“You can’t be serious about keeping her around,” Lude spoke, his voice thick with exasperation that was slowly turning into frustration towards the new recruit.

It’s not that he didn’t like the girl, well, he didn’t, but it was more than that. He had run as much of a background check as his current predicament allowed and hadn’t found anything. Not as in ‘nothing of interest’ but rather absolutely nothing, as if his woman had suddenly appeared out of nowhere one day. He had two theories in this regard, neither good, but one slightly less of a threat to June and himself than the other.

This Naomi had either been raised in isolation from society, which was something cults and illegal magictech guilds sometimes did, or her past had been purposefully erased to facilitate her integration within the Avignon manor.

From what June had told him, and from what little the maid in question had let slip, the former seemed much more likely. She often mentioned terms neither he nor June understood, like a ‘microwave’ or ‘hoover’, and with her lack of magical attunement Lude did speculate that she’d been kicked out by her family for incompetence.

“You speak as if you’re not the one currently misusing our surveillance cameras to spy on her,” June replied with a smirk.

She was laying in a very un-ladylike manner on one of the sofas in her room, a magazine on sword designs held open by her outstretched arms above her head.

Lude promptly collapsed the four-panel leather and glass set of screens he’d been using to spy on Naomi. He put the thick box-like set of panels into their dedicated cylindrical holster to let the leather get re-infused with refined mana. This portable surveillance device had been a hassle to steal, but it had been the best time investment Lude had made in the past years. With a little tweaking to the composition of the mana-oil, he could increase its range to pick up signals from recording stones miles away. Of course, when doing so the thing sucked up oil like there was no tomorrow, but it made breaking into certain places much, much, easier. And if Lude had to look like an idiot, walking around with half a dozen refined mana canisters, then be it.

“And now you’re pretending that you haven’t been spying.” June continued, her attention almost solely devoted to the fold-out life-size poster of some slick sword. 

“I just don’t see the point of her being here. What if she disrupts our plans?”

“What if some girl with no magic affinity or combat skills disrupts the plans we’ve been preparing? Gods, Lude, what if?” June chuckled.

“She knew about Cedar and Harvard. And I, or you for that matter, have yet to come up with a plausible explanations as to how she came across that knowledge.”

June did not reply, telling Lude all he needed to know about him having a point.

“All I’m saying is that you need to keep a closer eye on her. We-” he quickly corrected himself, “we need to keep a closer eye on her.”

“I did make sure she was sleeping properly yesterday night, and the night before that.” June innocently replied.

Lude took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“What is it that you like so much about her anyway? She is bad at her job, and not even that pretty.”

“You say, as if those are the only important qualities someone could have,” June said as she lazily flipped through her magazine.

"Okay, you want the full picture? She is incompetent, plain-looking, ill-mannered, stubborn, eccentric, air-headed and almost systematically late.”

“She’s never been late a single time when I called for her. In fact, she always runs to me right away – like a stray puppy.” June replied with a smile.

“Ahhh,” Lude replied, as if he’d just now come to the realisation that June liked this unconditional loyalty the maid had come with.

“Come on, don’t be jealous,” June finally set aside her magazine, and moved from her couch to the table Lude had been sitting at. She threw her arms around his shoulder, and whispered into his ear, “You will always be my bestest of friends.”

Lude rolled his eyes, and vanished from under June, materialising at the other end of the room. The woman had been expecting it and had not lost balance.

“Come on, you can’t say that when your other bestest of best friends, the man who put you here if only one train ride away.”

A sudden parallel between Cedar and the maid suddenly formed in his mind.

“He’s a lost puppy too.” He formed that thought out loud.

“Pardon?” June scoffed, in an amused way. “Be careful how you speak of our future king, will you? You wouldn’t want to get on his list.” She accentuated that last word as if it actually meant anything. Both she and Lude knew it didn’t, but this was the kind of trick that had gotten them information and discounts at hostels on more than one occasion.

“Right. I’ll leave you to play with your print-outs of swords then, I have a business to attend to.” Lude spoke, as he opened the door leading out of June’s room.

“Tell her to come over when she’d done.” June suddenly spoke, her voice more quiet than usual.

“You don’t even know what she’s doing. Perhaps she won’t be done till the evening.” Lude replied, not without the faintest touch of amusement.

June mumbled something intelligible but did not make any effort to halt him further. So, Lude shut the door behind him and made his way to the lower levels of the mansion where an old, and oversized, machine was supposed to be pumping cool air throughout the vacant rooms and empty hallways. He’d never let it go if that girl would somehow manage to fix it before his arrival.