The next morning, in Lilith's bedroom.
After the misery of the night before, Elena woke lying face down on the bed.
Not because she liked sleeping on her stomach, but because there was no possible way she could have fallen asleep any other way.
She had nothing on either; Lilith had confiscated every piece of her clothing on the grounds that it might conceal hidden weapons.
The backside the quilt did not cover was an especially vivid red, nowhere near a normal skin tone, and there were even conspicuous palm prints on it.
"Sss... it hurts... That old hag, hitting that hard!"
"Dammit... I'm paying every bit of this back sooner or later!"
Elena squirmed her way upright, not daring to let her backside touch the bed at all.
Just then Lilith opened the door and came back in, carrying a thin black-and-white fabric that appeared to be clothing.
Sitting on top of it was a pair of black low-heeled shoes that looked brand new, freshly unboxed.
"And who was my cute little maid saying she'd pay back~?"
"You...! Why don't you knock before you come in!"
Elena shrank hastily into the corner, trembling as she watched Lilith.
"This is my house. Do I have any need to knock?"
"Or is my little maid doing something strange behind her Master's back?"
"I am not! And I don't have a single thing on me — what could I possibly be doing!"
Elena's cheeks flushed faintly, but she forced her expression into an angry one and glared at Lilith.
Lilith only laughed softly and set the clothing down at the edge of the bed.
"Good~ These are your work clothes. Once you've changed, go and clean. Nobody's given this house a proper cleaning in a very long time."
Having said her piece, Lilith paid Elena no further attention and turned to leave the room.
Just before she went out, Lilith looked back as though she had suddenly remembered something, and let a smile show.
"Oh, and the cleaning supplies are in the storeroom. Remember to clean up the traces you left last night too~"
With that, Lilith walked out of the room and shut the door.
Leaving Elena alone, staring at a maid outfit so thin, so nearly incapable of covering anything, that it was barely distinguishable from lingerie!
She stepped over and pinched it up with her right hand. The texture was silky and soft — this was the expensive sort of fabric.
It was just that the outfit exposed everything except the places that were not supposed to be exposed.
"That pervert, that sadist, that vampire hag!"
Unfortunately, all Elena could do was curse Lilith in private; after all, she was now nothing more than a little maid who had been killed at her own game.
But however embarrassed she was, however unwilling, she could not exactly go without wearing it.
"Wh-who in the world designed this thing?! This is a crime, an absolute crime! Dammit..."
In the end Elena obediently put the maid outfit on, since she had no choice.
Her long grey-white hair against the black and white of the uniform had a beauty all its own, and her fully bared navel and slender waist lent Elena an added trace of allure.
The hem barely covered her backside, forcing her to keep reaching down to tug it lower, and the black that flickered in and out of sight beneath only made it more tantalizing.
A thin layer of black silk covered her thighs, tracing the line of Elena's legs perfectly.
"Dammit... dammit! Sooner or later, sooner or later I'm paying back every bit of this humiliation!"
Standing before the full-length mirror, Elena looked at her own shameful reflection and could only keep spitting out threats to cover her embarrassment.
It took her a long time to steel herself before she dared step out of the room, and she made her uneasy way to the storeroom.
Once there, Elena quickly spotted a broom and a dustpan in one corner.
Lying with them was the black cloak she had left behind in the storeroom the night before.
There was still some damp around it, and after a night lying there the cloak had developed a mildewy stink.
Elena went over and pinched it up with distaste, her small hand slowly lifting the cloak into the air.
A bottle of pale red liquid tumbled out of the cloak's inner pocket. There was no label of any kind on it, and it was very well sealed.
"Hm? What's this...?"
Puzzled, Elena bent down to look.
Only when she got a proper look at the bottle did it suddenly come back to her — wasn't this the Plan B she had prepared for the assassination!
She picked the bottle up, examined it closely, then opened the cap and gave it a light sniff. The liquid inside had color but no odor.
Now she was certain: this was the poison she had brought with her, the one called Bloodclot.
Within 10 minutes of being swallowed, this drug congealed every drop of blood in the body, causing circulatory collapse, starving the whole body of blood and oxygen, until the heart finally stopped and the victim died.
Even in the world of poisons this one was viciously cruel, and Elena had paid a heavy price for it on the black market.
It was only that the infiltration last night had gone so smoothly that she had all but forgotten the bottle existed.
"That's right! If stabbing her won't work... then poisoning her should be fine, shouldn't it?!"
The idea sprang into Elena's head, and as Lilith's maid there could hardly be anything easier for her to arrange.
All she had to do was work out when Lilith usually ate and drank, and then let her guard down bit by bit.
Then, without Lilith ever noticing, she would mix this bottle into her food or her tea, and finally she would get to watch Lilith's face in her last agonized moments.
Elena was already unable to stop herself picturing the scene after a successful kill, standing over Lilith in a pose of victory.
At the thought, Elena tightened her grip on the vial, the corners of her mouth curling upward.
"This time... this time it definitely works!" she muttered to herself confidently.
But right away she ran into her first difficulty: the maid outfit she had on did not have a single pocket to hide the poison in.
So she had to find somewhere safe to stash the drug first, somewhere it would not be discovered.
Elena thought it over for a long while and finally decided to hide it right here — Lilith probably rarely came to this storeroom, so perhaps it was the safest place there was.
Decision made, she managed to find a cardboard box in the corner of the storeroom, and the box was full of soil: the perfect place to bury the drug!
Elena did not hesitate for a moment. She took up the little trowel lying nearby, dug the soil open, buried the vial inside, and then patted the soil flat again.
"There's no way she finds it now. Heh heh~ Just you wait, you vampire hag!"
She put the lid back on the box and planted her hands on her hips, the picture of certain victory.
But at that very moment Lilith appeared in the storeroom, without Elena having any idea when — and she had already come up right behind her.
Lilith leaned in beside Elena's ear, blew on it gently, and then spoke with a smile.
"Mm~? What is it that nobody's going to find?"
"Eeep—!"
Elena jumped out of her skin and spun around in a panic, instinctively blocking the scene of her own crime.
"Y-you... how do you keep appearing out of nowhere!"
Hearing this, Lilith put on a face of complete innocence.
"I knocked properly this time. It was you who didn't hear it, Elena. Besides..."
She pressed in close in front of Elena and reached out to tilt her chin up with her right hand.
"What did my little maid just call me? Was last night's punishment not enough — is your backside itching again~?"
"Ngh!"
Elena instinctively covered her backside, her cheeks flushing faintly, her voice going soft.
"M-Master! Is that better..."
Only then did Lilith nod in satisfaction and let go.
"That's more like it. Do try to remember your position next time, my lit~tle~ maid~"
"I-I know! You talk too much..."
Elena still looked thoroughly unconvinced, but fortunately Lilith did not make much of it.
She did, however, lean in close to Elena again, and pointed at the box behind her.
"So then~ Can you tell your Master now what my little maid is hiding~?"
Elena jumped again, waving her hands frantically and turning her face away, not daring to meet Lilith's eyes.
"Ngh! What? Hiding what? I wouldn't know..."
Even as Elena said it, her body was honestly planted in front of the cardboard box behind her.
Lilith tried to lean over for a look, and Elena blocked her with her body just in time, not daring to give her the slightest glimpse.
"All right, all right~ It seems my little maid has her little secrets. If you're that unwilling to let your Master see, then never mind."
Lilith took a step back, a flicker of amusement crossing her face, and in the end let Elena off.
"Now then, to business. When you've finished in here, go up to the second floor. The second-to-last room is the one set aside for you, so clean it well~"
With that Lilith waved and left, but she had barely reached the doorway before she stopped, turning her head to glance at the box behind Elena.
"Oh, and don't go moving things around in the storeroom... It would be such a nuisance if something couldn't be found later."