Chapter 101: Work in the Villa

Before leaving the room, the male employer, Mr. Ye, leaned down to pat Gan Ling’s shoulder, giving her a final piece of advice.

“Just clean up the dust. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Old Xu watched his movements, a look of terror flashing across his face once more. This time, however, Gan Ling did not react to being touched. She simply loosened and then snapped her jaw shut, emitting a flat, monotonous voice like an actual robot.

“Received. Command.”

The two then turned and left with Old Xu. Judging by their conversation as they walked away, it seemed they intended to drink tea in the garden pavilion until she finished the cleaning.

With a click, the villa’s front door closed. It was as if a Petrification Magic spell had been lifted from Gan Ling; her shoulders slumped from her rigid posture, and she let out a slow, heavy breath.

“They talked for so long…” she complained. ‘If I were still a Human, my feet would likely be numb from standing by now.’

Out of habit, she shook her arms before observing the areas that needed cleaning. She quickly realized that, just as Mr. Ye had said, all she needed to do was wipe away the dust. There was no trash to be seen besides the dust, and even that was a mere thin film. It seemed they truly had brought her here out of pure curiosity.

Unfortunately, a clean room did not translate to an easy job. Expensive-looking vases and ornaments sat atop the coffee table, inside the display cases built into the walls, and in every corner of the room. Gan Ling stared at them, a sense of unease blossoming in her chest.

‘If I break even one of these, will I have to spend the rest of my life paying off the debt?’

After careful consideration, she decided to minimize her reliance on Absolute Command during this cleaning session just to be safe.

“Dust, come here.”

“Cloth, wipe by yourself.”

She took personal responsibility for the rest. Relying on a Doll’s unique dexterity, she methodically cleaned the fragile items, making the Living Room sparkle in no time. Afterward, she followed the order the employers had specified and moved on to the other rooms.

As Gan Ling passed the staircase leading to the second floor, she caught sight of the three in the pavilion through a transom window. They were seated around a table in the center, which was laid out with tea and snacks. Old Xu was chatting and laughing with the two employers; without a strange Housekeeping Robot by his side, his complexion looked significantly better.

Gan Ling, however, was not laughing. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Old Xu’s face and the snacks on the table, feeling that this was utterly unfair.

‘I’m stuck working here while you’re over there enjoying yourself? And you’re only making this extra money from these rich people because of me.’ While thinking this, she shot a fierce glare in Old Xu’s direction.

As if sensing the sudden chill coming from behind him, Old Xu spun his head around as though a spider-sense had been triggered. However, he saw nothing on the other side of the transom window.

Mrs. Su noticed his reaction and asked, “What’s wrong, Mr. Xu?”

“…It’s nothing. A mosquito just bit the back of my neck,” Old Xu explained, though a bead of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

In reality, if one looked closely, the “thing” behind the transom window had not moved an inch. Under the cover of Stealth Magic, her gaze remained fixed on Old Xu even now. As he turned to respond to Mrs. Su, the Magic deactivated, and her red eyes began to emit a terrifying glow within the shadows for a moment before vanishing completely.

“Whatever, scaring people isn’t that much fun anyway. Besides, he is doing me a favor by letting me stay with him,” Gan Ling muttered to herself, shrugging. She decided to let Old Xu off the hook and return to her original task.

If she remembered correctly, this was… the room Iris used to practice her dancing. She turned the handle and pushed the door open; the first thing to catch her eye was a piano positioned near the window. A row of bookshelves lined the wall to the right of the piano. Looking through the Glass Panes, she saw they were filled mostly with textbooks related to dance or music.

To the left of the piano, the space opened up into what looked like a typical dance studio, complete with smooth wooden floors and floor-to-ceiling Mirrors. Gan Ling walked in and scanned the room, seeing no one but her own reflection in the Mirror. She could not help but feel a twinge of disappointment.

‘Iris isn’t here… but that makes sense. She should still be at School right now.’ With that thought, she could only return to her work.

“Mop, mop by yourself,” Gan Ling called out. The mop came to life and began to traverse the room. She commanded the Cloth to clean the largest Mirror, and while it did so, she kept herself busy by tending to the bookshelves.

While she was working away, a click suddenly echoed from outside. It sounded as if the front door on the first floor had been opened. Immediately afterward, the sound of rhythmic footsteps grew increasingly clear.

Thud. Thud. Thud…

Gan Ling panicked. The footsteps were heading right for her and were already ascending the stairs.

‘Wasn’t it agreed that no one would come in!’ After complaining internally, she turned to look at the mop and Cloth moving on their own. “Stop! I said stop!” she hissed in a low voice.

In the next instant, all life was drained from them. The mop handle and the Cloth collapsed onto the floor. Feeling that she could not let anyone witness such a scene, Gan Ling activated her Stealth Magic and gathered them together as fast as she could.

Thus, when the owner of the footsteps entered the room, they only saw Gan Ling wiping the Glass Pane of a bookshelf with stiff, mechanical movements. As the person stopped in the doorway, a soft, thin girl’s voice reached Gan Ling’s ears.

“Excuse me… are you the new maid? I don’t think I’ve seen you before…”

Gan Ling stopped her movements and slowly turned around. A young girl with light purple hair entered her field of vision. Her hair did not quite reach her waist, and she had a side braid tucked behind each ear. One magenta eye blinked nervously at that moment, while the other was hidden beneath her bangs, barely visible.

She was wearing a dark School Uniform, which included a deep green blazer and a black-and-gray plaid skirt; only the shirt beneath the blazer was white. Furthermore, a Rose was engraved onto the buttons and the school crest, lending the uniform a naturally elegant air.

This was the first time Gan Ling had seen this specific style since coming to this world, though that was not true if she counted her past life. This was because Gan Ling had seen this girl in Magical Girl Weilu. Her identity was the human form of the Magical Girl Iris — Ye Li — and she was also the daughter of her employers.