Of course, Ume was deeply apprehensive.

She wordlessly watched the young servant's back while he continued to clean out the closet.

What was up with this weirdly roundabout way of delivering instructions? Sir Gawrgaru literally had her bound by a contract that would force her to follow any order that he gave her, so any reasonable person would probably take advantage of that ability to ensure that Ume would 100% cooperate. The power of magic could eliminate any risk of unruly mishaps. 

If that silver-haired knight wanted her to be a maid, he could have simply given her a direct「command」.

But instead he had sent a quivering servant to deliver the news.

'Lord Gawrgaru said he would like you to work as a maid.'

The instruction did not come directly from Sir Gawrgaru's mouth, so technically Ume was under no compulsion to perform that task. Ume could easily waltz straight out of the door right now, and there was nothing stopping her. The only restriction was that Ume could not harm anyone, but that still left so many options up in the air.

For instance, why shouldn't she just fly away right now?

Why the heck should she become a spoiled aristocrat's maid?

Was this a ruse? A test? A trap?

+ + +

Ume stared at the the maid uniform in her hands. It was black and white with lace frills, and it was certainly the classic type that appeared in the cartoons of a certain human planet known as Earth. She considered this type of attire extremely tacky, and it certainly wasn't the type of clothes that she would ordinarily make for herself.

She turned open the fabric and examined the inside seams. There was excess fabric stitched along the side seams, which was often done with wedding dresses and formal ball gowns. This type of technique was used for more expensive clothing so that the dress's measurements could be altered with a little sewing. In historical time periods, hand-me-down dresses were the norm rather than an exception, so the ability to freely alter the dimensions of old clothes was essential. Likewise, a servant's uniform was probably passed down from one employee to the next.

Generally speaking, Ume made all of her own clothes, so the details on the french seam intuitively made a lot of sense to her.

Having grown up in an isolated cave for over fifty years, there was obviously no way for Ume to purchase human clothes from anyone else. All she had was an extensive collection of sewing books and spider's silk, so she had certainly dabbled a little bit of tailoring. Over several decades, she had made several outfits for herself, including the plain nightgown that she was wearing right now, but the quality of her craftsmanship was at the level of "homemade cooking" at best.

Ume was entirely self-taught, after all.

Examining the godet on even as something as plebeian as maid's dress was extremely interesting to her. This clothing was professionally tailored, and the exquisite stitching details were something that she wanted to take apart and examine for personal study.

"I didn't know your size so I brought a box with several spares," the young servant told Ume as he cleared out some spare coat hangers inside the closet.

Apparently, the butler's name was Rena Shiratoril.

He was 15 years old and a commoner who was living far away from home.

"They're all extra outfits that we borrowed from Lady Gwendolyn's estate," Rena explained. "Lady Gwendolyn prefers her servants to be dressed with the finest garments, so they're rather expensive. It would be best if you were careful about—"

He froze at the sound of tearing fabric.

His head turned slowly to face Ume, and the young dragon was in the middle of ripping out the inside seams of the elegant maid's dress. The monster girl approached this demolition task with intense concentration, and her eyes were focused like a straight laser on removing the tiny stitches from the outfit.

T____T

".......!!"

Within minutes, the maid outfit was disassembled into a few neatly stacked sections of cloth.

Obviously, Rena the butler was completely speechless. 

A dog or cat ripping expensive furniture to shreds was completely understandable, so perhaps it shouldn't have been so surprising to see similar behavior from a transformed snake monster. That said, Ume's human form was extremely realistic, so it was hard for him to mentally process exactly whether the black-haired maiden was a feral beast or a genuine person.

"It's a very well-made dress," Ume said with a look of satisfaction on her face.

"Uh... y-yeah..."

"By any chance are there other clothes in this mansion that I can take a look at?"

"...M-Maybe it would be best to leave that for another time..."

"Ah. Okay. I'll look forward to it."

"......"

Rena cursed silently underneath his breath.

What the hell did he get himself into?! How did he get bullied into this nightmarish task of welcoming the snake monster? Would the cost of that dress get deducted from his paycheck? The young butler was pretty sure that the maid outfits from Lady Gwendolyn's estate costed around the range of 20-30 GP each. It was probably worth an entire year of his disposable income... and the snake monster wanted to destroy even more in the future...

The blonde-haired boy took a deep breath.

"Could you... not tear up the next maid outfit?" Rena asked with a particularly strained voice. "Casual clothes aren't allowed as part of the servant's dress code, and you'll need to wear a uniform while working in Sir Gawrgaru's mansion."

"Okay."

"Thank goodness..."

Rena sighed as he dug out a second spare maid outfit from the dusty storage box. He glanced at Ume and eyeballed her size, and it looked like this one would probably fit. Fortunately, the monster girl had a relatively generic build, so it didn't seem like any special tailoring or adjustments would be required to fit her body proportions.

"I'm going to wait outside while you get changed." He said politely.

"Mhn."

"Do you need help getting dressed? Have you worn a dress like this before? The laces are in the back, so it might take a little bit of practice before you get the hang of tying it yourself."

"I think I should be fine."

"...Are you sure......?"

"I'll be fine."

"...Okay."

Rena slowly and apprehensively shut the bedroom door, leaving the monster girl alone in the room with the box of clothes. Once he stepped out of the room, he leaned his head back against the wall and rubbed his forehead.

...Why did he have such a strong feeling of anxiety?

A terrible feeling of dread...

......

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