"Why don't you ask Ella?" Samantha said, her tone sharp but lazy at the same time, like she couldn't quite decide whether she cared or not.
Vera didn't even slow down on the treadmill.
Her feet continued pounding against the belt in a steady rhythm that felt almost mechanical, while her hand casually reached into her pocket.
She pulled out her phone, unlocked it with a single motion, and began typing, her thumbs moving quickly across the screen.
It was strange to watch.
She was running at a speed that would probably hospitalize a normal human, yet texting like she was lounging on a couch.
A few seconds passed.
Then she glanced at her phone again. "Yeah," she said, voice flat. "She said she has no idea either."
Samantha clicked her tongue, clearly annoyed, and shifted her attention back to me. Her eyes narrowed, sharp and judgmental, scanning me from head to toe like she was deciding whether I was worth acknowledging.
"I don't think this person's telling the truth," she said bluntly. "So tell me—are you really going to be our next manager, or did you just come here to take a peek at us, you know… literal goddesses?"
The accusation landed without warning.
I stared at her for a moment, taken aback—not by the suspicion itself, but by how openly hostile she was about it.
Wow.
She really didn't try to hide how rotten her personality was.
If I were some random person—if I didn't have anything tying me to this place—and I had just been spoken to like that by a Goddess, the temptation to expose her would've been overwhelming.
One anonymous post.
One leaked story.
One casual mention of how she actually behaved behind closed doors.
That would've been enough.
Her image would crumble.
Fans would turn.
Admiration would rot into disappointment.
And since her power literally depended on fame and public perception?
She'd be done.
Powerless.
Useless.
The irony almost made me laugh.
Instead, it just made something click in my head.
So this was why the previous manager quit.
It had nothing to do with any dramatic mystery. There was no grand conspiracy either. Just burnout.
Honestly, I couldn't even blame them.
If I had walked into this place, seen this mess, dealt with these attitudes, and realized this was going to be my daily life… yeah. I would've quit too.
Probably within a week. Hell, a day would be enough.
I wondered how much money it took to keep the former manager quiet.
Because there was no way they left without seeing all of this.
Then again, knowing my sister, I didn't have to wonder for long. She definitely handled it.
Threats, contracts, hush money—whatever it took.
To this company, the Goddesses weren't people.
They were products.
Extremely valuable ones.
And my sister would never allow something as trivial as "personality issues" to ruin their market value.
If that meant burying secrets, she'd do it without blinking.
"Well," I said, forcing myself to stay calm, "as of now, I don't have anything solid to prove it to you. The person who asked me to take this position is currently on vacation, and she's hard to reach. But if I could meet your leader, I'd appreciate it. Maybe she already knows the manager was supposed to change today."
Samantha raised an eyebrow.
"Lara isn't here," she said. "She's out shopping."
I blinked. "Shopping?"
The word felt strangely out of place.
"Didn't she know she'd attract a lot of attention going out alone like that?" I asked. "Wouldn't that be risky?"
Samantha scoffed. "You don't have to worry about her. Her personal life is completely different from her Goddess persona. No one's going to notice it's her."
That… actually made sense.
If Samantha was any indication, the gap between public image and private reality was massive.
Lara was probably even more unrecognizable when she wasn't playing her role.
"Then," I said after a moment, "can I speak to someone who might actually know what's going on?"
"Talk to Luna," Samantha replied instantly. "Maybe she knows."
"Where is she?"
Samantha didn't even bother answering properly.
She simply pointed her thumb toward one of the rooms, like she was shooing me away.
Message received.
I walked over.
If memory served me right, Luna was the Goddess of Light.
The gentle one.
The pure one.
The one people described as angelic, calm, and soothing.
Surely—surely—she would be normal.
I stopped in front of her door and knocked.
Big mistake.
The doors here were automated.
They were proximity-based.
Which meant the moment I leaned in close enough to knock, the sensor detected me.
The door slid open immediately.
And everything went wrong.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! C-Cummingggg, noooo…~! Ahhnnn, ahhh…! Aaaaaaahhn… I'm squirting non-stoppppppp~!!!"
My brain blanked.
Completely.
The Goddess of Light—the Goddess of Light—was in the middle of masturbating with a massive dildo shoved into her vagina.
Her body was tense, trembling, and her face was utterly ruined by pleasure.
A camcorder stood in front of her.
A computer screen beside it displayed a live broadcast.
The word LIVE glowed unmistakably on the screen, surrounded by an endless flood of comments.
Thousands of viewers.
Thousands of eyes.
Cheering.
Encouraging.
Watching.
I couldn't process it.
What kind of Goddess does this?
Then I noticed the face mask.
Her identity was hidden.
No one knew she was Luna, the Goddess of Light.
If her face had been visible, it would've been over. Her status, her image, her divinity... it would be gone in an instant.
Slowly, very carefully, I stepped back.
Then the door closed.
Then I exhaled.
A long, tired sigh that felt like it came from the depths of my soul.
This was my first day.
I walked back to Samantha and Vera, feeling like I'd aged several years in the span of a minute.
"Hey," I said flatly, "what the fuck was that?"
"That's just Luna's daily stream," Samantha replied without hesitation. "Don't think too hard about it."
"…You don't think that's weird?" I asked. "Showing herself like that to so many people?"
Vera shrugged, still running. "It's her hobby. I don't really care. Besides, people enjoy it. And she gets a lot of fans from it."
She paused briefly before adding, "Even if they don't know it's Luna, she still gets power from their admiration."
That didn't sound right.
But then again, Goddess powers were weird, inconsistent, and operated on rules that barely made sense to begin with.
Still…
The Goddess of Light.
Of all people.
I rubbed my temples. "Is there… anyone here who's actually normal?"
Samantha and Vera pointed toward another room.
I followed their gaze.
The door felt wrong.
Like it was radiating something unpleasant.
Whatever was behind it, I already knew I didn't want to see it.
"…Never mind," I muttered.
I gave up.
For my own sanity.
And it was only the first day.