“Wait, hold up,” I said. “What do you mean you’re my fiancée?”
Leona smiled back at me. “Yeah, it says so on my mission statement, I’m supposed to be wed to my designated person, that designated person being you.”
“How are you sure I’m your designated person?”
“Because it says so on my mission statement.”
“Yeah, but, don’t you have a say in it?”
“Of course I do. I took this job after reading my mission, after that I waited until a suitable person arrived, I read your file and I accepted you as my designated person.”
“... Was it really that simple?”
“It was.”
“And you’re okay with it?”
“If I wasn’t I wouldn’t have picked you. The question is, are you okay with me?”
“I mean, I guess so, but, isn’t it too soon for you to decide on getting married?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m almost in my forties myself and haven’t gotten a single date in my entire life, kinda like you. And, since you seemed like a decent person, the choice was easily made. And, we don’t need to get married immediately, just… eventually.”
“And you’re okay with this?”
“Again, yes, I’m ready to take a new step in my life, but I feel like you might have some objections with marrying someone like me.”
“No, it isn’t so much the fact that you’re the one I’m going to marry, in fact, you’re pretty much my-- wait, did you just say you’re in your forties?”
“No I didn’t. I said I was almost in my forties, I’m not even 40 yet. I’m just 39.”
“But you look so young.”
“Oh yeah, I do. Thanks for noticing it. You also look pretty young yourself.”
“Bullshit, I look like my age.”
“Not anymore,” she said, pulling out a mirror from one of her pockets.
I took a look, and saw a younger version of me, at least ten or fifteen years younger. I felt my face, and it was true, I did become younger.
“Wow,” Leona said. “You looked more shocked at the realization that you’re younger than the fact that we’re in another world.”
“What the fuck? Did I really get younger?”
“You sure did.”
“When?”
“The moment you signed your contract. I mean, I too was surprised when I signed mine and suddenly got a lot younger than I originally was.”
“So, this is magic then? Why would they add this magic?”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure about others, but since we both got a special color card, I think we’re considered invaluable. They’d want to keep us as long as possible, which probably meant we had to be de-aged or something.”
“What do you mean special color cards? I just got a red one.”
“It’s not just the color, it’s the variant. Like yours, mine was a sparkling card. Or rather, the card itself wasn’t sparkling, but the moment we touched the card, it became that variant. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”
“Okay, so, if magic exists, does it mean I can use magic?”
“I don’t see why not. I haven’t been able to do magic yet, though, and since there’s no such thing as status screens or whatever, I wasn’t able to check for it myself.”
From the outside, the house would definitely fit a fantasy setting, with some modern conveniences and aesthetics here and there. There was a porch, which didn’t appear until the 19th century, but was integrated in such a way that it didn’t look out of place. The entire house was fenced off, marking the area where the central magic circle would protect us from intruders, and seemed to be well maintained. There were various flowers, a cobble and gravel path leading outside, there was a greenhouse and a garden to grow crops.
The backside was separately fenced off with a stone wall. There was a door leading outside, but aside from that it was fairly secure. The wall was high enough so that no prying eyes would be able to look inside from that side. There was a gazebo, several benches where you could enjoy the environment, several lights that seemed to run on magic but otherwise looked pretty modern, and there was even a hot tub.
The interior was also fairly modern, one you’d see in one of those vacation homes. There was a magic powered kitchen. It had both an induction-like cooking system as well as one that would actually produce hot flames, and there was a fridge and a freezer, both still empty. Fortunately there were several cooking utensils. There was also an oven, though no microwaves or something similar to that. Other appliances were also missing, but for now, this was good enough.
The living room was also spacious, although it felt a little bit empty without something like a television. There were various electrical sockets, so we could install one if we wanted to, but it was still quite a bummer. This meant that we would have to go without gaming consoles. Leona already got used to it, due to the fact that the hotel room she stayed at until now also didn’t have a television, though once we found the piles of belongings that we previously placed on our respective mats, she immediately began hooking up her computer in what would become the study room.
The bathroom was even more impressive. There was a working toilet and a working shower, even a working bathtub. It was the only room that wasn’t completely decorated with wood. Attached to the bathroom was a sauna.
And then there was the bedroom. Just one bedroom. With one bed.
“I thought you said there were enough beds for the both of us,” I said.
“And you weren’t mistaken,” Leona replied. “One king-size bed. Enough for you and me, and maybe a few more people before we need a bigger bed.”
Once we were done unpacking, we decided to hang in the living room, having a drink and some snacks, to get to know each other.
“So what made you accept this job?” I asked.
“Probably the same reason you did,” she answered. “I felt like my life was just, you know, going. As if I had already peaked. I was too shy to get a boyfriend, so I’ve been living alone for quite some time. I mean, don’t get me wrong, life wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t exciting. Then I got the letter, and I had to answer a few questions, and before I knew it, I was hired for this gig.”
“So what is it that you do here?”
“Well, until you arrived, I was preparing for my job as your supervisor, though I don’t think you could exactly call me one. Since I was going to become someone’s fiancée, I prepared to be more of a partner. I mean, not a romantic partner, just someone who’d support you in your mission. In the meantime, I was also trained as a tour guide, and sometimes I do some administrative work.”
“And what’s my job here?”
“Well, aside from working towards your mission, you’ll probably be exploring this area or something, we’ll figure things out. But what’s your reason for taking this job? I mean, I don’t think it’s the polygamy part, right?”
“Yeah, no, it’s exactly like you said earlier, I just wanted a new adventure. Didn’t think it would be a literal adventure.”
“Yeah, well, this isn’t some normal job. I mean, who would have thought you’d be getting your first wife on the same day you took on the job, right?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy.”
“And, correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t really seem disappointed with me.”
“Why should I? You’re pretty much my type.”
Leona was blushing. “Well, thanks,” she said. “So your type is a 1.55 m tall woman with a little bit of weight on her?”
“Yeah, pretty much. I’m just surprised you never even dated before.”
“You should have seen me when I looked quite a bit older. After a certain age, all this extra fat won’t look that attractive anymore.”
“I doubt that, though.”
“You might have weird tastes in women.”
“And you might be right.”
We both laughed and took a sip from our drinks.
“But now we get to have a second chance,” I said. “I mean, I assume our de-aging isn’t just aesthetic.”
“From what I’ve heard we’re actually physically younger,” Leona replied. “I mean my body feels younger, my joints don’t hurt when I move for example. We both might need this younger body once we’re going to set out into the world.”
“Yeah…”
“What is it? You make it sound like it’s a drag.”
“Not so much a drag as it is something I’m not really looking forward to. I mean, it’s a dangerous place out there. I mean, it would suck if I had this younger body and then would die just moments later.”
“I… do get what you mean. To be honest, I’m not sure this is exactly what I’ve signed myself up for. But I also believe we’ll manage. Besides, there might be other ways for us to establish new connections.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure if I should tell you now, but we do have a central hub that contains various portals that connect to this world. If we want to play it safe, we could use those portals. It’s just that a majority of those portals are still closed.”
I nodded. “Makes sense,” I replied.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“My mission is focused on establishing diplomatic connections with certain areas of this world, right? Well, what other reason is there than for things like trading or tourism? And it makes sense. Nobody takes the effort of keeping this a secret, meaning that something will come out soon.”
“It does seem to make sense.”
“And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who has a direct connection with this other world. I know that my friend has also been invited here.”
“Were they a special card holder?”
“I’m not sure if it was a special card, but she did tell me that the card was a silverish blue or something.”
“Wait, she had a reflective card!? That’s pretty rare!”
“Really?”
“Yes! I mean, it’s very likely she’d do some actual adventuring work.”
“Wow, that’s actually pretty cool.”
We both looked out from the glass window, where the sun still shone bright. It didn’t really feel any different from Earth. Was this really another world?
Eventually, I felt a bit peckish. Even though we had some snacks, it wasn’t quite enough for me, and I could tell Leona felt the same.
“What are we going to eat today?” I asked.
“We could get some stuff at the convenience store,” Leona replied, “or we could pick one of the restaurants here.”
There weren’t a lot of restaurants yet that were opened, some were still being built, others were only opened on certain days, at least until the grand opening of this facility. There was an all-you-can-eat restaurant, though we decided to go to an Italian one.
The restaurant wasn’t exactly cheap, but to commemorate our partnership, we decided to just spend the extra money. The restaurant was pretty quiet, only a few patrons were present. I didn’t really pay attention to them.
“By the way,” Leona said. “If you look around, you can already find a few other-worlders.”
“Oh really?” I said.
“Yeah, most of the people here are just from our world, but some come from the other world. Many are employees, some are here for business or diplomatic reasons.”
“It’ll be pretty busy once we open up to the general public.”
I decided to look around. I couldn’t exactly recognise who came from the other world or not. There were humans in the other world, so some of the humans here could either be from this world or the other. Of course, in the other world, there were a few traits humans could have that weren’t in our world, like certain hair colors or eye colors, but even then you couldn’t be sure if they didn’t just dyed their hair or wore colored contacts.
The rest of the night went well. There was a good chemistry between us. After dinner, we decided to walk around and explore the first three floors a bit. Most of the facility was still closed off, but this place was still pretty big.
“Oh, by the way,” Leona said. “I actually signed up for early access to the amusement park.”
“We have an amusement park?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s an indoor one, and it isn’t really big, but I still want to be one of the first to enter it. And, I can take a few friends with me if I do get early access.”
“That sounds cool. I mean, I’d like to go.”
“Great! Then we can go together.”
Finally, after seeing everything we wanted, we headed back home. Most of the people here were employees, so it was logical that not many facilities were open. I did notice that many went to the public bath house.
“Is it really that good?” I asked.
“I mean, it’s not bad, I heard,” Leona said. “It is better than the bathrooms in the hotel, though those aren’t so bad either. Some of the employees have already been moved to their own homes, apartment buildings outside this resort, though we’re also working on a village.”
“Wait, so not everybody gets to live in another world?”
“Not everybody gets the same housing as we did. In fact, our house is specifically built for you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“Remember your mission? Well, your house has been designed to help you with that.”
“Well, that explains a lot about why some things were there and why others weren’t. I guess they’re really serious about this mission.”
“They are. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure why we were chosen, but I’ll do my part in helping you.”
“And I guess I’ll do my best to do my part.”
“So, what’re you going to do for the rest of the night?”
“Well, I’m pretty tired from traveling, so I might just head to bed. What about you?”
“I think I’ll head to bed myself as well.”
“Yeah, it’s not like anything eventful is going to happen.”
We both laid in bed, wide awake. We weren’t sure where our clothes went, or when exactly we lost them.
“So that happened,” I said.
“That happened,” Leona said.
“I mean, maybe it was something we drank?”
“They were non-alcoholic.”
“I mean, sooner or later it would have happened, right?”
“Right. Because we--”
“We’re engaged, right? I mean, unless you wanted to save it for…”
“Oh no, I wasn’t planning on doing that.”
Silence.
“So, good night?” I asked.
“Good--”
It was around 6 AM when we finally fell asleep, which was good, because we had to get up at 7 AM, as the meeting was supposed to be at 8:30 AM, so we at least had one hour of sleep.
We got up at 8 AM. To save some time, we decided to take a shower together and have breakfast on the go, giving us some time to prepare. skipped breakfast entirely when we were too busy showering until 8:25 AM.
We finally did arrive at a little bit over 8:30 AM, having to rush drying ourselves off and dressing up. Once we entered the conference room, nobody was there.
“What the hell!?” Leona said.
“Did you get the time right?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I got it right.”
“Ah, I see you two have made it in time,” an old man said, as he walked into the room. “Didn’t actually think you two would make it.”
“Wait,” Leona said. “Did you… expect something to happen?”
“Most certainly. Aside from your hormonal balance being off from the de-aging process, the two of you were specifically paired together for your preferences and overall compatibility with each other.”
“That doesn’t say anything at all.”
“You both were also very sexually active throughout your life, or rather, had a high interest in it.”
“Ah, true,” I said. “Guilty.”
“Yeah, me too,” Leona said.
“Now, enough for the small talk,” the old man said. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Elliot Prince. I’m the head of the department of otherworldly affairs, which in essence means that I am your boss. Now, let’s just get to the point, shall we? Ms. Rhys, while you were originally appointed as a supervisor, we came to the conclusion that this role would not be fitting for you. Therefore it has been decided that this part of your job will be dropped. Any questions so far?”
“Yeah, I do,” Leona said. “If I’m not going to be his supervisor, who’s going to be?”
“Well, me of course! In fact, I’ll be the supervisor of you as well, Ms. Rhys.”
“Wait, why?”
“Like Mr. Darklight, you have a sparking card. It’s one of the reasons we’ve placed you in a house outside our own world.”
“So, what does that mean?” I asked.
“It means that I’ll be giving you two another task, a mission if you may. I want the two of you to do magic research.”
“Magic research?” Leona asked.
“Yes. You see, sparkling card holders aren’t common, in fact, they’re quite rare. Now, before the two of you were paired up, sparkling card holders were mostly tasked with trading, or hunting for materials and other valuables that could be sold.”
“If I may interrupt,” I said, “but what are those cards?”
Mr. Prince smiled, then reached out into his pocket, pulling out two cards, one red and one blue. “These are your cards, am I correct?”
He gave us our cards, and the moment we touched our respective cards, they vanished.
“I can see the confusion on your faces,” Mr. Prince said, laughing. “These cards are quite similar to those used at various town and city halls, as well as guilds. They can be used as a form of identification. They are often stored inside a person, which means that you can’t lose them once they’re registered to you.”
Mr. Prince then pulled out a card from thin air. It looked like a golden card, almost as reflective as a mirror.
“Is that a reflective card?” Leona asked in a surprised tone.
Mr. Prince smiled. “It indeed is, but look at this.”
He walked over to a computer, and seemingly inserted his card into a machine attached to it. When we looked at the screen at the back, something was being projected. We could see things like his name, his age and his race, though not a lot more than that. After that, he took his card out.
“This machine can only show you this much,” Mr. Prince said. “But in the other world, they can extract a lot more information from it. And there’s a lot more devices and artifacts out there that we don’t understand. Considering the fact that you both have experience with technology one way or the other, I feel like this is the task for you.”
“That sounds great,” I said. “I mean, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this, but it does sound exciting.”
“So wait, how often do we need to do this?” Leona asked.
“Occasionally,” Mr. Price said. “And, like your other missions, there’s no time limit for your research. We don’t want this new mission to interfere with the missions you already have. Plus, losing you as a tour guide would be a shame, Ms. Rhys.”
“One more question, though,” I said. “Last night, well, Leona and I, well… Anyway, there was one thing I don’t understand. It was my first time with anybody, and yet, I somehow knew what to do.”
“That’s right,” Leona said. “I totally forgot you were a virgin, you seemed to be so good at it. I mean, that might just be my bias because I don’t have any other frame of reference, but…”
“I can easily explain that,” Mr. Price said. “It’s because we’ve been able to implant certain skills into you that should help you with your mission. If you want, there’s a skill appraiser somewhere on the second floor, next to the travel agent.”
“So wait, you can inject skills into people?” I asked.
“Sort of. It’s not exactly simple to add a skill to a person, so we mostly just do it during the contract signing. We need to carefully construct each individual magic circle, then add it to an injection circle. While skill circles can be stored and reused, injection circles need to be handcrafted for each individual, which is why we always hold onto their cards until the contract has been signed. In your case, Ms. Rhys, we held onto it so that we could add the authorization to your home’s door.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Leona said.
“In your case, Mr. Darklight, it took us a few months to find the proper skills and craft the injection circle, which is why it has taken us so long to get you here.”
“So, wait,” I said. “Was there a specific skill that would allow me to be, well, experienced?”
“Yes, sort of. The skill responsible for your tryst is what we’d like to call 【Sex God】. Its main purpose is to give you some knowledge of your partner’s desires or preferences. It will also increase you and your partner’s endurance, libido and recovery during intercourse.”
“Yeah, I think we heard enough,” Leona said. I could sense that Leona was feeling a bit uncomfortable hearing an old man talking about sex.
“I do have to add that it’s a passive skill that only activates under certain conditions,” Mr. Price said. “In your case, it’s only when copulation has started.”
“I feel like that’s enough explanation,” I said.
“Very well. Is there anything else you want to know? If not, then you’re dismissed.”
With that, Mr. Price bid us farewell.
As we didn’t have anything else scheduled for the day, we decided to have breakfast and go to bed afterwards. Even though our plan was to catch up on some sleep, we both laid in bed, wide awake. It wasn’t as if we weren’t tired, but it was hard to fall asleep. And we both knew exactly why.
“Is this the result of my skill?” I asked.
I didn’t have to explain myself, as Leona already knew what I was talking about. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I mean, I guess I, well, we both have always been like this, we just never got an outlet for our feelings.”
“I mean, there’s that, but I don’t just feel like this with any person.”
“So, what you’re saying is that I’m making you horny?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“I mean, to be fair, you’re doing the same for me, I guess.”
We both laughed. I felt a bit more relaxed.
“I mean, I’m really tired now,” I said.
“Yeah, me too,” Leona said.
I looked at her, and, I don’t know. I don’t think I was in love with her at the time, and I don’t think I fell in love with her until some time later, but at that point, the seed was planted for me. I just had to make sure it was headed somewhere.
“What do you think of this?” I asked. “Of us, I mean.”
“What about it?” Leona said.
“Well, at some point, a marriage will take place I assume.”
“Yeah, there will be at some point. And I’m completely fine with that.”
“Even knowing you won’t be the only one?”
“Hey, if it has to happen it has to happen.” She looked me in the eyes. “Listen, I like you. We only met each other for a day, but I do think we can make it work. I’m not going to abandon you, and not just because this is my mission.”
“But what if you’ll find someone else?”
“We can make it work. We’ll figure it out together, okay?”
She smiled at me, her eyes telling me she was serious.
“I don’t know what the future brings,” she said, “but I can say that I’ll gladly marry you one day.”
I smiled back at her. “I think I want to marry you as well.”