Chapter 4

Subaru looked at the soon-to-be knight as he stood in the doorframe. "Use gloves until you can do it properly. It would at least protect your fingers from bleeding." The former Shut-in turned at the maids and saw Ram wearing another smirk as she held a perfectly peeled potato, or as they call it here: tatoe. "Anyway… I pity the farmer, who grew these…" Snow said as he pointed at his attempt to peel the vegetable and walked away with his wolf in tow.

"Really?! I heard the same comment not so long ago!" he shouted at no one in particular. "You really are useless, Barusu." He sighed and walked over to a sink. If I can't use a knife to peel a vegetable, I'll probably be better at washing dishes! he thought and grabbed one plate, only to release it a moment later, his hands burning. And the plate fell apart with a loud CRASH! echoing in the room. "Clumsy and useless."

Subaru glared at Ram with his best 'shut up already' face and tried to wash another plate… only to get the same result. "That was Roswaal-sama's favourite plate." Subaru gulped at hearing that. "Your only worth is in sewing, but it's not valuable enough for us. Please, go kill yourself." He quickly left the kitchen and went to grab a broom to tidy up some rooms… Only to find Beatrice's multi purpose library again.

The mean drill loli didn't even look his way as she threw him out and smashed the door right after it, eliminating her presence. Subaru rubbed his neck and back of his head after recovering from the impact against a wall. Beako is surely in a foul mood today… he thought and reopened the door to find the cleaning supplies storage room with everything at its place.

But before he could even reach out for the broom, an explosion was heard and he rushed to the window to find Snow panting heavily as Puck was pouring water from thin air at a baseball-sized circle of fire just two feet away from Rem's fertilized garden. That was magic! he realized and felt depressed almost immediately afterwards. He was the only one who couldn't even conjure the weakest spell, while the maid twins could use expertly their own wind and water magic.

Try [Shamak]. Subaru looked around to find the owner of the mysterious voice, but no one was there. So, it was all in my head… he realized and went to grab the broom, forgetting the voice's advice. Now, he had a more pressing matter at hand: avoid pissing off Ram and Rem by doing nothing.

Three minutes ago, near the garden at Roswaal's mansion

Jon saw Emilia communing with some spirits, when he got an idea. The Three-eyed Raven told me that I can use two types of magic. I should ask Emilia for help in that matter… he thought and almost called out her name, when the familiar flying cat flew out from her hair towards him. "Do you need something?" Puck asked him. "I would like to learn how to cast magic. Someone told me that I can use both Fire and Water types, but I don't know how to cast any spell."

Puck seemed to think for a moment, before curling his tail to a circular shape before his face. "All magic users have a Gate. It gathers and releases the mana needed to cast a spell." Jon nodded at that. It made some sense that a magician needed to concentrate on something to cast a spell before using it. "I'll check your Gate to be sure about all types of magic that you can use." Jon looked at the spirit as it touched his forehead with its tail, while making mewing sounds.

"Ah, you were right. Both Fire and Water…" Puck said and suddenly trailed off. "What is it?" Jon asked with surprise in his voice. "No. Your mana felt alien for me just a moment ago. But it's just a part of a very ancient magic." The spirit gave him a reassuring smile after saying that, yet Jon was a bit more confused from that.

Fire and Water… no. Fire and Ice. Targaryen and Stark. Blood of the Dragonriders and Kings of Winter combined in me... he realized after a while. "A Song of Ice and Fire…" he muttered and smiled a bit. "You were saying?" Emilia's voice suddenly questioned from the right, making him almost jump in surprise. "Just that I was my homeland's last hope from stopping the Long Night, but I was…"

Jon never finished his answer as the black hand shot towards him from the black mist again and scratched all of his four scars. And after that, he almost fell over from the pain. "Are you alright?" Emilia asked him. "Aye. I just think that someone cursed me to not talk about something... " Jon responded as soon as he caught his breath. "And you're right. I can smell the WItch's miasma on you more clearly than a few moments ago."

Jon looked at the spirit with a raised eyebrow. "Can anyone else here smell it?" he asked. "Well yes. Me, Betty and the maid twins." The last part caught his interest, but before he could ask anything else, the spirit formed a small icicle next to it. "Anyway, we should stop beating around the bush. [Huma]."

Jon watched as the icicle flew a few feet away before impacting with the ground and disappearing. "This is the most basic Water-based attack and defence spell. You can also use Water magic to heal someone's injuries and [Huma] can also form a shield at least, it works like that for me." Jon nodded at that and skulked for a bit. If only I knew about that one spell, when I was holding Ygritte… he thought and sighed. "I'll act as a conduit to help you guide your mana. Try visualizing it, let it form near your palm and release."

Jon nodded and closed his eyes. And after a while, he saw the Milkwater. Jon guided a small stream to his palm very carefully, knowing that it's best to start slow. "That's very good for a newbie in using magic. At this point, everyone else would explode." Jon slightly opened his eyes to see an icicle about half the size Puck casted not too long ago. "Now say [Huma] and release it."

Jon took a deep breath. "[Huma]." After that, he felt a fair share of his energy leave him and the icicle shot towards the neatly trimmed garden, missing it by a few feet, before disappearing. "And now, do the same, but say [Goa]."

This time, Jon saw Mance's pyre, but instead of normal fire, there was the dangerous green wildfire and it was quickly spreading. "Oh no… This might not end well…" Puck muttered loud enough for him to hear. Jon tried his best to suppress the blazing inferno, but he only eased it into a moderate forest fire at the last moment. "[Goa]."

Jon didn't even dare to open his eyes until he heard an explosion, followed by sudden tiredness. "You were lucky that you missed Rem's garden and that no one was close to you as you released the fireball…" Puck commented as he poured water on the small circle of fire, he made. "That shockwave would end up for any unfortunate person too close to it in several minutes of deafness at best."

"I think that you won't let me do any more spells for today." Puck just nodded at that. "I am just surprised that you were that good with controlling the flow of your mana even as a beginner. Maybe you subconsciously used it before. That and your right glove is falling apart."

Jon quickly looked at the moleskin glove and it was indeed falling apart. "I guess that the fireball caused it." The spirit nodded at that. "Also, why do you not feel any pain from being singed by the fire?" Jon just shrugged and looked at his palm. No burns were on it. Strange… I guess that it's the effect of the Divine Protection of Fire… he thought with a bit of shock in his eyes.

"What happened here?!" Jon turned around and saw the twins with worried and angry stares mixed into one. "Puck just taught me magic." Ram suddenly sneered. "What do you have? Shadow or are you as useless as Barusu?" Jon just shook his head. "No. Fire and Water. I have Fire and Water."

He resisted the urge to smirk at the surprised stare from the pink haired maid. "That is strange. Almost no one outside from the knights had this combination, if any. Rem, we should go find Barusu before he destroys anything else."

The blue haired maid nodded at that. But before they were out of sight, Ghost bared his teeth in his own silent way of growling, making Jon a bit more nervous as he caught Rem's angry stare as if she wanted to kill him just for the simple reason of him existing.

Later that night, maid training yard in dungeons under Roswaal's mansion

Rem knew that something was wrong with both Subaru and that Jon Snow person. Both of them reeked of the Witch. Those damned Cultists infiltrated the mansion! she thought over and over in her head as she was planning how to end them. It was her duty to kill any suspicious person that trespassed the territory of margrave Mathers. And now, she had not one, but two people to kill.

Out of the two, Snow had better control over his emotions, but his stench was stronger than Subaru's. He even knew how to fight and lie better than the clumsy butler. I'll let them live, but not too long. They must be dealt with ASAP.

And with that in mind, she took out her flail and struck a random training dummy, imagining that it was Jon Snow, before moving to another one that was looking like Subaru in her mind. I'll avenge us, sister. Us and our whole clan.

Subaru walked with Rem in silence to the Irlam village to restock the thin supply of food. He didn't know why, but the air was tense and Rem was more quiet than usual. It looked like she was ready for something bad happening really soon. "Hey, Rem-rin?" he tried to start a conversation, but a stare from the maid stopped him from thinking about talking with her. And here I thought that she was the friendlier one of the twins… he thought and sighed.

Yet, it was Rem, who insulted him less than Ram so, it didn't make sense to him, why she was suddenly cold towards him… well, colder than usual that's it. Even Snow was way warmer when talking with him.

Subaru was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice a stone a bit bigger than normal and almost fell on his face, managing to right his balance in the last second. That was closer than I expected… he realized as he picked up the stone. It was a strange one. Almost as if he saw it somewhere in the mansion before. Luckily, it was a spent one, so there was no chance of it exploding upon contact… right?

The Shut-in pocketed the stone and saw that Rem was almost 40 feet away. Wait what?! How can she be that fast?! he thought and sprinted to catch up with her. And before he could ask her about the reason for the stone being that far from the mansion, a familiar song that Snow played once suddenly entered his mind.

And who are you, the proud lord said,

that I must bow so low?

Only a cat of a different coat,

that's all the truth I know.

The song felt like it suited him enough and he had a hard time forgetting about it. "Please, stop whistling in that depressing tune." He looked at the maid in surprise. "I wasn't whistling!" he defended himself with his branded scary look™ patch 2.02 ready to be shown. Rem just scoffed and looked away, releasing a rather unexpected amount of killing intent towards him for a second, before she hid it, doing like it never happened.

The butler and maid duo arrived at their destination about five minutes later and headed straight towards the marketplace at the village square, only for the brat-kids to snatch him up and crawl all over him. "Look, who's back!" one of them shouted right next to his ear and wiped his nose on his jacket. "And he has the weird stare again." "Subaru!"

To say, that he was irritated would be the understatement of the decade. And he was soon dragged by them to a fence, where a small blue-haired girl, that had them in a single braid, and green eyes was waiting for something to happen. That something turned out to be a small stray dog. It was definitely a puppy. And a cute one at that. Even the circular bald spot on its head wasn't making it uglier than expected.

The dog started growling as soon as it saw Subaru and that was for no reason at all. "Strange. She never acted like this before…" the girl muttered loud enough for the brats to hear. "She's a girl, so it makes sense that she hates him…" the brat named Petra said and he resisted the urge to use his most scary look patch 3.5 with great difficulty.

And suddenly, he felt pain coming from his right palm. Subaru looked at the part of his body that was in pain and saw the stray's head retreating from him. The wound was bleeding, but not too badly. "Aaahh!" he screamed after seeing that wound, unable to hold it back.

Of course, Rem had bought everything a few moments ago and was now at his side, only pretending to be caring about him before the brats. And that brought another part of the song to his thoughts.

In a coat of gold or a coat of red,

a lion still has claws.

And mine are long and sharp, my lord,

as long and sharp as yours.

He gulped as it dawned on him. Rem could be planning something right now. The maid before him was the Rem he heard about in the capital, when Puck spoke about Snow with Emilia-tan. I should have been expecting something like that… he thought and walked back to the mansion with the maid a few steps ahead of him.

Roswaal looked out of his window with Ram on his lap. It was almost midnight, but there were still three people out from their beds: Subaru Natsuki, Jon Snow and the half elf, that had only one use for him: get closer to his dream of slaying the Holy dragon. He tried his best to not scowl at the mere sight of the girl that resembled the monster that killed his master, Echidna.

"Soo, dear Ram, tell me about our new two employees." The hornless demon nodded slightly at that. "Barusu is completely useless in all areas, except sewing. And Snow acts like a curious child, yet he's far more useful than Barusu."

The clown smirked slightly at hearing that. "That's pretty haaarsh. And what about their potential as spies?" he asked her. "I can't say that it doesn't exist, but Barusu is more conspicuous of the duo. And certainly more carefree and stupid. Snow is on the other hand a lot less carefree, yet still a bit conspicuous."

Roswaal nodded at that. He already knew how and when would these two end, but he knew better than to tell her about it. That would lead only to unwanted questions. "Given the circumstances, it would be wise to interveene, if they start acting more conspicuous."

And with that, he spared one last look at the soon-to-be dead butler and beast tamer with two magic affinities.

Jon was patting Ghost as he stared at the night sky. It made him remember some of the nights, when maester Luwin took him, Robb, Bran and Theon with several guards to learn how to find certain stars in the night sky. Just thinking about that, made him feel homesick. And not just about Winterfell, but Castle Black too.

But that also made him remember the pain of four stab wounds piercing through his vital organs stored in his torso. Compared to that, the death he received at the hands of the Bowel hunter was quick and painless. I should rather stop thinking about that. Death is not a pleasant experience. He shook his head to clear it of the morbid thoughts. It was the last thing he needed to think about right now.

After all, Subaru told him something useful earlier today and he knew that Rem might be planning their demise, if the looks she was giving them were anything to go by. And also the fact that Puck said something about her being skilled with weapons… Ygritte told him several times that he knew nothing, but right now, he knew something. And that was a 50% chance that she might try something today.

"Ghost, you'll guard Subaru's room." The Direwolf gave him a look that gave him the 'and you?' impression. "I'll be hiding right behind the stairs and surprise and tackle her, if she chooses that way." Ghost gave him a worried look as his only response. "I know that it's dangerous, but it's also the only plan that I can think of at the moment."

He smiled weakly and patted again his best friend in this strange world. "We'll do this, buddy." Jon looked at the mansion with a determined look. "We'll either succeed, or die. There is no other outcome for this plan. And I want to live as long as possible."

And at that moment, several dozens of pink, white and red flower petals flew around the half elf princess and the mostly useless butler, as was Subaru's work called, out of nowhere.

Rem walked slowly towards the staircase, leading to the rooms of the damned Cultists to finish them off, but something felt off to her. Like a trap was set somewhere near. That was enough for her to walk more slowly and look around all the time.

As she reached the end of the staircase, she saw the big white Mabeast sitting next to Subaru's room and it was staring directly at her, yet doing nothing else. She drew her trustly Morning star and shot it towards it, only for it to miss as the Mabeast moved faster than expected away from the door. It even had the audacity to actually send her something that looked like a combination of smug and taunting looks.

That angered her more than anything and she sent the spikey ball at her enemy from another angle… and missed again. "Your attacks are slow and predictable enough for Ghost to dodge all of them."

Rem turned towards the source of the voice and saw Snow with his cursed sword drawn already. "Why do you want to kill us? We did nothing wrong." Rem glared at the Cultist with all hatred she had for his kind. He didn't deserve the answer! "I won't tell you, Cultist scum!" she shouted and attacked him.

He smiled weakly before sidestepping her weapon and hacked with his sword at the chain. She almost laughed at the futile attempt of disarming her, but the chain actually fell apart. "You're disarmed. Yield." Rem instantly jumped at him. "Never! I won't yield to a Cultist!" she shouted at him. "Listen, I am not a cultist of something. I pray only to the Old Gods and I was cursed by someone upon reaching this land." As he was saying that, he sidestepped her try at tackling him. He is more accustomed to battle than I expected! she realized after that.

"You're a liar! I won't believe a damned Cultist like you!" she responded and prepared to finish him off with a spell. He only sighed at that. Rem used that moment and aimed her hand at him. "[El Huma]!"

As she said that, at least two dozens of small icicles formed up around her and she released half of them at Snow and the rest at his Mabeast. But, he surprised her again. "[Huma]." She watched in disbelief as a shield of water, that was at least an inch bigger in all directions than her own, formed up and redirected most of the icicles to the surrounding walls, ceiling and floor.

Yet, she still saw and heard as two luckier shots lodged into his left leg and arm. It wasn't quite enough to send those limbs flying, but it cut through flesh and veins. She dodged his weak counterattack with his sword as he fell down and she left him there, walking towards the room of her last target.

She opened the door slowly and walked towards the sleeping form of the second Cultist, but he was still like a statue.

Rem walked to him and checked, if he was alive, satisfied that she found no pulse and that his skin was cold as ice. He died of weakness. I have to thank whoever did that.

And with that, she left the room and walked back to her own. Her job was done and the domain of Roswaal L. Mathers was finally safe after those five days. She had successfully completed her duty as a maid.

Jon woke up in a bed. That was enough for him to understand that he had died again and returned. At least, it isn't the fountain… he thought and slowly sat up, only to see Ram staring at him. "You're awake, Snowflake." He smiled in response and nodded at that statement.

He turned his head to the right and his smile grew even bigger as Ghost was still sleeping on the floor. Jon reached out with his hand and scratched his companion's head, happy to see that it woke him up.

Jon looked to his left side and saw his clothes. They were on a nice pile. "Would you please…" he said, a bit embarrassed. She nodded and left the room, leaving him to dress up.

Jon put his clothes on and put Longclaw in its sheath to his belt and after a gesture to his Direwolf companion, also left the room. Ram was waiting just behind the door. "AAAAAAAAH!" he heard someone shout and rushed with Ram towards the source of the noise.

It came from one of the guest rooms that were on the other side of the floor, they were in. Jon wasted no time and opened the door, only to see a worried Rem and Subaru holding his left hand and breathing heavily.

The former butler (only he and Subaru knew that) of the margrave Mathers calmed down and noticed him, mouthing a very silent: "I want to talk in private." Jon nodded in response, but tried his best to not be noticed by the maid sisters to avoid the rising of suspicion in areas that he didn't want.

"You lost your voice, Barusu?" Ram suddenly asked with a clear mocking tone. "No. I just was still speechless from my nightmare." Jon resisted the urge to nod at that. While it was a lie, it also could be believed. "Did you soil yourself?" she mocked Subaru further and Jon couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that.

"No. Would you leave, please?" Jon nodded and followed the maids out of the room. This time, it would be more interesting. I should ask again about becoming a knight and keep a closer eye on Rem.

And with that in mind, he walked back to the yard, that was big as a field, intending to train with his sword and spellcasting.

A/n:

Hey guys! This chapter is shorter than the rest and I also am surprised that this story got already 1,18k total views, 18 favs and 22 follows. You guys are awesome!

See ya later!