Over lunch at the cafeteria, Kayden asked June when they would learn how to use magic. Raine was curious too, as was Cecily. Oddly enough, Edgar looked uninterested in the conversation.

“No idea,” June said.

The disappointment in the air was palpable.

June smiled wryly as she continued, “It’s kind of random. One day, you wake up feeling like you have a third hand or something. You grab the air with that hand and ball it up into something you can work with.”

“That was a thoroughly incomprehensible response,” Cecily said. Raine had to agree.

“Well, that’s how it is,” June said with a shrug. “There’s no real way to learn how to use magic until that day comes. But let me know as soon as it happens.”

After lunch, she told them to relax and rest for the remainder of the day. She and Ava would teach them how to use swords and spears the next day.

Raine went to the library, having asked June for directions, and sat there for hours reading Ephrian books. It was a cool, well-ventilated place with many people inside. Most were reading books on basic or intermediate Ephrian. Raine grabbed a dictionary and a book titled A Brief Overview of Karlisian Law before sitting at one of the long tables lined up in rows not far from the entrance. He only headed back to the Yan Residences when the library closed.

He entered his room and went to bed feeling mildly disappointed that there was no difference in his injured leg.

But things were different just the next morning. When he rolled out of bed and got up, he felt some strength in his injured leg. He hoped that he wasn’t just imagining it. 

His teammates went to the nearby practice hall, where Ava and June taught the rest how to use swords and spears. Meanwhile, Raine went to the library again and continued reading Ephrian books. The one on Karlisian law was an utter slog, but it helped him gain a solid understanding of what the Kingdom of Karlis was like. Its laws seemed somewhat similar to America’s, but there were several key differences, like the fact that there was an entire section of the Karlisian Constitution dedicated to the topic of magic.

By the time Raine returned to his apartment, his teammates were done practicing. He saw Edgar’s shoes at the entrance.

To Raine’s surprise, Edgar was a decent roommate. There were no dishes piled up in the kitchen sink, no dirty clothes thrown around the place, and no half-eaten snacks on the kitchen counter.

Edgar mostly kept to himself. When they saw each other in the living room, he ignored Raine and went about his own business. And he drank a lot. He carried around a bottle of tequila all the time like it was the New World version of a smartphone.

“Hey, Edgar,” Raine said. He was reading a book in the living room, while Edgar was pouring himself a glass of water in the kitchen.

Edgar glanced at him with narrowed eyes.

“What do you want?” Edgar asked.

“How much is a bottle of tequila here?” Raine didn’t plan on buying one; he just wanted to talk. Someone in the team had to get somewhat close to Edgar, and Raine was damn sure Cecily and Ava weren’t going to do it. Kayden didn’t seem to care about Edgar, and June sometimes seemed like she was trying to avoid him.

“35 bucks,” Edgar grunted. “Or vurs or whatever.”

Huh. Not that expensive. “How’s the quality?”

“Tastes like shit.” Edgar frowned slightly. “It needs a chaser.”

“Alright, thanks,” Raine said.

With short, almost meaningless conversations like that, Raine got Edgar to talk with him. They never spoke for more than five minutes, but it was better than nothing.

Raine bestowed upon them the name ‘EdTalks.’

No two EdTalks were quite the same, and neither of their participants had the energy or patience for any more than three per day.

On that day, the very day after they’d arrived in the New World, they hit the limit of three. Raine went to bed feeling thoroughly exhausted by his studies and the EdTalks. He imagined the latter had done more damage.

Then on his third day in the New World, Raine walked. Without a crutch.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. He stepped on his injured leg. His knee almost buckled, but he managed to stay up. He grabbed his crutch just in case and carried it with him as he slowly headed to the door and left his room.

Since he was hungry, he went straight for the pantry and grabbed a packet of beef jerky. While he pulled out a piece and ate it, Edgar came out of his room with an empty bottle of tequila in one hand.

“Huh,” Edgar said, glancing at Raine’s leg.

“Healing magic is pretty crazy,” Raine said.

“Looks like it.”

Raine extended the packet of beef jerky to Edgar, offering him some. Edgar stared at the packet for a few moments before nodding slightly and taking a piece. He held the beef jerky with one hand and rinsed his empty glass bottle with the other. Then he put it upside-down on the dish rack to dry. 

Everyone was highly encouraged to recycle, and most beverage companies bought back bottles for a few cents.

“Have you had that thing happen yet?” Edgar asked.

Thing? What thing? Raine took a second to think.

“You mean the magic...thing?” Raine asked. He really couldn’t think of a better way to refer to it. ‘Awakening’ came to mind, but he cringed at the very idea of saying that.

“Yeah,” Edgar said.

“I haven’t.”

Edgar nodded. Then he went silent. He washed his hands in the sink, dried them with the towel hanging on the wall, and went back into his room.

The shortest EdTalk yet, Raine thought as he continued eating his beef jerky.

Later in the morning, his team had a light meal at the cafeteria before heading to the practice hall. Raine joined the rest this time, but he only managed to spend fifteen minutes learning footwork before his injured leg was drained of energy.

“That’s amazing,” Kayden said to Raine. Everyone was taking a short break. “Your leg blew up like a balloon.”

He was right. Raine’s leg was regaining muscle at an unbelievable pace.

“The wonders of magic,” June said with a smile.

“Can’t a healing magician sell their services to people on Earth?” Raine asked her. “I’m pretty sure plenty of people would spend a small fortune to get such a quick recovery, especially athletes.”

“Yeah, Shields does that,” June said. “Hopkins only does it for current and former employees. It’s a lot of work to convince people to get treatment for serious injuries from a company they’ve never heard of before. And you even have to watch out for people who just can’t keep a secret for the life of them.”

“Oh, speaking of which,” Kayden said, “how do the three companies manage to keep the New World a secret?”

“Uhhh, well,” June said awkwardly. “It’s not so pretty. NDAs, legal threats, other...uh, threats. Sometimes we use magic.”

“Are there magic oaths or something?” Kayden asked. “Like, ‘I vow to do this and that, and if I go back on my word, I’ll immediately die.’”

“There’s actually something like that,” June said. “They’re called instant death contracts. But we very rarely use those. We normally use sleep contracts instead. The moment you break the contract, you fall asleep and won’t wake up until you come to the New World.”

“Woah, that’s still pretty harsh,” Kayden said. “But I guess I can see the point.”

“Word still gets out occasionally, right?” Raine asked.

“Yup, so we have an information department that works with its counterparts in Xiyashi and Shields to suppress any news about the New World on Earth,” June said.

“So does Hopkins ever make hits on those who try to tell people on Earth about it?” Cecily asked. “I assume they do.”

“No, no, Hopkins doesn’t do that. It instead brings those people to the New World and has them sign instant death contracts.”

That response made Raine feel pretty uncomfortable. I’m going to make my fortune fast and get the fuck out of this company.

“Woah,” Kayden said. “That’s still pretty horrifying.”

“Yup, so please don’t try to spread the word about the New World.”

After that, their break was over. Raine tried to keep practicing, but his leg just didn’t have the strength. So he left the practice hall before the rest and headed for the library, using his crutch as he walked.

He was just a few steps from the library’s front doors when his feet stopped.

Wait a minute. I’ll be pretty damn motivated to keep studying if I know what jobs are available, right? Maybe I’ll even find an easy job to take. He turned right around. He headed straight for the nearby Hopkins Tower.

He went through the revolving door and entered the building.

It looked a bit like a bank. There were sofas here and there for people to sit and wait on, and there was a row of counters at the back. Beside the right wall and behind a glass door, there was a spiral staircase going up.

There were a few people on the sofas, but more were standing in front of the bulletin board on the left wall.

The board was long. It looked like it was over twenty feet from one end to the other. It was divided into certain sections, each one with a label at the top. One was ‘translation and interpretation,’ another was ‘hunting,’ and yet another was ‘escort.’ The hunting section was the largest.

Raine approached the bulletin board and saw that the papers on it were about jobs. He went straight to the section with translation and interpretation jobs.

There weren’t that many people looking at them, so he took his time reading.

The first request he saw was titled, ‘Translate a 200-page Ephrian memoir to English.’ The one beside it was ‘Interpret Ephrian and Russian for an English-speaking spice merchant on his trip to southern Iurisia,’

Nope. Raine read another one: ‘Translate a 3-page business document from Ephrian to English.’

Oh? He read the text below the title.

“The document consists of approximately 1,200 Ephrian words, some of which are seldom used in everyday conversation. Translators with over a year of experience are encouraged to take this request. A 100-word sample will be provided at a counter, which you may translate in a room on the second floor as proof of your ability (recommended for those with less than two years of experience).”

Raine’s eyes went to the bottom of the page for the payment.

“260 vurs paid upon completion.”

Huh, cool. What do I do to get this thing? He wasn’t sure if he could really do the work, but since he could work on a 100-word sample first, he wanted to at least give it a shot.

He looked at the people around him and saw someone pull out a request from the board and head to one of the counters. Another person did the same thing.

I guess that’s the way to do it, he thought. He pulled out the request from the bulletin board and headed for an empty counter.

An olive-skinned woman stood behind it. She greeted him with a smile.

“Would you like to take that request?” she asked, gesturing at the paper in his hand.

“I’m interested, but I’d like to ask a question first,” he said. “I’m new to Hopkins, and if I take the request, I’ll be working alone. Will that cause any problems?”

“Not at all,” she said. “But please note that in your first month, you can only take two solo requests per week.”

“Oh. So Hopkins really wants to make new employees work with their teammates.”

“It does. Oh, and may I have your name, sir?” 

He answered, and she opened a book of records and wrote something into it with a pencil. Then she opened a drawer, pulled out a file, and looked through it. Soon, she pulled out a small piece of paper and passed it to Raine.

That was fast.

“This is the 100-word sample,” she said. “Because you’re a new employee, you’ll have to translate this in a room upstairs before being able to accept the job.”

She pulled up a moveable part of her counter and led him to the second floor, up the spiraling staircase.

“Here’s the room,” she said, opening a door near the stairs.

“Thank you,” Raine said.

“You’re welcome,” she replied with a smile. “Good luck with the translation.”