The Work Badge Center was several blocks away, near the city’s slum district.
Which doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that, on my way, it started to blizzard.
By the time I yanked open the door and stumbled into the warm building, my boots were full of snow and it felt like my ears were going to fall off.
Clothes didn’t have a single real protection against the snow.
"Shut the door! It’s cold!"
The Work Badge Center was stuffed with dirty, hungry-looking people who were here for the same reason I was.
They were part of a long line that snaked back and forth, leading toward a desk in the corner of the room.
Melting snow had formed dirty puddles on the rug.
The room smelled of BO. Heck, even tasted like it.
It kind looked like BO too, with all the soot and stains on the walls.
"How long is the wait?" I asked a random person.
"How the hell should I know? Fuck off. I’ve been here for five hours."
"Wow. Who stuck a finger up your ass?"
I tried to talk some dudes into letting me cut the line.
But my seductive power didn’t work on men.
They cursed at me, shoved me around, gave me dirty looks and called me bad names.
"What the fuck is wrong with you people?" I muttered, getting into the back of the line.
It seemed Selena’s powers made females more attracted to me but also made males hate me more.
They were probably jealous of my good looks—and all the pussy I was about to get.
Eventually.
Two hours passed before I finally reached the desk.
"What do you want?" said an old, shriveled lady behind the desk.
With her flat cheeks and hook nose, she looked like a crow who had flown into a window one too many times.
There was no seduction bar above her head.
She was too old for that.
"I need a work badge."
"Don’t we all." She sighed and took out a fresh sheet of paper.
She dabbed her quill in ink.
"What work experience do you have?"
"I’m pretty good with Adobe InDesign."
She looked at me.
"And I can type fast. 120 WPM."
The silence continued.
Somebody waiting in line sniggered.
"Can you weld? Forge? Mend clothing? Can you wrestle hogs? Are you any good in a fight?"
"Of course," I lied. "I’m good at everything I do."
"You’re lying," she said.
"Am not."
She scratched her wrinkled forehead.
"Prove it then." She slid a sheet of paper toward me.
"I’ll need three references, signed and stamped with your previous employers’ official wax seal.
Bring those back to me, along with fifteen bronze coins, and you’ll have your badge."
"Previous references, huh?" I scratched my chin.
"Any chance you phone Earth and ask my previous boss?"
She looked at me like I was insane.
"Earth? What are you talking about."
"That’s uh ... the kingdom I’m from."
She narrowed her eyes.
"We don’t hire foreigners here.
If you’re a foreigner, then ..." I sensed bloodthirst in the air behind me.
"Of course I’m not a foreigner," I said. "Relax."
The bloodthirst vanished.
Geez, what a scary bunch of people.
"I’m not a foreigner but I don’t have any work references," I said.
"Can’t you make an exception?" I flashed my most charming smile.
"I’m kind of in a hurry."
The grandma stared back at me, eyes cold.
"Hurry up!" someone shouted.
"You’re taking all day!"
I turned around.
"Listen, losers!" I shouted.
"Can’t a man do a little negotiation? I’m almost done. Just hold on to your nuts."
These words did not have their intended effect.
The bloodthirst awakened again.
The dirty, angry, and violent-looking men behind me balled their hands into fists.
They stepped toward me.
Some of them were carrying daggers.
"What is going on here?!"
A woman stepped out from the backroom.
She had dark, raven-colored hair, cut short to the length of her chin.
She was only eighteen or nineteen.
"Grandma," said the hot girl to the batty woman.
"The one day I have business with the merchant’s guild and all hell breaks lose? What’s going on?"
"Sorry Fiora," said the grandma, who suddenly didn’t look very intimidating at all.
"It’s this man." She pointed a crooked finger at me.
"He’s been causing trouble."
Fiora turned to me.
"You huh? I’ll deal with you later."
She turned to the other men.
"What are ya’ll looking at? The show’s over.
Do you want your work badges or not? If you do, I suggest you stop staring at my tits and look at your feet."
The other men grumbled but obeyed.
Fiora came around the table and approached me.
She poked me in the chest.
Speaking of chests, she was wearing a tight, low-cut shirt.
She wasn’t wearing a bra or anything because I could see the nipples of her apple-shaped breasts poking into the fabric.
She was hot, in a "bad girl" kind of way.
"As for you," she said.
"Leave right now. And never come back.
Unless you want me to take you outside and beat the shit out of you.
And wipe that shit-eating grin off your face!"
Why did I have a shit-eating grin?
Well, it was because of the bar I saw above Fiora’s head.
It was still empty, and next to it was the number 2.
She would be harder to seduce than Rosa was.
But I was pretty sure I could handle her.
My next challenge.
But first I needed to isolate her.
Get her somewhere where I could woo her one-on-one, without all these other guys (and grandmas) watching us.
"Alright," I murmured.
"Alright what?" Fiora said, poking me again.
I met her eyes.
"Let’s take this outside. To somewhere private." I winked at her. "For you to kick my ass."