"You idiot!" Stella sniffed. "You're stressing Molly out."
Erevan was annoyed. What was this cat going on about now? "How exactly am I doing that when I am helping exactly as you told me to?"
"Because I didn't realize she would notice something was weird about the chores doing themselves. Haven't you been paying attention to what she's saying?"
As much as he didn't want to admit it, Stella may have a point. "What am I supposed to do then? She is stressed if she has to do the chores and stressed if I do them secretly. I cannot do them for her in a way that makes her think she is not forgetting things."
She sighed. "You're right but we need to figure out something else. It's too bad you didn't meet her as a human and had a valid excuse to do the cleaning around here. Humans are typically very selective about who they let into their houses."
This was also most likely true. In all the time Erevan had been living here, the only other human he saw that wasn't on TV was Calvin.
He needed to figure something else out. There had to be some valid reason another human would come into someone's dwelling and clean for them. All he needed was access to that information to put a new plan into place.
The next day when Molly went to work, Erevan changed into a human and pulled out her laptop. He had seen her type in her password enough times to know what it was by now.
Stella stood on top of the couch and peered over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Looking up a way to fix the problem of the chores seemingly doing themselves. I believe I need to type into this search bar to get the information I seek," he explained as he tried to think of the best way to phrase his search.
'How to clean someone's house without seeming suspicious' didn't yield the results he hoped for. He needed to be more specific.
It took several tries but eventually he discovered the existence of a person called a housekeeper who was trusted to come and go from humans' dwellings and take care of the chores. Unfortunately, that seemed to be a profession and would require money. That was something he already knew they were short on.
Molly had mentioned how expensive things were on multiple occasions. The best way to help her would be to get her a large amount of money but how was he supposed to do that without being suspicious either?
"Do you know of a way to receive a large amount of money without having a profession?" Erevan asked the cat.
Stella looked at him like he was stupid. "How would I know? I don't have anything to do with money. Try looking that up too. Why do you need to know that, anyway?"
"Because Mistress Molly needs to think I am her housekeeper to fix our problem but she would need a lot of money to acquire one. It will be overall beneficial for her based on conversations she has had with Calvin and other comments she has made when talking to us."
"Huh. That would be helpful. I guess you aren't as dumb as you look, Monster."
Erevan sighed. The cat always called him that and it was getting rather annoying. "I am not a monster. I am simply a being from another realm. If you must call me something, call me Erevan. That is my name."
"That's pretty different from Casper," Stella noted. "I used to have a different name once upon a time but that jerk abandoned me so I like the one Molly gave me better."
He had no real opinion on the name Casper. He accepted what his mistress called him because that was his duty but he knew what his true name was and that would not change. He had been called Erevan for more than a century.
"I will accept what my mistress calls me but it does not change what my true name is. But this is unimportant. I need to get back to my search."
Erevan typed in several variations of his question but didn't seem to get any useful information. Most of what he saw involved something called investing but that required having money on hand already.
He could simply make it materialize with his magic but then Molly would question where it came from. He needed a legitimate source for it to appear through and still had no ideas.
Nothing he looked up yielded any real results for days and he was beginning to grow frustrated. He was a powerful demon living in a world without magic! He could do anything for his mistress—anything at all—if he wasn't bound by the constraints of where she lived.
Whatever he did had to be done through seemingly official channels so he didn't accidentally distress her. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He was supposed to make her life easier.
Erevan was beginning to lose hope he would ever be able to figure out how to do this when Molly was watching TV one night after coming home from work. Unfortunately, Calvin was there as well so Stella was not in a good mood.
If he was being perfectly honest, he wasn't either. After watching the man twice now, he got the same sense that he was no good. Perhaps it was a shared intuition as Molly's attendants.
He watched them carefully from elsewhere in the room to be sure that suspicious man didn't do anything untoward and that was when he saw it. An advertisement on the TV for something called Powerball.
It was perfect! Exactly the sort of quick money he had been looking for!
Erevan was going to have to do more research tomorrow when Molly was at work but this was the first piece of a real plan and he couldn't deny he was excited to find out more. When was the last time he was this eager about anything? Normally, he did his duty without much emotion involved.
Stella slunk out from her hiding place beneath the couch to look at him suspiciously. "What has you in such a good mood when Calvin is still here?"
"I think I figured out the solution to our problem," he said eagerly.
"Seriously? I wasn't expecting that. What's your big plan?"
"I am going to make Mistress Molly win the lottery so she does not have to worry about money for the rest of her life."
Stella blinked at him in shock. "For real? How are you going to pull that off?"
"I do not know yet. I need to do more research."
"Well, good luck with that. I don't think you're going to be able to convincingly make that happen. It'll be interesting watching you fail."
Erevan huffed in annoyance. This animal's lack of belief in him continued to be a source of endless frustration. He would prove her wrong! Between the two of them, he was infinitely more useful to their mistress.
He had been going about this the wrong way. Of course he wouldn't be as helpful as a cat because he wasn't one. She could continue doing the cat duties while he did things his own way.
He was a tactical genius who had won every war he ever fought in, even if it took some time to do so. He had decades of experience managing his former master's schedule and taking care of any problems that appeared in his path. He could do so much more than pretend to be a cat if he was given the chance!
The next day, Erevan looked up everything he could about Powerball and the lottery in general. No detail could go unnoticed if he was going to make this seem realistic. There was one glaring issue with his plan though. Molly would have to buy a lottery ticket.
How was he supposed to get her to do that? His powers didn't extend to mental manipulation. He couldn't force her to do it.
He also couldn't simply give it to her because she would find it suspicious. Would she go for it if she found it on the ground herself? He would have to give that a try because it was unlikely she would buy one on her own.
Transforming himself into a human again to leave the house would be simple. All he had to do was make sure none of the neighbors saw him coming or going because they likely knew Molly didn't have people over often.
Finding her wouldn't be hard either since he was proficient at tracking magic. All he had to do now to put his plan into action was wait a little longer.
Once this was taken care of, all of Molly's worries would be gone. Then that stupid cat would finally believe he was more useful than she was. It was ridiculous he had to compete with one in the first place.
Erevan had worked hard to prove his worth to his former masters by becoming the most powerful demon in the realm. And what did he get in return? Betrayal. Now he had to prove himself to a mere animal whose status was the same as his? Ridiculous!