Noll led Mai to a corridor and eventually down to a cellar-like exit. She immediately felt a sweltering heat, and began to fan herself and remove her jumper.

"What is this place?" Mai asked.

"The coal mine."

"Coal mine?"

"Yes, stupid. This is where we mine coal for those who are unfortunate enough to be on the Naughty List."

"Oh."

They continued, guided by a faint light until they walked into a well lit cavern.

Standing there, dressed in a kimono with trembling arms and a pickaxe, was a young girl. Like everyone else Mai had so far met at the North Pole, she had pointed ears sticking out from her neat hair. She panted, bringing the pickaxe upwards, before slamming it down so that the black substance fell around her.

A sad feeling overcame Mai. Why was this girl working alone and in such poor conditions?

Noll crossed his arms, positioning himself against the cavern wall. He was clearly not amused, nor was he as upset as Mai.

The girl hesitated in lifting the axe again before she turned around, eyes filled with malice.

"You!" she spat, directing her attention to Noll. "You dare to grace me with your presence?"

"I think you should feel honoured to be in the same room as me," Noll replied.

"Not after what you did to me. I was so close to getting a promotion and a recommendation to have my own holiday!"

"For the wrong reasons certainly. I knew your scheme, Masako."

Mai turned her head to Masako who was fuming.

"I am not so low as to stoop to flirting with your brother for a recommendation!"

Noll remained impassive as he spoke next, "Even if that may be true, your reasoning for owning a holiday is clearly for the wrong reason. Fame isn't why we exist."

"Says you, I'm sure you're relishing in the spotlight and power, Head Elf!"

"Quite the opposite. I much prefer to drive you all into your early graves from behind the scenes."

Was Mai hearing them right?

"And you're doing such a great job!" she screeched, "You put me in charge of your old job!"

Noll used to mine coal? The thought of Noll doing anything but ordering others and doing little himself shocked Mai. It just seemed so wrong.

"We were short staffed, and I had to take over."

"So you get a promotion, and I end up demoted?!"

"That was not the reason. The aim of this exercise was to teach you about your own wrongdoings."

She huffed.

"Why don't you leave and take your new assistant elf out of here."

Mai squirmed under her intense gaze.

"You are obviously upset with me, unjust as it may be. Come along Mai."

"No."

Noll turned to Mai with a raised eyebrow.

"From what I hear, you're just a big jerk who didn't want to do the work yourself! How dare you put her through that?! How is this supposed to teach her anything?!"

Masako's eyes widened.

"You're a horrible Santa! You treat the people who work for you like rubbish! They're right! Your brother was the better Santa and a better person!"

Noll's stare grew distant, void as if she had purged all the life from him. He turned on his heel and left.

Mai had not meant to say that. Yes, it was something that everyone had brought up. But it was obviously a sore subject, so it felt wrong for her to join in. She didn't even know his brother.

"Thank you," Masako spoke, putting her hand on Mai's shoulder.

"Don't mention it…"

"You can call me Masako."

Mai nodded and Masako's expression grew terse.

"But you are wrong."

"Huh?"

"He was right about me… From the moment I got here, I always wanted to have my own holiday. To be the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy, or some other deified holiday around the world… I wanted to be recognised for bringing that happiness. Everyone loves the face of a holiday..."

Mai listened as Masako continued.

"...So they would love me… He's right. I have not been focusing on what really matters about a holiday… Making children happy. I was so caught up with them loving me that I forgot that I have to love them too.

"Looking back, it could not be any more painfully obvious that until Noll banished me here, I was trying to sweeten up his brother before he... " She swallowed and looked away. "When I started mining coal, I realised that a child, presumably bad, was going to get this lump of coal and hate me. And he hates me because he was naughty… But what made him so bad?"

"I don't know. What gets someone on the naughty list? Maybe he's bullying another kid?" Mai suggested.

"...Perhaps, but what if that kid's not always bad? How many bullies only bully because someone is hurting them too? I don't know what the calculations are to determine that, but when I think about the children who get coal for Christmas… I feel really sad. They're just kids, they don't always know any better."

"Yeah…"

"I think that's why Noll put me here. To understand. I think he felt sad too when he used to work here."

"Why did he work here?"

"Didn't he say? We're short staffed, and he offered to do this."

"Now I feel really bad."

"Don't worry about it, he seems to like you. I'm sure he's not that bothered by what you said."

"But I mentioned his brother… I called him horrible things."

Masako smiled.

"He's stupid and probably won't remember." Masako dusted down her kimono.

Mai offered her a piece of chocolate, which Masako took with a smile.

"Anyway, I need to get back to work. Who knows, maybe next year's naughty list might be done away with. He's pushing for it, so maybe I won't be stuck here for too much longer."

"Really?"

"Yeah, why don't you go check out the list… Mai was it?"

"Yeah, okay! Where might that be?"

Masako giggled behind her sleeve, pointing to something behind Mai.

"You're standing right in front of a map of the entire North Pole."