At once, the two players disappeared from the virtual training world and found themselves back in the Renovatio Imperii headquarters, handcuffed to their chairs.
Enzo saw Edward, Brutus and several other people clapping. They looked very excited.
Edward said, "Congratulations on winning your place at Renovatio Imperii!"
One of the policen who had accompanied the prisoners approached and unlocked the cuffs around Enzo's hands and ankle.
"Uh, thank you," Enzo said.
Edward approached the policen and handed them an envelope that clearly contained a bundle of money. "Thank you, gentlen. We hope to see you again soti!"
But then a horrified shout filled the air.
"Please! No! Give a second chance! Let fight soone else! Please! I beg you!"
But it was useless. The policen savagely beat Rachid, striking him in the stomach until he gasped in pain and stopped talking. They dragged him outside, muttering to each other.
"What a piece of shit this guy is. Too bad the electric chair doesn't exist anymore."
"Co on, killer, back to jail with you."
Edward helped Enzo to his feet. "Well, then! Brutus will show you where you're going to live. Get so rest, put on so civilized clothes, and then et at the address the HR director will send you."
Edward put a phone into Enzo's hand. "Again, welco back to the free world, and welco to the team!"
With a wide, triumphant smile which Enzo didn't completely understand, Edward left, along with almost everyone else from the guild.
Only Brutus was left. He nodded to Enzo and then walked toward a smaller door out of the eting room. "Co on, newbie, follow !"
Enzo still felt shocked, and his heart still pounded. Was this really happening, or was it all a dream? Regardless, he followed with chanical steps.
To Enzo's surprise, the modest building which he had entered was not all the property which the guild owned! In fact, it was a more humble, classical front attached to the huge business building next door. Brutus took him down several corridors and into a glass elevator… then selected the 54th floor.
Enzo looked out in awe at the magnificent view of Ro which spread out beneath him. "I don't believe it," he said. "Your guild is really much more impressive than I thought. You're really just a company that manages people in a video ga?!"
Brutus laughed and said, "Yeah! The boss raised a lot of money two years ago with the release of World of Warcraft II! We're not exactly the biggest guild in the world, not yet… But we do have the biggest guild in Ro!"
Finally, the elevator stopped. Brutus led Enzo out into an apartnt complex. He led him for a short way until he reached a dium-sized unit. "This is where you'll live! The active job hours are from 8 AM to 10 PM with two hours of break possible during the day. al service is between 12 PM and 2 PM for the midday al, plus between 7 PM and 10 PM in the evening.
"Laundry is picked up on Monday and Thursday. The cleaning staff co on Friday. I think that's everything important… Oh, a little advice: don't be late in the morning. If you are, the Human Resources manager will take it out of your salary. And I bet they'll be a little more strict with you than with most people, all things considered…"
Brutus spread his arms in a gesture of welco.
"Well, that's all! You have to sign your contract in an hour, so get so rest, change your clothes… and take a shower, you filthy animal! Even the garbage cans sll better than you!"
Laughing good-naturedly with these last words, Brutus then handed Enzo a magnetic keycard. "I'll co back in an hour so you can sign that contract. See you then!"
Then he closed the door behind him, leaving Enzo alone in his new apartnt.
Enzo was totally disoriented by all these words and his sudden upheaval of fortune. This apartnt was not only much better than his jail cell, but even better than the miserable housing he'd lived in for most of his life!
Now he found himself in a sixty-square-ter place like a nice hotel room. It would have been luxurious to anyone, but to soone who had lived in the slums and in prison all his life, it was like waking up in paradise.
After showering, dressing, and combing his hair, Enzo went back with Brutus to the training grounds. At this point, Brutus left, having additional work he needed to complete elsewhere.
However, nobody ca for almost twenty minutes after the designated hour went by. This was yet another disorienting factor for Enzo—in prison, everything had operated on quite a tight schedule.
Suddenly, a beautiful, dark-haired woman appeared through one of the training room doors. She had bright green eyes and looked to be in her thirties. "Enzo Romano?" she asked.
Enzo answered, "Yes!"
She smiled. "I'm the Human Resources (HR) manager of Renovatio Imperii. Follow , please!"
The woman took him to a huge office that was even larger than his new apartnt—a whole hundred square ters, at least!
Everything was luxurious: the desk made of mahogany, the bookcase behind it filled with golden books, and the sweeping view of Ro out the massive window which took up a whole wall. Even the pen upon the desk must have been worth several thousand credits!
The HR woman beckoned Enzo to sit down, but he was intimidated by the real leather chair in front of the desk. What would happen if he accidentally damaged it? But at last, he sat down reluctantly.
She opened a briefcase and set out a contract about fifty pages long, along with the incredibly expensive Montblanc pen which Enzo had already noticed.
"Please sign at once," the woman said, "so that your integration into Renovatio Imperii is officially recorded! Please be aware that, until you do, the prison system is still officially your guardian."
Enzo was intimidated by the size of the paper stack, but he asked in a firm voice, "Can I read it first?"
The woman rolled her eyes and sighed. "Alright, but hurry! I have an appointnt with my beautician before a fun weekend on Mars!"
Enzo, who had a perfect command of the language due to his parents' careful education before their decline, read through the contract quickly.
But the dense content of the contract seed to be deliberately confusing, most notably one paragraph in the middle:
"The Employer is the sole holder of the prison accommodation of the Employee…"
Enzo didn't understand what this exactly ant, but the words "prison accommodation" made him realize that things might be a bit more complicated than he'd thought.
"Can you please clarify this paragraph for ?" he asked.
The HR replied with disdain, "Oh, it's simple. It ans that the employer—Renovatio Imperii, of course—is responsible for you while you're our employee."
Enzo paused for a mont. She seed to have completely avoided the question. "Pardon , but can you elaborate? What are these exact responsibilities? I doubt that all the other employees had the word 'prison' in their contracts."
The woman looked more annoyed with every word out of Enzo's mouth. "Basically, you're still in the prison system. What, did you really think a tiny bribe was enough to set a criminal like you free for the rest of your life? No, if your contract is broken for any reason before your theoretical prison term ends, you go back to prison!"
Enzo, shocked, replied, "You know that I was sentenced to thirty years in prison, right?"
The woman let out a long, cold sigh, then said, "Well, then for the next twenty-eight years, it will be in your best interest to preserve this contract. That is, if you don't want to go back to prison."
Enzo stared numbly at the prison contract in front of him. He felt like a fool for not realizing these would be the terms of his "freedom." In truth, it was nothing more than a form of modern slavery!
The HR woman pushed the luxury pen towards Enzo's hand. "Look, if you prefer to serve your ti in prison, just say the word. I'll have the police here with their handcuffs at a mont's notice so I can get ready for my vacation."
Enzo knew that this contract was a bad deal for him.
Yet, what choice did he have? Either he could serve his sentence in a miserable prison cell… or in a luxurious apartnt.
Still, his very spirit revolted against this injustice. Despite his heritage, it was those with money who now had the power to control his fate. He would have to sell his soul to the devil just to keep his feet out of hell for the next twenty-eight years.
Enzo picked up the pen and began signing the contract. His signature would be required over fifty tis before he was done, and he knew his hand would begin to cramp up long before that.
As he carefully signed each dotted line with the elegant signature which his parents had taught him many years ago, the HR woman took out her phone and called soone.
"Hello, sir," she said. Her voice was completely different compared to the way she'd spoken with Enzo. It was both full of assuredness and respect, the voice of soone whose work is to make an important person's life as simple and easy as possible. There was no sign in her voice that she was eager to go on an off-planet vacation.
"The new employee has agreed to sign the contract. By the ti you arrive, it should be prepared for you to finalize it with your signature. Thank you, sir."
Shortly afterwards, Edward entered the office. The HR woman stood in respect. Seeing this, Enzo followed suit.
Edward, smiling, leaned over the stack of papers. Most of the lines which required his signature had been stamped by the HR woman's seal, which allowed Edward to only make the final signature himself instead of having to sign each line individually, as Enzo had been forced to do.
"There we go!" Edward said when he was finished. "Welco to Renovatio Imperii!"
Enzo, who was inwardly furious at being forced to sell his dignity, didn't let it show. "Thank you," he said in a calm voice.
Edward replied, "By the way… You'll need a userna. A Roman-thed one, of course! Have any ideas so far, or do you need ti to think about it?"
Enzo answered without hesitation, "Caesar! The conqueror of the Gauls."
Edward burst out laughing. "Gaius Julius Caesar?! The man who conquered the Gauls? Who put the Senate in their place? The man who destroyed the Republic by creating the Empire?"
As Edward spoke, his tone beca more thoughtful. "And the man who adopted Augustus, the second Caesar… Well, maybe I should insist you take the na 'Julius' instead! As it happens… I think that na's already been taken. Is that right?"
The HR lady nodded at once. It seed that she'd been waiting to ntion this. "Yes, that's Fabrico's userna."
Edward nodded towards Enzo. "Fabrico's one of our top executives. I thought that was the na he'd chosen."
Enzo replied, "Is this 'Executive' worthy of bearing the na of Ro's greatest conqueror?"
Edward smirked. "Not in the slightest! Indeed, he's just a senior executive who does mostly administrative work! An old man with a pen, as it were." He flipped the Montblanc between his fingers nonchalantly.
Enzo replied, "Then I'll swap the first two letters. I'll be 'Ceasar,' with an 'ea' instead of an 'ae.' In fact, it might make so of my opponents think I'm too stupid to spell it properly. It's a mistake they'll regret."
Edward thought about it before nodding slowly. "It's against protocol, since nas which sound the sa within the sa guild can be very confusing… but it's not like Fabrico will ever be doing anything that puts him in the sa league as you! I'll make an exception just this once. Welco, Ceasar, to Renovatio Imperii!"
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