After inspecting the warehouse, and hearing about the lore from the self appointed lore master, Hilda, Etrius came to one simple conclusion.

 

“Yeah, this is time reversal magic.” Etrius said.

“Time reversal magic?” Hilda asked, still weary from before.

“Yeah, it reverses the time of what objects were in here when the spell was cast.” Etrius explained.

“So, what does that mean?” Hilda asked.

“It means one of two things.” It said. “That someone really didn’t want to go through the trouble of resupplying this, or they knew that leaving the town would be impossible and made it so food would always be available here.”

“So you’re saying that the witch that cast this knew of the angry one?” Hilda asked.

“That, or they could have thought that this town was going to be under siege.” It said. “Do you know who cast the spell?”

“No, none of us maids can use the foul and accused witchcraft.” She said. “As for all of the men, they are all dead.”

“Well we know that we aren't going to starve, so how about the angry one?” It asked.

“What about it?” She asked.

“Can we go see it?” It asked.

“You want to see the angry one?” She asked.

“I want to kill it so we can get going, yeah.”

“We would be very grateful if you were to kill it, but the angry one cannot be killed.”

“Funny enough, I’m uniquely qualified to kill things.”

“I don’t doubt you and as a person you scare me, but as my master I must ask you to reconsider.” Hilda said. “Everyone who has attempted to fight the angry one has perished.”

“That's cute that you’re worried about me.” Etrius smiled, patting her head.

“!?” Two dog-like ears suddenly popped up from her head as her face quickly turned red.

““““…”””” Iris and her kids could only look at her in wonder.

“…” Etrius kept smiling and rubbed her head.

 

Trying to regain her composure, she removed Etrius’ hand, cleared her throat and pressed her ears down with her hands. Finding this amusing, Etrius once more rubbed her head. Instantly her ears popped back out and her eyes were swimming.

 

“Um… M-master…” Hilda stuttered. “I-I can ex-plain…”

“So, you really are a dog spirit.” Etrius said.

“I-I’m not!” She said.

“Yes you are!” Etrius said, vigorously petting her.

 

From underneath her dress, a golden tail appeared, wagging.

 

“I’m not!” She shouted.

Iris and her kids couldn’t tell if she was enjoying it or not.

 

“Who’s a good girl?” Etrius asked.

“I am!” She shouted enthusiastically.

 

Realizing what she said, she covered her face in shame.

 

“AAAHHHH!!!!!” She couldn’t help but yell.

 

Peking in from the doorway, Touya and the other maid couldn’t help but worry that Hilda was being super murdered. Instead they were shocked, and relieved, that she had her true form exposed.

Feeling despair, Hilda dropped down to her knees, though Etrius kept petting her.

 

“My persona!” She cried. “I’m a beautiful and reliable maid! I broke character!”

“That’s adorable.” Etrius said, still petting her.

“I have failed as a maid!” She said.

“Were you ever a maid at all?” It asked.

“Yes, I’m the head maid here!” She said, defensively. “They voted for me to be the leader despite me not wanting to! I just want to stay home and sleep on the couch!”

“I’ve had days like that.” It said.

“I’ve been here for five damn years!” She cried. “I wanna be a normal girl! I want to scam people in the streets! I wanna steal shoes from homeless people! I still call myself a girl despite being in my late twenties!”

“Twenties isn’t old.” Etrius said.

“You elf bastards live for ages!” She said, grabbing it by its shirt. “Don’t compare your life with mine!”

“Actually I’m not an elf.” It said. “I’m a robot that is pretending to be an elf to find some students that were kidnapped.”

“Great! Now we have a killer robot!” She said. “What next, a super volcano!?”

“Hilda, do you mind helping me with the angry one?” It asked.

“The angry one is terrible! I don’t want to die!” She said.

“Hilda!” Etrius said. “Calm down.”

“I am calm!” She argued.

“Will you calm down if I rub your belly?” It asked.

“No!” She hesitated. “Well… N-no!”

“Are you sure?” It asked, playing with her ears?

“S-stop please!” She said, wagging her tail. “My dignity!”

“You lost that when you fell over on our first meeting.” It said.

“I’m the head maid. Maids aren’t supposed to trouble you master.” She said.

“Then how about this?” Etrius asked. “You all become mine and I’ll deal with your angry one problem?”

“…” She looked at it with tears in her eyes. “You want to have sex with me.”

“I don’t.” It said.

“Y-you do!” She said. “You want to dress me up as one of those slutty maids and bend me over the counter when I’m cleaning!”

“Please stop talking like that in front of my kids.” It said.

“I don’t want a pervert as a master again!” She said. “Our last one kept wanting to lick our feet!”

“What a freak.”

“I know right! I’m glad he exploded!”

“Well You don’t need to worry about that with me. I’m a robot and I have some plans in the near future that require some man power, or rather maid power. All I ask is that you become mine and help me with that.”

“… sniff… I don’t have to have sex with you?”

“No.”

“You won’t lick my feet?”

“Not even if you asked.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay…” She nodded. “I’ll help you.”

“Thank you.” It smiled. “Now come on, up we go.”

 

Helping her to her feet, Etrius straightened out her clothes.

“I’m not a child…” Hilda said, not resisting.

“Maybe not.” It said. “Maybe I find it fun to mess with you.”

“Please don’t tease me too much.” She said.

“Shake.” Etrius held out it’s hand.

 

Without thinking, she shook Etrius’ hand.

 

“Please stop.” She said, embarrassed.

“Right right, sorry about that.” It said. “Is there any way to lure out the angry one without putting ourselves in danger?”

“…” She sniffled and took a moment to collect herself. “We could use another tea cart, though I don’t want to lose another one.”

“I’ll buy you a new one when we get rid of the angry one.” It said.

“I understand.” She nodded. “I’ll have one made available.”

“Good.” Etrius said, before turning to Iris and her kids. “Alright girls, follow me, we are going to see what this ‘angry one’ is.”

“Isn’t it dangerous?” Iris asked.

“Probably, but we need to know what we’re dealing with if we want to leave.” It said, before turning back to Hilda. “So, can any of you actually use magic?”

“Touya can use some magic, but only one spell.” Hilda said. “It’s the low tier ‘clean’ spell.”

“That sounds useful for a maid.” Iris said.

“It’s considered to be cheating, so we don’t use it.” Hilda said.

“Wait, we can’t use magic to clean?” Violet asked.

“I don’t want to be a maid.” Rose said.

“Wait, being a maid is really fun though!” Hilda said. “When the master isn’t around you get plenty of free time!”

“We already get plenty of free time.” Violet said.

“Yes, but do you get to roll in the mud?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Rose nodded.

“No, do not roll in mud.” Iris said sternly.

“Aw…” Rose pouted.

“If you are a maid, you get to roll in mud whenever you want.” Hilda said.

“As your master, I forbid you from rolling in mud.” Etrius said.

“Tyrant!” Hilda accused.

“Not in your good clothes or when you’re working.” Etrius clarified. “And you’ll wash up before you go inside.”

“What are you, my mom?” Hilda asked.

“I don’t remember giving birth to you.” It said.

“Forgive me for asking a lady-” Hilda started.

“I’m a robot.” Etrius said.

“Well, ‘robot master’ how old are you?” She asked. “You don’t look old enough to be a mom. Even for an elf.”

“This current unit is over four hundred and thirteen cycles old.” It said.

“I don’t know what that means.” Hilda said.

“Do cycles mean years?” Iris asked.

“They aren’t fixed points of time like years that only change a day or so, but rather the time between the beginning of a universe, the end of it, and the time until the formation of a new one.” It said.

“How long is that in years?” Hilda asked.

“Last time it was in the hundreds of thousands of trillions of years.” It said.

“How long is a trillion?” Hilda asked.

“Oh yeah, you don’t have numbers for that yet. There are twelve zeros in it.” It said.

“Ah, I see.” Hilda said, giving up on thinking about it.

“You’re old!” Violet said, running out of fingers to count them.

“I am.” It agreed.

“Wait, but you said this current unit. Does that mean that you are older?” Iris asked.

“Yes I am.” It said. “But my old unit was destroyed.”

“How did it get destroyed?” Lily asked.

“Black hole.” It said.

“What is that?” Hilda asked.

“A very dangerous anomaly.” It said. “Now, let's go see ‘the angry one’ and see what we can do.”

 

As reluctant as they were, Iris and her kids followed Etrius and Hilda. Most of the maids, upon seeing Hilda’s true form, they too seemed to grow tails and ears. Cat like ears, dog like tails, a few with horns. A few of them, they noticed, seemed to be missing an ear or horn. It wasn’t unusual for such things to happen when elves were involved. Considering that all these maids were now Etrius’ it already had plans to care for them. The first step was to get rid of the “angry one”.

Standing on a small hill with it’s bow and arrows ready, Etrius watched as a lone tea cart expertly prepared with fresh tea (poisoned) rolled out of the town. At Etrius’ side was Hilda, and a bit behind them were Iris, her kids, and a few maids with some coffins and a mop. As the cart rolled down the hill, something sounded out in the distance. At first it was a slow rumbling, and then there was something shining in the sky, faster than most dragons. Drawing near, Etrius saw a mouth and eyes. It then saw a cockpit, bomb loaded wings, and two powerful engines.

 

“Brrt!” A gatling gun with depleted uranium rounds fired.

 

In an instant, the tea cart was decimated as the “angry one” flew by, spinning and releasing flares as it went. Somewhat annoyed, Etrius drew an arrow, already strengthened by magic, and shot at it. Breaking the sound barrier as soon as it left the bow, the arrow quickly found its mark. It’s left hand engine exploded into flames. Quickly releasing another arrow, the right engine met the same fate. As it fell from the sky, and before it broke up, Etrius fired one more arrow, this one a bit different from the others. Meeting one of the many bombs that it carried, the arrow forcibly detonated it and the others near it. Falling as scraps of metal and flame, the angry one was no more.

 

“Got it.” Etrius said, putting down its bow.

“Eh?” Hilda said.

“Oh, I thought it was going to be scarier.” Iris said.

“Why did your bow go bang?” Rose asked.

“That was because the arrow broke the sound barrier.” Etrius explained.

“What's a sound barrier?” Violet asked.

“To put it simply, it’s a very fast speed that makes that ‘boom’ that you heard.” Etrius said. “I can explain it more if you want.”

“Can I do that too?” Rose asked.

“Maybe later.” It said, before turning towards Hilda. “So, was that the angry one?”

“Eh- but-” Hilda looked at the smoke in the distance. “How did you?”

“““The angry one is dead!””” The maids carrying the coffins exclaimed.

 

Hilda, still confused, looked at Etrius. Seeing it shrug, she couldn’t help but to be underwhelmed. With just three arrows, the angry one was dead. Despite her feelings on the death of The Angry One, this called for a party. With their master’s permission, food and drinks were made available for all. Even Touya put aside her fear of Etrius and her diet to party like there was no tomorrow. And as far as Iris and Hilda were concerned, tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.

Late at night, after a festival-like party, maids were scattered across the floor in every room of the mansion. Bottles of wine and barrels of beer lay empty along with them. Food was left on tables with many plates holding only scraps. Out of everyone and everything that was here, a few people could not be seen. Rose, Violet, and Lily being the first to become sleepy, were already put to bed. As for Iris and Hilda however, they were in the bathroom, with Etrius standing behind them.

 

“I told you not to drink so much.” Etrius said.

“Water please…” Iris said, lifting her head.

“Master… Permission to die…” Hilda asked, hugging the toilet.

“Denied. Have some water instead.” Etrius said, handing both a glass of water.

“Thanks…” Iris took it slowly.

“…” Hilda took it and poured it over her head.

 

Etrius shook its head at them. It was going to be a long night for these two.