It had been a month since Asuka and her friends started living in their new house, and already the place was turning from a house of demons into that of spiders and cobwebs. The worst affected in the group were the demi-humans with their heightened senses, and even more, disturbed by it was Asuka who'd been a royal maid in a castle that stayed spic and span through all the seasons.
"Haaa…This house is a mess!" Done with dusting the room's corners, Asuka stepped off the stool and let out an exalted sigh. "At least we won't have to worry about it for a while now."
Looking around her room, she checked for any spots left just like she'd done for every other room in the oakwood-floored house. When she couldn't find a speck of dust anywhere in the room, she dusted off her maid outfit before making her way out to the basement to store the mop and duster.
Humming happily, she walked past everyone's empty room while just peering in to check if they were back home yet. However, as everyone was off to their scheduled duty to keep the elites trapped inside the city walls, none of them had been back, or at the very least they weren't back into their rooms yet.
'I wonder if Master can finally control that devil girl today.' Feeling her heart burning with jealousy, she clutched the mop's handle tightly and kept squeezing it until she heard a sudden crack.
"Eeekkk!" Right by the stairs as she realized what she'd done, her head hung low and her smile turned into a grimace. "I have to buy a new one now."
Dreading venturing through the streets filled with elite demi-human elites and monsters, Asuka felt a cold chill run up and down her spine. To her, the elites seemed worse than human scum. And why would she see them any other way? After all, humans didn't enslave their own kind and even when they did, those slaves were at least treated with some dignity. The elites, however, were as feral as the land they'd come from.
'They should all be thrown back into the feral lands, then when they're treated the same way they treat those slaves, they'd finally understand why your servants deserve at least some dignity and respect.' Deep in her thoughts, she had reached the basement without realizing it, but as she tried to put the mop and duster away into a cupboard, she noticed something peculiar peeking out from behind the cupboard. 'What?!'
The half-face of a translucent young boy was looking right at Asuka with its eyes wider than they should've been. Petrified by the figure, Asuka's body went into shock. Frozen in place all she could do was just keep looking into his eyes. Like maggots the strings in his iris were moving around violently, making the scene all the more grueling.
"Wh-who?" The moment Asuka whispered those words, the boy fled into the back of the cupboard before disappearing completely from sight.
'Was that a ghost?!' Forgetting that she herself was a demon living with all kinds of oddities, Asuka was freaking out of her mind trying to make sense of the situation. 'Ughhh! I must be dreaming.'
Trying to convince herself that what she'd just seen was a lie, she stocked the cupboard with the cleaning tool before heading back, seemingly unbothered. What she failed to realize, however, was the translucent figure following her from corner to corner. Getting to the stairs, the figure left Asuka behind to clean the bar counter and headed upstairs.
Distracted with work, Asuka didn't realize as the ghost made his way to Fay's room and then lingered right of Stella as she slept soundly.
Leaning over the child, the ghost tried to touch her skin but his fingers passed right through her body. Still not used to being a ghost that can pass through objects, the nameless ghost frowned in disappointment as he wanted to play with Stella like he so often did when no one else was looking.
About to give up for today, the boy turned around defeated, but as a light chuckle left Stella's lips, a huge smile took over his face. Turning to face her once more, he saw her already struggling up on her feet and looking right at him.
"Ma-Max!" Stella muttered, giggling out loud.
"Let's play again!" Without a shred of restraint, the boy jumped up and down for having found a friend who was nearly the same age as him.
Hearing the rustle and tussle upstairs, Asuka's beards perked up in response to the sound. For a moment, she couldn't figure out what was going on, but just now remembering that Stella was still in Fay's room and that nobody else should've been up there except her. Going into panic she quickly made her way to the upper floor.
Once getting there, however, she found no trace of the ghost boy or even Stella anywhere inside the room. Terrified, she went over to check the cradle and sure enough it was empty.
'What the hell?!' Chilled to the core, Asuka began searching the whole house trying to find where exactly Stella was hiding.
Even after upturning the whole building, trying to find Stella, Asuka could not find her anywhere. What made finding her even harder was the fact that slime gave off no odor until they wanted their presence to be known. But now, without a hint of Stella's body anywhere in the building, Asuka felt lost as to what exactly she was meant to do.
As time passed and her worries continued to be clamped upon one another, Asuka waited with an anxious heart until someone from her group arrived home. The very first person to arrive by twilight was none other than the mother of the lost child, which only served to feed Asuka's anxiety more and more.
'What do I do?! What do I do?! Should I really tell her?!' Shaking her head violently from side to side, she brushed away all her doubts and grabbed onto Fay, right as she walked over to the front door of their house.
"Stella's missing!" Asuka explained, her eyes closed in fear of reprimanding.
"What?" Fay asked, her eyes contorted into a worried frown.
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