Seeing them about to start, Gracie quickly stood and made her leave. She needed to rest as the next day was going to be exhausting.
It was a quiet night if she ignored Alice’s quiet moans in the distance. As she walked downstairs she was confronted by one of the maids.
“How are you doing Headmaid, did Master get angry with you?” The maid was resting her back on the wall, glaring at Gracie with her gleaming black eyes as her orange ponytail got twisted on the wall.
Gracie slowly lifted her head to look up, the maid was a fair bit taller than her. “Fine, he didn’t,” Gracie said as she kept walking by the maid as if she wasn’t there.
“Not fun at all, how come he chose one like you?” The maid shook her head as if in disbelief.
“Ellie please show some respect, she is the Headmaid!” Lexi who was passing by yelled, Gracie might have been their friend and coworker but now she is their boss, it was clear to them all that he must have chosen Gracie because she never argues and do what she was ordered.
Gracie slowly turned her head toward them for a moment, and the two maids gasped. Whether it be a joke or an insult, Gracie never reacted which made this scary for the both of them.
It might have been the first time they saw her act without being told to, if it wasn’t her it must be Cain. The two maids took a step back, “Listen, I didn’t mean to it.” Ellie apologized if Cain had expected this to happen they could be in big trouble. As Gracie was about to speak, the blood got drained from their faces ‘He did tell her to do something when disrespected!’ Lexi thought this must be Cain’s doing.
“Go finish your work, it’s already too late.” Gracie then walked to her room without elaborating further. Clank! She closed the door.
The room looked plain, a simple white bed with a black frame. a small closet where she put her clothes and a desk with a large mirror. The room’s wooden walls bore no decoration other than the simple window which was colored white.
Doing her daily routine, she walked toward the desk and took off her headband butting it inside the drawer. She then walked back to the door and took off her shoes and sat then by the corner. Her next step was to lock the door, as she didn’t want anyone to get in when she was changing.
“Hunting monsters…” She mumbled thinking about what Mary said after Cain passed out, she might be able to help. Cain had told her to think about her feeling more so she had started spending some time thinking.
‘When they yelled at me after I dropped Master, that feeling, what it was? It felt like something was stuck in my throat.’ She pushed two fingers down her throat, it wasn’t the same feeling, she didn’t even gag which was disappointing.
‘When Master said I did a good job, that feeling, a warmth in my chest. That must be happiness.’ Gracie tried to force a smile with her hands, no matter how much she tried, she just couldn’t make the expression of a smile. It was just like trying to move her ears, impossible.
Stopping her thought train, Gracie undid the straps of her uniform and gently pulled them over her shoulder. Under her uniform, she was wearing a full-body suit that covered her from the neck to her wrists and ankles, weird devices were attached to that suit with multiple weapons.
On each of her forearms, a metallic device was attached holding multiple small knives. She carefully took them off. It was one of the items given to her by Lisa, a wrist’s hidden blade holder.
A thin metallic wire was rolled up her shoulder where her puffed shoulder pads should be. Dropping in down, it can both act as a rope and as a strangling weapon.
Foot tall shivs were strapped to her thighs to be used as a stabbing weapon, she immediately took them off as they were a bit uncomfortable to wear. She stopped for a moment before taking her suit off as her body underneath wasn’t something she fancied looking at.
‘Is this another feeling? What would he think if he saw me like this?’ She pondered looking at herself in the mirror.
…
The next morning quickly came and Gracie had woken up early to head to Cain’s room. She quickly headed toward the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of hot water and two clean towers and headed upstairs.
As she reached the door she looked behind her, the hallway was empty so she quickly opened the door and entered. The first thing she encountered was the smell, those two must have been at it for the whole night. Taking a few steps to open the window to let some fresh air in, she left the shutters down so they can’t be seen from the outside.
Before going to the bed she made sure to rekindle all the unlit candles to get some light in, as she looked in front of her, the two were laying naked in the bed like fish.
Cain was hugging Alice from behind with a happy face while Alice seemed like her wings were about to snap, one of them looked twisted in Gracie’s eyes but she didn’t know how they work so she didn’t care that much.
Alice’s face also bore a smile but it was quite different than Cain’s, clear tear marks were left on her cheeks as drool dripped from her chin.
Gracie immediately tried to wake them up, “Wake up!” She dragged Alice away from Cain’s grip, the girl twisted and stretched her arms before slowly opening her eyes with a yawn.
“It morning already?” Alice asked as she looked at the dark window, she immediately realized that the shutter was down and the sun was already up.
Gracie quickly rinsed the towel in the warm water and approached Alice, “I will clean your face.” Alice looked at her and pointed toward the bowl. “Hand me the other one then,” Gracie immediately did as she was told and handed the second towel to her.
Alice used that towel to clean Cain’s face while he was asleep which woke him up. For a moment he was surprised as the first thing to enter his vision was Alice’s chest.
After cleaning up and changing they headed down for a quick breakfast, Sofia and Selena were already up and ready. Cain seemed confused a bit before remembering what he had asked of Mary, hunting monsters it was.
Sofia immediately handed him a sheet of paper, it had detailed the location of slimes, toads, dire wolves, wild boars, green vipers, goblins, and some other monsters nesting points around the city.
“So who is going?” Cain asked as he saw a bunch of girls around him. Alice, Sofia, Selena, Zaleria, and Gracie. “You too?” He looked at Zaleria.
“To be honest, I’m getting hungry and I wanted to hunt a bit.” Even though she looked like a human she was a dragon and needed a lot of food, a few human bites were like eating nothing to her.
Gracie was holding a big bag on her back that held their food and some other things they might need. Cain immediately asked Selena and Zaleria if they could be the ones to carry the heavy load because of how much strength they had. Zaleria agreed to be the one carrying things.
As they were walking in the garden they saw Mary approach wearing what looked like an adventuring outfit, she quickened her steps as she saw them getting out.
“Wait for me!” She called loudly, Cain looked at her in surprise.
“Being their representative meant that she was to accompany them as well, she seemed to have calmed a bit after yesterday’s argument as she handed Cain a list of possible places to sell the corpses beside the guild which pleased him greatly.
Cain felt a bit out of place as everyone on the street looked toward them. Six girls and he alone, it was quite a strange sight even among adventures.
“Have you decided on where we will go first?” Mary asked. Cain put his hand to his chin and replied. “Slimes, I want to have Gracie level up first. Then we will head toward the rest and split. With Zaleria we can do that safely.”
Mary looked at him remembering how Zaleria had treated B-rank adventures before. It felt weird as Zaleria didn’t look strong at all, she seemed like a pushover which was strange.
“Let’s hurry, we don’t have the whole day!” Cain said as he quickened his pace.
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