The crowd of students parted as Jasper Riolt settled his silver eyes on Lara, who met his gaze dispassionately.

  "Well, Miss Lorr?" Jasper asked, his voice low. "What are your thoughts?"

  "To my understanding, you already have partnerships with several other prominent sanitation families," Lara said, her voice steady and bored. Aida had to hand it to her, she was handling the attention with aplomb. "I hardly believe you require in-house expertise in order to complete your projects."

  "It's not about whether the projects can be completed, it's about being more efficient with our time," Jasper replied smoothly. "The role of the in-house specialist is to get ahead of any potential obstacles in the development of these housing projects. Normally, we are patient, as we understand quality work takes time; however, with how pressing the attacks have become, we are willing to spend to achieve the quality we demand.

  "Who better to join our team than you, Miss Lorr? You are intimately familiar and involved in the work of your father, learning the business and designs from his knee. Furthermore, you are not assigned any work from your family yet, so it is not as if you would be failing to fulfill your obligations by leaving them—forgive me, I did not mean 'leave.' You would be an employee of the Riolts, but you can still take credit for the work you do as a Lorr."

  Jasper's meaning hung clear as day. Aida saw Lara's interest pique as Jasper innocently laid out the benefit he was offering her: a partnership with the Riolt family, a direct opportunity to create a bridge between the esteemed Riolts and the Flau clan through her.

  However, Lara was savvy. "That is quite the offer. Unfortunately, I am not so interested in pursuing a career in sanitation, which I find quite dull. I would prefer to develop myself in other ways, challenge myself in another field."

  "Understood!" Jasper bowed, almost mockingly deferential. "Rest assured, there is much that we need help with in the Riolt company. Whatever your career interests are, I can personally guarantee that we will do whatever we can to support your personal development."

  Several confused murmurs rippled throughout the students, some commenting on how bold Lara was, others wondering why exactly Jasper Riolt was seemingly so desperate to recruit Lara Lorr. What's going on among the notable families?

  Aida couldn't help but notice several students stealing glances at Dev, who was utterly impassive as he watched the exchange between his cousin and the Riolt representative.

  "Well?" Jasper held out his offer sheet, standing at the edge of the Affiliates. Lara gazed down at him from the stage, her nose held high.

  Not even a breeze passed through the courtyard as everybody waited for Lara's decision.

  Finally, Lara jumped down from the stage and walked three steps forward, reaching out to accept the offer sheet in one hand. She carefully slid it behind the other two offer sheets she had received, from the Border and Naval Strongholds. "I will consider it."

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  The professors quickly dismissed the students from the courtyard, briskly reminding them to consider their offers and return the final decisions by the end of the day. They seemed very eager to remove them from the courtyard, where Jasper was lingering with a smug expression while the Affiliates were wound tightly with anxiety.

  "What a twist, huh?" Sue mused as she caught up to Aida and Levi. Shockingly, she only had one offer in hand—from the Gullbeaks. All of the Affiliates had seen how enthusiastically the bright and bubbly girl had pursued Kuri during the sun cycle, so had removed her from consideration entirely despite her strong performance and expert handling of Fire. "Do the Riolts have anything against the Flaus?"

  "Not that I've heard," Levi responded, frowning. "They're both extremely well-respected in their own right, and have been careful not to impose on each other's industries. And as Lara said, they have healthy, working relationships with each other. You can't construct living quarters without the appropriate sanitation systems, after all."

  "Do you think Lara is going to accept that offer?" Caleb asked quietly, carefully holding his own whopping five offers in his massive fist. Unlike Sue, Caleb had apparently been polite and engaged with every Affiliate who approached him, his likeability leading all of the potential employers on. "I can't imagine she would..."

  "I think she would," Levi said brusquely. "If she's really serious about taking over the position of heir in the Flau clan, she'd be an idiot to pass on the Riolt offer. As it is, with Dev being ranked first she's already in a losing position. She's desperate enough to claim connections with the Riolts if that means she's able to strengthen her candidacy."

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "Wouldn't her pride stop her, though?" Aida asked idly as she read her own offers in more detail. They both followed the same boilerplate format, written in elegant brush script:

  On the First Sun Day of the Sixth Moon of the One Hundred and Fifth Sun, I, Bokar Evins of the Relief for Health Clinic of Burston City, present an offer of employment to Aida Loreh of Buddington Town...

  Skipping over the flowery language, Aida got to the more interesting details: compensation, such as wages paid through the moon cycle, the number of days of leave granted in a single work month, lodging information, and travel costs. A second list of work expectations followed, with the offer ending in two lines for signatures. The first line was already signed by Healer Bokar, accompanied by a personal stamp. The second line was empty, awaiting her own signature.

  Even though Aida had no intention of taking the other offer, she took a peek just to see. Trini Graves of the Adamant Breaths Clinic in Moonglade...

  Aida's eyes widened at the monthly wages. She pulled on Levi's sleeve and handed him both her offers, letting him glance over the details. "Uh, how do the wages compare to cost of living in both of these places?"

  Levi raised his brow in interest as he perused her documents. "Let's see...Burston City's wages are fair, but wow. Moonglade is either doing better than I thought or they're desperate." He looked at Aida. "Did you impress Affiliate Trini with your potion-brewing work for Healer Bokar?"

  "I have no idea," Aida said, bewildered. "She only started talking to me yesterday. She was pretty friendly with Healer Teena Vega, from what I had seen."

  Levi sucked his breath in through his teeth as he handed the offers back to her. "Yeah, maybe better to steer clear of her offer, then."

  "It would be so cool to live in Moonglade, though," Sue said, peering over Aida's shoulder at the Adamant Breaths offer. "Plants that bite? So cool."

  Aida laughed as Caleb chuckled awkwardly at Sue's bloodthirst. "Burston City is still a good place. You'll be able to meet many people—"

  "—and close enough to visit Moonglade!" Sue chirped, clapping her hands together. "If the Gullbeaks ever get an assignment down south, I'll come get you so you can visit with me!"

  "I'll come along if it lines up with my leave dates," Aida said agreeably, privately thinking she would do well to arrange her days off so that she would never have to be in the same vicinity as the fiery girl if she decided to light some vicious plants on fire.

  The four of them were the first ones to line up outside of the staff lounge, which was empty except for Charma, the librarian. She had them sign the offers they accepted before taking back the rejected ones, and confirmed their start dates and locations as she wrote down their details in a records book.

  "Make sure you don't lose these," the cheerful woman said, handing back the signed offers. "Have the golem drivers stamp the back so your employers can arrange payment after you arrive. Wishing you favorable winds and a smooth journey to the future you deserve!"

  "It's really over," Sue said blankly as the door slid shut behind them. "We're done. We can just...go home now."

  "What else were you expecting? A whole party?" Levi asked snidely. He glanced out the window. "I had planned to take the first golem back to Buddington, but it feels a bit wrong not to say goodbye to everyone else."

  "Let's wait until Vanita and Lily turn in their forms at least," Aida suggested. She had been expecting something a bit more congratulatory to cap off her graduation, but she supposed this world didn't consider completing training to be anything worth celebrating. The sooner they could start working, the sooner they could start earning true accolades. "...I would be interested to see what Lara decides to do," Aida finished, her voice low.

  The three impossibly beautiful faces around her lit up, agreeing.

  "Let's visit Ezra one last time," Levi said, rapping on the Healer's door right beside the staff lounge, a smirk on his face. They all nodded eagerly.

  The Healing ward was the best place to keep watch of who was going to turn their offers in, so they would be able to flag down their friends as they arrived, as well as eavesdrop on Lara's offer decision.

  "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say Ezra is deliberately skipping school," Levi said skeptically as they crowded around his bed. He still looked the same as before: just a young man sleeping in his bed. "He looks better than when he was messing around with the Ascension techniques."

  "Yeah, I bet he'd be able to get at least second rank even like this," Sue sniffed haughtily. She waved her hand in front of his face, as if she could catch him faking his coma. "Maybe Abedi would finally get a chance to beat him like this."

  Caleb was frowning thoughtfully at Ezra, his eyes the sleeping male. He turned to Aida. "How long has he been out now?"

  "One star cycle," Aida said instantly. "He was in bad shape the first few days, but he's since filled in because Healer Luk managed to tweak the nutrition poultice into something his body could absorb."

  "Interesting," Caleb said slowly. He chewed his lip thoughtfully. "I apologize, because I may be speaking in ignorance—but to my understanding, nutrition alone, despite any aid from a Healer’s mana, cannot sustain muscle mass—let alone build it. And given that Ezra has been in a…an abnormal state for the past several moons, I would think he should be...skinnier."

  Aida looked back at Ezra, seeing what the muscular brown-haired youth was seeing. She had assumed Healer Luk's healing poultices did more than just keep Ezra's body nourished, given that Luk had to impart some of her own mana into Ezra's body as a magical IV in order to deliver the nutrients to his body, but it made sense that magic couldn’t create miracles.

  "Maybe Ezra really is recovering?" Aida said hopefully, reaching for his wrist to see if there were detectable changes to his health.

  As her fingers closed around his wrist, a commotion outside the Healing ward drew her attention—and then everything went white.