Petula's face was red as the beets Kuch had been working with and she shuffled about uncomfortably, tugging at the maid dress the vampire was stuffed into. "This is what my great ancestor wore everyday?" she croaked, voice somewhere between awe and mortified. Definitely leaning more towards the latter, I felt. "It's so...frilly! And floaty!"

  "It's a bit big," I muttered, almost as a complaint to myself. "I'll need to resize it. Especially around the chest area, I think I was working off Cordelia's measurements in the heat of the moment. You definitely don't need that much space in comparison."

  It took a moment for Petula to process that and her face lit up redder than a tomato now. She sucked in a deep breath, clearly holding back a shriek, and tried to move about. She didn't even get a few steps before almost getting tangled in the folds of her skirt and nearly tripping. The vampire managed to catch herself in time and glared at the clothes, still uncomprehending. "Why do I need to wear this?"

  "Because I'm trying to make you a maid of Puppet Atelier," I commented, rubbing my chin with a frown. "The estate has some unusual properties, one of them being able to remove limits for those bound to it. Your ancestor had been one such individual, which was how she was able to get so powerful."

  "I see," she huffed before frowning. "But I mean, I don't feel any different. Are you sure this will work?"

  "Honestly, I have no idea." Quickly, my hands shot up to ward off that deathly glare she was giving. "Look, I'm taking shots in the dark here too!"

  "Can't you just copied what you did with her?!"

  "I can't, it was way different there. The manor even had a different owner back then, one of the Ten Lights to be specific." That finally seemed to ease the glowering, replaced with just a little bit of tepid awe when she looked about the halls in a new light. "Oh. I guess I never covered that part, huh?"

  "You certainly didn't," she quietly answered, now slightly intimidated. "This a sacred site for the Ten?"

  I made a halfhearted keening sound and waggled my hand about. "Not quite? It really was just the home for Mikel, do you recognize that name?"

  "I'm afraid I don't, but I'm also not one of the faithful."

  "Pretty sure his name would've also likely been morphed by the ages too into its current iteration." I sorely hoped so at least, if only to provide a degree of separation from the paladin I knew, and the divine I knew naught of. "Anyhow, getting back on topic, Cordelia had been his retainer and received boons from such. So had I. I'm trying to see if we can make you one such individual too."

  Petula stared, then began to frantically paw at her dress. "Surely I'm not worthy of being inducted to be a champion of the Ten Lights-!"

  "Oh, stop that. If Mikel were here, he'd do it in a heartbeat. Or any other of the Ten Lights even, they hadn't been picky," I reassured, stopping her from undressing there and then. "They'd be curious anyway to see if it'd work."

  Because really, that was the curious question. Could adopting an NPC into a retainer work? Back in FLOW, it simply hadn't been possible because the game just hadn't been coded that way. Players simply couldn't just adopt NPCs off the streets to turn into retainers. Rather, those retainers they did have had been 'hired' from a background organization that handled 'searching' an individual who matched the qualifications set forth by the player. It had been clearly a flimsy lore bridge to mask the usage of a character creation interface to create a new retainer to suit one's preferences.

  However, there were also NPC characters who had their own retainers. In fact, some game events had even seen things like promising individuals being taken in by prominent NPCs for care and training, returning later stronger than they had appeared before. Working off that, there just might be an in-universe method to do so...but it was one heck of a long shot.

  Because for all I knew, it might just have been the developers writing it as training behind the scenes, without even thinking about the level cap. They set the levels manually after all, I don't think they were actually grinding out the NPC levels in the background. Their tools allowed them to directly to fiddle with settings like the true gods of the world they had been.

  Ah, if only I could get my hands on that dev tool kit, I wouldn't be fumbling around so much! Huh, actually come to think of it, did this mean that perhaps the Ten Lights got them if they were now the divines…?

  Petula's light cough shook me out of those musings and I'd realized I slipped into being a statue again. Ah, oops, that's quite a bad habit. "So...is it working?"

  I pursed my lips in thoughts, then shrugged. "I don't know, but I think I need more time to be sure. Maybe if you tried being like an actual maid of the house for a bit, like Cordelia, the estate will recognize you as such?"

  She stared, then pointed at herself. "I'm a duke's daughter. I have no idea how to act as a servant."

  "And I'm a puppet who's grasping at straws, so I have no idea either." I sighed and shook my head. "Forget it, just go back to training. I'll go back to the drawing board, see if there's something that I missed."

  This time I didn't stop Petula as she started to take off the dress, only for her to abruptly pause in the middle of it. "Actually...could I maybe try fighting in this? Like my great ancestor had?" she asked, inspiration seemingly striking. "So that maybe these...grounds could be tricked?"

  Oho. That was something I hadn't considered. "Might as well give it a shot. Oh, let me fix your outfit before you start trying to dart about and trip in the process."

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  "So this is what you meant by lessons?" Petula asked, noticing how even in her dreams, she was still wearing that maid dress. She now stood in the lobby of Puppet Atelier, or at least its recreation in her head, and looked like she was supposed to be receiving a guest. "Had you expected something like this?"

  "Call it a hunch," Cordelia mysteriously told while tapping lightly at various limbs with a crimson crop. "Bring your gaze lower- it should not be higher than that of your master's. Arms together now, don't hide anything from their gaze."

  "I can't believe that I'm learning how to be a servant from my great ancestor," muttered the vampire noble and received a sharp tap against her wrists. "Ow, what's that for!"

  "It is not just servant mannerism; You are learning etiquette of a proper lady," the older vampire corrected. "Be it as a noble or servant, these are important and helpful tricks to endear you to others. I can tell, you've never truly had such notions of conduct taught to you have you? From both the giving and receiving hospitality ends."

  "My mother died in childbirth. And my aunt isn't what you could call very elegant," Petula admitted with a light blush. "She...is a bit more lax about things than most. But wouldn't you know all this?"

  "I do- I'm in your heard after all. But that matters not." Suddenly the noble daughter found herself seated on the balcony again, this time back in her normal attire. "I will be instructing you on how to both be servant and master."

  "Wait, both sides? Really?" She almost twisted around in her seat to look at her ancestor, only for the crop to hold her in place. "What?"

  "Never turn fully away from your dining partner, even when a servant is informing you of a matter. To do so implies a lack of attention," Cordelia crisply instructed. "But to answer your question, yes. There have been times even when I was my master's choice of partner to social functions, in which I would play then the one receiving service. It could even be said that since I understand their efforts in labor, I could properly appreciate it more and commit myself further into it.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  "Thus, a loop is established, one in which you will see greater yields than you might think regardless of what you are. Lighthouse was like this- understanding the effort that goes into building things up, to better appreciate bringing them down. Arms up now, don't let them drop to the side. We will start with cutlery lessons to begin with."

  Petula stared blankly when a set of various knives, forks, and spoons manifested themselves on the table."I feel like I should be learning how to fight instead."

  "You already spend your days learning to do so under Noel. Now you spend your nights learning etiquette under me, and wake up refreshed all the same." The mistress of the manor stepped into view and flashed a fang. "Did you know one of my greatest regrets was never grooming a proper successor to inherit my position? All my children found callings elsewhere and departed, never returning. Not a single one of them felt the call to service and sacrifice like you have, with such determination to carry it out too."

  Her descendant felt just a little bit happy about that. "And this will make me stronger too?"

  "At the very least, it will be an effective rebuttal against the claim that House Cordis are rather backwater nobles." Cordelia sniffed. "It offends me so. You will be my vengeance upon such rudeness."

  "When you put it that way, then I'd love to be of use to you, great ancestor!"

  "Good. Now, point out which one of these is the soup spoon."

  "Um. This one? It looks the biggest."

  "Oh dear. I have quite the task in front of me…"

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  Vio sipped at the sample, made a face, and immediately went for the offered watered-down beer. "Bwah. That's a nice palate cleanser after that muck."

  "Still no good?"

  "It's a bit clearer, but there's still bits of turnip in there muddling it up," she mentioned to Kuch with a shake of the head. "Chopping it too finely might make it hard for you get those pieces out of there."

  "At the same time, it's apparently the only way to actually get the flavor needed," the doll muttered and returned back to the current batch they were working on, weighing options. Giving a side eye look at the piled up pots of other discarded failures, they instead chose to at least try something else before calling this try a failure.

  Taking some cloth they procured, they set it over another pot and began to pour the mix through, hoping it would at least catch most of the remainder of the boiled beets. Afterwards, it was returned to the heat to begin boiling again. "If only more folks could use [Brew], it wouldn't have to be so fine," murmured Kuch. "It used to be so freely available, there were alchemy shops everywhere that you could shop between. A healthy, competitive market that pushed alchemists to try and make their potions the best they were. Why is it so limited now?"

  "I'm not sure, I only know of Celia in passing because they're a sister organization of Magia," Vio told and settled into her seat. "Let's see. If I'm remembering this correctly, it actually ties into the reign and terror that was the Corpse Emperor."

  "Oh?"

  "They had been a great leader in life but despaired when their time was drawing to a close. Despite having an heir with strong accomplishments themselves, they had feared that in time, their efforts would be for naught with fears of a crumbling empire. So they had demanded and summoned alchemists across the empire, with a single task- make them a potion of immortality."

  "No such potion exists that I- Noel- know."

  "Glad to have that confirmation that even in Lighthouse's time, death had been still a thing," the acolyte mentioned before frowning. "Course, the Corpse Emperor hadn't been pleased by what that answer and, well, threw a bit of a tantrum at their seeming inadequacy. They had then ordered the gathered alchemists to then seek at least ways to extend one's lifespan- or else their own would be suddenly quite shortened."

  Kuch stopped stirring at the pot to turn and look at Vio. "Ah. Let me guess what happened next," the doll dryly guessed. "One of these alchemists, desperate to not end up like the steadily growing bodies, then hatched an idea to try forbidden ingredients- namely, that of the human body."

  The vampire blinked, then her expression darkened. "So it had been a problem in your time too?"

  "Let's just say that despite having pretty long lives, some vampires aren't so content with leaving behind happy legacies." Kuch was silent, maybe dwelling on some memories before shaking their head. "You can skip ahead to the part where then this emperor had likely drank this forbidden concoction and started to suddenly seemed to improve."

  "They had, and the alchemist who made it became honored with a new position with great rewards, and even greater demands. This had taken the form of a...unique fascination with death, erecting many grand tombs across the empire- some of which are likely still undiscovered today." Vio pursed her lips. "Then the emperor had suddenly and abruptly died."

  The doll started slightly, attention once again diverted from their pot. "That's different. Usually it'd be a long reign of terror and death before the people realize something's up and then starting a revolution."

  "I'm not sure exactly myself, I'm again only just hearing this in passing from acquaintances in Celia. I think some even speculate that perhaps it was the emperor's own heir who killed them, to finally take over." She laid her hand flat, then motion for it rising. "Course though, you know that didn't end well. Big, messy conflict, undead civil war, yadda yadda yadda."

  "Just admit you don't know the details and move onto how it's affected the perception of alchemy."

  "Well, so many alchemists had died during the conflict and one of their own also sort of caused this entire mess. But that wasn't just enough to make things sketchy- rather, it had been the emergence of people claiming to be alchemists but selling fake potions that really crippled the profession," Vio explained, snapping her fingers. "Because potions were still in demand for stuff but with the people making it right dead, scamming had become quite the norm. So around the same time that the church had been pushing forward Magia, the emperor decided to also do the same with alchemy and regulate the practice entirely. It had been a popular decree even."

  "Likely because of how badly the scams were. So thus began centralization of alchemy- and the eradication of the free market." Kuch realized now that the filtered beetwater was burning, developing a brown hue, and cursed. They'd been so distracted by the story that they let it sit unbothered for a long while. "Argh, dammit."

  "Indeed, it's become a thing where if the potion maker isn't from Celia, it's likely a very suspect thing. That, or an illegal creation circumventing imperial standards, hence why people are ordinarily so cautious of cheap offerings-" Vio sniffed and squinted, holding out a hand before Kuch dumped the mix. "Hold on. That smells good."

  "It does?" the oathbreaker asked and checked the mix, eyebrows raising when they realized that the burnt color wasn't actually so bad. If anything, it was like...caramelization.

  Which meant it was, just perhaps, that elusive ingredient they had been trying for.

  They swiftly ladled out a sample and handed it over to the eager vampire to taste. She sipped at it and her eyes lit up, her tongue tasting the various flavors. "It's sweet! It's still a muddied by that earthy turnip taste- but it's undoubtedly sweet like a honey syrup!"

  Kuch grinned widely and gazed down at the pot. Finally after so long, they were onto something. Now to figure out how to try and improve the flavor, combined with making it into those more useful grains of sugar. It was only a matter of trial and error now.

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