Late Morning - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate
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"Slaves?"
The maid looked at Mother with a questioning but pure smile. "The maid, the Fenrir, and the demihuman, My Lady."
A deafening silence filled the room as everyone stared at the maid with wide eyes.
"Hm? Did I say something wro-"
*CRACK* The flooring beneath us shattered as Mother appeared behind the woman with a look of rage.
-Uh oh!- *fwip* Immediately darting over to the maid, I grabbed the back of her head and slammed it into the ground. *CRUNCH* The flooring immediately shattered, but before I could move another inch, Mother's leg ripped through the air above us.
*FWOOOSH-CRACK* The massive, heavy doors we just walked through immediately broke through the doorframe and ripped off the hinges from the air pressure.
Everyone, including myself, watched the doors fall to the ground in complete silence. *crackle-WHAM*
-That.. was meant to kill…- Quickly turning around, I noticed Mother still standing over us and oozing bloodlust.
*flash* Worried things might escalate again, I changed to my dragon form. *Crunch* The shattered floor crunched like gravel under my weight, but damaging the estate was the least of my worries. "Mother.. are you alright?" I gave her a worried look. "It was just a little misunderstanding… It’s not like she hurt me…"
The more I spoke, the more her anger faded and the more ashamed and guilty she became, until she eventually just leaned into me.
-She really does.. worry too much about me…- I was honestly a bit worried seeing just how extreme it was, even if it was something that built up over time. "You know how strong I am… You don’t need to worry so much about me…"
But as if we couldn’t simply have a moment of silence, a knight came charging toward me down the hallway. "Intruder!" He was a fairly small dragon, only about 20 meters tall, but he fearlessly charged at me. "Let go of her, you beas-" *CRACK-WHAM*
Mercilessly smacking him with my tail and pressuring him with my aura, his body slammed into the ground as if gravity had increased by a hundred times.
Father, who was stunlocked after seeing Mother snap, winched immediately but quickly recovered and took control of things. "THERE IS NO INTRUDER! Everyone assemble in the main hall, NOW!"
Feeling Mother use her aura to pull me into her, I looked back down to see her staring at the ground as if on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry.. Vasilias…" Her voice was silent and muffled, so much so that even Father didn't seem to hear her.
"It’s alright, Mom…" -I think her worry just built up, and.. that maid pushed her over the edge…- "For now, let’s just try and clear up the misunderstanding, alright?" I spoke in an encouraging tone to try and help ease her nerves.
And thankfully, it seemed to work. "Hooh… Right…" With a quick breath, she finally started recollecting herself. "You," She pointed at a maid by the bottom of the stairs just behind her. "Go take Antonia to the medical ward."
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-Huh? Oh right…- Immediately looking down, I saw her still laying face down on the shattered floor. -She is alive.. right?-
I had slammed her down quite hard, but as the young maid hurriedly ran over and picked her up, I noticed she wasn't even bleeding. -D..damn… An elder's true form really is quite durable…-
After that, several minutes passed, and people quickly started to gather in the main hall.
In total, there were around 60 people, including a mix of maids, butlers, chefs, knights, and a handful of young maids in their dragon forms, all kneeling next to the stairs.
Thankfully, by now, Mother had mostly recovered as well, as she quickly stood up once she noticed everyone present. "Sorry for the short notice, everyone. I originally wanted to get situated before introducing everyone, but as you can all tell, things didn’t exactly go to plan…"
The oldest among the group immediately tensed up slightly, seemingly blaming themselves, but it didn’t last too long.
"To start with the introductions for the new faces I see, I am Zachari Ragnarok, your Estate Master. I hope we can get along."
Several maids immediately had a gleam of excitement appear in their eyes as she introduced herself.
"Here with me is my husband, with whom many of you are already familiar, but he is Osto Ragnarok." Finally looking toward Krystallo and me, a warm smile came to her face. "And for the new faces, this is Krystallo, my adorable daughter, and next to her is my son, Vasilias."
With a quick glance at the group's reaction, it was clear they all had the same thought.
"Before any of you ask, he is indeed a true Ragnarok. Not long after he hatched, he happened to touch an ancient artifact, which somehow changed his appearance and affected his growth immensely. In other words, he is a special child that I hope you all will treat with love and care, just as you did me all those years ago." Her eyes glimmered slightly as she looked toward an old, assassin-looking butler with a warm smile.
Many in the group gave me looks of pity or awe, with a handful of the younger ones getting caught in a trance. -My aura is barely on them... Are they really that weak?-
"For the final two introductions, we have Ilios, a Fenrir that is Vasilias’s companion. Please treat him as if he were one of us. He is smarter and stronger than most of you. And lastly, we have Maria, a half-breed slave who will be serving us alongside you all. I don’t think I need to mention it, but you are free to complain and leave at any time as long as you understand the laws regarding the confidentiality of things that you may see or learn in this estate. Am I understood?"
A few maids immediately turned to Maria while trying to suppress a distasteful expression before the oldest butler stepped forward and grabbed everyone's attention. "I don’t believe that will be necessary, madam. It is our honor to devote our lives to the Ragnarok Family."
"It’s good to see that you are still doing well, Galen. I wish to speak with you about a personal matter later, so please come by my office once things settle down."
"As you wish." He quickly gave a formal bow before standing up straight again.
"Alright, now that the introductions are out of the way, it’s time to set a few new rules."
Without the slightest hesitation, she immediately started listing off several rules, mostly regarding Krystallo and I, and how maids were to work with us.
Many of the ‘rules’ also came down to whatever Krystallo or I preferred; for example, if one of us wanted to take a bath, the maids were told to ask if we wished for them to bathe us instead of simply doing so.
It was mostly quality-of-life things in courtesy of Krystallo and me, but after several minutes of explaining new rules, Mother tossed out one that caught me a bit off guard.
"And lastly, Vasilias will have complete freedom to do as he wishes, and no matter what he says, you must follow his orders!" She puffed up her chest with a proud look.
But as I glanced around the room, I noticed many of the maids staring at me with mixed expressions. -Ah, they definitely misinterpreted that…-
But Mother continued without noticing. "Then, to wrap things up, Galen, please show Kystallo and Vasilias their rooms. Alistair, go ahead and get some people to fix the damages here and..." Quickly scanning over the maids, she picked out one that looked to be a similar age as Maria. "You there, take Maria and show her the way things work here until Antonia wakes up. Other than that, you all may return to your normal duties."
With Mother's dismissal, everyone quickly dispersed and got to work cleaning up the area.
As everyone left though, Galen walked up to Krystallo and me with a warm smile. "Well, Young Lord, Young Miss, shall I show you to your rooms?"
His expression was so pure and genuine that it only took a moment for me to warm up to him. "If you could." -I wonder how strong he is…-