Chapter 54. Nina.
It was an afternoon and the sky was cloudy, a chill in the air. Autumn was here. The smell of rain was strong and a light drizzle was falling. The sound of raindrops hitting the pavement was relaxing as Silas watched from the second floor of an apartment building.
A big trash bin was in front of the run-down building. The smell of rotten food erupted from the bin. Why was he here?
The slums still existed, there were poor people even after the apocalypse. Magic couldn’t remove poverty, it simply raised the minimum standard.
He leaned against the wooden railing. A creak was heard and he thought it’d break.
A small frown on his lips. This wasn’t something he needed to do but sometimes he still did these things, especially for the girl that lived on the second floor.
From the entrance of the alley, a girl on a bicycle rode. Her blonde hair flew with the wind, a bag full of groceries on the back. The sound of the bicycle bell echoed in the alley and she stopped it near the stairs.
With a grunt, she lifted the groceries and started to climb the stairs, her eyes on her feet.
She didn’t know he was there. That he was watching. His mana was hidden in space itself.
The door to room 204 opened and both of them went inside.
The room was small and dark, just enough space for a small bed, a closet and a kitchen. No bathroom and the smell of mold was there. The floor was wooden and creaked with every step, the paint was coming off the walls, and it was dusty everywhere.
She put the groceries on the counter and started unpacking. The window let some light in. With a sigh, she sat on the small bed.
Silas appeared next to her, startling her.
“What the hell?!” she yelled and fell off the bed.
He just sat down on the bed. A small smile on his lips and his violet eyes watched her as she scrambled to stand up. Her breathing was heavy.
“Nina. You really live like this?” He asked, looking at the messy room.
The girl ignored the question and went to the kitchen, taking out a glass and pouring water into it. The water was clear as she drank it.
The bed he was on felt hard under him. This wasn’t where a person should live.
“What do you want, Mr.Vane?” Nina asked, putting the glass in the sink. “Experimenting already?” There was no fear in her voice, just resignation and exhaustion.
He shook his head and laid on the hard bed, his suit probably dirty now. The pillow felt wet.
“Would you like a different job?” he asked, staring at the water stain on the ceiling. With his space magic he stopped a droplet from falling on his head and he let it float above him.
A pause. She leaned on the counter.
“Is it an experiment too?” she asked.
“No. It’s a maid job at a mansion.” His eyes followed the water droplet as he played with it, moving it from one corner of the room to the other, making it go in loops.
Nina was silent for a moment.
“Does it pay better than my current job?” Her voice was quiet but not quiet enough.
“Significantly.”
The sound of shuffling and her footsteps coming near him. Nina stood next to him, looking at the floating water drop with a curious look. It was bigger now.
Her smell was like old clothes, the smell of cheap soap.
“Do I have to do any sexual services?”
He let out a chuckle, his fingers snapping and the drop went back to the ceiling.
“No. Also you’d get to live in a room of your own at the mansion,” he replied.
She sat down next to him, the bed squeaked from the added weight. The mattress was thin.
Nina leaned back, laying on the bed with her hands on her chest, staring at the ceiling.
The air was still and the rain got louder. The window shook a bit as the drops hit it.
“You really want me to be your maid?” she asked. He could hear her hearts beating, the four rhythmic sounds like music.
Four. Eight. Twelve. Sixteen beats.
“It benefits both of us. You get a good paying job and a safe place to live, and I get to observe you in detail and you’d be a maid for my wife,” he stated it simply. “I can’t let a valuable specimen go to waste like this.”
Nina snorted. Her hands moved to her face, covering her eyes.
Her voice was tired. “Alright, fine.”
With that he smiled and got up from the uncomfortable bed. Looking out of the window, he saw the rain pouring down harder on the pavement.
“You’ll have to sign a contract though,” he said, walking to the kitchen and grabbing a glass for himself, pouring water into it and drinking it. The taste was stale and weird.
“Isn’t that normal?” She tilted her head, looking at him, her glasses slightly crooked on her nose.
He laughed. “No. An actual contract. You will be bound by it.”
She blinked slowly and sat up, her feet touching the cold floor.
“I see.”
With a wave of his hand, another woman appeared in the middle of the small room, startling Nina who almost fell off the bed again.
This new person was dressed in leggings and a sports bra, her blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, her hands on her hips as she glared at Silas with her green eyes.
“Jessica I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” he grinned.
Jessica huffed, crossing her arms as she looked around the room and then at Nina.
“Another slave? Isn’t one enough, Professor Vane?”
Nina watched their interaction in silence with a pillow in her lap.
He shrugged.
“It’s time to write a new contract. A maid contract,” he answered, grabbing a chair and placing it next to her and then sitting on it backwards, his arms resting on the back of the chair.
A sigh left the Aethelgard student and she rolled her eyes. Silas teleported a pen and paper in front of her and she took them.
Nina was still just sitting there, observing Jessica.
“Alright, what are the terms?” Jessica asked, the tip of her pen on the paper. Silas listed his conditions, Nina listening to every one of them. She had to take care of herself, work at the mansion and live there, get tested and experimented on and not reveal anything about his family.
Most importantly not to harm anyone in the Vane family. After Jessica was done writing and reading it over, Silas reached out his hand for the paper.
“Alright sign it and we can get you to your new home,” he said, smiling at Nina.
She got up and grabbed the pen, reading over the contract herself. It couldn’t be worse than what Haden had done to her—besides her life in this apartment wasn’t ideal either.
Signing the paper, the golden letter of her name shone and then vanished.
She put the contract down on the table.
“Am I done here?” Jessica asked.
"Yes." Silas waved her away. “Go finish your training with Mizuri. Also you have to stop being predictable when you are fighting. Not left, right every time.”
The girl scoffed.
“Thank you for the constructive criticism, sir.”
Before she could say anything else, he teleported her back to the Academy. Then he turned to Nina.
“Ready to go? I need to show my family what I brought home.”
Nina sighed.
They vanished in the next second.