章 216: Maid Goddess

Nyx was awoken from her restless sleep by an intense banging at the door to her new room the first day after she was enslaved by that lowly devil. The hateful voice that made her do such shameful acts the night before was then heard from the other side,

"Get up, your uniform should already be in your closet so get ready and we'll have some breakfast before you begin your new routine." Nyx groaned in disgust at her words, which she seemed to hear because Ravel left right after. She then looked around the hovel they left her in with even more disgust, as she had never lived in such meager conditions before. Though Nyx considered her room meager, it was in fact greater luxury that one with her current status was usually afforded. It was large enough that it fit a bed and desk in it with plenty of room to spare for some extra furniture, and that was before one considered the bathroom and closet. Though both were small by the standards of the rest of the manor, they were quite large compared to the average. All in all, she hated it.

Deciding she didn't want to tempt another repeat of the night before, Nyx swallowed her hatred for her current situation and went to get changed. When she opened her closet however her disgust only deepened, but she swallowed that as well and got dressed in the maid outfit. She appeared in the dining area ten minutes later after getting dressed, and said to the waiting Ravel,

"I am the primordial goddess of night and darkness, many have feared my name throughout history, and I was one of the biggest threats to the current world order, the day I manage to remove this mark and recover my freedom you will pay!" Ravel cocked an eyebrow at Nyx's words, but didn't mind her attitude and only said,

"Those clothes suit you, good thing too since you'll be wearing them every day from now on. Quickly finish your breakfast and we'll begin your new routine." After finishing her breakfast(a simple meal of oatmeal and toast) Ravel led Nyx to their first stop with Koneko silently following behind, much to Nyx's annoyance. Their destination seemed to be the main bedroom, which when Ravel opened the door a surprised voice cried out,

"Oh! W-what are you doing here Ravel?!" Ravel only rolled her eyes at Rossweisse who was obviously flustered at having been caught sleeping in Alex's bed while he wasn't there, a trend that sadly wasn't too uncommon among the residents.

"I'm training a new servant who's going to start cleaning this room every morning starting today." Ravel patiently explained. As not everyone was aware of what happened the night before. Rossweisse looked at Nyx for a split second before her eyes widened in shocked recognition. She then quickly fled the room while trying to hide her embarrassment, but not before glancing at Nyx several times with her mind flooding with questions, the chief of which was if Ingvild knew Nyx was here. Ravel then turned towards Nyx and said,

"Your first job every day is to come clean and organize your masters room and bathroom; this means changing the sheets and making the bed, collecting any dirty laundry, dusting, vacuuming, wiping down most surfaces, and preventing mildew buildup in the shower, bath, and sinks. Though Alex usually has business in the current world he's in so he doesn't stay here every night, you never know when he'll show up in the middle of the night or when someone else decides to use the bed while he's gone, so you'll have to check it every morning." Though Nyx had several choice words for Ravel she swallowed them all to avoid inciting another punishment, either from her mark or Ravel herself. She then set to the job before her, deciding that while it was beneath her how hard could it be? She had seen her own followers clean her home and shrines many times over the last few thousand years.

The result was that she spent the majority of the morning being told that she wasn't doing it right by Ravel, and was forced to retry after almost every attempt. The entire time Koneko just sat to the side eating her snacks while watching or occasionally chatting with Ravel when she wasn't reprimanding Nyx. Taking several times longer than Ravel's peerage would to finish cleaning, even though the room wasn't even that dirty to begin with since it had already been cleaned since Alex last stayed, Nyx was finally finished and Ravel was finally satisfied with her work. She then told the goddess,

"This is an order, every day when you clean this room it must be exactly like this when you're finished, understood?" Since Ravel was only going to follow and train Nyx for a few days she needed to be sure she wouldn't just slack off when she stopped shadowing her, so she used the fact she could order her to prevent Nyx from trying to skip out on work. The goddess had a look of extreme hatred as the compulsion she was becoming all too familiar with took her, and she answered,

"Yes mistress..." Ravel nodded in satisfaction, and led them to their next destination. Nyx was surprised when they quickly left the manor to a place nearby surrounded by a dense bamboo forest. She followed Ravel and Koneko along the path through the shoots, before she was suddenly filled with a sense of dread. It had nothing to do with either of the girls in front of her, but was instead a feeling Nyx was familiar with from whenever she would visit other gods in the past, she was nearing another god's shrine. Though usually this alone wouldn't have impacted her so strongly, the intense foreboding she was feeling was because of the immense power difference between herself and the other God, even before her powers were taken. Nyx drew a few conclusions about the identity of the other party, but knew that she could be completely wrong as they were in fact in another world. This is why she was only half surprised when they finally entered the shrine and found two people already there, a woman with long black hair tied in a large pony tail dressed in a shrine maiden outfit while sweeping around the shrine, and a petite child looking girl dressed in black that was just lounging around. Both looked up at their approach and the shrine maiden that Nyx recognized as Rias's queen, Akeno, greeted them while smiling,

"Ara ara, Ravel and Koneko what are you two doing here?" After greeting the two of them Akeno turned her attention towards the third person in their group, only to see a former enemy. Ravel then explained,

"After some things happened she's now acting as a servant in the manor, one of the main responsibilities I was going to give her is cleaning the shrine every day." Akeno made a face of understanding at Ravel's words, while Nyx had a face of astonishment on hers, she would have to come here to clean every day?! She should have her own shrine in this gods forsaken place, not clean another gods shrine! She didn't say anything though as she didn't want to risk offending the most powerful god that had existed in their world, unchallenged at the peak, Ophis. Nyx's thoughts were interrupted when Akeno started speaking,

"It'll be reassuring to have someone clean daily, typically the shrine is only being cleaned when I have some free time." As she grew up in a shrine herself, Akeno always felt somewhat nostalgic whenever she came to visit Ophis's shrine, and would often tidy up since there was no actual caretaker and it wouldn't be fitting to try and make Ophis do it. They then started discussing the details of what Nyx would be doing, such as sweeping the grounds, and cleaning the small area behind the shrine where Ophis kept some of the offerings she didn't eat right away.

As they were talking a devil mother and son duo even came and made an offering to the dragon God, some freshly made banana bread. Nyx was dumbfounded at the offering, as her offerings were always some kind of living sacrifices of livestock or even humans themselves. She had a nasty smiled as she waited for the worlds most powerful God to show these worthless devils what a true offering should be, when Ophis simply sampled the banana bread and said,

"This is good, thank you." The mother smiled and thanked Ophis for the compliment before leaving, while her son followed and promised to come play with Ophis soon. Nyx was even more dumbfounded at the scene, and as the devil mother and son left she practically shouted,

"WHAT WAS THAT?! Gods don't take banana bread as an offering, they take lives! And why would a god play with a child anyways?!" She then went on at length at what was wrong with the situation while Akeno laughed slightly and Ravel face palmed. After a few minutes of Nyx ranting, Ophis approached her and held out a small bite of the banana bread.

"Here, it's good." Ophis didn't usually share her offerings as she knew they were intended for her, but she recognized that Nyx was also a god and simply figured she felt like she was being left out. Nyx almost smacked the bread out of Ophis's hand, but caught herself when she recalled who was in front of her. With an obviously forced smile she then took the bite of banana bread and ate it, it was good but Nyx wasn't going to say that out loud. Ravel smiled at seeing the interaction, as the point of having Nyx spend time cleaning Ophis's shrine every day was to remind her that even if she was a goddess, she wasn't the only one around or the most powerful. After a couple hours of having Nyx clean the areas that needed it around the shrine, the trio left and returned to the manor.

It was now a little past lunch time so Ravel brought them to the kitchen to make a small lunch while also ordering Nyx to assist, during which Koneko just watched. Ravel had also ordered her to never tamper with any food she may help prepare in the future, from petty things like spitting in it or messing it up on purpose to full on poisoning or trying to kill them with it. What she didn't account for was Nyx messing up their food because she was genuinely bad at cooking.

"You're not too good at this, are you?" Ravel said after watching her spend some time in the kitchen. This only caused Nyx to snap back irritably,

"I'm a goddess! When have I ever in several thousand years had to prepare my own food?" Ravel just shook her head, as no matter a persons status they usually still needed to eat. She then slid a small sample of what they were making towards Koneko who took it greedily. This seemed to remind Nyx of something and she demanded while pointing at Koneko,

"And why is she following us all day, doesn't she have anything better to do? Or is she just here for the show?" Koneko then spoke to her for the first time and what she said nearly made Nyx shudder.

"If something happens then someone who can reseal you has to be around." As she heard the minor threat from Koneko, Nyx realized she was present in case she managed to do something while Alex wasn't here, and took some satisfaction in the thought they still considered her a threat. What she didn't know was that Koneko also had significantly more free time since she slowed on her physical training and focused almost entirely on meditating and senjutsu, due to the life that was growing inside her. As she thought about it Koneko showed a brief gentle smile before focusing on the plate of food that was placed in front of her a second later. As the trio start s digging into their food several other people started trickling into the kitchen for the prepared lunch, all dressed in maid outfits as well. Ravel explained to Nyx,

"These are my peerage members and the main ones you'll be working with. After you finish cleaning Alex's room and the shrine you'll report back to me and I'll give you your next job of the day, which you'll either be working with one of them or have your own project." As the rest of her day was outlined for her Nyx frowned but didn't say anything. With Koneko bringing it up before she was considering her new life, or being sealed. She eventually decided to bid her time for now as she would at least have some freedom compared to to just existing in the empty jewel, and if she was lucky she would find a chance to get away from this hell hole.