Chapter 12: CHAPTER 12: THE TWINS’ NEW ROLE

Delic wakes up before me so that he can slip out of bed without waking me up. He quietly exits the room and makes his way over to the twins' bedroom. On his way there, Delic grabs a pair of uniforms for the twins. When he arrives at the twins' room, he notices that the twins are still fast asleep, so he walks over to the window and opens the curtains. The sudden bright light wakes the two boys up.

"Today is your first day as Master's personal aides. You should always wake up before Master so that you can get the morning preparations ready for when it is time to wake up the Lady." Delic proceeds to hand the boys the uniforms he picked up earlier. "These uniforms should be an appropriate size. Put those on and meet me in the hallway in five minutes."

The boys subconsciously grab the uniforms since they are still in the phase of recovering from the bright light. Delic leaves the room and closes the door just loud enough to completely wake the boys up.

Finally coming to his senses, Xander looks down at the uniform in his hands. "We really did become that girl's personal aides."

"I don't think it will be all that bad," replies Alex as he begins changing his clothes. "I don't think she will be a bad master to serve for a while."

"I think so, too."

Once they finish changing, Xander and Alex meet with Delic in front of their door. Delic has also changed his clothes from earlier since his room is just down the hall.

"Since you two are new at serving someone, I am going to have you two to dive in head first on what it will be like serving the Lady. I will take care of the breakfast portion of morning preparations," Delic explains. "You two will get Master's bath and change of clothes ready. Since it is a weekend, she does not need to wear her school uniform. Make sure that you do not wake her. She had a rough night."

"Wait wait wait wait!" yells Xander with widened eyes. "What do you mean get that girl's bath ready? We have to go inside her room while she's asleep? Isn't that like an invasion of privacy or something?"

Delic slowly turns and glares at Xander. "You shall refrain from calling Master 'that girl'. You two are her servants and should call her accordingly." Frustrated, Delic sighs and adjusts his clothes. "You are not invading her privacy. As her aides, your duty is to closely tend to all matters regarding Master's life. When it comes to servants like the three of us, there is no such thing as privacy concerning the Lady of the house."

"What shall we do after we finish preparing the bath and clothes," asks Alex from behind Xander.

"You are to wake up the Lady, remove her sleeping clothes, and wash her."

With the color of a cherry tomato, Alex hides his face in his hands. "You mean we have to see the Lady naked???"

"That is a given as her personal aides," remarks Delic.

"Given my ass!!" shouts Xander. "Isn't it wrong to have two men alone with a naked girl??? Why not let the maids wash her?"

"As much as I appreciate the appropriate manners you have, this is something that you will have to get used to. As strange as it may sound, Master is not used to women tending to her. She has only had the men in her life take care of her. We have tried to have the maids tend to her once a couple weeks ago, but Master was profoundly uneasy about it. That is why she refuses to let the maids wash her which is also why I have been the one to take care of the Lady. Besides," Delic adds glaring down at the two boys, "I don't see you two as men at all. You two are just children who happen to be around the same age as Master."

"Why you...." Xander clenches his fists as Delic turns to walk away.

"I will guide you to the Lady's room. Remember to not be too loud as she is still sleeping."

Reaching the end of the hallway to make a quick right, the trio arrive at my doors.

"Now that you two know how to get to Master's room, I will leave you to do your duties. You should be finished with her bath and changing her clothes by the time I come back with Master's breakfast." With that, Delic retreats without letting the boys say another word.

Hesitating to open the doors, the boys look at each other in complete disbelief of what they are about to do. The room that opens up to them shines in white with green and blue accents like fresh fallen snow on a cold sunny day. To the left of the doorway lies a queen-size bed with a lone girl sleeping inside. The boys quietly close the doors and make their way over to the only other door in the room.

"This must be her bathroom," states Xander as the two of them stop short of the door.

"Can we really do this?" asks Alex nervously.

Hanging his head, Xander grits his teeth. "We have no other choice. She has been cursed with an unbelievable power. We have to do this to rescue our village." Without another thought, Xander pushes the door open to reveal a bathroom bathed in white. The hints of blue and green are so subtle that it changes the atmosphere with the direction of the sunlight that pours in from the window.

Alex walks over to the tub and turns it on to release the loud escape of the water. He quickly turns the water off and looks over to where I am on the bed. "Do you think that woke her up?" he questions.

"I don't think so, but just to be sure, let's close the door until we are finished."

Alex nods his head and watches his brother shut the door. Once he hears the click of the door, Alex then turns the water back on again.

As Alex is preparing the bath, Xander makes his way over to the closet. Xander twists the handle to show a shocking difference from his morning surprise. The closet is filled with simply ordinary clothes.

"Hey, don't you think that this princess would have had fancier clothing than just this stuff?" Xander suggests as he goes through the several pieces of clothing.

"Now that you mention it, she was wearing simple clothes last night," Alex replies as he checks the temperature of the bath water with his hand.

Examining the clothes, Xander stops and drops his arms. "How am I supposed to pick out clothes for someone I don't even know??" He scratches his head as he looks around the closet
.
"How about these?" Alex asks as he lifts up a pair of shorts with a baggy shirt. "Judging from her clothes, she doesn't really dress up girly much, so something simple like shorts and a shirt should be fine."

"Let's take your word for it and hope that she's okay with it."

After placing the clothes on a table next to the sink, the boys make their way over to my bed. Looking down at me, they are unsure on how to wake me up to which Alex takes the initiative and gently taps my shoulder.

"Um, e-excuse me," Alex starts. "It's time for you to wake up." I roll over and cover myself with the blanket. Scared of being too rough but more scared of Delic yelling at him, Alex rubs my arms. "Your bath is ready. You have to get up now."

"Five more minutes," I mumble as I hide under the blanket.

Already irritated, Xander grabs the covers and throws them off of me. "Look here, girl, we were told that we had to wake up and give you a bath. As much as we would love to give you five more minutes and not see you naked, the tall guy will probably kill us if we don't do what we are told. So why don't you get up and get in the tub?"

A cold air permeates from where I lay. I get up and give a chilled stare at Xander. Shocked but still irritated, Xander picks me up from the bed, tosses me over his shoulder, and carries me to the bathroom. He hurriedly pulls the night gown off my body and virtually launches me into the tub leaving the bathroom when he finishes.

Stunned at the sudden aggressiveness that Xander has shown, I obediently sit in the tub with my knees hugging my chest. I have never been so shocked like that in a while. I think I kind of prefer Delic's annoyingly sweet way of getting me ready in the morning.

"I'm sorry about Xander," Alex whispers as he gently washes my hair. "We were given the task of getting you ready in the morning, but we weren't prepared for what that task entails."

"You mean the whole taking off my clothes and washing me part?" I ask.

Secretly blushing behind me, Alex nods. "You see, the village is a very modest place. We were raised on the idea that a woman's body is sacred. A man should not see a woman's naked body unless they are ready to be with that woman."

"So being told to take off a girl's clothes and bathe her as if it's a normal occurrence for you two must have been quite a surprise. I'm sorry if I pushed something on you two that went against your culture. If you guys don't want to do this, you can always tell me, and I’ll give you a different task for morning duties. It would be selfish of me to have you do something that went against your village’s beliefs."

Alex pauses. Curious, I turn around to look at him exposing my bare chest to him. This makes Alex's face turn beet red, and he quickly turns his head away. "I don't mind it," he murmurs under his breath.

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"What was that?" I ask, gazing at his face.

"I said that I don't mind it," Alex replies as he grabs my shoulders and turns me back around.

I giggle at his innocent nature. "You don't mind what? Seeing me naked?" I jokingly say.

"Yeah," he quietly replies. It wasn't loud enough to be heard, but it was just enough to safely assume. Surprised, I didn't say another word.

After he finishes with my bath, Alex helps me out of the tub and proceeds to dry me off. He delicately dries my body with the towel as if my body would tear apart if he rubs any harder. As he dries my backside, Xander barges into the bathroom.

"Hey girl, I put your clothes on your bed. When you're ready, I will-" Xander freezes the moment he sees my uncovered body.

"You will what?" I press.

Rapidly turning so suddenly, Xander hits his face on the door . "Why didn't you tell me that you weren't finished, Alex?!"

"You are the one that rammed through the door like a bull, Xander," Alex retorts. "This is the Lady's bathroom. It's self-explanatory that she would probably still be naked." I stare up at Alex's face behind me. It looks different. Normally, he is hiding or has a worried look. Something definitely looks different.

"Why are you acting like it's normal to see a naked girl?" Xander asks, still facing the door.

Alex wraps my body with the towel when he finishes and holds out his hand. I place my hand in his, and he guides me to the door where Xander stands. "Serving the Lady of the house like this will be our morning routine until further notice. We must become accustomed to this as soon as possible to not hinder the Lady. Now, would you please open the door since you're blocking it?"

Xander opens the door and hurries out to my bed, and when he turns around to face us, a bewildered expression comes over him. What he witnesses before him is his usually timid little brother with the purest smile on his face as he admires the girl next to him.

Once Alex makes it over to the bed, he stares at Xander. "If you continue to be uncomfortable at the sight of the Lady's body, you can find another place to perform your morning duties."

"What happened in the bathroom that caused such a change in you, Alex?"

Helping me get comfortable on the edge of the bed, Alex stands to face his brother. "I thought about it when I was washing her. When I told her about the culture we grew up around, she immediately apologized for putting us in this situation. She even offered to have us stationed somewhere else for morning duties since she didn't want to force something on us that might make us uncomfortable. She wasn't arrogant about it. She wasn't mean. This girl quickly accepted her faults and offered to change our duties just to accommodate us.

"That's when I realized that she is doing a lot for us. She is offering to help free our village. She is giving us a place to stay, food to eat, and a new purpose. She is even telling us that we can stop being her aides when our village escapes the group of mages. What are we doing to return that favor? Complaining about how we shouldn't be performing this morning task just because of our culture? Our culture isn't the only one out there. I realized that we must be flexible if we want to survive. People who are stuck on one thing will never progress in life.

"That's why I decided to change. I decided that I will do everything that I can to repay the favor that my new master is doing for us. If that means going out of my comfort zone, then so be it. The more I'm out of my comfort zone, the bigger my comfort zone will be, and I won't be uncomfortable anymore. Now, do you understand why I am reacting the way I am?"

At the most inopportune time, Delic walks into my room with breakfast. Delic peers over the heated atmosphere that is filling the room to find the two boys having a stare down with me sitting on the bed with an astonished look on my face.

"What happened in here?" Delic asks as he sets the food on the table.

Noticing that Delic is in the room, the two boys calm down.

"Let's get you in some clothes, my Lady," Alex suggests as he reaches down for the clothes Xander sought on the bed earlier.

Before Alex can grab the clothes, Xander swipes them off the bed. "I can change, too," Xander mutters as he makes his way over to me. Standing in front of me, he kneels down and attempts to look at me despite his ever-reddening face. "D-do you mind if I remove your towel so that I can help you get dressed?" I nod as I try to hold in my laugh. "This is new to me, okay? But... I want to return my thanks, so I'll try to get used to it. I don't want to burden you more than I already am."

Xander pinches one side of the towel and wavers a bit before finally taking it off. With half of my body exposed, Xander tries to keep his cool as he continues taking off the other side. He hands me my underwear and bra that I put on myself. I also put on my shorts since he seems to be struggling with it. After that, Xander helps me put my shirt on.

Delic comes up from behind Xander and taps his shoulder. "I can take care of the Lady's hair. You two can go ahead and eat breakfast."

Xander stands firm in front of me. "No," he declares. "It is my job to prepare the Lady in the morning. I have to see to it that I finish what I am given."

"Do you even know how to fix hair?" Alex interjects from the table where the breakfast is spread out.

"Look here, Alex! I am trying to make an effort to do my part! And what do you even know, stuffing your face in the food before the Lady of the house can even get any?!"

"Delic said that I can go ahead and eat since he made an extra portion for us," Alex counters as he continues eating with a smirk on his face.

Defeated, Xander glances over at Delic. "Can you teach me how to do Master's hair?" Delic agrees and starts showing Xander the basics of brushing and how to put the hair into a half-up look. It did hurt to say the least, but I pulled through with it since Xander was trying his best.

After Xander achieves an approval from Delic, we join Alex at the coffee table .

"Delic, what is on the agenda for today?"

"You have morning practice with Sir Edward for two hours. After practice, you have to check the garden to make sure that the supplies are stocked and the crops are growing efficiently. After lunch, you have a meeting with the Mayor to officially announce your position to the general public so that you can start up the business again. If the sun hasn't set by the end of the meeting, you can go to the warehouse where the business has temporarily stopped to inspect for any upgrades or renovations. However, if it begins to get dark, you will be taken straight back to the estate for your evening practice with Sir Edward before dinner."

"Have you readied a reply for the Golden Lions regarding their proposal?"

"The felinoid I sent back should have been enough of a reply for their absurd proposal?" Delic replies, clenching his fists.

"What was their proposal?" questions Xander as he takes a sip of his coffee.

"For me to marry their leader so that they can use my power to their liking," I bluntly reply, wiping my face after eating my sandwich.

Alex nearly spits out his water. "Marriage proposal?! Just so that they can monopolize your power?"

"The Lady's power is the most powerful ability in the whole city. Since men were the only ones who could attain this power through birth, there was never a problem. Now that a woman has been born with such a powerful ability, it's not surprising that Master has received a marriage proposal so soon."

"So what are you planning to do?" Xander asks.

"I will turn them down, of course," I naively reply.

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