"Who's there?"
Elena's voice had barely died away before Lilith looked over curiously.
"What's the matter?"
By now the black shadow had long since vanished; it seemed to have gone into hiding.
Elena turned back and looked at Lilith, hesitating, then in the end shook her head.
"It's nothing."
She did not know who the other party was, but there was something familiar about the way that shadow had concealed itself — and brief as the glimpse had been, she had made out the head-to-toe black.
Her instinct said it might be someone from her own Organization. She just did not understand why: she had taken the contract already, so why send another person?
She could not work it out, but she had no intention of letting anyone steal her job. Lilith was her target.
Seeing that Elena was holding something back, Lilith did not press her further.
"I see... Never mind then. We're here~"
As she finished speaking, the carriage slowed and gradually came to a stop.
Elena looked out through the window at an entirely ordinary building.
But compared with most of the other timber buildings in this town, this one, built of sturdier stone, stood out considerably.
The building was heavily guarded at its entrance and looked like somewhere important. A council hall, perhaps?
That was Elena's guess; it was hard to imagine what else it could be.
"Come along, time to get down~"
Lilith opened the compartment door and urged Elena on.
"I know..."
Elena obediently got out of the carriage with her.
But the moment her feet touched the ground, that gaze appeared again.
The one spying on her still hadn't left?
Elena instinctively started to look for the direction it came from, but this time she held back; she did not want to startle her quarry.
Since the little spy had delivered themselves a second time, she intended to root them out properly.
There was a more pressing problem first, though: whether Lilith would let her move around freely.
Elena's hand went to the collar at her throat. With this thing on her, Lilith should agree, shouldn't she?
Thinking that, Elena called out to Lilith.
"Um, Master... could I not come along? I'd like to look around nearby."
There was a trace of embarrassment in her voice. She had really thrown herself into it, calling Lilith "Master" unprompted.
Lilith looked at her in puzzlement, and after a short silence, agreed after all.
"Hm? Mm — very well, you may~ Seeing as my little maid called me Master so nicely~"
"Then, thank you, Master..."
Elena's cheeks reddened faintly; it was plain that those two "Master"s had cost her considerable effort.
"Do remember not to go too far, though~ Because if I can't sense where you are..."
Lilith's face darkened abruptly as she spoke.
"I don't need to spell out what happens next, do I~?"
"Eep! I-I know!"
Once again Lilith's threat startled Elena into a flinch.
How does this old hag know nothing but threatening people every single day! Is she really that possessive? Dammit.
Elena silently condemned Lilith in her head.
"Mm-hm~ Good girl~"
At Elena's answer, Lilith put her smile back on and produced a small purse, which she handed over.
"Here's some pocket money. If you're going to look around, look around properly~"
Elena took the purse and gave it a light heft. It seemed a generous amount, and from the sound of it the contents were all gold coins.
She's actually loaded, hey! This woman.
If she had that kind of money, who would be willing to be a killer and hang their life off the point of a blade?
She certainly would not have failed her very first contract and ended up like this.
At the thought, Elena got angrier still, and silently condemned every rich person alive!
Curse them as she might inwardly, though, on the outside she still had to look like an obedient girl.
"Thank you."
Even if Elena's tone sounded thoroughly grudging.
"Mm-hm~ See you later. Don't get so absorbed in playing that you forget your Master~"
With that, Lilith headed for the council hall.
Elena watched her back until she had gone inside and the door had closed, and only then did she move again.
"Haah... how stifling! When is this kind of life ever going to end!"
Elena muttered her complaint, and then melted into the nearby crowd.
Meanwhile, on the roof of a house nearby, a killer in a skintight black outfit with a petite build was puzzled.
She had definitely been watching the maid beside the lord the whole time, and yet the moment that maid entered the crowd it was as though she had vanished.
"Strange... where on earth did she go? That maid really did look like Senior..."
From beneath the black came a soft, girlish voice.
So this tiny killer was in fact a girl?
"But how could Senior ever be willing to lower herself into being a maid?"
The girl muttered to herself.
And at that moment she did not notice in the slightest that the young maid she had been spying on had already appeared behind her.
"Were you looking for me~?"
As Elena spoke she pinned the girl down against the roof tiles, her knee braced at the small of her back, her right hand holding a fruit knife to her throat.
She had moved so fast that the girl had no chance to react at all, and the threat of the blade left her afraid to make any move.
As for where the fruit knife had come from... Elena had swiped it off a fruit stall in passing, naturally!
But... the girl's next words left Elena frozen.
"That voice... um, is that Senior Elena?"
The girl's voice reached Elena's ears.
That voice was extremely familiar to her, and so was being called Senior...
A name surfaced in her mind. Vier.
Vier was a comrade who had joined the Organization one day after her; they had trained together and lived together.
She was only one day ahead of Vier, and yet Vier had always liked calling her Senior.
But as she recalled, hadn't Vier taken a beginner contract at the same time as her, the two of them going off to complete their own jobs separately?
"Vier? Is that you?"
As Elena asked it, her arm paused, and then she put the fruit knife away and released her.
Vier promptly wriggled free and turned around to look at Elena.
"Ah! It really is Senior!"
Vier's eyes lit up and she made to throw herself into Elena's arms, only to be stopped by a hand.
"All right, all right, it's me. Settle down."
Elena scratched her head with her other hand. So after all that it was one of her own?
"Vier, what are you doing here? Weren't you off doing a contract too?"
"Contract? I finished that ages ago?"
Vier seemed puzzled by the question instead, and asked one back.
"You're the one who still hadn't come back after nearly a whole week, Senior, so I came looking for you."
"A week..."
That was right! Only now did it come back to Elena: the journey alone had taken her several days, and adding the days spent at Lilith's, it came to eight in total.
It seemed two punishments from Lilith had been enough to make her lose track of how much time had passed. How miserable.
"Oh, Senior, I've been wanting to ask this whole time — what is that maid outfit you're wearing...?"
"Eh?"