Maids VS Apocalypse

Mark went static for a couple of seconds. He stared at the mouse in his hand, thinking back to the conversation he had with his new squadmates, and their faces flashed in front of his eyes.

Straightening his back, he turned to look at the Sergeant, a question surfacing in his mind.

"How much did you tell them?"

Ramsay kept his silence, still leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. Mar grasped the cord of the mouse and rolled it around his fingers then focused on it for a moment, causing a new window to appear.

[

Would you like to move this Item into the Inventory?

> Yes

No

]

He pressed A on his imaginary controller and the mouse disappeared into thin air.

"You know, I expected you to spill everything the moment they asked," Ramsay said after a while. "You didn’t even hesitate when the Head General asked you about your stats."

"Do people usually lie about these things?"

When talking to Natalie, and even though he didn’t trust her, Mark felt compelled to tell her the truth.

It was the same when conversing with Rebecca. His intuition told him that being honest with them would lead to a far better outcome than what would have happened if he lied. That’s why he didn’t hesitate to reveal everything to them.

"You went your entire life hiding that you could hear the Whispers." The brown man shrugged. "I expected you to be a lot more secretive, that’s all."

"Well, I can see why you would think that."

With a few thoughts, Mark stored all three of his monitors, the keyboard, and his laptop. After a moment of thought, he took off the headphones he wore by habit and stored them as well. The only thing left was the PC tower itself.

"To answer your question from earlier," The Sergeant yawned, "All they know is that you have a Level 5, and that Ms. Becker is your summon. They don’t know about your game, and they don’t know about the quest involving your illustrator friend."

Pausing for a moment, he then added.

"If I’m correct, the only ones who know about those things are the two of us, the Head General, and Dr. Goodman. Keep that in mind going forward."

Thinking it was a bit odd, Mark glanced his way. Ramsay smiled at him, but his eyes weren’t smiling.

"When I told the Head General that I didn’t want to babysit you anymore, I really meant it." He said. "Protagonist or not, you’re a magnet for trouble. Staying close to you ought to bring nothing but suffering."

"... What th-"

"Ben and the other are good people." Ramsay interrupted, his body shifting around. "I don’t know what you’re planning, but you better not drag them into it." Walking away, he added one more thing. "We will take you to Amberwood and that’s it. What you do after that won’t be our problem."

Before long, silence enveloped the room once more. Mark clicked his tongue, his right hand raised to his head. He only scratched at first but found himself pulling at the brown hair.

The irritation ignited within him by the Sergeant’s words continued to rise until it died on its own. Heaving a long sigh, he glanced at the PC tower and stored it in his inventory.

For a while, Mark wondered if he should take his desk and chair as well. He didn’t have to worry about space since the capacity of the Inventory was linked to one’s Mind stat so he decided to just do it. That way he wouldn’t have to worry about his comfort once he sets his new workstation in a new world.

’Should I take the bed as well?’

He dropped the idea right away. Unlike his workstation, the bed he barely slept on wasn’t much of a priority. He stood there in silence for some time then turned to look at his closet.

There was no reason for him to take any of the clothes he kept there. Not that he had that many to begin with. Once he moves to the Overworld, getting a new wardrobe would happen naturally.

That means he only has to gather the stuff he would need for the next couple of weeks.

He opened the wooden doors and gazed at the few jackets, vests, and shirts hanging on the rack. Pushing them aside, he looked down at one of the corners and saw a large gray backpack.

It was a camping bag, the kind that’s made to last. It was quite big and seemed like it could fit a lot of stuff in it. A rolled-up sleeping bag was strapped to it, and right beside them was a smaller bag, this one containing a tent.

’Guess I won’t be needing them anymore...’

Now that he joined the Peace Keepers, the preparations he made for when the draft returned turned out to be for nothing. Still, he decided to store the items in his Inventory anyway. There was no way to tell when they might be of use.

’I can buy better stuff from the System shop, though...’

"Master."

The faint, whisper-like call almost caused his heart to jump out of his chest. Mark’s neck almost snapped as he turned to look at the door and he almost shouted at the silver-haired girl.

"A-ah! Lara! You’re already done?"

"Yes." She replied curtly.

The silver-haired maid was out of her uniform. She wore a simple T-shirt and plain gray sweatpants, both originally belonging to her master. The combination offered a glimpse at her fair which was still flushed from the hot bath she had just taken.

Her silver hair was down, no longer in its usual twintail style. It gave her an entirely different look, one that caused Mark’s heart to continue beating at a dangerously fast rate.

"Master?"

Realizing he had been staring too much, Mark quickly averted his gaze.

"I-I see... Guess I will go take one myself, then."

Getting up, he walked past the girl and out of his room. After taking a few steps, however, he came to a stop and looked behind him.

"You can go ahead and sleep on the bed. I will be using the couch."

"But-"

"Don’t worry about it. Since I’ve been out of it through the entire afternoon, I doubt I will be able to sleep anyway." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Lara appeared reluctant at first, but after some time she bowed her head.

"Thank you, Master."

"Don’t mention it."

Smiling, Mark was about to go on his way but stopped once again.

"There are clean sheets and blankets in the closet." He said. "Make sure to use them."