Few hours later...

"Uh..."

Rem shuffled in a slumber.

Her head pounded painfully, and the forehead area especially ached as if someone shoved a white-hot tong through.

Her stomach churned uncomfortably, which was odd. She never felt sick unless she drank **** or...

'...did I...? I must have turned into an Oni again...'

As her consciousness came back, the memories of what happened slowly floated up into the surface as well.

And with the memories, a healthy dose of embarrassment.

"Oh...oh, gods..."

Rem recalled her Oni-fied self begging for a rough sex, using such vulgar words...

Her eyes nearly teared up from the shame; what would her master think of her now?

But before Rem's negative thoughts spread out, someone opened the door of the bedroom.

"Rem! Are you alright?"

Ram rushed into the room with a worries expression.

"Eeep!!"

The blue-haired maid squeaked like a mouse and hurriedly tried to cover up her naked body.

She'd already embarrassed herself in front of her master. She was not going to repeat the process in front of her sister.

'...well, technically she isn't my real sister, but still!'

Fortunately for Rem, Ram didn't seem to care at all that Rem didn't have any fabrics on her.

On the contrary, once she saw that Rem was awake, Ram hurriedly came next to the bed and bombarded her with questions.

"Are you alright? Do you need any water? Do you remember what happened!?"

"I, uhm...well, I was preparing for supper when... did everyone get supper?"

Rem tilted her head with concern.

Ram sighed, almost out of exasperation.

"Yes. Ryu prepared the rest of the meal. It's good to have another cook in the household, isn't it?"

Ram muttered softly, stroking the side of Rem's hair.

Rem found herself recalling on the younger days, when her older sister used to do the same thing when either of them was worn-out due to a rough day.

Especially, Rem was usually the one who had a lot to carry on her shoulders since—truthfully, her Ram was not good at any of the chores.

Whenever she couldn't work full-time, it was an unwritten law that the entire residence of the Roswaal mansion had to eat steamed potatoes, because that was the only dish Ram knew how to make.

Rem closed her eyes and leaned into the comforting hand with a soft smile.

"...thank you, Ram-san."

Rem muttered.

"..."

Ram looked down at her sister and swallowed a small sigh.

She was tempted to reveal that they were, in fact, from the same world.

But as soon as the thought occurred, another thought wriggled into her mind.

'What if...Rem resents me once she finds out?'

Before Ram could make up her mind, Rem slowly opened her eyes.

"Ram-san? Are you alright?"

"What? Oh, yes. I'm fine.

And...please, just call me Ram. It feels weird to be called 'san' everytime."

"Oh, I see. Alright then..."

Rem rubbed one side of her arm.

She didn't want to hurt this Ram's feelings, but Rem was also unsure about getting too close to her.

Ram, well, reminded her too much of her actual sister whom she may very likely never see again.

'...wow, I never really thought about it like that...ouch!'

Rem flinched with a small shriek while clutching the side of her head.

"Rem!"

Ram hurridly came next to her sister with open arms.

She tried to console her and ask her what's wrong, but Rem only grunted in pain as brief images flashed before her eyes.

A wounded man crawling on grass as she slowly approached him with a flail.

A huge group of Wolgarm, a type of witchbeasts swarming the front lawn of the Roswaal mansion at night as the village burned from afar.

A sheering cold breeze cutting open her skin as a giant white furred monster rose from the mansion, crushing it into pieces under its feet as its glowing eyes stared at her before—

"Rem?!"

A clear voice pierced through Rem's pained travel through the memory lane.

The blue-haired maid looked up just in time to see James huddle into the room, a tray of food held over his hand which clattered dangerously as the carrier tried to hasten his steps.

James narrowly managed to put the tray down

"What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"I...I'm..."

Rem struggled to form words for a long time, until finally, a question rolled off her tongue.

"Why were you carrying a tray of food, master...?"

Out of all the unexpected experiences she had, seeing her master—who owned multiple maids at his disposal—carrying a tray of food was the most shocking thing she had seen today.

It was something so irrational and down-right insulting that Rem almost felt mad at her master.

James was taken aback by the question, and the frown that accompanied it didn't help clarifying things.

"Well, you were **** for a few hours. I thought you might be hungry if you woke up with an empty stomach..."

He mummbled with a shrug.

Rem blinked slowly, as if she was computing her master's words in her head. Still, she couldn't make sense of it.

"You could've sent any other maid to do that."

Rem pointed out.

"Well, I just wanted to treat you myself. I mean, I was kind of the reason why you...lost consciousness, so...you know."

"...I see."

Rem stared up at James, who had ended the conversation with a slightly awkward grin.

'He is...such an odd master.'

For what little she knew about her, and all of the other characters in the world, it seemed like her master—James Gardner had a vastly different stance about them compared to the vast majority of the other prime humans.

It wasn't the most logical or even compatible attitude with them...and yet, Rem found her lips curling up.

"Thank you, Master."

"You're welcome."

James let out a sigh of relief.

Whatever conundrum Rem seemed to have, it looked like she took care of it.

"Well then, take some more rest for the evening. The others are taking care of your chores—"

James was about to get up and leave when a hand gripped the hem of his sleeve.

"Oh, I don't think so, Master. I still have one chore that I left hanging before I shut down..."