Hi there! It's been a while since I wrote the first chapter. I decided to continue this story. I hope you'll like it!
"He-Helene...save me, Helene!"
When she heard her mistress calling for help, the demon did nothing. She simply continued to patrol the house. As long as Clemence hasn't called her name, she won't come to help her. She knew that when her mistress was calling the name of her deceased cousin, nothing serious was happening, and she didn't want her to take the habit to call that name instead of hers when she was in danger.
"Hel...Helen...HELENA!"
This time, it didn't even take a second for the demon to be in Clemence's bedroom. Her mistress was currently in her bed, shivering and sobbing in her sleep. She was a young 16 years old girl with long blonde hair that reached slightly under her shoulders and light brown eyes. Helena sighed, before gently shaking her shoulder to wake her up. Clemence woke up with a jolt and looked terrified, until she noticed her maid's presence. She looked at her with her eyes full of tears.
"He-Helena, I...I had a nightmare..." Clemence said with a shaky voice.
"Again? No need to worry, as long as I'm by your side, nothing bad can happen to you, and I do not intend to leave you." Helena said softly.
After the demon had said those words, the young girl immediately looked reassures and calmed down. Helena took a tissue and proceeded to wipe the tears on her mistress' face.
"Human are so weak. Those pitiful animals can be easily shaken just by a mere nightmare. It is hard to believe that they managed to become the dominant specie on Earth." Helena thought with contempt.
She disposed of the tissue and headed towards the door. But before she could leave, her mistress called her.
"Helena...could you...stay with me tonight? Until I woke up."
The demon knew she would ask her that. She always does when she had a nightmare. But the maid still waited for her to ask, otherwise Clemence might take the habit to don't ask anymore and it would be complicated for Helena to always have to guess what she wanted from her. She had to make sure her mistress will always speak clearly about what she wanted.
"Of course. I am here to serve you. Your wish is my command."
Helena went back to the bed and gazed at her mistress. Clemence slightly lift her blanket and pat her bed in an inviting gesture. This time, Helena didn't wait for a vocal request. With that kind of gesture, there wasn't much room for any guessing, it was pretty clear what the demand was.
The demon removed her shoes and laid in her mistress bed. She didn't need to sleep, but if it was what Clemence desired, then she couldn't refuse. The young girl turned around, showing her back to her maid.
"Helena...could you take me into your arms?"
Her mistress wasn't always asking for that, which meant that this time, her nightmare must have been quite frightening. Helena slipped one of her arm under Clemence and wrapped the other around her waist. She couldn't help but thinking how easy it would be to just crush her fragile body right now. But it was too soon for that.
"...what kind of relationship she had with her cousin?"
Helena felt that Clemence was now asleep. But according to her mistress order, she had to remain there until she woke up. The demon sighed. It was going to be a long night for her.
"Have you finished, milady?" Helena asked.
Looking at the wall, the demon maid was waiting for her mistress to finish getting dressed. Even if they were both women, Clemence was a prudish girl, she didn't like to be seen without the amount of cloth she found acceptable. Even if it was Helena who picked her clothes, her mistress dressed by herself.
"I am decent." Clemence replied.
"Decent? Are you talking about your moral standard or your clothing? Because if it is the first one, you are lying, and I know you are not a liar so I would be really concern about your mental health."
"Context Helena, context. I was clearly talking about my clothes."
"Forgive me milady, but just saying that you were decent was not enough. I clearly asked you if you had finished, I expected a yes or a no."
"...fine. Yes, I am finished. You can turn back." her mistress said with a sigh.
Helena turned back. Clemence was wearing a white long-sleeves shirt, with a brown skirt and black tights. Her usual style, which was why Helena picked those. Her mistress liked to dress with a more serious style, as well as modestly.
"Now there is just one thing left to put." the demon maid said as she approached from her mistress.
When she reached Clemence, Helena looked at her neck, or rather, the contract seal on the right side. A mark that was linking them together, as well as something the demon often regretted. She didn't except to get dragged into a long-term contract, she thought that it would be an easy soul to eat. But at the same time, taking the time to cook a soul for once could worth it.
Helena used a red scarf to hide Clemence's contract seal. She gently wrapped the tissue around her mistress's neck, making sure it wasn't too tight, to not strangle her, as well as not to loose so it could fall. When she was done, she made the young girl sat on a chair and equipped herself with a hairbrush. She carefully brushed Clemence's smooth hair, and after she separated it in two pigtails that she tied up near her mistress' neck, leaving them both hanging in front of Clemence's shoulders.
"I am done." Helena said.
"Good. Now can we have breakfast?"
"Of course, I will take care of it without further ado."
"Is the tea to your liking, milady?"
Clemence took a sip of her tea, before putting it back on the table.
"It is drinkable." her mistress replied as she continued to read the newspapers, like she always does after breakfast.
Suddenly, she noticed a gleam of interest in Clemence's eyes, as well as a slight smirk.
"Is there anything funny?" Helena asked.
"Uh? Not really. There is an article about a young woman found beaten to death."
"...and this is what makes you smile? I did not thought you were the type of person who laugh at people's misery."
"What? Of course not. I am not you. It is just that usually the articles are so boring and uninteresting, but an article about a murder...I cannot help but being intrigued. It must because I have the blood of a detective flows in my veins. I am anticipating the possibility that I might have to solve that kind of case. Just to think about it...it makes my blood boils from excitement."
Clemence's late mother was a detective. The young girl had recently took over her mother's business, a detective agency, in her hometown. It had been three years since Helena became her maid. During those three years, they traveled in France, and even in other counties, searching for those Clemence sought revenge against. After three years of vain researches, her mistress had decided to come back to her hometown to be a private detective, like her mother. Clemence thought that it was the best way to gain experience in investigation, and maybe even stumble on a case linked to those who were responsible of her enslavement. Or better, they would come to finish the job and Helena would eliminate them.
"You should cool down a little, milady. For the moment you are far from solving that type of case. The best job you had since you became a detective was to find the lost pet of some rich guy."
"Which brought me a lot of money and a good reputation. Lot of other rich clients came to see me for their problems. Building a good reputation is important if I want to one day receive more serious jobs."
"I hope so, because I am tired to look for lost pets. I sadden me."
"Uh? Sadden...you? How?"
"Those poor animals were desperately trying to escape from their human captor and go back to their natural habitat. But they were forced to return to their imprisonment like they were mere accessories for those cupid humans."
"What...are you really sad?"
"No. Demons can't feel that emotion. But somehow, I can relate to them."
"Oh, so you view yourself as my pet. Interesting." Clemence said with a smirk.
"You brat." Helena thought, before speaking out loud. "Of course not. I am no mere pet, I do not belong nor be captive to you. I am just your loyal servant until our contract is over. And then, you know what will happen to you..."
"You will eat my soul. But until then, as you say you are my servant. So you will do as I say and continue to look for pets if it is what brought me money."
Helena didn't add anything. She didn't really care about those pets, but doing something that was pleasing humans, especially those she despised the most, was bothering her. But Clemence was right. She was her servant and therefore, had to obey. Helena comforted herself by thinking that it worth it, since in the end she might be able to eat for once a human soul that will taste good.
"Until now all I did has been to eat human soul as soon as they summon me. I never tried to actually make a long-term contract, this is a first time for me. Eating those soul was like eating raw meat. I need to cook it first. Her soul is still pure, I just have to darken it enough, but not too much, otherwise it would be like eating burned meat. A slightly grilled meat would be better, one that is still bloody...that is the type of human soul I want to eat. This girl...have this potential of soul. It is up to me to cook her well."
Helena licked her lips just at the thought of eating a tasty soul. She allowed herself this gesture, since Clemence was still reading the newspapers. The latter finished her tea and reading, before getting on her feet.
"Let see if we had received any mails." Clemence said.
"You put everything out of order! Stop messing with my stuff!"
"Uh!? That's your fault for keeping your office way too clean. I needed something and I couldn't find it, and you weren't there so I serve m'self."
"It isn't that complicate to find things here! Everything is kept in a logical classifying, it's not my fault if you're too dumb to understand it."
"What did ya say!? There's only a maniac like you who can possibly understand that freaking classifying!"
Helena and Clemence were witnessing a fight between two women in the secretariat. One of the was a woman with long chestnut hair and glasses, clothed in a professional way (shirt, tie, long skirt) and was in her mid-twenty. The other was a middle aged woman and had shoulder length brown hair with on top of them a lumberjack hat, and was clothed like coachman.
"Well, that's the point since it's MY office!" the chestnut haired woman said.
"All those stuff doesn't just belong to you, it's for everyone who's working here. You're just being selfish and keep everything to you!"the middle aged woman replied.
"Then just ask for my help and I'll find you what you need."
"You weren't there!"
"Then just wait, don't be so impatient!"
"Then do you job properly! You're a secretary, so be in the secretariat when we need you!"
"Why would you care? You're just a coachman, you're only needed when we have to go somewhere. So why are you still here?"
"In case I'm needed. Otherwise I'm just staying outside and act as a porter, to keep the place safe."
"You don't need to do this, I'm the secretary, I'm in charge of receiving visitors. You will only frighten them, you meathead!"
"Shut up, you nerd!"
"Drunkard!"
"Maniac!"
"Estelle, Jackie! Enough with the fighting. What is going on?" Clemence suddenly asked.
The two women suddenly calmed down when they saw the young girl.
"Ah, miss Clay! It's all Jackie's fault! She messed with the classifying of my office!" Estelle complained.
Clemence looked around. The secretariat was as clean and maniacally tidy as it always been.
"I...don't see anything wrong here." the young girl admitted.
"What...what are you saying!? Don't you see the mess this colonist have done?"
It was Helena's turn to search for the "mess". She found it quickly and pointed Estelle's desk.
"That book...I am sure it should not be on your desk, am I right?" the maid said.
"Yes! Finally someone who notice! Thank you Helena! And it's not just that, the other books there! They are all out of order! I've to reorganized them again..."
Even Helena couldn't have notice that. There was really just Estelle who could understand the way they were suppose to be classified. Both Estelle and Jacqueline (nicknamed Jackie) had been chosen by Helena to work with Clemence. Estelle was a French woman who came from a scholar family, she was once studying to become a librarian. But she ended up working as a spy for some group, and when this group was dissolved, when ended up as a thief. Jackie was from an old colony of France that had been conquer by England, named Canada. She used to be a jockey back in her homeland, but she got into trouble and had to flee from her country, and went to France. Both of them ended up in Clemence hometown, desperate to find a stable job. That's how Helena put her claw on them. They both had nothing to lose, they know how to fight and handle weapon, and they were both women. Due to her past, Clemence was uncomfortable around adult men, not that she hated them or treat them differently, but Helena knew she would feel more at ease if her employee were women. Helena wanted people who could protect and help her mistress.
"Estelle, there is only you who can understand the classifying here. That is why I need you here, to guide everyone. And because I have no time to lose searching." Clemence began to say. "And you Jackie, I know Estelle is a little bit obsessive with this, but it is her job. And yours is to guard outside and protect us from potential threat. Both of you are important for this place, so please stop arguing."
Both Estelle and Jackie looked at Clemence with sparkes of admiration in their eyes.
"Ah, miss Clay! You're so mature for your age! It's admirable!" the secretary exclaimed.
"So pure! I'm almost blinded by the sight of something as pure as Clay!" Jackie added.
They were both refering to Clemence as "Clay". It wasn't only as a nickname. Officially, it was now Clemence's name. The young girl used it because it was a masculine name. Some people were distrustful of a female detective, so this name got her more easily clients. Once they met her, they usually realized that she was a competent detective.
"Clay! Good morning!" a masculine voice suddenly said.
Helena sighed when she heard that voice. It belonged to the last employee, and the only one she didn't choose. A young man with short light brown hair and a frank smile approached them. It was Alphonse, Clemence's 14 years old half-brother. He was the illegitimate son of Clemence's father, born from adultery. For some reason Helena found hard to understand, when her mistress learned about his existence after her parents' death, she did everything to meet him and even hired him as her assistant, against Helena's advise. Alphonse was an honest boy, who believed in justice and dream to become an inspector. The type of person the demon considered that would die young.
"Ah, Al, good morning." Clemence replied stoically.
Despite being younger than his half-sister, Alphonse was taller from at least one head. He looked at Helena with a shy smile.
"G-Good morning, Helena."
"Good morning, milord." Helena replied politely.
The thing Helena disliked the most about him was is obvious crush on her. She couldn't care less about the futile affection a hairless monkey had for her, especially coming from who she considered to be a quixotic airhead.
"Estelle, is there any mails today?" Clemence asked.
"Just one. Here." the secretary replied as she handed a letter to Clemence.
The young girl opened it and began to read it. A grin suddenly appeared on her mistress' face.
"Milady? What is it?" Helena asked.
"Our first serious case. It is from a potential client. His wife died in a carriage accident. But somehow...he is convinced that it was not an accident, that his wife...had been murdered."
At first Clay and Helena were supposed to be alone, but someone made me realized it would be more interesting if she had other servants, or rather, employees.
If you like it don't hesitate to follow/fav or leave a review, and thanks for reading!