The New Maids

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

July 15, x787.

After giving the loot, he obtained from taking down Danzo, to Porlyusica and taking his shift in the guild's kitchen, Alfonzo did more of what Elicia suggested and took some time to rest. Meaning, he did not train, hold up in his workshop, or do any work, of any kind for the next few days.

Before he took his few days of well-deserved rest, however, he did make sure to send a message, using his lPhone, to every newspaper company in Fiore. And that message was a request for an advertisement. An advertisement that mentioned that he would be hiring some live-in maids.

The advertisement asked that any interested parties show up at his mansion in Magnolia on July fifteenth for screening. And those that fit the criteria, and were found likeable by the mansion's residents, would be hired on the spot. Alfonzo even agreed to pay for any expenses they would incur when moving.

Naturally, the news of the richest man on the continent hiring maids caused quite an uproar. And many women, of all ages could be found making their way to Magnolia over the next few days.

And the day the interviews would take place, July fifteenth, finally arrived. And when it did, there were quite a few women seated in the entrance hall of the mansion floating on the lake, just waiting for their turns to be interviewed.

"Wow! There are a lot more people here than I expected." Marin said while poking her head into the entrance hall to see the turn out.

"Really?" Lucy asked in a confused tone. "But we had more maids than this when I was living with my dad. So, it doesn't look like all that many to me."

Hearing that, Marin could only turn back and look at Lucy blankly.

"Well, in Lucy's defense, her father's estate was quite vast." Erza said. "So, it would not surprise me if what she said was true."

"I mean, I know how big her house was. But still..." Marin replied, still not believing how many maids the Heartfilia employed before the Heartfilia Kanzen went under. "But it didn't look like it needed that many maids."

"To be fair, we probably didn't." Lucy replied with a shrug. "But having that many did make life easy on all of them. I mean, none of them actually had all that much in terms of responsibility."

"I guess that makes sense." Ultear replied. "But it also probably meant that none of them were particularly competent either, right?"

"Probably." Lucy replied while shrugging once again.

"Well, we definitely won't be going that route when we hire the maids who will be working here." Alfonzo said with a smile.

"Yeah, we're all about quality over quantity here.' Elicia added.

"I suppose that would be better than having a throng of maids here." Mirajane said while placing a finger on her chin. " I mean, who wants to see small groups of maids everywhere they look?"

"I don't really care how many you hire." Cana said after taking a swig from a bottle of cognac. "As long as they can recommend me a good bottle of alcohol depending on my mood."

"*Sigh* Then, I guess it doesn't matter who gets hired, huh?" Lucy said. "I mean, you'll drink anything, any time, right?"

"Hmm... Now that you mention it..." Cana replied while seriously considering Lucy's snarky come back.

"You've been awful quiet, Sun." Marin said, poking Sun in the side as she spoke. "You don't have an opinion on this?"

"Not really." Sun replied with a smile while shaking her head. "As long as they're nice, it really doesn't matter to me."

"Anyway, I think we should get these interviews started." Alfonzo said with a smile. "With so many applicants, if we don't get a move on, we'll be here all damn day."

Hearing that, all the ladies nodded in response. Then, Elicia turned her attention to Ikaruga, who was standing by quietly.

"Ikaruga, could you call in the first one, please?" Elicia asked with a smile.

"Of course, Madam Elicia." Ikaruga replied while bowing politely.

On a side note, Shizuka had not yet moved into the mansion. Reluctant to leave Rika, she had been spending as much time with Rika as possible before she moved.

On another note, Saeko, who was present when Alfonzo accepted Shizuka had also been thinking of ways that she could get closer to Alfonzo, as well. Unfortunately, since he had been taking the last few days to rest, her plan to train with him or ask him to go on a quest with her had been put on hold.

Back to the present, the interviews went on for the rest of the day, concluding around nightfall. In the end, the mansion would receive a total of five new maids.

The first was an eighteen year old, slender, red-eyed young woman, standing at 5'2" with long brown hair tied into a pony tail with a long, wavy lock of hair hanging down the middle of her forehead named Maria. According to her, she is proficient in general housework, and hates cockroaches. And from what everyone could tell, she is also highly intelligent.

On top of that, like all the other maids that were hired, Maria has a higher than average amount of magic power. On par with elite B-Class wizards. However, she does not practice any kind of magic. Despite that, she has trained her magic power extensively, using it to empower her body and martial arts if necessary.

Also, Maria happened to be extremely well-learned, despite her young age. So, it was decided, when the children were old enough, she would be their tutor.

The second maid that was hired was a twenty-four year old young woman named Mey-Rin. Standing at 5'5" she had straight, maroon-red hair tied into high pig tails with hazel eyes. Also, she wore a pair of thick, round glasses to help her see things up close.

Although she needed glasses to see up close, Mey-Rin's vision at all other distances was extraordinary. And that did not take into account her [Far-Sight Magic] that let her see things clearly from miles away. And when you combine that with her use of [Guns Magic] and B-Class magic power reserves, she was quite the talented wizard.

As for her skills as a maid, by her own admission, she is not much of a cook. However, she did well enough with other forms of general housework. Though, thanks to her eyesight, she was prone to have accidents. Still, the girls liked her enough that none of them were bothered by that.

Besides, Alfonzo and Elicia were certain that the next maid they hired would be able to help Mey-Rin with any bad habits she might have. Though, they were unsure why she was even in this world Not that they did not have the same questions about all the other maids they hired today.

The third maid was a tall, thirty-three year old woman, who looked no older than twenty-three, standing at 5'8" tall with a voluptuous figure, long, back-length silver hair that ended in two braids, bangs that covered her forehead, and two long braids that framed her face and rested on her sizeable breasts and were tied off with blue ribbons, and red eyes.

This woman, named Grayfia Lucifuge, used to be the head maid of a famous family from another continent. However, the family fell to ruin after the first son took a position that required him to renounce his family name. And when his younger sister, a lazy, entitled girl eventually took over, she ran the family business into the ground. As a result, all the staff who used to serve that family was forced to find new employment.

And with her qualifications, Grayfia could have landed a job anywhere she wanted, even with most Royal Families. Possessing the magic power reserves of an S-Class wizard and mastery over several different magics, the experience of training an entire staff of servants, and the skills in all areas of housework to make even the most experienced maids feel in adequate, she was among the premier maids on all of Earth Land.

In fact, Grayfia had the qualifications to be anything she wanted. However, because of her love for the maid profession, she chose to be a maid.

Next was a young woman named Ai Hayasaka. Ai was eighteen years old, 5'4" tall with a slim curvaceous figure, blue eyes, and blonde hair that was tied into a side tail on the left side of her head with a blue scrunchie.

Ai was skilled in all aspects of housework, though not to the same level as Maria and Grayfia. Also, she had A-Class magic power reserves, was well-versed in using it to empower her body and was trained in hand to hand combat. She also employed a type of [Stealth Magic] that blurred other's perception of her. And she was also quite good when it came to information gathering.

In fact, her ability to gather information was the reason she decided to apply for the maid position at the mansion. During her investigations, she found out that Alfonzo was the one who invented the lPhones. And as it so happens, Ai has a great interest in all kinds of magical technology.

The last of the maids to be hired was also the youngest among them, at fifteen. She had chin-length black hair with bangs swept to the right and dark purple, almost black eyes with a slim curvaceous figure while standing at 5'1".

Despite being the youngest of all those who were hired, Miyuki was one of the more skilled when it comes to housework. She was raised to be a maid, after all. She was also skilled in self-defense and magic power usage. However, she also had the least magic power among the five, as well, with reserves equal to that of an elite C-Class wizard. And like Maria, she had not learned a type of magic. Instead, she would allow her new master to decide what kind of magic she should learn, as taught by the family who raised her.

Miyuki also applied specifically to be Alfonzo's personal maid. And Elicia actually agreed. She knew that Alfonzo had a tendency to overwork. So, she wanted someone to always be around and keep him from doing so.

After eventually hiring the five maids, everyone was sent home. While most would start searching for another job, Maria, Mey-Rin, Ai, and Miyuki would be returning in the next few days with their belongings to move into the mansion. Grayfia, on the other hand, had all of her belongings with her. In fact, they were in the hotel room she booked before the interview. So, she could move in immediately.

It was also decided that Grayfia would be the mansion's head maid. Though, it was a tough choice between her and Maria, who was equally excellent. However, thanks to Grayfia having more experience, she ended up winning out over the younger girl.

Finally, after a long day of interviewing and hiring potential maids, the mansion's residents, much more exhausted than they expected to be after a day like this, decided to go to bed early. Alfonzo and Elicia were exceptions, though. Despite the fact that they also wanted to go to bed. But someone had to be up when Grayfia arrived with her belongings to let her in, register her with the mansion's defense systems, and showed her to er room.

Luckily, thanks to her mastery over a type of [Storage Magic], she did not need any help moving her belongings.

So, at the moment, Alfonzo and Elicia were sitting together in the living room discussing the maids that showed up today.

"Seriously, what the hell is up with this world?" Alfonzo asked incredulously. "I mean, really... Some of the most iconic maids in anime and manga just became our maids."

"Yeah, I know." Elicia replied. "Hayate the Combat Butler, Black Butler, Highschool DxD, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, and Shomin Sample... Though that last one is more of a guilty pleasure anime than anything else. Still, all of them are good at what they do."

"You're right." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "And that's really all that's important. Though, we'll have to be careful with Mey-Rin. She could be pretty clumsy in her source material."

"Oh, I don't think we need to worry about that." Elicia replied with a giggle. "I don't think Grayfia will let things stay that way for long."

"Yeah, you're probably right again." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "Speaking of Grayfia, she's human in this world. That's seriously the weirdest thing I took from today. I mean, when I saw her, I would have guessed she was one of the Books of Zeref that broke away from her core programming or whatever."

Yeah, a human Grayfia really is weird, isn't it?" Elicia asked while tilting her head.

"Yeah, it really is." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "Anyway, Grayfia's almost here. I'll let her in and show her to her room. You should go on to bed. Don't wanna keep the little one up too late, right?"

"I wanna sleep with you tonight." Elicia said in a cutesy tone.

"Okay, then I'll see you later." Alfonzo said before pecking Elicia on the cheek and getting up to let Grayfia into the house.