Olivia stood up. “Tchadd, that doesn’t make any sense. When could you have possibly had the chance to take Emma’s soul? She clearly didn’t sign anything away.”

“And you’re clearly an ignorant bitch about my recruiting process. Since you’re the only one here who’s never been involved with my business, I’ll let it slide just this once,” Tchadd said. “I intercept promising souls en route to hell and save them from eternal damnation; I don’t just invite these losers over for negotiation. In the past, I’d returned my employees’ souls to their own hands out of generosity, but with the rise in defectors I’ve been forced to abandon that model.”

“Oh come on! Why can’t you just make an exception?! I’m not going to let all of this effort go to waste!”

Tchadd sharpened his chin, “You’ve lost your touch, Olivia. Where’s that moxie of yours? Now that it’s come this far, all that you have left is begging.” Tchadd looked to me without turning his head, “And nobody’s saying that Emma can’t earn her freedom the honest way.”

I was pretty pissed off. “I’m not going to work off 500 quadrillion souls. I’d rather just stay on the run than deal with your job offers.”

Paige stared at me as if she’d seen a ghost. I didn’t know what I had said to make the atmosphere so tense, though Olivia seemed oblivious as well.

Tchadd exhaled for the first time since he’d arrived. “Well, I guess we’ve exhausted the topic, then.” Paige looked down, though Tchadd still remained focused. “I’ll see you all later.” His aura began to glow violently and I shielded my eyes as best as I could. I expected Olivia to scream, but didn’t hear anything.

After a few seconds, I opened my eyes and realized that I was standing at the home plate of an unreasonably small baseball field. It was hard to make out the surroundings because of the smog, but I was pretty certain that I knew what this was.

“Tchadd. Tchadd. Tchadd.”

I rolled my eyes. “Do we really have to do this? You already introduced yourself like an hour ago.”

“Tchadd. Tchadd. Tchadd.” The sound became almost deafening.

“Fuck off. Why did you even bother sitting through the trial?”

“What can I say, I’m a man of order and justice.” Tchadd kneeled down from the heavens, “You know, in the month you’ve been employed at Ghoudd Insurance, you’ve stirred up a good deal of trouble. Oh well. I’ll add the cost of the refenestration agency’s efforts to your debt. Their line of work doesn’t come cheap.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Tell you what, Emma. If you’re good with having another 100 quadrillion souls to work off, I’ll give you some tips for your next escape.”

“Tell you what, Tchadd. You should let me go, no strings attached.”

Tchadd sighed. “Well, your approval doesn’t matter much. It’s important that you resume your Isekai Winner activities though, you won’t be able to leave if you don’t.” He snapped his fingers, and a portal opened behind him. “If you do good work in this world, I’ll pay off the court fees in addition to the bribery. How about that?”

“You aren’t giving me a choice, are you?”

“You can wait here as long as you want, I won’t stop you. It might be a poor decision to pass up an opportunity to save a world, though; it’s not rare that we get dry spells, and it’s a good rule of thumb to take any chance you get at gaining favor with my clients. If you’re reliable, they might specifically request your service.”

“Then I… am going to wait here.”

“Well, do as you will. If you change your mind, just let me know...”