The next day, Petra went out early.
She spent the morning reading at the library, then made a trip to a local alchemy shop, and returned to the inn around noon.
Petra left the two girls at home to watch over the unconscious Rose and take care of the centipede.
Although Mell had no objections, Wind seemed to have a very noble background, so her resistance was slightly stronger. Unlike Mell, who had sold herself, Wind was actually a criminal slave, meaning that she was sold unwillingly.
Because of the contract, she didn't run away, but she was still resistant to working around the house.
When Petra returned, Mell was changing the bandages for the unconscious Rose, and Wind was organizing the list of supplies that Petra needed to buy.
Petra had bought some cheap medicine to help Rose recover from the injuries she had accumulated over the long period of abuse.
As for Wind…
Although Petra didn't know Wind's true background, she seemed to be very good at paperwork, so she probably had some relationship with an official.
Wind was about one head taller than Petra, and both Rose and Mell were about double her size.
Although Petra's dream of an all girls maid harem was destroyed, she could still punish the brat who ruined it.
After returning, Petra pulled out a new set of clothes for the three, uh, two and a half girls.
Petra gave Wind a short silver dress, and Mell a simple white shirt with pants.
As for Rose...
The two girls looked at the green haired devil. The little lolita was holding up frilly red lingerie and a short-skirted maid dress. The skirt was just right to make the little brat constantly worry about whether his underwear was showing.
The two girls could practically feel the malice coming from the little green haired girl.
As for his 'other clothes', Petra fed everything else to the centipede.
After stuffing the cat boy into the clothes, Petra grinned sadistically.
As if on queue, the cat boy started to wake.
The first thing 'Rose' saw when he opened his eyes were a pair of bright and childish eyes.
His mind flashed back to the karate chop right before he blacked out. On instinct, he jumped up and stepped back.
His red eyes flashed with a ferocious light, quickly looking around.
Petra smiled.
"Hello, my little Rose, you're looking cute as always~"
Rose roared, "What Rose! I'm a boy! A boy you hear!"
"Hehehe~ I know, who do you think changed your clothes~"
Petra grinned, watching Rose look down in shock.
The cat boy's face flushed red.
In a rage, Rose raised his hand and tore the maid's uniform apart.
What was left made him feel like he wanted to die. Bright red lingerie, covering all of his naughty bits, even the top two.
His face flushed even more red, but before he could tear it apart, he heard Petra's voice. "That's the last thing you have to wear. If you tear it apart, you'll have to run around naked! Nyahahaha!" Her voice was like a devil's whisper.
He snapped his gaze to the little child, teetering between attacking her and smashing his head into the wall.
Petra grinned.
She held up a second maid uniform.
"Want it~?"
Rose gritted his teeth.
His crimson eyes seemed to swim with an even darker red.
"OH, by the way, I poisoned you. You'll fall unconscious in half an hour, so don't run away. Petra smiled, knowing exactly what his next move was going to be.
Rose felt dizzy.
He felt like this might be worse than the prison.
Reluctantly, he took the maid outfit and put it on.
While fiddling with the unusually high skirt, he couldn't help but complain. "Why is the skirt so short... it doesn't cover anything."
Petra snickered.
She felt like she was awakening something.
"OK, sit down, tell me, who are you?"
Rose frowned. "First, how did you take me out of the black market? They shouldn't have let me go, so who are you?"
Petra tilted her head. "They just gave you to me. I paid, and they handed you over. What do you mean?"
Rose's frown deepened. "I wasn't supposed to be sold. How did you buy me?"
Petra thought to herself, 'It sounds like that woman might have done something bad without thinking. This might bring trouble.'
"It doesn't matter, just tell me about the trouble that's coming."
Rose looked at her.
"If possible, you should leave Sevensen as quickly as possible."
Petra blinked. "Why?"
"The man who had me imprisoned has strong connections to the City Lord's Mansion. If he learns I'm gone, he might use the city guard to find me. As for you, you'll definitely be implicated."
Petra puffed up her cheeks. "Why is it so much trouble to buy a cute cat girl?"
Rose flew into a rage, "What was that! Who asked you to buy me! And I'm a boy, a boy!!"
Petra clicked her tongue. "Yes yes, OK maid boy, I hear you~"
Rose felt his vision darken.
"Who is this brat! Where are her parents!"
Petra laughed. "I'm all you got, nyahahaha!"
Rose turned red.
Petra shook her head. There's actually a very easy solution to this situation. Petra looked at the cute red haired maid boy. His red hair reached his shoulders, the cat ears stood tall on his head, and the long red tail swayed back and forth beneath the skirt.
'Are you sure this isn't a girl?'
'It's a good thing I made 'that thing' earlier.'
Petra climbed up on the bed and stood tall like a great hero.
Rose looked at the little fool in confusion.
Petra did a twirl, hopped into the air, and roared, "Gender Chop!"
Her little hand came crashing down. Although it only landed with the ferocity of a birthday-wrapping paper tube, the following scene made Rose feel as if she was struck by a train.
Yes, that one was not a mistake. 'She' felt like she was struck by a train.
Rose felt a cool wave pass through her body, radiating from the great chop. A strange itch spread, and his body began to change. He felt his line of sight drop slightly, his arms became... well they didn't change. His hair lengthened to his waist and his skin... well that didn't change much either, but his voice was raised a pitch! Following the very few changes to his body, the sudden fullness of the maid dress, especially the chest area, seemed to set off an explosion in his mind!
Mell and Wind watched from the side, stunned at the suddenly more feminine little Rose.
Who was this little girl!
What was this witchcraft!
"You you you! What did you do! Cha-change me back! Ah ah ah!"
Rose felt like her world was spinning.
Where did these twin peaks come from!
Where did his manly bits go!
Why did he ask for this?
Ah ah ah!
Petra nodded her head. A job well done!
It was a good thing too. That poison didn't have a 100% success rate. There was a small chance he would have become a King Kong Barbie.
With an evil smile, Petra gave her judgment. "From now on, you'll work for me! If one day you pay off your debts, I'll return you to normal!"
Rose wanted to cry. "What debt!"
"The debt of ruining my all girls maid harem!!"
Petra stomped her little foot.
Rose collapsed, realizing for the first time that this little girl was just a demon in human skin.
Mell and Wind kept their mouths tightly shut.
They didn't want to provoke this little monster.
"OK! Next course of action! Uh, nothing!"
Petra mumbled to herself.
"Were not leaving for a few more days, so I'll give you a list. You go with the girls and buy all the stuff I need. Don't cause trouble!" The little girl warned.
Rose was defeated.
What could she do?
Ah, what a pitiful life.
-
Petra returned to the library to continue reading. She spent four more days reading through all the miscellaneous information on the second floor before heading to the third floor and looking through the countless records, legends, and unfinished inventions.
Petra made sure to memorise all the incomplete maps and unfinished spell scrolls.
After spending so many days reading, Petra realised that she actually had an eidetic memory.
Petra flipped through a booklet on a goblin flying device called the Hindenburg. There was a cute little note that told the sad story of a goblin engineer who died in a high-altitude explosion... no relation.
Petra found designs for what looked like a high elven style spaceship. Unfortunately, any attempts to recreate it in the current era would cause the passengers to die of suffocation after a certain speed, yes that's right, speed, not height. They still had a long way to go...
Petra looked at failed biological experiments, and successful biological experiments. Both ended in thousands of deaths.
Petra saw self harming weapons, and self-replicating weapons.
The most interesting thing Petra found was the design for an inverted mage tower. Unlike normal mage towers, the inverted design had one carve out the earth and dig downwards. This made the mage tower susceptible to many underground attacks, but it also removed the limit on the number of floors.
Although it was a cool idea, since it appeared here, there must have been a snag. Petra flipped through the notes and found the outcome for the deep pit that pretended to be a mage tower. Apparently, after the inverted mage tower reached twenty floors, it encountered a spirit vein, overloaded, and destroyed a mountain in a violent explosion. These notes seemed to imply that the inverted mage tower was still there, just in a different form. It was now called the Bottomless Volcano, a deep pit filled with active volcanoes and seemingly no end.
Petra thought, 'Why did it become deeper?'
She shook her little head. 'There must be a secret here. Something really interesting... but really troublesome.'
Petra pursed her lips.
She felt like she was going to develop schizophrenia if she kept balancing 'curiosity" with 'caution'.
Petra continued reading into the night.
Old Owls didn't actually close down at night, it was just that the staff changed. Petra liked the scholarly gnome, but the black cloaked woman who worked the night shifts kind of scared her.
Petra was on the third floor, so she finally had access to the big circular window in front of the shop.
There was a little windowsill that one could sit on, looking out the window with one foot raised and a book in hand, looking like a complete baddie to those outside.
The view was pretty good too.
There were quite a number of three-story buildings in Sevensen, but not enough to ruin the skyline.
Petra sat on the windowsill, one leg raised, looking like a badass and peering into the night.
She was reading the treasured book of the Old Owl Library.
This book describes the life of a nameless old man. In it, it told the story of how a lonely old man singlehandedly created the Cross Continent.
That's right, not colonized it, he created it, like from nothing.
This old man wasn't just a Cultivator, he was also a Mage. Unlike cultivators, mages tended to be more squishy and die a lot sooner. If one were to ask who was more powerful, most people would be unable to answer. Despite mages not living as long and dying at the slightest breeze, mages were able to perform miracles that far outshone most cultivators.
Cultivators spent their lives accumulating knowledge and experience. Unlike those Immortals, Mages didn't have hundreds of years to figure everything out from scratch. Although mages could extend their lives, it never reached the level of the cultivators. Most mages had long Inheritances that were the accumulation of many generations.
This old man was not one of them.
He was a lunatic who practiced both cultivation and mage craft.
We have to remind you here that the two are not compatible. At least, that's what the current general opinion is. The ancient cultivation methods were mostly unknown, but according to the current cultivation methods, it was impossible to mix the two.
Anyways, in the story, we follow the nameless old man's battle with an indescribable monster. That's how the book described it 'an indescribable amalgamation of chaotic manifestations distorted into a tangible form'.
The old man defeats the indescribable monster and 'Weaves Chaos into Order'. He used the indescribable monster's body as the foundation of the Cross Continent.
Petra chuckled.
"No wonder people call this book nonsense. If it were true, weren't we living on that monster's head? Although the old man 'wove' that monster into 'order', who's to say such a creature couldn't unweave itself after the old man died."
Petra shook her head.
"I really don't want to believe such a thing either."
*Click~*
'Hmm? What was that?'
Petra looked up.
She felt like she had heard a click.
In this silent library, such a thing was hard to miss.
When Petra looked up, she was stunned.
'What was that?'
The camera pans over to the inconspicuous flight of stairs leading up.
'Wasn't this already the third floor?'
'Why did the mysterious fourth floor appear so easily?'
Petra frowned.
She suddenly felt like she could smell that same annoying smell.
'Fate...'
Petra wanted to leave, but the spot where the stairs appeared... wasn't that the stairs leading down?'
She looked down at the stupid book that seemed to be the cause. Should she just burn it?
Petra sighed.
It was best to get this over with.