“Sure, sounds good,” he said.
His prompt reply had completely taken Tigaro aback. “It...it does? Five gold a month?”
“Yeah, that’ll be fine.”
“What about...room and board?” she asked. Perhaps he planned to charge her exorbitantly for living expenses to balance things out.
That must be it! she thought, though barely for a moment before he replied.
“Oh, you don’t have to pay for that.”
“Huh? B-But then...I’ll really be getting paid five gold?”
“Yep!” Kaito said, putting an end to the negotiation with a smile.
It’s too good to be true... she thought. It was unthinkable that he would pay an unknown hybrid so well just because she said that she’d been a maid before.
There was, she was sure, some kind of catch.
She kept her doubts to herself and settled in as they continued to fly along through the sky.
We arrived in front of the house, Tigaro still safely wrapped in my arms. Though she had insisted it was fine, the flight had seemed to scare her, and the moment she set her feet down on solid ground once more, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is my house,” I said.
“I see. This place is...”
Tigaro looked up at the two-story property. Her ears flopped down until they were parallel to the ground, reminding me of a stray alley cat I’d once chanced upon with similar ears. That cat had been on guard and cautious toward me. Perhaps Tigaro was as well, in which case it would likely be a while before I could satisfy my urge to feel her ears. Desire welled up inside me each time I so much as glanced at them, so I did everything I could to look away and keep it in check.
Orange hair down to her shoulders... Almond-shaped eyes with huge pupils... Classically styled maid outfit... A striped tail poking out through a hole in her skirt...
“...Hey.”
The sound of Tigaro’s voice brought my gaze back upward. The instant my eyes once again fell upon the tigerlike ears atop her head, I was filled with a fierce, driving need to pet them. Tigaro, though, was about seventeen years old. Eighteen at the most. To have a man ten years her senior abruptly ask to touch her ears would undoubtedly be scary for her. For Tigaro to say yes to a request like that, we’d need to have a closer relationship first.
“This is a huge house. Does anyone live here besides you?” Tigaro asked in an uneasy voice. Back in Hybrid Town, she had accepted the position without so much as hesitating, but not because she found me agreeable. She was here because she had wanted a job. It was natural that she would have misgivings about living alone with a man.
“There are two hybrid girls who live here with me too.”
“I see. So I won’t be the only hybrid, then.”
“They’re both bright, happy people around your age. I think you’ll get along really well. I’ll introduce you right away,” I said. As we entered, Oltea was sweeping the entrance. She’d clearly been putting herself into the work, as the whole area was already quite clean.
“Ah, that was fast!” she said.
“That’s because I found someone so quickly. This is her,” I said, looking back at Tigaro. She smiled at Oltea. It didn’t seem like her personality was too reserved. She and Oltea would probably loosen up around each other in no time.
“I’m Tigaro. I think I’m about two years older than you but, please, no need for formalities. I’d love it if you were just yourself around me.”
“Nice to meet you, Tigaro. I’m Oltea. So, you used to be a maid? Or is the outfit just for fun?”
“The former. I quit just the other day and came back to Hybrid Town. I’m not particularly fond of the maid uniform or anything, but it’s remarkably comfortable, so I spend a lot of time looking like this.”
“That makes sense. By the way, you said ‘came back to Hybrid Town’—is that where you’re from?”
“It is.”
“Oh, then are you familiar with Frieze?”
“Frieze? Is she here?!” Tigaro asked in bewilderment, her eyes opening wide. The way she’d jumped at the name caused Oltea to flinch and shrink back a bit as she nodded.
“S-She is... You know her?”
“I do, but... It’s possible we’re just talking about two people with the same name. The Frieze I knew was determined to become an adventurer, so...”
“The Frieze we know was also an adventurer, though...”
“Huh? Then...could it really be the same Frieze? Here?”
“I don’t know for sure that it’s the same Frieze, but if you just meet her in person, we can find out.”
I asked Oltea where Frieze was, and upon receiving her answer, we all went upstairs. I opened the door to the girls’ room and found Frieze using a broom to dislodge spiderwebs from the ceiling. She craned her neck to look at us, and the moment she saw Tigaro, her eyes immediately widened with shock.
“Oh! Oh my god, Tiga! Tiga, is that really you?” she shouted as a massive smile spread across her entire face. She ran over to her old friend. “Oh, Tiga is the maid who’s going to live here and work with us, isn’t she? You came in a maid uniform and everything like you’re all ready to go!”
“No, these are just the clothes I wore at my last job; they have nothing to do with my motivation to... Wait, speaking of that, what happened to your maid uniform, Frieze?”
“Hm? Why would I have to wear one?”
“What do you mean, why? Because you’re a maid too, right?”
“Actually, I’m not a maid...”
“You’re not? Then what are you doing here?”
“These two are my friends; we work together as adventurers. Working at rank B and above requires a party, so they asked me if I’d join up with them.”
“I see. So that’s why Oltea wasn’t wearing a maid uniform either,” Tigaro said. “But... Friends, huh?” she added after a pause, looking confused at the idea of such a thing. She seemed to have difficulty believing that hybrids could live together with a human on those terms.
Many hybrids, looked down upon as lesser due to their inability to use magic, found themselves taken advantage of by humans. Indeed, it was for that reason that Frieze had initially been hesitant to join my adventuring party, saying that she would never work with a human again.