8 – Koro, the Harpy
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In the end, he could only let it be for now and focus on different things.

All in all, he was pleasantly surprised by the room.

He feared that the place wouldn’t be that much better than the other room.

Fortunately, he was mistaken.

However, although the place was good, he didn’t want to spend his time here for longer than needed. For that, he will need to act as a Housekeeper here to really become one and get the authority to leave.

That would definitely take him a lot of time and work. But giving up was not an option for him.

So he set for himself a small goal to make a first step in this place. The goal is to get a clean source of drinkable water from the garden.

Without it he won’t be able to survive let alone become the Housekeeper.

Furthermore, the drinkable water should be clean enough to bathe in and clean the house. Getting the water was like hitting three birds with one stone.

‘I already looked at everything here. I guess it is time to go to the garden. I will need to look for Sera again.’

Deciding what to do he went out of the dressing room.

As he went out he wanted to say goodbye to the kitty before leaving. Carrying her around was quite a tiring thing to do. Especially when you are in dangerous places.

That’s why leaving her here for now was the best move for him.

Once he got near he realized that the kitten was sleeping.

‘Cats sleep a lot, huh.’

He never had a cat himself so the only contact he had with them was through the internet or meeting some cats roaming around the neighborhood.

That meant he knew only some bits about them. Fortunately, the kitten doesn’t seem to have any problems for now.

Deciding to let her be, he wanted to leave through the main doors.

But when he turned his eyes stopped at the last door which he didn’t open that was by his guess leading to the balcony.

‘Should I look?’

The wall across him was filled with windows but he couldn’t see anything outside and expected that it was probably a night. That made him curious even more.

He was interested in what was beyond the walls of the house.

‘The forgotten realm or what she called it.’

The way Sera was talking about this place was obvious the house was only part of the place. Or at least it sounded that way to him.

But since Sera said that every place was dangerous he instinctively avoided it. But now his curiosity grew.

So far the room didn’t disappoint him so he hoped that the balcony could be also in some way unique.

And so he went towards it. The door itself was made out of clear glass with wooden frames.

It was a simple yet elegant door fitting in this room.

He easily opened the door and made a first step outside.

There was no cold wind ruffling his hair but instead, he felt as if he was still inside of the room.

The expectation was definitely different from reality.

What really surprised him was the sky.

‘Holy…’

He never saw the sky so clear as this one.

So many stars clustered next to each other was a sight that he would never forget.

It was like those photos of the Milky Way yet even more beautiful.

Several of the stars were either much larger or closer to this place looking bigger than other ones shining brightly with different colors.

Every second some stars or maybe comets flew through the scenery giving it an even more picturesque look.

But that was not all.

He saw other things in the sky that he couldn’t identify and something that reminded him of cracks.

Many objects were casting giant shadows upon the place making it hard to see the area around. Not that he looked around yet.

He was instead wondering what those things were.

Some of those objects were like some cosmic rocks and he could guess they could be called the moons of this place. Even though they are different in size some even have different shapes as if gravity didn’t work on them.

Furthermore, each moon shone with different colors as they were illuminated by different stars.

But some things were completely dark despite the shine of the stars.

As if it was devouring the light itself.

However, what was the most concerning thing for him were the cracks he saw.

Those cracks weren’t very visible but if someone focuses on them once knowing about them they can’t unsee them ever again.

‘I hope this is normal.’

If this was on Earth then he would expect that everyone would die in a matter of seconds or milliseconds.

Here he isn’t sure.

Once knowing this shit is real his common sense was overturned and he doesn’t know what is wrong or not.

That made him slightly anxious and he decided that he would ask Sera the moment he saw her.

He couldn’t look at it anymore and instead, he started to look around the balcony.

The balcony itself was quite wide so there was no feeling of cramped place.

In truth, there was room for several small tables with chairs, chaise lounges, and even one rocking chair.

All of it looked like a place to relax.

And he approved of this message.

He sat in the rocking chair as he wanted to rest for a bit.

“Haaah… If only I could just go to sleep already.”

He was quite tired.

And so while he was sitting in the chair he closed his eyes for the moment.

But the peace was quickly disrupted by the noise from the distance.

*Caw*

*Caw*

*Caw*

At first, he wanted to ignore it but as the cawing grew he couldn’t help but open his eyes wide.

The first thing he realized was that there was much more light in the surroundings making it easier to see.

‘Damn, did I fall asleep?!’

Seeing this he thought that the day already came and he slept the entire time.

But then he realized that there was no sun or anything in the sky instead the moons were shining on the land.

The object that was hindering the light of stars was nowhere to be seen.

That made it possible for him to finally see what was outside of the house.

And the thing he saw surprised him.

He was leaning on the railing and watched the scenery.

‘That’s hella high.’

The balcony, respectively the house, was on an extremely high place overseeing the entire landscape.

When he looked down he felt for a moment dizzy as he saw the ground so far.

Not only was the entire house extremely tall, but it was also built on some kind of hill.

So most things he could see were only greenery.

Despite that fact, it was a fascinating sight.

What was the most surprising though was the trees that he saw in the distance.

It was like a thick jungle with trees being so huge that each one of them was at least as tall as the hill the house was on.

On the other hand, the tallest one that was also one of the farthest ones he couldn’t even see its crown as saw only part of it.

This totally blew his mind. It is one thing to see magical things and the other to see something so big that your mind can’t process it properly.

And that was only part of the landscape.

He realized that in other directions there were probably other biomes stitched together.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see it properly as the balcony view was turned exactly at the rainforest with the gigantic trees.

*Caw*

Soon his attention was once again drawn by the cawing.

He knew the sound. He heard it many times on the Earth.

It was the sound ravens did.

Thus he looked around to see one but couldn’t find any.

That was until he noticed something.

He stopped looking into the distance and instead turned his eyes to the house.

When looking at it from the outside he realized that it looked completely different than when he saw it on Earth.

‘Why is it changing its shape all the time... It is not funny if I were to spend several hours a day every time I need to go somewhere.’

He could already guess that the inside won’t correspond to the outside look so he was already gloomy.

But he stopped thinking about it and instead looked at its looks.

At this moment the house looked more like a mansion than a house.

There were ornaments carved on the stone, the windows were arched and at the corners, he saw little turrets and even a tower-like part of the house.

On many of those and every roofline, gargoyles were used either for decoration or as rainwater spouts.

They looked grotesque and intimidating made completely out of stone.

All of that gave off another majestic feel to the place but what really bothered him were the dark places that were on the turrets and gargoyles.

It was too far to see properly but he was sure that those were the culprits for the cawing.

‘Aren’t there too many of them?’

His suspicion was right as the sudden ‘dark cloud’ rose from the trees and flew up.

“No way.”

The fact he could see it from such a distance was already a showcase of how many birds there had to be.

It could easily be in the range of thousands.

“Huh?!”

Seeing them from the distance he didn’t feel anything but when he saw the cloud was coming in this direction he felt some premonition.

And so he was making his way to the doors leading inside to be sure that he would be able to flee if needed.

A person would be surprised to see someone cowering before the birds but he isn’t fool to believe that they are just normal ones.

In truth, he doesn’t know even if they actually are ravens. He just deduced it through the sound they made.

But fortunately, once they were close enough that he could see them individually he could recognize that they were just ravens.

“Phew…”

Just as he wanted to let his guard down he saw them oven their beaks to bare their…

‘Fangs?!’

“What the…”

The swarm of the supposed ravens flew around the balcony with weird sneers on their ‘faces’ making him want to leave immediately.

And so he went to reach for the handle of the door to go inside.

“Why so scared? They can’t enter anyway you know?”

“Hiayh?!”

But the sudden voice next to him startled him so much that he released a very ‘manly’ yell as he fell on his butt.

There on the railing, a being was standing.

It was a petite girl with a loose white shirt and a silly smile on her face.

She looked to be in her twenties but was not very tall.

Her auburn hair was messy yet looked better than his. Moreover, the ends of her hair were colorful giving her a cute look.

That wouldn’t be the weird part.

The really weird part was that she had fucking wings instead of arms!

Those wings were full of vibrant and colorful feathers with a wingspan of two or so meters.

Her lower part of the body also had a feather tail with the same colors and her legs had talons she used to hold on the railing of the balcony.

She didn’t give off the same intimidating aura as Feliria so he quickly recovered himself.

Instead of answering though, he first looked around at those ravens.

Fortunately, they didn’t get close. Instead, most of them sat around on rooflines and parapets of the windows.

Only a few sat at the edge of the railing just as the girl.

“Why not speak?”

The girl spoke again, confused that he didn’t answer her with a tilted head.

“Oh…”

He turned back to her and thought for a moment.

“I’ve gotten startled. Are you sure that they can’t enter? They are on the railing…”

“Yeah! Nobody can trespass on the Housekeeper’s territory! How come you entered?”

Hearing his question she nodded with confidence and explained. Then she looked suspiciously at him.

“Well, I got permission from the house.”

He shrugged.

“Whaaa-?! Y-you are the new Housekeeper?”

She seemed to be so surprised that she almost fell off the railing.

Seeing that she wasn’t able or didn’t want to attack him he slowly stood up while holding his butt.

‘Damn it, that's the second time already.’

It hurt like hell but he didn’t want to scare off the girl.

“You, what is your name?”

“Your? I is Koro, Mr. Housekeeper!”

She said with a smile.

“Ah, Nice to meet you Koro. I am actually not a Housekeeper yet. My name is…”

He tried to correct her but this made her widen her eyes as she interrupted him.

“So you were lying? A trespasser?! Trespasser!”

She started to yell which made the ravens on the railings fly away as they watched her from a distance.

“No! I was not lying! I really got the consent! I’ve just not gotten the title!”

“Koro is confused! Confused! So Housekeeper or not. Not or Housekeeper?”

This conversation seemed to go out of control and so he chose to not correct her anymore.

“Yes, I am a new Housekeeper!”

Finally, she stopped to yell.

“Oh. Then why not tell Koro from the beginning? You almost caused a misunderstanding, Mr. Housekeeper!”

He frowned when he heard her calling him Housekeeper but let it go.

*Caw*

The ravens around were cawing at this.

‘Is it just me or are they watching this with amusement?’

They looked as if they enjoyed this drama as Koro was panicking.

‘This place will really make me crazy.’

“Ah well, you see. I was too.. Shy? To tell you…”

If he felt awkward before then now he felt utterly embarrassed.

Trying to talk with this girl was harder than with Feliria.

‘Freaking bird brain…’

But seeing her looks he surmised that she had to be stupid because of her bird genes.

“Shy? Don’t be shy~ Koro likes your looks! Little dirty but nonetheless!”

His mouth twitched at this.

“Why, Thank you… You also don’t look too bad. Little too birdy. What are you exactly?”

When he asked, Koro started to beam as she spread her wings.

“Koro is very birdy! Koro is a harpy!”

“A harpy?”

‘Shouldn’t be a harpy an ugly monster? Hating and killing men or something? Moreover, she is too colorful… I would believe her if she said she was a parrot woman…’

It was kind of hard to accept this new information. She was too far from his imagination of a regular harpy. Well, Sera also wasn’t someone who you would guess was the Dullahan…

“Yeah, harpy! Koro was harpy before so Koro is harpy now too!”

He really didn’t know how to answer that.

Meanwhile, she was hopping on the railing as she was humming something. Then she looked at him again.

“Koro is curious. When did Mr. Housekeeper become Mr. Housekeeper? If it was sooner then I would know.”

She was full of curiosity as she asked this.

“You are right. I became a Housekeeper… Probably a few hours ago?”

He wasn’t sure. He already lost the concept of time here.

“Hours? That doesn’t make sense to Koro!”

But she actually started to shoot her head as if he said something stupid.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Hours don’t pass. Time does not flow. It is broken. Broken for too long.”

When she said this she smiled with a nod as if it was common sense.

‘What did I just do here?’

Except that it wasn’t.

“Broken?”

“It is said that the first Mr.Housekeeper destroyed it! With boom!”

He already started to understand why Sera was so stressed when a new candidate for Housekeeper appeared.

‘She also said that they were all crazy, right?’

“I-I see. I didn’t know. Simply said, I am new here. I was first in the room. That’s why I am not very knowledgeable about this place.”

“No wonder! I was trying to remember if I knew you when you were sleeping but no face like yours came to mind. Koro was baffled!”

He pursed his lips.

“You were here since I was sleeping on the chair?”

He didn’t like that at all!

“N-no! Of course not!”

Seeing her to avoid my gaze, his face hardened a little.

“You just said you were watching my face when sleeping!”

“Nah, Koro did not. Don’t lie, Mr. Housekeeper.”

“You did!”

He started to bicker with her for a while but she didn’t budge.

She was a terrible liar but was good at not admitting anything.

This made him mad.

‘Damn this girl!’

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything.

While she was like half his weight he didn’t think he could do anything to her. Especially with those talons!

Not like she deserved a beating for that. Animals don’t know better or something like that, right?

Unfortunately, if she won’t admit it, trying to admonish her won’t do anything either.

‘Rule number 4: Don’t sleep outside of the master bedroom. Weirdos are watching.’

And so he could only let it go.

“Sigh… You are such a pain in the ass…”

“Koro doesn’t have pain in the ass! You dirty Housekeeper!”

She started to touch her rear with her wings as she pouted.

For him, it looked really cute but he won’t say it.

Instead, he will use the opportunity that he before missed.

“When you talk about me being dirty. Do you know where the garden of the house is? It isn’t that rainforest, right? I need to go there to get water.”

She thought for a moment when she heard his question.

“Garden? There are several gardens! Rainforest isn’t one of them! The forest is forest. But if you talk about a pond… Let me think.”

She was racking her brain as she was trying to remember.

‘Don’t you live here? How can you not know? Do you really have the brain of a bird?!’

He wanted to yell this but he held himself.

After less than a few minutes she beamed.

“Ah, Koro remembers! If you talk about a garden with a pond then I  think you talk about the rear garden! There is one there.”

‘Lucky.’

“Do you know where it is?”

With confidence, she nodded.

“In the rear of the house!”

“...”

“And how do you get there?”

“Flying over the house?”

“...”

‘She is making fun of me, isn’t she?’

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