Chapter Three

Lord Tyler's room was a dungeon, the kind that used to hold prisoners. It was from a bygone era when keeping one's enemies on hand was fashionable. Tyler's collections kept taking up more and more space until he had the basement cells all remodeled so he could have the largest room. Tyler's rare and unique items were why he usually insisted on being around wherever a maid came down to clean it. It had taken Harmony ages to earn his trust.

Supervision while cleaning valuable items wasn't unusual. However, Tyler's lingering gazes made it a bit more uncomfortable than it should be. He'd been the one to select the current housemaid uniforms, which brought no love, especially as winter's chills still seeped into the house every time someone opened a door or cracked a window.

Harmony waited at the door, planning exactly what she wanted to do. Commitment solidified; she knocked.

"Come in," Tyler called in a lazy sing-song voice.

It took a few good yanks to open the heavy door, a massive thing left over from its job of keeping prisoners in. Shelves and containers filled the place with a mish-mash of things. Books, scrolls, skill stones, weapons, toys, and trophies. If Tyler had an organizational method, Harmony had yet to figure it out.

He was how she got her Create Undead Pet scroll. Even the books he'd collected had given her access to new ideas. Once she'd shown him her ability to repair the damaged, dead plant or animal-based parchment, he'd allow her to restore some of his collection. At least while he was hovering over her. He had interesting ideas, objects, and his excitement sometimes rivaled a puppy.

Stepping out from behind a fully packed shelf, Harmony was greeted by the sight of Lord Tyler, sitting at his desk, bent over a small figurine of a maid in a not-so-dissimilar outfit to hers. The young lord was holding a magnifying glass over it. He was one pair of thin white undershorts shy of being naked at the time. If only he wasn't such a creep.

"I'm here for the weekly cleaning, my lord. Perhaps I can help with any restorations as well?"

Tyler blinked and jerked away from his inspection. His slightly overweight body jiggled as he did. "Oh, Harmony, I forgot what day it was. I thought you might have been Timothy coming to pester me about practice." Lifting up the figurine, he extended it out. "What do you see here?"

"It's me." Harmony couldn't stop her eyes from widening. It was her, with the skirt so low you could see too much. The proportions were slightly off, and the face and posture were more defiant than deferential. The idea that Tyler had someone watch her so closely as to produce this thing without her knowing made her regret not taking the head butler's offer.

"No, not that. It's a mimicry model. When I look at it, I see me too. I've been slowly stripping clothing and watching it change. Supposedly slight differences give some level of portent for the future, a new scar, a troubled expression. Even the mana lens isn't helping show differences. I'd like to figure out the clue or what it looks like when it isn't mimicking me. Can you use your class to determine if it's made of something dead, like wood or bone?"

The fact that Tyler wasn't staring at her body through a magnifying glass was a relief. Not that he hadn't given all the maids slightly longer leers than was appropriate at times. Carefully taking the figurine from the lord's hand, she examined it. As for any portents, she immediately noticed the thing was wearing a smirk, which Harmony knew was rare because she kept her face as still as usual. A little hope that her request would be accepted bloomed in her chest. She probed it with her Necromancy.

"Nothing. It's neither bone nor wood, but I'm only level ten."

"Damn it," Tyler grumbled. "Wait, ten? You've gone up a level?" His voice held a pondering tone before he broke into a grin. "Congratulations. I should probably put on clothes."

Harmony turned away so he could do that. Summoning some of her magic, she gently pulled some of the week's dust into a pile. Regular maintenance made it easier to clean. Gently though, because she didn't accidentally want to damage anything. The place hadn't been shut down for months like the Parlor.

"Ahem. I'm decent now."

After she'd turned around, Harmony debated his statement silently. She wasn't in a position to question him. The only thing he had done was pull a long robe over his girthy frame. Small wine and food stains marred it, but at least the lord wasn't naked. He'd told one of the other maids, "His room. His rules."

"The cleaning shouldn't take long. If there are any special tasks you'd like me to handle, I'm happy to help you with them. When I'm done, I have a small favor to ask."

She'd convinced him to part with the scroll through extra tasks, ones not entirely covered by her employment contract. The scroll came with a promise of information on how well it worked. Lord Tyler's interest in unique items was more than only possessing them. Like with the mimicry statue, he craved knowing how they worked. The best would be if he had more books to repair. Tyler, her greatest source of knowledge, if she could stand acquiring it.

"How about skill training? I'm really close to a breakthrough."

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Harmony maintained the mask she'd trained to wear as a servant. The worst was this. "I'm always grateful when we can help each other achieve our goals."

"I'll go set up the bed. It'll just be a few moments." Tyler quickly shuffled off to the furthest corner of his domain.

Harmony settled on the routine nature of using her skills to clean. Not every cleaning did she have to test her skills, and right now, she didn't have the wherewithal to stretch herself. There was value to repetition and thoroughness, including letting her mind chew on problems. The maid knew Tyler had the money to hire skilled trainers. Just one of the skill stones she pulled dust from could easily fund an expert in the city, or if he wanted a genuinely skilled one, he could make a trip to the capital. Flower houses and magical contracts could handle the more, the girl cringed thinking about it, personal aspects of the training. She knew the only thing exciting and unique about this was her.

"I'm ready!"

Tyler lay naked on the bed except for a leather cod piece from his armor set. Beside him on a table were various groups of magical tools and implements, some looking like they came out of the dungeon's old torturer tools and others soft and glowy wands.

The codpiece covered him better than the undershorts did, Harmony reflected. Is this a demonstration of the power the lord had over her? Maybe he liked her in a non-professional context or even an extra-professional one? But even he would uphold his gran's employment contract. One short session.

"How would you like me to start?"

"Secure my wrists and put on the blindfold. Start from the tool closest to the headboard and move down. I'm trying Jubal's method of alternating sensations."

Everyone gained skills as part of a person's class and profession. They get to select a skill every four levels. You could use skill gems to pick up additional ones, one per every eight combined levels. But what Tyler wanted was rare, gaining skill through experience, and they were almost always unique to the person.

With soft leather manacles, she tied Lord Tyler to the bed and secured the silk blindfold over his eyes. Many of the utensils were new. Tyler had gone on a shopping spree after the last attempt hadn't produced any results. She picked up a silver cylinder first, channeling a trickle of her mana into the item. Harmony touched it to the lord's chest. Frost rippled out, coating his skin, and he started to shiver with the cold. Still, he bore it as the maid slowly traced it down his limbs.

"Ch-change," He gasped through chattering teeth.

The following tool produced heat, at first relieving the chill but then causing him to flinch back as blisters appeared under its onslaught. Sharp - soft, Wet-dry, mana infusing-mana draining, tickling-numbing. Only when it seemed past the point he could take did he call for a change, and Harmony moved through the tools, making herself feel as detached as she would if assigned to clean out an outhouse. By the end, he looked nearly like a corpse she could raise if she'd ever chosen to get the skill.

"Potion!" he demanded in a voice wrecked by strain.

Harmony took a small vial of pink liquid and gently poured it into Tyler's mouth. The wounds closed, pushing away the damaged and dead bits until the skin looked pink and new. [Manipulate Dead] swept off the excess debris].

"Can you do that toe thing? One more sensation." Tyler's voice tinged with delirium.

"Of course," Harmony answered softly.

She scooted a chair to the foot of the bed. Hyacinth hopped quietly out of the shadows, lifting the fat toad onto the chair; she watched as her toad latched onto the end of Tyler's foot and started sucking. Even though they couldn't yet speak, The maid could tell through their bond that this came with a feeling of "You owe me extra cats for this."

Tyler moaned from his place on the bed, causing Harmony to cringe. Early skill training had been less organized, with requests to do anything while the man was blindfolded. He'd demanded sucking one day, repulsed, she couldn't do it. Hyacinth, sensing her distress, had stepped up. She wondered if lord Tyler thought it was her. She never gave him the details, and he didn't ask. Tyler shuddered and flushed. Harmony looked away.

She preferred to think of Tyler excitedly discussing a new purchase, why one skill stone was better than another, or a rare book on dungeon monster types. He'd actually lent her books after catching onto the fact that she was reading them while repairing them for him. "Don't trust Piltoff. He's all wrong about his theory of maximizing one stat and minimizing unimportant ones. Stats have synergy as much as skills. I only got the book because only five copies are in existence." He'd lecture in rare moments, trying to be helpful. She could forget the amount of power he had over her position when he did that.

"Enough. Enough. Enough." Hyacinth let go of the toes and started hopping away. "I can feel how the skill could crystallize. Maybe this is too much of a controlled setting. Untie me."

Harmony took the blindfold off and then worked on the cuffs. She didn't know when the next one would show up if she missed the current opportunity. "About that favor?"

"Yes?"

"Now that I'm level ten, I wondered if I could join your party for some dungeon runs. I'd like to try to get to level twelve."

"Looking to unlock your stats?" That is often the goal for those to reach level twelve in class and profession. With the local dungeon, usually, it was people's profession that needed to catch up. Stat theory was less exciting for Harmony. It is more of a boy thing, wanting to boost how much they can lift to show off. She figured it was something she could focus on after meeting the scroll requirements.

"I also need two necrotic cores, three ghost laces, and a champion's tooth."

She watched as he made the mental connection. Tyler wasn't dumb, but she wondered if she was giving away her plans. The procession with the Prince and coatl was still winding their way around the city before their internment at the temple of the dead. They would sit there until Adric was to be picked up by the royal family.

"So, you've um. Yes. Yes, this is perfect. I actually wanted to add a necromancer to our party, and when you mentioned you were level ten. Well, I didn't know how to ask. I'll make sure you're equipped properly. I've got some things I want to see in action."

"No need, but I do appreciate this."

"Oh, I insist. Bringing you on reflects on me." Lord Tyler's eyes moved away from darting around his shelves to Harmony. She felt his gaze linger as he looked her up and down, wetting his lips with his tongue. "I'll need your measurements; for the armor."

The perplexing statement about armor made it difficult for the maid to control her face. She forced a smile and told herself it would be worth it. If she managed to get what she wanted.