It was sunset in Gensokyo. As all of it's inhabitants were now settling down for the night, but within the walls of a glorious mansion, stirrings of life were apparent. A butler walked through the hallways of this Mansion. He was as mysterious as the mansion was to the inhabitants of nearby villages who had not yet learned of the secrets within the mansion.
His red eyes pierced the darkness as he started to prepare the candles to be lit. As he lit last candle he caught a whiff of a familiar scent. He stood at attention and gave a small bow to the newcomer. It was Sakuya, the Head Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
She looked at him with a hint of distaste. "Shizriu! You are way behind schedule! It took you even longer tonight to light all the candles than it did last night. Since you are done get down to the kitchen and make sure the young mistresses' breakfasts are ready and be sure to bring it to them!" She was obviously in a bad mood. Yet this was almost always the case when she had to wake up the Mistress of the mansion and her younger sister.
Shizriu made haste toward the kitchens and saw that the breakfasts were indeed ready to be taken to their recipients. Grabbing both plates he walked with a brisk pace toward the dining room, but to his surprise it was empty. Shizriu sighed. He should have guessed that the young mistresses probably wanted their breakfast out on the veranda instead.
As he had guessed, they were definitely sitting at a small round table outside. Both young girls had wings, although the youngest had different wings than her sister. Rather than typical bat wings they resembled a few rows of hanging gems of various colors.
The oldest was dressed in a pink dress with red frills outlining it. Her blue, shoulder length hair was softly rippling in the breeze under her hat which matched her dress. Her bat-like wings tucked in nicely. Her sister was a blonde girl wearing a red and white dress, also with a matching hat.
Both girls looked at Shizriu who bowed and said, "Tonight's breakfast consists of a lightly fried fish, poached eggs, two slices of bacon, and white rice on the side." Shizriu put both plates in front of their recipients and he bowed.
The oldest sister poked at her meal with her fork and sighed. "I would rather eat my own hat than have another human meal." The younger one piped up, "But Remilia! The fish is raw enough to taste the blood!" Remilia rolled her eyes. "I long for blood, Flandre. It has been almost too long since I had a decent meal." Flandre looked back at her half eaten meal and nodded. "NO GOOD!" She shouted as she threw the plate at Shizriu.
The plate of fish, rice and eggs hit him in the face and shattered. Shizriu looked at the remains of the shattered plate and sighed. "Miss Flandre… that was from our last set of fine china." Remilia scoffed. "As if she even cares. Now I have another incomplete set because of her." She said as she started to eat the meal that she said she despised.
This seemed to happen at the beginning of every evening. "I suppose I shall get this cleaned up. Please excuse the inconvenience Mistress Scarlet." Shizriu said and he turned to a nearby maid, "Go and fetch something to clean all this up with. When you are done I think Mistress Remilia will want you to report to her quarters."
The maid looked horrified. Shizriu couldn't blame her. But it wasn't like the maid was in any immediate danger. Remilia rarely ever killed any of the maids that provided her with blood. Remilia finished up her breakfast and scoffed. "Actually I won't need to see her later if you don't pass your evaluation. If you fail, I'll be drinking your demon blood… All of it. For if you fail this evaluation then I have no use for you."
Shizriu was almost shocked when he heard this. But he knew that this usually happened in the mansion. Every month it seems a maid or butler gets evaluated by receiving a task to do. Usually they complete the task and are left alive. Being a wolf demon, Shizriu had to wonder if he would be receiving a similar task or if he was going to get something much harder.
Shizriu bowed. "Yes Milady." Remilia took a sip of her tea. "I do hope you won't disappoint me. You are the best Head Butler I've had in a long time." Shizriu bowed again, trying to hide his smirk. "But of course milady. But you shouldn't praise me too much. I only do what I can to please you. Nothing less." Remilia nodded and said, "Good. Then let's start your evaluation now. Sakuya."
At that moment the silver haired maid presented herself. "Yes my Mistress?" Sakuya then threw a glare at Shizriu. But at that moment Remilia continued to speak. "You are going to fight each other. If you lose Shizriu… Well, you know the consequences." Shizriu sighed and bowed. "Yes milady. Well then, shall we get this over with Pad Maid?" Shizriu said as he hopped over the railing of the veranda.
Sakuya seemed to glow red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. This seems to be the first time that any male had ever called her that. Usually only Remilia and Flandre ever dared to make such a joke. Sakuya drew her trademark knives and also jumped over the railing onto the main yard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
From where Shizriu was standing he could hear Flandre get very excited. "Ah! Our puppy is gonna play with our dog-maid!" Sakuya charged in first, throwing a barrage of knives at Shizriu. He dodged only a few while getting cut by some of knives that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Her power over time must have been how I received these cuts. Shizriu thought to himself.
"Such a pity. This was a good suit. I suppose I will just have to get another one while I am out getting new sets of fine China for our Mistress." Shizriu said, tauntingly. Sakuya threw three more knives and dashed toward him. Shizriu easily dodged the knives and scoffed, but was met with a kick to the gut. Sakuya had used her time freezing power to help herself again. This was not looking good for Shizriu. Perhaps he was in way over his head with this.