[Restarting System X...]
[Type: X]
[Status: Good]
[Energy: 100%]
A beep sound rang inside her mind. After a long shut, the system went active again.
Slowly, she cast open her eyes as she starts regained consciousness. When she half-opened, she could see a man beside her bed, murmuring words that never existed inside her dictionary.
"Oh, you're awake?"
Axel immediately gave her a gentle welcome smile after he finished the spell, used to recover Aria. Several tiny bottles lied next to him.
A man she'd never met was being nice to her. Aria tried to calm down. First, she must know her surroundings. She's in a small simple bedroom with medium size bed, one closet, one coffee table and two chairs. Just like a temporary room to stay in an inn.
"We're....indoor?"
She remembered herself collapsed in the middle of the forest with a demon by her side. Assumed Axel was not an enemy, she asked him for explanations. The mysterious guy wore a blue striped shirt, looked mature despite his young age.
"Yeah. Indoor. You don't have to worry about the monsters outside. This is a safe point"
She thought she was already dead the moment her energy went down but someone brought her into this guy's aid. It's not necessary to save her since she has no point to live now. Seeing Aria was not in a good mood, Axel ignored his intention to explain things with long stories.
"Ahem...I'll just keep this simple so you wouldn't completely lost here. This place is called Edenwoods, a private hotel in Luke Forest. I'm Axel, one of the workers here"
She was frustrated thinking about what happened in Swanlight as she rarely paid attention to him. Her eyes didn't turn to Axel because she kept falling into her own deep thoughts.
"My lady, you seemed to be in trouble when my colleague brought you here. You got pretty bad injuries so I've fixed that for you. Did you got attacked or something?"
Despite he knew what's happened to Aria, he tried to gain her trust by asking her the question, showing her he's a caring person. Her arm which was broken before, fixed with a perfect iron arm.
".....you ...fixed this...?"
Aria questioned in disbelief, only a pro could fix her body aside from Henley. When she saw he had several potions with him, she's convinced Axel is a wizard. Only a wizard could perform and use potions easily.
"Hm...not really. I just used restoration spell to restore your broken parts. As you can see, your inner systems were almost broken so I need to use three restoration potions to fix your entire body alone. Sigh...there you go my three precious potions, finished in one go"
His last words sounded like he's very disappointed.
"Nevermind. I'll take your money later"
He cleaned up the mess without giving Aria a space to talk.
"Hey, wait a minute"
Aria never thought about paying when she got the treatment. She didn't expect she would end up in his care before she collapsed. Therefore, from where she could gain money?
"You don't have one?"
Axel gave her a mockery smile, not like he insulted her because she broke but more like he's just messing around with her.
"....what do you want...?"
Aria frown as she noticed Axel was like plotting something to make her doing a favor for him. This guy looked more suspicious when he grinned for no reason like, what's wrong with him? He sent a terrifying feeling down into her inner system.
"Good question"
Axel intentionally delayed his answer as he touched his chin while crossed his legs on a chair. This made Aria felt more uncomfortable and cautioned of him. She could feel like there's an evil aura surrounded the guy. But then, her worries ended when Axel changed his evil smile to a warmed smile and said,
"Work with us"
*****
"This is not right"
Two hours after she awake, she found herself standing in the hallway with a broom for cleaning purpose. This is no different from before, cleaning the lab!
"Excuse me, sir Axel"
She slowly turned her sight to Axel who was wiping the main document desk.
"Yes?"
"You knew I'm a battle mecha, yet you turned me into a maid mecha?"
Hearing Aria's grumble, Axel almost burst out of laughter. She made her complaint obvious with her frown. Aria had done with that 10 years cleaning, fixing the mess her immature creator made. She's getting bored with the work.
"What's so funny about???"
"No. Miss Aria, you said that like you used to that already? I didn't expect human made you for such reasons..."
Axel chuckled as Aria's getting angrier.
"Ughh...you never understand!"
"Yeah, sorry"
His smile quickly faded. He thought he wanted to joke around to help her forget her trauma but...seemed like it would take more time. Even his old acquaintances told him he's bad at making jokes.
"I don't need this"
Aria casually threw away the broom and changed herself to purification mode.
[Purification Mode Activated]
Axel could see Aria changing colour to be more agile and light so the cleaning process would be faster. Her eyes also changed to white-coloured signed the changing process finished. He didn't expect she could do that, to be honest.
"This area?"
"Hm...Since people always stayed on the first floor, the second and third can be ignored. But if you can, the upper floor as well. I'm not forcing you though"
Axel said while lifting his head as Aria's floating above him. With this state, he believed Aria could clean the entire rooms in the hotel easily but he didn't want to make her works too much. But if she still wanted to do it, he wouldn't stop her.
"Affirmative"
SWOOSH!
In instant, Aria dashed the hallway on the first floor and after a minute, the floor was clean and shiny. One could see his own reflection on the floor.
Axel surprised again. Now his respect towards humans doubled as they could make an awesome mecha like Aria which wizard couldn't do. Like his prediction, Aria proceeded to clean the second and third too. She didn't clean the highest, the fourth floor because she didn't know it existed. Axel intentionally kept the floor secret and labelled it as a restricted area.
Despite the hotel was so big, not many people were there and Aria felt like the building was nothing but silent. She didn't saw a single person on the second and third floor as all rooms were empty. She thought travellers rarely came for a stay or there were not so many vacation spots around here.
Aria felt to look outside the window and when she did, she was left speechless. She couldn't believe what she saw before her eyes as she was surrounded by trees, in the middle of the forest. She thought she was in a city or capital but this was far from her imagination.
"Why the hell a hotel built in a forest???!"
No wonder not many customers there. She only saw two or three customers but they were also about to left.
"Who would stay in a hotel in a forest? Demons?Vampires?"
"Yep. Because this hotel was meant to"
Axel suddenly appeared behind her while she kept protesting by herself.
"What do you mean? This hotel was not for humans?"
"If one could get lost or being pursued and went into hiding, we would gladly offer our services. That's the main purpose of Edenwoods"
"...."
Edenwoods was a hotel made for various kinds. Not for demons to stay only but also for humans who need protection temporarily or wizards who were on their researches. The workers accepted any creature as their customer with fairness and peace. Not many people knew about Edenwoods existence. Thus, they always received the least customers but surprisingly the business never went bankrupt.
"Since you're one of our workers now, I'll give you a piece of early advice"
"Hm? What it is?"
"This is a deep forest. Don't expect all customers would be at peace"
Though Aria didn't really know what's the meaning behind his word, seeing his serious face, she kept the words in mind. After done with cleaning, Axel gave Aria change clothes and a room to stay. Yet, they just met, Axel seemed very welcoming her arrival there.
Compare to the other days, this is the first time Aria slept on a real bed. She didn't know how to describe the comfort when sleeping on it. Just like sleeping on a cloud.
When she took the clock and checked the day and date, it's been three days after the tragic incident that Aria couldn't forget. Failing her mission was one thing, then getting indebted with a person she just met, that's just too much. She felt hopeless and at the same time, she thought there's something that needs to be done.
"Morning, Aria"
Like yesterday, Axel just wore a simple shirt. This hotel didn't have an official uniform for workers? But for a hidden hotel like Edenwoods, it's only logical if workers didn't have one. It didn't sound necessary.
How nice, sandwiches, baked breads and tea were already served for breakfast at the dining hall before Aria got there.
"What a nice smell. This is for customers?"
Even Aria never ate any human food before, she could judge the food's aroma and taste with her new downloaded system now.
"Nope. I made them for you, Aria. You didn't eat anything last night, right?"
"You know I'm a mecha. I don't eat food"
"So, you expected me to serve metals and oil for your meals?"
Axel asked awkwardly there while Aria lost words to reply.
"Um....no...?"
"Try it. I'm sure you will like"
She didn't want to refuse his offer but she still hesitated. She'd never eat anything since she was born. She's just fine without eating since she couldn't felt hungry or thirsty. She doubted what would happen if she puts real food inside her stomach. Despite her doubts, she still wanted to know how's the taste as she starts drooling.
"You're 'human', Aria. You must eat to survive"
Axel's words alone could send an abnormal pleasant chill into her body. She's happy. The happiness that couldn't be described. The feeling she'd never felt before. She couldn't believe one could ever call her a human.
Convinced by Axel, Aria slowly took a bite. A soft triangle of white bread contained vegetables and meats, she tasted it with her tongue. She could feel it. She felt a very nice taste on her tongue. It's very delicious. This is just a simple-made breakfast yet, still could make her almost teared up.
"So...how is it? Sorry, I messed up and forgot to add more sauces"
"No.....this is perfect"
After done swallowed the whole thing, she took the second one, which means she liked it. Axel smiled as he saw the girl finally cheered up again. To be honest, he felt sorry for her for losing her home and family. Thus, he wanted to make the girl smile again and he succeeded.
Aria was excited with his simple-made bread that everyone could make. He understood this was the first time she'd ever eat.
For a wizard like Axel, it's not a big deal to cook and make meals for three or four people. If in rush, he could simply mix the ingredients with specific potions such as seasoning and sweet flavour potion. Making one potion required a lot of effort and time but it does worth it. Normal wizard would take at least one day to make one. But for Axel, it took him only one hour, the same as elders or maybe surpassed them.