A Serpent's Tale

Chapter 407: My New Place (1/2)

"Uhh..." The sudden offer from Tryzara to essentially gift me a bunch of servants was rather out of the blue to me. I wasn’t expecting her to do anything like this at all.I thought it would just be me getting ownership of the house and that would be that. Why was she suddenly offering me free servant? Actually, are they even going to be free?

"If you’re worried about them in some, don’t worry about it, we’ll cover everything, from payment to health. You need not worry about a thing, they’ll only be there to help with the upkeep and keeping the place tidy."

I squinted and furrowed my brows slightly as I looked at Tryzara sceptically. "Why are you offering this?"

"Because you are the Holy One. I know you don’t like being called by such titles, but the fact remains that that is who you are to us. It is our pleasure to aid you in any way that we can. Besides, it’s not like we’d be losing out on anything by lending some help maintaining your new home. We have plenty of spare hands."

Tryzara explained with an overly obedient attitude, which weirded me out, but I felt it best to just leave it here or else things would probably escalate into something I didn’t want to deal with.

"Uh, okay, sure. Whatever makes you happy I guess?" I respond somewhat awkwardly as I wasn’t overly keen on the idea. But I didn’t refuse as I knew that it would be nice to have some extra hands to help with the cleaning.

After leaving, I went to find everyone once again, but Ash and Asty were still out, and I didn’t exactly feel comfortable talking to her after what happened earlier.

So, I decided to check out my new place and brainstorm how I was going to end up using every room to its fullest.

Although first, I had to decide which room was mine. That wasn’t much of a hard decision actually. Of course I was going to choose the master bedroom as mine. It was the largest room with the largest bed and had its own bathroom of equal proportions.

I made my way up to the second floor where the master bedroom was. I already knew where it was and what it looked like thanks to the tour, but I wanted to get a better look at it since we did rush it a bit.

Entering the room, I saw that thankfully the bed was already made, so I wouldn’t have to replace the sheets, which I hate doing by the way, and I probably won’t ever have to do it again if I really am getting maids in the form of the sects Acolytes.

’Actually, now that I think about it, I could probably just use my [Astromancy] to manipulate all the sheets into place now, can’t I? Eh, it’s whatever at this point.’

’What should I do in the meantime then? I’m assuming that Ash, Asty and Shirayaa will be guided to this place later when the former two return. What do I do in the meantime? Oh, and Lily of course.’

As I pondered what I should do, I flopped onto the bed and let my mind wander, and at some point, I fell asleep.

_

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Later, when I woke up, I decided to go and check if Ash and Asty had returned when I heard a little bit of a commotion outside. Heading over to one of the front facing windows, I could see a bunch of people were currently waiting outside of my new house, er... Manor.

And I knew exactly where they came from as they were wearing the outfits of the Sect’s acolytes, a simple red robe with a scaled pattern all across it, with the only other distinguishing feature being a pair of fangs depicted on the back that were lined in white silk.

They were all gathered and waiting in front of the currently locked front gate of my new manor patiently, likely waiting for me to let them in.

It was then I realised that I don’t actually have any keys to anything. Not like I need it personally with my [Astromancy], but for both the new maids and my friends, that would be a problem.

’I should probably let them in now.’ I thought, as I left my new bedroom and headed through the manor properly instead of just teleporting even though it was easier.

Just because it was easier didn’t mean it was the better solution. I don’t want to become overly reliant on it. One day I may face a situation where my [Astromancy] won’t be usable for some reason, like an enemy restricting such magic. In a situation like that, overreliance on such magic would be my downfall.

Anyways, I headed down to the ground floor and opened the door and headed through the little garden towards the gate where all of the Sect’s Acolytes where waiting.

When I reached the gate, they all bowed to me. Thankfully nobody was nearby to see this as this manor was on an estate road.

They all then recited the same greeting in perfect unison, "Greetings mistress, oh sacred one." My eye twitched at the latter half of that greeting.

The one leading them all, who was the only one among them wearing a robe with the hem of her sleeves lined with a golden silk, then raised her head as she spoke.

"We have been ordered to serve under you and aid in maintaining the sanctity of this estate by the Emberin of Wealth and resources."

My eye twitched once more at the way she went about describing their new roles here and what it entailed.

I can easily accept them calling me their mistress, I have no quarrels with that. But their, ’thou art holier than I’ attitude was starting to get on my nerves.

Regardless, I returned their greeting and welcomed them to my new home and their new workplace.

"Yes, she did say that she would be sending you over. Never said when, though I never really asked. How long have you been waiting anyways?"

"Only around half an hour." She answered.

"I see." I knew she wasn’t lying so they thankfully hadn’t been waiting around for too long. "By the way, did she- I mean did the Emberin happen to give you any of the keys? I forgot to grab them before I arrived."

"Yes... She did." She answered somewhat hesitantly. Clearly confused as to how I got inside without them.

Well, she doesn’t need to know. And if she finds out? Eh, it’s whatever.

*Cough* "So, are you going to come in? Or are you going to stay out here?"

"Ah, of course. Please excuse us." She bowed once more as she pulled some keys out from her sleeve and finally unlocked the gate.

I turned towards the manor and ushered them all inside. "Do you all know the layout of this place? If not, I’ll give a quick tour."

"Ah, that won’t be necessary. We made sure to study the layout of this place before we came here?"

I looked over my shoulder to see how many of them there were and I could see around thirty of them? I then raised my brow and quipped with a coy smile, "All of you?"

The Acolyte in the lead shifted her eyes to the side as she stuttered, "M-Most of us have. The rest will just have to memorise it as they perform their new duties."

"Heh." I said nothing more and simple led them inside.

"By the way, have my friends returned yet? I’m assuming they’ll be escorted here when they do return." I questioned as we entered my new manor.

"Yes, they’ll be escorted here once they’ve all returned." The lead Acolyte explained in a reverent tone.

I nodded my head at that. "Mm, good. In the meantime, just get acquainted with the place, there shouldn’t be much for you to do today."

"Understood my Lady." The head Acolyte bowed, then taking the rest of them to their new servants’ quarters, leaving me alone inside of the entry hall.

I just kind of remained in place for a while after they were all gone, looking around.

Tryzara may have given me a tour of the place, but I never really got to get a good look at the more details, nor did I get to appreciate the design of the place either.

It was getting late now and I was hoping that my friends would return safely. At the very least I wanted to take them out for dinner to celebrate our new home, one that couldn’t be taken away from us again.

Hopefully.

’Anyways, time to now appreciate the fact that I now have my own home!’

I smiled happily and looked around the entrance hall, barely able to wait to show it to my friends whenever they got here.

Just out of curiosity, I took a peek outside and to my delight, I saw a few more Sect member’s waiting outside the front gate, and following behind them was Ash, Asty, Lily and Shirayaa.