Thanks to Fel, it didn’t take too long before he finally found the living room.

“Finally…”

However, if the time before he met her counts too then it took simply too much time.

But what was on the young man’s mind was the danger he had to go through.

He desired to learn how to move through this house safely as soon as possible.

‘I really need to ask her.’

He decided that he would ask Sera as soon as he met her.

But firstly, he needs to go through this labyrinth of filth.

Since it collapsed yesterday with Sera’s help, it was now even harder for him to move in without hurting himself.

“But this is also a good opportunity, I guess. I may have found something useful in this junk.”

When he looked around he wondered if he found something to use as a weapon. He wouldn’t be surprised to see some medieval weapons like swords in this place.

‘I almost forgot… Rule 7: Always guarantee your safety with weapons or strong company before leaving safe zones.’

He realized that going around with Fel was even safer than having weapons since she was at least several times stronger than him.

Actually, he wasn’t sure how strong she was and what her limit was. And he didn’t want to know. When that day comes it means the little shrimp like him is in deep shit. No matter if she would be his ally or enemy he could imagine himself suffering.

Glancing at her he saw her prancing around seemingly happy.

*Sigh*

He shouldn’t think like that. She was the most reliable here so far.

After all, dogs are man's best friends.

“Let’s go, Fel. We need to find Sera.”

“Yes!”

Fel nodded her head vigorously as she disappeared into the garbage that the living room was full of.

“W-wait!”

He stretched out his hand as if wanting to grab her but she was simply too fast.

He sprinted and zigzagged between those things. This time he came from a different direction than the first time so his memory won’t help him at all.

Furthermore, most of the things collapsed which made it impossible to go through without climbing on those things.

“Damn it..”

He could only grit his teeth and make sure he didn't hurt himself.

Fortunately, Fel made the path more accessible after her reckless dive and he could now easily go after her steps.

Soon, he found the place where he sat down with Sera.

But she wasn’t there.

“Sera?!”

So, he called out if she was close.

She said this was a safe place so he hoped that there wouldn’t be anything attracted by his voice…

*Woof*

“?!”

He didn’t hear her voice but he heard barking.

‘And you said you are not a dog…’

As he thought this he went after the sound.

Hopefully, he will find her with Sera.

After all, he asked Fel to help him to find her.

She should be able to do so since her smell is much better than his.

He already realized the fact that she was orienting herself with her smell.

That’s why she can go around without getting lost.

She almost didn’t recognize him this morning while saying he smelled funny because his natural smell was overpowered by the Black Heart thingy.

He doesn't even know how it did it. Before he met Sel he didn’t touch it. Maybe its presence alone could mark its prey or something like that.

The more so to make sure he can find a way to defend himself.

Sera shouldn’t have this problem. She should be a tenant for a long time and should be able to take care of herself.

Moreover, she is a freaking Dullahan!

That's a creature famous even on Earth! Many stories were made with them as characters. And in most of them, they were dangerous and badass. He always found them intriguing.

She may be clumsy and her pink hair doesn’t suit the dark image of Dullahans but…

Sera should have some basic ability to defend herself.

‘I feel some kind of itch. Did I jinx it?’

……..

When he finally saw Fel from the distance he slowed down. He felt a little breathless after chasing her for so long.

“F-finally…”

As he tried to catch his breath he also noticed the back of Sera.

His mood got better when he finally found her.

However, it didn’t take long before he noticed that there was no head on her shoulders.

His mouth twitched seeing this and slowed even more as he watched under his legs to not step on her head accidentally.

“Hey, what happened?!”

So he asked with a puzzled face.

*Woof*

Fel barked at him as she started to run with both legs and arms around the body of Sera.

On the other hand, the body turned around stretching arms in front of it as it tried to find a way somewhere.

“...”

What is this?

“Eh, sir?! Are you there?! Wuuu… Can you please help me?!”

*Sob*

Hearing sobs coming from somewhere while seeing a headless body panicking like a headless chicken...

Why is that the least weird event he experienced today?

He could only roll his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. I am here…”

“O-oh, thank god! I thought I would be stuck here for a long time…”

“Where is your head? Can’t see it anywhere.”

When he looked around he didn’t see her head lying anywhere. Now that she said it was stuck he guessed it had to be somewhere where she couldn’t reach with her body.

“Ehmm…”

She hesitated to say something. And because of her silence, he couldn’t detect her with her voice either.

“You need to talk so I can find you…”

What is this girl doing…

“Oh, well... Sorry, sir. It is just that I am in a kind of embarrassing situation…”

Listening to her voice he came close to the source.

“I see…”

Looking at the pile of junk in front of him he felt that this was just a bad joke.

“How did this happen…”

Exasperated, he asked her how she managed to do something so stupid.

“Well, I started to clean this place as that is my job but… I think I moved with something that I shouldn’t have and everything started collapsing. I managed to dodge in time, however, my head fell while doing so…”

Putting his face into his palms he sighed.

“I told you I would help you, didn't I?”

He knew it. The moment he got lost he already had a bad premonition about this girl…

How did she manage to make his expectations of her so low despite knowing her for such a short time?

That should be some kind of talent…

“But, sir! We didn’t agree when we would meet! I didn’t know that you would want to help so soon…”

‘Well, she got a point. I mean, she had to take care of this before I was here so waiting for me as if I was an adult here is just me being biased.’

*Thud*

But when he looked at her body, which now just tripped and was sprawled on the ground he felt a profound feeling bubbling inside of him.

“Sigh… Let’s forget about that for now. I will get your head out. Then, we can talk things out.”

“Uuuh, Alright…”

He then got close to the falling body.

If she didn’t wear that very modest uniform of maids her posture would be definitively very endearing.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to go through such pain.

He was already awkward as he was.

“I am now gonna help you stand up~! So don’t get startled.”

He loudly announced his intentions and went for it.

Firstly, he hoped to only touch her hand and pull her up.

However…

“How are you so heavy?!”

“Sir! That’s rude!”

“Rude my ass!”

He turned to Fel for help but she didn’t seem to be keen on helping.

“...”

With no other choice, he crouched and took her by the waist.

“Hahaha, s-sir, that tickles! Where are you touching?”

‘Inner calm, inner calm…’

Taking a deep breath he forcibly stopped thinking about anything, ignored her, and started to pull her up.

What he noticed during that act was that her waist felt extremely hard.

Actually, it felt like touching a metal…

Metal?

“Hey, do you wear anything under your uniform?”

“W-w-w-what?””

At first, he didn’t understand her reaction but then it hit him.

His face turned unnatural as he made several fake coughs to cover his embarrassment.

“No. T-that's not what I meant! Do you have something that is hard and heavy under this?!”

He almost yelled as he felt the need to explain himself.

Fortunately, the only onlooker, Fel, didn’t seem to care as she was sniffing things around.

“Oh, you meant this…”

She sighed in relief when she heard this.

Unbeknownst to him, her face got crimson as she actually thought he wanted to make his way with her body while she was helpless.

‘Hyaa~! Can’t tell him that. That’s so embarrassing…’

However, she didn’t answer him so she collected herself quickly and responded to him.

“Yes, I have my armor under it.”

What she didn’t expect was that he would fall silent after that.

“...”

‘You want to tell me that you wear a fucking full-body armor the entire time?’

His arms, which felt like they would fall at any time after helping her to stand up, felt indignant.

He took a deep breath.

“You. Fucking. Idiot!!!”

“Hyaa?! Sorryyy!”

……..

Once he helped to stand up he guided the body to the chair and with a strict tone said to her to wait.

Then with a helpless expression, he started to put the things that fell on her head away.

Fortunately, Fel helped occasionally when she found something interesting and helped him to take it away.

Even he was tempted to explore those esoteric things.

But there was a pressing problem he had to resolve.

After who knows how long he finally got to see her pink hair.

“Sir, thank you so much. You only need to move these things and you will be able to reach m- Hyaa!”

He couldn’t reach her head but he could feel her hair in his hand just fine.

With one smooth pull, he dragged her head from the rubble.

“H-hey! That’s rude, sir! And it hurts…”

“Shut up.”

He held her head by her hair in front of his eyes and glared at her.

Both of their faces were dusty after diving in this kind of crap for so long.

“Uuuu..”

She felt like crying after seeing him like this.

This made her want to hide in some unknown hole never to be seen again.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t even look in a different direction since he was holding her head.

That made her even more sad.

He could only roll his eyes and return to her body.

He wasn’t sure how it would stick there but he just put it there. It is her head, anyway.

Then, he sat across from her and stared at her.

“W-what?”

She was unsure why he looked at her like this.

“Did… Did you fall on your head when you were little or something?”

“...”

She couldn’t process the question. What does it have to do with the present?

“You stupid.”

However, her question was quickly answered by Fel who was sitting on the ground.

“Wait, you meant it like that? So meeeean~!”

When she realized she pouted her cheeks as she stared at him.

‘Even Fel could understand…’

Looking at her, he didn’t know how to feel.

Like, this girl was completely clueless!

What was the most disturbing was the fact that he found it quite cute!

Clumsy and shy girls hit his weak spot, okay?!

Not that he was strict in his preferences…

As long as the girl had met his standard he didn’t care about race, height, intelligence, or even personality.

Be it a tomboy or a lady from a rich family, he didn’t discriminate!

But that is only theoretical.

Looking at the silly girl in front of him, he felt the headache just from knowing her for a day.

“Why are you wearing the armor UNDER your maid uniform?”

She started scratching her cheek while looking away.

He just narrowed his eyes at this behavior.

“Well?”

“Ahh, to be safe obviously. This place is dangerous!”

As if coming with a good answer she triumphantly looked at him with a slight smile.

He nodded as if agreeing with her. After all, he could see how dangerous this place was.

“But then why are you wearing the maid uniform over it?”

“Well... Because I am a maid?”

She answered with uncertainty.

He just shook his head.

It isn’t his business who wears what but he needs to address this.

Whenever winter came and it became unbearable he would wear two layers of clothes.

That was enough for him to feel like a golem.

What about someone wearing metal armor and layering it with over-complicated maid garments?

“Hey, Sera. Tell me one thing.”

“Ugh, yes?”

“Were you always so clumsy that you were falling every day or was it after you chose to wear both armor and uniform at the same time?”

At first, she didn’t understand but when she started to think about it…

She froze at this.

Looking at her expression he already knew the answer and he wasn’t thrilled.

“Why are you even wearing the maid outfit? There is no reason to actually wear it since you are mostly alone in this place, aren’t you?”

“Well…”

She didn’t know what to say. It was true that she didn’t need to wear it if she didn’t want to…

Seeing her so hesitant he sighed.

“ I don’t know why you wear it like that and I won’t ask. It is not my business. Just be aware that moving around with only one of these things is a better option if you want to be either a good knight or a good maid. If you want to be both then you need to change your clothes according to what you are doing…”

“Ah… I understand…”

Originally, he wanted to say more but what right did he have to? She was barely acquainted with him.

Moreover, her face looked too pitiful to scold her. Maybe she had some reason. No matter how stupid…

“Whatever. Now that I am done with you, we will start to clean this room up. I already promised you. We probably won’t be able to finish it today so we should determine what time we will meet here.”

With this, he stated his intentions. He promised to help her with this as she was too emotional yesterday.

Fortunately, when he thought about it, he realized it wasn’t a bad choice.

If he wanted to leave this place he could only become Housekeeper. He doesn’t know other ways for now.

And if he wants to become Housekeeper he needs to maintain this place. That was the only feasible way for feeble humans like him.

So, cleaning this place could be said to be part of his duty and he wasn’t wasting his time.

“But the way we perceive time is different… I know you must sleep quite often but I don’t need to do so too…”

“Hmm.. That’s a good point. How do you guys come to an agreement when you meet each other here?”

So he asked the thing he wondered about.

“Most of the people here don’t really care about time here… There was nothing pressing and the time didn’t flow here. That means that nobody ages here either. They either meet or not when they are lucky. It is only after Time Sage became one of the Housekeepers that time became more relevant here, sir.”

She could only shrug her shoulders.

This place didn’t take time seriously at all.

“Then how about this? I will come here every day at the same time. You don’t need to learn it. Since you don’t sleep then we will simply begin when you are here or I will wait when I am not here.”

So he could only make a suggestion.

“Why wouldn’t I clean when I am alone, sir? It is kinda boring to wait.”

However, she was making an objection. Objection that made him want to smack her on the head and throw it away.

“Because when I found you a few minutes before you were trapped in the rubble of junk!”

She covered this and stopped making eye contact. But it didn't end yet.

“And because this place is dirty despite your so-called cleaning! There is no way that someone didn’t tell you that, right? There is that three-eyed maid. She looked quite serious. She should have some standards. Right?!”

He didn’t want to be mean but this place was filthy. If he had germophobia he would die even without seeing any of the monsters here.

He wouldn’t be surprised if the monsters are actually growing out of some mold here. Just this imagination gave him chills.

“Uhm…It is true... She is indeed a good maid. The best maid. She is actually someone I admire… She was a head maid back then and together with her maid squad she cleaned this place every day. However, most of them are now doing some other duties that make them unable to do anything else. I became a maid later on in hopes to clean this mess up.”

When she explained this to him he changed his opinion about her a little.

So she wasn't an official maid but just someone who wanted help…

‘How cute.’

“So you don’t know how to clean most things, right?”

“Y-yeah… Once in a while, I met a few of them and they gave me some tips but it was always brief since they had to get on their positions. But despite their help, I still suck at it. Maybe I shouldn’t do that after all…”

Her face gradually turned gloomy as she continued talking.

Feeling bad he tried to cheer her up.

“Don’t worry too much! Now that I am here, I will gladly help you. I am not professional but I believe I can help a little. Let’s go!”

With that, he stood up and hurried her to begin.

At last, he can finally begin the thing he planned to do in the morning…