Castle cleanup (pt 3)

Going up the narrow spiral staircase, carefully maneuvering Clarice in her hand so as not to hit the stone walls. Miho thought about the directions Cedric had given her. Arnold’s guest room was on the third floor, second door to her left.

His ominous words spooked through her head. She hadn’t seen Arnold return to the big hall, would he still be in his room? He might have thrown up after all the drinking. Hopefully, he wouldn’t ask for any explicit favors.

It’s true I need the money, but I have my limits.

Miho arrived at the third floor and made her way through the door, walking over creaky wooden planks covered with a red piece of carpet.

She reached out her hand and knocked on the wooden door.

“Lord Arnold, I heard you requested an assistant,” she exclaimed.

Five seconds passed with no response.

Miho knocked again, this time harder.

“Lord Arnold!”

Still no reply.

He must have fallen asleep.

She felt the doorknob and tried to turn it.

It is not locked.

Carefully, she creaked open the door to have a peek.

The room was too dark to see, but it seemed like something big, and dark was lying on the ground.

“Lord Arnold?”

She asked again… nothing but silence… not even a snore.

Miho decided to take one of the candles hanging in the hallway and use it to shine in the room.

Holding the candle in her hand, she could now see that it was in fact a person lying there on the ground. Motionless.

Is that…

Miho flinched, her heart started beating faster and faster.

With her shaky hand holding the flickering candle, she took a step into the room.

She confirmed that it was indeed Lord Arnold, lying on the ground without movement. His body lay in a puddle of blood, staining the carpet dark red.

As she approached the heavy body, her nose was filled with a putrid smell.

Oh dear, he is dead isn’t he

She reached down and grabbed his cold bloody wrist.

No pulse.

Shocked and totally disguised by the sight, she got up and sprinted back to the hallway, closing the door with a boom.

She dropped down with her back against the door, remembering Cedric’s words.

“You said you can clean anything? Really, anything?”

He tricked me, that clever man.

He must have planned all of this from the start. This whole party was a ruse to get rid of his biggest rival, Arnold.

And now it was her task to get rid of the evidence.

Now I get why he is paying this much.

Sure, Miho had quite a bit of experience cleaning up blood. A ripped toenail, paper cut or a girl’s monthly period, are all pretty common when working in a hotel like hers. But not in her wildest dreams had she ever cleaned up a murder scene like this.

That carpet was so soaked, it had to be replaced. Not even taking into account the large body that was too heavy for her to even carry.

She reached her arm out to her trusty broom Clarice, who stood beside her.

The magical crystal set into the handle twinkled like before when removing the glitter.

“Could you help me with this, Clarice?” Miho whispered.

As this went over as easily as removing the glitters, then there wouldn’t be anything to worry about. After all, the goddess told her that this would be the ultimate cleaning tool capable of cleaning everything.

Holding Clarice in her hand, she opened the door and reentered the sleeping room.

After lighting some candles, Miho could get a better look at the situation. The stone room was well-decorated with now-bloody carpets and tapestries. In the middle stood a big king-sized bed, whose linen had also colored red on Arnold’s side.

Miho looked up and saw a beautiful painting sitting on the plastered ceiling. Sadly even this painting was sprayed with various droplets of blood.

How did it even get so high up there…

She grabbed one of the thankfully unscathed chairs, and climbed upon it. She reached her hand holding Clarice all the way above her head. Like this, the bristles could just about touch the ceiling.

There was another problem, if she were to brush like this, the thick bristles would surely ruin the delicate paintwork.

Miho looked at Clarice, whose crystal started glowing again, and this time the bristles as well.

A cloud of particles had formed around the bottom of the broom.

Just as suddenly as they appeared, they also disappeared again.

But the broom looked different.

Miho turned Clarice toward her to take a closer look.

The bristles had changed, to soft almost-moist looking once. Almost like the bottom of a mob, ideal for cleaning a surface like this.

It truly is magical, isn’t it?

Still in awe of the magical transformation, Miho started scrubbing the ceiling. As Clarice touched the bloody ceiling surface, she could see the blood splatters turn into tiny fire-fly particles before completely disappearing.

In mere seconds, the blood stains had disappeared, with the paintwork still in contact.

Stepping on the ground again, Miho admired the sparkly clean ceiling in awe.

This went way easier than expected.

Next, were the wall tapestries depicting some kind of moon goddess.

The goddess of sleep, maybe?

“Let’s give this a try.”

Miho whispered after setting Clarice against the tapestries, and with only the lightest touch, the stains seemed to disappear instantly, just like those on the ceiling.

After that, her attention turned to Arnold’s big, dead body.

Miho sighed.

How am I ever going to get rid of this?

Even if she would be able to carry it herself, she couldn’t just take a body out of the castle’s front gate in the midst of a busy party like this.

With a desperate gaze, Miho looked at Clarice.

She noticed something different about the crystal, it was now glowing white with particles floating around it. Almost like she was excited about doing another transformation.

“Do you have any magic that can help me with this?”

The glow rapidly expanded from the crystal to the rest of the broom.

Out of shock, Miho dropped the now deforming blob of white energy on the floor.

With curious eyes, she watched Clarice’s transformation complete.

On the ground lay some archaic-looking spray can. A glass reservoir with brass tubing coming out of it. The wooden handle still contained the magical stone, which had now gone back to normal.

Miho grabbed the sprayer by its handle and made a guess about its use.

I asked Clarice about something to get rid of the body and she gave me a sprayer. So maybe I should spray the body?

She moved up to Arnold’s body, making sure to avoid stepping on the puddle of blood.

There she pulled the sprayer’s trigger toward her and magical dust started coming out and attached it to Arnold’s leg, where she began spraying.

Miho continued spraying dust until the entire body was covered in a mantle of sparkly dust. Arnold was no longer recognizable, just his silhouette.

“So what now Clarice?”

The crystal started sparkling and soon after the cloud of dust around the body began morphing. Magical particles rose toward the ceiling, where they promptly disappeared into the void.

In mere moments his body had completely disappeared, leaving no traces.

Amazing… so the sprayer can remove entire bodies? I’d rather be careful with that.

The sprayer started glowing and turned back the now familiar broom form.

Miho started sweeping the blood-soaked carpet and cleaned it with little effort.

All that remained now was the bed. Miho walked to the end and started pulling off the dirty bed cover.

Wait a second

Miho put the cover back and grabbed Clarice.

Let’s try gently brushing this

A bit awkward, Miho put the broom on the bed and started brushing.

The folds in the bed added a layer of difficulty, but in the end, Clarice’s magic was able to get rid of the stains.

If only I had had powers like this doing my old job, I would have saved hours a day.

With a sigh of relief, Miho inspected the room one final time. No more dead bodies, no more blood. She readjusted the carpet a bit and started to head downstairs.

I need some fresh air.

She descended the spiral staircase and went outside to catch a breath. It hadn’t even been a full day since she ended up in this fantastical world and she had already witnessed a goddess, a party at a medieval castle, magic, and even a murder scene.

Miho felt her body overcome with exhaustion.

She entered the big hall, where the party had slowed down to a crawl. Drunk noblemen were hanging over the tables or sitting against the wall, holding one of Miho’s buckets.

With Clarice in her hand, Miho helped Beatrice clean up after them.

“You look dead tired, my dear,” The elderly servant proclaimed.

With her blessing, Miho was dismissed from her duty and made her way back to the servant's quarters where she was offered a place to stay the night.

“Excuse me, Lord Cedric,” Miho said when she met the lord on her way back.

“I need to inform you that the cleanup was successful. All traces have been meticulously wiped”

A smile appeared on his face.

“So it’s true… you could really clean anything couldn’t you? I had totally expected you to flinch and run away.”

He laughed.

“I guess I underestimated you. Please come by my office for your reward tomorrow morning”