Chapter 0: The Story of the Maids

“I suppose before we get into the story of the maids, we should probably tell you more about our own world. I shall begin.” Terra started.

It all began a very long time ago. Thousands of years before the present day, a young world was flowing with magic. From that raw magic came living beings who could harness the powers of the elements. A few hundred years later, the first humans came into existence. Humans and magical creatures coexisted in relative peace and harmony. As a side effect of the overflowing magic present in the world, humans also evolved to possess magical abilities.

Society continued to progress smoothly, until one day, tragedy struck. A man who was born without any magical abilities saw those who possessed them as less than human. He grouped them into the same category as the animals and monsters who possessed magical abilities. Over time he gained support, and eventually became what would later be known as “The Purebred King.” The Purebred King ruled over a town of other humans like him who didn’t possess any magical abilities. If a child were to ever be born with magic in the town, they would be sold to the king and forced to work in his castle. The females were maids, and the males were allowed to be warriors, however they weren’t given any real combat training, as they were just seen as living shields for the true warriors.

Conditions for these magical humans were harsh to say the least. However, life wasn’t always the worst for them. If someone from outside the town was willing, they could purchase one of these magical humans from the king. Alternatively, if someone outside the town wished to marry one of them, they would be set free, never to return to the kingdom again.

Many tried to revolt and overthrow the Purebred King, but all failed. Some of the people he ruled eventually went against the king and allowed magical humans to live in secret with them.

“Wait,” Akira interrupted, “how did they know if they had magical powers without seeing them use their powers?”

“Good question. Humans born with magical powers have a special mark somewhere on their body to identify them as having said powers. Most are fortunate to have them in inconspicuous locations like their back or pelvis, but rarely some may have it in a more noticeable location, such as the forehead or cheek.” Terra explained before resuming her story.

Eventually, some people from the kingdom started giving birth to their children outside the walls of the kingdom, granting freedom to their children, should they possess powers. Many families were separated due to this, but some neighboring villages had people willing to adopt these special children and raise them as their own. Some of these children even went their entire lives not knowing who their real parents were. Of course, there were also those who tried to flee the kingdom upon birthing a magical child, but the king’s guards were quick to bring them back and punish them. As for those who secretly housed magical humans within the walls of the kingdom city, they would either be exiled or executed publicly, as a deterrent for others who may wish to do the same. If they instead turned themselves in, they’d only receive a heavy fine and a year behind bars.

“This is where we get into the stories of these lovely girls.” Terra finished.

“This king sounds like a jerk. I already hate his guts.” Akira said angrily.

“Well, things don’t get much better.” Tsubaki said disappointingly.

“How should we tell our stories?” Sakura asked.

“How about oldest to youngest?” Rose suggested.

“Sounds good to me.” Akira said, trying his best to relax.

“Well then, I suppose I’m up first.” Willow said. She began to tell her story.

My parents were those who tried to flee the kingdom upon my birth. Instead of leaving me in a village where I would be safe, they instead dumped me near a riverbank. I don’t have much memory from this time, but what I know for sure was that a kind old woman found me and took me to her home. She raised me for a few years of my childhood, teaching me how to read and write. She ran an orphanage for children who were abandoned or had no parents, and I helped her take care of the younger children. These children looked up to me as their older sister until they were adopted, usually by wealthy merchants or those who simply could not have children of their own.

Once I was a teenager, I found out what my power was. I had the ability to manifest energy into temporary physical constructs. I used these powers to keep the children out of harm's way, becoming a sort of guardian to them. Things couldn’t last forever, however. One day, a guard from the kingdom came in looking to adopt a child of his own, and he spotted me using my powers. As he was about to lash out in anger against the old woman for housing me all this time, I manifested a barrier between the two of them. He broke his hand from the forceful punch into the barrier meant for the woman. I was taken back to the kingdom where I spent my next years of life working as a maid.

“I’ll leave my story there. I’m already worn out just from recalling all of that rough work.” Willow said.

“I’m up next.” Sakura said.

My story starts off in a different kingdom, although not too dissimilar from the one Willow knew. Magical humans and normal humans lived on separate sides of the kingdom, with one living in luxury, and the other in poverty. Things weren’t so bad though. I had plenty of friends growing up, and we all went to school together. I never got to see my parents much because of how far apart we lived, but we always wrote letters to each other. One day, my father got very sick and wasn’t long for that world. I begged the guards to let me go see him, but they refused. My father passed not long after, and my mother was heartbroken. She eventually remarried a wealthy noble from a far off kingdom, and she moved away. I never heard from her after that.

Eventually, I worked as a bartender at the tavern on the magical side of the kingdom. I liked my job there, getting to befriend so many interesting people, but one day I thought about my mother again. I thought about how she had been allowed to leave the kingdom for some far off land. I wanted to be like her, able to leave the confinement of our small section of the kingdom, and one day, I got my wish. A wealthy merchant came through looking to buy some maids, and I was the one he chose. Little did I know how cruel this man was, but at the time, I was just happy to be leaving those walls.

Upon reaching the man’s mansion, I was introduced to the other maids he had working for him. Those same maids were the same girls sitting with us here today. I was excited to be allowed in the outside world, but that didn’t last long.

We were all worked nearly to death by that man. Every room had to be spotless, or else we had to clean it all again. Meals were limited to bread, water, and a small slice of meat. Being the troublemaker she is, Rose would often sneak off to the kitchen and steal food for us. Sometimes, she’d even manage to cook us a meal, though how she managed that without being caught is beyond me. One day, she was of course caught, but the man made her the mansion’s cook.

I was tasked with going into town and buying the groceries for our old master, as well as running any tasks he needed done. However, he didn’t want me to be noticed by the guards, as the town wasn’t exactly friendly towards magical humans, despite having no real connections to any kingdoms. Thankfully, it was around then when I found out what my power was. Recalling the faces of those I’d gotten to know during my time as a bartender, I was able to morph my appearance to that of someone else. Using this, I was able to run errands for our master without ever being caught.

“That’s pretty much it, up until we were brought to this world. I’ll save that for Terra after everyone finishes their stories though.” Sakura said.

“That borderline shapeshifting power of yours is pretty fun, I’ve gotta say.” Tsubaki said.

“What are you talking about?” Sakura asked.

“Nothing… NEXT!” Tsubaki shouted, trying to change the subject from her devilish deeds.

“Guess it’s my turn. Let’s get this over with.” Rose complained.

Alright, so I was one of the lucky kids who got to live in hiding in a village that took us magical beings in. I caused a lot of trouble, burned a few things down, you know, normal kid stuff. I knew about my powers pretty early. They came about because of my burning hatred for both my parents for abandoning me, and that dirt bag queen who ran the kingdom I was a part of.

I cooked a lot for the village kids. Everything went fine until our village was raided by the queen’s army. All of us magical kids were captured and forced into work. Anyway, the rest is pretty much the same as Sakura. Got sold into working for that scum who dared call himself our master, then I ended up here.

“Oh come one, you know that’s not everything. You’re forgetting a big part of the story!” Yuri complained.

“Shut up idiot, I was leaving that for you to explain.” Rose snapped.

“Ok, I’ll wait for my turn. Wait, it’s my turn now isn’t it?” Yuri asked.

“Yes…” Rose said blankly.

“Alright, here goes nothing.”

I also lived in a village where kids like me were taken in. Thing was, it was the same village Rose was a part of! We became best friends at a young age, mostly because I’d tend to her cuts and burns from cooking. That’s what led to me developing healing powers too, so I have Rosey to thank for that.

“Don’t call me Rosey.” Rose said.

Anywho, the queen’s army raided our village, and some of the kids were injured in the process. I healed them up in no time, but the queen found out about that and put me to work doing another job. Anytime the soldiers would return from battle, I’d be forced to heal them back to normal. Well, those who weren’t already dead.

The rich guy who bought us heard about my abilities specifically, and that’s why he chose me. I had to beg him to allow Rose to be bought too, and since I was so valuable to him, he gave in. I was glad I didn’t have to heal soldiers anymore, but my healing powers were still gonna be used. Our old master, he wasn’t really a great dude. He’d get super drunk at his rich people's parties and lash out against us. Willow wasn’t allowed to protect any of us, or else she’d get hit twice. The only one of us she ever took the extra hits for was little Lysia. Not like we minded though. We’d rather be beaten a million times before seeing Lysia get hurt.

“Anyway, I can’t really remember much that hasn’t already been said.” Yuri ended.

“Jeez, I can’t stand this rich dude. I seriously hope something bad happens to him.” Akira said, clenching his fist.

“Ok, my turn. Time to tell my tale.” Amari started.

I was fortunate to be born into a nice kingdom’s capital city. Us magical people were treated as equals there. Of course, a few of our neighboring kingdoms didn’t like us much, but we didn’t care. I never knew my father, since he was killed in a fight to protect a nearby village on the border between kingdoms. My mother was a well respected librarian for the royal family. I, of course, was to follow in her footsteps. From a young age, I was taught to read and write, and being around my mother sparked my interest in books. I’d often be caught up in fiction novels instead of focusing on my studies, and my mother was worried about me failing in school.

I’d regularly sneak off somewhere to read my books alone, but mother always had the guards come find me. Eventually, I discovered that I’d gained the power of invisibility, and I used it to hide from the guards so I could read. I never used it for anything mischievous, just purely for reading. Well, until one day…

My mother, she’d acquired quite the debt from my deceased father. Since he was part of the royal guard, he had quite a few run-ins with thieves and the like. Some of these people would steal important documents from him, and as such, the king and queen of our kingdom put a hefty debt on him. As a soldier though, he didn’t make nearly enough money to pay it back, and my mother wasn’t making any money as a librarian. Our family needed some way to pay off our debt and, well, my mother was the one who had to do it.

Despite living in quite a nice kingdom, there were still some seedy underground places that adults would visit for various reasons... My mother, tragically, was one of these people. She was able to find work there, and as was the nature of that place, got to be around a lot of disgusting people. Of course, as a curious teenager in the pursuit of knowledge, I went to some of these places late at night when my mother was out of the house. At one of the clubs, I saw her doing… I don’t even want to say what I saw…

Anyway, I saw my mother differently from that day forward. I couldn’t stand to look her in the eye anymore, and I think she knew exactly why. She tried to get me to understand why she was doing what she did, but I would shut her out. I didn’t want anything to do with her. To this day, I wonder if that was the right decision, because of what happened the day before my birthday.

I thought long and hard about my mother, about what she was doing to pay off our debt. I decided that we’d run away together, to just abandon our home and move somewhere far away where our debt wouldn’t follow us. When I went into the library to talk to her though, she was dead. Some men who were known to frequent the place she worked in had some score to settle with her, and to this day, I don’t know what it was.

All I remember from that day was dropping by my mother’s side and crying. The glasses I wear were hers. These are my only remaining connection to her, other than my memories, the good and the bad.

I started using my invisibility to run away from my problems. The guards, the people visiting the library, and of course, the debt collector. Thankfully, a rich man was passing through on some grand journey, and he visited the debt collector to see who needed debts paid off. He offered to pay off my family debt in exchange for me working as one of his maids, and without a second thought, I accepted. I thought he was such a nice man for helping me out, but little did I know…

“I’m sure you can guess how the rest of that went. The man was of course our old master, the scumbag he was. Thankfully, my parents’ souls could rest easy knowing I wouldn’t be burdened by their debt, but I still had to live with the shame of my mother’s work. I was shy upon meeting anybody new, because I wasn’t sure who would and wouldn’t know about my mother. I do look like the spitting image of her, after all, more so with her glasses.” Amari said, finishing her story.

“It’s almost like you guys WANT me to hate this creep you worked for. It’s really tragic what happened to your mother though, I’m so sorry to hear about that.” Akira said.

“It’s fine, I’ve come to terms with it. I don’t hate my mother for what she did, but I can’t forgive it either.” Amari said, wiping both steam and tears from her mothers glasses.

“Well then, I suppose it’s Lysia’s turn. Would you like me to tell them your story for you, sweetie?” Willow asked.

“No, I’m a big girl, I can do it myself!” Lysia insisted.

“Oh well, I can’t stop you then. Let me know if you need any help.”

“I will! Ok, I’m talking now, so pay attention.”

My mommy and daddy took really good care of me. We lived in this super duper nice village, and all of the people there were really nice. I liked looking after the animals, but some of them got killed for food. That made me really sad, so I made friends with monsters instead! There were so many different monsters that were super friendly, but mommy and daddy told me to stay away from them.

I miss my mommy and daddy. Some really mean men came to our happy village and killed a bunch of people. My mommy and daddy got killed by them too. We were sitting at the table eating breakfast when they broke down our door and stabbed them with their spears. They didn’t kill me because I was a little kid. I was really sad and cried a whole lot. I hate those mean men. The other kids in the village worked to bury the dead people. Well, the boys did that. Us girls picked really pretty flowers to give to them out of respect.

The guards came back and took us kids somewhere far away. This really nice old lady took good care of us, and one day she brought home this super pretty girl with green hair. She was really nice to all of us too, and she became my new big sister. Well, not really, but I see her as one. Surprise, it was Miss Willow! When Miss Willow got taken away by the mean guard, I was sad again. The other kids were also sad, but I looked up to my big sister, so I did my best to cheer the other kids up! When that mean guard came back a few days later, I made him take me to Miss Willow so I could stay with her forever and ever.

“That’s it. I’m done.” Lysia said, picking up BunBun and placing him on her head.

“Thank you all for telling me your stories, but I still have one question. It’s just a small question. You know, nothing too major, like how in the heck did you end up in this world?” Akira asked.

“Well, I do believe it’s my turn again. I can tell you the story of how these tragic maids came to meet you. Well, I WOULD tell you, but I believe someone else hasn’t spoken much yet?” Terra hinted.

“Mom, if you want me to tell him, just ask.” Tsubaki said annoyed.

“Tsu dear, could you please tell Akira about how these wonderful girls came into this world?”

“Yeah, sure. When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much-”

“Tsubaki Deus! You know that’s not what I meant!” Terra scolded.

“I’m just messing with them mom, calm down. Alright fine, here’s the story.”

So, one day these girls were fed up with all the abuse their scumbag old master was putting them through, so they just got up and left. Of course, they couldn’t really go to the nearby kingdom because they’d just be put straight back into working for someone who hated them, so they wandered the countryside. After about a day of walking, and pulling Lysia away from a bunch of monsters that she was trying to befriend, they found this mysterious orb. Jee, wonder if that’s important. Anyway, at about that same time, my old lady here went down to your world after selecting a good candidate that she believed would take good care of the girls. That was you, Akira.

So mom “dropped” this mysterious orb, TOTALLY not related to that other orb in any other way, and mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again. That was sarcasm by the way. Of course, you touched the orb because stupid monkey brain here saw a shiny thing and had to pick it up and take it home.

While that was going on, the girls decided to sit around in a forest and rest. Lysia here snuck off to find more monsters, and ran across an Usa-Slime being attacked by some Dragon Squirrels. She of course saved it from being eaten or whatever, and kept it as a pet.

So anyway, while this was happening, the orbs were linking up through whatever weird magic mom was using, and they found each other. The girls all surrounded the orb because even magical humans still have a monkey brain that needs to investigate the fun shiny things, and boom, they were suddenly knocked out and woke up in your bedroom.

“So, that’s how this all began. I hope you were paying attention because I am NOT repeating myself.” Tsubaki said.

“Good, I don’t want you to repeat yourself. It’s getting late, and we need to leave soon or else the trains are gonna stop running.” Akira said, getting out of the bath.

Rose laughed at Akira as he stood up.

“Oh my gosh, you really think Sakura’s interested in THAT thing?!” she said.

“Shut up, bra padder, it was the water.” he retaliated, wrapping himself with a towel.

“I don’t pad either, it’s because of the water!” Rose shouted in an attempt to retaliate back.

“No, it’s not the water.” Yuri said, placing a hand on Rose’s shoulder.

“Come on, whose side are you on anyway?” Rose said sadly.

“Alright girls, let’s get going. Sakura said, getting up to put a towel on.

Everyone dried off and got dressed before taking the train back home.

The group managed to get home before midnight. Lysia and BunBun went straight to the couch to sleep. Yuri and Rose sat next to the couch cuddling each other.

“Well, thank you for the wonderful trip today. If it isn’t too much to ask, I’d like to stay here with all of you for a while.” Terra said.

“Sure, I’ve already got a bunch of girls living here, might as well add another.” Akira replied.

“Thank you. I’ll be sure not to intrude too much.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to sleep now.”

Akira went into his room and laid on his bed trying to sleep. His door slid open and Sakura crept in.

“What’s wrong, can’t sleep either?” Akira asked.

“No, not really. Mind if I stay here for a bit?” Sakura replied.

“Sure.” Akira said, sitting up in his bed.

“Akira, after all you’ve heard today, I’d like to say this again. Thank you so much for taking care of the girls. They’ve all lived such hard lives, and our old master was so terrible to us. You’ve shown us more kindness in one day than he did the entire time we worked for him.”

“Hey, don’t mention it. I’ll do my best to take care of you girls to the best of my ability.” Akira said.

The two sat in silence for a few moments.

“Sakura?”

“Yes?”

“I think I found out what Lysia’s power is.”

“What do you think it is then?”

“Happiness. She always seems to be able to make the best of a bad situation, and she never fails to make us smile.”

“Come on, she’s just a kid full of energy. Sure, she makes us all smile, but she’s adorable. Who wouldn’t smile at her?” Sakura replied.

“Maybe, but I’m gonna say it’s her power.” Akira said, smiling.

“Akira? Do you mind if I… you know…” Sakura hinted.

Akira moved over towards the wall and pulled back the covers of his bed.

“This spot’s all yours.” Akira said, blushing.

Sakura got into the bed and turned to face Akira. The two looked into each other’s eyes and smiled at each other.

“Hey.” Sakura said.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Akira replied.

The two held hands and fell asleep.

“Finally, my work here is done.” Tsubaki said coming out of hiding before leaving the room quietly.