*Knock *Knock
"Come in!" Exclaimed my mistress through the room.
With my free hand, I pushed the wooden door open light enough to pass through, making sure my other hand was stable enough to keep the tray and its contents balanced. Entered the room, but my mistress was not inside?
"Lady Remilia?" I asked in the open.
"Over here." she said in a semi muffle.
"She was on the balcony that faced the lake, sitting upon a chair and the marble table.
"What took you so long?" She asked.
"My apologies Lady Remilia, I was supervising other tasks, one that I must attend now needs my attention."
"And what may be more important than tending your mistress?" She asked.
One by one I put the tea and other assortments on the table.
"Miss Flandre may have been causing trouble again." I said in a worried tone.
"Relax, Flan needs to stretch once in a while don't you think?" She said in a laid back tone.
"Milady, if I may interrupt, It appears that Lady Flandre has become aware of the tanker."
"Speaking off, I order you to let it slide for a while, and talk a bit, here have a seat" Lady Remilia then gestured to the vacant chair.
"Mistress I believe I do must atten-"
"Come on! I insist" she pressured in a charismatic tone.
"Okay but just for a while." I said to appease my mistress.
As I sat down, I took the teapot and served milady a cup of tea.
"What do we have today?" Milady asked about the tea.
"Turmeric and cinnamon," I said, "we just ran out of black and read tea so I shall pass by the village for more."
"Excellent." My mistress nodded.
"So, how are things with our 'guest'" She asked me.
"With the tanker?" I asked.
"It's been about 4 days in, Tell me more about him, is he behaving? What do you think of him?" She leaned into the table.
"um, well… to start, he is very hardworking. I'd expected him to be more lazy than Meiling, but I find his dedication strong. Of course it could just be to still get access to the library." I said.
"Yeah, peculiarly enough, our guest has attracted the attention of Patchy of all people!" Milady responded.
"Yes, I'm aware."
"Why do you think that sudden interest, Think she found something in him?" Milady pondered.
"Apart from the smoke and smell? Very unlikely." I remarked.
"who knows, feelings manifest in the most unusual situations and people. You aren't jealous are you?" She responded as she gave me a smug look
"Why would I?" I assured my mistress.
"However, there is something about him…"
"Oh?" My mistress exclaims.
"His mind and heart… are in the wrong place. Not in the way you might think however, he is persuasive to care for others, show little regard to himself time to time, for example, He and I were stocking the inventory of the kitchen, I was placing some flour bags in the top shelves and leaned down to get the last one, the tanker then pushes me aside and is seen holding 3 bags that fell of upon him, haven't I realized about it, I would've been battered in flour. And he is eager to volunteer with Meiling's gardening tasks, honestly he is quite the helping hand." I continued
"but recently, he had an exchange… he is quite knowledgeable in some certain topics. And despite I haven't asked him, he is sure to let one know a piece of his mind. Sometimes he is considerate, sometimes he forgets, but he has a good intention, but I think he has to respect boundaries sometimes."
"Fascinating…" Milady replies and she takes a sip of tea, "Mmm, this tea, Is very good! It's different from the usual you make, what did you do to it?"
"Oh Milady, It's a secret, A maid like me must explore the best methods to keep their master satisfied!" I said in a confident tone.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM!
My mistress and I turned our heads at the same time. As soon as we heard a big explosion, it appeared to sound from a bit far from the halls.
"You know, it's about time I checked on Flandre, Shall we?" Milady responded and extended her hand to me.
"As you wish." I responded back as I took her hand and helped her off the seat.
*FWOOSH
A big fireblast expands throughout the hall, rapidly approaching my direction aggressively, all I could do was face it back and cover my face with my arms. I am blasted to the other side of the halls, suit burnt and my mask semi covered in black soot, as I roll in the ground, I see that the girl is rapidly spinning a metallic pole with her hands. After spinning it for a while she then slams the bottom Part and makes a loud thud, I get a glance at that pole, which now looks more akin to a crooked lance, with the tip appearing to be a spade from a deck of cards, with two hollowed out chunks symmetrically aside each other.
And after that, 3 more girls phase out of her and materialize side to side.
"THERE'S MORE OF YOU?!" I yell in total disbelief. Is this what Reimu meant by "secrets never meant to be uncovered?" I gotta get out of this Mad house!
So I just floor it to the rest of the hallway looking for a room to hide.
"Where are you going little doggy?" Flandre mockingly says.
I just hope to find a way into the main entrance to get out, or hell any window to throw myself out works too. but despite familiarizing myself a bit with the mansion for a while, these halls are not forgiving at all!
Running for a while into a seemingly endless hallway, I spot a left turn into the end of the hall, and after taking it I'm welcomed to a big 2 wooden door gate. Without even thinking about it I just bust the door open…
but then I find myself in a sight I was not aware even existed in this mansion. It was an event ball room of sorts, but the sheer size of it was so surreal, like I've said before, Is not proportionate to the outside appearance of the mansion. Multiple round tables with white cloth that almost reached the floor were scattered in an organized way that stretched throughout the room, like the form of a 5 dots in a die, only the pattern kept continuing.
"Oh doggy~" I heard the little girl's voice echo behind me.
"CRAP!" I screamed inside my head, she is bent on catching me, but where could she exist here?.
…
No time to think here! One of these tables should suffice to hide me.
And after scrambling around the room looking for any table, I found one towards mid range and hid under the cloth. And after just a while, footsteps are echoing throughout the room…
She's here.
I could not give myself the luxury to peek through the cloth, I could risk getting seen, so all I could do now was stay very still.
"Oh I see… You wanted to play Hide and Seek with me?" The girl said to the "empty" open.
"Well then, let's seek!"
"Flan 2 you take the right, Flan 4 the left and 3 will fly up and look above!" She continued. Is she Talking to herself?
"But wait a minute! What happens If we find him? I wanna pet him!" Although they had the same voice, the tone was slightly different from the "Main" girl.
"I wanna Hug him!" one of the clones say
"I Wanna Brush him!"
"How about this, whoever finds him first, shall do whatever they want with him, As for me… I just wanna scratch his back!" The leader said to the other three.
"Sounds fair!"
"But aren't we the same person?"
"Oh Hush! You're no fun…"
"Alright girls, SCATTER!" The leader said
"Yes sir!" 3 voices sounded in unison.
Oh for the love of Antioch…
"Do you happen to hear an explosion around here?" Remilia says in a calm fashion.
"Milady, it was heard from everywhere! Has Flandre escaped the basement!?" A concerned fairy maid responds to the Mistress.
"Do not worry about that, Sakuya and I will handle that." she replied to appease the maid.
"But I do need to know, where did the sound come from? Approximately."
The fairy maid points towards the west halls of the mansion, which is quite close to the entrance of the Basement.
My mistress takes the lead as I follow behind her, but as we walk we find it weird that it's more calm than past times. Normally Flandre stays there willingly and without a ruckus, but when she decides to leave for a while, she makes sure to leave behind a show.
But, What intrigues me… Is her interest for the tanker, what is her sudden interest for him?
"Oh! Milady, I may know a clue where the Little Mistress may be!"
"What are we waiting for? Let's make haste!"
Meanwhile on Flandre's side
A game of hide and seek, but it seems the chances are high. This room has a lot of tables to check, and I still with the help of my 4-of-a-kind this could take a lot.
Ooo! I got it!
"Sooo~ Do you wanna know a little something?" I said to the Open room.
But as expected, no response.
"I'm known by a name around this land: The Devil's little sister, but to be honest, I despise that nickname to the bone, I'm fond of one I made fit for me…"
Echoes of my voice only fill the room's deafening silence.
"Wanna know what it is?"
After I said that, I extended my hand to a random table, one in the middle of the room. I canalize and take hold of its "eye"...
and give it a Squeeze.
*BOOOOOOOM!
With a sudden upward explosion, the table disappears into nothingness.
"I'm the Scarlet Youth of Boom!" I exclaimed.
"One by one… I'll find you."
Back to the Mistress and her mutt
As I suspected, the tanker is not in his quarters, and with the testimony he gave me of those moments, it appears that Flandre has intercepted the tanker on his way into his quarters.
"Now why would Flandre suddenly take interest in our guest?" Milady pondered, " I thought she was to be kept under your surveillance?"
"Although Lady Flandre occasionally sneaks out and comes back, it appears in one of those moments she probably caught eye of the tanker, it's the only way that could've happened." I responded
"You should be more aware Sakuya." My mistress responds in a serious tone.
And then we hear a sudden, yet less loud explosion.
"That sounds like it came from the Event hall! She better not be destroying those tables!" Milady Pouted.
"Let us hurry Milady" I said as we headed towards the sound.
"Eenie"
*BOOM!
"Meenie"
*FWOOW!
"Miney"
*BAAM!
"Mo"
*KA-BOOM!
All while she destroys tables, she mocks how she is choosing.
One by one the tables are somehow exploding and vaporizing into thin air, and although I could not see it directly, the fire blasts are bleeding through the cloth and are visible. I was distraught at the moment, and even worse when she managed to pick tables near me, So I am breathing heavily under my breath and trembling.
The last time I trembled this hard was the time Voroshilov's PMCs shelled an annex we captured all night long.
"Doggy doggy~" She exclaims in a sing-song tone.
"Flan 2, anything there?" a clone said.
"Nope!" Said a voice to my right.
"Anything yet 3?!" both voices exclaim.
"...nope!" Yelled the voice from above.
"Well then… let's keep on looking! If you come out nice and obediently I'll give you a treat~"
This girl really wants a pet of sorts, Didn't they teach her to care for animals? and I don't think I 'll ever be anyone's pet!
*BOOM!
Damnit! I'm running out of spots, and even If I dont move, the chances of her catching my spot are quite against my odds. How is she even doing that In the first place?! What could I do?
…
…
…hmm…
"Hey!" I yelled inside my spot.
"So you really want to play?"
"Oh You have no idea, little doggy!" the girl exclaimed, as her voice got closer to my spot, just as I planned, "My sis barely has the time to play, Patchy is cuddled away in her dusty books and Meiling's outside where I cannot. Only Sakuya has the time to attend to me!"
The footsteps are getting closer.
"Well I have something to tell you too!" I kept saying to attract her attention.
"I come from the outside, so I know a little game or two." I continued
"Ooo! I know some too! Have you ever played kagome-kagome?" she raise her voice in an excited manner
"This is something entirely different…"
"This is what I call… Playin' dirty!"
I commanded myself and released ludicrous amounts of smoke out into the open, the blast was so aggressive that the sides of the sheet began to flap aggressively. And whilst it was a big room, a significant section of it was already flooded, I could tell as I phase shifted out of the table into the smoke.
And that's where I could see the power she bragged about.
She held her hand out into the table and squeezed the air, and the table was no more.
No wonder she is being kept away!
"Hey no fair, what type of game even is this?!." She exclaimed into the open.
"It's a simple game of Marco Polo? Know about it?" I said towards her.
"How do you play that?" she asked.
"Simple, you say Marco…"
and after saying that, I dash myself towards her, Pull out claws out of my hands and dash'n swipe her legs fast enough to leave her sight.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed.
"And I say Polo."
…
…
"I'm liking this game already!" The girl exclaims in an excited tone.