A few moments since the last chapter…

Tristain, Royal capitol, The study

 

“Why is that painting next to the desk?” The lycan maid asked as she pointed to the large painting next to the chair he was sitting in. 

 

The front of the large desk had holes in it, the floor was covered in books and discarded firearms from his storage ring.  The books he had tossed on the desktop had shifted from the recoil of the blunderbuss revealing bloodstains underneath. Ashton felt like the study was a good representation of how his first day as Ashe Grayfield had been. Everything felt like a disaster and the painting next to his chair was covering up the cause of his nightmare. A small bullet hole...

 

Unlike the woman with cream-colored hair, Kumiho was much more direct and walked right over to the large painting with her furry tails standing up from her curiosity. A pair of the furry white tails extended forward and wrapped around the painting before lifting it effortlessly over her head. Watching the tails move like snakes with the same dexterity as an arm was shocking to him and she was able to walk around as if the weight on her body hadn’t changed at all. Ashton could remember that it had taken nearly all of his strength to muscle that painting into the position it had been in against the wall.

 

She began to sniff at the large blood splatter and even used her sharp nails to pull out a few pieces of hair. It was the first time that Ashton had seen sharp fingernails, they were the same color as her red hair and eyes. With a casual sweep of her tails the large painting was tossed across the room against the wall where it had originally stood. It made a loud clatter as the heavy wood and golden ornamental frame came to a stop and several gems fell to the floor.

 

“This smells like the stuff in your head.” Kumiho then turned her head to Ashton with confusion. “Don’t you need this to be smart?”

 

Ashton suddenly had to question if he had a brain, he found himself reaching down and checking if he had a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a pulsing in his wrist. If he was a dead man that was walking around then he would have an awfully hard time hiding that. 

 

“I woke up without any wounds, but I was covered in blood…” Ashton told them.

 

“The maid who went to bring your afternoon tea was the one who found the body, or what we assumed was the body. This was after the collars activated then stopped, we didn’t know what was going on.” She then paused here and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

 

“You stated that you had terms? I am a believer in transparency.” Ashton said.

 

“Transparency? Are you a ghost?” Kumiho asked him.

 

“No, it means that I want our objectives to be clear to each other and written into a formal contract.  This way both of our responsibilities are clear and if we need to make a modification it requires renegotiating.” Ashton explained, he felt that this was the best system.

 

“Are you sure you are not a demon? Only demons like contracts!” Kumiho seemed suspicious of contracts for some reason.

 

“You can read, right?” Ashton asked her.

 

As a modern person coming from an era where everyone could read, he found it strange to have to consider that others might be illiterate. However, the fox woman surprised him by revealing a clawed hand and quickly carving on the desk. It didn’t take long before a word was carved into the wooden desktop in a messy scrawl. The fox woman pointed at this proudly before she uttered what she wrote.

 

“Kumiho!” She said her name like some overgrown child.

 

“You misspelled it, it says ‘Kumiko’. See, you added an extra line here.” Ashton pointed out.

 

However, she seemed to pretend as if she didn’t see what he pointed out and didn’t take any notice of him pointing out how she didn’t dot a letter. Ashton decided to use this chance to get the name of the lycan woman since he hadn’t asked yet.

 

“Could I please get your name?” He asked the lycan woman as he set a piece of parchment on the table and pulled out a bottle of ink and a quill. 

 

“It’s Natalay…” She told him quietly and faced the table, her cream-colored hair covering her face.

 

“That is a nice name, do you have a last name, Natalay?” He asked her calmly.

 

“No, we were never a part of the noble houses.” She responded with some anger.

 

’We’ is an interesting word usage…  A slip of the tongue is often the easiest way to see what a person is thinking. The psychology courses he had taken had been mostly about understanding the people around him and it gave him a lot of context for people’s actions.

 

“Did you lose your family? If that is one of your terms, I can help you get them back.” He told her this straightforwardly.

 

Ashe could see that she was closing off, that was clear from her posture, and that she was slightly squirming in her chair. They kept talking about him like he was some demon, but he felt like if he was on the other side of the desk from Ashe Grayfield, he would feel the same. He knew that every attempt he made to make inroads with the staff was going to be an uphill battle, but it was one he had prepared himself to face going into a new store to become a store manager! Even the store he worked at had been a job he was transferred to after they had a string of resignations forcing an employee shortage there. 

 

“Don’t try to use my family to control me!” She said angrily, banging her hands on the tabletop violently.

 

Ashe in response looked towards the mess of hair hiding her face to show that he was completely serious in his next words. “I never had the pleasure of meeting my parents and I didn’t have any siblings. If there is one thing I would never do, it is to use someone’s family against them. If we come to no agreement then nothing changes, you already know I am not Ashe Grayfield, so you have all of the leverage in this discussion.”

 

This was a white lie, he had all of the leverage because they couldn’t leave him. Even if all of the servants refused to work with him they couldn’t leave the house for extended periods or reveal his secrets without the collars killing them. Every single one of them cost him over 100 platinum coins and they were the combined work of all of the Archmages under the royal family. There were very few things that they couldn’t kill once they were installed onto their victim since they bound themselves to the target's mana.

 

For a monster, this was more important than their organs or limbs as it was the easiest way to kill them. A human can survive without their magical stone and a monster can’t, this was what they used to determine if something was sentient or not. If they couldn’t survive without their magical stone then they were monsters, demons, or ghosts. This had also been incorporated into all of the various religious texts, it was very important to the people of this world.

 

“I have a husband. If you want my help you need to get him back for me.” She said this bluntly and reached up and pulled the hair away from her face.

 

“That’s wonderful, I can certainly do that for you! That won’t be a problem as long as he is still ali-” He was already writing this down with a smile when she suddenly pounded on the tabletop angrily.

 

“You don’t know the first thing about Ashe Grayfield! How can you make promises like that!” She was breathing hard and he could see veins popping out on her neck. 

 

This scene caused Kumiho to laugh loudly, she was treating their discussion like it was a comedy skit, her tails were moving around and throwing the items on the floor into further disarray. Her dress was also a lot different and she had a ribbon instead of a headdress like Nataly did.  She was the only one he had seen among the maids and servants who had this look. It was something he had noticed in the meal hall.

 

This is why I need to get them on my side… I need their help if I am going to survive here… “If a problem can be solved with money, then it isn’t a problem and if it has a price then it can be considered compensation.” Ashton finished. Whether it was a mug or an invitation to a five-star dinner all of these items had prices and compensations. “Is he also a lycan?” 

 

“Yes… we were both attacked by ou... my father and we were both bitten. He became a regular cat-type lycan and I mutated and got a special ability making me worth more money as a slave.” The last word she spoke was with hatred, but he noticed she changed the address of her father. 

 

“I can find him and have him freed for you, that won’t be a problem,” Ashton assured. 

 

He was certain he could do this if he was capable of having the children of noblemen reassigned in the military and have the crown issue trading passes. House Grayfield was also one of the fifteen great noble houses that paid the most in taxes to the crown. By his calculation based on what an average family made in a year, he was paying the crown close to a quarter of a trillion U.S. dollars a year. It was an incredible amount of money when he thought about it.

 

“In return for this service I need you to help me keep the illusion that I am Ashe Grayfield, if you can help me impersonate him then I can help you get your husband back for you,” Ashe said with a smile, but he didn’t realize that his hawk-like eyes made any smile he used look malicious.

 

His sclera was black and his irises were larger, instead of a yellow or gold color his irises were pale blue like the sky. His pupils were larger and capable of telescoping but it didn’t seem to have much of an effect compared to a normal human eye. What he did notice was that they made spotting things much easier and he could probably find that elusive man wearing a red and white cap in a matter of moments in a large crowd. He might even be able to become the world champion at it now. 

 

“Please don’t smile at me like that… It's disgusting…” Natalay muttered to him and turned her head away.

 

“As you wish.” He said and his face went instantly expressionless. As someone who had done countless job interviews, he was fine doing whatever made the other person feel more comfortable.

 

Both of the maids seemed to take notice of this behavior and looked at each other before looking at his flat face. This was the same expression that Ashe Grayfield only showed before blood began raining from the skies and he began ordering slaves dead. It caused an instinctual chill to run up both of their spines as they remembered some of the horrible moments under him. 

 

“I changed my mind, you can smile again…” Natalay said in resignation.

 

“Why don’t we just continue our discussion on what we want from each other? Your husband is something I can certainly work on for you but I will need as much information as you can provide me with.” He told her. “His name, height, weight, build, and anything that can distinguish him from a crowd. If he has any birthmarks you have seen or scars that are defining that would be good too.” 

 

“I know what he looked like but he might not look like that anymore… Lycans require special potions or they will regress further into monsters… Their minds will be gone and eventually, they will only be able to operate on instincts.” She looked sadly at her body and her hands. 

 

On the second sheet of paper, Ashton was busy taking notes on what she was saying, while he didn’t need them it was a habit that was drilled in to him after years of doing it on Earth. “Please continue, I don’t want to miss anything or forget a key detail later.” 

 

“He is a year older than me, he is also a lot taller… about this tall, or he was…” She seemed to be going quieter as she tried to describe him. Standing up she held her hand over her head to show his height.

 

Six foot three… that is pretty tall… He wrote it down on the sheet of paper but continued asking questions.

 

“Hair color, eye color, skin color, weight, I need everything you can give me,” Ashton said, giving her a push.

 

People don’t take risks without a reward that can outweigh their losses, or they have to be incredibly desperate. 

 

“He has brown hair and eyes, his skin is darker than yours but he usually had a tan from farming. I don’t know how much he weighed but he was in good shape.” She told him as the details seemed to help jog her memory. “He is a year older than me at 25 summers but I haven’t seen him in nearly five years, his name is Nathan.”

 

“No last name either?” Ashton asked. 

 

“No.” She told him simply.

 

“What about birthmarks?'' he asked as he reached up to his arm and stopped when he realized it was a different body. Since he had been born prematurely he also had a small bald spot from where they had placed a monitor on him. 

 

On Earth, he had been worn with a mark on his shoulder that looked like a blob. Some people said it looked like a slime from a famous Japanese game franchise but it was one he hadn’t had time to pick up. These were things that he had gotten used to after being in his old body for so long that he found himself experiencing some melancholy. 

 

“He had a scar on his leg from  a tree branch hitting him, it was across his ankle…” She told him after thinking for a moment.

 

“How large was it? Was it this size or bigger?” He asked as he held up his index finger.

 

“It was longer, about a finger and a half long but it was about that thick.” She replied.

 

“Perfect,” Ashton said as he finished his notes. “I will begin looking for him as soon as I understand things a bit better… It might not look like it but I am fast at learning new things.”

 

I have to be… this is bullshit! I never wanted to have to do things like this! I have to find her husband and complete the Duke’s requests… The Duke’s goal was to get him killed so that there wouldn’t be a dispute over inheritance with the son he chose as his heir. There had been many instances of this same thing happening throughout Earth’s history so he wasn’t surprised to see it here as well. What the Duke didn’t know was that Ashton had no plans to get anyone killed.

 

Instead, he figured if he had so much pull with the royal family then he should be able to easily get the son assigned to the frontlines in a position of honor. There he would see little to no combat and could stack merits onto his resume and take over the house. An evil smile flashed across his face when he quickly scribbled down these details on the sheet of paper next to him. The two maids seemed to notice this and Natalay found her eyes scanning over the document he was writing on and he chose not to hide it from her.

 

Transparency is the easiest way to gain trust. “Duke Everim has a bastard son who is threatening his son’s position as heir due to the laws. If Duke Everim died right now his bastard would inherit since he was born first by law, this law is enforced especially hard since King Prosperity himself was a bastard who inherited the throne after the first civil war.” Ashton recounted. “So I have an Idea of what Mrs. Natalay wants, now it is your turn Kumiho.”

 

The fox woman had looked bored the entire time that he was speaking to Natalay, he had no idea if Kumiho was even her real name. The one thing he did understand was that she had a husband but he wasn’t sure how this could work or if her husband was also a monster.

 

“You can’t give Kumiho what she wants, so why shouldn’t Kumiho tell everyone about you? You use nice words and expressions, but she doesn’t think you are anything special.” Kumiho said and began laughing at him, her tails flailing around with her disturbing the books and items on the floor. Several pages had been ripped out of the books and he was worried some of the flintlocks would have gone off.

 

“I noticed that your dress is different compared to the other maids, is there a reason for it?” Ashton asked.

 

“You don’t know about the battle maids?” Natalay asked in shock before she answered herself. “How could you, you haven’t been around long enough…” 

 

“Battle maids?” He asked.

 

“Kumiho, Beretta, Deltarose, and Wenn. They are in that order a nine-tailed fox variant, a shade, a dryad, and an ice elemental.  They are all high-tier or on the cusp of becoming supreme-tier.” Natalay told him cautiously. “The collars restrain them without orders to attack and Lord Grayfield gives everyone orders to maintain forms that resemble humans or sentient races, or in my case, I look like one normally.”

 

“So they are kind of like guards?” He asked for clarification.

 

“He mostly used them to kill, kind of like attack dogs. All nobles are protected by the Noble Guard, so no noble needs to worry about their protection.” She told him.

 

Nobles were under a different system of laws than the common man was, proof of this could be seen in the House of Lords. If a commoner broke the law they would be taken to the magistrate and be put on trial for their crimes. A noble would be tried by the House of Lords who would first strip him of his rank before he would be sent to the magistrate. He couldn’t find any records of how these proceedings were held, they were all kept in a special archive maintained by the royal family.

 

“I plan to talk to everyone at some point, but slowly as the circumstances allow. I’ll be honest with both of you, I am no saint and I don’t do things just out of the goodness of my heart.” His world liked to make you sell away your morals for money, he had already experienced this in a sales position. The best salesmen were often conmen, or grifters, who can sell a 4k monitor to a blind woman. While he didn't consider himself black-hearted he had no qualms with exploiting people who he didn’t want to play the game of life fairly.

 

“I won’t kill the innocent, nor will I scheme against them, but I subscribe to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The Duke I spoke to wants me to kill off his bastard son for him so that his son can rise, I plan to do the opposite to him.” Ashton told them. “I imagine that at some point the Duke will get desperate and seek to take more direct means and at that time I will have to make my own choice over how I will act in response.”

 

“You seem calm about all of this. It seems suspicious to Kumiho.” The fox woman told him.

 

“What will panicking get me at this point? I subscribe to something called essentialism. Have you heard of it?” He asked.

 

“No, is it a religion?” Natalay askled.

 

“Not at all. It has to do with energy management. A person only has so much energy to accomplish everything they need to in a day, think of it like having a bag of gold and that is what you use to accomplish tasks.” Ashton reached down and grabbed a bag of gold off of the floor and poured it on the desk, it featured the Empress of Galvos. “Eating, bathing, reading, taking a bath, they all cost energy and of course your work. A lot of people will try to spread this gold evenly across their different tasks and see growth in a lot of different areas in their life. That is very inefficient though.”

 

“Why is that?” Natalay asked.

 

“What happens if you instead reduce the energy you spend to the bare minimum and use all of these savings to make large progress on a single task? This is essentialism, and right now I am focusing my energy on getting the servants to become employees. I don’t have the energy to spend on panicking, I can do that later when I am in a better position.’”

 

On his seventeenth birthday, his caseworker had come to him and told him in a  year he would be on his own. He would still have three months till he graduated and since he was eighteen he wouldn’t be able to secure a lease since he didn’t have a co-signer. Panic had gripped him and cost him to make mistakes and he had even sent money to a scammer to secure an apartment that didn’t exist. The blow had been so damaging to him it caused him to seek therapy and that is what sparked his interest in psychology.

 

“So, as I was asking, what is it that you want Kumiho? Maybe we can make a deal?” He offered.

 

“I want to reach the supreme tier!” She declared.

 

“And how do you accomplish that?” He asked her. For some reason, the way she was looking at him gave him a really bad feeling. It was like he was a piece of meat. 

 

“The essence of the wicked, Kumiho collects it by eating. It is the richest in the liver.” She said this as she looked at him and licked her blood-red lips.