The servant's quarter, Froschköning mansion.
Having finished her rounds, the young chief-maid head back to her room. Once in her room, she threw her body on the couch sloppily without even taking off her clothes except for her white gloves.
Ever since the young-mistress's disappearence less than a week ago, a lot of things changed. Many servants, fearing their master's wrath, left the manor in hurry and even before that, there were already those who thought the Froschköning family was finished. One by one, they put down their covenant's ring and left betraying everything a butler and a maid stand for.
Yet, the manor didn't grow any smaller. The workload naturally fell on the shoulders of those who stayed behind, the chief-maid included. This is why she was even more tired than usual.
But it was fine. This merely severed the useless branches.
"Yes, this is merely a test of loyalty. It will cleanse this house of all of its parasites."
She rolled on her bed, extending her left hand towards the ceiling. On her middle finger was the silver ring proof of the covenant she entered. The proof of her loyalty to the Froschköning family.
"..."
But, often, she dreamed about it. What if that ring was just one finger away? What is instead of serving the family, she was truly a member of it?
"*Sigh* As if that could happen…" she said with a wry smile.
Without any warning, she threw a dagger at the ceiling and a green bar appeared.
A sluggish voice echoed, "Ouch… It hurts, Miss Cécile…"
The part of the ceiling she touched with her dagger seemed to melt into a white goo before splashing the floor. Cécile raised from her bed, making a knife appear in her right hand.
"What a cheap trick," she said, readying herself to strike the intruder.
"Wait, wait, I come in peace," said the white pile as it morphed into a humanoid form.
But Cécile didn't wait. She lunged at the figure before it could finish it sentence.
"Arts: Cage of Silver."
Silver chains erupted from ceiling, the floor and the walls binding the creature. It was now completely bound, unmoving, as if time itself stopped for it.
"Arts: The Hundred Cuts 99th Form – Last Breath."
With blinding speed, Cécile striked the creature again and again up until the 99th hit its body.
"Now, answer my questions, would you? What are you doing here?" she asked, swiftly cutting one of the silver chains with her knife.
As soon as she did, it seemed time had resumed for the mass of white fluid. It grunted in pain, squirming as it felt every single of Cécile's strike and its HP bar slowly became yellow then red. Then, it stopped moving, hanging pitifully like dead meat in a butcher's stall.
Cécile observed the thing a moment then closed her eyes thoughtfully, "I can perceive complex thoughts from you. You aren't a normal monster, are you?"
"..."
"Oh, you are trying to make me lose patience so that you can take your second form? Sorry, I left you at 1HP specifically because I feared you could be that kind of demon. You won't be able to use your second form with me. Besides…"
She turned around and then sat on the bed nunchalantly.
"Even you had a way to reach 0 HP yourself, I would still be able to restrain you effortlessly. You saw it yourself, didn't you?"
"... My," made the mass, "you are quite the troublesome lady, Miss Cécile. Not only you master two Arts but you also have the [Implicit Communication] ability. What happened to this state's hunting grounds in the recent years so that you need maids of such strength to clear them?"
"So? Who are you?"
"Oh please, stop with the pleasantries, Miss Cécile. If you didn't know who sent me or my nature, you wouldn't have been able to leave me at 1HP. I do not look any different from your average slime after all."
"It could have been a gamble," she simply replied. "But you seem to be fond of idle chatter which is not quite the style of your fellows. Anyway, what do you want?"
"Won't you free me first?"
"..."
"*Sigh* Very well. Listen well then."
The creature made a thoughtful pause before continuing.
"Rejoice. Miss Vasilisa is going to die very soon."
"Oh…"
The maid crossed her legs unimpressed, throwing off the slime creature.
"Hm? Did I read the information incorrectly? Wasn't it what you wished for?" it asked.
"Indeed this is what I asked for," she said, calmly. "Yet, it is strange, I am possessed by the eerie feeling that I have heard such a thing before. Twice in fact."
"Oh, I am sorry to hear that, Miss Cécile. But do not worry, this time, her death is guaranteed."
"Empty words."
"I am not like the last number 9. I made sure to guarantee her death."
"The last number 9, huh?"
Cécile understood. The assassin which was supposed to find and kill Vasilisa after her escape never contacted her again. That could only mean that he died in duty. Only such a thing could stop one of those people.
"Oh, by the way, I am the one who killed the last one," said the white slime.
"Well, it is not as if that thing could have done that," replied Cécile, uninterested. "Anyway, I suppose you inherited his contract?"
"Precisely."
"Why didn't kill her right away then? If you are strong enough to be one the numbers, why showing yourself before le having not fulfilled your part of the contract?"
She flashed a mocking smile, her head resting on her fist.
"No, it can't be… You wouldn't be stupid enough to come here to discuss the condition of your contract, yes?'
"Well, I was kind of expecting a rai—"
"Such a pain."
Again, the slime was cut in the middle of one of its sentences both in speech and body. Cécile stared at it coldly as the mass fell to the ground pitifully, slowly disappearing in shining red mist.
"Such low patience, Cécile."
Outside her room, a familiar voice called her name. Cécile opened her eyes wide as the Mistress of the manor entered her room, a modest smile on her face.
"You could have listened to it until the end," the woman continued.
"... I see," Cécile said, preparing to attack again. "You already infected this whole manor didn't you? Is that what you guys wanted from me? This estate and my body?"
The mistress of the house raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Aren't you blowing this out proportion? Well, to answer your question, I do have an interest in your body and I did assimilate everyone here save for you and the master, but do not worry, it is merely to follow the scriptures."
"Oh, your so-called scriptures."
Cécile could help but laugh a little.
"You mean those who foresaw Vasilisa's death at the hand of the mistress a few months ago?"
"Those, indeed."
"The same one which predicted she would die of hunger afterwards."
"Yes."
"And now you are telling me she will die again? Of what this time? Old age?" she said, mockingly.
"Well, I would not specially mind that," admitted the woman before turning completely white and morphing into another form. "But the scriptures say Vasilisa must die differently. In fact, she should have already died for all intent and purpose."
Now before Cécile stood a beautiful young lady with curly blonde hair, a fair body and face, as well as the black cape usually worn by miners.
"So the higher ups have deemed her existence an anomaly which means we will use more… lethal methods to deal with her. Well, she isn't causing enough trouble for us to directly take action, but killing her is a priority of sorts. This is what I truly wanted to talk about."
"An anomaly, you say…"
Are you only realizing it now? This child is a demon! she thought, clenching her fists. Yet, she realized the dangerosity of speaking ill of demons in front of one of their kin. Indeed, looking at its glowing yellow eyes and its white pupils, she knew that the being in front of her was indeed one the Red Path users. She also instinctively understood that she would lose should a fight with that thing begin — its mindset, disposition and abilities were completely different from when they met a few minutes prior. Her best option here was to calm down and resolve this pacifically if possible.
"If I remember correctly," she began, "anomalies are what you people are really after, aren't you?"
The girl nodded distractedly, looking with round eyes at the room as if admiring a luxurious place for the first time. But Cécile wasn't going to fall into its trap.
"Are you going to kill me now? Is that why you are here?"
The girl turned to her, eyes wide, "You are not making sense. Why would we do that?"
"Because I know about you and that my contract has been broken," she replied. "Now Vasilisa's death is your priority, my request is null and void meaning that you will treat me as a result of Vasilisa's interference with the world and thus, kill like you did with everyone else in the manor, isn't that right?"
"... You have some serious problems. Do you even listen to yourself?"
The girl's hand melted and morphed into a familiar head – it was one of the remaining employees of the manor.
"May, 33. Will live off mediocre jobs during the next two years before getting a merchant class authorization and creating one the greatest chain of stores in the kingdom," said the head before it morphed into a young girl with red hair and green eyes. "Kate, 15. Will die in a few hours burned to death by a fire dragon."
The hand morphed a last time into the familiar face of the manor's mistress.
"Clarence, 39. Will be caught tomorrow morning and will die in jail for murder of 14 year old Vasilisa."
The hand then fell to the ground and reformed into the hated light-hearted dark eyed child.
"The scriptures must be followed, Miss Cécile," said Vasilisa's look alike. "If the world can't repair itself, t-then… we… er… we… I mean… we will… help it."
"... I see," said Cécile, closing her eyes. "Then you are not killing me because the scriptures didn't say I was dead?"
"That is one way of seeing it," said the blonde girl. "Just remember, Miss Cécile. We were the one who approached you after Vasilisa survived her first scripted death. Originally we asked for money too but now, the only thing we ask of you is to reclaim your future. Those are the terms I wished to change."
"Reclaim my future, huh?" She sneered, "What does that even mean?"
"Now, now, I am sure you know I can't tell you that. Anyway…"
The girl put her hand on the false Vasilisa's shoulder.
"I will leave to you the care of crafting a believable story when the judge finds the body tomorrow. All I can promise to you is that Vasilisa is going to be dead very soon, one way or another."
"... What about the master? What does the scriptures say about him."
The blonde girl looked at Cécile a moment before flashing a smile.
"Apparently, he will marry a troublesome woman."