Chapter 3

"Wake up now Taylor! It's five in the morning, we must prepare breakfast for Milady!"

Rolling across her small bunk bed, Taylor rose up groggily. Her eyes took a moment adjusting to the darkness of servant quarter before she quickly jumped down to the floor, dashed for her wardrobe to grabbed her change of maid uniform and make a beeline toward the shower to get change. All the while, smell of breakfast wafting through the air and bubbling sound sung in her ears telling her that Yumeko was at the stove cooking for her.

'It's strange. How Shinki requested us to cook breakfast for her just now' Taylor thought 'after this much time passed without her asking for a meal, I almost believe that she doesn't eat.'

It has been three weeks since beginning her new life as a maid in the Pandemonium fortress, Taylor was forced to adapt and learned at a quick pace least she earned an ire from her senior due to her clumsiness or stupidity, especially stupidity.

Looking back, such an incident hadn't occurred that many times as she initially thought. Yumeko acknowledged that she wasn't used to living in this world and never done half-decent housework until now, thus she will forgive her for such thing when they cropped up the first or second time.

But when the mistake that she could've avoided if she pays attention or should've already learned about it did happen, Yumeko makes sure that Taylor won't forget her mistakes anytime soon. Like that second day incident where she fell for obvious, good old 'Help Me!' cry and broke a vase in one of the trophy room when she was tripped by those goddamned fairies. Taylor swore that Yumeko chased her around for hours with a flurry of swords flying in her direction.

Luckily, Taylor hasn't got skewered and managed to dodge all of them with several cuts on her maid uniform. She was surprised at the agility she displayed under stress especially when her body build was still that of her previous life's one which shouldn't be able to do all that without getting a sword or two stick out of her torso. And while she was angry at Yumeko for such potentially lethal punishment, her senior took in stride and proceed to explain why it was acceptable.

"Those blades I threw at you were enchanted to not leave bodily harm upon those that have souls." Yumeko said while she made Taylor cleaning up the mess in the trophy room after she was done chasing Taylor around "And if I truly went all out, you won't be able to dodge anyway – Not at your current skill and experience at least."

"If you're still clumsy in doing housework and fall easily to pranks of the fair folks, how much chance do you have in combat?" Yumeko asked back neutrally with no scorn or contempt "And Milady did promise to teach you herself, I'll honor her wish, as per duty of her servant."

Taylor couldn't disagree with her despite a bit miffed at her rebuttal; her reasoning leaves no room for argument and to be honest she has forgotten Shinki's promise already due to practice and housework everyday left her with little time to cool off before going to bed.

Taylor's musing came to an end when she finished changing and walked back to the kitchen. There she found two bowls of steaming porridge waiting on the table and Yumeko seating in one spot. It was strange for Taylor as most novels or TV shows that feature servants on Earth Bet never mention when and where servants eat after all. Yumeko's explanation was amounted to having their stomach full to prevent servants from eating their master's meal when preparing it, which Taylor wasn't sure if that was true or not, as she's not a glutton either now or previous life.

Taking the opposite seat, Taylor quietly thanked her senior and started eating which prompted Yumeko to do the same. Talking during the meal was not forbidden, but considered that Taylor was new here and still learning, there wasn't much that she could talk as Yumeko wasn't interested in Earth Bet thanks to her duty and the unlikeliness that they'd be able to travel there in the foreseeable future.

Wait… Taylor's musing and a spoon full of rice came to a screeching halt when she realized something that she missed for two whole weeks. Putting her spoon down on her bowl, she looked at her senior accusingly "You have an ability that helps with the housework, aren't you?"

Yumeko arched her eyebrow before spoke up neutrally like discussing weather "Before I can do all of it, I still have to do it the hard way. How can you be certain that magic cast by someone who never does that one task before in their life and never experienced someone demonstrating it could do better at the job?"

And another reasonable argument, yet Taylor couldn't help but argue "Back at Earth Bet I saw many documentaries noting how parahuman went out to use their power in just a few days after they got it with just instinct telling them what to do. How can this magic be different?"

Yumeko immediately cut Taylor off, her face showed disdain at the mention of parahuman "I know not whether your 'parahuman' come with an instruction manual drilled into people's mind when awakened or not, but magic certainly not." She tapped her bowl with a spoon irritatingly and continued "Some creatures in this realm have innate abilities they can tap into when needed, true, but for you, you have none, same as I am. But we're getting off-topic here."

Pausing a little bit, Yumeko then spoke up as a sign that this discussion is over whether Taylor like it or not "Finish your breakfast, we have a task waiting for us."

Knowing that she couldn't go against her senior, Taylor sat down and continued eating.

The rest of the meal went by in silence. For Taylor, she was briefly angry at Shinki for not giving her any parahuman-like power to fend for herself in the land of the demon, but she squashed that thought down immediately 'She already revived you, give you second chance instead of leaving you for dead, don't be ungrateful.'

Taylor felt guilty for letting distrust in authority so deeply rooted in her mind to the point that a minor discomfort would bring her darker thought out to the forefront despite the good other party did to her, albeit at a price. While she never voiced it out loud, the knowledge that Shinki could listen to her thought through master/servant connection at any time brought her even more discomfort, wondering what she'd think about her right now.

Shinki never shows up to meet both of them for two weeks straight also exacerbates her inner turmoil. Assurance from Yumeko that she always respected their privacy did little to comfort.

Regardless, Taylor put those thoughts away and stood up after she ate her meal; there's a breakfast to cook for her boss.

After they do the dish, Taylor was yet again surprised by Yumeko who told her to be the one in charge of cooking today while they were walking toward the main kitchen of the castle. Not as cleaners, but as cooks.

"I don't know that many recipes or how to cook." Taylor protested as they walked down the stairs toward their destination "Besides, did Shinki not have a personal cook or something?"

Yumeko stopped in her track and turned back to glare at Taylor, narrowed her eyes which caused Taylor to flinched when combined with the cold anger practically radiating from her reply "You would do well to not assume thing, Taylor. I thought I told you that sometime during your stay here..."

She paused at that for a moment, her eyes widen in recognition before she sighed and continued in a gentler tone, and surprised Taylor with it "Well, I'm partly at fault too, never explained it to you since it never came up before. I'm sorry…"

Facing with a sudden attitude change, Taylor lost the steam and unable to retort or jab back at her senior when the other admitted their own mistake – something that utterly inconceivable from Taylor's experience in her last two years of the previous life.

'But it's a welcoming change at least.' Taylor thought before addressing Yumeko "Okay, but can I ask you for help?"

"You'll be the one cooking today, I'll just following you and do whatever you ask."

Yumeko replied easily as if the idea of having Taylor, who was many years her junior, bossing her around for this task didn't bother her at all.

There wasn't a time to mull around as they both reached the main kitchen of the castle by then. When Yumeko Pushed the double doors aside, Taylor was greeted with a long table, rows of stoves lining up one side of the wall and large stairs leading down to underground cellar on the other. Various beings of different species busy around the place preparing the meal to feed inhabitants of the Pandemonium castle either with boiling, roasting, frying or baking. A pleasant smell of cooked food mixed with coal-fire filled the air creating a unique aroma not found in modern-day gas-using kitchen Taylor once familiar with.

It was right here that Taylor understood Yumeko's reason for them to eat first; she'd be too distracted by this environment to cook for anyone that's not herself – the smell was very nice and distracting.

As the two maids walked by, some of them will greet them with a curt nod before going back to their work, from chopping ingredients to kindling the flame under the stove or stirring a huge pot over it, no one is idling around at all.

Taylor and Yumeko made their way past one humanoid being that looked like a minotaur before coming to a stop next to the empty stove, table and shelf separating from the other rows behind, which also in pristine condition, like not many people used this area or it was well taken care of regularly, with the latter explanation more likely than the former in Taylor's opinion.

Still, breakfast won't make itself here, so Taylor decided to get to work as the first idea of 'breakfast' comes to mind "Well, Yumeko, do you think we have…"

It was lucky that there were still familiar livestock and agricultural products in this demonic realm which made the preparation much easier than Taylor expected.

From what she could gather, the livestock and seeds came from the human realm along with immigrants who escaped 'the collapse of supernatural belief' - as Yumeko called it – around centuries ago. They quickly gained popularity among the demonic denizens and soon became a staple source of food in this realm since.

While she didn't elaborate on what demons considered 'food' before, she assured Taylor that there're no human eaters here. When considered that some of the denizens are 'Human' themselves, Taylor inclined to believe her.

In the end, Taylor opted for the good-old fashion 'fried ham, bacon and egg with bread and fruit juice', the ham and bacon were made from salting meat of creature that's vaguely pork-like instead of fantasy creature level of weirdness according to Yumeko. All in all, Taylor could say that it's adequate since her senior didn't comment on it.

'Or she just let Shinki herself does the scolding.' a part of her distrustful mind whispered, but Taylor ignored it as she carried her breakfast toward Shinki's office, keep telling herself that Pandemonium castle is not a hellhole like Brockton Bay she once lived. Despite the monstrous appearance of some denizens who worked in this place, they were being polite to two of them thus far. Yet again, her mind still cast doubts upon their kindness, wonder if it was because who they served or genuine respect of them, or just a trap to lure them to drop their guards, like those bloody fairies.

At least her paranoia was improving; now she saw fairies as child-like in personality and bear no malice to anyone, which was proven when Taylor saw them pranked everyone equally over the past two weeks with no ill will when they get spanked back in turn, or even when getting killed and resurrected a day or two later.

She sometimes wished that the fairies keep the memories of what they did and consequences of their actions when resurrected, but Yumeko simply shook her head when she mused that out loud, saying that it'd make them more of a pest than they already been, which was not a good thing at all. She even cited several records from people across this realm about their futility in teaching these fair folks lessons, something that Taylor would like to check out when she received permission.

A knock on the office door behind the throne room later, and Taylor found herself serving her meal to Shinki who seated behind her work desk as per Yumeko's instruction before getting in here. Once all the dishes and utensils were in place, Taylor retreated to standing beside the desk, nervously awaiting her master's verdict as she gracefully eating breakfast made for her.

Her mistress hadn't spoken at all since they met today; silent nod was all that she did to greeted her before returned to busying herself with writing down something in a notebook with her pen. Only when Taylor chimed to her that breakfast was ready that she nodded again and putting her work aside to begin eating.

After all the bacon was gone and fried egg half-eaten, the woman in red robe put down her fork and looked up at Taylor "It's been a while since I have Western breakfast. Yours is all right…"

the pause at the end riled up Taylor's anxiety enough for her to ask up, heedless of the glare from Yumeko standing next to her "Is there something wrong, S – Ma'am?"

While it was true that Shinki permitted Taylor to call her by name, but as she was on duty, that's not allowed right now, and maybe never.

Shinki smiled at Taylor's nervousness while reassuring her "Nothing is wrong about your food, Taylor; and you have my thank for putting it together today."

"Yumeko helped me, Ma'am," Taylor mumbled with a blush on her cheek while lowered her head and refused to look directly at her mistress, which elicited a soft laugh from Shinki and a sigh from Yumeko.

"Ah, don't be so humble Taylor; you deserve the credit for it." Shinki took a sip of juice before asking "Unless you're saying that you dumped all responsibilities on Yumeko, which I suspect to not be the case, did you?"

Taylor didn't reply and let Shinki continued "At least you're being honest." then she returned to eating and the room fell silent once again.

It didn't take long for Shinki to finish the meal, but for Taylor, it felt like an hour has passed. A few moments later after the woman finished wiping off her mouth with a napkin, she gestured her hand telling the two maids to carry the empty dishes and glass out. However, when Taylor was the first to respond, she quickly shook her head "Yumeko, can you do the dish? I have something to discuss with Taylor."

Yumeko obediently complied; Taylor stepped aside to let her work which simply amounted to waving her hand over the dishes and then everything disappeared into the air ripple she created before she turned around and left the office with a parting warning glare at Taylor.

While Taylor was annoyed that Yumeko only used her 'magic' just now despite went without one for two entire weeks in her sight, she got the latter's message.

It wasn't like she'd try anything she'd regret toward Yumeko; she helped her after all.

"Taylor, you're spacing out, what are you thinking?"

Shinki's sing-song voice shook Taylor out of her musing and quickly apologize "I'm sorry, Ma'am! I got distracted."

Mirthful giggle cut off Taylor's apology off "Relax my child, as I told Yumeko, there's something I wish to discuss with you…" she trailed off, before asking "Speaking of which, how are you doing while I was away?"

Despite her best effort to remain proper like Yumeko's instructed, Taylor's eyes widen and asked "You are away from the castle for two weeks?" then she put her hands over her mouth when she realized what she just did, followed by a deep bow "I'm… I'm sorry Ma'am!"

Shinki shook her head and replied gently "Your soul is that of a teenager, my child. It's hard to break out of the habit or ingrain a new one. I'd be surprised if you could be a prim and proper maid like Yumeko in this short time."

The creator of Makai waved her hand above her desk, a small stack of books fell out of thin air, each book easily as thick as her arm stacked up in front of her. Taylor watched as Shinki lifted the topmost book and showed her the title, which surprised her even more;

"Ma'am, did you spent these past two weeks getting these books?"

"Indeed, my child."

Taylor was not stupid and could guess what Shinki wanted her to do with these books, yet still, another part of her questioned her reasoning because they were a bit inappropriate when looking at the publishing date on the cover. And since Shinki herself and Yumeko told her to be honest, she decided to do exactly that with a bit of apprehension;

"Forgive me for asking, but aren't these books a bit outdated?"

One part of her wondered if Shinki simply bought them from an antique shop, but from the pristine condition shown, Taylor doubts that it was as simple as that.

Instead of a direct answer; Shink put the book down while asked her back "Do you remember the date which you died, my child?"

"January 2011 Ma'am."

The answer came almost immediately. Which was not surprising, it'd be hard to forget your death day after all.

Shinki nodded and then dropped a bombshell "When I told you that your soul was flung through alternate universes when you died, I left off that you also traveled back in time as well."

And thus, Taylor's self-control broke again as she slammed both hands on Shinki's desk and exclaimed "Wait! What!?"

Unperturbed by her servant's action, Shinki repeated her statement "As I said, my child, you were flung back in time. Even if I could find your 'Earth Bet' home universe, you'd be arriving in the past, not when you died... Are you still with me, Taylor?"

Taylor was unresponsive at first due to the shocking revelation, Shinki has to get up from her seat and walked over to put Taylor down on a chair that the girl finally regained her sense.

"I'm sorry for such unsightly behavior Ma'am." Taylor mumbled while staring at her feet in shame, but in the next moment, she looked up and stared at her mistress "If that's the case, how far back I am now?"

Shinki produced a newspaper out of thin air, the smell of fresh ink she picked up tells Taylor that it was a newly printed one. When looked at the text, Taylor didn't recognize the publishing company, yet the large front-page title, along with its date, was more than enough to tell her which period she was in.

'Incheon Landing Miracle, UN Forces pushed back Communist North Korea!'

"This…" Taylor stuttered "…I'm in 1950?"

"Of different, alternate universe version of Earth." Shinki finished for her before sighing "Not even five years passed and the human is at war again. I think it's obvious why the Grim Reapers are busy – the dead from World War 2 is yet to be sorted out, considering the aftereffects like famine, disease, and hardship after the war."

"I… see…"

That was all Taylor could say as she received the newspaper from Shinki and started reading. No matter which page she turned, it was obvious that yes; she was really in the past now.

'So that explained the outdated textbooks.' Taylor thought wryly before she asked out loud "But are you sure it's all right to study these? I mean, I doubt I'd get to use it in the land of magic. Shouldn't I study something along that line instead?"

That made Shinki looked at her with a strange smirk before she started walking around Taylor while asking "Answer me this Taylor; in your mind, what separate science from magic?"

Taylor pondered for a bit and then replied as Shinki completed her round and stood in front of her again "Science is something that can be proved and replicable. It's a universal truth."

Shinki was silent for a moment and then nodded "Good answer." She loomed forward, grey eyes meet brown, and she asked "Then, can magic be qualified as another branch of science when it's replicable and can be proven that it exists?" she chuckled "After all, if it's not replicable, there wouldn't be teachers and students in the art of arcane, either here, or the Eastern Wonderland."

Taylor couldn't form any rebuttal; it was obvious since Yumeko already dropped a few hints during the past two weeks that it was learnable, and Shinki even told her that she'd tutor her. Again, her suspicious mind played merry hell with her trust issue.

"It wouldn't do that you'd forgo modern knowledge for magical one."

Shinki extended her hand to pat on the stack of books she procured from 'Human world' while speaking to Taylor "And from my experiences, I'd dare say that it'd help you immensely in your arcane study down the line, if you have the idea when or where is best to reject reality and use magic to assert your own."

Pausing a bit, Shinki smiled at her 'daughter' "But that's for the later. Now? Please make sure you studied all of these during your free time…" she then scratched her cheek with thoughtful look "And speaking of which, I never have Yumeko learned these before, might as well rope her in. Do you mind sharing books with your senior?"

"No, Ma'am. I don't have any problem with that at all."

Taylor replied despite the ache in her heart due to this request reminded her too much of a better day in a previous life. She tried to remind herself that this's new life now, and she can't build new relationships and memories without interacting with others.

None of Taylor's brooding could escape Shinki's notice, her smile turned sad and extended her hand over to squeeze on her shoulder, which the newly-minted maid could appreciate.

"Thank you, Ma'am… this means a lot…" Taylor looked up, giving her second mother an assuring smile.

Shinki's radiant smile returned and she clapped her hands "Now, remember to tell Yumeko to study alongside you. I'll get the G.E.D. test for you when both of you think you are ready for it. okay?" Taylor nodded "Excellent, I know I've been postponing teaching magic to you, and I apologize for that, but bear with it for a while longer okay? After all, your education will go to rot if left unattended for too long, and then you'd have to relearn all of them again when you need them in the future."

Taylor couldn't fault her idea. And if she was honest; Shinki now sounded like an overbearing mother, while no one can replace her original mother, something like this was still welcome for her after so long.

And damn if she wouldn't do everything she can to succeed in her expectation.

"Understood, Ma'am. I'll do my best."

Taylor meant every word of it, and Shinki, despite never directly read her mind, still felt it through their link and made her smiled.

But still, there was another issue needed addressing;

"Taylor, on your way out, please send Yumeko in, would you?" When Taylor blinked her eyes while looking confused at the request, Shinki continues "I have to apologize that I spoiled Yumeko a little too much, throwing swords at you for your beginner mistakes is not acceptable, non-lethal enhancement or not."

Taylor has to admit that she forgot to bring that up too. And she also didn't expect that Shinki would aware of her maid's action despite being dimension apart as well.

"There's nothing to apologize for, Taylor." Shinki said "It should be I who never taught Yumeko that fear is a situational motivator, just like every method of teaching ever devised by the livings. But I guess our conversation is dragging on and Yumeko is getting antsy outside, so for now, have a good day, my child."

Taylor took that as a signal to stood up. And with a stack of books in her arms, she nodded to Shinki who retreated behind the desk before walking out of the room.