Chapter 19: ‘Shovel Talk’
A/N: I'm not sure this is how a shovel talk is supposed to go Grayfia…
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The moment that she can find a moment alone with these girls that her Lord and Master has recruited into his peerage, Grayfia takes it. Admittedly, part of her wonders if she's acting beyond her remit here… but surely these are part of her duties as Head Maid, right?
"Ladies."
Her icy tone and single word call stops all three young women in their tracks. Rumi, Zoey, and Mira all turn to Grayfia wordlessly, Zoey with wide eyes, Rumi with a fretful expression, and Mira with a raised brow. Nothing outside of Grayfia's expectations, in the end.
"I will not labor on about whether you three deserve a place at Lord Amadeus' side or not. That was his decision to make and he has made it. He sees value in all three of you."
Left unsaid is 'value that she doesn't see', but Grayfia has no doubt that these girls are smart enough to hear it anyways. All of them straighten up a bit, even Mira. Grayfia, meanwhile, sweeps her gaze across them for a long moment before narrowing her eyes into slits.
"However… that value, so far, is as mere servants. If you want more than that… you will have to prove yourself worthy of it to me. I will not let you take advantage of our Lord."
That gets some confused blinks. Rumi is the one who eventually breaks the awkward silence, the purple-haired half-demon glancing to either of her friends before looking back to Grayfia.
"Um… what do you mean, exactly? None of us want to take advantage of Amadeus, I promise!"
Grayfia arches a single brow at that, ignoring the lack of honorific. She knew her Master wouldn't demand it from them anyways, even if she tried to enforce such a thing. Instead, she focuses on the bigger issue, her eyes sliding first to Zoey and then to Mira.
"No? 'A body like yours is made for moving'. Ring any bells?"
Zoey lets out a sheepish laugh at that while Rumi blushes and Mira smirks. Grayfia, meanwhile, slaps down her own mild feelings of amusement and remains serious as the grave.
"And in the end… she was just saying what you were all thinking. I am not blind. I see the way you look at our Lord. All of you. You see a handsome, gorgeous man. You lust for him, don't you?"
Rumi sputters and begins to wave her hands in front of her in weak denial, but Mira cuts her off.
"Yeah. What of it? He's fucking hot. Smoking hot. And he's a good guy too. It's a rarer combination than you might think so… if he wants to have some fun with his new 'servants', what's wrong with that?"
"M-Mira!"
Rumi seems to be in the most denial about all of this. Zoey is nodding along with Mira's words though, that hunger Grayfia had noticed before back in her eyes. In the end, Grayfia scoffs.
"There is nothing wrong with such a thing, actually. However, I will not allow you all to seduce him and then convince him you don't need to pull your weight. If you want to earn the right to warm Lord Amadeus' bed, you will have to prove yourselves to me, as I've already stated. So far, only one of you has made any strides in that direction."
As anticipated, her last sentence bowls them all over, metaphorically speaking. They were all starting to tense up and close ranks, bristling at her ultimatum… until she implied that one of them was beating the other two. It's not quite enough for them to turn on each other completely, Grayfia notes, but it does leave them all bewildered and confused.
"Wait, what do you mean one of us has 'made strides'. What strides? Who?"
Grayfia briefly considers refusing to answer… but no, this is a negotiation after all. An aggressive one. And so she looks to Zoey piercingly.
"Earlier before, when you said that you would enjoy learning how to be a maid under me… did you mean those words, Zoey?"
Zoey straightens up, her back going ramrod straight and her eyes widening as she's put on the spot.
"U-Uh… y-yes?"
Grayfia frowns and Zoey squeaks.
"I mean… yes! Definitely! I-I'll be a maid!"
Nodding decisively, Grayfia looks to the other two somewhat smugly.
"And so you see, Zoey here is already prepared to show her value. She is the closest to earning the right to warm the Master's bed. You two, if you wish to earn the same, must find a way to match that value."
Zoey shoots a nervous glance at her friends, clearly not enjoying being pitted against them. And yet, she also doesn't speak up either. In the end, Mira scowls and crosses her arms over her chest.
"Is this your way of getting us to agree to drain our fans for Amadeus, because he himself said that he wouldn't require us to harm innocents."
Grayfia huffs, just as she did back then.
"No, of course not. That's something that the three of you should agree to do as a group because Lord Amadeus is now your King and you would only be helping yourselves and him in the process. That is that and this is this."
Mira narrows her eyes, frowning as she mulls over Grayfia's words. Until finally…
"I can provide a training area for Amadeus to get stronger!"
Rumi's sudden outburst draws Grayfia's eyes to her. Her friends also stare at her, but Grayfia pays them no mind for the moment.
"Oh?"
Flushed, Rumi slowly nods.
"Amadeus said before… we need enough space to train extremely hard without having to worry about innocents or damage to the surrounding terrain, right? And you can't do it down in your Underworld because then you might draw the attention of your enemies."
Humming, Grayfia tilts her head to the side.
"… Yes, that is correct."
Gaining more confidence, Rumi straightens up.
"W-Well, there's not really any place where you can do that here on Earth either. There are too many humans these days. Too much civilization. Not to mention surveillance technology is worldwide at this point. Even if you guys went off to an empty dessert or ocean to fight, you'd just wind up being spotted by some satellite or something."
Grayfia blinks, considering that for a moment. While she didn't know everything that Rumi was saying, she could follow along via context clues enough to recognize that the half-demon might have a point. But then…
"What are you suggesting we do then? Lord Amadeus' training is non-negotiable to him. He will get stronger, one way or another."
Rumi just smiles though, smacking a fist into a palm.
"The Demon Realm! The Honmoon is gone but also Gwi-Ma is dead and so are most of his demons. And I… I'm half-demon, right? So I should be able to take us from Earth to the Demon Realm and back again. And there are no innocents down there, just whatever demons remain. It should be the perfect place to really let loose!"
That… that was actually a really good idea. Grayfia turns it over in her head a few times, trying to find any issues while the girls all stand there in awkward silence, waiting for her verdict. Finally… Grayfia allows the corners of her mouth to turn up as she graces Rumi with the first smile any of them have gotten from her so far. Along with that smile, Grayfia gives the purple-haired woman an approving nod.
"Well done. You are now the closest to earning the right to warm the Master's bed."
Rumi stands still for a moment, eyes wide but just a little bit of pride in her gaze. Meanwhile, Mira growls… and Zoey squawks.
"W-Wha- hey! But what about me? I'm going to be a maid; aren't I close too?!"
Grayfia makes a show of eyeing Zoey up and down.
"I don't see a maid uniform on you yet… so no. Rumi is closest."
And with that, she turns on her heel and walks away, leaving the seeds of chaos she'd sowed in her wake. It's fine. She's just giving the three young women all the motivation they need to be the best servants that Lord Amadeus has ever seen…
-x-X-x-
He'd gone to the bathroom and when he came back, all sorts of foods had been delivered to the penthouse by the Tower Kitchens. However, Amadeus had also noted that Rumi, Mira, and Zoey were all acting a little… weird? They kept shooting glances at him… and at Grayfia for some reason?
Had something happened…?
Honestly, he was a bit too hungry to care at that point. And while most of the foods they'd ordered made for him looked incredibly strange, they all smelt absolutely delicious. And so Amadeus is happy to sit and 'chow down' as Zoey puts it, letting them all suggest things to him to try one by one.
Slowly, the awkward atmosphere seems to fade as the girls get into the feeding frenzy, each of them having some of the feast as well. There's certainly too much for just Amadeus to eat, so he's happy to suggest that they all partake in whatever their favorites are.
He offers food to Grayfia as well, but she declines, stating that she doesn't need sustenance for the moment. Which makes things awkward again, because then for some reason Zoey suddenly stops eating and claims she's fine too. Amadeus has to spend time convincing Zoey she can keep eating and that he wants her to eat with him before eventually she resumes.
Finally, this leads to the end of the meal, in which Amadeus feels quite… good about himself. The food was filling but not too much and he's feeling rather energized. That's when Grayfia steps forward and clears his throat.
"Master… Rumi has had an epiphany regarding a potential training location for us."
Amadeus' brow raises and he looks over to see the purple-haired singer straightening up. She looks a little surprised but only for a moment, rallying impressively quickly and nodding seriously.
"That's right. Ah… since you can't train in the Underworld, and Earth is a bit too overpopulated as well… I figured maybe you could train in the Demon Realm, where our old enemies used to live. Without a Honmoon to stop it, I should be able to use my d-demon powers to travel back and forth and bring people with me, I figure."
To her credit, she barely stutters at 'demon powers'. Though Amadeus still catches it. It's clear to him that Rumi still isn't completely at ease with her demon heritage. But given her story, that makes sense. He'll do his level best to help her come to terms with things in the future.
For now though… he processes what she's saying and then smiles broadly, his whole face lighting up. Strangely, this makes all three girls, Rumi most of all, blush as they stare at him, but Amadeus pretends like he doesn't notice.
"Rumi, that's amazing! And perfect! You're right, the Demon Realm does sound like it would be exactly what we need. Do you think we should go check it out now?"
Looking pleased with herself, Rumi nods eagerly as she rises to her feet.
"Yes, let's! I mean… admittedly I've never traveled between realms before, but how hard can it really be? Let's do it!"
Zoey and Mira exchange glances, but they also rise from their chairs, moving to support their leader and friend. Grayfia doesn't protest either, so Amadeus moves to join them with her at his back. For a moment, all five of them just stand there, until finally Zoey breaks the silence.
"Uh, Rumi-?"
Rumi puts up a hand though, cutting Zoey off.
"Hush Zoey, I'm concen-!"
Mid-word, the ground suddenly opens beneath their feet in a pinkish red swirling mass that looks absolutely nothing like a summoning circle to the Underworld. And unlike traveling too and from the Underworld, they don't just slowly sink through it either… they all drop with a mixture of yelps, shrieks, and cries.
-x-X-x-
Mere moments after the five of them vanish from view, the elevator dings and the doors open as Bobby steps back into view.
"Girls! I just got a call for an opportunity for something big! Girls? Uh… Amadeus? Anyone?"
Bobby looks around the empty penthouse with a frown.
"Huh… I guess they all stepped out or something?"
He scratches the back of his head for a moment before shrugging and pulling out his phone to shoot a text back to the Executive Producer that had reached out to him and let them know that he wouldn't be able to give them a definitive Yes or No right away.
After all, while Bobby thought it would be awesome for his girls to do a guest appearance on the magical girl TV Show 'Miracle Levia-tan' while they were on their break, especially given what he now knew about their own quasi-magical girl status… it was ultimately going to be their choice at the end of the day.
Hopefully they came back soon though. Opportunities like this didn't come along very often, even for internationally famous K-Pop Stars like Huntrix!
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The Vote:
[X] Stick with Amadeus' POV - 53%
[ ] Switch to Rumi's POV - 26%
[ ] Switch to Mira's POV - 14%
[ ] Switch to Zoey's POV - 7%
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Also please give my newest Weekly Story a try for me!
Worth the Price (Worm AU)
Summary: A young man desperate for a chance at changing his shit heap of a world reaches out to the Great Beyond for any sort of relief that he can find. He gets it... but at what price? Will it prove worth it in the long run or has he made a terrible mistake?
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Thanks for reading!