Keylynn found Dauven sitting at his desk.

  “The paladins are speaking with Tiv; they think she is an employee here,” she stated before sitting down in an empty chair. “Oh, stop pretending to work.”

  “I’m working on my report for Lark…” He stated blandly. “Why is it important that the coffee cart orc is dealing with the paladins?” He turned his inquisitive gaze towards her.

  Maybe she shouldn’t have told him to stop his pretend work. She looked down and fidgeted with slime Eugene as he oozed from finger to finger.

  “What did you do?” He asked sternly, crossing his arms and leaning back. He was already mad, with his nostrils mildly flaring.

  “You’re already mad,” she stated. Maybe she should wait until he’s in a better mood. It’s always best to anger him when he isn’t already irritated. If his nostrils flared anymore, he would fly away.

  “I’ll be even madder if you don’t tell me,” he stated coldly.

  She wasn’t helping herself by stalling. She already pulled him away from his work, and he knows there’s something he doesn’t know. She let out a deep breath. “In order for Tiv to have her coffee cart, I may have helped her purchase it.”

  He narrowed his gaze at her. “Helped her how?”

  Slime Eugene oozed back up her arm, and she didn’t blame them. They could probably feel the anger rise in Dauven, and it wasn’t very pleasant.

  “Loaned her the money that was needed for the purchase.” A slug mushroom released its hold on her cheek and fell. She caught it before it could dissolve into slime near Dauven’s desk. The last thing she needed was to give him another reason to be cross.

  “And how much money would that be?”

  She focused on the slug slime covering her hands. She couldn’t face his fury. “I think the total came to around ten thousand gold pennies,” she whispered, looking down at the slime mould covering her hands. It was spreading itself as far as it could. Unlike her other slime moulds, it seems to spread its body to cover any surface it comes across as if it were melting.

  “Please tell me I heard you wrong,” Dauven stated.

  “I cannot tell you what your ears did or did not hear,” she retorted. The cool slime on her hands grounded her. She wondered if there would be different kinds of slime for the different coloured slug mushrooms.

  Dauven looked at her incredulously. “Ten thousand gold pennies?”

  “It seems your ears are hearing what they should be.”

  He exhaled loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You made a large enough investment to make yourself an investor in the eyes of RADWAC, which means the complaints I’ve received were valid.”

  “I’m not involved in her business at all,” she retorted. It was true. Tiv makes all the business choices, while Keylynn is just her friend.

  “The mushroom discount?” He asked with an arched eyebrow.

  “All Tiv, I assure you. It surprised me too.”

  “But you have stakes in her business, your initial investment.” He sighed. He waved his hand in the air and cast his coffee-brewing spell. Silently his spell ground the coffee beans, then steeped them in hot water. Finally the fresh brew was deposited in his mug. He didn't bother steaming milk, but he did add in a flavoured syrup of some sort to his steaming mug.

  “Oh, that’s not entirely true. She only has to repay me if the coffee cart ends up being a positive business move for her. I would never demand the money back. I’ll just get more anyways.” She shrugged. Money was something that no matter what she does, there will always be more. Even when they were adventuring, all they had to do was defeat a beast or solve a problem for a village, and they would be given more.

  “That makes you a benevolent investor. But you are still an investor in the eyes of RADAWC.” He finished his coffee in three gulps.

  “You may be correct.” She will have to ask Riv just to be sure. “What does it mean for Tiv and the corporate paladins?”

  “Tiv will be fine. She’s not an employee and isn’t breaking any rules with her coffee cart. Has she given you a payment towards the money she owes?” He set his mug down on his desk in a much better mood.

  “No.”

  “Then you aren’t benefiting from her business, meaning you aren’t breaking company policy,” he said almost triumphantly. She had a feeling that he’d looked into this previously.

  She nodded and looked down at the slime that thinly covered her hands. She wasn’t sure where it was going, but she was certain there was less slime than when it initially fell on her hand.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Is there anything else I don’t know?” He asked pointedly.

  She grimaced. If she doesn’t tell him now about the blackmail, it will be much worse for her when he finds out. “I may also be blackmailing Akzer.”

  “Do I even want to know?” He asked, pinching the bridge of his nose again.

  “I can’t tell you if you do or do not desire to know at this juncture.”

  “Please tell me you have a good reason,” he almost pleaded with her.

  “Of that I can assure you.” She nodded her head. This was a better reaction from him than she was expecting. “Zukyov is miserable. He hates the job, and his family is making his life terrible. His father being a director makes leaving the job difficult. I discovered the role Akzer played in the break room shutdown. I chose to use this information to not only liberate Zukyov from his job in a way that his father cannot interfere with but also bring an end to the break room dispute.”

  He listened silently as she explained everything. His silence afterwards filled her with hope that he was understanding her motives.

  “That is the stupidest thing that I have ever heard, and I had to listen to Gwen rant to me about how if you and I kiss, it will fix everything?!” He exclaimed with his nostrils the widest she’s ever seen them.

  She was decidedly wrong. “Gwen really needs to stop pushing that rhetoric. I understand that she is young; however, not everyone needs to kiss. Besides, we’ve known each other for nearly a hundred years now, and never once have either of us ever thought, ‘Those lips need to touch my lips.’ That, and I’m pretty sure your special friend would smite me where I stand.” She leapt on her opening to change the subject.

  “Don’t even try,” he spat. “You are being completely and utterly stupid! You know better! I expect better from you.”

  His disappointment was worse than his ire. She can fix his ire easily, but disappointment takes much longer to reverse.

  She sighed. She was stuck between a rock and another rock of equal hardness. “I promised Lark that I wouldn’t accept the status quo. How am I supposed to do that when I’m watching my team being treated how I was? I promised them that things would change.”

  His gaze softened.

  “It’s hard, I know. But you can’t go blackmailing people to serve your team. The hardest part of being a team lead is to not interfere on their behalf. Let them pick and fight their battles.”

  “Is it any worse than Akzer telling me they were using the break room dispute to deal with Gil?”

  “No, but you aren’t a manager under investigation,” he replied.

  She chewed on her lip. He was right, of course. She shouldn’t be fighting every battle for her team. She will do better by ensuring they have the ability to fight their own battles.

  “Can you make sure nothing bad happens to Tiv? She’s in this mess because of me, and if anything were to happen to her.” Keylynn shook her head. She hated having to ask him to help her with the mess she caused. Her atonement was not as simple as she initially thought.

  “I will see what I can do.”

  “My thanks as always. I will leave you to your report.” She bowed her head and stood. She sent the chair back to where she found it before returning to her desk.

  The stacks of dusty, faded forms were exactly where she left them. Her fungi were having a wondrous time absorbing all the discarded skin that formed the dust, and still dust covered her desk. She loathed that no matter how much she did, or her team did, they would only be assigned more. She wasn’t even sure if some of these forms were tied to floor seven at all.

  If only floor seven conducted annual assessments in the field because they weren’t popular assignments that her coworkers would be more than happy to rid themselves of. But floor seven doesn’t. Somehow she has to find meaningful work for her team.

  The gentle chime from her computer alerted her that she had a new email. She quickly checked it, delighted to see a response from Lark.

  To: Keylynn

  From: Lark

  Subject: Mushroom-Induced Headaches

  Why is it that whenever you email me, I get an instant headache?

  My investigation is going well with Eugene in the records room. I can’t do much about your manager’s way of dispensing assignments, unfortunately. However, that is worth noting, and I can include that in my investigation. As for your discovery, I would like all the documentation that you have to prove your claim regarding the break room.

  I don’t think I need to tell you how insane your plan is.

  Thank you for the reports from your team. I have read through them, and they were illuminating, to say the least.

  I am working hard to build my case against your manager. Try not to do anything else impulsive. There are only so many messes that I can clean up.

  Lark

  His words were surprisingly kinder than Dauven’s. She sent him a quick reply inquiring about the possibility of assigning her team annual assessments, specifically those conducted in the field. She wasn’t capable of going around her manager to give her team useful work, but Lark might.

  She glared at the stack of dusty forms and let out a sigh. Her team were all at work, or at least pretending to be. She began the long, tedious task of reading and filling in the forms while she waited for Akzer’s response.

  She worked until the end of the day, and she started to think that they weren’t going to give her an answer. Her email chimed, and they sent her a simple response.

  To: Keylynn

  From: Akzer

  I accept.

  She was giddy; it worked. She ended the break room dispute and helped Zukyov to get a new job. She had to race through the office and down the stairs to catch him.

  “Zukyov, I have pleasing news. You can expect to be fired by the end of the week and start your new job next week,” she said in a rush.

  He blinked a couple of times before a smile grew on his face. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” she agreed.

  “You can still get in trouble, you know.”

  She shrugged. “I think it’s about time someone gets in trouble for the right reasons. I’m going to try and catch Tiv before she gets home to tell her the good news. Want to join?”

  Zukyov shook his head. “I have a lunch menu to start to figure out.”

  “I recommend your soups. They are divine.” She smiled at him.

  There she made one big change on floor seven.