MAIDENED BLUES (MT LADY TG) - PREVIEW

DING!

He moved back from the gateway. So this is the house…….It took him a few twists and turns, and a full 30 minutes to the edge of the town, but here he is. He is waiting for someone to respond as he was told, but on the super hot day of this summer, he can’t wait any longer for the inhabitants to greet him.

Huuuhhhh…..just when there is an anime convention today…

Richard sighed in his misfortune. Being a recent graduate, he is now in a grace period of unemployment as he graduated on rather average grades and in the current job ecosystem, people like him are low on the list for most private companies. Not to mention the current economic crisis risking his chances for any stable employment that he fears the most. And god forbid government work, uggghhhh…….

As a result, he began to take more jobs to make due and save his money to eventually leave his parent’s home and took up residence somewhere else. From ice cream making to janitor work, Richard has been trying his all but it is never enough. Now, he is stuck working as a housemaid-for-hire for the time being.

CREAK!

“Oh, you’re here!” A voice spoke from behind the door, excited over his arrival. As the door opened, he is greeted by an orange-haired woman early in her 30s, and facing the eager woman, he shakes her hands with a formal smile. “So you must be the caretaker we called before!”

“Yeah, Richard Burbanks, happy to be your acquaintance.”  He forgot why he took the job. His mother has mentioned how good he is at doing housework and suggested that he began cleaning others as well. Considering that people nowadays are way too busy with their work outside with the added addition of him finally doing something he’s familiar with, he took it without a hitch. Setting up an advertisement is enough, and with a suitable wage, he’s hired at the first instant. Three months afterwards, here he is.

“Come on inside!”

“Thank you, Ms. Aster.” The mother allowed him to take steps inside the house, escaping the heatwave outside with the cool air of the air-conditioned house. Wow, her family must has been rich enough for this.  “You must be so tired! Here, here. Take a seat. I’ll prepare the drinks.” Relishing the cool temperature of the house, he sat on the couch of the living room while the woman was preparing pleasantries in the kitchen. He took a good look around the living room. Nothing too interesting to say the least, the furniture is well-kept and the decorations of the place reminded him of his own house, a normal domestic home for a family of three.

The woman came back from the kitchen with a tray of cookies and tea, sitting on the opposite side of the table where she put it down. He appreciated her reception, eating the biscuits she made with pure eagerness. While the mother was pouring down the tea, she asked, “It has been a hot day, hasn't it?”

“Hotter than a desert, I can tell you.”

“Can’t blame anyone.” She sipped her tea. “Let’s talk about the important stuff. I would leave this house in a minute for some important stuff, so you will be babysitting my son there until I return.”

“Sure, we’ve talked about the terms before.” Richard continued, “If you’re late by any means after dusk, then I would be increasing my rate for each hour. I assure you however, I will take care of your home and your son very well.” It is just a professional job for him and he would do it perfectly. The mother herself seems assured by the facade he made and sure enough, she smiled at him.

Confident that he would do a fine job, she began to take her to leave. Standing up, she took her coat and went to the doorway. However, before she opened the door. “Ah, forgot something about my son.” She looked him in the eye, worried about something that he probably didn’t know. “My son….has a funny little thing with him. Don’t mess with his toys around, okay? He really loved those.”

“Okay, ma’am!”

“Peace!” Within a few minutes, the home finally went silent. He took a sigh of relief, leaning to the couch as the absence of the mother was finally felt. Just a little while, then I’ll go back to work.

He opened his phone back to see the checklist of his job around the house. Cleaning the house, making lunch, and cleaning the dishes….normal jobs for him. The house itself isn't that large, a typical suburban terrace, so this would be an easy day for him. Other than the mother's warning

He grunted. Teenagers…..He has little patience when it comes to them despite being a few years older than them (30 years old exactly), but he has tried his best to look away from their harmless antics. People like them aren’t exactly the nicest kind, but they’re at least aware enough to read the room and not bother him as much and as a babysitter, this is made easier in that they always prepped up in their rooms.

This one might be the same as well. He wondered, observing the quiet atmosphere of the house. He knows the teen’s room takes place on the other end of the house from his conversation online with the mother, and until now, he hasn’t heard anyone coming out of the hallway. For him, that's like a sign of approval from him. One less annoyance to deal with when he got a perfectly normal job to work in.

He pressed a few buttons on the remote control and began opening the smart TV. With how mundane lots of his tasks are, it's no haste working on them whilst he has the time of his life. Not considering the air-conditioned room this house has, protecting him from the hellhole of summer. God, this is so comfortable…..he thought to himself.

Whilst he's watching the TV for a new show aired on the site, a thought popped out in his mind. What should he do with his future? It isn't like he's not working hard, but imaging what kind of life he wants to lead once he got a permanent job. Life would have been nice, but how could he preserve it without losing his mind from the repetition. Maybe continuing his hobby? Finding a job from his hobby? Finding new ones in the process? Lots of questions ran through his mind and none of them was willing to give an answer.

"Ahhhhh….. future's a pain…." Whatever path he led, he should make damn sure he's happy in it.

After a few minutes surfing through whatever N*tflix and other streaming services offer than cable TV, he sighed before standing back up from the couch, preparing to start his day off. Ms. Aster has compiled his tasks in succession for the duration of the day, messaged with precise wording on his phone. He could simply chuckles at the idiosyncrasies of the mother herself, with most of it with an added addendum of :

(No matter what, do not disturb my son. He’s going through a phase so please, don’t do anything funny.)

He still has no idea about what she’s talking about. The son, named Emile from what he learnt, couldn’t be as troublesome like his peers. If he ever got annoyed with him, he could simply complain to her and gain some more tips along the way. Whatever this brat could throw at him, he would still eventually win in the end. That’s how desperate he is with money, and he’s not ashamed of it.

Alright, let’s get to work!

Dick paced through the kitchen, and as told by the instructions, took hold of the cordless vacuum cleaner stuffed under the cabinet. Without a second thought, he started the vacuum, the quiet sound of the machine wheezing throughout the kitchen bringing an unexpected serenity to the young man. Wow, not even a noise? This must be the high-tech vacuum I heard in commercials so much…

Once he put on his headphones to his ears and played the music player on his phone, he was assured that his work had finally begun. Starting from the kitchen, he slowly swiped through each rows of floor that the vacuum could clear, leaving a sparkling clean surface from it. Not even a speck of dust from what he could see is left behind, proving the capabilities of the advanced technology he possessed

But the fact remains that only human hands could put it to its full use, which is why he meticulously clears the area one by one, clearing each crook and crannies of even the smallest concentration of dirt and dust. Even for a job as boring as a housemaid, he must give it his all as a clear dedication to his duty and a quality he strives to uphold no matter the burden. He needs to optimise to high heaven if he wants to survive in this world after all.

Still, I need to take a break after this. My hands are burning like crazy. From his perspective, it’s been 30 minutes since he started and now, he has cleared the kitchen and a fourth of the living room. “Not bad, not bad…..” he self-congratulates himself. Now he can take his preferred break, leaving the vacuum cleaner to where it was before heading back to the couch.

But as he walked in the hallway, a painful sensation reverberated from his legs as a loud crack was heard on the ground below.

CRACK!

“Ahhhhh!” He immediately hops backwards, seething in pain as his nerves flared up from the incident. Luckily, the couch gave him a wall to lean on as he sat back and massaged his injured legs. “What the hell is that?!”

His eyes caught sight of a familiar object. A female figurine,with her white hair and white-purple leotard almost impossible to ignore, is broken in two. “Wait, is that….”

Mt. Lady from My Hero Academia?