Plotted for Destruction

Kirche spots the clothes and grins, "Are those Zero's clothes? They must be, who else on this floor is as small as she is?..." she looks him up and down, "Aside from maybe you, of course." she adds, mocking his 5.2 ft height.

Michael shakes his head and quickly makes his way past her, not wanting to get into a situation where Louise could place the blame on him... He'd seen far too much of Saito getting into a misunderstanding and getting blown to kingdom come to be unaware of it. "Sorry! Thank you!" he says as he departs, causing the girl to giggle at his antics.

He makes is way down the tower, cursing the fact that Louse's room is one of the highest in the school... Perhaps she was trying to make up for her personal lack of height? He chuckles to himself as he wanders into the dark courtyard of the school, unable to stop himself occasionally glancing up at the two moons overhead.

One was blue, and was twice the size of the other which was a pink colour almost mirroring Louise's own hair... Michael wondered if they had any significance, as Saito was usually depicted wearing a blue jacket that would've matched the other moon perfectly as well.

He shakes his head and continues looking around the place, trying to find where the servants lived so he could pawn off the cleaning onto them... And hopefully meet Siesta while he was at it.

After around an hour of looking and getting lost, he eventually found a door in the wall leading to the kitchen and the rest of the staff residences. He walks inside and spots a few people still awake, some cleaning pots while others were playing cards, using this free time to relax.

One of the maids glance over and spot him observing them, "Ah! It's you! That dead guy!" she exclaims, drawing everyone's attention towards him.

Michael quickly became embarrassed after becoming the center of attention and wasn't even able to say anything as the maid approached him, "Seriously, you looked like a corpse when Miss Valliere summoned you... At least they went to the effort of healing you after hurting you in the first place."

Another maid scoffs, "Yeah, but it was probably just to save face for her failure. I mean, just look at what happened yesterday." she says causing everyone else to frown.

Michael crooks a brow, "What happened yesterday?"

The maid gives a solemn sigh, "Siesta, she ended up accidentally offended Mr Gramont..."

"Yeah, something about her revealing his relations to a 1st year to his girlfriend. I was watching, it wasn't even her fault!" another chimes in.

"Wait, so in the end, what happened to Siesta?" Michael presses, getting a bad feeling about this whole situation.

The maid next to him grits her teeth in indignation, "For offending the son of an Earl, Siesta received 50 lashes of the whip, and was expelled from the academy without pay..."

...

Michael felt like the sky was about to crash atop him, Siesta was kicked out? One of the central characters of the anime was immediately eliminated without him being able to do anything about it... This did save her from Count Mott's clutches, the man basically forcing her to become his mistress, but it also prevent him from using her to advance the plot...

Not to mention the fact that Guiche had gotten an innocent person whipped and fired as punishment for accidentally revealing his own infidelity... What an absolute cunt!

He rubs his face in exasperation, feeling like giving up here and now before he remembers why he'd actually come here. "Erm, could any of you help me with these?" he presents Louise' clothing, "I don't have much experience hand washing things, in my country we usually use machines for that sort of thing." he explains.

The maids give him an odd look but the nearest to him breathes a sigh and tosses her playing cards back to the table, "I'll show you once, but from then on you're on your own... We have enough work on our plates as it is." she says while gesturing for him to follow.

"Wouldn't you need to clean these clothes anyway? I doubt my 'master' had been without assistance since I got here... Ah, my name is Michael by the way."

"Fay. And yeah, we would, but since it's your job now I'm not going to do your work for you. Got it?"

She leads him to a well and gets some equipment out of it, along with some scents for after the cleaning, and some chemicals used to properly rinse all the dirt out. She then shows him how to use the washing board and not tear the clothes while he was at it...

By the end his hands were red raw, chemicals combined with the rough conditions making Fay laugh at his plight... He was like a fish out of water, and obviously couldn't wash clothes to save his life... But at least he managed to finish it.

"That should do it... It's annoying work, I know. But I'll tell you something that'll annoy you as much as it does us... The nobles can cast one spell and completely clean their clothes, making all this effort unnecessary... If they could just be bothered to take care of themselves." she shrugs her shoulders, "Whatever, I'm headed back to the kitchen, take those back to your 'master' after putting this stuff away." she gestures as the wooden bucket they'd been using.

He nods and watches her leave, wondering how long he'd be forced to wash Louise's clothing before he was able to show his worth... He'd only done it once and knew he didn't want to do it again, the chemicals making his skin itch incessantly.

He'd try his luck tomorrow by goading Guiche to see if he'd be able to improve his rather shit situation... On the bright side, at least he hadn't been 'exploded' by Louise yet... Right?