Chapter 50: Occupation
[Edited by Queen, Arthur300000, Deathbricks and ArchmageNaoki]
“Mistress, do you want me to wipe all of the humanity from the world?” … Skynet teasingly asked me after she learned the meaning of her name from Cocoa.
“No, I don't. At the time I could only think up a few names, Skynet and Red Queen for example.”
“Which are both homicidal, and you put her in that cute plushie.” Cocoa chuckled.
“Are all the AI in your world homicidal?” Skynet asked curiously.
“They are Fictional AIs. I don’t think we have a real one in my world yet.”
“Hmm… By the way, mistress. That nuclear warhead thing seems useful. I wish I had one.” Cocoa stops laughing immediately. It’s your fault, Cocoa. It’s your fault.
“Oh! Right! Who was your second tail, Cocoa?” I quickly change the subject.
“I don't know. Everyone forgot their names and most of their identities save for their jobs when they reincarnated as our tails. All I know is that he’s a strange person who likes all kinds of weapons.”
“He? Didn't you just say he forgot most of it?"
"Well, he sounds like a guy. And to call him ‘it’ feels derogatory somehow."
"Then how are you two sharing your body? Will he come out on a full moon?” I hope he won't take over Cocoa’s body when I feed her after midnight and murder someone while she is asleep.
“It's always me, Kuro. Although my tails and I share all thoughts, emotions, and feelings, it's always me who controls the body. And there is no full moon thing."
"Tails?" I thought one of the tails was her.
"Tails. There were three, me, the first, and the second tail.” She walks silently for a moment then continues. “We were born tailless. Then the first tail appeared when I was eleven-years-old. She said she was a housewife. She was good at cooking and cleaning. I liked her very much, but after a few years, she just disappeared.”
“Where did she disappear to?” Both of her tails look healthy to me. I wonder which is which.
“My moms told me that she is living deep inside me. The other said that her personality merged with me. We had my coming of age ceremony when I told them this, but I felt rather sad because now I can’t talk to her anymore.” A glittering tear appeared in her eyes, but she wiped it away.
“What about your second tail? Do you like him?” I want to ask more about the disappearance thing, but I have to be as dense as concrete to ask that.
“He’s weird. He always talks about something strange. He said he's a historian and he owns a canal in a land called U-tube. Most of the time I don’t understand what he’s talking about, but he’s a funny man.” … I don’t think it’s a canal, Cocoa.
“Mistress, I've got a signal.” Finally, civilization! The town must be nearby. I handed Cocoa another pack of dried meat. I call the most reliable person in my family, Aunos. After only two beeps my brother answered the phone.
“Kuro, are you alright? Where are you!" His voice is full of concern. I’m touched.
“No, I’m dead already, this is just a figment of your imagination. Is everyone alright?” I teased him a bit.
“KUROooooO! ARE YOU HURT!?" *Crash* "For God’s sake Pristia, have some restraint!” Ah, my sister was also worried about me. Due to the signal strength, the connection is audio only so I couldn’t see what happened over there. But judging from how energetic they sounded they should be fine.
“Haaa, we are safe. Where are you Kuro?” I still hear yelling and a lot of footsteps in the background. Let’s ignore that for the moment.
“Uhm, since I fell from flying ship I walked west past a ruined village. Now it's just graveled road, hills, and rocks everywhere.” I honestly don’t know where I am.
“That ruined village was called Vibranthill, Aunos.” Skynet supplemented.
“Alright, you are going in the right direction. Keep walking along the road and you will arrive at a town called Greyjaws. From what I've heard it should still be standing. When you get there ask for transportation to Alphatrick, we will meet you there.”
“Thanks, Aunos... I think I can see Greyjaws now.” I walked past the curve and saw what looked like a massive ancient wall blocking the path situated between a steep hill valley. “Yeah, it’s still standing.” There is a minor problem, though. Between that steel gate and me, there are several big and small lizards attacking a guarded caravan about two kilometers away from me.
“Alright have a safe trip. Contact me anytime if you need help.” I watched tens of soldiers from the gate running to the caravan, but they would take several minutes to reach them.
“You too. Stay safe, and please protect Pristia. See you.” I hung up the phone and recheck my surroundings. Yup, no one noticed me yet. I told Cocoa to hide behind a rock and take out a military grade sniper rifle I was lucky enough to find in one of the Blackforest bandit's storage devices.
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"Ohh~" Cocoa exclaimed as I get into a prone position while deploying the rifle's bipod and arranged a few clips beside me.
"It's cool, right?" I'm grinning at the chance of testing this massive gun out. The testing range was too small to test it properly. Yosh, everything looks fine through the scope. I could even see wrinkles on people on the caravan. My aim is steady as a rock. Maybe it's because of my archery perks.
"Yeah, I've never seen a weapon that requires bullets before." Cocoa commented as I loaded a round that cost half a pantie into the chamber. Yup, it's expensive, but I wrote it off as the training cost. I got a case and a half of these bullets from the same place. For reference, a case contains twenty boxes, and there are ten rounds in each box.
"It can fire without a bullet, but because of the range, I need one. No spell can travel very far from its user. Around a kilometer is usually the limit." I proudly told Cocoa what my brother explained to me. He also said something about the bullet producing a small interference field to protect itself or something, but I'm not entirely sure, so I omitted the details.
*BANG!* The rifle kicked back heavily as I pulled the trigger. It pushed me back a few centimeters. At first, I didn't know where I hit, but after three seconds there was an explosion of dust from the ground. Hmm, the bullet took some time to travel there, and it veered widely off target.
Some monsters in the area were startled from the dust that bullet kicked up and the loud noise echoed back to me several seconds later. However they just looked at my direction and turned back to snap, split, and stomp at the people who were guarding the caravan. Maybe those helpless people on the nearby truck are more alluring than the skinny me far away.
"Hmm." I mumbled as I load another bullet and slide the bolt in. Maybe it's because of the wind that the bullet went off target. Well, it doesn't matter, all I have to do is compensate the error from whatever it is and try to stabilize myself somehow.
*BANG!* One, two, three... Yes! Blood sprays out from the large reptile. It's about half a centimeter off the mark, but the result is still deadly. The reptile collapsed and began to spasm releasing a middle-aged woman of an unknown race from its grasp... Is she a peacock? Anyways, digging my toes into the ground helps. I notice that my Magicka was significantly drained with each shot, but with my energy pool, I have a lot to spare.
*BANG!* *BANG!* ... *BANG!* I kill the monsters one after the other while doing my best to avoid hitting people. There are some targets that I'm not sure whether they were friend or foe, a naked woman who has the lower body of a snake for example. Oh, she just twisted a lion guys head off. So, she is an enemy huh? That's a shame.
The shooting was a slow process at first, but after I familiarized myself with those monsters’ behavior, I only needed a second to aim and move on to the next. Shooting at the next target while the previous bullet is still flying is a fun challenge.
*BANG!* As I fired the sixth bullet of the third box, I saw there are no targets left. I watch my last two bullets kill off the monsters one after another. One small armored lizard got its head ripped off by the force of the bullet and its body twisted up mid air. Then a second later a violet snake just dropped quietly and began to spasm. Thanks to their predictable behavior, sniping them was easy.
What remains of the caravan guards dumbfoundedly look in my direction. Some of them even took their hat off and bowed. I move the scope to the left and see soldiers begin to stop running and bark orders at the caravan instead.
"Alright, let's go." I told Cocoa as I put my new toys away as I got up and dusted myself off. Hmm, I really need a bath...
It took me half an hour to walk down the winding road to the monster corpses. When I arrived the caravan already passed through the gate. For some reason, they left these monsters lying around, so I proceeded to store them all. Oops, my storage device is full.
"Uhm, I can help you process those corpses. Also, I can cook, clean, and do the laundry. Will you hire me?" Cocoa suddenly offered. Honestly, I also want to but...
"How much do I need to pay?" I don't know whether can I afford her or not in the long run.
"Not much..." I raised my eyebrows. "1,000 gems a month?" 1,000 gems... What!? 500 credits!? That's just a half of what I get each month from the Outsider management institute! "Uhm... 800?" Cocoa misinterpreted my surprise and lowered the price on her own. "And... can I keep this spear?"
I quickly took out a pen, paper, and a writing pad from my storage device. With help from Skynet, I drew up a contract. I negotiate some finer details with Cocoa, and this is what the final contract looks like.
Maid Employment Agreement
This contact is made effective as of 94754.15, by and between Kuro Velvori, age 15, as the employer and Cocoa daughter of Sierra, age 26, as the employee.
Job Description: Cocoa daughter of Sierra will be providing following services for Kuro Velvori wherever she goes.
- Cooking and dishwashing
- Processing the corpses of hunted monsters
- General mopping and cleaning
- Making the bed
- Laundry as needed
- Tidying up the place of residence
- Help in bathing activities
- Cocoa daughter of Sierra must let Kuro Velvori touch her ears and tails at any time.
All these duties as stated above shall be performed without disturbing Kuro Velvori, guest, or other people living under the same roof. Kuro Velvori retains the general power to inspect, suggest, alter, or stop the work mentioned above.
Payment: Kuro Velvori agrees to lend Cocoa daughter of Sierra one PX-560 Adventurer grade pike during her employment period and will pay 800 Gems or it’s equivalent on the 15th of each month as a service fee. In addition, Kuro Velvori will provide three meals a day or its ingredients, safety, healthcare, work equipment, transportation fees, and a place to sleep when taking residence in any kind of settlement.
If Kuro Velvori fails to pay for service when due, Cocoa daughter of Sierra has the option to treat such failure to pay as a breach of the agreement and may cancel this agreement with a three days notice.
Signature of employer:___________________________ (Kuro Velvori)
Signature of employee: ___________________________ (Cocoa daughter of Sierra)
I never thought that a contract would need so many specifications like this, but thanks to Skynet it came out nicely. Cocoa seems to be dead set about the spear and her healthcare while the last two duties of the job description are also non-negotiable for me.
Actually, I want to add more like let me hug her naked or some sexual things but Skynet told me that would be illegal and make the contract invalid, so I have to be content with just these two.
There, we signed both copies of the contract, keeping one each. I then gave her a piece of sapphire worth 800 Gems. Today I hired my first maid. Ohhh, look at those wagging tails!
Wow, It's soft, warm, and more fluffy than I thought~