"The damage is infectious, and all that can be done is purge it all and start from scratch."
If life is a series of choices, then perhaps that just means that life is a game? To Akazawa Saki, that's all life really is. She refutes the existence of G...
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Avoiding Minene's scorn was an impossible task for Saki, even on the best of days. It was one of the many cons of working beneath the stern woman's authority, after all.
So when Saki returned to work the next evening dressed in her maid's uniform like she was meant to and with her hair grudgingly braided back as demanded, Saki wasn't the least bit surprised to find the woman tearing over at the merest sight of her, almost like that last bear she encountered near the Tanbarun border.
'Akazawa Saki!' Came Minene's particularly shrill call as the clacking of heeled shoes echoed through the courtyard.
Again Saki knew she was in for the humdrum of meaningless and rather hypocritical complaints the very instance her name had been shouted. Still, to sate the woman's need for complaint, Saki turned to face her with all expression wiped clean from her face and her broom held neatly at her side.
'How many times do I have to tell you that your appearances are not appropriate for work?!' Minene's immediate words hung in the sunset evening air. 'Again you're wearing those gloves! And your hair is if possible worse than usual! Explain this hideous monstrosity you insist on appearing like at once!'
Saki raised a brow as she stared Minene down, who was growing more and more agitated with every passing second.
'Well?!' She pressed with a raised tone.
So, all Saki did was shake her head in response.
'Excuse me?!' Minene practically seethed, drawing a sigh from Saki with little effort.
'How am I supposed to explain myself if you ban me all the time from speaking to begin with?' Saki responded with a heavy tone, wishing more than anything else that this woman would just grant her one evening to work in peace and quiet.
'I do not need your attitude!' Minene snapped. 'Explain now, before you assault a passing lord with that hideous voice of yours!'
'At least it's better than a witches shrieking...'
'What was that?!' The woman shrieked.
'Nothing, nothing.' Saki dismissed quickly as she turned her gaze away from the painful woman.
'Unbelievable!' Minene scowled as she lifted a bony hand to cover her face. 'Not only does your presence here get overlooked, but you prance through this place in rags and filthy shoes when you're not here to clean! You have no civility as a human being!'
Saki's gaze narrowed slightly at that jab, though she lifted her gaze upwards to the low-hanging branch a few inches above Minene's head. A particularly large spider was perched up on the leaves, as if it were waiting for a stray insect to fly far too close. As the woman continued to prattle on about how disorderly and unpleasant Saki was in spite of being a "servant of the Royal Family", Saki carefully lifted her broom and used it to gently lower the branch down until the leaves, spider and all, were nestled upon Minene's shoulder.
