New clothes, new home, new job

The head housekeeper was an Arachne. She had a harsh look about her and could just as easily have been twenty or fifty or anywhere in between. She had long, straight, dark purple hair with straight bangs. Her eyes, of which there were two main ones and six other smaller ones, were pitch black. Her maid uniform was modest but didn’t cover much of her spider body. She was one of the few women Gob saw in the palace to whom he wasn’t attracted. He wasn’t even sure she had a vagina.

Despite all that, she was actually quite pleasant. A little formal and brief but never unreasonably mean and she had never been cruel to Gob even when reprimanding him which she had done often.

Her rooms acted like a hub for the domestic staff and there was a lot of coming and going so Gob just walked in. She was sitting with two other demon kin and they were all busy doing fine repair work on ornately stitched curtains. She saw Gob immediately, put down her work and skittered over to him. She leaned down and patted his head. “You seem to have done something right for once, Gob. Well done.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” Everyone referred to her as Ma’am and Gob didn’t even know her real name.

“News reached me this morning so I took the liberty of preparing your new uniform. She skittered towards her backroom and Gob followed her lamenting the lack of any ass to perve over.

She took a couple of shirts, a pair of black britches and a black cap down from a rail and handed them to him. “Try these on,” she said and stood there waiting. Gob realised that she wouldn’t consider giving him privacy so he untied his loincloth and let it fall to the ground. “Gracious me,” said Ma’am as she saw him naked. “I never realised how disproportionately large your genitals are to the rest of you. I hope I have left enough room in the britches. Let me know if they are uncomfortably snug.”

Gob dressed. His cock and balls sat comfortably in the britches and he was excited to have real clothes to call his own. “What do you think?” he asked.

Ma’am poked and pulled at the clothing but seemed satisfied. “You look almost presentable Gob. I hope he won’t be asking you to serve at any functions but it will do. You start tonight after the dinner staff have finished. Be on call around the kitchens and you will be expected to be available until the work for breakfast begins. I don’t expect you to be awake the whole time but you have seen the consequences of failing his magnificence. A nasty business that.” She shuddered slightly.

“Until then your time is your own but keep out of the way or I will find work for your idle hands. I am sure you will need things for your new lodgings but I am afraid you will have to scavenge what you can or save up your wages. Be off now.” She spun him around and ushered him towards the door.

Feeling proud of his new clothes he pulled the paper out of his new pockets and looked at the directions. He headed to the kitchen and down into the wine cellar, through a small door at one end and down a staircase. The door at the bottom was seized up from lack of use. He put down the lantern he had grabbed from the cellar and barged the door until it opened inch by inch.

Rats scurried away as he entered an open area with a vaulted ceiling. Down one end it disappeared into the tunnels of the catacombs at the other there were several doors. The instructions said ‘pick one’.

Each door led to a good-sized apartment. Thanks to magical wards put on the metalwork and the dry air, things were in good repair but considerably dirty. Each apartment was well appointed with a small stove, two beds and a table with four chairs that were in decent condition. They must have been long forgotten or been too far out of the way for Gob to have been given one to call home. He suspected Karus just knew that there were some rooms by the catacombs and thought they sounded particularly grim. A good clean, some light and wood for the stoves and he would be incredibly comfortable.

While the wood and metalwork had survived well, all the soft furnishings had deteriorated so he began making a mental list of things he would need. He would take Ma’am’s advice literally and steal what he needed. The great thing about a palace was that there was such an excess of things that a handful of items going missing just didn’t register, especially mundane items like sheets, blankets, cleaning supplies and coal.

Gob picked his favourite apartment and headed back out into the large open space to explore. He found a hole in the ground and threw a stone down. He heard a splash and realised it must be a well or a sewer. He gave it a sniff and decided it was a well. There were old items of furniture and bookcases. It seems that at some point in the past it had been used as a bit of a dumping ground. He managed to find a couple of oil lamps in the junk and put lamp oil high on his list of thievings. He gathered up some of the broken furniture and spent some time preparing wood for the stove. Once content that he would be warm if not particularly comfortable he turned his attention to the tunnel.

He didn’t venture far. He quickly realised he could easily get lost and that exploring would take a bit of organisation. He decided some paper and ink would be a good idea and then he could make a map. Gob didn’t remember ever feeling so excited. He had supposed to have been given a room but he had been given a whole section of the palace to explore and potentially make his own. He felt suitably smug when he imagined Karus’ face when he saw how comfortable Gob could make it. He gathered as much stuff as he could and made a good start on cleaning before his shift.

For the first shift, he was full of nerves. He had no idea what to expect. He waited in anticipation for the Maou’s voice to ring in his ears as he demanded something but nothing came and he crept down to his apartment to sleep under his old blanket before returning to his cleaning.

The second night Graff said “Come on lad. Let me show you how to do the basics.” He began showing him how to prepare some of the more common things the Maou would ask for.

“Thanks for this,” said Gob. Graf’s duties had ended a while ago and he was spending his free time showing Gob the ropes.

“Ha, don’t thank me. I’m doing this for purely selfish reasons. I don’t want to be woken up in the middle of the bloody night just because you can’t make a pot of tea.” It was probably true but Gob couldn’t help feeling like the gruff demon was looking after him.

By the fifth night of nothing happening, Gob risked going to sleep. He grabbed a chair by the fire and dozed off. He came too at the sound of the kitchen staff coming in to prepare breakfast. He panicked briefly but reasoned that if he had missed something he would have been strung up and tortured by now.

Needing as little sleep as he did, he found he had lots of time for setting up his new home. His uniform made him less conspicuous and he found he could stroll into a store and walk out with brooms, bedding, pans, whatever he needed and nobody batted an eye or questioned him. Soon, his little apartment was a comfy little home and he began to sort out the area just outside. Setting up good furniture and breaking down the rubbish to burn.

His first call came a couple of nights later. He was awoken by the sound of the Maou’s voice in his head saying, “Gob, bring me a pot of Graff’s good coffee.”

Unsure of what to do he said “I’ll put the kettle on sire.”

“Thank you Gob,” came the reply so he had clearly done right.

Graff had shown him how to make it just the way the Maou liked and he hurried to the Maou’s room with it. He entered the room and found the Maou at his desk writing so he put it next to him. “Shall I pour it for you Sire?” he asked. The Maou nodded and Gob poured a cup and placed it next to him. It wasn’t easy as his low stature made everything a bit of a reach for him.

The Maou took it and sipped. “Ah, you know, I can summon a coffee any time I want one but I can never make it as good as Graff’s blend.”

“Will that be all sire?” asked Gob.

“Hm? Oh, yes, thank you Gob, you may go.”

Gob was relieved. He had been worried that he would have missed an order but there had been no chance of him sleeping through the demon lord’s voice ringing through his head. He found he slept much more soundly from that shift onwards.

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