(3) Remilia Scarlet ～ The Scarlet Devil

Hind this devil lay
Many a kind act unnoticed
Scarlet flows freely

“Ah, that felt great… Only if I had a hairdryer.” Licorice did her best to wipe off the last strongholds of water holding onto her hair. It was nigh impossible to completely dry the lush jungles of keratin that lay atop her head, but she did her best with a towel anyways.

As recommended by the head maid, she had made sure to prioritize taking a bath. The bathroom was in the basement of the mansion, quite a creepy place to be honest, but she felt all the tension melt away under hot water.

Besides, Licorice was a fully grown adult, being scared of the dark was for children. She knew that monsters wouldn’t suddenly jump out from the dark, despite the doom and gloom atmosphere of the mansion making it feel like she was starring in a low budget horror movie. The only monster that had jumped at her, up until now, was a very human one.

Licorice fully dressed herself, before heading out of the bathroom. She was in quite a good mood, not minding the faux pas she had committed previously. Lady Sakuya had probably got up on the wrong side of the bed, or so Licorice optimistically thought. She could sympathize, she was very much human after all.

“Hm, hm, hmhm…” she picked up a chipper tune while walking back to her room, She didn’t have work yet, and it seemed that the head maid wasn’t too enthusiastic to get her working.

Her chipper tune was broken by a feeling of… She didn’t know what this feeling was, but Licorice felt a sense of foreboding. As if something was fated to happen on her way back, and fate was quickly approaching her. Our heroine only shrugged at this weird feeling. It’s probably the atmosphere making me tense.

Then, suddenly, the sound of a vase crumbling to pieces right next to her. Licorice instantly turned around to meet the source of the noise, her fight-or-flight response in full force, only to find nothing. Nothing except broken shards of the vase, and the table that used to hold it. That looks expensive… I’m not going to get shanked for this, am I?

She did her best, to hide the evidence of her crime by kicking the broken bits under the table. Nobody would probably notice a missing vase, of all things. This mansion was huge, there were probably a myriad of other vases. No witnesses, no crime. Licorice let out a sigh of relief. She’d pin the blame on one of those fairy maids if anybody found the vase-

“Hey miss.” Something, or someone, was holding onto Licorice’s shoulders. Its grips were strong, it felt like her bones could break at any moment. “Would you like to know what you just broke? That’s a Qing-era vase, you know. Owned by Emperor Puyi himself.” Our heroine couldn’t turn around out of sheer fear. Her attempts at an apology only resulted in a stammer of random syllables.

“Hmm… That’s a nice neck you’ve got there.” Licorice was too scared to be weirded out by this comment. The voice behind her back got closer to her ear. “You know, I can smell fresh blood from a mile away. May I have a taste?”

Uhm… someone wanting blood… a vampire? W- What do I against one… Right! Holy things… “…A- a… I- In the name of our… Lord and something Iisús Hristós, be banished foul beast!” She felt the grip on her shoulder relax. “And... and- uh…” Licorice didn’t remember much of her time back in church “May Mother Mary punish you… with… Hell? God, damn you, Allahu ekber?” Our heroine felt hopeful when the grip weakened even further.

Suddenly, Licorice felt the grip on her shoulder get even tighter. A small cackle came from behind. “Your gods don’t work here, miss. Thank you for the meal-” Her neck was pierced by a pair of little fangs. As painful as that may sound, it felt more like the prick of a vaccine, and the process was relatively painless. Still, our heroine was screaming for dear life as her vita l life juice was being sucked out by a stranger. Licorice was sure that she was going to meet her end at some haunted mansion in the middle of even-God-doesn’t-know where.

“Mmm… cough, hack! Crap- Hack, cough!” Licorice opened her eyes to see that there was nothing sucking her blood anymore. “Ce dracu, shouldn’t-have-sucked-so-much- Bleurgh!” She found a little girl rolling around on the floor, coughing up blood. It wasn’t the most pleasant of scenes, but our heroine was happy to be alive nonetheless. She turned tail and began running away.

The girl raised her head, seeing Licorice run away. “You- You nincompoop! I’m your mistress, I was just playing a harmless little prank on you!”

Licorice stopped dead in her tracks. What kind of ‘harmless prank’ involves anemia? “Wait, you’re the mistress?” She remembered the head maid’s warning about being served on a platter. “Oh, I’m so sorry- I’m so sorry- I’m so sorry!” Our heroine ran back to help this mistress of hers however she could.

It seemed that Remilia had done ridding herself of the excess blood. She was breathing heavily, looking up at her new, non-perfect and definitely non-elegant maid. “Yes, now help me up before I decide to bleed you dry and serve your meat as jerky!”

“Right away, Your Majesty!” Licorice helped the mistress up, and took a good look at her. She was a little girl, of little height, with a complexion that wouldn’t look off on a corpse. Her short silver hair and red eyes glowed in the dark, and her formerly pink dress (now drenched in crimson) pierced by two bat wings completed her look.

The mistress took a few steps back, and wiped her mouth using the sleeve of her dress. “As I was about to say, before I was rudely interrupted, I am known as Remilia Scarlet. I’m the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.” She commenced a curtsy that’d look elegant if she was not currently covered in blood. “Glad to meet you, Licorice Meidou.”

“Hmm? Right, that’s my name. I- I’m glad to meet you and be under your employment, Mistress Remilia.” She would have replied with a curtsy of her own, if she wasn’t currently wearing jeans. She contented with bowing down like Sakuya would do.

Remilia wandered her eyes up and down, inspecting the new maid. “Good. You seem to be an entertaining type.” The mistress seemed pleased as she smiled. “You haven’t fainted or had a heart attack upon our encounter, so I think you’ll fit right in.”

“I will?” Licorice wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Yes, I’m surprised at how you’re still standing.” Indeed, Licorice’s legs were shaking and her vision was slightly blurry from the stress, but she was still somehow standing. “Plus, you’re B positive, right? That’s my favorite kind.”

“Be positive?” Licorice scratched her head. “I guess I can be positive, yes.”

“No, no! I’m talking about blood!” Remilia pointed at the pool of blood on the floor. “B+ is my favorite flavor. Sakuya’s blood tastes bland. I’ve been meaning to get a convenient walking bag of blood that tastes better.”

Licorice stopped scratching her head. “…wait, this isn’t a one-time thing?” Her situation was so surreal that our heroine’s brain had gone on auto-pilot; the fact that she was serving a vampire only hit her just then.

Remilia grinned as she approached Licorice. The mistress looked quite cute while doing so; the context of the situation served to ruin any wholesomeness this scene might have. “Of course! Don’t worry, I’ll take care to keep you healthy and well-fed.” Her smile turned wider. “I wouldn’t want my drink expiring on me now. Then I’d have nothing to drink.” Her little hands grasped the ones of Licorice, and her eyes met the poor maid. “You wouldn’t want a poor little girl like me to starve, right?” Her eyes were filled, in stark contrast to her blood-sucking, human flesh-consuming antics, with genuine childish innocence.

Our heroine wasn’t sure how to respond to this supposedly poor girl. She couldn’t respond negatively, as that’d probably not sit well with the head maid, nor did she want to anger a child who looked to be much stronger than first impressions would give. Her flawed mortal human brain was also moved by what looked to be an innocent little girl standing in front of her. “I- I’ll do my best, mistress, to produce suitable blood for you.”

Remilia tilted her head, staring intently at Licorice. “Is that a promise?”

“Yeah…” I guess.

“Then we have a deal.” Remilia released hold of Licorice’s hands. “Deals and promises are very important, you know. Especially to us vampires.” She curtsied again. “I’ll take my leave. You’ve done a sufficient job at providing entertainment for tonight.” Then her wings flapped, taking the mistress to the sky, and Remilia parted ways to who-knows here. “Ah, humans sure are fun.”

Licorice could only stare as the mistress left her field of vision. I’m pretty sure that making deals with supernatural beings is… not a good idea. She shuddered at the thought of having become a walking blood bank. Well, can’t do anything about it now, can I?

She shrugged it off. Her sense of normalcy had gone kaput today. Licorice continued on her merry way, doing her best not to think too hard.