Maids VS Apocalypse

"Master... Where did you learn the Lunar Arts?"

Although he had expected that question, Mark still went stiff. He did have an answer, but it probably wasn’t the one his maid was looking for. Pondering the matter over and over again, there was only one answer he could give.

"I was hoping you could tell me." He said. "It just... appeared."

"Just appeared?" Lara’s tone was doubtful.

"Well, there is something else..."

There was no logic to the hesitation preventing Mark from revealing what he knew. Maybe it’s because of how private the matter felt, be it for him or the maid.

The ruby irises scrutinizing him didn’t let up so he gave in before long. He told her everything. About how he was having dreams, and how the latest of which is the only one he remembers vividly. He told her about the knight whose life he had been living, and how he suspected that of being the reason he gained those new Abilities.

Lara kept her silence and listened. Even after he was done recounting everything, she only lowered her head as she sat on the bedside, prompting him to do the same. It was unclear how much time had passed before she finally spoke.

"I suspect those dreams are born from the connection we share." She said. "The contract connects our Souls, after all."

"It... what?"

That was Mark’s first time hearing about such a thing so it was quite the shock, at least until he recalled that he barely knew anything about the summoning contract.

"Still, is the contract supposed to show me... all of that?"

By now, Mark was almost convinced that the dreams he had been experiencing were memories belonging to her—to the entity who had taken the form of Lara Becker. The idea didn’t sound too alien to him; it was a trope he had seen before and thus found it easy to accept. He didn’t know how his maid felt about it, however. No matter the reason, having your memories peeked at was bound to be a disturbing experience.

As shown by her reaction, Lara clearly wasn’t on board with that happening. Her answer was delayed with a sigh proceeding it.

"To be honest, I do not know why you experienced such a phenomenon."

"You don’t?"

"Yes." She paused then added with a bit of resignation in her voice. "This conversation would have been easier if the summoning had been done properly."

Now it was Mark’s turn to pause. He stared at the maid’s profile, unsure what to make of her statement.

"You mean... it wasn’t done properly?"

"Yes." Lara sighed. "It was performed through the so-called Lower Realm Guidance System, and not by your own capabilities. A newly Awakened like you would never have been able to perform the summoning at such an early stage, no matter the amount of talent they possess."

There was no arguing that. The System skipped a lot of steps, allowing its owner to use their Abilities without having to go through the arduous process of understanding each of the Force Runes inscribed into their souls and learning how to manifest their effects in reality.

The Runes that went into the creation of the maid’s vessel and summoning the entity that would reside in it were undoubtedly complex and would have required years of study and meditation to grasp. That made the gacha mechanic and summoning requirements listed by the System seem like nothing.

In conclusion, Lara believed that their talk would have progressed smoothly had Mark learned the summoning method the right way. If he did, it might have been possible for him to understand the matter on his own without having to bother her with his lack of experience and knowledge.

"I’m well aware of my inadequacies." He said. "But please understand that none of this was in my control. I do not enjoy being clueless either."

"I... understand..."

Understanding didn’t mean she wasn’t angry or frustrated, and Mark got the idea right away. The System had made it so she wouldn’t be able to tell him about her nature and the Peace Keepers were no different. Not knowing when the notification telling them they can’t discuss something would pop out was annoying and that made them hesitant about discussing things.

Nothing would advance if things remained as is, however, so Mark decided to take the plunge.

"Those dreams... they are your memories, right?"

No notification popped up, but questions weren’t what triggered it last time. He waited for the maid to give her answer—and wait he did. It was some time before she spoke, and she preceded it by shaking her head.

"I wouldn’t know." She said.

"You-"

"My memories before I... before I became a ■■■■■■..." The sound of her distorted voice gave her pause, her lips drawing to a line. Mark opened his mouth to say something only for the words to betray him. Closing her eyes, Lara went on, unsure if her words would be heard. "My memories before I became... this. They were... sealed, is the right word, I believe."

"They were... sealed?" Mark pondered the word for a few seconds before his eyes widened. "Wait! You had a life before becoming a... summon?"

The maid fixed him with a sharp glare, causing him to flinch.

"Of course I did." She replied.

For some inexplicable reason, Mark got the impression that she wanted to puff her cheeks just then. He held up his hands in front of him and tried not to smile. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"What I meant to say is..." He reorganized his thoughts and chose better words to convey them. "This is the third life you’re living."

First, she was a knight who worshiped the Moon, after which she became the entity that can be summoned while the third one was her life as Lara Becker. Considering that this might not have been her first time being summoned, there is a big chance that she might have experienced other lives.

When he thought about it like that, Mark found that her aversion to intimate relationships with the summoner made sense. It might be that one of her previous summoners wasn’t an upstanding person, leading to her making a point of not answering the summon unless she was provided a guarantee that she wouldn’t have to do anything she didn’t want.

"That... might be an accurate description..." She said after some deliberation.

The confirmation caused Mark to go over the conclusion he arrived at once more. Three separate lives, the first of which was that of a human, although an Awakened one. That would imply she died at least once then reincarnated as the entity that can be summoned.

"Could it be..." Looking her dead in the eyes, Mark asked with utmost seriousness. "Lara, are you a heroic spirit?"

His question was met with the dumbfounded look of someone who didn’t understand. Her lack of response brought Mark’s attention to the fact that his words weren’t distorted, leading him to believe they weren’t against the System’s regulations.

"I... do not know what that is..."

"... I see..."

’Thank god...’ he heaved a sigh of relief. ’She isn’t a lancer.’

Despite his attempts at dropping the idea of being in a novel things kept happening in a way that brought the thought in his mind. That made the author’s incompetence one of the things he feared the most and seeing him come so close to ripping off a famous franchise was a different kind of horror.

Whatever the case, there was no denying the fact that his maid, his summon, was too close to the concept of heroic spirits. Even without a holy grail to fight for, Mark guessed that the entity serving him had a wish to fulfill, or a goal to accomplish, which drove her to accept the summon.

’Come to think of it... I never asked about her goals...’

He had been too busy thinking about himself to spare the maid some thought. His part of the deal was to provide her with a vessel and a constant stream of Aether, which made him wonder if that had something to do with what she was trying to accomplish.

’Right...’ He recalled something else he wanted to ask before but never got the chance. ’I didn’t ask her when the contract would end...’

Suddenly he felt a pang of fear. What if the answer he got wasn’t what he expected? What if the contract had a time limit that had been fast approaching without his knowledge, or if it would end the instant either of them accomplished their goal?

In the corner of his eye, he saw that the maid was in deep thought. The idea that a stranger you barely knew had access to your memories while you didn’t was disturbing, to say the least. Being furious was a natural outcome, which is why Mark was even more hesitant to ask anything.

’Well, I would have to do it at some point...’

He braced himself and took a deep breath.

"Lara, I have been meaning to ask this but... how long does our contract last?"

As if he had snapped her out of her thoughts, Lara whipped her head in his direction, brows furrowed.

"How long?"

"Yes." Mark nodded. "Is there a time limit or..."

He got a silent stare as a response and felt the resignation in the maid’s mind. The question was one more thing that could have been avoided if he had gone through the normal process of the summoning, making his lack of knowledge and inexperience all the more clear.

"There is no time limit." She said after some time. "There are only two-three cases in which the contract ends: The first is if either of us chooses to end it, the second is if either of us chooses to break its terms. And the third..." Pausing, she closed her eyes and sighed. "The third is if either of us die."