11 Raising Flags

That took longer than I thought. How long has it been? 2 hours? It's almost midnight. Cera is silently sleeping in my embrace and it seems I'll be stuck here for the rest of the night. No sleep for me, I guess. This wretched scene in front of me is a bit disgusting though. How long is it going to take to clean it up? Rather, how am I going to clean it up? Should I just blast the entire wall away? But the house…

I heard hurried footsteps and Noire brought me a small blanket to cover Cera with.

"How should we go about cleaning this up?" She looked at me with an innocent face. As if it were natural that what I just did is a normal occurrence. But you know, Noire, I also have no idea what to do.

"I'm still thinking about that. I was going to blow up the wall… but then the rain would get in… Also, it would wake Cera up. Ask the rest of the staff if anybody has any good ideas, otherwise we have to clean it up manually." I said we, but there's no way I'm touching that. Even though it's a mess I made, I refuse to get dirty.

"It will small bad, but I can probably burn them all up and if you prevent the fire from spreading, we won't have to worry about scorching the house." I expected nothing less of Noire. She really is a good maid. I'll have to make sure to give her a big raise.

"Alright. Since it's raining out and the wind is strong, let's do it now. Get behind me so I can block the smell. I don't want Cera smelling it and waking her up."

"I'll inform the others to open the windows and try their best to send out the smell." Noire hurried off and started relegating orders among the remaining 10 people.

I'm not really good at pushing away miniscule Alm particles, but if I just gather enough air and enclose us in an ice dome, it should be good enough.

After a few minutes, Noire came back and brought a fan with her. I was going to ask her why she brought a fan, but she looked a bit adorable with her a small hand size paper fan. I could just imagine her trying her fast to swat away the bad smell with that tiny fan. I unconsciously let out a chuckle and Noire looked at me as if asking why I was laughing.

"Don't worry about it and stand behind me. You can use your power even if you're enclosed in my ice, right?"

"Yes. I just need to be able to see my target." She replied quickly.

"Alright, let's get to it then."

I created a thin sheet of ice on the wall and surrounded the corners, sides, roof, and floor with a thicker coat in order to prevent the fire from spreading.

"That should be good enough?" I asked Noire, who was standing behind me.

"Yeah, that should be fine. I'll get started."

I created a dome of ice around us and watched as fire began to sprout from every mingled body I left on the wall. If it wasn't people burning, I think it might actually look pretty good. Noire's fire control is really good. To think she can ignite all 45 bodies at the same time. When I get the chance to get rid of the rats I couldn't today, I'll make sure to do it outside. I'll make a bonfire.

As I was watching the bodies bloom like roses; limbs, bones, armor, clothes, were all quickly falling like petals. I started wondering if Cera would enjoy watching something like this. If it wasn't for what is being burnt, it would've honestly been kind of pretty. Noire's fire is a pretty orange-blue flame that gives a nice contrasting hue. Maybe I'll have her do some sort of trick later, so Cera can enjoy the view. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll have her burn flowers next time.

It only took 10 minutes to burn all the bodies and only my ice lances were still hung on the wall.

"We'll have to fix the wall too, sorry I made so many holes." I made a passive and indifferent apology to Noire who was looking a bit tired.

Why is she looking at me like that? She looks so surprised. Well, whatever.

Three maids and two guards were running around the house trying their best to keep the rain out while pushing airing out the room. I can probably stay in this dome for a few hours. I hope they're done before Cera wakes up.

"Noire, after tonight, make sure to move everyone into the main house and to ignore the cleaning for the outside and patrolling. Have everybody work inside the house and keep it clean. For food and deliveries, have two people arrange that and give them full management over it. I'll be ordering a lot of things, so tell them to be ready at any time. You'll be acting as head maid and Cera's personal maid from now on. I'll take care of guarding the house, greeting all the merchants, and important guests." I was giving Noire directions when I remembered about that annoying little girl from earlier.

"And I don't want any contact with high society from now on. If they send an invitation, decline it. I don't care who it is or what it is that they want."

"Understood." Noire replied while writing things down on a small notepad she was carrying in her apron pocket.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh. Right. I have to pretend.

"One last thing, send enough money to the families of the rats to appease the death of their loved ones. Make sure it cuts into my own budget instead of my parents. Send them a letter saying that they died when my power manifested. You can take care of the details and leave the mess I made in my room alone. Just get rid of Maddy's body.

Noire had a really happy expression on her face when I was telling her what to do. I don't know why, but she's seemed very happy for a while now. Is she okay? I'll just let her be, a happy maid is nothing to be worried about.

"Also clear up another room for Cera and I to sleep in, as well as getting her tailored clothes by morning. Here, this takes priority over everything else. These are her measurements. Make sure to get something that's easy to wear for day to day and a few fancy dresses."

It'll be a few hours before she wakes up. I'll just train until then. I might not have time to do it later. I need to start searching for competent people and recruit them with an oath. Having my old memories would have been nice for this.

I looked down at Cera sleeping calmly with her head resting on my chest. I'll have to trust Cera's instincts for recruiting. Hopefully nothing annoying happens while we're recruiting though. I especially don't want to meet any royalty. Killing them might get me into trouble, but if they decide to intervene with our life, things will get hectic real quick.