Just with her acceptance, Gracie became the Headmaid in a minute. The maids were happy since this will make their job much simpler and easier, and they won’t have to worry about potentially angering Cain as they can use her as a medium.
The necessary paperwork is going to be handled by Sebas, the maids expect him to be delighted as well since Gracie will be taking some load off his shoulders.
At the dinner table, unlike the norm where the maids will stand at the wall waiting to receive orders or tend to the housemaster’s needs. This time Gracie will be at the table with them, one of her jobs as a Headmaid is quality control and inspection of service.
There was also the matter of naming, the maids can’t just keep calling her Gracie. She is effectively their boss from now on, they decided to call the standard
The dragon fang and Selena seem to have returned earlier from their little errand, dropping what they brought and taking a bath, Selena seems to have brought some things back.
One of the items Cain asked them to bring was a bud of earth root, a small fungal growth that could be found in the forest. The problem is that it was the favorite food of the furious Black-tusk boars.
Selena being herself, saw the big scary boars as a potential meal and ended up hunting two of them to bring back, Yamauba helped her carry them with magic. The two boars were now laying in the garden awaiting someone to bring them inside. Cain ordered it to be the workers’ job to drag and butcher them.
The worker looked at each other as they found the gaping fangs and claws mark on the boar’s neck and back, “We should never get on Lady Selena’s nerves.”
Everyone gathered at the dinner table, the maids have put extra effort into today’s meals since Cain is sick and they also have guests.
The food included lots of fragrant grilled mead, roasted chicken, and thick soup. Lots of salad and fruits, and finally the star of the show, Mabel’s unique bread.
Cain watched everyone eats in their unique way. Selena munching on meat like she usually does, actively avoiding everything else. Alice now that she was getting better physically seem to have started eating with more manners. Sofia was the only one eating normally, albeit she seemed to avoid eating the soup as it was made with internal organs, like the liver and the heart.
On the dragon’s fang side it was a whole different story. Takeshi was holding a whole roasted chicken in his hand, it was his second one already. Yamauba on the other hand seemed to not eat much, she instead drank a lot of alcohol and beer. Daraku was busy shoving food down Miko’s throat, as if he wanted to fatten her up, no matter how much she said she was full, he kept feeding her. He on the other hand didn’t eat as much, only the occasional bite that Miko managed to refuse to eat.
Cain looked beside him, Gracie was the only one with manners on that table. But her speed was slow and Cain feared that she might take an hour to finish eating.
That’s right, Gracie was the only one with manners. Even Cain has been going crazy following Mabel’s bread and needed Alice and Sofia to force him to eat some meat.
“You did what I asked you right?” Cain whispered to Gracie. She nodded, “I left the plate in your room. A kid portion!” Cain nodded with a smile, Spindle has to eat as well.
…
“Master, do you want some tea?” Gracie asked Cain who was laying on a couch with his inflated stomach. “Yeah, and make it for everyone,” Cain replied.
Gracie bowed slightly as she started walking toward the kitchen. “Wait!” Cain called her back, “Who is everyone?” He asked with a stern face.
“You, the ladies, and the Dragon fang.”
“Make some for yourself and the maids as well, by everyone I meant everyone,” Cain stated, relaxing his head back on the armrest.
Cain took that time to inspect what they brought him. Earth roots, sun leaves, Green spider’s venom, sour ginger, glass flasks, and even the magic paper used in scroll making. They were simply impressive to be able to gather all of those in one day.
“What are those for?” Sofia asked as she sat beside him.
“Well, the spell would heal me on its own. But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take this chance and get stronger.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will know when the time comes.” Cain gathered everything and took it back to his room. After putting them in a box, Cain lay on his bed to let the food go down.
Knock, Knock! It’s been just a few minutes, “Master, I brought your tea.” It was Gracie.
“Come in,” Cain replied without even moving from the bed, it was too comfortable and cozy to move. He seems to have found a sweet pose where he will feel less pain.
Gracie slowly opened the door with one hand, her other hand holding a plate with two teacups on it. She gracefully walked toward the bed without even disturbing the tea surface.
Seeing her holding two teacups, Cain stood and dragged a chair for her. She just silently nodded at his action.
“You’re supposed to not let me do that, remember that I’m sick? And your master? That’s a thing right?” Cain smiled at her no-reaction, other maids would have screamed and not let him do that.
“Exercising is good for your health.” She replied without much thought, gently putting the cups down.
“Master, we have intruders!” Spindle suddenly appeared from the shadows.
Cling! In one move, Gracie pulled a kitchen knife from her sleeves and swung it at the creature that appeared behind her, Leaving Spindle with a nasty wound on his nose.
“Graaa! Shpi…Shpindle’s nose!” Spindle cried in pain, Cain who didn’t expect that reaction from her quickly jumped from the bed grabbing her hand.
“He is a friend, stop!” Cain kept looking at her face and hand, where did she pull that knife from? And she was aiming directly at Spindle’s throat, if it wasn’t for the darkness she would have killed him in one stroke.
Gracie quickly dropped the knife so Cain left her hand. Even with this her expression never changed.
“I will call Alice…” Spindle interrupted Cain before he could finish.” Intruders, fifteen of them have entered the house perimeter!”
Cain’s face tensed up, who in the hell are they? Thieves, that impossible as they never work in groups. No matter how much Cain thought about it, he could only remember ghosting a single person who could pull something like this.
“Don’t tell me it’s Ourals lord?” We have just arrived so how did they follow us all the way here, how did I not notice them?
To Cain, the trip back passed in a flash as he was absorbed by the pain. He finally realized that he doesn’t remember much of the details as he was zoning out a lot.
“Lucky bastards!” Cain growled as he expanded his Mana to feel around the mansion. Doing that made him more aware of his pain (Like jamming something in a sore tooth) but allowed him to locate all the intruders who had a decent amount of MP. He found a total of 4 intruders who are supposedly mages, the rest he couldn’t sense so they are physical types.
In different places of the mansion.
Location one, the toilet.
To black-hooded individuals entered through the window without making any noise. Their footsteps were as quiet as cats.
“Someone inside!” One of them pointed at one of the doors.
“Hopefully one of the maids, we can use her to get around easier!”
They slowly opened the door bearing their knives, quickly their eyes opened wide as they saw wasn’t the graceful body of a woman. It was 290 pounds of muscles, testosterone, and hot blood. “You have no manners, right!” Takeshi said with a wide menacing smile.
Location two is in the garden where three workers and Selena were skinning the boars.
“My lady, those are fine hunts. The hide is superbly preserved, I bet we could make a nice carpet from it!” One of the workers said as he looked beside him, Selena was nowhere to be found.
“My lady?” They called as she suddenly disappeared.
“Not another word. Where did she go?” A black-hooded individual put a dagger at one of the workers’ throats. Looking around him the other two were caught as well.
“Not a clue, she just disappeared!” The worker replied it was the truth.
“Liam, we’re guarding them so you look around for her!” One of the intruders spoke, they were a total of four there. Three captured the worker so he wanted the fourth one to find Selena.
…” Liam?” He didn’t get an answer, get alerted that his friend didn’t reply, the man focused to hear what was around him.
“Hmmm mmm, hmmm!” He could hear a muffled cry in the dark.
Letting go of the worker, the intruder used a magical light to light the garden.
He saw a horrendous sight, blood everywhere as his friend was struggling against Selena’s jaw, and she had bitten his face and is suffocating him like a deer.
As soon as the light was cast on her she dragged the body back to the darkness.
“My g…” Before the intruder could speak, the worker stabbed him with the skinning knife that was close by.
…