While Alex piloted an airboat back from the bog, hundreds of miles away, a certain slime girl named Merumeru babysat nobles on a sky isnd with cloudy weather, a cabin, and a barely started castle. Yvne and her two children didn’t respect the slime girl very much. Seraphina took the sudden change in their family’s status better than Cassius, the eldest son did. Ynve, the matriarch fell quickly into depression from the burden of guilt and loss. Other than that, Magical girl Cosmos might have gone overboard with her unique style of otherworldly shopping that involved taking things via portals and leaving high-value meteors in the pces she took from.

  Cassius, having refused to dress as a maid after Cosmos left, sat on a couch in the now-cleaned cabin with his family. “When are you two going to take off those silly maid outfits? They are unbefitting of your station.”

  “For mundane clothcraft these garments are quite well down. There is complete uniformity in the weave.” Seraphina poured some tea for her brother, mother and the little slime girl in the small living room of the cabin. “You’d do well to not ignore your punishment brother. Someone who could insult King Jass, and kidnap three people without a scratch to show for it shouldn’t be treated lightly.”

  Cassius thanked his sister and took the teacup. “I think that things are not quite as dire as they seem.” Cassius gestured to Yvne, “Mother said that a demon attacked a fmingo in her barnony but she demanded satisfaction from the king? I think that the demon in question should be the one to carry the punishment for the wlessness. By the letter of the accords I don’t see why any of us would be accountable.”

  “The location of an offense has been casus belli for war in many history books.” Seraphina frowned. “Have you not been paying attention in css?”

  “Dearest sister, why am I the only member of this family trying to make the most of an unfortunate situation?” Cassius set the teacup down. “We’ve been here weeks and after that magical girl left, presumably to account for her transgressions, the only company we’ve found is this small slime.” He turned his gaze to Merumeru who held a smaller teacup in both of her tiny hands, listening.

  “You better behave.” Seraphina warned. “The st time you tried to boss her around she jumped on your head.”

  Cassius rubbed the goose egg on the top of his head. “I know, I wasn’t expecting her to attack one of her betters.” He gave the slime girl a dirty look. “In the kingdom attacking the gentry carries a death sentence.”

  “We are no longer Jass nobility.” Seraphine chided her brother. “The sooner you get that through your thick head the better.”

  “All I am saying is that we need to have a pn.” Cassius sipped some tea. “If Cosmos doesn’t come back does that mean we are going to live in this strange pce forever? We’ve been here for weeks as far as I can tell this isnd is completely made of floating stone. To airship builders these rocks would be worth a king’s ransom. All these strange contraptions are very valuable in the right hands as well.”

  “Ah yes, and all of this has one thing in common.” She gestured in a circle around her. “They are not ours. We have nothing other than the clothing we came with and unnded nobility csses.”

  “And we will remain non-nded nobility without having a kingdom to swear to.” Cassius spat. “No kingdom will accept us as peers unless we can grease the wheels with money.”

  Yvne finally spoke up. “My dear son, you can’t possibly be saying you want to go back to your old life?”

  “Things were better than nothing. We could actually use our csses.” Cassius made sure to talk softly to his mother. “Living like prisoners or refugees is no life worth living.”

  Yvne gave him a stern look. “You don’t get it. The life you envision doesn’t exist.”

  “Would you abandon your people?” Cassius challenged his mother. “Without your skills the crops would fail and they would starve.”

  Yvne shook her head. “Cassius, you are young and full of ideals. The reality is that the demons are not our allies. They never were. Think a little bit, what csses on magic were offered at the academy?”

  “All students are expected to learn demonology.” Cassius quickly answered. “Why does that matter?”

  “Demonic ritual magic is the only choice.” Yvne looked Cassius straight in the eyes. “Ever wonder why that is? If our pce in the kingdom is to be the breadbasket for humanity wouldn’t there be better schools of magic to study?”

  “I’m not sure what the problem is. The magic academy has been that way for generations.” Cassius looked confused.

  “No nded noble actually has any agency.” Yvne smiled sadly. “I didn’t understand why my husband, your father stopped loving me when he inherited the barony. It wasn’t until I was put into the same position after he was killed that I understood what it really is like, being demon possessed. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even the worst criminal in the kingdom.”

  “I understand mother. But what are our options?” Cassius looked to his mother for a pn but she had none. “Can we swear to the gnomes? The dwarves? Adventurers say that the elven cities are abandoned and filled with all manner of deadly defenses. You don’t suggest we give up or try to get you a queen css?” He looked around. “While there are many strange things on this isnd I don’t see any shrines to pray for a new css. To be the first ruler of a new country a god has to bless that leader with the initial css.”

  “You don’t understand my son.” Yvne shook her head. “What we did in our mansion is unforgivable. Our barony has a sinister secret. Though in hindsight, I don’t think the right circles saw it as a secret at all.”

  “What are you talking about Mother?” Cassius looked concerned. “The only thing our barony is known for is training the best maids.”

  Seraphina looked like she got it. “The training. It isn’t really training at all is it?”

  Yvne nodded. “Yes, I didn’t even consider that something was amiss until the demon puppeting me had to take on the responsibilities your father took care of. I was blissfully unaware that the reason anyone trained to be a maid in our manor was transformed by demonic magic curses.”

  “What!?” Cassius excimed. “That can’t be true. We help people find employment opportunities that they never would have been able to.”

  “In a way,” Yvne said solemnly, “That is right but the cost. The cost is too great. Our maids are perfect, so perfect that things like individuality get removed.”

  While the trio of nobles argued about their past crimes and the future of their line, Merumeru went to the microwave and made some bagged popcorn. For some reason Cosmos had got tons of this stuff. She put the bag in, pressed the helpfully beled button for popcorn and waited a few minutes.

  They were still arguing and being overly dramatic by the time the bag was ready. She poured it in a big bowl and munched on, enjoying the show.

  The discussion was interrupted by a knock on the front door.

  Surprised, the slime girl leapt across the room towards the door, spilling popcorn all across the floor. She looked around innocently, noticed a maid-dress-wearing Seraphina giving her a disapproving look at the mess she made.

  “Meru?” Merumeru reached a small hand for the doorknob.

  “Is someone here? I thought no one was on this isnd.” Cassius got up and rushed to the door, pushing the slime girl aside and spilling more popcorn.

  The knob turned and the door opened, revealing a light-blue skinned, blue-haired woman in an outfit that matched the overalls and red shirt of Merumeru.

  “Hello?” The woman’s voice flowed like water. “Is Merumeru home?”

  “Ruuuuu!” Merumeru threw her hands wide for a hug, tossing the half-full popcorn bowl against the wall. She unched into an attack hug at the Nereid.

  “Ooof.” Aqua staggered back a step. “How are you doing sweetheart?” She looked at the three other people. “Who are these people?”

  “Me me ruru ru.” Merumeru expined the situation.

  “Oh, Hello Yvne, Cassius, and Seraphina, magical girl Cosmos’s prisoners. How are you?” The new woman fshed a brilliant smile.

  “Huh?” Cassius spoke first. “You can understand her? But she can only say two letters.”

  Aqua went pffft. “Learn to speak elemental, or do they not teach that in school anymore?”

  “I uh, haven’t gotten a chance to take that css.” Cassius wasn’t technically lying but he was fairly sure infernal was the only nguage offering.

  “They used to teach more than you know. Back before when the pile of hormones on two legs was king.” She tsked. “The education system sure has taken a dump. Professor Copperpot would be disappointed.”

  “Did you kill him?” Cassius had actually heard the sad news at the academy. “I heard river monsters sunk the ship he was on.”

  “You know he was mind controlled right?” Aqua tilted her head. “Of course you don’t. I’ll tell you what kid, a good starting point would be to just assume everything you think is true was just a lie from the demons to keep humans compliant. I guess the first lie would be that professor Copperpot isn’t dead. Though when we found him he surely would have liked to be. After the realization that he had made a pgue that turned humans into harpies his first reaction was to become suicidal.”

  “I didn’t know.” Cassius took a step back and looked a bit defted.

  “Anyway, I’m here to see Merumeru. I even brought a house warming gift. Though it should stay outside. Kaide helped grow it to maturity.” Aqua gestured the group outside. There was a potted pnt with a sunflower that had a smiling face on it.

  “Meru!” Merumeru patted the happy pnt with her squishy hands.

  “Baroness Ki and the nymphs have been working on fortifying the county.” She pointed at the pnt. “These things even grow in the wastend and can power a bunch of anti demon pntlife. I spread some of the seeds around various pces. Hopefully when spring comes around there will be some good defenses.”

  “Ru ru me me ruuu.” Merumeru excitedly stated.

  “Oh yeah, I saw Alex and Fufi, they helped me with this outfit. They took the airboat back to town. They’ve been evacuating people from the former barony for most of the past month.” Aqua nodded repeatedly, grinning.

  Yvne couldn’t keep quiet at this. “Miss Aqua, you say that my people… well former people are alright? They didn’t get sughtered by demons?”

  Aqua eyed the maid-outfit-wearing noble. “That’s Mistress to you maid. Now clean up that mess!” She pointed at the popcorn but didn’t sound serious.

  Yvne winced and looked at the spilled popcorn.

  “Haw, I’m just kidding.” Aqua shook her head. “But no big group of demons have come knocking there so far. A few stragglers came in, likely stupid idiots that had been out looking for the 100 year old ginger that may or may not exist. But they got sent back downstairs.”

  “Thank you.” Yvne looked relieved. “I know I’m not fit to be a leader anymore but it pains me that the actions of that day might have ended the lives of hundreds.”

  melchi