CH86 The clock is ticking.
Alex awoke in her maid outfit, her memory of the baroness Yvne's last order hazy. Now, with a clearer head, avoiding the lady of the mansion seemed paramount. The thought of Yvne's ability to command anyone in a maid outfit was truly terrifying.
“Zeke?” Alex sat up in bed.
Zeke’s voice cracked while speaking. “Alice. What is it?” The farm boy didn’t sound or look the same as yesterday. He looked much less masculine.
“The sun will be up soon. It is about 7am.” Alex checked the time on her phone. “My plan to get kicked out didn’t work so I’ll have to try something else.”
“7am? Is there a sundial nearby? The town has one along the main run but I didn’t see one in the manor. We usually just work from sunup to sun down.” Zeke also sat up in bed. “I’d tell you your struggle against the nobility is futile but I don’t think that would make you feel better.”
“They drugged our food last night. Let me cook so that nothing extra gets added. That is not really a way out but it is a start.” Alex got up and started making the bed.
Zeke mirrored Alex, beginning to make his own bed.
Alex, having meticulously tidied her bed, stepped back to appreciate her handiwork. At that moment, her phone rang, and a shiver ran down her spine.
[Maid training 5%] Alex spun to face Zeke, but it was too late. "Zeke, stop, don't make your bed!"
Zeke stiffened and the magic of the cursed maid dress did its work. He visibly shrunk an inch, became less bulky, and his hair grew at a visible rate. “There, our beds are made.” His voice sounded higher.
Alex nervously ran her hands over her body, checking for any changes. Nothing felt different. She opened the camera app on her phone and examined herself. She still looked like the priestess from the purity temple, albeit a younger version, perhaps a side effect of the magical girl class or the newly equipped maid dress.
Zeke, however, might have more time. The cursed dress would need to transform him into a woman and a maid, or perhaps both simultaneously. Alex was unsure; her own transformations had been varied, each process unique.
“If you make your bed I think it turns you more fully into a maid.” Alex turned the phone around and showed Zeke how he looked. “Don’t do that again. There are probably more things that progress the maid transformation, but not exactly sure what they all are.”
Zeke blinked. “That’s me? I barely look male anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m worried that when our maid training is complete we’ll be just like the rest of the staff. Did you notice how all the maids prefer to be addressed as maid? I don’t really want you or anyone to become like that.” Alex cleaned off some loose hairs from Zeke’s dress.
[Maid training 6%]
Alex swore, noticing the number tick up on the phone’s screen. This curse was going to be hard to avoid.
“Thanks Alice.” Zeke reached to help Alex with her dress but Alex stopped him.
“Don’t do that. It’ll just advance the curse. I just found that out the hard way.” Alex sighed and opened the door to the hallway. “If I could do things over again. I’d make a maid outfit and just wear it so they’d think I had one of the cursed ones.”
“You sure are full of spirit Alice. Not being from around here, it is sad to see you end up like this. Anyway, let's get breakfast.” Zeke headed out along with Alex down the hallway to the dining room.
Much to Alex’s dismay, everyone in the dining hall donned their maid outfits. Looking around the room, it was difficult to discern who were townspeople and who were maids. As the time ticked forward, likely the difference would be zero for some people.
Alex noticed Trudy setting out silverware. “Trudy, Zeke, let's make breakfast for everyone.” The maid-dressed magical girl gestured to the adjacent kitchen room.
“Understood, mistress should appreciate us displaying our cooking skills.” Zeke and Trudy answered in unison. It was a little creepy.
"May we prepare the meal for everyone?" the magical girl politely asked the maids in the kitchen. Without objection, the maids stepped aside and gestured for them to proceed.
Alex found this peculiar. Given the previous meal's subduing effect, their indifference to the cooking this time was highly suspicious. The pantry was largely stocked with starches, fruits, and vegetables. A healthy supply of eggs rested on their own shelf in a noticeably cooler section of the pantry.
"Let's make veggie omelets for everyone," Alex declared, rolling up her sleeves and attempting, unsuccessfully, to remove her white gloves.
The kitchen had a cistern fed basin. It was just a pipe that fed into a copper bowl. While Alex couldn’t take the white cloth gloves off she could rinse off her hands so she did so before starting the food prep. “It is important to clean your hands before preparing food.” Alex set a good example then dusted off the water with the feather duster, leaving pristine dry gloves behind. However, there was an unpleasant surprise.
[Maid training 7%]
Alex winched and backpedaled when Zeke and Trudy approached to wash their hands. “Actually, you are clean enough. Maybe next time. I got my gloves dirty last night, yours are fine”
The three of them got some cast iron pans, added cooking oil to and put them on what looked to be a magic-powered stove. “Now the important thing is to make the food cute.” Fufi wasn’t around so Alex felt like saying what she would have said in this situation. “We can make some ketchup and draw hearts on them when we plate them.”
Alex looked to one of the maids that were quietly watching. “I think they are tomatoes, vinegar and sugar. Do we have them?”
The maid answered in a monotone voice. “Yes, but not much sugar, that is reserved for the baroness. You can use vinegar and tomatoes though.”
No blender? No problem. Alex, wielding a paring knife, meticulously chopped and blended ingredients, creating a rich, red paste. She then skillfully used an icing bag to pipe hearts onto each omelet. A quick taste test of her homemade ketchup yielded a surprising result: it tasted exactly as it should, despite the absence of sugar. Alongside the heart-decorated omelets, Alex penned encouraging messages like "Don't give up!" and "You can do it!"
“Your way of cooking cheers me up.” Trudy smiled. “This omelet is very cute.”
“Thanks, want to help me serve these?” Alex handed Trudy and Zeke plated omelets.
It took a few minutes to get everyone served and Alex threw a towel over her shoulder and said cheerfully. “Enjoy your meal.”
That was when Alex discovered why the maids didn’t object to the maid trainees cooking.
[Maid training 27%] Crap, that was a big jump.
As a consolation prize, Alex got another skill up.
[Cooking+1]
[Cooking : advanced to skill level 2]
Trudy and Zeke also underwent transformations. Trudy's changes were subtle, manifesting as a rigid, straightened posture and a shift from a smile to a more formal expression.
Zeke's transformation was far more pronounced. What began as a well-muscled man in a dress evolved over a day and night into an androgynous figure. He lost several inches in height, his chest developed feminine bumps, his waist narrowed, and his hips and thighs broadened. His Adam's apple receded, his eyelashes and hair grew longer, and his lips reshaped into a natural pout.
“Ugh.” Zeke reached between his legs. His voice was even more noticeably higher. “I thought that I might have lost it there for a moment. But it looks like my buddy is still there.”
Trudy blushed.
Alex rolled her eyes. “That’s a little bit more information than we needed to know. I know that the cursed clothing is insidious but please don’t touch yourself in public. It really isn’t a proper way to conduct yourself.”
Zeke nodded in embarrassment and composed himself. He looked at Trudy and copied her pose. His hair grew a little longer, now down to his neck.
Crap. Alex thought. “Look, I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I was pretty sure that the maids were feeding everyone food that made them docile. I figured if we cooked it we could keep people from losing themselves to the cursed clothing and buy a little extra time to find a way out of this mess. I discovered yesterday that cleaning advances the maid training process and just now we found out that cooking does as well.”
Trudy managed a weak smile. “I don’t know if it will matter much longer but I have increased my cooking skill.”
“I unlocked cooking as a skill.” Zeke looked at Trudy. “Yesterday I unlocked a cleaning skill.”
Trudy nodded. “I know, it is weird that we are increasing our skills so fast. I already had cooking and cleaning skills. Most women in town do because it is expected that we all learn to be capable homemakers. But yesterday the mistress supervised our training and I think most everyone said something about getting a skill increase in cleaning.”
Alex believed such rapid skill development would be incredible. However, like many things that seem too good to be true, it came with a terrible price. The eerie, identically-minded maids revealed everything. Do they even recall their past selves?
The three sat at a table, consuming their omelets. Thankfully, no one began spacing out as they had the previous day.
“We should come up with a plan.” Alex took a bite and drank some water. “I don’t want to just give up. There has to be a way out of this.”
Both people at the table didn’t seem to have much hope but gave a hesitant nod to hear Alex out.
“What do we know so far? Cooking and cleaning progresses the curse. I’m not sure what else does.” Alex paused, hoping that Zeke and Trudy had any good information.
“Obeying mistress.” Trudy frowned then tried again. “M..miss, Lady Yvne.” Trudy took a deep breath. “Sorry, everytime I talk about the baroness the words come out extra reverent.”
“Can we just climb the walls and escape that way?” Alex asked.
“I doubt that will work. When I was a kid, someone took a dare to sneak into my mistress's estate at night. There was a magic barrier that repelled them.” Zeke added.
Alex hummed and considered options. “So unless there is some kind of other way I’m guessing the normal way is through the gate during the day when it is open?”
Both of them nodded in unison.
“Mistress will sometimes send for people but mostly supplies get dropped off in the yard and the staff will sort them.” Zeke answered the question.
“I searched the study. There were some demonic tomes there. I found one and took a glance at it. There was strange writing in it. I am not an expert but I think it is demonic ritual magic.” Alex paused. “I would say maybe we could study it and see if we could find a way to break the curse but I have no idea how to even read it. I don’t know how long that would take to decipher but I doubt we have that kind of time.”
“What do you think we should do, miss Alice?” Zeke started stacking dishes, but caught himself and stopped. That might be considered cleaning.
“I guess for starters we could avoid doing the things the maids are pushing us to do. And most importantly avoid my mis….Lady Yvne.” Alex spat the last words. The nudge to speak reverently about the baroness was affecting her as well. “Let's get out of here before we are forced to help clean up.”
The three of them stood up and headed for the door. Alex opened the door and the three started for the hallway.
“Don’t you think you are forgetting something?” A maid approached them, a stern look on her face.
“What’s that?” Alex stepped away, inching for the hallway.
“You three should clean up. You don’t want to have the other maids clean all the dishes you dirtied do you? That wouldn’t be nice.” The maid gestured back into the dining hall.
"Everyone knows if you cook, you don't clean up!" Alex retorted.
The maid crossed her arms. "That is not a rule in this household, Miss Alice."
"Well, it should be!" Alex sounded like a child avoiding chores, but she didn't care. "Let's go, we have other work to do." Alex grabbed Zeke and Trudy's hands and led them down the hallway. She felt the maid's angry glare on her back but ignored it. Alex steered them outside to a bench with a view of the stables. The clockwork carriage remained where it was. Alex considered transforming it back into a card and bolting for the open gate, but a dozen imp-butlers manned it. It was a kill-box gate; they could pull a lever, and an iron grate would trap them. Alex wasn't superhuman; she couldn't bend iron bars with her bare hands.
Trudy and Zeke joined Alex on the bench.
“We escaped cleaning duty for now.” Trudy looked around and noticed Alex looking at the carriage. “Is that yours? It doesn’t look like one of the ones from the usual traveling merchants.”
Alex looked to Trudy. “Yes, though if I become a maid does that mean I’ll be mistress’s property and everything I own in turn?”
Trudy answered softly. “Not automatically but mistress is the law and the judge for her lands. So if she wants something, she can just make up an excuse to take it. And if you question it, then she can just punish you for not knowing your place.”
“I figured as much.” Alex looked up at the sky. It was overcast and somewhat cold. It might rain again today. “I could try to sneak into her chambers and see if there is anything there that might help?”
“Do you think you can do that without getting caught?” Zeke sounded like the plan was foolish.
“I can try, I think I can avoid a maid or two. Is she the only one that goes in there?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, after her husband was murdered she sent her children away to the capitol to go to the academy there.” Trudy shared some interesting gossip.
“Really? Mistress was married.” Alex meant to say something less pleasant but it didn’t come out that way.
“Yes, an undead waylaid the former baron when he was on route to a ball. The demons took care of the undead but the mistress had to inherit the Barony. She sent her children away after that. It was a shame. When the two of them were together, she was a great mother and spent a lot of time in town being part of the community. After her husband died she was like a different person.” Trudy leaned forward like saying some secret.
Alex ran her hand through her hair. “I’m sure the mistress is demon possessed. If what you say is true, perhaps when the baron died, the demon possessed his wife.” Alex pauses. “Does it even work that way? Would the demon die if the body it was possessing died? It could be a different demon.” Alex wanted to ask Fufi. But letting Zeke and Trudy know that she wasn’t a toy but an actual flamingo in a clockwork suit seemed like an unnecessary risk.