“Rick, Samira, Jay, Dale” the blue-haired girl nod at each of them as she skipped over towards him with a smile on her face. But to Rick, it looked like the smile of the devil.

‘Why is she here?’ he thought, taking a step back. He tried to keep a neutral look on his face, but the memory of the omniscient Manager of the Blessed Exchange threatening rogue heroes was still fresh in his mind. 

But not everyone shared his dull enthusiasm.

“Miss Maya, it’s so nice to see you. This is such an amazing Temple!” Jay said rushing forward.

“Thank you, Jay. The Lord and I expect great things from you,” said Maya placing her palm on Jay’s shoulder. “And if you need any assistance in your quest to save Earth, the doors of the Lord is always open.”

“Of course, I’ll do my best!” jay replied bowing to the Manager. 

Rick shot Samira a concerned look, to which she only replied with a frown. 

“I suppose you were talking about what happened to the violators?” Maya asked looking over all of their faces. “They all tried to assault another being while within the premises of the Blessed Exchange. A direct violation of the Lord’s wishes. They deserved to be punished.”  

She stopped and looked over at Rick with her piercing blue eyes.

“All of the Blessed Stones in their person were seized as reprimand” 

Rick blinked confused. He had expected something worse to come out of her mouth.

“That’s… surprisingly lenient,” Dale spoke what was on everyone’s mind.

“No point of punishing when they didn’t even know it was a crime,” Maya replied with an uncaring shrug.

“But wouldn’t it have been better to give them a harsher punishment? Miss Maya, it’s always good to set an example out of the first to disobey,” Dale said with his hands on his hips. 

“The rule of natural justice must prevail Dale. If I want to show the Earthers an example, I would rather it be you. Examples must be to inspire the weak to action”

“You speak well Manager Maya. Who doesn’t know killing someone is bad?” Dale chortled and waved his hand dismissively. 

Rick looked on dumbfounded at the casual way the ex-soldier talked with what he could only assume was an extra-terrestrial angel. 

Thankfully Jay seized the pause in the conversation to batter the Manger with another round of questions.

“Miss Maya, I remember you say something about meeting qualifications to enter the inner temple. What are these qualifications may I ask?” Jay spoke. 

Rick didn’t recall the Manager say anything to that effect, but he just as well could have been busy daydreaming about starting his shop, so didn’t find it odd that he couldn’t recollect.

“You can ask the acolytes in the shop. They’ll be more than happy to assist you,” Maya said pointing to the small houses near the gate to the inner garden. 

“We can buy the prints for teleportation-circle there too, right?”

“Of course.”

“Great, let’s hurry guys. We have already wasted too much time here,” Jay said.

“Yes, we should hurry. It was good seeing you again Miss Maya,” Rick said in a hurry, anxious to get away from the manager. He was glad to finally get a chance to escape. 

“One second, please. Can you guys carry on. I have something to discuss with Rick Hanique,” Maya said, adding, “in private.”

Although it felt like a request, the tone in her voice said otherwise.

“With me? Why don’t we talk right here?” said Rick.

“Please carry on with your tour,” Maya voiced. She grabbed Rick by the hand and added, “You might feel a slight rush so hold on tight.”

“Wait wha–” he started. 

Before Rick could utter a word in opposition, he felt his vision blur and his stomach lurch. 

The world before him suddenly faded and the air from his lungs was squeezed dry.

When the world finally stopped spinning and his feet found ground again, his legs gave way as he too deep. He was no longer in the Temple garden. He looked around to find himself in a large study instead.  

“Teleportation has a real kick to it right?” he heard Maya speak along with the sound of her footsteps on the wooden floor. “Well, get up when you can and welcome to my office.” 

Rick shook his head trying to clear the fog off his head.

“Do you like the decoration?” he heard Maya continue speaking.

He pushed himself off the floor and looked around at her instance. The study was exquisite and looked like more like a Victorian fashioned study he would have seen in a movie rather than a study in the more conventional sense. Bookshelves lined up along the wall that reached up to the ceiling, a huge wooden table with a chandelier hanging above along with a fire burning in the corner.

“It’s… something,” said Rick after thinking for a moment

“I know,” Maya replied with an excited smile. She walked over to the sofa to the left wall and continued, “Come sit.”

Unsure of what to expect, Rick decided to see where things went. He followed her and took his seat on the sofa opposite her and waited. There were a million thoughts on his mind. Maybe it was just to thank him for suggesting the shop idea, he hoped. But another part in him felt something else at works, maybe she was picking up these rogue heroes.

But he soon realised how futile his worries were – he was in a closed room with the woman. If she did indeed ask him here to kill, there was absolutely nothing he could do to resist. 

“Would you like some tea? We have herbal or maybe white too if you want,” Maya asked. 

“Sure. Thank you,” he replied with a smile. The sense of absolution strangely calmed his mind.

The smile on Maya’s face disappeared only to be replaced by an angry frown. With her fists clenched she shot daggers at Rick through her eyes. 

“No! What was I even thinking!” she muttered angrily. She snapped her head in Rick’s direction and waving a finger at him continued, “You see what you made me Rick Hanique. Would you like to have tea? Stupid tea!”

Rick immediately flinched back in his seat – unnerved by the sudden outburst. 

“Sorry? I don’t want anything?”

“I wasn’t going to give you anything for you to refuse! You don’t even know what you did!” Maya said with a mocking laugh.

“I didn’t know that would happen! I didn’t have a choice!” he said with a shrug. She knew of his connection with hell!

“Sure, you didn’t,” Maya continued angrily. “All you did was help out a poor ignorant lady and then decided to give some helpful advice, right?”

“Huh?” 

Rick was truly confused now. What was the Manager rambling about? He thought she was talking about the Lemegeton and him being the Ruler of Hell. But what was she going on about?

“What are you talking about Miss Maya?” said Rick confused.

“This! All this!” Maya said with her arms spread wide. “Last time when I held the auction. You and the other bald Earther – Hands. Both of you had to make a fuss about the map, didn’t you? And then your goddamn good advice!”

“And it was bad advice?” Rick tried guessing the reason for the Manager’s outburst. 

“No! Lord was so not happy when he realised I didn’t know everything about you stupid Earthers. He commanded me to do read up on everything,” Maya continued, “You don’t understand. I had to read up on everything!”

“That must have been rough,” said Rick and listened on, while Maya spilt the beans on her fury. 

As it turned out, her anger wasn’t because he was one of the rogue heroes. It was far from that.

It was because her Lord made her learn everything to know about on Earth – from literature and astrophysics to all the TV shows and sports records. There was so much to sieve through that she had to delay the reopening of the second opening of the Blessed Exchange by months! 

‘How did she do all that in just two months!’ Rick wondered. What was a harrowing experience for Maya was an incredible feat in his eyes.

But he also realised the reason why so many of her recent changes looked so… earthy. From the Blessed Exchange Penal Code to the game-like Blessed Exchange map.

“Do you know what happens to a person when so much information is crammed in such a short time? Look around this room – this!” said Maya waving her arms around, answering her own question. “You start appreciating this crap.”

Rick left a tinge of pity for the furious Manager. She looked to be at the edge of a breakdown. He looked around the study room and understood what the woman was trying to say. He had no idea how Maya managed to learn about the whole world in such a short period, but its negative effects were obvious to the eye – some of Earth had definitely rubbed off on the Manager. In hindsight, he could point to so many things that were tell-tale signs of her condition. 

“You don’t blame me, right? I was only trying to be helpful!” Rick whispered but the words weren’t ignored by the manager as she glared at him. He added, “The Lord must be proud of all the changes you have done! I for one had no complaints about the entire show.”

“You call my proclamation a show again and I will perma-ban you from the Blessed Exchange.”

Rick immediately shut up, deciding to stay quiet on her saying perma-ban. 

“Do you know how much useless information was going on in the world?” Maya asked, looking straight at Rick, and then answered her question herself. “Forty-two.”

Maya raised her eyebrows and burst out laughing. 

“Get it?” she asked, but Rick couldn’t say anything as he sat there with an awkward smile plastered on his face. 

Maya sighed, “Never mind. The point of the matter is that the Lord is happy at all the changes that I have made. For your contributions, you will be awarded two Merit-Points. One for suggesting that the Blessed Exchange be opened for starting shops and the second influencing that I study up about you humans and your societies. Since the other person who picked up the fight with you would have got a merit-point died, you were supposed to get another merit-point, but I deducted it in the account of damages for all the mental agony that you put me through?”

‘Did an angel just claim damages from me? And just two?’ Rick thought contemptuously. The number of changes his two contributions made was immense. Not only was she being stingy about paying him his share, the Manger even took one from him! He deserved more points than that! Although he didn’t know what these Merit-Point were. 

“What exactly are these Merit-Points?”

“Oh, yes. I forgot to tell the Earthers about that,” Maya spoke with slumping her back. 

“Merit-Points are earned by performing worthy deeds. The number of Merit-Points you have will be displayed beside the counter for Blessed Stones. But unlike Blessed Stones, Merit Point are non-transferrable. So, do a good deed – complete a Temple mission, make a piece of knowledge public or give a good suggestion, and you can earn Merit-Points.” 

 

 “And what do I do with these Merit-Points?” 

“Well for starters, Merit-Points can be redeemed for a Lord’s Blessing,” Maya said with a smirk as if to say are you impressed?

“That’s amazing… I can already take a Blessing,” said Rick with lacklustre enthusiasm. He had no plans to take these Blessings and if that was all these Merit-Points were worth, he didn’t care for them much. For all the hype Maya created around these Merit-Points it looked like it would remain unused. 

“Apart from that, you can get a discount at a Blessed Exchange Auction purchase or at a land purchase, or you can ask me for guidance.”

Rick’s eyes immediately lit up. 

‘Hold your horses now Rick,’ he told himself. 

“Manager Maya. Shouldn’t I deserve some more points? Considering the impact of my suggestion.” Rick spoke, choosing his words carefully. It might not be wise to question the decision of a celestial angel, but he wasn’t going to let go of his fair share.

“Two suggestions get two Merit-Points.” 

“But–”

“No,” Maya refused flatly. 

“Fine, I want to spend my Merit-Points then,” said Rick. There was no point trying to win an impossible argument.

“Very well. I’m assuming you’ll spend one Merit-Point on receiving your first Blessing. What do you want to do with the second one?” said Maya leaning back on the sofa.

“I want to use both of my Merit-Points to ask you something,” Rick replied hesitantly.

“I will not marry you,” Maya said with a dead-pan look on her face. 

“No, that’s not–”

“Come on, that’s a popular one!” Maya sighed in disappointment and shook her head. “This better wear of quickly. Just tell me what you want to know.” 

 “I want to know where I can find the Core-Runes,” Rick said.