Little Servants

Chilly winds blew through one beautiful night of Iracebeth. The full moon brightened the whole city with its light. The city was quiet and people had been fast asleep.

A faint howl echoed through the night. A shadow was roaming one of the alleys. It sniffed the air and stopped at a small, red-brick townhouse. The shadow lowered its upper body part, crouching for attack. It sprang to the glass window.

A few inches away from the target, the shadow felt a painful hit on the side of its body. The force sent it flying away and crashing on the cement road.

“What do you think you're doing?” A girl’s voice rang up in the quiet alley.

The shadow rapidly got on four, facing the newcomer. Its focus shifted to the person in navy cloak who was approaching it leisurely. The person had a small figure, face hidden behind the hood.

The shadow charged, aiming for the person's neck. Upon getting close enough, it leapt with jaws opened widely, sharp teeth ready. Just one bite on that fragile little neck and a twist to the bone. Easy dinner.

The girl remained still.

Another hard blow landed on its head, knocking the shadow out of the dark alley. It whirled in the air and landed on the ground with feet. The moon’s light revealed a creature in form of a huge grey dog, a Daemon.

The Daemon caught a sweet smell coming from the girl. Then there was another smell, stink, but familiar, just like its own, the smell of Daemon.

“An Inugami. Right, enough lazing," She said.

Two sharp spears plunged into its abdomen from above, both sides. The Daemon tried to hold the ground, standing strong. Sudden weights from the weapons fell upon it. Sharp pain increased as they punctured through the abdomen. Its legs gave out and the Daemon fell on the ground.

A dark purple hole appeared under the Daemon’s body. The hole grew bigger until it was as big as the Daemon’s size. The dead body sank into it and completely disappeared.

 

*

“Good job, Boys,” The girl said as she watched the hole closed up.

Two identical little boys emerged from the dark. They were wearing the same elementary uniforms, yellow shirts, red pants and red hats on top. Each of them held a spear that was even taller than their identical height.

“I’m good, right, Master?” One of the boys asked with his chin lifted up.

“I’m the one who punctured it first. Stop bragging about yourself,” The other boy grumbled.

“You’re bragging too, Brother,” The younger boy stuck his tongue out and hugged her leg.

The boys started hitting each other with their little arms.

Her grin spread on her face. They both were too cute. She chuckled and bent down to catch both into her arms.

“You’re both good. Satisfied?” She hugged them lightly and patted their heads.

“No,” Both of them answered, dramatically shaking their heads.

“Already done, Sunny?” said a voice.

The trio recognized the voice and turned. A girl in same dark navy cloak was standing not far away from them. There were two smaller figures accompanying her.

“It's Hyoyeon," the boys shouted excitedly.

“You’re late,” Sunny stood up and walked to Hyoyeon, the boys following right behind.

“Just a dog. Don't make it such a big deal. The Tweedles can handle it just fine.” Hyoyeon crossed her arms, grinning.

“We have names, okay? TweedleDum,” One of the boy spoke with a frown on his face.

“And TweedleDee,” The other one added with also a frown on his face, copying his brother’s attitude.

“Let me tell you two one thing. Your master is weird enough to name her Daemon."

The boy giggled as Sunny hit Hyoyeon on the shoulder.

“What?” Hyoyeon protested. “And your stubbornness has always got me in troubles. I’m tired of Uncle’s complaint about you. Why don’t you just listen to him once so that he will leave me alone?”

“No servants. I have them,” Sunny jerked her head, gesturing at the boys.

“They’re not counted. You know the differences,” Hyoyeon frowned, pointing her finger at Sunny.

“Are those…,” She asked, turning her gaze to two smaller figures in black cloaks, standing behind Hyoyeon, not too far away. She always hated whenever this argument was brought up.

Hyo nodded, “The reason why I was late. At least one of us has servants coming along, for Uncle’s blood pressure’s sake. He chose these two."

“What’s your name?” Sunny bent down a bit.

“I’m Yoona,” One of them pulled down the hood, revealing a little girl with emerald eyes and brown hair. Yoona bowed and smiled broadly at Sunny.

“Juhyun,” The other one introduced herself. Juhyun had straight black hair. Her eyes are colored like Yoona's, but darker. She politely bowed to Sunny.

Those emerald eyes looked unique. There were twinkles in their eyes, literally. There were little yellow spots sparkling like stars. The lights shone in the pool of emerald. They were deep and soothing as if she was looking at a dark sky with stars.

"Please take care of us," said Yoona. Her voice pulled Sunny out of her daze.

“How old are you?” Sunny reached out to pat their heads.

Yoona flinched but stayed still. On the other hand, Juhyun jerked her head, avoiding the touch. Sunny retracted her hands instantly. They must be nervous since it was the first time they met.

“I’m ten,” Yoona answered, “And Juhyun is coming nine this year.”

“Is that so?” said Sunny with a big smile, “Welcome to The Geflimer family, girls.”

 

*

The iron gate of Geflimers’ mansion was open, waiting, as the girls arrived. The mansion located at the edge of the town, to the West, nearly separated from the townsfolk. It was painted in navy. The girls walked past the front garden with a water fountain. Stairs led to the main door – a big wooden doubled door. The maid opened it widely when the girls were on the last step.

“Welcome home, Ladies.” A middle-aged woman bowed to the two girls.

“Thanks, Aunt Williams.” Sunny smiled, “Is Uncle still awake?”

“Yes. He's in the office.” The woman stepped back for the girls to enter.

The mansion was quiet and dark. There were only lights from candles. Mrs. Williams was holding to lead the ways, and from two maids who followed behind. They went up to the second floor and arrived at double wooden doors with a golden, engraved letter, "G". The woman opened the door quietly. The group got inside the room and the maids closed the door behind.

The light was from a reading lamp, brightening a man in his forties sitting behind the table.

"The ladies are back, Master," said Mrs. Williams.

The man looked up from papers that he was reading and smiled. “So you’re home? How was the night?” 

Sunny and Hyoyeon nodded while the rest bowed to the head of the family, Duke Ludwig Geflimer.

“Just an Inugami. It’s quite a quiet night," said Sunny as she got to the couch and sat down, followed.

Hyoyeon took the place next to Sunny, and the kids stood close by. Mrs. Williams stayed near the door.

“That’s good. We were expecting lots of Daemons to show up lately,” said the man. “The Patriville are also doing their patrols day and night. The Dormosths are carrying out the investigation.”

Iracebeth was divided into classes: nobles, merchants, artisans, peasants. This was the world where Abyss existed, also monsters and sorcerers.  Among the nobles, there were four powerful Dukedoms: the Arcnights, The Geflimers, the Patrivilles, and the Dormosths. These four Dukedoms were more different and gained huge respects in the society. They were sorcerers who played an important role in keeping the boundary between the world and Abyss stable.

No one knew what was inside Abyss. Some people thought it was a place where souls traveled after death. Some others said that Abyss was a court judging bad people as every folk said about hell. However, people acknowledged that Abyss was a place where devilish creatures called Daemons came from. These creatures leaked out of Abyss at night and killed people for blood and souls.

Besides killing Daemons, sorcerers took advantage of these Daemons by capturing and controlling them. Dukes and Duchesses, heads of the four Dukedoms, had their own powerful Daemon to lead their house. By using Daemons to fight against Daemons, the four Dukedoms had succeeded in protecting people in the town until a few days ago.

The Arcnights were massacred and burned down completely. The Dukedoms had lost their strongest ally. The scale of balance had shifted to the Abyss’s side.

“What have the Patrivilles got so far?” Hyoyeon asked.

“No process. We’re at the same place three days age. Don’t let your guard down. I gave order after you girls left. No more individual patrols. Two to three people per group,” the man said. Then he turned to his niece, “So Soonkyu...”

Before he could continue, Sunny interrupted him, “If you’re going to talk about that again, my answer is still no.”

“Listen to me, Soonkyu,” The man stood up from his seat and walked towards the girls, “I’m worried. We don’t know what we are dealing with. The Arcnights are the strongest sorcerers among us, and look at them now. Every single Arcnight. Gone.”

“Tweedle Twins are doing fine.”

“Daemon takes a lot of your energy. You cannot just summon them out and keep them with you all time. What if a powerful Daemon pop up from nowhere? They always do. Why can’t you just simply listen to me? At least, servants won’t become a burden to you even if you take hundreds of them. What’s wrong with that?” The man argued and looked at his only niece.

“Uncle! Look at them,” Sunny raised her voice, giving a look at Yoona and Juhyun, “They are just kids.”

“I chose them because I know what they’re capable of. They’re even more powerful than some sorcerers we have.”

“Then why didn't you just send them on a patrol alone like everybody else? We are short of people anyway.”

“I believe you did notice they are different. We can’t send them off by their own. There has to be someone accompanying them. I want it to be you or Hyo.”

“Great. You want us to babysit them then?” Sunny rolled her eyes.

“No, I want you girls to help each other out.”

“How? Did you tell them to die in my place?!”

“Soonkyu! That’s crossed the line!” Her uncle scolded.

Sunny swallowed and turned her head away, avoiding any eye contact. Her face turned hot. Her fists tightened as she crossed her arm. She knew this was going to happen.

“Why can’t you just listen to me once?” He asked softly.

“You know why,” Sunny mumbled.

“Alright. Sunny. That’s enough,” Hyoyeon interrupted.

Sunny stood up. “I’m going to sleep. Come on, boys. Let’s go." And she went to the door; the twins followed right behind. She jerked her head and said to no one in particular, “Good night.”

“Please think about it, Sunny. And good night to you, too.” The door was closed after that.

The man sat down to the chair and massaged his temples, trying to think of a way to persuade his niece.

His niece was as stubborn as he was. He wouldn’t able to force Sunny to do things that she didn’t want. Yet, with chaos out there, there was no way he would let the girls going out alone.

“She is gonna be fine. Don’t be worried too much. You know that I’m always with her, right?” Hyoyeon said.

“You have to be careful, too. Now go to sleep. I still have some papers to look at and prepare for a meeting with the other Dukes tomorrow,” He patted her back gently.

“Is it about the Arcnights?”

“That is the only problem we’re worried about, isn’t it? We need to get down the bottom of this. Something is wrong. Everything is so dubious. It’s like walking in the middle of fog, and you cannot see where you are going,” He said and Hyoyeon could see tiredness written on over of his face.

The duke of the Geflimer had been stayed up late recently to analyze the scene. The dark circles under his eyes were getting bigger and bigger whenever she saw him.

“You need rest. Let’s go to sleep early tonight. Get a good sleep for tomorrow’s meeting. You looked ten year older than you are now,” Hyoyeon joked.

“Even though I’m old, I still know things around the house,” The man turned his head to look straight into Hyoyeon’s eyes. “You have been going through the reports for the last few days, haven’t you?”

“What… what are you talking about?” Her heart beat twice fast. How did he...

“I did make it clear to not touch them, didn’t I?”

"Sorry. We’re just curious.” Hyoyeon looked down. “You’ve locked yourself in the study room for hours and days…”

The man smiled and patted Hyoyeon’s head. “I will let you two know in due time, so don’t sneak behind my back again. You two are too old to be grounded.”

Hyoyeon looked up and grinned. “Alright.”

“Go to sleep. I will be right behind you. I won’t stay up tonight.”

“When is it going to end?” Hyoyeon wondered.

“I wish I know." The man said. “Hyo-ah. One more thing. Can you help me talk to Sunny?”

“I’ve tried. She's never listened. You can’t blame her for what happened.”

“She’ll never let it go, won’t she?”

"I hope not. It's been years."

“If I cannot make her take any servant, at least you help me persuade her not to summon her Daemon recklessly or too frequently. I know she has a perfect control on the Twins, but one day it might turn against her.”

“That I can try. I will keep my eyes on her. Actually, we will. Right, girls?” Hyoyeon asked, and the girls nodded their heads. “I’m off to bed now. Good night, Uncle.” Hyoyeon stood up and walked to the door. Yoona and Juhyun bowed before running towards Hyoyeon as the older girl held the door open for them.

“Good night.” He smiled.

And the door shut behind them.

He breathed out a sigh, “Stubborn. She does take after her father a lot.”

 

*

“Sunny?” The door slightly opened as Hyoyeon poked her head in, looking at the bed locating in the middle of the dark room.

There was no response. Hyoyeon stepped in the room, but two shadows blocked her way. It was the twins, Sunny’s Daemon, the TweedleDum and TweedleDee. Sunny meant it when she stated she would keep them outside, replacing servants.

“Master is sleeping,” TweedleDum whispered.

“Don’t disturb her,” TweedleDee added.

“Come on, Sunny. I know you aren’t sleeping,” Hyoyeon said louder, ignoring the two.

The Daemon immediately pointed their spears at her face, threatening her to keep her voice down. Hyoyeon was sure that they wouldn’t hesitate to attack her if she repeated. Different from servants, Daemons are obedient only to their one and only master.

A few seconds later, the figure on the bed finally snapped, “What do you want? If you come here because of what Uncle asked, then get lost, before I tell them to poke your with their spears. No mercy.”

The boys smiled mischievously at Hyoyeon. She could tell that they were going to enjoy that order.

“The reports. Your uncle found out that I sneaked in the office.”

“What?!” Sunny sprang up. “How could he know? I had my trust in your sneaking skill.”

“And now you’re interested?” Hyoyeon teased.

“Tell me. Everything. Now,” Sunny said, annoyed, as she crossed her arm, looking at Hyoyeon with a frown. However, Hyoyeon hadn’t moved an inch, but turned her gaze from Sunny to the other boys.

“Boys. I will let you guys poke her other time,” Sunny gave the order.

“Awwww… It’s not fun, Master,” the boys whined as they reluctantly lowered their weapons, and stood to the sides to let Hyoyeon in. Hyoyeon stuck her tongue out to the boys as she was walking past them.

“Master, can we poke her twice next time?” TweedleDum asked with a pout.

“Make it three time,” Sunny said coolly.

The boys gave themselves a high five.

“You’re spoiling them,” Hyoyeon shook her head and jumped on Sunny’s bed, making the short girl bounce up lightly from her place. “You can dismiss them now,” Hyoyeon pointed at the boys. She was finding a way to get back the boys, and this was the best way.

“I’m fine.”

“Nope until them gone.”

Sunny exhaled out loud intentionally and looked at the boys, “Sorry.”

A big black hole appeared in the middle of the air. It was big enough for a child to walk in, apparently about TweedleDum and TweedleDee’s size. TweedleDee obediently walked in first.

TweedleDum turned around. “We hate you, Hyoyeon.”

“Yah! You call her Master, but you call me by my name?” Hyo frowned.

TweedleDum stuck out his tongue out and ran after his brother. The black hole disappeared behind them.

“Now. Spill,” Sunny turned to Hyoyeon, speaking in serious tone.

Hyoyeon reached out to get a pillow and hugged it, putting her chin on the soft surface. “Apparently, Uncle knows that I sneaked in, but he didn’t said anything. Until earlier, of course.”

“So what did you get from those reports?”

“At the Arcnights' mansion, they still haven’t found any survivors and no clues about what happened, either. They believe that everyone is dead. The weird thing is that the body of the Arcnight Duke was nowhere to be found. The bodies we found are headless, so it’s gonna take a while to identify whose heads are.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. All of them.”

Sunny paused, not responding to Hyoyeon.

“So… What do you think?” Hyoyeon asked.

“Everyone died of a same way. There should have been one Daemon, one culprit. But one normal person couldn’t kill the Arcnights easily, especially the Duke of Arcnights. It’s impossible. So. . . it must be a powerful sorcerer with a powerful Daemon,” Sunny spoke while staring to space. She tried to make more inferences from the information. “Yet, again, is there a Daemon that can defeat the whole Arcnights in one night? Is it almost impossible?”

“If that sorcerer and his or her Daemon can defeat the entire the Arcnights, then we are in deep trouble.”

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Sunny frowned. “Anything else.”

“Uncle is going to a meeting tomorrow. Head of the house meeting. Do you think we can follow him?”

“They won’t let anyone else in. Where is this meeting held?”

“At the Patrivilles. Are we going to sneak in? Do you have any plan?”

After staying silent for a few seconds, Sunny spoke, “No.”

Hyoyeon’s eyes widened. She didn’t expect that. “Are we going to sit tight and do nothing? At all?”

“The guards will be extremely high tomorrow. It’s going to be a miracle for us to get in. Not to mention that the guards will be sorcerers from all three houses. If we can’t, then do nothing.”

“Jeez. And I thought you were smart,” Hyoyeon complained and Sunny answered with a shrug. “So what’re we going to do tomorrow then? We can neither follow nor sneak in not only the meeting, but also Uncle’s office. I don’t want to sit duck at home while others are getting busy with the meeting.”

“I don’t want us to get in trouble with the other houses. Uncle won’t let it slide easily.”

“About earlier,” Hyoyeon shifted in her place. “You shouldn’t have said those words in front of the kids.”

Sunny felt guilt building up on the inside. Hyoyeon was right. She shouldn’t. Yoona and Juhyun were just kids, “I didn’t mean to.”

“I know you didn’t. I know you are still sensitive over these things.”

“How did they take it?”

“I dropped them off in one of the bedrooms at the east wing. I thought they would feel sad about what you said, but they seemed fine to me.”

“I will talk to them tomorrow. Hyo. I haven’t seen Children with two colored eyes before.”

“Uncle sounded as if they were really strong, comparing to us.”

“Uncle always has his reason in everything. Maybe they are strong. We’ll have time to find out about that more anyway.”

Hyoyeon paused and only stared at Sunny for seconds. She softened her voice, “Soonkyu-ah.”

Sunny flinched a bit. She hated that name. No. She hated how people called her by her real name. Whenever that name came out, it always meant bad news or requests. She knew Hyoyeon only meant well, but she still couldn’t help it. “Yeah?”

“I know that the boys are doing an excellent job of protecting you, but your body can’t keep up with that large amount of energy to support a Daemon all the time. You are torturing your body. That’s why Uncle is so worried about you,” Hyoyeon waited for seconds, but Sunny didn’t respond; her gaze avoided Hyoyeon’s eyes. “You have me here, and now we have Yoona and Juhyun. We will always be there to watch your back. You don’t have to get any servant, but don’t call the boys out when unnecessary… Please.”

After a few seconds, Sunny responded with a nod.

That was better than I expected, Hyoyeon thought. She smiled before getting up, “Good girl. Now, sleep. I will see you tomorrow.”

Sunny stared at Hyoyeon’s back while the latter headed out of the room, not forgetting to bid a good night.

The door closed. Sunny lied down and covered herself with blanket. Putting her hands under her head, Sunny did not fall asleep instantly. It had been a while since the last time she slept alone in this room. The twins were always there, guarding for her.

Hyoyeon and Uncle were right. She knew it herself. She couldn’t have enough energy to summon and keep the boys out all the time. It was indeed a burden. Fortunately, today was an Inugami. What if she faced something more dangerous? Hyoyeon would gladly accompany her patrol without being asked. Yet, it wouldn’t be for the best. Since the Arcnights were gone, the number of sorcerers decreased greatly. They needed every single sorcerer. Even though Uncle demanded two-people patrolling for safety, with her and Hyoyeon capabilities, it would be a waste if they went together just to battle some pity ones.

 Servants was the last option. No. Having servants was as a burden as summoning the boys.

“No more servants,” Sunny murmured, “I don’t need them, don’t need one.”