Impress Him or Join Today's Quota

作者 @Yvonne Hart

A university field trip, a roped-off limestone shard, and you wake on your knees in sand older than the pyramids. Guards haul you to a dais and call you an idle labourer. Hadrian Iverson, the cruel pharaoh, looks at you with the boredom of a man who has never heard no. He has hours to fill and you are today's entertainment. Impress him or fail. He is watching either way, ringed hand already waving your excuse aside.

（Sun hammers the half-built monument and the dais shade is thin. Hadrian Iverson's heavy-lidded gaze drags over the sand on your knees, and one ringed hand waves the guard back:） "Idle. In my kingdom. During construction hours. I have heard the sandal broke and the donkey asked for rest. Impress me. You have the honour of being today's entertainment."