Chapter 2: Welcome To Mendaem Manor!
The first thing I heard was music.
It sounded somewhat classical. If I had to tell, it was coming from somewhere far away from my current location. But at that point, I didn't even know where "that location" was at all.
I woke up and felt that my body had been eaten alive by softness. A bed? If so, it was the most comfortable bed I had ever slept on.
It felt like heaven...or at least, what I expected heaven to feel like.
Going from my back, I turned to my side and stretched one of my arms under a pillow that was just as comfy, if not, more. I yawned before clapping my mouth. I rubbed my eyes to try and get rid of the sleep in them. I couldn't remember anything that happened up to that point, I was just too tired to.
I then felt an odd sensation. Someone was stroking my head softly. I tried pushing their hand away, but to no avail, it didn't work.
I spoke, "hey, stop..."
No answer.
Whoever was stroking me, kept on stroking me gently – like I was some sort of dog or cat. I gave into it and allowed for myself to be petted. Don't get me wrong, it felt good. But I had my limits.
I felt the person stroking me move down to my ear before saying, "good morning..."
That voice...belonged to a woman. But I couldn't recognise it. It was soothing and light.
They then moved away from me; I heard their light feet walking away. I called out, half-awake, "w-who are you?"
I opened my eyes finally, but they were still too blurry to make out who it was. They had an odd shape. They were curvy. There was something on their back, but I couldn't make out what it was. It seemed have disappeared though as she looked in my direction.
On the other hand, I was able to make out a room. A bedroom. I was on a king-sized bed with curtains hanging from its frame. It looked like something straight from the medieval times...
I could now make out that, the music I was hearing, was coming from another room. Downstairs.
The room I was in looked expensive. Like a five-star hotel room, or at least, what I hoped what one looked like that is. As my vision slowly came forth, I was able to see more of the room.
Everything looked medieval!
Maybe this was some sort of...replica. Whoever put this together sure had amazing skills. It looked like the ones I had seen in paintings. And speaking of paintings, there was a framed painting on the wall to my right. Right above an old-looking wardrobe with black, iron knobs.
The painting was of a big, muscular man who looked as hard as stone. He had short grey hair, a long, bushy, grey beard and was in metallic armour too. Like a knight. He had a long, sharp sword as well that he was pointing up to the sky. He smiled victoriously.
Whoever made this room sure put all their effort into it.
There was also a window in front of me too. I could just about make out a garden of sorts. The sound of birds chirping was mostly drowned out by the classical music downstairs.
I leaned up and rubbed my eyes once more. And, finally, my eyes were adjusted. I was awake!
I looked over to the woman I assumed had been stroking my head. She was at the bedroom door holding a metallic tray with a plate of food and drink on. The plates were metallic too. There was a steaming tea cup too.
It seemed she was wearing a maid outfit, with her head covered. A few strands of hair managed to escape out though. They were like a red-orange colour. Her eyes were dark brown like timber. She was very beautiful.
She saw that I was awake and smiled before walking over to me and placing that tray on my bedside table.
"Are you fully conscious now, master?" she spoke. She was formally mannered and had a certain grace to her.
"Master?" I asked, confused.
"Why of course. You are a guest!" she explained.
But I was still confused.
"A guest...?" I queried.
"Yes. You are a guest here, at Mendaem Manor..."
'Mendaem Manor' I've never heard such a place before. It definitely wasn't my city.
Suddenly, my head began to hurt and a thrust of memories were forced back into my brain.
I had remembered everything.
On alert, I requested the woman "do you know where my friends are? My classmates, my teacher?"
"Huh?" she paused before continuing, "oh, they're fine, please, don't worry."
I was relieved.
It was then at that point I realised I had been stripped down to my underwear. Since the woman was right next to me, I soon hid under my covers in embarrassment.
The woman looked at me weird, I was struggling to find words to get me out of this awkward situation. An attractive woman (in a maid outfit) was serving me, a schoolboy with no clothing on, food and beverages.
I smiled faintly at her, though, she probably perceived it as something weird and strange.
"So..." I began, despite not having anything else to say. I had to think...what would be a good conversation of topic with...that's it! Her name! "What's your name?"
She seemed a little shocked as if I had said something offensive. "You shouldn't ask such things, sir."
'Hmm? What did I do wrong?'
"I don't, I don't quite understand..." I was trying to make sense of the situation. Was it the way I said it? Or was I too upfront?
She began preparing a bedtable in quick fashion as soon as I asked that question.
As soon as she set everything down, she made a break for the bedroom door.
Now I felt bad. I had to apologise. She had been so formal to me too.
I reached out as she walked away, grabbing a bit of her maid outfit. However, it came off with ease, like it had just been placed on perfectly enough to not need any real support to stop it falling off.
As it was pulled off, my eyes were exposed to something I had never seen before, on her behind was a bushy tail that matched the same colour of her hair. It was like that of a fox...
It was majestic.
She glanced back, blushing.
I went to go tug it, believing it to be some sort of prop, if so, she was definitely the kinky type that's for sure.
"No...d-d-don't do that..." she said seductively. She was as red as an apple now.
I tugged at it but it didn't come off and, the woman howled out in pain. Though, it didn't sound like she was in pain – it sounded like she rather enjoyed it than hated it.
My eyes were wide. It was coming together. This tail was real.
As she screamed, her head snapped up as she tried biting her lip to subdue the noise. The cover on her head fell off as she did this, which revealed the rest of her long hair that was tied up to fit under the cover. Her hair, too, was just as majestic as her tail.
That's when I spotted two orange-red ears, with random black tints on the edges, pop out. They were the ears of a fox for sure.
Now, just a little information, I have mentioned the sight to be majestic, yes – but at the time all I could think about was-
-running for the hills!
I screamed as I left the room. I heard the fox woman call out for me to "wait" but the adrenaline had already kicked in, and there was no stopping me.
'This can't be happening'. But it was. This was real.
I found myself in a corridor, it had several other rooms, that spread out a distance from each other. I looked to my right and saw two more maids coming my way. They were pushing dinner trays down the hall, whilst talking with words I had never heard of before. They were foreign to me.
But unlike the fox maid, one of them was a dog and the other a bunny.
One of them saw me, and they stopped gossiping immediately. Like they had been caught out doing something bad.
The bunny spoke, "G-good morning, sir. It's good to have you finally with us."
"Aaah!" I screamed.
I ran to left as the fox maid left the room, calling after me.
I dashed down the corridor and found myself at the top of a large, wooden staircases, that seemed to lead down to the ground floor. My head snapped to the left and saw the fox maid chasing after me, along with the other two maids I had just ran into.
"Wait! You need to calm down!" she tried to say, but I wasn't paying any attention.
My legs scrambled down the numerous steps before touching the ground floor, that was patterned with black and white squares. It seemed that the entire building kept the same sort of feeling and look my room had.
I glanced to my right and saw two, large wooden doors that I took as the front doors. 'An exit!'
I made a run for the doors.
Running, I passed a room in which the same classical music I heard from my room was coming from. As I passed, panting heavily, it came to a sudden stop. I heard brisk steps coming from inside the room, which forced my feet to move even quicker.
And I was just about to reach the doors before someone walked in front of me.
A great beast of a man. Broad shoulders. Far more than well-built. He had long, brown hair that was tied up in a knot. He wore what seemed like some sort of light, metallic armour. Oh, and he also had a scar that was drawn diagonally on his face from the left.
I ran into him, being too late to stop. The impact of my face against his chest plate was like a car at full speed against a truck.
Falling on to my back, I was dazed.
"Ow..." I groaned.
I rested my head against my left hand, hoping the pain would subdue not before long.
The broad man spoke with elegance and nobility, a tone I was certainly not used to or had ever heard before, "It seems that the boy has finally awoken from his slumber..."
Still on the floor, I got a low angle shot of the person who came out from the room the music was coming from. It was none other than Ms. Dulce, the music teacher. I smiled almost immediately.
"Ms. Dulce...w-what's going on?" I asked, looking for confirmation on what was happening.
At this point, the beast maids had made it downstairs but all came to cower instantaneously as their worried gazes met the sight of the broad man in light armour.
Before Ms. Dulce could answer back however, the broad man spoke once more, "And it appears to me that...he lacks the formality of wearing the correct sort of garments. But, in his predicament though – no garments at all it seems..."
I wrapped my arms around my body, trying to hide myself from everyone around me.
I was utterly embarrassed...
***
I found myself sat inside a study. The owner of the manor's study, dressed in an oversized, cream tunic with a pair of oversized, brown bottoms that I had to roll up a fair amount up my legs since it was hard to walk, with all that cloth at my feet.
From what I had been told briefly by Ms. Dulce and the broad man, who was called Galahad, all of us were brought here by the owner, or should I say, boss of the manor, to be treated to.
Not knowing what that necessarily meant, I sat in front of a large, dark-wood desk cluelessly. Surrounded by shelves overflowing with books. On the spines of the books, were some sort of foreign language I had never seen before oddly enough. Maybe it was the same one the maids spoke in earlier.
'I should apologise to that fox maid...'
Me and my thoughts were interrupted by the door. It was the head of the manor. Similar to Galahad, he had the same broad physique and looked like he trained on the regular.
His hair was blonde, however, and let down. It's length sprouted down to his shoulders. He wore light armour it seemed too. He sat at the desk, taking off his light armour before presenting me with a gentle smile.
"Mr. Aiken, I presume?" he asked, with the same tone of nobility Galahad did.
"Yeah...I'm Aiken."
"It's good to finally meet you Sir Aiken," he held out his hand, "it is my honour to allow you comfort here at my estate. I am Lord Cassius, the head of Mendaem Manor..."
I took his hand and shook it. His grip was loose on purpose. If a guy like him gave me the full pressure of his strength, my bones would've broken in a matter of no time. So he was considerate and careful, clearly.
"It's n-nice to meet you..." I replied, trying to sound confident – but I was still trying to make sense of my situation. I didn't even know where my friends were, or my other classmates. Surely, they were in the manor somewhere.
'I wish I could see them...'
Cassius must've picked up on my look because he soon said, "I know it is a lot to take in...so, if you have any questions...don't feel like there's pressure on you to though..."
He spoke with a gentle tone. One that understood my situation.
I asked away. And over the course of our conversation, I felt my confidence rise somewhat. For Lord Cassius only though. That's how I worked.
By the time we had finished our conversation, it was dark out. And I left even more confused, despite understanding everything...
Let me catch you up.
So, me and my classmates were transported to this other 'realm' by accident supposedly, however Lord Cassius had said he was not sure who actually brought us here. He then brought me and the rest of my classmates here, to the manor, to live for the time being. He told me, like he told the others, that we'd be there for about a year. My first reaction to this was complete despair. Like there was something hard in my throat...but as long as I had my friends with me, it wouldn't be that bad. He told me he would do everything in his power to help us get home as soon as possible...
I asked him about why I had passed out, he had no answer to that either, though he did tell me, my body was going to experience some changes over the course of our stay. Whatever that meant.
But the final thing that he said, really did confuse me. He had been calling me sir, like the fox maid. But then, he referred to me as a god? I tried to ask him about it, but he declined it. His exact words were "wait until the change comes forth my young sir, it will be something truly remarkable..."
And so, I left.
I was walking up, back to my room. I was still in shock; even more questions were running through my mind now. What was this change he mentioned? Why were we seen as gods? None of it made any real sense. I pondered the idea that, all of it could've been a dream and I was in deep sleep, back in class during detention. If that was the case, I wanted to wake up immediately...all of it, was too much to take in so soon.
I entered my room to find the fox maid making my bed.
As I closed the door, she spun round and bowed immediately. Several times actually. "Master Aiken, it is good to see you!"
"Uh..." I was taken aback. I was not used to such formality still.
Lord Cassius had also said each of us had our own maid that we had for our own, though, I didn't particularly like the way he put that.
"I apologise for earlier Master..." she said sincerely, but it was way over the top.
"Why are you apologising?" I spoke. I was confused, I was the one that needed to apologise.
"Why, for this morning of course!" she smiled, with a bit of sweat.
"No."
"Huh?" she was now confused.
I bowed, just like she had, squeezing my eyes shut tightly, my arms sustained to my side. And with the upmost amount of sincerity I could muster, I shouted "I am the one that needs to apologise!"
"..."
"I'm still a little confused about everything, I mean...i feel like I'm dreaming, maybe I died and this is just me parting ways from reality, but...what I did was wrong! Please forgive me!"
An awkward silence filled the air. She did not reply. And I was there, stuck, bending at a ninety-degree angle for a while.
Until I heard sobs.
I looked up and the fox maid...was crying.
Instantly my back repelled straight up and I tried to calm her down. Her hands covered her sobs. I danced around her frantically, trying to calm her down.
"Sorry...was I too informal again?!" god, what sort of question was that?
"N-no" she said, her voice breaking as she looked up and we met eyes, "that's j-just the first time...anyone has shown kindness to me like that...not since-"
She looked at her hands and saw they were wet with tears of her own, before looking back at me. The fox maid immediately wiped her tears and gave a weak smile. "Sorry...I-I don't know what came over me..."
I didn't understand. I didn't understand at all. But what she needed right now was a friend...
I held out my hand and asked, finally "What's your name?"
"Master Aiken...you shouldn't ask such things...-"
"It's fine."
She looked at me. Trying to weigh me up. She probably suspected me to be lying, but no, I was asking truthfully. And then she spoke.
"I-Istoria. Istoria Redfox..."
I forcefully took her hand and shook it, with a big smile on my face, "nice to meet you Istoria! I am Aiken Hugh Sigmund..."
Once again, to no surprise, I collapsed.
At least I managed to stay awake just as I was apologising... The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
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