My Servant Is An Elf Knight From Another World

Chapter 1011: Dressed To Impress

Jackets, jerseys, and shirts were the main things I had stuffed in my closet along with bottom shelves neatly tucked with jeans, shorts and cargo pants, making out the rest of the space.

If a burglar were to come in at some point in the night and decide to plunder my wardrobe for some bizarre reason, they’d soon come to discover that I wasn’t much of a party-fiesta kind of guy and huffed in their chagrin at the lack of studded gold and silver lining my linen, before withdrawing back into shadows garment-less.

Then again, I’m not sure any burglar would make it too far in a household like this; more likely to have the cops called on me than the other way around.

Dad said to ’wear whatever’ to the party as if it were just some casual bbq hangout in the guy’s backyard, and I don’t doubt he’s gonna go through the front doors looking as such... but I think I should at least dress for the occasion with a level of decorum it deserves.

Rifling through the casual garments of gray, black, and even darker black, I fished out the only fancy suit I owned. The same one I wore when I went out on my first date with Irene once upon a long time ago.

Unfortunately, not long enough to learn and remember how to properly tie a tie. I gave it a few good attempts before deciding I wasn’t even cognizant enough for a single loop.

This looks like a job for a master at the craft.

"Hey, Ash! Help, please? Just for a bit," I called for her, tie draped over my suit collar in the bedroom mirror, looking like some overgrown grade-schooler prepping for his first school dance.

Not a second later I was hearing the clack of heels striding quickly across the hall.

"Yes, Master? How may I assist you?"

How many times has it happened already? Her simply waltzing into view, so trivially, so nonchalant, and then I—seeing her, beholding her, leaving me deprived of my grip on reality along with the all air in my lungs. There’s just no getting accustomed to it. Not that I’ll ever want to anyway.

Ash arrived in a billow and sway of violet; dress hems embroidered with floral patterns barely grazing the floor in the gust of her stride, revealing also the dark, stretched, translucent mesh of leggings partially hinted by a narrow slit in her skirt. Her smooth, white hair curtained over exposed shoulders, and the top of her dress clung in place by the loose silky straps over the end of her arms.

Naturally, upon witnessing such divinity, I briefly forgot all purpose in my life aside from standing and gawking. Fortunately, I managed to recover enough composure to croak out a feeble, "Tie..."

Ash took a single look at me, the complete total inverse to her utter perfection, and in her benevolence, offered one of her sweet smiles. "Right away, Master."

Watching her close the gap between us felt like a visage pulled from a perfect dream, except this was real and so was she. Then she got to work, forming the prerequisite loops and knots to the strand of fabric around my neck while I continued to just stare.

Maybe a little bit too much.

"I surmise my outfit of choice has attained your vehement approval," Ash said, her gaze veering for a moment upwards toward mine and looking quite pleased. "If you wish to say something now, Master, know that I am keen. Unless, you’d prefer for me to wallow in the uncertainty of my own mere presumptions."

"No, no need to wonder," I assured her. "You look beautiful, Ash."

Her eyes wriggled fervently at that. "Thank you, Master."

My eyes fell back down to her, all of her, and from the angle I was presented with, there was suddenly so much more of her to see.

"Where did this dress of yours even come from?" I asked. "Another one of Amanda’s gifts?"

Ash shook her head. "When your sister and mother first arrived here, your mother had kindly conferred me with a number of apparels for my personal use. This outfit was included among them. I highly suspect she might have long anticipated its necessity in the near future.

Yeah, that’s mom alright. The scheming prophet of parties.

"In any case, you wear it well. Maybe too well even. If that’s possible."

"Too well?"

"Like, I know I said it’s a fancy party we’re going to, and I know I said you should probably dress good for it, but..." I paused, hesitated, then ultimately decided against it. "...actually, just forget it. Nevermind. Pretend I didn’t say anything."

Ash frowned. "Is something the matter?"

It was only then I realized the caveat to seeing a whole lot of her is that Ash could see a whole lot of me too. Every minute twitch, every involuntary thought I’d rather not say... all brazen on my face.

"Got a bit greedy there for a second, that’s all," I said slowly, finding a way to phrase my sentiments that wouldn’t sound downright nonsensical. "You just... you look amazing. And there’s probably gonna be lots of people at the party, and there’s guaranteed to be lots of eyes on you. I’m just kinda not looking forward to that. I want... I want to be the only one that gets to stare at you that way."

It felt like a long time before Ash did anything. An entirety where my possessiveness and greed had festered to their extremes. In reality, only a moment had passed. A single second of overthinking, before her face broke into soft, subdued laughter.

"Jealousy, Master?" Ash said, still attempting to stifle herself. "Is that truly all to what ails you?"

"Well, I mean, it’s more than that," I replied, mystified that I was defending these feelings I don’t even condone. "I was getting myself riled up over something you can’t help. You’re your own person too. And here I was thinking of you like some precious toy that I get to keep for myself and refuse to share."

"So, in essence, jealousy, then?"

I conceded. "Fine, yeah, jealousy."

Ash pulled firmly on the fabric, the tie finally resembling an actual tie and not the makeshift noose I winded up looping around me. Despite finishing, she didn’t let go just yet.

"Are you ashamed, Master?" She suddenly asked. "Of thinking those thoughts?"

"Yes, no..." there I go again with this hesitation. "I am, but... I can’t help but think that way sometimes."

"To deprive others of my presence, to rid me of my autonomy, hide me for your own like a plaything made solely for your benefit. Your very words. Is that truly the sentiments you hold of me?"

Hearing it from her sounded a whole lot uglier than it did coming from me. I immediately shook my head, opening my mouth and ready to take it all back only for her to beat me to it.

"No, of course not. You merely exaggerate and exacerbate your feelings to these warped extremes because in your eyes—your jealousy is an emotion to be ashamed and renounced. And so you do. Why do such a thing, Master?"

All of a sudden we’re in counseling. How did we get here again?

"I mean considering the kind of relationship I have with you, all of you... how can I be jealous, y’know? It just doesn’t feel right for me to be that way."

Ash cocked her head to the side. "So because you love us, you are to deny yourself your want for us?"

"That’s not... exactly what I said."

"There can be no jealousy if there is no love to cultivate it in the first place," Ash said. "To deny one is to deny the other. You love, you care. That feeling you wish to stifle is the definitive proof that you do. So I ask, Master, what reason for shame could you possibly have?"

It was like having my heart soothed and coddled on, the way the soft, gentle melody of her voice resounded within me.

"I guess I just don’t wanna catch myself dragging you down by whining to you about my insecurities every time some pretty boy makes eye contact with you."

She scoffed at that. "Do you believe that to be a likely outcome?"

"Well, I mean, I’m already whining to you now."

"And the only ’pretty boy’ within my sight is you, Master," Ash cooed, emerald eyes glimmering bright before me. "And the only one that ever will be."

I finally broke at that. All the discomfort and unease from the past few exchanges cleared away like smoke from a smothered flame, and I was smirking too.

"Y’know, for someone who’s never been in love before, you sure know a thing or two about its intricacies."

"You speak as if the inverse doesn’t hold true for me too, Master."

"Meaning?" I asked.

"You said it yourself— with the peculiar kind of relationship we share," Ash threw me a quizzical look. "Do you not think it likely I’d harbor much of the same sentiments for you, as you do for me?"

"No, I know you can get jealous too, but you just, I don’t know..." I blinked, brain blanking completely. "Somehow, you don’t seem to get as bothered about it as much as I do."

"Because you tend to forget the most fundamental aspect to all of this. An aspect I hold close and dear to see me past each and every day."

"And what’s that?"

"That I am wholly yours, Master," Ash said.

I felt a pull, a tightening sensation. Ash’s hands gave a final tug to the tie, and I jerked forward, settling just before my lips could touch hers.

"As you are as much mine," she whispered, her eyes narrowing, shaping into what seemed to be quite the devilish leer... and I realized I wasn’t the only person suppressing their natural urges of love. "Forever and always."

Then with a final adjustment to the knot on my neck, Ash let go of the tie and took a step back. A quick bow of her head later, and she was back to her prim and proper self again.

"Now, is there anything else I can offer my assistance with?" She asked.

I just kept staring for a while. Her in that dress, in all of her beauty, in all of her grace. I can’t help but be struck by this heavy profoundness of how lucky I was to be given this chance to be so deeply in love with her, to revere her, to care for... and be rendered speechless all over again, knowing that somehow, she feels all that of me just the same, and possibly even more.

"Here," I told her, lifting my arms and twirling myself slightly on both sides. "How do I look?"

Adequate. Acceptable. Average. All things I know of myself to show, and yet in her eyes...

"Amazing, Master," Ash said, her eyes glinting with reverie. "More than words could ever properly describe."

If I had ears like hers too, they would never, ever stop wriggling.

"Thanks, Ash."