Chapter 23: The Butler, The Personal Maid and The Head Maid
Chapter 23: The Butler, The Personal Maid and The Head Maid
I didn’t mean to lie down.
I told myself it would be a short rest. Maybe about ten minutes or so, just enough to rest since the events from the past two days tired me out. But the moment my cheek touched that impossibly soft pillow, the world slipped sideways, warm and quiet and safe.
I had no idea how long I even slept, but I know what fucking woke me up.
Whispers—if they could even be called whispers because I could hear them speaking clearly.
And it was a conversation about me being discussed around me.
"She looks so peaceful while she sleeps..." a husky feminine voice murmured. Warm. Almost reverent. The kind of tone usually reserved for gazing at rare gems or newborn kittens.
A second voice, this one sharper, crisp, clipped with a sternness that somehow carried gentleness beneath it, said, "Our Lord actually knows how to pick women."
My eyelids twitched.
What?
"Do you think we should wake her? I’m scared if I touch her she’ll break," a third voice said, this one a bit familiar.
Break?
Break?!
The stern one gasped. "Don’t say things like that! She’s not porcelain."
"She looks like she could be. She looks extremely perfect, don’t you think?" the familiar voice countered.
"Yes, she does," the stern one replied.
"Do you think she’ll scream if she sees us?" the husky one asked.
"She didn’t scream when she saw me. I doubt she will scream," the familiar voice said.
"She is a mortal. Mortals scream when they see us. Some even die on the spot—I’ve seen it," the husky voice argued.
"She’s stronger than that," the familiar voice said.
"What if she turns to water then?" the husky voice asked.
"She’s human. She is not a demon. How do you reckon she’ll turn into water?" the familiar voice asked.
"But I’ve seen mortals do that thing with their eyes where water pours."
"You mean cry?" the stern voice asked.
"Oh... a weird way to do it, but yes, I mean cry," the husky voice said.
"But I do not believe she will do that. She is more demon-like than you guys think. She is strong," the familiar voice countered.
"She destroys buildings?" the husky voice asked.
"She may be able to," the familiar voice said.
"She is human. There is no way she can destroy buildings," the stern voice said.
"Well," the husky voice said, "you simply just don’t know biology."
"This has nothing to do with biology... what is biology?" the stern voice asked.
"I heard a human say it once. I have no idea what it is," the husky voice said.
"But can I just say that she sleeps like a baby firefly? She looks so soft and charming. And look at her hair, it’s so shiny," the husky voice added dreamily.
"You think everything is shiny," the stern voice said.
"Because it is."
All three began bickering. They didn’t realize that I could hear them perfectly well. Their voices overlapped, and I don’t mean softly. I groaned, pretending like I was just waking up from sleep, and blinked my eyes open to see six eyes staring back at me.
At least, I thought it was six.
The first pair of eyes were stone-gray and steady. I already knew that was Marrok.
His carved brows pinched together like he wasn’t sure if he should apologize or ask for forgiveness preemptively.
The second pair was hollow, pitch black, and as empty as the night sky right before a storm. There were no whites nor pupils, just a depthless void that made my soul flinch backward.
What the hell? But it wasn’t the second pair that gave me the most shocking event of my life—it was the third pair.
I didn’t even process the rest of her face. Just the eyes.
They were plural, and I don’t mean plural as in two. And not four like someone wearing a pair of glasses.
There were eight. Eight eyes staring back at me. Four fucking pairs.
Eight gleaming, reflective, blinking eyes clustered in delicate symmetrical rows on a very humanoid face.
I couldn’t help it. I screamed loudly from the shock, and all three of them screamed back in perfect unison, matching the pitch of my voice.
I screamed more, and they screamed more too.
I froze.
They froze.
I screamed again.
They screamed again.
I screamed louder and grabbed my pillow like a weapon.
They huddled together like terrified ducklings, the void-eyed one clutching the many-eyed one while Marrok tried to shield them with a wing.
I stopped screaming.
They stopped screaming.
My senses tingled immediately.
"Ahhhh," I said softly, and they followed. "Ahhhh."
"Ohhhh," I said.
"Ohhhh," they replied.
I blinked.
They blinked.
Except for the many-eyed one. She blinked eight times. Which... I just couldn’t determine which was worse.
It took another few seconds for my heart to stop trying to escape through my ribs. And now that I wasn’t mid-panic, the spider-eyed woman wasn’t as frightening. Her eyes were unsettling, yes, but her posture was almost shy, her hands wringing the hem of her apron nervously. The void-eyed one was... unnervingly still, but not aggressive. And Marrok — well, Marrok looked mortified.
"What," I finally managed, "is going on?"
Marrok exhaled as though he’d been holding his breath for hours. He straightened, wings folding primly behind him as he cleared his throat.
"My lady... allow me to offer introductions. The, ah... circumstances are less than ideal."
"You think?" I muttered.
He ignored that gently.
Stepping slightly aside, he gestured to the tall, slender figure with the hollow black eyes. Her skin was extremely pale, and her hair hung sleek and glossy down her back, but they looked like feathers sticking up—feathers that were not taken care of gently.
She wore a neat dark dress that somehow made her look even more solemn—if that was possible.
"This," Marrok began, "is Rin, your personal maid and assistant. She’s a raven-kin demon. Well-trained, loyal, and unmatched in observation."
Rin bowed stiffly.
"Greetings," she said in a voice that somehow managed to be monotone, eerie, and polite all at once. "You are very shiny, Your Highness. Can I get a little bite out of you?"
Um... what?