Subaru opened his eyes.
"Rem, Rem, it seems our guest has awakened."
"Ram, Ram, he's looking at us."
Not quite correct. Subaru was still waking up from his slumber, and was blindly gazing ahead. When he actually regained vision, though, he was quite delighted.
Maids!
Two of them, in fact. One pink-haired, and one blue-haired. Sisters? Probably. Attractive. Hell yeah.
"Oh, so this world has maids too, eh? This situation just got so much better!"
Subaru exclaimed with a somewhat lecherous grin. Then his mind immediately wandered off to more heart-racing thoughts.
"Rem, Rem, he's imagining lewd things!"
"Ram, Ram, he's undressing us in his mind!"
Then, to Subaru's purer joy, Emilia walked in and beckoned him to follow her. He obeyed and followed her to the entrance. He exited what looked like a giant mansion, although he could describe it as a castle, for all he knew.
In the meadow in front of the mansion, Ash could be seen refining his moves, gracefully swinging his greatsword and poking with his dagger in a style he had learned from the Abyss Watchers.
After he finished up with a particularly long and flashy combo involving lots of flips, he quickly jogged over to the two. Subaru unconsciously noticed the man did not show any kind of fatigue, even after those incredible moves.
"Subaru, I see you're in shape. Three days of sleep did you good."
"He's been actually quite worried, you know. He always stayed by your side."
Subaru was both surprised and comforted knowing that the knight had always stayed with him.
"Now that Subaru's awake, and seeing that lunchtime is near, I believe we can finally talk. Roswall, the owner of the mansion, will join us as well."
They met in the dining room. The two maids had already prepared a feast, and everyone took their seats. Then, a tall man with a lot of extravagant face paint sauntered in with a breezy demeanor.
"Who asked for a jester?"
Subaru asked with a confused look plastered on his face.
"That jester is Lord Roswall, and you are in his seat."
Ash observed bemusedly as expressions of dread, realization and bewilderment fought for the dominion of Subaru's facial features. Roswall looked amused as well, and paid no mind to the boy's unknowing disrespect.
The kid seemed harmless enough, but the knight sitting opposite him intrigued the lord.
"You can take off your helmet, you know, sir?"
"Name's Ash. Do I have to?"
"Oh, I'm sure everyone's just titillating to see the face of the noble knight that sent Emilia's would-be assassin packing!"
Ash sighed, disliking Roswall's flattery, and finally took off his helm, placing it in front of him on the table. When he raised his head, he caught everyone by surprise. He had a normal enough face, a long black beard and a moustache. Long matted black hair covered his head.
What really caught everyone's eye were the giant bags under his eyes. It looked like he hadn't slept in years. Yet he didn't give off a tired aura, instead looking vibrant and attentive. At some point, Puck had appeared.
"You look quite trashed, I'll tell you that."
"Now you can all stop gawking. Let's get down to business. Lord Roswall, I am sure we can do something to repay our debt."
"My, my, what debt could you possibly be talking about?"
"What do you mean? We've been here three days, without repaying anything. I don't like feeling like a leech."
"Oh, but you are guests! Do not worry yourself! Besides, what you did is worth much more than three days of rest."
"And what did we do? I'm actually confused here, Sir."
"No need for the Sir, just call me Roswall. What you two did, was save royalty!"
Both Subaru and Ash's jaws dropped. They turned around to look at a bashful Emilia. Ash couldn't quite process the information for a few seconds, but Subaru had him covered.
"Royalty? Emilia, you're royalty?"
"Not yet. Lugnica is currently kingless, and I am one of the candidates to succeed the throne. The emblem was my proof to have a chance at calming the turmoil this kingdom is going through."
"You two have done a great service to the kingdom, and to my liege. Whether you acknowledge this or not, this is what you did. A few nights in my home are not nearly enough to express my gratitude."
"I swear that I will do anything in my power to repay my debt to you two."
Ash and Subaru took that in quietly.
"Any reward, you say?"
Subaru's sudden change of tone drew Ash's attention. So he had a side like that as well. Every age, it seems, is tainted by the greed of man, an old friend had told him. He was righter than he thought. Emilia seemed slightly uncomfortable.
"Y-Yes. Anything I can do."
"Well then. I desire to be employed at this mansion as a servant."
Ash's eyebrow skyrocketed upwards. He misjudged him. Didn't happen that often anymore. The two maids perked up, and started paying attention as well. It seemed two extra pair of hands weren't disliked in this place.
"I'll go with that too. A stable position at the mansion is sufficient for me."
Emilia was dumbfounded.
"Are you sure? Puck is a really powerful spirit, you know?"
"I can make you both very rich men, if you willed it."
"The chance to see my beloved Emilia every day trumps any kind of monetary gain!"
"Money does not concern me, don't worry."
Roswall clapped his hands in delight.
"Well then, starting tomorrow, you are both servants in the Roswall household! You may take your time to familiarize with your new working environment."
"Very well."
The two maids wasted no time explaining their duties to the two newly appointed butlers. They decided Ash would handle kitchen business and the gardening, and Subaru would be responsible of cleaning the mansion and miscellaneous tasks.
All in all, quite well. But their troubles were not quite over. They had not earned the maids' trust yet, and not Roswall's completely.
The two were walking along one of the many corridors of the household.
"Ash, what do you think of Lord Roswall?"
Ah, an expected question.
"I'll be honest, I don't like him very much. He looks way too unpredictable and I sense he has the power to be a serious threat if we anger him. Emilia is just a naive girl. Innocent, but she'll get killed quickly if no one watches her back."
"That's quite a brutal judgement."
"Brutal was my everyday. I've seen things that would drive anyone insane. I don't know, maybe I've gone insane myself."
"You gonna tell more?"
"Alright, just a bit about my past. I hail from the forlorn land of Lothric, a dying kingdom forever covered in ash. I admit, I contributed to some of it myself. In my world, there is a great Flame. It keeps the world alive, but periodically it fades. I tried to relight it, but failed, and from that day I am known as Unkindled."
"How does one rekindle the Flame?"
"The Flame requires an immense amount of souls, and a powerful rekindler. If one succeeds, they become a Lord of Cinder. Entire eras pass between one rekindling and the next. It's a long process, and as you may imagine, it takes a toll on the Flame. It just grew weaker and weaker. In the end, I was forced to extinguish it. What happened after that I do not know."
Ash looked sorrowful as he told this story. In his own way, he missed that twisted, wicked world. It was familiar. Subaru sighed.
"In my world, I was nobody. A failure of a life. Nothing quite as epic as you. When I came here I thought, maybe I'd have purpouse. Now, it seems like I found it."
While they were talking, they went through a door, and found themselves in a library. What they found therein was a small, blonde, drill-haired, very annoyed lady.
"Two questions. Who are you, and how did you get in this room?"
Subaru was on her with astonishing speed.
"Oooh, they have lolis in this world too? Awww, look at you, so cute! And look at this hair!"
The "loli" in question beared this shower of attention for precisely five seconds before unleashing an invisible force, which shot Subaru straight out of the room and the window opposite it. He landed heavily in the garden, by the sound of it.
The lady then turned to Ash, who already had raised his hands in a sheepish manner, calming her anger, at least temporarily.
"As I said, who are you and how did you get here?"
"Name's Ash, the new butler. That was my colleague Subaru. Sure you haven't killed him?"
"How did you get in here?"
"Through the door?"
She raised her hand once again.
"Easy, easy, I don't want any trouble."
"Weird, I don't sense any mana from you. Come closer."
As Ash drew closer, Beatrice put her hand on his chest, and tried to scan his mana. Tried, but there was no mana there. It was just empty, like she had tried to examine a corpse.
Beatrice was taken aback by what she had discovered.
"What?"
"N-Nothing, just, get out of here before I throw you out like that idiot."
Ash took her word for it, gave a dignified bow, to which she replied with a quick nod, and scuttled the library.
This was bad. She was suspicious. Suspicion led to questions. Questions led to truth. But in this case the truth could very well ruin him. Being Undead was common, but it was no blessing. The other Undead had told him tales of fear and hatred. The living did not take well to the dead masquerading as them.
He knew that eventually it would break out, but until then, he had to stall his fate.