Ellen Joe and Alexandrina Sebastiane of Victoria Housekeeping

"We've been over food, entertainment, and lavatories. This being a hotel, there's one more place you're likely to end up spending a lot of time. In fact, in a manner of speaking, it's almost like your work office as long as your job is to be a object of sexual attraction for the women here," Loverboo chuckled, doing its best approximation of crossing its hands behind its back considering they were too stubby to fully reach together. It waddled quickly in front of Wise with squeaky steps, leading the way upstairs.

"Not to interrupt your joke, but there's no way those were 'the lavatories,' right? We each get our own bathrooms, don't we?" Wise questioned, taking note of the immense number of rooms they were passing that weren't getting their own introductions.

"Yes, yes. Quit nitpicking. If you'd just waited for this next area introduction, we would have gotten around to that! I would have thought that last prank of mine would have taught you your lesson about being impatient," the Loverboo sighed, rolling its heart-shaped eyes. "Up next is the sleeping areas, which the average hotel would be known for. Although, I don't expect you'll be doing much sleeping! Ha ha! Ha."

"You might be right. I'm just not sure I can make the adjustment to hotel quality beds after sleeping on the sofa so often," Wise joked. The hotel's vast number of amenities didn't seem to be subtracting from its room for good old fashioned hotel guest rooms. The second floor alone felt like it had enough room to house everyone on Sixth Street. "Hey, I haven't spotted a single elevator since we began the tour. Please don't tell me this building's ten floors tall."

"We fit it all in three. The motif for this season is to build the resort out wide, not tall."

"That seems like it's going to mean a ton of walking."

"Ha! You're all such spring chickens, what are you worried about? Your delicate knees? Please. The exercise will do you good."

"... What would happen if someone did pass out from exhaustion? Hypothetically?"

The Loverboo turned its nubby head to glare sideways at him. "Then I shall put in a few bloody automated walkways. Don't overthink it. And for heaven's sake, stop your inane scheming. You're here for the long-haul, chum. What, did you think you'd have someone feign injury, watching my large-scale changes at work, and attack me while I'm occupied?"

"Actually, I hadn't thought about that."

"Well, it wouldn't work!" the host huffed. "Now, here's how we've arranged the guests. The contestants are all spread out on the second floor. We've added nameplates on the doors as well as the numbers, to help you identify them. With how far spread out they are, you and the guests can make aaall the noise you want without disturbing anyone else's sleep, hm hm hm..."

"I'd prefer to sleep in my own bedroom. Where's that one?"

"Upstairs. Third floor. The VIP suite, you'd say, overlooking the beach with a large balcony, a hot-tub installment, and all the works. You did read the rules about how you'll be given a guest each night, didn't you? There will be plenty to keep you entertained and put you in the right mood." As the two of them finished making their way to the third floor, the Loverboo produced a keycard in one hand and passed it up to him. He had to kneel a bit to reach it. "But why should I bother with any further lip service? You should check it out for yourself. The honeymoon suite!"

The so-called "suite" seemed to occupy the majority of the third floor. As soon as he unlocked it with the key, he found that Loverboo had withheld a lot of details: in this room, the decor was less garish, the bonuses were plentiful, and if it weren't for the fact that it looked like it'd cost about 100 billion dennies to spend a night here, he'd actually find it agreeable. It had everything. He spotted a glassed off gym with everything a VIP could ask for, from weights to exercise bikes, an aquarium with tropical fish, a giant walk-in closet, an intentionally compact hot-tub, a huge kitchen, a quiet office space... There was just one thing bothering him. "It's uh... Kind of a walk to the bed, huh?"

"You never stop complaining, do you? The boudoir is through that set of wooden doors at the end there, the ones with palm trees on them."

It did occur to Wise that, as much as he ordinarily loved Bangboos, he was happy to see that at least the decor in the VIP room was free of them, minus the Loverboo following him everywhere. That said, he had serious doubts that there would be anything tasteful about his sleeping arrangements. Sure enough, as soon as he pushed open the double doors, he spotted what he knew he'd see: a bed made more for orgies than for sleeping, designed in a heart shape with rich, pink silk sheets and rose petals scattered all around the shag carpet. The personal shower was fully visible while lying on the bed. There was a sound system, probably full of a selection of sleezy mood music and sugary romantic tones, neither of which you'd hear a lot of at a place like Bardic Needle-- this was music that really only served one purpose. It even looked like there was a disco ball that came down from the ceiling using the remote control. In fact, the remote had a lot of buttons that might activate other fixtures in the room. He wasn't eager to test any of them right now.

"No guest bed," he noticed.

"Obviously," the Loverboo chuckled. "But the bed comfortably rests four."

Wise approached the bedspread, closing his eyes and making a silent wish: "Please make this the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on." That would be the only way he could overcome the indignation of spending an indefinite amount of time sleeping in what was obviously a kinky sex pad. He paused a moment, noting the way the sheets were made, with the thin bottom sheet perfectly fitted near the head of the bed and folded so the pillows rest just on top. At least this place didn't lack for typical hotel hospitality. The blanket itself looked a little lumpy, probably the kind of heavy sheet that would actually be sweltering in this summer heat-- typically discarded, unless one was also blasting the AC.

For now, he wanted to try it. No use being ashamed around Loverboo, after all. Quickly, he kicked off his shoes, then jumped into the bed and under the sheets. He pulled the thick comforter up to his neck.

The bed was like sleeping on a cloud. He actually wondered if it was possible to have sex in a bed this comfortable. Wouldn't everyone involved just fall asleep?

The only downside was that it was about as warm as he'd imagined. In fact, warmer. It didn't feel like it was just the comforter to blame. Had all those magical migraines he'd suffered given him a fever as well? He was starting to want to actually take a nap. Grumbling, he turned on his side, squeezing his eyes shut.

... Loverboo was being quiet, but somehow, the room still wasn't silent. There was a soft, repetitive noise like light snoring coming from somewhere. Somewhere close...

Wise opened his eyes suddenly in shock, realizing why the sheets had looked lumpy earlier. Someone was already sleeping in the bed and they'd just begun snoring. The fact that he somehow hadn't woken them up with all of the noise and motion just now let him figure out their identity even before he lifted the sheet. The only person he knew that was likely to be that heavy a sleeper was Ellen Joe, one of the maids training with Victoria Housekeeping. She had a tendency to come off as pretty lazy, but truth be told, she was quite capable when she put her mind to something... it just always came at the cost of expending her entire energy pool, leading to huge sleep sessions like this one. No doubt she'd spruced up the room a bit before, counterintuitively, falling down into a nap right in the bed.

His eyes traveled from her bobcut black hair, clad in its usual lacy maid headdress, to her cute sleeping face, the mouth half open to reveal her sharp shark's teeth and a slight trickle of drool running down the side of her face. From what he could tell, she was clad in her full maid's ensemble, including a black blouse and short skirt with frilly adornments. He hadn't seen a pair of shoes by the bed, so he assumed she was also wearing her high-heeled pumps. Her weapon was nowhere to be seen-- nobody seemed to have been allowed to keep theirs-- but her other defining trait was still there: a massive, rubbery black shark's tail, pasted over in stickers and grafiti that he had to assume was the work of her school friends.

"'School friends'... Wait, that's right!" he thought to himself, quickly scooting to put distance between himself and Ellen. This wasn't like Koleda or Qingyi, was it? Ironically, she probably had the most adult body of these three, but Ellen Joe was-

"Graduated..." Ellen murmured in her sleep, rubbing at one eye as though she was trying to wake up and failing. It didn't seem she was actually awake. She was just muttering in her sleep about her school life like she often did. "Eighteen... just graduated... it's okay..."

"It's okay?" Wise gulped, nearly having pushed himself off of the edge of the incredibly wide bed in his urge to get distance. "W-What's okay?"

"It's okay... if I sleep in a little... No school again... ever..."

"So you're not going to college then, huh? Guess the maid business grew on her," Wise joked, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, so I'm assuming now she's actually eighteen."

"I can verify it! We break a lot of taboos here in the hotel, but that's one we're not allowed to skirt by," Loverboo explained, rolling into the bed next to Wise. It was like sleeping with a stuffed toy.

"It's kind of sad, really. She was probably looking forward to living it up with her friends now that she's finally done with school. Now she's dumped into a situation like this," Wise mused.

"Oh, boo hoo. She's trapped in this horrible beach resort with only free food, free shelter, a comfortable bed, five star amenities, and literal magic to tend to her. Boo hoo hoo!" the Loverboo taunted, mimicking rubbing tears out of its eyes. "Honestly. You're starting to embarrass me. If you're that sad, get in there and console her." The host hopped up out of bed, then prepared an arrow, pointing it straight at Wise's face after knocking it into place.

Wide-eyed, remembering what had happened in the bathroom, he rolled over towards Ellen Joe to evade it. The arrow pierced the sheets, quivering in place. Somehow, Ellen was still asleep; he started to shake her shoulders, trying to wake her up. "Ellen! You have to wake up!" he shouted while jostling her, watching her head roll around listlessly. Surprisingly, despite her lack of seniority and status as a part-timer, Ellen was one of the strongest fighters in Victoria Housekeeping. If the host had decided to turn him into a pincushion, he needed someone capable like her for defense. Sadly, no amount of capability in combat helped if she was asleep like a log! "Just how does anybody wake her up!?"

"Aw, look. Hugging in bed. That's sweet. I knew you had it in you. Now, let's sweeten the pot... I'll change her into her sleeping clothes." The Loverboo stopped firing her arrows and spun one in the air, forming a circle instead.

The pink glitter fell over Ellen's body, and slowly, her costume and accessories morphed, glowing briefly pink before changing shape. He wasn't going to pull the whole cover off of her to check, but from what he could tell, she'd been changed into blue pajamas with a white shark pattern over their surface. On one hand, he'd expected she'd sleep in something "cooler" to match her image. On the other hand, he wasn't surprised at all to learn that comfort when sleeping was such a big priority of hers. The buttons were undone just a bit too far down the chest, exposing a bit of her cleavage, which appeared to be bare and bra-less beneath the pajama set.

Face-to-face in bed with her like this, he was powerless but to consider what it would be like if he actually ended up in marriage with Ellen. "She is... really cute," he finally admitted to himself, reaching out to wipe the string of drool from her lips to see if that did anything else to help the mental image. Another voice from somewhere over the bed nearly made him jump out of his skin.

"Dear Guide, you should leave that to me! It's my duty to clean, especially when it comes to Miss Ellen."

One might logically ask: how could the voice be coming from above the bed? Unless someone was hanging to the disco ball or lurking up there with their arms spread to fit into a corner without sliding, there was no way any ordinary person could be up there. The voice didn't belong to any ordinary person! Alexandrina Sebastiane-- known to almost everyone as Head Maid Rina-- floated horizontally in the air like a ghost, smiling down at him with her silvery hair nearly dangling into his face. Just shy of touching, of course. Her maid uniform, a long-skirted, more mature version of Ellen's, denoted her status as the senior maid of Victoria Housekeeping. Rina occupied a rung just below Von Lycoan, the owner, in terms of status there.

She might look and act like a ghost, but her body was very real and eye-catching for reasons that had nothing to do with the supernatural. Her large breasts, clad in a black blouse and framed erotically by the white square window of her apron, hung down, nearly touching him as well. The knowing smile on her face and her sparkling, red eyes made Wise think she was trying to make his heart rate worse, not calm him down.

Wise tried to push away from Ellen again, realizing he'd gotten way too caught up in the moment. In doing so, he ran his back into the embedded shaft of the arrow. "Crap!" he winced, holding his back in pain.

"Oh dear. To think, we went through all the trouble of making this bed up to our high standards, and this miscreant Bangboo has already ruined it with reckless behavior," Rina sighed, plucking free the arrow from the sheets. "Dear Guide, if you would like a change of sheets before your nap-"

"I wasn't actually interested in napping right now," Wise sighed, still rubbing his back gingerly.

"Oh! You just wanted to share the bed with Miss Ellen, then?"

"N-No!" he defended, finally jumping out from the covers.

Rina chuckled, allowing her hands to dangle in a sort of mock-specter way as she corrected her floating position to vertical orientation. "My apologies. I couldn't help but tease. Now that you're here, I would like to discuss the arrangements going forward. These are... unique circumstances."

"You're telling me," Wise muttered, sitting up on the bed and resting his hands on his knees as she swung to face him from the front.

"For the time being, Ellen and I will recognize you as our Master and serve you in kind. I believe this will be the easiest way for us to acclimate here. Once we're free, you can pay the bill for our services to Victoria Housekeeping!"

"I can't afford that!" Wise panicked. He was, on a good month, just above the red between his proxy work and maintaining the video store. Victoria Housekeeping were the kind of outfit that only the absolute upper-crust of New Eridu society could afford. They worked together for mutually beneficial purposes some time, but he'd never considered how much it would cost to actually hire them.

Rina closed her eyes and gave another soft smile, tilting her head slightly. "Another joke. I'm afraid I couldn't resist. But I did wish to clarify that you will not meet resistance from us in terms of your unwilling role as Master. If anything, I'm happy it's a person of your character assigned to the role."

"Ah... Ah ha..." he laughed awkwardly. "Well, thanks, then."

"I do apologize that Miss Ellen isn't awake to greet you. She was simply exhausted after cleaning the whole VIP suite with me and we've yet to locate the sugar necessary to revive her. Now she looks so cozy, though, I'm not sure I'd want to wake her. Such precious pajamas..."

Loverboo hopped onto the bed, looking irritated about having been forgotten up to this point. Its heart-shaped eyes were slanted in the closest expression of anger they could make. "You think she looks cozy? Let's get you dressed to join her, then," the Loverboo threatened, swirling its arrow in the air. "This hotel doesn't need additional maid service. Well, not until I choose to make any of you into maids, that is."

Rina let out a slight gasp as Wise watched, prepared to see her clothing transform into a cozy pajama set the way that Ellen's had. Sure enough, her familiar maid attire took on a pink glow and began to change shape, but it became quickly clear that there was a significant shrinking away from her body rather than simple restructuring. When the transformation finished, she was left in nothing but a rather transparent white baby-doll lingerie, half-shading a somewhat risque matching lace bra and panty set. Without her usual outfit, she looked less like a classy doll you'd see on some collector's shelf and more like an erotic one you'd see on an otaku's figurine shelf, with soft, light skin and a perfect body shape.

The young man felt his eyes bulge a bit-- he'd never seen Rina wear anything besides her maid uniform, let alone something this flashy. Her curvaceous hips and long legs were typically hidden by her skirt, only seen in brief flashes when she floated around a battlefield. "Is that... what you normally wear to sleep?"

The ghost's ordinarily pale face became a bit red as she shrank into the bed, bashfully pulling the covers up to hide her body. "Ahem. Not all the time," she answered cryptically. "Certainly not around any clients, if that's what you're wondering. As you know, I do it all: cleaning, cooking, music, dance, reading aloud, horseback riding, whatever a master asks, but we typically have a strict policy against the sort of work we're being asked to do here. So no, this isn't my normal sleep attire."

"But it is something she owns?" Wise asked himself, gulping nervously as he considered the implications. Maybe Rina was a little more skilled in the art of seduction than she normally let on?

"Hm hm hm. Now that everyone's comfy in bed, how about a little bit of late night television? I wonder if anything's good on," Loverboo giggled, seeming happy with the results of its magic. With another little clap, it activated every monitor in the VIP suite and presumably more outside throughout the hotel.

"Contestant number seven is Ellen Joe! A recently graduated student still working as part-time maid for Victoria Housekeeping, she brings the silent ferocity of a shark to battles at the cost of using up all of her energy. For that reason, she often comes off as lazy, skipping classes, falling asleep on the job, and generally appearing to be a layabout. A little bit of sugar is all it takes to perk her back up... for a certain extent of perked. She's a little aloof at the best of times. That said, there are parts of her that are very nice and perky! Let's see if Wise can get his hands on them. Her dream is to retire comfortably and sleep 16 hours a day. Her charm points are her shark teeth and her fat shark tail. Her best personality trait is the care for her friends and coworkers that she hides between layers of too-cool-for-everything veneer. Her worst personality trait is that her too-cool-for-everything veneer isn't all an act. A lot of the times, she's really lazy, and she has a tendency to shirk work whenever she can."

"Miss Ellen would probably be offended if she was awake to hear you call her lazy in her intro. She prefers to call it 'conserving her energy,'" Rina remarked, casting her eyes over to the snoring girl next to her. "She really has a good heart, though. I'm glad that the introduction recognizes that!"

"You're being pretty positive about it," Wise laughed, thinking it was rare to hear anybody commend Loverboo for anything.

"Ah, the geniality of a real, professional maid," Loverboo agreed. "Now, let's learn more about her."

"Contestant number eight is Alexandrina Sebastiane! She prefers to be called Rina. This ghostly girl works as the head maid for Victoria Housekeeping and has one of the most diverse skill-sets available, all offset by her life-threatening cooking. Ordinarily, she has two doll attendants, though, seeing as they also function as weapons, I've seen fit to have her leave those behind. While she might seem spooky at first, Rina quickly wins people over with her charming personality and professionalism. Ordinarily, the one thing she won't do for her master is let them touch, but this time, those rules will be waived. Wise ought to take full advantage! Her dream is to be recognized as the greatest all-around maid in New Eridu, while training a new generation of successful maids. Her charm points are her tired eyes and the extra sex appeal that's revealed by her half-omitted, asymmetrical tights, visible when her skirt flutters. Her best personality trait is her dedication to perfection. Her worst personality trait is that she can be oblivious to her own faults, including how her supernatural tendency to float around usually scares people stiff."

Rina didn't look particularly happy about the description, shifting her bare shoulders uncomfortably. "Oh dear. I'll take your critique and work on that going forward. That said, I believe you've written an error! You mentioned 'life-threatening cooking?' Just ask the Master here, everyone loves my cooking! I was thinking of taking over cooking duties during my time here at the hotel."

Wise opened his mouth to make up an excuse, but the Loverboo jumped in for him, surprisingly.

"I'll take care of all of the meals. You just focus on being the best contestant you can be. 'Conserve your energy for it,' as Ellen Joe would say." Seeming satisfied, the Loverboo jumped up from the bed, motioning for Wise to follow. "Come along, now. We're nearly through the 'tutorial section,' as you were undoubtedly thinking of it. There will be plenty of time to spend in bed with the girls later."

"Sorry about all that again, Rina. Just so I know-- are you on board with helping the others, too?" Wise asked her, as he rose to his feet off of the bed. "I don't mind saying it in front of Loverboo: I want us to work together as much as possible rather than treating this like a competition."

"But of course! It is a maid's duty to serve. If you, as the Master, order it, then I will gladly attend to the others whenever I can. I will instruct Miss Ellen to do the same. Although, do understand that as Miss Ellen's trainer and senior, I do feel a certain sense of responsibility for her..."

Wise nodded. It was as he expected. Even with Qingyi and Zhu Yuan, who'd been adamant that they'd put everyone else's needs before their own, he sensed it: Rina's chief obligation here would probably be to make sure her coworker got out of this okay. It was only logical. How would that affect the game going forward? Each of the contestants was pretty selfless-- even Nicole, who acted characteristically self-interested in the average case-- but each of them was also sort of handcuffed by having someone they really cared about in the game with them.

Not to mention the natural instinct towards self-preservation everyone can't help but feel, right?

... And perhaps some dormant feelings towards the designated Master? Wise couldn't help but wonder if that might play into it. It would be kind of a twisted thing to hope for right now when he was already tasked with exploiting all of the girls, but it would make the pill go down easier for everyone involved, wouldn't it?