Chapter 6
Taylor hummed as she casually wiped away burnt grease stain on the frying pan that one of the cooks in the Pandemonium Castle left unattended a bit too long due to fairies causing a mess (again). Magical sigil flared up on her hand briefly and the burnt substance sloughed off from the iron frying pan down toward the waiting trash bin at her feet without leaving any residue the moment her cleaning rags brushed past.
When one thinks of supernatural power on Earth Bet, they'd often thought of some awesome combat abilities that allow you to fight in a mask or invent and create things to do the same.
It turned out that magic has more uses than just simply shooting fireball or cursing at things you don't like. The simplest spell like what she was using also impressive on their own. Perhaps even more so than parahuman ability in that it's replicable, not something unique to individual unless said individual invented their own proprietary magic, but it still only remained such until someone else figured out the mechanic behind it or the owner decided to pass it down to their apprentices.
Taylor refocused her mind back to the present as she finished washing the frying pan as clean as her eyes could see. She let the water dripped into the sink as she inspected the cookware in her hands one more time.
At this point, most people would've called it a job well done, but for someone who started studying magic a month ago, Taylor finds the need to up those standards a bit along with getting some practices done while on duty.
Her senior or her mistress/teacher won't mind anyway, on the contrary, they actually encouraged it. After all, why study magic when you're not going to use it?
The air around her heated up, evaporating every droplet of water on the frying pan, drying her cloth and cleaning rags. Once finished, she placed it on a rack before bringing her dirty cleaning rags to wash one more time.
Taylor frowned as she noticed some grime has dried and stuck on the cleaning rags due to her magic. Truly her control still not up to par yet if she couldn't focus the heat to only the frying pan, or even the fact that there shouldn't be anything stick to her rags in the first place when she dislodged those unwanted matters down the bin with magic, and it's been a month already…
'A month, huh?' Taylor mused, lost in thought while she moved on autopilot to one of the empty kitchen sinks to wash the dirty rags 'time sure flies.'
It has been a month since she started studying magic and almost 3 months since her reincarnation. Normally Taylor would've worried sick of her father by now, and in truth, she still does. But the only thing that held her back from finding a way to return to Earth Bet was the fact that it's practically impossible to find her home universe in the multiverse full of possibilities.
Not to mention that she went back in time, if this Earth timeline was in sync with Earth Bet, returning home right now mean returning to the Earth Bet when her father wasn't even born yet. And Taylor read enough time travel fictions in her previous life to know how disrupting the timeline ended for the protagonist of such stories.
At first, she was skeptical about it, but Shinki's foray into the 'Human realm' as she called it brought back a lot of evidence that supported her claim from Time Magazine to a brand-new physic book signed by Albert Einstein himself. They were too detailed to be a fake to lull her into staying here as her servant in her opinion.
Thus, she now accepted that she might never live to see her father again. After all, this's 60 years in the past, she'd be an old grandmother by the time she reached her teen in the previous life. And that practically mean returning to Earth Bet is somewhat pointless.
While Yumeko supplied her that there're ways to achieve eternal youth with magical means, Taylor didn't want to hope as she was still struggling with basic spells after a month of studying. Reassurance from her senior that people took years or even decades to study magic did little to improve her self-confidence.
Shaking her head, Taylor brought her mind back to the present as she stowed the rags away in the Medieval equivalent of janitor's cupboard and then making her way to Shinki's office. Shinki has summoned her and Yumeko to meet after their job for the day was done in the afternoon to discuss about "The End of Winter Gathering", an annual ritual where rulers across the Makai will send their envoys to gather at the Pandemonium Castle to receive blessing from the one who created this world for them to live on.
At least, that was the official reason. Yumeko told her another perspective of how Pandemonium Castle and the town surrounding its wall was a neutral ground where each faction could negotiate and settle matters peacefully. Violence in this place was forbidden and enforced by Shinki herself.
That tidbit put small doubts in Taylor's mind regarding Shinki's role in creating this Earth/World. After all, if she's all-powerful and a goddess of this World, why there still conflicts and problems? She pondered about this since she learned of it yesterday and kept it to herself for now until she has a proper time to ask about it from her mistress.
After all, she made it a point to be honest with her and keep her words so far. So, Taylor was confident that she will answer her question truthfully instead of getting mad at her like a certain principal in certain school she attended in the previous life which she's now regretted.
As she was making her way past one of the halls, Taylor's internal musing was interrupted by something white, ticklish, and fluffy brushed past her nose, tickled and make her sneezed.
"You're spacing out. That's dangerous whether you're on the battlefield or not."
The unfamiliar stoic voice with a small hint of joy chimed as Taylor recovered from her sneezing and looked at the source… and then let out a gasp of surprise…
Standing mere inches away from her was a woman she never met before. The first description that came to her mind was that the woman reminded her of the sky, from her pure white hair cut in bob reaching just her neck to her bright blue eyes with blue marking at the corners, to her choice of clothing of white oriental long-sleeves, ankle-length dress, and a pair of white sandals. It was as if this woman was specifically dressed to contrast the dark red and purple scheme that Shinki seems to favor.
However, those are not what caught Taylor's attention, it was nine white fluffy fox tails poking out from behind the woman along with a pair of fox ears on top of her head instead of the normal human's one indicating her inhuman nature.
Before she could form up a response, one of the woman's tails reached out and patted lightly on Taylor's head causing her to took a step back out of reflex, which made the woman chuckled.
"Your reflex needs a lot more works, but alas, expecting more from a civilian who never saw combat in her entire life is a bit too much."
The mysterious woman's comment finally brought out a response from Taylor in form of taking another step back and assume a defensive posture, her eyes glancing around looking for guards to call upon this unfamiliar face should she proved to be dangerous.
"I never see you around here before, what business do you have here Ma'am?"
But as she was currently facing this stranger this close without any backup close by, it is unwise to provoke her thus she opted for politeness instead of running away screaming off her lung like she normally would in the previous life.
The tails behind the woman swayed around a little as she smiled at Taylor causing her to sweats before the woman spoke up again. "Your bravado means nothing without strength to back it up. Your 'aura' reeks fear and even your eyes did little to hide it."
Taylor's eyes widen at the comment which caused the woman to chuckled lightly "Had I truly have malicious intent then you'd be dead or at the very least went to the dreamland by now. But alas, that's not the case here and thus you have nothing to fear. Taylor Hebert."
Yet another surprise for Taylor, this mysterious fox-woman knew her name somehow and that caused her paranoia to surged forth instead of subsiding as the woman expected. The only thing preventing Taylor from running away screaming "Intruder!" was her gut instinct telling her that doing so means death before the first word ever left her mouth. Her behavior also reflected the panic inside her mind with short-rapid breathing and refusal to move.
Thankfully she was saved when a deep baritone voice called out from the end of the hall, a goat-demon guard named 'Hircus' that Taylor occasionally interacted with whenever she has to clean this floor. She backed away slowly, hopefully, Hircus could hold this intruder long enough for her to alert others and…
"Ma'am! You're back."
…Her thought ground to a halt. It wasn't what she'd expected and froze Taylor on the spot. 'They know each other? What's going on here?'
But at least it grabbed the woman's attention away from Taylor as she turned to regards Hircus, and then the fox-woman put her hands on her hip before sighing, her tone almost bereft of any emotion except a tinge of amusement "I waltzed this deep into the castle and you only noticed right now? I taught you guys better than this…"
The goat-demon guard looked down with shameful expression under the woman's gaze and muttered. "I'm deeply sorry, it won't happen again Ma'am."
A pregnant silence reigned for a moment before the fox-woman dismissed the guard "See that you do." and then she turned around and addressed Taylor who was a few steps away from her "Taylor, are you not going to see Lady Shinki?"
Her call froze Taylor mid-step, as she stood there like deer in the headlight while the fox-woman walked up to her and spoke up without waiting for her reply "The letter she sent me…" a piece of paper appeared from blue flame that lit up over her open palm which held in front of the maid "… mentioned that she request me and your presence today, had she not told you that?"
Taylor shook her head, it's not like she could say otherwise as Shinki indeed only request her presence and not mentioning this fox-woman at all.
The fox woman sighed, but her voice remains even as she addressed Taylor "Not trusting a stranger on their first encounter is a good intuition. But sometimes that intuition is detrimental to the strength of one's social life."
Taylor wasn't sure if that meant to be a word of wisdom or a trap until Hircus spoke up to assure her "She's the guard chief of the Pandemonium Castle, but she always on leave to visit her birthplace during the cold season, that's why you only met her right now."
The explanation given was sound, and when a quick glance around the hall revealed other guards of this floor passed by while doing an equivalent of salute to the fox-woman without anyone rising any fusses, Taylor decided that she would leave this for Shinki and Yumeko to sort it out. Which mean getting to the office first.
"Since we're going to the same place anyway, will you accompany me to Shinki's office?"
The fox-woman pre-empted Taylor's idea which she decided to went along. The fox-woman led the way with Taylor trailing behind, partly due to how Yumeko trained her and partly because she doesn't think she could trust her back with this fox-woman yet.
"Walk alongside me, Taylor, I wish to talk with you."
And of course, the fox-woman noticed it too. Reluctantly, Taylor quickened her pace until she was side by side with the woman, while keeps glancing warily at her companion almost every step.
"You adapted well for a reborn human who never believes in magic."
It didn't take long for the fox-woman to starts a conversation. Her voice remained calm and even which makes Taylor even more nervous and unsure of what to say. In the end, she settled with a simple question that will hopefully fish some information from her.
"Did the guards told you about me?"
The woman stopped suddenly. A flash of blue flame on one of her fox tails made Taylor jumped in fright, yet her fear was unfounded as the flame subsided soon after leaving a blue glowing shape resembled a bird gently landed on the woman's shoulder.
Taylor watched with fascination as the fox-woman made a hand gesture and let the glowing bird-like shape took to the air. It fluttered its wings and energetically circling around both of them silently. And when the bird made a second pass around her, the fox-woman spoke up.
"The glow was only there to impress people, from nobility to common citizen." the bird landed on the woman's topmost tail with its glow subsiding down to nothing, leaving a very lifelike blue feather bird staring down on the maid in front of its master "I can control them from far away, anything it learned, I learned."
Taylor understood the implication clearly, this's the woman's eyes and ears to look around the castle without being detected, especially during the start of the warm season where flocks of birds are flying around daily like this. And thus the mystery of how fox-woman avoided all guards all the way here was solved, or rather, theorized by Taylor.
Satisfied, the fox-woman turned away to get moving only to turn back and confront Taylor once again with a smiling face which eerily looks like a predatory grin "Almost forget I haven't introduced myself properly to you hmm…"
And then she did just that without waiting for the maid's reply, introducing herself "I'm Hakuryu, the white fox, the security chief of Pandemonium castle, and many monikers people thrust upon me, but you can simply call me Haku like I told everyone here…" she then muttered in the most boring voice "…anything else is quite a mouthful or annoying after all."
Her hand shot forward while her blue eyes looked into Taylor's brown expectantly. Taylor looked between the waiting hand and the woman's face in hesitation. After all, she's but a servant and Yumeko spend the majority of her first week drilled that in. Should she do what the woman asking her to do?
Thankfully she was saved by the appearance of her senior out of thin air by her signature space manipulation spell. The blonde maid looked between Hakuryu and her and then sighed in exasperation "Do not intimidate her too much, Lady Haku. And Shinki is expecting both of you."
Haku retracted her hand, shot Yumeko an annoyed glare while Taylor breaths a sigh of relief. If Yumeko sees this woman as trustworthy, maybe she's too paranoid after all.
Soon, the group of three reached and entered the ruler's office without anyone attempting to restart the conversation until Shinki greeted them, or specifically, Haku.
"I take it that the New Year over there is still as enjoyable as the previous year."
Haku shook her head, her fox tails waved slightly as she calmly reported the ongoing conflict as if discussing weather from where she stood, next to Taylor and Yumeko to the side of Shinki's working desk "The festivity was soured by the events in North Korea. Humans are worried. But you should already know that."
It took Taylor a moment to remembered what she once learned in history class in previous life and what she learned upon rebirth into this world 'Oh, right, the Chinese's intervention in Korean War.' she tried her hardest not to frown in front of her mistress who falls into discussion about Haku's vacation 'So even in alternate Earth, things still happen similar to my home.'
"…and I think you already met Taylor, right? Taylor?"
"Oh… sorry, Ma'am! Just thinking."
Of all the people in this modest office, only Yumeko showed a sign of disapproval of her behavior, Haku's face was impassive but her blue eyes looked discerning, while Shinki only hid her mouth with her hand, eyes gleamed with a mischievousness that gives her dread.
"Oh my, I never expect you to fall in love with the local this early. Can you tell me who's the lucky guy? Is it Hircus? Haku said you talked to him on your way here."
Taylor couldn't help but gave her mistress a deadpan look, but then she realized that her mistress never spoke about such thing before. Was it because of the presence of this Haku fox-woman?
Recalling her one of her lessons with Shinki, Taylor focused her power and activates Mage Sight to looked around the office for signs of abnormalities, ignoring everyone in the office in the process.
At first, she thought that she was being too paranoid as everything looked normal, but then she noticed statics and distortions like how older TVs behave during a thunderstorm at the corner of her vision which she almost missed.
But before she could prepare a spell to dispel the anomaly, a glass-shattering noise resounded, accompanied by fading images around her which show… Shinki's office with all occupants in the same position as before, except that Shinki was smiling and clapping and Haku was looking at her with raised eyebrow… what?
"That's… acceptable…"
"You never fail to impress me, Taylor. But on the other hand, don't you think this's a bit too much, Haku? Was it necessary to fuel her paranoia?"
"I have to see the child's strength before making the decision."
A stoic voice of Haku broke the silence first, followed by her mistress scolding the stoic fox-woman who merely shrugged at Shinki's accusation.
But for Taylor, all the praises and arguments flew over her head as she demanded some answers from her boss, politely of course.
"Ma'am, pardon me for speaking out of turn, but what's this all about?"
Shinki and Haku paused their argument and looked at Taylor, one with a sheepish grin and another with an impassive face. It was at this point that the blonde senior maid answered the question in their stead while leveling a mild disapproving glare at her junior.
"Lady Haku cast an illusion spell on you to test if you can detect it or not."
Shifting her ire at the fox-woman in white, Taylor found that Haku simply looked back at her as if daring her to retaliate for trying to harm her, which infuriated Taylor a lot.
Before she could explode, the fox-woman preemptively shut her down with her explanations "Unless you can remain vigilant against all subterfuges with the strength to at least doing something about it, I'll be asking you to leave the castle until the gathering is concluded."
"Of course, doing something, in this case, is you warn the others about it, not pick a fight with the suspicious person." Shinki quickly added with seriousness in her voice leaving no room for argument, which was something that Taylor could agree to as well seeing that she had neither offensive ability nor experience to outfight a professional fighter.
"We did not have any incidents during the annual gathering yet as far as I can remember." Yumeko clarified much to the relieve of her junior "But as Lady Haku said, that did not mean we do not remain vigilant during the event."
The explanation cooled Taylor down but she still mad at Haku, and the latter knows it too. Yet despite knowing what Taylor probably thinking with a not-so-subtle glare directing at her, the next sentence from her mouth was still sounded as uncaring as every word she ever said since their first meeting in the hallway.
"If you're bitter about the truth, then get stronger."
The content also did little to settle things, if anything, it was like pouring another bucket of gasoline on the smothering fire and fanned it.
"It's not like everyone is a Cape since birth like you!"
Sure enough, Taylor couldn't hold herself back any longer. Fear and stresses that bottled up in her mind since the first meeting transformed into rage. In a fit of anger, she ignored Shinki and Yumeko, voice raised and straightened her back as if trying to appear intimidating to the opposite fox-woman, except that Haku was slightly taller than her even when discounting her fluffy tails, combined with her almost-perfect poker face, said intimidation factor was dispelled completely.
Yumeko tried to took a step to address this blatant disrespect and loss of self-control in front of her mistress, but caught sight of Shinki shaking her head and stopped, watching the scene played out before them as her mistress silently decreed.
"Not everyone starts at the same line, but it's the finish line that matter in the end." the unfazed fox-woman continued in even tone while turning to the side with her eyes keeping unwavering glare at Taylor who was glaring back "Instead of channeling all that energy into hollow posturing and threats, you better off use that to prove me wrong and strive for the better."
Taylor was clearly seething, all her composure drilled into by Yumeko gone up in burning rage. The posture and mannerism of Haku right now have dug up an unpleasant memory in her past life.
The fact that her magical study still not enough to fight the being in front of her flew out of the window as her anger clouded her judgment. The magical glow lit up on Taylor's hand without knowing what to do with it. Curse? Fireball to that expressionless face? It doesn't matter, all that matter was that this fox-woman reminded her too much of certain trio and she knows from her previous life that being passive and let them trampled without fighting back only led to her death.
She won't be like that again!
The brunette's fist lashed out at the woman, aiming to deck the woman's face and let it bleed just like how she once bled after being pushed down the stairs. She barely noticed Yumeko who stepped out of the way between them.
Except that the blow never connects, Haku easily sidestepped the blow despite the relatively cramped space they were in. Then her hand snatched Taylor's outstretched arm just before it could hit the bookshelf, and in a single fluid motion, she pulled Taylor forward, lifted the brunette up from the ground and then spun around in a whirl of white. And before Taylor could realize what's going on, she was already landed hard on her back on the floor with Haku's palm pressing on her chest, which somehow made her limbs went limp and unable to move at all.
Haku who was kneeling beside Taylor frowned, her blue eyes conveyed disapproval but her slightly curved lip seems to tell something else.
"There're at least four kinds of weaklings in the multiverse, one refused to acknowledge that everything has weaknesses and strength including oneself, they were blinded in their own little world. Another seeks to prey on others to conceal one's own, pretending that they're strong and hide their issues."
The last part of Haku's sentence was spat out acidly, her frown deepened which made it sounds like she was disgusted at herself. For Taylor, it somehow reminded her of her bullies in her past life.
"And then, there're those who acknowledged oneself weaknesses, but those also separated into one that meekly accepts all the abuses as if they deserve it and the one who seeks to remedy it. Which kind of weakling you want to be?"
"And how that change anything? It's not like you're going to be teaching me anyway."
Taylor couldn't help but angrily asked back, which elicited a predatory smirk on Haku's face which sends a shiver down her spine in return.
"All the guards in this castle were taught by me, young Taylor…" Haku replied back with a small hint of amusement in her voice "So I'm going to offering you a deal; If you can pass my evaluation, then you can stay here during the annual gathering, if not, then I'll send you to live with my acquittance in the downtown until this event is concluded. What's your answer?"
With that, Haku lifted her hand off Taylor and stood up, the feeling of numbness in her limbs also went away almost miraculously allowing Taylor to follow her lead. The brunette's face turned red once she glanced to the side and realized what she just had done in front of the only authority who ever shown kindness to her despite a small part of her mind told her that she did nothing to stop Haku at all.
"You and I will have a talk after this, Haku…" Shinki stressed her words, and then turned to address Taylor "It's your choice, though if you think you want to postpone our magic lesson for a while, or if you do not want to…"
"No need for that Ma'am." Taylor quickly cut Shinki off, determination shone in her eyes "Your teaching helped a lot with my works, I think I can manage…" she trailed off and looked at the fox-woman "What do you want me to prove to stay here in the coming event?"
Although one part of Taylor's mind wanted to get away from the castle and explore the world, another part stopped her thought by reasoning that she couldn't expect to go out and hope for the best given the demographics of Makai that's full of beings with various special powers like this. It's pretty much a pipe dream to hope that she would come across another teacher who's willing to teach her magic without ulterior motive as well.
Haku's smile seems to grow wider as she waved her hand over to Taylor and cast her magic which instantly heals her as the maid felt the sourness and bruises from earlier bout disappeared.
"We have two weeks until the first envoy arrived, give or take a few days." Haku briefed as she walked over to stand in front of Taylor "I'm not delusional enough to say you have to be able to fend off a would-be assassin to pass my assessment, the guards will be the most pointless job in this castle if we're having maids doing their works."
'Then what the hell are you expecting me to do!' Taylor's internal scream almost become a verbal one had she not reminded herself where she was standing, but it was a close call as Haku seems to enjoy trying her patience at every turn.
"I'll teach you to notice any suspicious individuals and how to tell the guard, or myself." Haku explained in plain voice "Not everyone needs magic tricks or superpower to infiltrate. You must be vigilant to spot them and be discrete and level-headed enough to tell us without tipping them off. If you can pass my test before the first envoy set his or her foot on this castle, then I'll let you stay."
It sounded simple enough in Taylor's thought, so her next response was natural "So, when do we start?"
Haku glanced at their mutual boss briefly as if asking for her opinion, Shinki sighed with one hand on her head and said; "Go ahead, but there will be reckoning if you went too far."
Nodding at Shinki, Haku turned her attention toward Taylor. "Tomorrow, there's no time schedule, I'll train you whenever I see fit."
She then turned to address her mistress "Now, Milady, I'll be waiting outside, I believe you have something to say to your new maid, yes?"
Shinki waved her hand which the fox-woman took as a signal to leave without any word. Once the door was closed, Shinki turned to addressed her maids with an exasperated expression on her face, though she mostly focused on Taylor "Sorry for that display. Hakuryu, or Haku as she prefers to be called, takes her duties seriously, zealously sometimes in fact."
It seems authority apologizing was the thing that needed to cool Taylor down. Her anger deflated as she asked, "Is there anything you can tell me about her?"
'Consider that she has put herself under her tutelage while not thinking straight, better know what's coming so I can prepare.' was what she thought at the time.
"She was more vicious and obsessive with strength a long time ago." Shinki said, ignoring the stiffened Yumeko to her side "…she mellowed out a lot right now. But you can see that it's not completely gone even if she no longer harms others for the sake of proving her superiority anymore."
"Essentially she was once the same as those Three Bitches who murdered me and now has a change of heart?"
That was the first thing that came to Taylor's mind and she didn't afraid to vocalize it out. It was what got her here in the first place, after all.
"That is something you have to ask Haku herself." Shinki replied with a sad expression "Let just say that it was her experiences of the worlds that made her into what she is today and that those... schoolgirl bullies…" her speech turned cold at the mention of Taylor's murderers, "…haven't seen anything outside of the little world called high school yet."
Taylor felt uncomfortable and decided that it was time to leave and excused herself after Shinki assured her that their magical lesson will continue as usual and that even Haku will not dare to intrude upon it. Leaving Yumeko behind, she made her way back to her quarter, barely acknowledging the white fox-woman making her way back into Shinki's office.
Taylor didn't have to wait long before Yumeko showed up. It has become a sort of routine by now that they will take a turn cooking each meal and today it was Yumeko's. However, instead of making a beeline to their modest kitchen, the blonde gestured her hand that she wanted to chat first. And so the two of them were seated across the table.
"Haku… she can be a handful at time…" Yumeko begins with a mutter before she narrowed her eyes at Taylor "And you fell for her provocation making things worse for yourself."
She reignited the smoldering anger in Taylor's mind, but before she could retort, the blonde maid defused it "I was in the same shoe as you many years ago too, unless you have the patience of a saint, she'd find a way to successfully rile you up even if you two just met. It's the nature of her species after all."
"Is this the way she teaches things?" Taylor questioned.
"You forget our Milady's lesson in magic back there," Yumeko explained "To have a calm and clear mind is not just a requirement for doing magic, but in doing everything. You fly into a rage and attacked her despite clearly outmatched is due to your self-control slipped up. That will get you killed if there's really an assassin or infiltrator coming to this year's End of Winter Gathering."
"…"
"You can worry about fighting back later on," Yumeko continued while holding hands out and materialized a short sword in her hands "I didn't learn how to fight until I mastered all that necessary to serve my mother and mistress. Haku said it herself that there's no way you can really fight professional assassins or infiltrators with just two weeks of training. The time will come where you can stand on your own and no longer need to run, but that time is not now."
Yumeko then stood up and turned to the kitchen, but then she turned around and give Taylor tips about what to come "Haku will use illusions and disguises to confuse you. She may either be there herself or use her familiars. I believe you saw it already, right?" seeing Taylor nodded, she left her parting word before going to cook their meal "Good, just like Haku said to you earlier, remain vigilant."