After a while, he threw the last thing down: a broken vase. Aside from its weird design, it wasn’t in any way special, so they sorted it out.

Then he took the cloth and rolled it up as he stood up too. His legs were a little numb after crouching for so long, so he quickly distanced himself from the edge.

“Phew… Good job, guys! We did it! Our first step to bring order to this messy realm!”

He lifted his clenched hand and waved in good spirits.

After finishing this up, the feeling of accomplishment started to swell up in his chest.

He could count on his fingers the times he felt like this during his life. That made his dopamine level rise as the comfortable feeling spread throughout him.

Sera also clenched her fists, posing for success, and Fel was barking happily despite not knowing what they were celebrating. And she didn’t care either. The leader was happy, and so was she.

However, when Koro also started to celebrate, his eyes narrowed.

‘What do you think you are celebrating for? You didn’t do anything and just came along just so I could carry you on my back! You useless bird!’

Seeing this little freeloader made him think about how to use her for his plan.

‘She is a little slower, so she can’t be without supervision like Sera, but if she can be used like Fel for moving things around, then she could be at least useful. She should be able to reach the peaks of the towers without compromising the entire tower’s collapse.

“Hey, Koro? Are you happy now?”

With a little devilish smile, he came closer to the cheering little girl while whispering words full of traps.

“Uhm?”

“Koro. Why are you cheering? Don’t you feel sorry for us who worked so hard? You didn’t help at all!”

While he said this, he looked into her eyes. But Koro seemed to be confused.

“What?”

She tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.

That was fine. He didn’t want to guilt-trap her.

“Do you know we will have a celebration tomorrow? For everything we accomplished after all that hard work.”

Instead, he will give her some carrots. This girl doesn’t seem to work well after punishment…

It already looked as if she forgot there was any and was starting to get wild again.

“Celebration?! Let Koro join too!”

Koro, who heard the word ‘celebration,’ started to shine in excitement as she lunged at him and started to shake his shoulders.

But he caught her firmly on her waist and separated her from him.

“Unfortunately, you can’t join us, Koro.”

With a sad tone, he said this.

“Friend?”

Fel, who heard her friend's sad tone, was confused.

On the other hand, Sera watched this with amazement.

At first, she thought that this human could be another potential disaster for their haven.

There were already too many such Housekeepers who did more harm than benefit to this place. And she was too tired and scared from seeing another one.

Furthermore, bad male Housekeepers were always a pain in the ass since the majority of tenants were females. They usually couldn’t do anything to them, as usually, those who lusted after them were the lucky ones who got this position and didn’t have high authority over this realm. Thus they couldn’t touch them. Only a handful would be both. Lustful and successful.

Because of that, if such Housekeepers show up, the tenants can rebel against them to such an extent that they banish them from this place and completely erase their memory and any other clue about this place from their very existence.

In this way, they managed to be hidden most of the time from any other big powerhouses.

Fortunately, Araaz comforted her that he is a human. Humans are one of the most spread sentient beings across the universes so she knew them despite not seeing one since entering this place.

But she knew that while humans are weak at the start of their life, they can reach heights like no one else could.

It isn’t about the masses. It is about those Black Sheep that show up once in a while.

They are a race that is favored by both evil and good, and every one can be a unique and potential threat to others.

That made her extremely scared that he would be one of those black sheep.

But Araaz mentioned that the universe this human was from was quite weak. Almost empty without much energy.

That made even the creatures inside of it weak. It didn’t mean he couldn’t grow, but it meant that he is so far as weak as twigs as of now.

This made her much calmer and at peace.

But now seeing him again and again work with Fel and even becoming her pack leader made her reconsider his evaluation.

It may not be much in front of real beast tamers or trainers, but it shows that he has a certain charisma to take care of those troublemakers.

Furthermore, he doesn’t seem to overstep his authority even if he could so far and wasn’t acting rudely to anyone. Maybe.. Just maybe she could believe in him and help him to change this place to its former glory. No! Maybe even exceeding it!

‘However, his kinks are kind of…’

Her cheeks got redder as she remembered how he took away that book.

‘No way, I can’t judge others in this manner. Even I…’

Her thought process got interrupted as he loudly exclaimed.

“Only those who are working for the good of this realm’s society can be really part of the society! Become one of us, Koro! Become the star of the celebration! We need you! I need you! If you come to the living room tomorrow, then I will take that as yes! Then it is decided. Sera, Fel, Let’s go.”

With that, he walked away without even letting Koro sink in what she heard. However, where Koro didn’t see, he gestured rapidly at Sera, pointing at Koro while urging her to do her thing.

“Wha-Wha-W-what?!”

Sera, who saw Koro’s eyes rolling around trying to understand why she couldn’t join the party, could only sigh as she got closer.

“Koro, let’s work together from now on.”

Koro, who heard Sera’s voice, suddenly focused her eyes on her. If she couldn’t understand his words, then hearing them from Sera’s mouth made her realize that she really couldn’t just join…

“A-alright…”

And so she nodded, not knowing what kind of hell she brought upon herself.

But if it was the one that let the sinners only suffer for eternity or let them repent for their mistakes that is yet the question.

……

Since they were done, they decided to quickly get back. The Firewyrm seemed to get more and more rowdy, and everything trembled after he threw everything in.

He didn’t know if it was a coincidence or if he noticed that he treated his home as a trash can, and he didn’t want to know it.

So they quickly retreated. The only problem was that they had to pass through the bridge again. Just the thought made him nauseous.

Fortunately, this time it wasn’t so bad. Koro offered him a ride after seeing him hesitate, but he didn’t doubt that she is the last person here who he should trust.

Instead, he made both Fel and Koro go on first.

“Koro, you go on first. You too, Fel.”

He said this as he pointed on the other side.

Boom

Suddenly, a loud explosion sounded out from the volcano as a low roar resounded everywhere.

“Agh!”

The pain it invoked in him was so high that he tripped on the ground.

“Friend!”

First to get to him was Fel, who was already close to him.

“Ugh. I am ok… It is just that it hurts a bit…” It actually hurt like hell. His ears rang as he couldn’t hear for a moment on his right ear.

He touched it if he didn't bleed there, but fortunately, he didn’t feel anything.

With the push of his hands, he stood up and looked up the volcano. The smoke coming out of it didn’t have a gray color anymore as it was now just pitch black.

“Sir, we need to go. The firewyrm can from time to time spit around lava balls from boredom or when it is angry. It is better to get as far as possible when it wakes up.”

Sera who saw this said this to him, took him forcibly into princess carry and put her own head into his arms.

“Hold onto me for a moment, please. Also, turn my eyes to the front.”

“Wha-?!”

With that, she tensed her muscles and jumped right on the bridge!

“Aaagh?!”

Feeling the déjà vu, his fear spiked after looking down at the bottom of the abyss for a moment.

He didn’t even have to realize how he was carried so fast.

Fel, who was running right behind them, was frowning as she didn’t like how Sera was touching her leader.

Growl

“Put the leader down!”

“Feliria, now is not the-”

“Leader!”

“Fel, stop iiit!”

As she ran on all fours, she tried to catch on to Sera.

But to his surprise, Sera wasn’t caught as soon as he expected but instead started to run even quicker.

He didn’t realize it before, but she traded blows with Fel without as much as getting rough in breath in front of his eyes. Sera seemed to be extremely strong.

“Holy shit!”

With the swinging of the bridge, the ringing sound of volcano activity behind him, barking of Fel, and laughing of Koro who was flying slightly behind them with a happy smile, he felt so much adrenaline pumping inside of his veins that he felt like flying himself.

Fortunately, they got to the other side in just one minute as this time Sera was extremely quick.

In truth, the bridge was extremely long, but his mind didn’t want to acknowledge it when he needed to cross it for the first time.

In his entire time, he always thought that he didn’t have any excessive fear of heights, but now he probably developed one in the span of two days in this hellhole. Just how cursed this place is?

“Sir, are you alright? I thought it would be better if we did it this way as the previous way was way too slow. Also, you can give my head back. Sir?”

She put him down on his legs and tried to pry off her head. Unfortunately, he held it firmly as if holding on to his dear life.

“Friend!”

“Oh.”

Only after Fel nudged him did he get back from his daze.

“Oh, s-sorry… Here you go.”

“Hahah, Mr. Housekeeper is such an oaf!

With laughter in the background, he put her head on her neck with an awkward smile on his face.

“Oh, no problem, s-sir…”

Her face got redder as she said this and turned her head aside while looking down. She didn’t tell this but actually giving to someone her head to take care of and now letting him put it on is quite an intimate gesture in dullahan’s culture.

It should be obvious. If you have part of your body that keeps you alive detachable then you won’t give it to some random Tom, Dick and Harry.

However, races with no such body parts usually won’t realize that it has such connotations for dullahans.

Of course, for Sera whose head is falling as often as she breathes can’t avoid getting her head in someone’s hands from time to time, but she already got used to it. Moreover, most of the tenants here are friendly, so there is not much fear.

But it is a completely different thing if she is the one taking the initiative pushing into someone’s arms her own head. And it is also different when he gives it to her arms or on her neck….

‘Do I really believe him so much after knowing him for such a short time…? Maybe it is fate and putting this realm into his arms won’t be a mistake. If possible, he could be the last Housekeeper tending for this realm forever… ’

Thinking so, she turned back to him but…..

“Hah! Bless our majestic Queen! The weak male has been spotted!”

A green blur passed through the place where he was, and the ground under him collapsed soon after…

Before anyone could do anything, the ground sealed itself in a matter of seconds, and the evidence of the man standing there a second ago was gone…