Sora Kurusu, The First Artificier

The rain heavily pours down on the roof above, which distracts me from totally planning out my next move.

"Since I've settled down, what should I do next?" I said. The black cat girl that I've been given a while back, bursts through my door.

"Master, I'm hungry..." She pouted. And my stomach growled as well.

"Very well, Let's go down and see if Granny made something..." I grab my jacket and placed it loosely on my shoulders. My little slave girl following after my tracks.

And we walked into something that we made me wish we were still upstairs. The entirety of the first floor was sunk beneath a small pool of water, the tables and chairs slowly moving sideways. A little girl in brown hair was attempting to stay dry on one of the tables.

"Sorani!" Tessa called out.

"Oi Tessa! What do you think you are doing?" I called back "Well, Water started to leak into the house, so I did my best to try and stay dry..." She said.

I sigh.

"Fine. Let me help you out." I said as I threw off my jacket to my slave and plunged my b.a.r.e feet into the thick muddy surface beneath me, I trudged towards the stranded little girl, while my little slave was looking out on me from the distance. I looked at her and said.

"Check the upper rooms! If any water leaks from the ceilings, you better tell me!" I said as I pointed up the staircase, without hesitation, she simply ran up.

I trudged my legs again through the brown water, closing my distance between Tessa and I. And then finally I managed to get close enough to her to help her off the table.

"Alright, On my shoulders..." I said. Turning my back towards her. "w-What?!" She said "C'mon! We can't lose time here!" And then the table rocked a bit, sending her flying towards me. But I catched her without falling down.

"Hold tight..." I said as I trudged through the muddy water, my progression towards the god forsaken staircase forgone by a child who's mother is nowhere to be seen.

'Dammit...' I thought. But I knew that this wasn't the worst this child has ever been through. Nor has this been mine.

"We're almost there!" I said, the waves of the small pool slowly crashing towards my sides. Throwing me off-balance. But then something happened.

A rope was thrown towards me, and in-front of me. My little slave tying the other end of it tightly around a post near the staircase. "Grab on Master!"

I pulled both my hands off Tessa's legs, but she held on tightly around me. And using the end of the rope my little slave threw, I grabbed tight hold and pulled as I made my march.

And then I reached the first step of the stairs.

"I'm sorry that I made you go through that stuff, Mommy did say that this building was growing old..." Tessa said.

"It's alright, we're free living tenants. The best we could do is help prevent the house' lords daughter to get sick..." I said. And Tessa blushes at me.

"w-What? I'm not a nobleman's daughter!" she objects "But you ARE a landlord's daughter, are you not?" I said. She blushes feverishly.

"Mmmm. What about me?" The little cat girl beside me let out a pout.

"Well, you let's just say that to me, you're the best I can have as close to a daughter..." I said. She looks away from my gaze. "But isn't she your slave?" Tessa asks.

"Well she is, I simply picked her out because-" I cut myself from that sentence "-Because she reminds a lot of someone I've met before..." the cat next to me looks back at me with stoic eyes.

'Have you really met someone who looks a lot like a 9-year old like me before?' she said telepathically. 'Yes, and she left quite an impression on me...'

"So, shall we all get dried up, I've got a method to do it with..." I said. Tessa looked puzzled. "Dry up? Like as in forcefully dry my wet clothes?" she looks down on her plaid dress and touches the wet parts of it.

"Yes, there is a way for me to dry clothes even in a weather like this..." I said. I grabbed an old broom from underneath the bed, the hairy end isn't as hairy as the time it used to served rooms, and it was just a stubby end with a few prickly pieces of hay.

I placed broom on an empty lantern hook on the wall, and a the prickly end on the top part of the windowsill.

"And now for the drying part..." I looked at Tessa and my little slave girl, whose clothes were dampened for the time being as they wore it. "Eh?" they both said "That's right. You can't dry clothes..." I said as I raised my hands out.

"If they're still on the you!" I smiled evilly, and the girls both screamed as they hugged each other. "y-You wouldn't dare!" they said in unison "I'm afraid that both of you might end up sick, your nudity is not as relevant as the amount of responsibility that'll be imposed onto me if either of you get sick..." I said calmly.

They both began quivering, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't from their damp clothes. "What's going on here?" A woman said as she opens the door, she finds the scene of startled girls on the bed and a teenager with his hands out stretched towards them. "Mama!" "Miss Landlord!" the girls jumped from the bed and ran behind the legs of the woman.

"What were you about to do to them?" she asked. I placed my hands inside my pockets.

"Well, I was about to undress them so that they can changed out of their wet clothing..." I said "If they weren't gonna do it, they'd probably get sick the next morning..." She eyed me suspiciously, and then said: "Okay, but how are you suppose to dry things in this kind of weather?" she asked me.

"That broom stick over there, I've properly lay'd it out so that their clothes can dry in this kind of weather..." she looked at me with a puzzled expression, but she then asked once more: "How is it suppose to dry clothes?"

"You simply hang them on the broom stick, and then let time pass by..." I respond. She looks puzzled and suspicious about me.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it. But I'll be the one helping to change these girls out of their clothes..."

Both the girls behind her sighed with utmost relief, as if they've just escaped divine judgement...