Chapter 4: Chapter 4 – Armed and dangerous

The [Head Maid] was a mess. Her black hair was in disarray and her face smudged with tears. She was crammed tight inside the cupboard, just barely managing to fit in. The door opening had frozen her stiff, but she breathed out once she saw that the opener was human. Both women stared at each other silently for a few seconds.

“F-Fayette? Is that you? So much blood...” Clara whispered, voice quivering.

“The blood’s not mine.” Fayette responded curtly. “Do you know anything about the situation? Where the [Guards] are?”

“I- I do not know. I was setting up things in the dining room, when suddenly there were explosions and then those monsters burst in, I—” Her voice quieted as the woman seemed to fall into a daze. “I ran and hid— but the others... did they make it? Did you come through the kitchen?”

Fayette grimaced as she thought of the bodies she had just seen. She knew that finding another living soul here should have made her feel relieved—or at least something of the sort, but no, she only felt annoyed. I really don't have time for this right now.

“I’m... sure they’re fine somewhere. Can you get out? I need my tools.”

Fayette did not wait for an answer and pulled the woman out of the cupboard, just a bit forcefully. Clara was not ready for the force and stumbled out, falling against the wall. She rose up, blinking with confusion.

“What? Tools? Are you insane? We need to hide.”

Fayette did not respond—she was too busy looking through the cupboard for her alchemical supplies. Clara had disturbed things a bit, so Fayette had to dig through scattered mops, rags and various other junk before she found what she needed: her reagent pouch and concocting tools.

The types of cleaning agents one could buy on the market were hardly strong enough to satisfy Fayette, so she had resorted to making most of what she used on her own. After putting a spare point into her [Basic Alchemy (cleaning agents)] skill, her efforts had been rewarded with some very effective mixtures.

Fayette began to focus on the skill, but her focus was broken by a hand that grabbed her back.

“Hey, answer me! Have you lost your mind?” Clara almost shouted while trying to pull Fayette away from the cupboard.

Fayette slapped the woman’s hands away and fixed a furious gaze on her. “Hey, I need to focus for this.” She hissed, then turned back to the cupboard.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Clara hissed back.

Fayette sighed—some people were just so dense. She did not deign to turn back and continued sifting through her ingredients. “I’m a [Maid], so obviously I need all my cleaning tools if I’m going to fight.”

That shut Clara up for quite a bit—the woman just seemed confused as she stared at Fayette. “What?” She finally managed to ask. Hearing no response, she approached. “You’re serious. You are actually serious, aren’t you? You’re going to fight, to take on monsters while armed with a broom?”

Fayette shrugged, then gestured behind her at her very-blood-covered broom. “Worked well enough so far.”

For the first time, Clara seemed to take in the bloody garments the [Maid] was wearing, and then she turned to look at the broom. You could make out the dents in it from the use. Clara just looked back and forth between the [Maid] and the broom. Fayette was glad for the peace, she needed it for the work she was about to do.

First, she picked up a pair of protective leather gloves from the shelf and put them on—she did not want to get any of the liquid she was about to whip up on her skin. She had learned that lesson the hard way.

Next, she took out a bucket, filled it with water from the still working tap, then began mixing in the various ingredients. She felt her alchemy skill guiding her along the process, making sure ingredient amounts were precise and the timing was right. Some of the missing blanks were filled in by the skill, making her concoction a lot more potent than mundane methods would. At some point Clara had shuffled behind her—she was looking at Fayette’s work with something akin to curiosity.

The process did not take long, in total lasting a bit under half a minute. Fayette had chosen a mixture that could be whipped up fast—a crisis was underway nearby after all. It meant using some of her harder-to-find ingredients, but that really did not matter right now. As the last of the bubbles fizzled away, Fayette looked with satisfaction at the bright blue liquid.

“What are you doing with that?” Clara asked from behind her.

Fayette carefully stored a bit of the liquid into a glass bottle, then held it up. “This is what I like to call my [All-Purpose Cleaner]. Should do fine work against kobolds too.”

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Fayette put the bottle in a pocket, then picked up a mop from the wall and dipped it in the bucket. She tested the mop against some of the blood streaking through the hallway, and nodded with satisfaction at the hissing reaction.

Clara stared at her as if she was some kind of strange, alien creature. “You’re really going to charge in there to fight, aren’t you? With a mop of all things...”

Fayette cut an unusual figure as she prepared to set off—a maid outfit strewn with blood, mop in one hand and a bucket in the other. She looked back at the [Head Maid] defiantly, head raised high.

“So what if I am? I’m not going to hide away or something like that, I’m going straight for the escape tunnel.”

There was something in her gaze—that reckless confidence usually only possessed by heroes setting out for battle. Without another word, she turned and began walking forward.

After a moment’s hesitation, Clara followed.

Fayette peaked her head out of the corridor and looked into a formerly beautiful sitting room. The room did not have any occupants, but Fayette used [Eavesdrop] to make sure the vicinity was safe. It was not.

She heard kobolds shuffling about just behind a bend—that would be the main reception hall. Things had gotten quieter everywhere, and she did not like the implication of that. Still, she thought she heard some sounds of fighting, but there were too many kobolds in between. She shifted her scan to the servants' passages and was surprised to find them clear. Looks like that’ll be an easy path forward.

“Where are we going?” a whispered voice asked from behind her.

Fayette groaned internally. Did she really have to constantly explain herself? She walked into the room and went to a door disguised as a bookshelf. Mansions like these couldn’t have the workers be visible, could they? She opened up the door, revealing a mostly undisturbed passage.

“This should be the safest way forward. It’s not that long to the escape tunnel.” She pointed into the passage. “You go first.”

Clara backed away. “Why me? Are you using me as monster bait?” Based on her expression, she seemed to be imagining scenarios in which Fayette gleefully pushed her into the waiting arms of monsters to secure her own getaway.

This time Fayette groaned audibly. “No, halfwit. I’m securing our back.” She demonstrated by mopping the floor nearby, leaving a healthy dosage of her [All-Purpose Cleaner] behind. “Do you want to walk on that?”

Clara looked at the lightly steaming liquid for a moment and needed no further convincing. She walked into the passage and Fayette followed behind, steadily mopping the path behind them.

Clara seemed nervous as she walked in front, twitching at every creaking floorboard. Fayette understood the concern but wished she would just hurry up already. The servants' passages were meandering routes which had been added to the manor as an afterthought, so it was not a short path to walk. After rounding another corner, Clara turned to Fayette.

“Say, we’re in a tight passageway and you are obstructing our only way back. Wouldn’t it be pretty bad if there was like a monster lurking ahead or something?”

Fayette looked at the sizzling path behind her. Ah, yes. That is certainly true. Her [Eavesdrop] ability had come off cooldown again, so she quickly used it to check ahead. No signs of monsters in the paths. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve made sure there are none ahead,” she shrugged and prodded the [Head Maid] along.

Clara seemed sceptical but did not protest, so they continued on. They walked in silence, occasionally hearing the shuffling of monsters through the walls. Fayette felt her anticipation rising as she closed in on her goal—the escape tunnel should now be just on the other side of the wall. She could hear the sounds of battle, but the sounds quieted down just as she began to hurry up.

Did they win the battle?

Fayette poked at Clara with her mop to speed her along, and soon they were at a doorway. Fayette pushed to the front and carefully cracked the door open and saw that it was the human side that had won the battle. So far at least. She had heard a lot more kobolds along the way.

She heard Clara sigh with relief next to her and opened the door further. The sight made her stop. The hatch for the escape tunnel had been opened.

There was however a distinct lack of escape happening.

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