Chapter 867 – How to Be a Maid
“Chopped up for firewood. I looked at the blackened, gnarled wood in my hand, looking as if it had been burned and twisted by some unnatural force. This could be used as material for making magic staffs or other magic apparatuses. A complete trunk would be worth more, and yet Older Brother Jayad just chopped it up.
Even so, after being chopped, it could at least sell for dozens of silver coins. To use this as firewood would surely infuriate an alchemist.
We were taking stock of the items Older Brother Jayad brought back. Since there wasn’t enough capacity, he could only bring the most important materials. Actually, our family had already stockpiled quite a few precious monster materials, but we just didn’t have the time to sell them.
Riding the packhorse back to the stable, in reality, based on past experience, the packhorse could have run back on its own. However, considering it was currently angry with me, Older Brother Jayad personally escorted it back and checked the living environment of the stable.
It was getting cold. If the stable wasn’t equipped with sufficient cold-proof facilities, the mounts would freeze. Although, given the packhorse’s physique, even though I rode it vigorously in the snow today, it didn’t shiver at all and its whole body was radiating heat; it was especially warm to hug.
But as a good horse that had gained sentience, we should give it a sufficiently good treatment. Like noble families, they have specialized servants responsible for caring for mounts. Those mounts eat and live better than the servants themselves.
This public stable naturally doesn’t have such good conditions, but the stablekeeper still prepared thick straw for the mounts, laying it beneath them to make a nest. When sleeping, covering them with another layer would keep them from getting cold.
Indeed, the stablekeeper was very diligent, a true testament to hardworking laborers. I gave him more reward money, asking him to pay special attention to the packhorse and to add a cotton blanket for it.
The stablekeeper was overjoyed. The money I gave him was almost equivalent to boarding two more horses, and he didn’t need to incur any additional costs. He only needed to buy cotton blankets and carefully look after the packhorse.
Of course, he was also silently complaining in his heart about how particular these rich people were, even making horses wear cotton blankets. When it gets colder, will they even be burning coal?
Jayad personally led the packhorse inside and made it lie down, covering it with straw. He then squatted down and gently stroked the packhorse. With his efforts and demeanor, the packhorse clearly became much more affectionate and stopped being angry.
After settling the packhorse, we walked back to our new house. This is getting a bit long. I’m contemplating if there’s any way to remotely summon the packhorse, so we don’t have to walk back like this every time.
We returned to the factory district when it was already late, and the factory hadn’t even finished work yet. The sound of machines was still roaring, and workers were moving goods at the entrance, loading and transporting them. This is truly a sweatshop.
Taking advantage of the night, Older Brother Jayad and I quietly slipped back into the villa. This was too easy for Older Brother Jayad; he had infiltrated residences much more difficult than this using stealth.
According to Jayad himself, he used to steal from factories, mainly stealing metals like steel and copper wire to sell. However, his strength wasn’t good enough then, and he couldn’t carry that much. He dared not enter the factory itself. After going a few times and finding it not cost-effective, he stopped going to factories.
When we knocked on the door, it immediately opened. Sherris bowed earnestly at the entrance, “Mr. Jayad, Miss Parul, welcome home!”
She then clumsily performed a curtsy. Although she wasn’t wearing a maid outfit, it was evident that she was trying to imitate a maid’s etiquette, which was quite strange.
“Sherris, who taught you that?” Jayad asked, amused and exasperated, as he stepped inside. I closed the door behind me.
“Miss Via taught me. She said there’s still a lot to learn.” Sherris stepped forward and helped Jayad take off his coat. Generally, maids in noble households would first take their master’s hat and cane upon their arrival. Jayad wasn’t used to someone serving him like this.
Via drifted over with a smile and said, “That’s still not enough. A maid should have dinner ready and bathwater prepared before the master returns home, and then ask the master if they would like to bathe first, eat first, or… eat me?”
“Eh? Eat me? But ghouls are very unappetizing! Besides, I don’t know how to cook at all, I can only arrange platters of human flesh,” Sherris said in surprise, taken aback. She truly thought the ‘eat’ was meant literally.
“That’s not what it means. Sherris, you still need to study hard. The way of a maid is profound,” Via said with a troubled expression. It would take a long time to teach a little ghoul the art of servitude.
“Alright, Via, stop teaching her all sorts of strange knowledge,” I also said. If it were before, I would say don’t corrupt the simple little ghoul, but now, I was scanning Sherris’s body up and down.
“Um, Miss Parul, why are you looking at me like that?” Sherris asked, feeling somewhat uncomfortable under my gaze.
“Sherris, do you really want to be a maid?” I asked. Today, I saw the maid squad at the Lord of the City’s mansion and felt a little inspired. Moreover, as Jayad and I frequently go out, having a maid to manage the household seems like a good idea.
“Yes, I owe you both a lifelong debt that I can never repay. I’ve thought about what I can do, and it seems like there’s nothing other than being a servant that I can do. So I will definitely work hard to be a good maid,” Sherris said firmly.
Ghouls have always held a relatively low status among Otherworldly beings, having been a subordinate race for a long time, known for their obedience and diligence. Vampires and liches often summon ghouls as servants; serving is their ancestral craft.
Alchemists, dark mages, and necromancers among humans also use ghouls as servants. For example, Sherris’s entire family was originally summoned by Pierce to collect materials and assist with experiments as servants.
However, I suspect that Pierce does not possess the methods for summoning and enslaving ghouls. This was taught to him by the New Energy Company he is associated with. Ghoul summoning and domination techniques are widely circulated in the black market.
Sherris hesitated for a moment before saying resignedly, “But forget about cooking. I can’t taste anything, and even if I learned, I probably wouldn’t be as good as you.”
In the realm of cooking, Sherris felt she had no possibility of catching up to me at all. Considering her preference for raw meat, I even specially prepared it in the style of raw sashimi from my previous life, thinly slicing the meat and pairing it with sesame paste and black pepper sauce for her.
After eating it, Sherris couldn’t stop. From then on, although she still disliked cooked meat, she at least learned to process raw meat and make it look presentable, which was what she meant earlier by only knowing how to arrange platters of human flesh.
“Is that so? I understand your thoughts and determination. However, to become a maid, one needs a maid outfit. We’ll go and custom-make one together with Via another day. Oh, I’ll draw you a style for reference,” I said with a smile.
“Right, right! You can’t be considered a maid without a maid outfit,” Via promised, patting her chest. “I’ll find the best tailor to custom-make a maid outfit for Sherris. It has to be the cutest maid outfit.”
“I said, go and custom-make it *with* Via. You’ll be making a maid outfit too,” I said to Via with a smile.”
