Carrying the plates of food, I approached Talis and Yuki, who were both sitting at the table and gently set down their plates, though Yuki's plate was at least three the size of either Talis's or mine. The instant I removed my hand from underneath Yuki's plate, she didn't hesitate for a second and started stuffing her mouth full of food; seeing her eat like someone who had stared for three full days, I sighed and shook my head. Thankfully, Talis, despite being a beast, had much better manners and merely pecked her plate, taking small bites while making hardly any mess, which both Master and I had forced her to practice since she can easily be messy.

"Thanks, Alex." Said Talis with a cheerful chirp as she pecked at her plate before looking at Alexander, who sat down to her right.

"You're welcome, Talis; at least someone has enough manners to say thanks." Remarked Alexander with a nod as he gave Yuki a side glance, though she was far too absorbed with eating to hear anything else.

Clicking my tongue, the three of us silently ate, well, mostly silent; Yuki made a lot of noise while eating, and despite staring at her and calling her name several times, she didn't react, so I just gave up and waited until she finished eating, which didn't take that long even with the massive amount of food I gave her.

"Ahh, that was the greatest dish I've ever eaten in my life!" Stated Yuki with a large grin as she set her empty plate down and patted her stomach, which looked exactly the same despite eating roughly seven pounds of food.

"Haa, I'm glad you enjoyed it, Yuki, but I'm going to have to teach you some manners; you can't be eating like this all the time; you could've made a large mess." Said Alexander with a slight smirk before frowning and pointing at Yuki with his fork, prompting her to look around herself.

"Eh? I didn't make a mess, so what's the big deal?" Asked Yuki, giving Alexander a look of confusion while he grabbed his head and shook it.

"Yeah, you didn't make a mess because I had created a wind dome around you that caught any of the food that threatened to spill and guided them back to your plate; if not for that, you probably would've spilled at least a pound of food, if not more." Declared Alexander as he eyed Yuki while taking a bite of the venison and rice, which tasted delicious together.

"Hmm, but since we're living together, it doesn't matter then, does it? I can just continue to do that while I eat; I don't see the problem." Said Yuki as she tilted her head and looked at Alexander, whose face couldn't help but twitch at her lackadaisical attitude.

"Well, for starters, Yuki, we're not always going to eat together, so what happens then? Actually, now that you mention that, how did you eat before? I find it somewhat hard to imagine you actually cleaned up after yourself." Remarked Alexander as he set his fork down and raised one finger before giving Yuki a curious yet suspicious look.

"I'm not dirty after I wake up from my naps; I'll clean my table; now, speaking of naps, I need to go and take one right about now." Stated Yuki as she furrowed her brows while glancing at Alexander before suddenly standing up and heading to the living room, only to plop on the couch and fall asleep in a matter of a few seconds.

"Haa, unbelievable, she ate seven pounds of food like it was nothing; no wonder she eats only meat and rice; she can't afford anything else." Muttered Alexander with a sigh of disbelief as he rubbed his temples while looking at his plate in distress.

'At this rate, I'm going to go broke before it's even my birthday, and it's only three months away; I need to start making some real money.' Thought Alexander as he shook his head and continued eating, with Talis finishing second and him last.

Grabbing the plates and utensils, I carried them to the sink and washed them while rethinking my decision to stay with Yuki as I had a feeling I was going to be the housemaid.

Stolen novel; please report.

'Well, it's not all bad; I do enjoy Yuki's presence, and she's beautiful, so that's a plus. Now that I think about it, how old is she?' Mused Alexander with a curious expression as he glanced at Yuki, though her figure was hidden behind the back of the couch.

Putting the dishes away after drying them, I headed into the living room and looked at Yuk, who was sleeping on the couch without a care in the world while using [Heroes Gaze]; I wasn't checking her status panel, but for her age instead, and to my surprise she was in her late thirties.

'Well, Oni's aren't human, so they will age differently compared to us, though I will say, for someone in their late thirties, she doesn't look nor act like one.' Thought Alexander with raised eyebrows as the glow in his eyes vanished and returned to their normal luster.

I didn't see Talis anywhere, but she was probably upstairs sleeping; ever since we started living in Hyphen, her entire sleeping schedule has changed; she now wakes up early and goes to sleep early, a change I never thought I'd see. Since I didn't have anything I needed to do, I sat beside Yuki, only to be quickly consumed with boredom, as there was nothing to do.

"Times like these are when I wished TV existed in this world." Muttered Alexander with a sigh as he stared blankly at the wall before closing his eyes and relaxing, only to suddenly remember something.

'Oh yeah, I've still got that guy's skeleton in my space pouch; haa, I should probably go and get rid of them.' Thought Alexander as he reluctantly stood up and headed for the backdoor, entering the backyard in the midst of a late evening.

Not knowing what else to do with his skeleton, I scooped out dirt and piled it in the divot, turning it into a makeshift burial; once they were all in there, I covered it with dirt and dusted my hands off before entering the house. For now, it'll serve as a decent place to hide the skeleton, at least until I find a better spot.

"I've got something important to ask of Yuki tomorrow, so I might as well go to sleep." Said Alexander as he walked upstairs and entered his room beside Yuki's, spotting Talis resting in her nest from the ceiling.

Taking my clothes off, I hopped into bed, which felt so empty, and drifted to sleep after an hour or so of lying there; the absence of Master's presence made it difficult for me to sleep.

"Good night, Lavender." Muttered Alexander as he closed his eyes and fell asleep, drifting into dreamland, which was the only time he got to see Lavender again.

____________________________________________________________________________

While Alexander was peacefully sleeping, dreaming about a possible life with his lovely Master not too far away, the Firemania party was having a little discussion, if one could even call it that.

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"Tch, the hell is taking Orcus so long!?" Asked a man with an annoyed expression as he sat on a bed.

"How the hell am I supposed to know, fool?" Replied another man as he looked up from his sword and glanced at the man, who was glaring daggers at him.

"I wasn't fucking asking you! Call me a fool one more time, and I'll use that sword of yours to slit your throat!" Declared the man angrily as he stood up and glared at the man sitting opposite of him, who merely frowned at his threat.

"You'll kill me with my own sword? Don't you know after Orcus and Verde, you're the weakest one in the group? So why don't you think twice before you do something stupid and end up dying?" Remarked the man as he finished polishing his sword and held the blade, which was shiny enough to reflect his appearance, into the air.

"That's it! I'm killing you fucking bastard!" Yelled the man in a fit of rage as he unsheathed his sword, though just as he was about to slash down, the door opened with Lucy entering.

"What did I say about fighting each other? Don't make me punish you; you know what happened to the last member who defied my orders." Stated Lucy with a frown as she stood with her staff in hand and eyed the attacking man, causing him to freeze before sheathing his sword and sitting down.

"I apologize, leader; it won't happen again." Said the previous angry man as he calmed down like a puppy meeting its owner.

"Where's Orcus? I had sent him out to capture that disrespectful brat, so why hasn't he returned?" Questioned Lucy with a frown, which only deepened as she glanced between the unresponsive duo.

"Tsk, he's got into midnight; if he's not back, he better not show his face again, or I'll burn him from the inside out." Added Lucy with an ugly expression as she slapped the butt of her staff onto the floor before turning around and leaving the room.

"Hmph, finally, Orcus has always been very weak; if it weren't for his poison, he'd long since been kicked out." Remarked the man with a frown as he huffed in annoyance while the other person merely gave him a look before ignoring him and sheathing his maintained blade.

"If the kid isn't already dead, we'll be dealing with him eventually." Said the second man as he lay in the bed and closed his eyes, drifting to sleep.