“Well Alice, what do you think?” A demon in a butler black-haired girl. “Working in a direct capacity for the nobility would be a big step up from traveling from town to town peddling wares.”

 

“It looks like a very well run mansion but to tell you the truth I was just curious more than seeking employment.” Alex said.  She remembered being told that townspeople were forced into service by lady Yvne.

 

It seemed that the demons posing as butlers didn’t do the whole arrogant master thing. Some of them didn’t have red skin either.  Likely, fire was not the only thing the demons were cultivating in this town.

 

Fufi bristled.  Her clockwork form shifted a bit from where it was pitched next to her on the carriage.

 

“What’s that wooden thing next to you?” The butler imp asked.

 

“Oh this?  It is a clockwork construct.” Alex patted the bird, then wound her key a few times to show how it worked. “I make toys as well as clothing.”

 

“Very interesting, while the barony has several seamstresses in employment, there are not any toymakers.  Won’t you reconsider?  If nothing else, perhaps you can stay the night in one of the guest rooms before continuing your journey.” The imp held out a gloved hand to invite her in.

 

Alex looked around, she noted the lack of normally dressed people around.  There were some humans in maid outfits doing yard work.  They wore identical black and white frilly dresses with a matching headband on top.  The ones she saw worked with their back straight and stoic looks on their faces.  People that worked here took their job very seriously.

 

Alex didn’t want to be rude. “Okay, perhaps just one night and I’ll be on my way tomorrow.”  Alex looked to the clockwork Fufi to see if she would protest.

 

The clockwork bird gave a crisp nod followed by some ticking and the key turning slightly.

 

“See, even this clockwork flamingo agrees.” Alex smiled at the now-disguised Fufi.

 

“Where’d you see a Flamingo?  It is against the law for them to be in the kingdom.  I figured you made a goose.”  The imp curiously eyed the doll Fufi hid in.  “Come in, Miss Alice.  I’ll assign a maid to lead you to your room.”  

 

Alex drove the carriage to a stone stable and parked it by the wall. Like most of the town, keeping buildings from being flammable was of utmost importance. Silly demons and their obsession with burning things.

 

A human maid came and offered her hand to help Alex down from the driver’s bench of the carriage.

 

Alex took the maid’s white-gloved hand and descended from the carriage. He was a little a little worried she’d not be strong enough to help but people in this world had the system, stats and the like.  He had to remember that most adults were superhuman.  Alex eye’d Fufi, a little reluctant to leave her behind. They had to keep up the act though and treating Fufi like a living familiar would be a dead give away.  

 

“Hello, my name’s Alice. What is yours?” Alex smiled at the maid.

 

“Maid will suffice Miss Alice.” The maid gave a polite curtsey.  “This way. Someone will be sent to cleanse your carriage and tend to your horses.”  She blinked a few times and did a double take at the horseless carriage.

 

“Oh, no horses, it is spring powered, like a clock. It winds up like a toy.” Alex pointed at the carriage, trying to explain.  “Anyway, please be careful if you clean it.  There are a lot of moving parts and I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt.”

 

“Of course, miss Alice.” The maid deadpanned.

 

The woman, who elected to be addressed as ‘maid’ led Alex inside the mansion, down some twisted halls and into a well-furnished room.  “Shall I prepare a bath?”

 

Alex regarded the maid. “I’m not really dirty.  I have a cleaning skill and that is more than enough usually.”

 

“True, but a bath is not just for cleanliness.  Warm water calms the body and mind.” The maid stated in a very flat voice.

 

“Okay, you convinced me I’ll go take a bath.” Alex said.

 

The maid led Alex out of the room, down the hallways and opened the door for her that led into the bath.  The bath was quite nice. The whole room was tiled.  A tub with a curtain was in the far end. 

 

Alex headed to the tub and inspected it.  The tub looked entirely bronze. It had four legs and a drain in the bottom.  A pipe came out of the wall above the tube.  Alex didn’t see any knobs to turn to open the vales though.  “How does this work?  I don’t see any way to get the water flowing.”

 

“Let me show you.”  The maid put a hand on the wall and water started to fill the tub.  “There are two runes, one of them is hot water and the other is cold. If miss would please undress and get in the tub this one can fill the water with the preferred temperature.”

 

Alex tested by pressing the spots on the wall as well.  When she put her hand on it water came out.  The magical girl began filling the tub.

 

“Miss, Alice it is this one’s job to fill the tub and tend to you.  Is this unacceptable?” The maid held a laundry basket for Alex to put her clothing in and held it toward Alex.

 

“I would prefer privacy when bathing.  I don’t need any help.” Alex’s thoughts went back to the bath house at the temple of purity.  While getting help bathing was nice when having wings for arms and talons for feet, Alex would rather play it safe and just not tempt the past repeating itself.  This was demon occupied territory. 

 

“As you wish.”  The maid left the basket next to the bathtub and left.  She closed the curtain behind her.

 

Alex undid her blouse, dress and small clothes, setting them in the laundry basket and stepped into the bathtub.  She grabbed some soap and cleaned herself off.  After pouring out the water full of suds, she filled the bathtub again, this time making it a little warmer.  With a sigh she leaned back into the hot water and closed her eyes.  

 

An unknown amount of time had passed.  She had apparently dozed off a bit.  With a splash, Alex opened her eyes and got out of the now-lukewarm bath.  She got out of the bath, and reached around to pick up a towel that she saw hanging from a hook on the wall.  Reached into the basket, Alex lifted what she thought would be her old clothing but was in fact, a maid outfit.

 

“Ugh, not this again.” Alex grimaced and set the maid dress aside.  She turned the clothing basket upside down, hoping that her previous outfit would be at the bottom but it wasn’t.  The only thing that came out were some thigh high stockings, an underdress and a frilly white headband.

 

Alex looked around but the maid wasn’t in the bathroom.  Wearing nothing but a towel, she opened the door a crack and peeked into the hallway.  “Hello?”

 

“Miss Alice.  You are not decent.  I’ve brought a fresh garment for you to wear.” The maid looked distressed that Alex opened the door but was not wearing the provided maid outfit.

 

“I’m not interested in trying that on.  My original clothing will work just fine.” Alex crossed her arms.

 

“That would be problematic.  They were taken to the laundry to be cleaned.” The maid tried to reduce Alex’s concerns. “You didn’t bring any luggage with you so I thought that was your only outfit.”

“It is not my only outfit.  I have other ones in my carriage.  If I need to change clothes I do it from there.” Alex tried to explain, but was getting frustrated.  The way the maid painted things, it painted Alex as being unreasonable for not using the provided clothing. “Also, my clothing is quite clean.  It doesn’t need to be laundered. Please show me the way to the laundry so I can get it back.“

 

“Sorry, right this way miss Alice.” The maid led her down the hallway, around a turn and opened the door to a laundry room.

 

Alex quickly spotted her clothing in a basket near a wash basin where another, very similar looking maid was working through a substantial backlog of clothing, sheets and blankets.  The maid looked surprised to see someone barge in wearing only a towel.  “May I help you?”

 

Alex boldly took her clothing and changed back into her outfit right in front of the maid doing laundry and the maid holding open the door. The door was quickly shut when the original maid noticed that the girl had no shame in dropping the towel in front of two strangers.  “There, that’s better.  I don’t like it when my clothing vanishes.  I had a bad experience that started like this in the past.”

 

“When was the last time you had that garment  washed with soap and water?” The maid at the wash basin sounded exasperated. 

 

Then the other maid added her two cents. “Miss Alice, did you not just travel the dirty roads for who knows how many days?  Cleanliness is important.  Please reconsider changing to something freshly cleaned before dinner.”

 

Alex shook her head. “As you can see, I keep myself quite clean.  I even have a cleaning skill. I consider cleaning one of my strengths.” Alex ignored the part about soap and water.  Did anyone but the people living in the mansion have access to soap?  Maybe there was soap in the temple of purity but Alex couldn’t quite recall having seen any. They might be out, seeing how they have been cut off from interaction from anyone but the ice demon sect for decades.

 

“Well, with that skill you would make a good maid.  But a good maid needs to look the part.  Anyway, you don’t have to make up your mind now. Let's get you ready for dinner.  Your hair is a mess.”  The original maid gestured for Alex to sit down in a nearby chair that didn’t have a laundry basket on it.

 

Alex sat in the offered chair and the two maids tagged teamed on brushing then braiding her long black hair.  They added makeup, lipstick, and painted her fingernails a sensible gloss.  After a bit more primping, the two maids, who oddly insisted to be addressed as ‘maid’ , escorted the magical girl to the dining room.  Several other people were already there.  

 

Half a dozen people sat at various tables in the large room. Two people wore maid outfits, one man and one woman.  They looked concerned and fiddled with the outfits.  

 

Alex noticed this right away and sat down next to the guy in a black and white dress.  “Hello, I’m Alice.  Nice to meet you.”

 

“Hello Alice, I’m Ezekiel, Zeke for short.  Sorry about my appearance.  The maids took my clothing to wash and said that I should wear this.  It is a bit embarrassing.” The man sounded like one of the locals.

 

“Let me guess, you took a nice bath and were offered a maid outfit right after.” Alex deadpanned.

 

Apparently the other woman sitting down a table away nodded.  She listened to the conversation.  So there were two nods affirming what Alex thought. 

 

Alex invited the other woman to join them and she moved tables, sitting down with Alex and Zeke.  “I’m Alice if you didn’t catch the name earlier.”

 

“Gertrude, but people call me Trudy.” The woman managed a forced smile.

 

“I’m guessing you are here for maid training?” Alex asked.

 

“Yeah, it is not like there is much choice.  The baroness makes demands for people to train as maids and the demons just pick people out.  I’m assuming that those people get forced to leave their barony and work for other nobles because we don’t see them again.” Zeke sadly stated.

 

“Only maids?  No butlers?” Alex thought that was weird because the group here wasn’t entirely women.

 

“The only butlers I’ve seen are the three foot tall demon kind.” Zeke shook his head.  “I’m a little bit worried about what that means.”

 

Alex furrowed her brow and considered this.  The implications were very concerning. 

 

A maid came by and delivered three plates of food for everyone. “You can go ahead and start eating dinner.  Mistress Yvne takes her meals in her chamber so she’ll be here shortly.”

Alex and the others ate the food.  It was a salad of croutons, fruits and lettuce.

 

Eating felt relaxing, Alex felt her concerns drift away and felt at peace.  Well, until her phone buzzed.  Luckily it was on vibrate.

 

[Mental resistance has increased to 4]

 

Alex blinked at the strange message and just held the phone, curiously staring at the screen.

 

A maid came and tried to pluck the phone out of Alex’s hand.  “Miss Alice, I’m confiscating this. You don’t need to be staring at strange magic devices at the dinner table.”

 

Alex started to panic.  She had normal human stats so if these maids were higher level then they would be stronger than her.  The confrontation with the stone ax tribe proved that humans were not the same as humans on earth after they started getting up there in levels.

 

The screen showed a new message:

[Cuteness check succeeded, Maid verses Alex, target does not have stat: cuteness]

 

The maid huffed and stopped trying to take the phone when it wouldn’t budge.  Alex wasn’t even trying to hold onto it tightly.  Even though the maid was quick enough to grab it before Alex had a chance to react she couldn’t take it.  Odd.  

 

“Fine, just put that thing away.” She gave up trying to confiscate the item. “Table manners are important.”