"So I see—another commission from Sir Qianye?"
Lycaon's low, steady voice—smooth as a finely tuned cello—came through the comms with a faint layer of static. At this moment, the butler sat upright in the center of Victoria Housekeeping's reception room, a place grand enough to pass for an art gallery.
Sunlight poured in through massive floor-to-ceiling windows, scattering bright patches across obsidian tiles polished so perfectly they reflected the ornate crystal chandelier overhead. The air carried a cold, orderly blend of premium wood wax, disinfectant, and sharp white florals—sterile elegance, disciplined to the bone.
"In that case," Lycaon continued, pausing for the briefest moment—Belle could almost hear the subtle twitch of his silver-gray wolf ears, the soft tap of gloved fingers against an armrest as he weighed priorities, "although we've just accepted another important commission…"
"But a request from Sir Qianye is clearly the highest priority. Victoria Housekeeping will, of course, commit our full strength."
The promise landed heavy through the speaker—solid, metallic in its certainty—making Belle instinctively straighten as if physically receiving the weight of it.
"Oh my~"
A second voice slid into the channel—soft, languid, and sweet as honey, like silk brushing the metal mesh of a microphone.
Rina lounged on a deep purple velvet sofa, her silver hair spilling like moonlight. With long, delicate fingers, she idly stroked two Bangboos spinning excitedly between her knees and the expensive carpet: the blond Dusaura, its single eye glinting with mischief, and the brown-haired Anastasha, hopping on one leg with all the determination in the world.
"To have the honor of serving Lord Qianye once more…" Rina's tone carried a syrupy intoxication, the ending lifting as if she were savoring the words. "Dusaura and Anastasha are thrilled beyond measure."
"Mm…!"
A tight, shaky voice suddenly stabbed into the channel—half sob, half tremble, and far too excited. That would be Corin, the maid.
She had buried herself deep into a sofa corner, trembling, clutching a worn teddy bear. Her dark-green twin-tails quivered with every shudder. Her pale face was flushed an unhealthy red, while Butler—unbothered—shook his head and continued making small pastries at the side.
Everyone from Victoria Housekeeping and their Bangboos was here—except Ellen, who was still suffering through a teacher dragging out class and looking like she'd rather die.
"So wonderful… Doctor Qianye still needs us… heehee…" Corin's voice turned cloyingly sweet, brimming with jittery fervor. "Corin is so happy… I want to rush to Doctor Qianye right now, solve all his troubles, and then tie Doctor Qianye to the bed as my reward… eheh… w—waaah!"
That catastrophic declaration hit the air like a bomb.
Back in the video store, Belle sucked in a sharp breath and jolted backward—clatter!—knocking several VHS cases off the shelf behind her.
Her eyes went wide, pupils blown huge with shock, as she looked desperately at Wise for help. Wise snapped his head up from the screen, glasses crooked on his face, wearing the expression of someone thinking, Not again.
"Uh—!"
Belle's voice jumped an octave, cracked with disbelief as she spoke into the mic. "Did I just hear something absolutely horrifying?!"
She swallowed hard. Her throat felt tight and dry, her heartbeat pounding like a drumline in her ribs.
"Cough—cough!"
Lycaon's urgent coughing immediately came through the comms, along with frantic fabric rustling, a muffled struggle-whimper, and a small "mmph" like someone had been—very quickly—stuffed with something.
"Apologies," Lycaon said, trying to recover his usual cool composure. Even so, there was a trace of breathlessness from moving too fast, and a resigned helplessness he couldn't quite hide. "We were… watching a horror film as leisure entertainment. Please pay it no mind."
Belle and Wise exchanged a look. Both could vividly imagine the chaos unfolding over at Victoria Housekeeping.
"R-right… sure," Belle said, accepting the excuse despite how paper-thin it was. Sweat prickled at her temples, and her breathing still wouldn't settle.
She thumped her chest hard a few times, inhaled greedily, then exhaled as if trying to purge poison from her lungs. She finally forced a relieved smile—stiff, but serviceable.
"Still, with you joining as backup, Qianye—and us—can relax a lot more."
Then, after a brief silence filled only with electrical hiss, Lycaon spoke again—deeper now, a hunter's curiosity laced into the calm.
"However… this caller's voice sounds strangely familiar." His pace slowed deliberately, each word crisp, intimate, unhurried. "And from your tone earlier, you seemed to have witnessed Victoria Housekeeping's 'cleaning' methods firsthand. Have we met before?"
"Huh?!"
Belle went rigid like she'd been hit with a stun baton. Her fingers clenched around the handset until her knuckles whitened. The color drained from her face—then rushed back in a wave of guilty heat.
She shot Wise a panicked look that screamed, What do I do?!
Wise sat up straight immediately, both hands on the console, expression locked into full crisis-management mode.
"Th-this… um… cough!" Belle cleared her throat, the sound dry as sandpaper. She forced her spine straight and tried to make her denial sound confident—then added a touch of offended indignation for armor.
"If we got your contact info from Qianye, then it's completely normal that we'd learn a bit more about you as well, right? And besides—" She raised her voice, sharpening it, trying to seize the initiative through sheer momentum. "Probing a client's identity like that—don't you think that's inappropriate?"
"Fair point," Lycaon replied, and this time there was a clear thread of near-pleased approval—followed by genuine apology, as if Belle's response had delighted him. "Apologies. That was my discourtesy. If you are trusted by Sir Qianye, you are hardly a shallow individual. Please forgive my earlier offense."
Belle and Wise both quietly exhaled.
"It's fine. I get it," Belle said, her tone loosening, even warming—as if speaking to an old acquaintance. "Honestly, Qianye is too naive. Sometimes I worry his kindness will be used against him. Lycaon, don't take it to heart."
"I'm relieved you understand," Lycaon said, the restrained pleasure in his voice almost visible—like you could picture his fluffy silver tail swishing happily behind him. Belle could even imagine Rina smiling knowingly in the background, and Corin nibbling a pastry in innocent confusion.
"Alright then," Belle said, eager to end this heart-stopping call while she still could. "Our coordinates are—if there's nothing else, then we'll—"
"Wait—this caller," Lycaon cut in, a faint urgency slipping into his voice as he interrupted her.
"Hm?" Belle paused, finger hovering a few centimeters above the hang-up button. "Is something wrong? Or do you still have questions?"
As she turned her head to look at Wise, her elbow caught on a pile of clutter. She stumbled—and her elbow slammed hard into the edge of Wise's console… right onto the external comms box linked to the Cunning Hares channel, its red indicator light blinking.
BZZZZ—!!!
A shriek like an air-raid siren detonated inside the cramped video store. The volume on the Cunning Hares channel was instantly blasted to maximum.
The sound hit like a physical shockwave. Empty cans and little decorations on the counter jittered and rattled. Even the table vibrated. Wise nearly launched out of his chair, fumbling for his headset and the volume slider.
Then Nicole's signature, overconfident big voice—now amplified like it had been strapped to a stadium loudspeaker—thundered through every corner of the shop. It was so loud and so clear it even overwhelmed the handset in Belle's grip:
"Heh heh! Qianye contacted us this time instead of that fancy-schmancy Victoria Housekeeping—so obviously we're the ones he trusts more!"
"Anby! Billy! Nekomata! Get ready! I'm reimbursing all the logistics costs! We're taking this chance to make sure Qianye's heart only has room for the Cunning Hares—drive every last one of those maids and butlers out of his life!"
"Oho! Long live Boss Nicole!!!"
"Mm. Nicole's speech has momentum. Anby agrees."
"Mew! Nekomata wants tasty fish as payment, mew!"
The four of them rode their "victory declaration" for a while before finally noticing the dead silence on Wise's end—broken only by relentless, deafening background noise.
After a suffocating beat, Nicole's voice returned, confused, practically eating the mic.
"Hey, Proxy, why aren't you talking? Is your signal bad or something?"
"Anby thinks," Anby said coolly—somehow piercing through the chaos even at this ridiculous volume—"the next-door company changed their password again. It's Nicole's fault. She refuses to pay for our own internet line."
"What?!" Nicole yelped like a cat whose tail got stepped on, voice spiking with mortified outrage. "It's obviously because those cheapskates next door are stingy! They won't even help cover a tiny bit of the bill! Ugh—"
Before she could finish, another voice—icy, elegant, and razor-sharp—slipped in like a silver needle, cutting clean through the noise and transmitting clearly to the Cunning Hares, the video store, and Belle's handset all at once.
Rina.
"I see," Rina said, her tone lofty and disdainfully certain. "So Sir Qianye believes in strength through numbers. That would explain why he invited both Victoria Housekeeping—New Eridu's premium standard—and, comparatively speaking… the Cunning Hares."
She pronounced comparatively speaking with exquisite clarity, packing the words with a crushing amount of mockery.
"Who the hell—hey, wait!" Nicole's voice flipped from offended to utterly scandalized in a heartbeat. "It's you guys! And that voice—don't tell me it's that shameless, busty head maid?!"
Rina gave a very short laugh—cold, clipped, and full of battle intent.
"Oh, so even after witnessing Victoria Housekeeping's exemplary professionalism last time, the Cunning Hares still persist with such… adorably crude nicknames. How unfortunate." Her voice dropped to a frostbite chill, each word sharpened to a cutting edge. "It seems that even as a member of Victoria Housekeeping—who strives for perfection—I cannot transmit proper refinement to those lacking basic aesthetic sense."
"Enough with the mouth," Anby said, her voice like a drawn blade, slicing through the chatter with pure, cold decisiveness. "Let's settle this with strength."
It wasn't loud. Somehow it didn't need to be. The words stamped themselves onto everyone's nerves.
"Hehe," Rina replied with equal chill, dangerous and calm. "Precisely. Miss Anby—last time, we held back for Lord Qianye's sake."
Her voice rose, sharp as a verdict.
"This time, even if Lord Qianye begs on your behalf, Victoria Housekeeping will not show mercy again."
"Let's use this chance to settle our old grudges—and debts—all at once!!!"
Rina and Nicole roared in unison across the tangled channels, like two violent bolts of lightning slamming together in the cramped, echoing video store.
A war with no bullets ignited instantly, scorching the air. The sound waves made the movie posters on the wall shudder and flutter.
Belle and Wise stood behind the trashed counter, ears still ringing, staring at the equipment—indicator lights going berserk—while the comms spat out enough hostility to make the air taste like gunpowder.
Their mouths opened.
No words came.
Only the shared, horrified look of: We're so screwed.
After a moment, Wise reached out and patted Belle's shoulder.
"It's fine," he said, dead calm. "At least Qianye won't blame me, because it was you—OW—HEY! My waist! Don't twist my waist!"
"Brother! You smug disaster! Divine punishment!!!"
Inside the Hollow—
"Qianye, why did your cowlick pop up and then droop again?" Koleda asked anxiously.
Qianye looked completely baffled.
"…No idea. I just feel cold all over." He touched the limp cowlick on his head, muttering. "Weird. I had Belle call for backup already, didn't I?"
He rummaged through his bag and pulled out several vials, handing them around.
"Huh? Melon flavor again?" Grace frowned. "I mean, I can tolerate it, but why is it always this flavor?"
"Come on, Grace, don't fuss about taste," Ben said, carefully returning his empty vial to Qianye. He couldn't help asking, "Doctor Qianye, how many of these did you bring? If we reimburse you, how much do we owe?"
"Ben, don't worry about it." Qianye shook his head. "It's just a hassle to make right now, not actually expensive."
He unzipped his bag and peeked inside again.
"Let's see… counting what we already drank… I've still got about three hundred vials."
"How many?!" everyone blurted out.
"Three hundred." Qianye nodded earnestly. "Relax, it's not heavy. Even though I'm just a doctor and I don't have your kind of strength, carrying these is easy for me—doesn't even weigh as much as a bag of rice."
Anton stared at him in silence for a moment, then spoke carefully.
"Qianye, little bro… I gotta ask you something. Don't get mad."
"Go on?"
"…Do you have, like… an 'I'm terrified of running out of potions' disorder?"
"…That's called being prepared," Qianye said flatly.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 32
Uma Musume: From Beginner 26
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