Nina took it upon herself to clean up their messes and repair the damage they did so that the mansion was never anything less than spotless. In a matter of days, the whole place was transformed.
Despite how much she did to make the mansion a more pleasant place to live, there was one place that even Nina was forbidden to set foot—the third and highest floor of the mansion.
“The mansion has changed a lot of late, hasn’t it, Morning Star?”
“Yes, I hear it’s looking very clean. But I never go downstairs, so I wouldn’t know.”
The third floor was where the mercenary captain’s office and quarters were located, as well as the bedroom of Pearly Cloud and Morning Star. Their rooms were spacious and furnished in a style unlike any other in the mansion. The red curtains were adorned with gently swirling clouds picked out in gold thread, the floor was covered in black tiles that lent the room a subdued and unified feel, and the furnishings, crafted from a rare variety of wood, were a muted brown.
Morning Star was sipping tea from a white porcelain cup without a handle.
“Why don’t we ask for our room to be cleaned too?” Pearly Cloud suggested.
“Don’t be silly. From what I hear, the one doing all the cleaning is a brand-new maid. We can’t let her up here.”
“Everything downstairs is spotless while we’re up here choking on dust. How is that fair?” Pearly Cloud ran his index finger along the top of a shelf. Sure enough, it came away smeared with gray.
“No one else can reach up there anyway,” Morning Star said.
She had a point—at nearly two meters tall, the world Pearly Cloud saw was totally different to the one the maids did. He was powerfully built, and his open robe revealed a well-muscled chest. An old scar marked his strong jaw.
Pearly Cloud and Morning Star dressed differently to others in the city. Pearly Cloud wore something resembling a light kimono in pale blue, tied with a loose sash over baggy trousers. Morning Star’s attire was similar, except that her robe was a brilliant vermilion. Naturally, she also wore an undershirt that covered her chest. Both of them had long black hair—and ears, tipped with white, that stuck up on top of their heads. Their arms and legs were also covered in thick, black fur.
“Don’t think I don’t see what you’re up to. You want an excuse to call the new maid up here for yourself,” Morning Star said.
“S-So what if I do?” Pearly Cloud grumbled. “Maids love it when I make advances on them.”
“But the captain doesn’t like it, does he? That’s why only the housekeeper is allowed up here now. Have her entertain you if you’re that desperate.”
“I wouldn’t touch that old hag. Damn it all! How much longer do we have to keep living like this?”
“Who can say? I rather like it, though—eating and sleeping while the housekeeper sees to all our needs. There haven’t been any wars lately, so we can just lounge about.”
“Well I’m sick of it! I want out!”
“And go back to being poor? No thank you.”
Pearly Cloud looked grumpy, but he didn’t argue. With an irritated sigh, he stomped out of the room to his private quarters next door. Like as not, he’d sulk in there until he fell asleep.
“He’s such a child,” Morning Star said in exasperation, then yawned widely. “It’s true that we’ve got nothing to do... But oh well. Just looking at my treasures is all I need to keep myself amused.”
She reached out not for her teacup, but for a box encrusted with gems. She opened the lid, revealing an array of jewelry in brilliant colors, and selected a necklace set with a large, glittering emerald that sent light bouncing around the room. Morning Star stared into its depths, totally entranced.
Five more days passed. Nina still wasn’t allowed up the third floor, and she got next to no information out of the other maids.
“Only the housekeeper is allowed up there.”
“It’s so unfair! She gets Pearly Cloud and Morning Star all to herself.”
“Listen, I saw Morning Star in the distance the other day and she smiled at me!”
After hearing this, Nina went to the housekeeper. But in response to her tentative questions, the usually genial housekeeper’s eyes flashed.
“Don’t tell me you’re another one who only came here because you wanted to meet them,” she said. Nina hastily shook her head. It was clear that the Dark Frost Mercenaries valued Pearly Cloud and Morning Star very highly.
“But why are they so secretive?” Nina asked one of her fellow maids as they hung out the laundry. The other girl, who was the same age as Nina, had blue hair and adored gossip.
“Well of course they are! After all, they’re invincible so long as those two are around...or at least, that’s what one of the mercenaries told me.”
Such was the renown of the two lupalune mercenaries that the sight of them leading the charge into battle both emboldened their allies and demoralized their enemies. Mercenaries were usually deployed in local skirmishes where keeping up the combatants’ fighting spirit was of vital importance. The mercenaries’ confidence only grew with every battle they won, and the momentum had so far kept them from tasting defeat.
“Are there really that many wars going on?” Nina said. That was the fact that surprised her more. Like any maid, she’d always worked in estates, so she’d been unaware of the general state of the world, including that there was so much conflict in it.
“There hasn’t been one in about three years now,” the other maid said. “I mean, the empire is so powerful that no other country stands a chance.”
“I... I see...” What they were talking about was on such a large scale that Nina couldn’t wrap her head around it. Still, she grasped that the Dark Frost Mercenaries saw Pearly Cloud and Morning Star as the key to their victories.