CH97 On the sky island
While a large-scale migration effort was taking place, Merumeru hung out with Cosmos and some new people that she had brought to the island. The little slime girl had come to realize that building a giant castle like the little one she made in the adventurer’s guild for dolls was too huge a project for one little slime.
The first floor's concrete block walls, reinforced with imbedded metal poles, left no room for windows when assembled. Merumeru's attempts to carve out window openings were met with difficulty; misjudging optimal locations and compromising the metal rods or block seams led to cracking and crumbling concrete.
On a bookshelf in the cabin, books displayed pictures of castles from Earth. Two types of Bohemian castles particularly captured her attention. Some featured narrow window slits and towers that were ninety percent stone wall. However, she found the castles with numerous windows more appealing and wished to incorporate many into her own design, despite the difficulty.
After approximately a week, she had completed a couple windows and door frames to her satisfaction. The structure was immense, and much more work remained. However, new challenges arose. She managed to craft small glass panes for one of the turrets, but the process of converting sand into cloudy glass was time-consuming.
The basement, intended as a vast underwater environment, failed to maintain its clarity. Stagnant sections became cloudy, and a slimy film coated rooms with poor water circulation, which was most of them. Water entered through an exterior wall and exited via an elevated drain, maintaining a specific water level. Tiny snails began to inhabit the basement, and surprisingly, some small fish also spawned.
The slime girl had anticipated this project would progress as smoothly as creating the flowing creek beneath the grotto shrine. However, scaling up introduced unforeseen difficulties. She wished to invite her new friend, Aqua, to visit, but she wanted to ensure a pristine water area for the Nereid's stay.
As Merumeru stirred the water with a stick, observing the brown slime clinging to it, a group of visitors approached. One face was familiar, while three were new.
“Hello Merumeru. How are things going with your castle?” Cosmos surveyed the construction site. “You got some windows in. But it kinda smells.” The magical girl wrinkled her nose.
“Meru.” Merumeru nodded her head.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.” Cosmos pumped her fist. “Anyway, this is Baroness Yvne and her children, Cassian and Saraphina. They are my captives!”
The two younger looking humans dressed well and had an arrogant look on their faces. One was male and the other was female.
“Ruuu?” Merumeru didn’t think that magical girl Cosmos was the type to take captives. And didn’t she say she was going to go bait a king into attacking her? That must not have gone well.
“Miss Cosmos.” The haggard looking noble tried to maintain composure. “Sadly, my title was removed after that fiasco in the capitol. I’m no longer a landed noble.”
“In that case, do you know how to cook or prepare tea?” Cosmos pointed at the eldest of the three people, likely the mother of the two children.
“That is the maids’ job.” Yvne shook her head. “I see you are making a castle, surely there is help other than this slime girl. Where are the other workers?” Yvne looked a little worried.
“You really rely on maids.” Cosmos’s voice sounded suddenly ice cold. “And there are no other workers, we are just being caretakers for property owned by someone else.”
Ynve froze up.
The son decided to put his foot in his mouth. “But of course. Our barony is known for training the finest maids. Why wouldn’t we rely on them?”
“Do you know why so many maids come from your manor, young master Cassian?” Cosmos shifted her intense gaze to the teenage boy.
“Because we have the best training program.” The boy proudly proclaimed.
“So good that everyone comes out the perfect maid.” Cosmos dryly replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.
The boy nodded, thinking it was some kind of praise.
“Ones that are perfectly obedient and never question their masters.” Cosmos spoke slower hoping the dense teenager would get it.
“As a proper maid should… “ Cassian started.
The girl stomped on her brother’s foot to keep him from sticking his foot any farther down his mouth. “That’s enough Cassian. We may have been at the royal academy but getting the highest punishment for our family besides execution from the king and being abducted by someone who is supposed to be a myth means we’ve committed some grave offense.”
“Saraphina.” The boy gave her sister a sharp look.
“It looks like someone isn’t completely dense.” The magical girl gave the daughter an affirming nod. “Care to enlighten them lady Yvne?”
“Our holdings have been controlled by demons for a long time.” Yvne sadly stated.
“Of course they are. We are all citizens of the demon queen’s empire. They taught us that in school.” Cassian sounded annoyed, not giving his mother a chance to finish.
“Don’t interrupt mother.” Saraphina raised her heeled shoe again, and her brother flinched.
“As I was saying, We’ve been using demonic rituals to turn peasants into maids and selling them or gifting them to higher ranking houses for favors.” Yvne’s voice sounded defeated. “When I married into the household I didn’t know that we were robbing people of agency. It caused a lot of fights between your father and I. What I didn’t know until he died was that he stopped being the man he was the moment he took up running the manor. The man was demon possessed and a demon was controlling him like a puppet. I found this out the hard way after he was assassinated by a revenant.” She took a deep breath and continued. “He told me that he used to be in the hero’s party and that he made a deal with the god of grudges to come back and fulfill his grudge against the demons by slaying every last one he came across until he was able to do what the hero and his party could not do, save the world.”
“What happened after that?” Saraphina asked, eyes widening.
“I called him a murderer and ran away. He warned me that if I tried to accept the title of baroness that I’d be possessed by some demon.” She shook her head in regret. “I didn’t believe him, instead I told the adventurer’s guild that there was a dangerous, unkillable undead and paid for the quest to hunt him down and subdue him.”
“Did they capture the abomination?” Cassius looked disgusted by the thought of the walking dead.
“Yes they did. I had to pay extra to seal the walking corpse in a coffin. But that was the last choice I was able to make.” The former baroness hung her head. “Because my husband’s fate became my fate not long after that. Being a prisoner in my own body I had no agency in sending you two away. You see, the demons don’t want humans to get too high a level so they are okay with us not living so long as they have convenient replacements.”
“Good points, but you are missing the main issue.” Cosmos examined her painted nails.
“What do you mean?” Yvne looked confused.
“What action can bring the boogie girl out of the shadows?” Cosmos winked at Merumeru, when the noble squirmed.
“The flamingo?” Yvne tried. “I think that protecting birds would be the least offensive action of that day.”
Cosmos gestures all around. “Do you see any flamingo here keeping me company?”
All three of them shook their heads in unison.
“That is because villains like you killed my familiar.” The magical girl sounded deadly serious.
“Meeeeruuuuuu” Merumeru launched a hug attack on magical girl Cosmos.
Cosmos giggled. “Thank you for the hugs Merumeru but you are ruining the tension.” She patted the slime girl latched onto her leg.
“I’m sorry.” Yvne bowed deeply. “If I could turn back time I would have taken that revenant’s advice and took my people and left. Please let us know how we can make up for our transgression somehow.”
Cosmos let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m not really upset with you.” She shot Cassius a look. “Except for you, you need to get bonked a few times to get the stupid out of your head.”
Cassius frowned and joined his mother in bowing.
“I’ll tell you what. You can start by cleaning up the cabin.” She pointed to Alex’s cabin. “How are you at making tea?”
Merumeru chuckled. She pulled down one eyelid and stuck out her tongue at the trio.
Yvne twitched but meekly answered. “We’ll try our best.”
Entering the cabin, everyone was struck by its disarray. Overflowing trash, dishes stacked high on the counter, and piles of dirty clothes in every corner made it clear how neglected the space was.
“What a strange building.” Yvne looked around but then plugged her nose.
“It isn’t from this world. Technically, this is part of a different planet floating a few miles above Terre.” Cosmos headed down a hallway before anyone else could ask questions.
“This is quite the mess.” Saraphina frowned at the condition of the living room and kitchen.
Cosmos came back with three maid costumes. “I brought these for you.”
Yvne paled. “Where did you get those?”
“Does it matter?” Cosmos waved the maid outfits in front of them. “Maybe you should take a bath and get changed.”
“Mother, what is wrong? They may be maid outfits but at least we won’t get our nice clothing stained.” Seraphina gave her mother a reassuring smile.
“You don’t understand…. The costumes…” Yvne trailed off.
“Am I that cruel?” Cosmos tossed an outfit at each member of the family. “I guess we’ll have to find out. Merumeru, can you prepare the bath?”
“Meru!” Merumeru let go of Cosmos’s leg and toddled off to the bathroom. Shortly after the sound of water pouring could be heard coming from the hallway.
“But these are women’s clothing.” Casius protested.
“Do you think being male should exempt someone from becoming a maid?” Cosmos asked Cassius with a grin.
“Of course. Who would make a man dress in this garment?” Cassius sneered at the frilly dress.
Cosmos put a hand on her cheek for dramatic effect. “Oh I wonder who would do something so unthinkable?” She side-eyed the former baron.
“Cassius please do as she says.” The former baroness didn’t seem to want to give a proper explanation about the details of the maid operation in the manor.
After some time spent bathing and changing, all three emerged in their uniforms. Yvne and Saraphina accepted it readily, but Cassius appeared humiliated by the forced crossdressing. They dedicated the entire day to cleaning, with Yvne continuously monitoring Cassius, seemingly anticipating a transformation at any moment. Fortunately, Cosmos honored her promise, and no one was stuck unwillingly in cursed maid outfits.
Later that night, Cosmos sat on a bench outside with Merumeru and something fell from the sky.
“What’s that?” Cosmos caught the falling object.
It was one of those smartphone things that Alex had. Also, it was cutely decorated.
“Meru?” Merumeru wobbled her legs, wondering what was up.
Cosmos fumbled with the phone. It lit up and displayed a message. “Darn, it looks like I need to go back to the moon. Luna is getting flack for my actions.” She looked at the slime girl. “You are in charge here. You can hold down the fort while I’m gone, right? Keep the nobles away from demons. They should be safe here, but there are some sneaky succubuses that can invade people’s dreams if they have something personal of theirs. Wards here will give a nasty surprise to anyone that tries but if they leave then it could be bad. ”
Merumeru wasn't entirely sure what "holding down the fort" meant, but she nodded in agreement. She'd be happy to play house or help build the castle if three people wanted to join.