Chapter 55: The Road to Salvation

I was still trying to figure out what I thought of Beatrice going to find help. I had several issues with it, actually. First, it meant she'd be going outside. Outside near the castle, that was reasonable since there were apparently helpful things, but farther than that would be dangerous. Who knew how much dirt would be there and how many other violent mess makers? Plus, every bad human I ever met came from the outside.

Second, who knows what kind of "help" she'd end up with? Based on how she treated the human woman we found, she seemed to like the humans that attacked her. It didn't give me much faith in her as a judge of character. She could bring someone back who would only hurt her or cause more messes. What if they were a slob like some of the little human's friends, the kind that just left messes everywhere they went? They tracked dirt in, threw things around, and spilled their food. She could bring someone like that into the castle. Sure the castle was bad enough that things couldn't be much messier right now, but soon it wouldn't be. I would have to work hard to fix it, but once I finished exterminating all these large dirt demons, I could get into a reasonable state at least.

Third, and perhaps most selfishly, I would be left alone. I suppose there would be the one human she'd leave behind, but this was not a good human, nor one I wanted to associate with. I usually learned a lot from humans and interactions with them. Who was to say anything I learned from her would be useful? I wouldn't want to be influenced by anything negative. More than that, though, I'd get lonely. Having a human around all the time was quite nice. I liked listening to Bee talk and having her carry me up and down stairs. Also, it was what gave my work meaning.

Why would I clean if there were no humans around to appreciate the order that I left behind? In that case, if I simply didn't clean, no one would even notice. Therefore, my job would have no purpose. Besides, humans were usually 95% of the reason I had to clean anything in the first place. So if there was no human to both appreciate my work and give me work to do, I think I would feel rather pointless.

I really hoped that she would find another solution to her problems. But the food issue wasn't something I was particularly equipped to solve. Nor the matter of human repairs. I still had yet to find spare human parts for Beatrice to use. Well, now that I thought about it, there might be a source for spare human parts right nearby…. But then again, maybe not. I wouldn't want Beatrice to get affected by parts from a bad donor human.

I guessed when it came down to it, it really was Beatrice's decision to go find other humans. I supposed I could only wish her the best. When she first brought up the idea of going to get help, I briefly considered going with her, but ultimately that was a horrible idea. I was quite happy here in my castle, and I saw no real reason to go outside. Moreover, I don't think I'd be any more prepared to deal with any threats out there than Beatrice was at this point. As long as there weren't massive demons roaming about there too. Which there probably were. Or worse. Though Beatrice seemed oddly unconcerned about such dangers, I decided to trust her judgment on this one tentatively. After all, she seemed far more familiar with the outside than I was.

Still, I wasn't exactly happy about the outcome, but as she explained more about her plan, I started to come around. Apparently, it was only a half day's journey there and half a day's journey back. She would "be back in a day." While I didn't doubt her theory, I believed it when I saw it.

As she gathered her supplies, I stayed close, fussing over her selections and ensuring she got everything she needed. She had her broom, a set of glass tubes, and some extra food and water. She also brought a few books, along with many other things I needed help determining the purpose of. Soon I went from worried that she wouldn't have everything she needed to quite concerned about how she would carry all this stuff. Her pack was almost bigger than she was. Sometimes I forgot how meticulously she liked to plan for a job before she did it. Well, I was totally a fan of that, but there is such a thing as paralysis by analysis. Sometimes you just have to start cleaning, and as you clean, you figure it out.

Early the following day, I escorted her to the top of the stairs above the castle foyer. I waved goodbye with my grabby arm as she began her journey, fading from sight as she shut the castle door behind her. I had to stop and wonder what I was going to do next. The other human seemed to still be recharging, and Beatrice asked me not to disturb her as she seemed still scared of me for some reason. So as much as I would like to keep an eye on this bad human we had invited into our house, I would honor Beatrice's wishes and leave her alone. Provided that she wouldn't cause any trouble, of course.

No, I figured it'd be best for me to set some goals. The first and most obvious would be to get the castle back in order. But before I could restart my regular cleaning schedule, I needed to deal with the cause of this chaos. If each cage I had seen held an earth demon before, then 34 earth demons were now running around. I had only managed to consume three so far. So I still had 31 to go. At my current rate, I figured I could get at least 25 of them cleaned up before Beatrice made it back if she only took 24 hours. However, I expected her "one-day" estimate to cover all of today and most of tomorrow in reality. It just made sense, given her charging schedule. So I could aim to eliminate all of the earth demons before she got back. I thought that would be a good goal. The only issue I had with it was that I might have trouble finding them. My estimates only included a few minutes between finding each one. That seemed to be fine right now, but as their numbers dwindled, I imagined it would become more difficult. Especially with how infrequently they were already appearing.

There was also the consideration that I would hopefully become faster at this with practice. Leveling up seemed to help with that, as the skeletons had proven. Unfortunately, I had yet to reach the next threshold where the voice would tell me to pick a mutation. That would be at level 35. I believe I was at least level 32, so I should definitely hit level 35 soon, assuming these demons gave me lots of practice. Maybe even level 40?

With a plan in mind, I got to work, dedicating 3% of my processors to imagining what new abilities I would learn next.

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Bee walked down the castle steps, her backpack thumping lightly against her with each step. Despite it being stuffed to the brim with heavy books, it felt like it weighed nothing. Part of that, of course, was her increased strength as a level 15 human. But really, she figured it might come from something else. Freedom. She was walking out of this castle for the first time in several months. She had been outside, of course, but being outside of the castle walls was different.

As she exited the gate, she thought about it. What was stopping her from never returning? She was level 15. This was about the same level as the adventures had been. Most people wouldn't reach that kind of strength until their middle years. And if she trained, she could become a famous warrior and adventurer. With their current level, she could probably get into any academy she wanted. A full sponsorship, one where she never had to rely on her father again.

So why did that feel so wrong? Why did she throw the thought out before truly considering it? First, of course, there was the concern that she had promised her soul to an all-powerful being, but the more she got to know Void, the less she was concerned about that. Maybe her master might actually support her if she wanted to strike out on her own. Of course, she wouldn't even be surprised if the whole "owning her soul" thing was a slight miscommunication. But even so, that didn't really matter; she still held the weight of her oath on her heart, even if it wasn't what Void intended. If Void called her home, she instinctively knew she'd have to answer for the sake of her own word. Even though it didn't strike her as the type to hold her to it. Even if it might release her if she just asked.

Still, despite all those considerations, she had every intention and desire to return to the castle. She had been 100% honest with her master. She planned to go to the hamlet and see if anyone could come to help her get the farm and chickens for a few days. Barring that, she'd hoped to buy as much food as she could carry.

Bee was also pretty confident that all the tools she needed to fix the kitchen were in the castle. However, she was not nearly so certain about the associated supplies or how to use said tools. So maybe she needed someone not only to help with the farm and the chickens but also to help with remodeling a kitchen. That was probably a bit of a stretch, but even basic carpentry would be very helpful. That would be plenty if she could fix the water barrel and some of the stoves.

Her earlier concern about insufficient water was laid to rest when she discovered the well outside was perfectly intact. Still, the food was an issue. She didn't know how to cure meat or butcher animals, so many options were out. She either needed someone who knew how to do that or the ability to trade for what she lacked.

The more she built up this list in her head, the more she realized she might need more than a bit of help. It sounded like the castle really needed a full-time staff to function. Perhaps not to support her alone, but definitely to take advantage of all the resources and maintain all the different areas regularly. If something she intellectually knew but had never really thought about too much. She figured the mages probably deduced that out themselves a long time ago. Hopefully, she could make do with a much smaller workforce than the mages. There was also the issue of pay. She was sure that the castle had large amounts of wealth somewhere. And clearly, there were lots of valuables that she could probably use for trade, but she hadn't had the freedom to pick any up before leaving. With the earth demons roaming around, it was just too dangerous. So she had only brought what little coin she had picked up so far.

It likely wouldn't be enough to hire anyone, but it probably wouldn't be enough to get her robbed, either. Not that she was really concerned about where she was going. There were very few people, and they had a good relationship with the castle at this point. They kind of needed to keep it that way as it was their biggest customer.

These thoughts kept Bee busy as she found the path leading off in the woods towards the hamlet. As she considered where she needed to go, her pathing skill triggered and pointed her directly off the track in a line leading right into the woods. Bee sighed and continued on the beaten path. This skill had seemed like a dud so far. Perhaps it would take time to improve. Maybe she was just oblivious to how walking directly through a massive pile of leaves and turning to cross through that pile of deer droppings qualified as an "improved" path. Maybe it would become more powerful in the future. It was hard to say, especially since the skill didn't appear in any of the library books she had searched so far. It was almost as if she was the first person to receive the skill. That was unlikely, though.

All in all, the trip started off pretty uneventfully. It was a wide enough road that a horse could comfortably walk on it. Though if two horses met going opposite directions, one would have to find a spot to pull off. That likely had never happened in the history of this road. It was unpaved, more of a slightly compressed trail of dirt rather than a real road. Weeds and greenery encroached on the edges, threatening to take back the infrequently used path and hide it. However, as she walked, she started noticing something. If she stopped paying attention and followed her skill, she found that while it would avoid rocks and other obstacles like fallen trees, it would lead her right to rough mud. Even causing her to veer off the path to stomp through a puddle. She really needed to figure out this skill. It seemed she still had a long way to go.

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