Alex pulled out her phone and checked her character sheet.

  Name: Alex Parker

  Css: Magical Girl

  Level 2

  Sex: Female

  Race: Human

  Strength: 11

  Constitution: 9

  Dexterity: 17

  Intelligence: 7

  Cuteness: 16

  Skills:

  Cleaning: 3 (+1 from maid training)

  Cooking: 2 (+1 from maid training)

  Dancing: 2

  Tailoring: 4

  Toymaking: 2

  Feats: Empower Doll

  Spells: Animate Doll

  Lesser Grow Pnts

  Traits: Mental Resistance: 4

  Curses: Maid transformation 27%

  “Alice, what is that bck tile for?” Trudy looked over Alex’s shoulder. “It shows letters? Is it some kind of magic item? It looks kinda cute with the decorations.”

  “Yeah, it shows me my status and whatever effects are on me.” Alex showed the dispy to Trudy. “That is how I can tell that wearing the maid uniforms gives a curse. It says I’m at 27%” Alex pointed to the line.

  “I’ll have to take your word for it. Only nobles and merchants can read.” Trudy looked downcast.

  “Oh.” Alex put her phone away. “Sorry. How do you normally see your status?”

  “Magical items. The adventurer’s guild has an identification stone. People that are adventurers can use it or those that get the approval of someone in the guild because they are considering adding them to their party.” Trudy pointed in the direction back to town. “There are some shrines that people use too. The same pces people can ask for csses, people can ask to see their status.”

  “How does it make sense if someone can’t read?” Alex furrowed her brow.

  “You don’t have to be able to read to understand things.” Trudy sounded a little annoyed.

  “Sorry,” Alex backpedaled. “I have just lived a bit of a sheltered life. This is the first journey I’ve gone on.”

  “It is okay. It sounds like whatever nobles you had were better than what we have here.” Trudy said. “Mistress hasn’t been in power long. Her husband was always the bad one and everyone in town hoped that things would be better in the next generation but nothing really changed. Now that we know that the baron was possessed and now dy Yvne too, things make more sense. But what can you do?”

  “I want to sneak into the Mistress's rooms. Maybe she is hiding something there that can help.” Alex pointed at a window on the upper floor.

  “It seems too ke for Zeke and I” Trudy looked down, dejected. “I don’t know if any of us have much time left before the curse takes us.”

  “I think if we can avoid doing maid things we have a chance. Maybe she has some kind of magical item that ties all the maids together. If we break something important in her room that could turn us all back?” Alex sounded like she was grasping at straws but didn’t want to give up hope.

  With not much of a pn, the trio headed inside. They evaded maids, chores and Lady Yvne. That st person they didn’t know where she was so evading might be a bit of a stretch. The maids were not overly aggressive. They followed them and made passive aggressive remarks about neglecting chores and bringing shame upon their mistress. For some reason that stung a bit.

  “Okay, here we are.” Alex reached for the door handle and turned it. There was a bit of resistance but she was able to open it. The door was not locked. “Hello? Is anyone here?”

  No answer.

  Alex stepped into the room. It felt like walking through a bubble but Alex was able to step through.

  Zeke and Trudy tried to follow but an unseen force kept them from entering.

  “How are you able to enter but we are not?” Zeke tapped the invisible barrier. He looked a bit like a mime.

  “I’m not sure. I’d say maybe I’m special and Mistress’s magic doesn’t work on me but. . .” Alex gestured to her maid uniform and shook her head. “Yeah, not sure.” Alex wished she could ask Fufi. She figured she was missing something very important about being a magical girl. Did Fufi mention anything about magical barriers?

  Baroness Yvne’s area was very posh. She had a huge desk with eborately carved wood. Shelves lined the walls. Many things were dispyed. Alex saw a coat of arms appearing on things. Some heraldic tapestries hung from the ceiling. A set of pte armor hung from a dummy. Several swords were mounted to the wall. But the thing that caught Alex’s eye was the rge closet.

  “I wonder what kinds of skeletons she has in her closet.” Alex said out loud.

  Inside the closet y a coffin. It was covered in paper talismans. What do coffins have in them? Sus. The magical girl dragged the box out of the closet.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Zeke’s eyes widened at the sight of the dirty coffin from where he stood watch at the door.

  “Skeletons indeed reside in the Mistress's closet.” Alex patted the wooden box.

  “Who do you think that was?” Trudy asked.

  “Not sure, maybe her husband’s body?” Alex guessed.

  “I doubt it. They had a funeral for him. He should be in a cemetery outside of town.” Trudy said.

  “Looks like there is only one way to find out.” Alex pulled off the paper talismans one by one. She wanted to open it but it was nailed shut. “Darn, does anyone have a hammer or crowbar?”

  Zeke shook his head. “There might be one out in the stables. I haven’t seen much inside the manor that isn’t for cooking and cleaning.”

  Trudy yelped. “Looks like we got company. I can hear a group coming up. We should escape.”

  Alex headed to the doorway but stumbled when a thumping noise came from the coffin behind her. “Yikes, that scared the crap out of me. Do we have a dead ringer?”

  “Wasn’t the baron killed by the undead? That coffin doesn’t look very new. I don’t think anything living is there.” Trudy motioned for Alex to hurry.

  “I hope we didn’t accidentally start a zombie outbreak.” Alex joined Trudy and Zeke on the other side of the door. “Let's get out of here. Hopefully we won’t get caught.”

  The trio of maid-uniform wearing people rushed down the hallway away from the footsteps around the corridor. As they approached the stairs going down a rge group of maids waited for them.

  “Uh oh, not this way.” Alex said and turned around heading back the way they came. The maids saw them but they didn’t move to pursue them. That was a bit troubling.

  After passing a couple doors in the hallway, the trio spotted Baroness Ynve and her entourage rounding the corner.

  “You three are well on your way to being the most expensive maids I’d ever had to train.” The mistress sounded angry. “Here I am, sipping tea figuring out logistics for pcing the new maids with interested employers and I feel a barrier being broken followed by a seal that was very expensive to pce being removed.”

  Alex tried one of the doors in the hallway. “Darn it. Locked” Alex moved to try another but the mistress interrupted her.

  “Listen when your betters are talking!” Yvne stomped.

  [Maid training: 30%]

  Alex let go of the door handle and stood up straighter but internally winced. Both Zeke and Trudy also stood at attention.

  “You probably think that you are being sneaky. But you are not. I knew you three were shirking your chores and looking to cause trouble. I figured in a few days things would sort themselves out and everyone can move on.” Mistress waved a hand. “Everything important is kept behind warded doors that should keep low leveled humans without illegal csses out.”

  Alex opened her mouth to speak.

  “Quiet.” Yvne snapped.

  [Maid training 31%]

  This was bad. Being in the mistress's presence greatly accelerated the maid's transformation.

  “You have to understand, this is not free. It costs resources to make your uniforms, enchant them with rituals. It costs resources to swap bodies. And it costs resources to get that cursed corpse that just won’t die sealed. It cost a lot of resources for that sealed coffin.” Yvne gestured to her chambers behind her. A banging was coming from it. “Listen, it is already trying to get out. Who is going to pay for it to be sealed again? After all, it was my predecessor’s undoing along with an uncountable number of my kin.” She took a breath and continued. “I thought I made a good score and that magic carriage is very valuable. But as it turns out, too valuable. Those stupid,short-sighted fire cn imps are chomping at the bit to burn it because it is supposedly the best fire cultivation find they have seen in their lifetimes. They’d be happy to leave this barony a bsted wastend that can’t support human life. You know where that would leave them? With no way to fulfill their contract. They would have to leave to find more humans. But all the humans are cimed by people like me, controlling this kingdom. So the only real way is to go back to the traditional way, demons fighting demons and perishing so that one can stand on top of everyone they pushed down to get to the next tier. It is like they want to bring hell with them rather than try to use this as an opportunity to try to advance themselves without cwing through their kin in that zero sum game we came from.”

  Apparently the typical demon was very self destructive. At least the lower tiered ones were incredibly short sighted.

  Alex struggled and got a word in. “I..”

  But the mistress cut him off. “Did I say you could talk? No I didn’t. Take that coffin and bury it on the grounds that will at least give us some time to try to get someone here to seal it again. Hiring a specialist is expensive. Now take it and go.”

  “Yes, mistress.” Zeke and Trudy said in unison.

  [Maid training: 35%]

  The fact that they were given the grizzly task of burying someone alive didn’t sit well with any of them. Alex had to drag the coffin out of the mistress’s chambers because Zeke and Trudy still couldn’t enter. Some of the other maids helped and they carried the coffin on their shoulders like a funeral procession. The whole time sounds of thumping scratching and unearthly screaming came from the box. If what the baroness said was true then the thing in there wasn’t alive, not really. The rest of the day was spent digging in a light, cold drizzle. None of the maids helped. Though the butler demons watched and jeered at them for having clothing that ended up getting covered in mud. When the sun was low in the sky and the coffin six feet under a commotion came from the gates.

  “Bring me to the enchanted wooden carriage. I cim it as a cultivation resource for the fire cn.” A loud voice carried through the entire ground.

  A human-sized demon with red-skin, horns and a tail stomped through the gate shoving butler-uniformed imps aside. Dozens of red-skinned imps stood at his back.

  Lady Yvne stepped out of the second-story door and stepped out on the front patio. “You dare invade my domain.”

  “Give us the tribute. This young master demands fuel for the fmes.” The apparently 2nd tier demon took a step forward and gave the demoness a challenging gre.

  “You little devils. I let you do your fire cn thing and all I ask for in return is to respect my rule. Then something comes along that you can’t stop drooling over and not a day passes after I say no before you call in an outsider to challenge my leadership?” Lady Yvne shrieked. If she was in a bad mood before, now she was absolutely livid.