Party Animal Lighting

I decided to take in Setia, who had nowhere else to go.

Officially, she would serve as an assistant to the Fortress Lord, and I would employ her personally.

I was receiving a fairly decent salary from the kingdom myself, so I could afford to hire Setia.

“I-I don’t even know how to thank you…”

“According to the prophecy, we’re going to work together to create some amazing medicine, right? I’m looking forward to it too.”

“When that medicine is completed, I shall be sure to present it to you, Fortress Lord.”

“Huh? I’m perfectly healthy right now. You should give the medicine to people who really need it.”

Setia looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“W-Why are you being so kind to me?”

“Hmm… Well, everyone’s afraid of me because I’m from another world, even though I’m not scary at all. So maybe I just couldn’t leave you alone when I saw people avoiding you simply because you’re from the Wuran tribe.”

“Fortress Lord…”

“Besides, whenever I see a cute girl in trouble, I can’t help wanting to save her.”

“C-Cute!? N-No way! I-I’m ugly, and I haven’t even bathed in three days, so I’m filthy, and my clothes are…”

Setia had started panicking again.

I really hoped she wouldn’t faint for a third time.

Just as I was wondering how to calm her down, Karan-san stepped forward.

“Now that you mention it, you do smell a little. I’ll prepare a change of clothes for you, so please go and bathe first.”

“Oh, no. That would be such a waste…”

Setia immediately tried to decline, but Karan-san wouldn’t hear of it.

“I will not permit you to appear before the Fortress Lord in such a disheveled state. If you’re going to become his assistant, you must dress appropriately for the position.”

“Y-Yes! I’m sorry!”

Karan-san took Setia away with her.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t taken a bath either.

Water was precious in Gaurea, so even the Fortress Lord wasn’t permitted to bathe every day.

At most, warm water was brought to my office so I could wash myself.

Karan-san had told me I’d be allowed to take a proper bath soon, so I was looking forward to that.

Still, I couldn’t imagine the fortress’s bathing facilities would be particularly impressive…

I hadn’t seen them yet, but I could make a pretty good guess.

I’d probably be better off building my own bathroom after all…

There were so many things I needed to do, but for now, I decided to prioritize installing lighting in my room.

Indirect lighting was definitely the coolest option.

More specifically…

I concentrated and circulated my mana.

A lighting catalog appeared in the air before me.

This was another of the Construction Company abilities I’d discovered recently.

It looked something like a tablet without a frame.

I flicked through the catalog and selected the fixtures that suited my tastes.

Then I reshaped sections of the ceiling and the walls near the floor, embedding the light sources inside them.

Just like with the water supply, I had no idea where the energy powering them came from.

However, I knew that an apparently limitless supply was being delivered from some unknown dimension, so I simply continued installing them without worrying about it.

Of course, a remote-control switch was absolutely essential.

Modern people had become pretty lazy, after all.

When I was in elementary school, I used to have to get out of bed and walk over to the switch beside the door to turn off the lights. But when our house was renovated during my middle school years, we switched to remote-controlled lighting.

It was so convenient that I could never go back.

Through the large windows, I could see the sunset painting the sky orange.

The castle town looked peaceful again today.

Everyone was probably preparing dinner.

Several trails of white smoke rose from the chimneys of the houses.

It would soon be sunset.

“Excuse us. We’ve brought some lights.”

Aine and Setia entered carrying candles.

Setia looked like an entirely different person after bathing and changing her clothes.

Her skin looked almost translucent, and her green hair had become soft and fluffy.

“Where did you get those clothes?”

“I-I borrowed Aine-san’s everyday clothes.”

Aine always wore her maid uniform while working, but apparently, when she was off duty, she wore traditional clothing from this region.

The outfit consisted of a finely patterned blouse and a pleated overskirt distinguished by its large folds.

The skirt was predominantly green, with red fabric decorating the hem.

It also featured a delicate floral pattern.

“You look cute. It really suits you. And thanks, Aine.”

I’d only offered a casual compliment, but Setia’s face turned deathly pale, and she struck a pose resembling the figure in Munch’s The Scream.

What a shame, considering how cute she’d looked a moment earlier.

There really were a lot of eccentric women around me…

“Fortress Lord, I’ll light the lamp on the table.”

I stopped Aine before she could light it.

“Wait a moment. Leave it like that for now.”

“But it’s already evening. It’ll be dark very soon.”

“Yeah, I’m actually waiting for it to get dark. There’s something I want to show you, so I’d like you two to stay and watch.”

The three of us sat on the sofa and waited, and when Karan-san eventually joined us, all four of us ended up waiting for nightfall together.

Before long, the last lingering rays of sunlight above the mountain ridge were swallowed by the darkness of night.

“Fortress Lord, it’s completely dark now. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?”

Karan-san asked, sounding slightly irritated.

Karan-san really disliked wasting time.

“Fortress Lord, are you frightened? Here, I’ll hold your hand.”

“Ahh… I find dark places rather relaxing…”

Aine and Setia were behaving exactly as usual.

“I think it’s about time. All right, I’m going to test the lighting I installed in this room.”

“Lighting? Do you mean a new kind of lamp?”

“You’ll have to wait and see. Now for the countdown. Three, two, one!”

Beep-beep!

I selected the “All Lights On” setting on the remote control in my hand, and every light in the room illuminated at once.

“W-What on earth is this!?”

Excellent! I’d gotten to see Karan-san’s surprised expression again today.

Aine and Setia were also staring in astonishment, their mouths hanging wide open.

There were four strips of lighting running along the edges of the ceiling, four more fixtures in the corners of the room, and I hadn’t forgotten the lights illuminating the floor either.

“It’s even brighter than during the day…”

Karan-san’s hands were trembling slightly.

Hehehe, success!

“Now it’ll be much easier to work on documents at night. Pretty nice, isn’t it?”

“I-It’s magnificent…”

I’d actually gotten Karan-san to call it magnificent!

That alone made installing the lighting worthwhile.

Still, now that I could see everything clearly, the walls of my office were pretty dirty.

They’d been neglected for so long that they were covered in soot and grime.

Maybe I should put up some wallpaper next?

Perhaps Karan-san had been thinking the same thing, because she spoke up.

“Now that I can see clearly, there are quite a few places that haven’t been cleaned properly. The walls are understandable, but the floor is unacceptable. Aine, what is the meaning of this?”

“I-I’m terribly sorry! It was too dark for me to see!”

“Too dark? With those large windows, this room should have been brighter than anywhere else.”

Aine shrank back in embarrassment as Karan-san scolded her.

“It seems some punishment is in order. Perhaps five lashes of the whip would be appropriate…”

“Whipping!? Isn’t that a little too harsh?”

I didn’t know much about how things worked in this world, but I didn’t think violence was a good thing.

“If anything, that’s far too lenient. As the Fortress Lord’s personal maid, she must serve as an example to the other servants.”

At some point, a riding crop had appeared in Karan-san’s hand.

“What!? Where on earth did you get that?”

Karan-san was wearing a close-fitting suit.

Her skirt was a long, tight-fitting one as well.

There shouldn’t have been anywhere she could hide something like that…

Ignoring my question, Karan-san turned toward Aine.

“Now, expose your bottom. It’s time for your punishment.”

“Uuu…”

With tears welling up in her eyes, Aine began lifting her skirt.

“Wait! Doing that won’t accomplish anything.”

“It certainly will. I believe fear and pain are effective tools for disciplining people.”

“That’s just controlling people through fear, isn’t it? That’s not right.”

“Why not?”

“I think corporal punishment destroys relationships of trust. Besides, ruling through fear can prevent people from developing beyond a certain point.”

Or at least, that’s what Nakamura-sensei, my ethics teacher, had said!

“Aine is my personal maid, right? I need her to keep growing and become someone who can make decisions and act on her own.”

Karan-san stared at me for a moment before nodding.

“Understood. If that is your reasoning, I shall refrain from whipping her.”

With that, she opened the collar of her blouse and smoothly slipped the riding crop down between her breasts.

Wait, WHAT!?

How on earth could she store something like that in there?

Her tight-fitting suit still perfectly followed the contours of her well-proportioned figure without the slightest distortion.

Could there be some kind of dimensional storage space hidden in her cleavage?

My curiosity knew no bounds, but I had no way of investigating…

“We shall give Aine a different punishment. Naturally, she will thoroughly clean this room, but she must also clean the soldiers’ toilets by herself.”

“Understood.”

Aine nodded dejectedly.

Cleaning those toilets all by herself, huh…

If it were me, I’d probably throw up at least twenty times.

I’d make something nice for Aine next to cheer her up.

“By the way, Setia, what’s wrong?”

Setia was covering her face with both hands.

“Um, it’s just a little too bright for me…”

“This is too bright? Well, the lighting in this room can do something like this too.”

Feeling mischievous, I pressed the button labeled “Party Animal.”

The room went completely dark for an instant, but flashing lights immediately began blinking on and off.

And that wasn’t all.

Lights in the three primary colors poured down from the ceiling, while blue and purple neon lights illuminated the floor and walls.

It looked just like the dance floor of a nightclub.

Not that I’d ever been to one…

“Fortress Lord, I’m going to die! Setia’s going to die! I don’t know what’s happening, but I feel so out of place that I can’t take it anymore!”

“Ahaha, you’re exaggerating, Setia.”

“Nooo! Please, have mercyyyyy! Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle…”

Whoa! She really had collapsed and started foaming at the mouth!

“Karan-san, healing magic! Hurry!”

“Good grief. She certainly is a handful.”

We ended up in such a frantic rush to care for Setia that my work for the day came to an end right there.