to a desk, smiling while knives slid into my back, the faces of those bastards, and most of all, the sickening work environment that we had.
The words came out of me before Sir Exile even opened his mouth, "No."
"I'm not going to work for the Association," I announced, louder this time. "Not as an employee. Not ever."
Sir Exile's silver gaze narrowed slightly, not angry like I had expected them to be, just… curious. "Are you refusing before even hearing the terms?"
"Yes." My nails dug into my palms. "I didn't crawl out of one corporate nightmare just to chain myself into another. I'llcooperate with the Association, sure. But I won't be owned by it."
Call it trauma or call it learning, it was all the same for me right now. There was something about being employed that I did not like anymore.
Even if this world were different, I have no plans to work for anyone— I have powers to build something of my own, so I'd rather struggle away for a decade more than to be subjected to a certain power.
The silence after the announcement was thick enough to choke on.
Reddy wanted to say something, but aside from my name and that gasp, nothing came out of her mouth.
Sir Exile studied me for a long moment instead of saying anything as well.
Then, so simply it almost startled me, he inclined his head and nodded calmly. "Understood."
One word. That was all he said before he picked up a pile of papers beside him and placed them into a drawer to the side of his desk.
And just like that, with no arguments, no pressure, or no convincing negotiations, the matter had ended.
'What is up with these people?'
If it were my previous world, they would curse you for rejecting their offer outright. The big corporations that I had worked with never liked this kind of deviant behavior. They wanted slaves who conformed to their will.
'But here?' Thɪs chapter is updated by Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
He accepted my refusal like I was his equal, like I was someone important enough for him not to force the matter any further.
Behind me, Reddy exhaled as well.
I didn't even have to look back to know she was relieved.
And this relief wasn't even about the fact that I had said no, but rather, that he'd respected it so easily.