The Walpurgisnacht was an event that seemed very important but for some reason my boss never went there. That’s what happens when someone so lazy takes on important positions. Growing up in this environment must have added on to her behaviour. By all means, my boss was due for some spanks and to pick up her slack.

On note of picking up slack, I was picking up mine own.

After the spectacular fireworks that me and Jake and John left in Serenia, I had to ensure that the magic I was using was not going to go wild again. That flame was a size where I would have lit up candles, it shouldn’t have blown up a warehouse.

Good old mister Grimoire had escaped the clutches of moths in the place where I had sealed him and was following me around once again.

I was out in the garden, tending to our beautiful tomatoes and eggplants and ganja (I was growing it without anyone knowing). Even the small patches made for plantations around the edge of the Grim Palace’s building walls were laid out in a manner of beauty and aesthetic. This was also the best place to sneak a smoke, or a joint. I was about to light a cigarette for now, when a voice called out to me.

"Hey, Butler,"

"How may I assist you today?" I said forcing a wide smile through gritted teeth. I was a butler, sure, but people won’t speak like this even if they had an all-time assistant in their fucking pockets.

"I made a new potion, now I want to test it," Weisss said. She was peering at me from the window above, her work room or her personal room were not up there.

Weiss pointed at the cigarette in my hands.

"So you need test subjects?" I tossed the cigarette up.

"Correct." She caught it.

"What kind of effect are you hoping this potion has? I’ll send out the golems."

"No... don’t do that. The golems won’t be able to do it."

My boss flipped the cigarette stick in her hands, her sharp eyes fell on me every other second.

"Why is that?"

"You know how I really dislike beastkin?"

I did. I was actually well aware. While the Witch Queen of Grim Palace didn’t generally care about outside affairs or matters of the mortal and the normal world, she did have a specific dislike for Beastkin.

Dislike was too soft a word.

There was an incident I remembered when I had just come to this palace.

***

"Hey, boss. Here’s a gift for you."

It was a normal day, I was slowly getting used to my life as the butler and under the surveillance of the armors. During one of my first grocery runs, I thought of bringing back a small painting to add some color into this grim palace.

"What... this... this painting..."

"Yes?"

"It stinks."

I sniffed the painting, it seemed normal—

—FWISH

That was the right sound. It was what I heard as my nose was caught in sparks and parts of my beautiful hair went up in flames.

"A beastkin has touched that thing."

It didn’t end there.

If I was to buy some items that are imported from where beastkin generally live.

"It stinks." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

—FWISH

If I was to even gather raw materials from the forest for her potions.

—FWISH

***

"Yup,"

"I’ve made a potion to make them normal people."

WOAH. Racist much? On one hand while I did feel the need to tell her that people were people and that there was no lack of normalcy only because they have tails and ears and sharp teeth and can kill me with a flick of their fingers, I was also fairly interested in whatever magic she was going to pull.

Weiss was the most powerful witch in the world at the end of the day. To change the very DNA of a species and remove their traits? Was that the kind of potion she had been working on.

"To make them normal... what exactly would the effect of such a spell be?"

Weiss snapped her fingers and two sparks went fwish again through the air. One lit up her cigarette and the other lit up mine. She took a deep drag.

"It’ll get rid of all their hideous qualities, make them indistinguishable from us. That’s the effect I want, at least."

I whistled.

Could a potion like this be used in other places? Like...

Many ideas came to my mind. Ideas that could even make us money.

"Find me beastkin," she said. "I want specimens to experiment on."

I nodded at her words, my mind still a little absent. I was dreaming up the possible implications and ways I could use all this to my advantage. Changing the DNA sequence of beastkin being really fucked up? Oh well, it wasn’t me who made this drug, so god should punish that white haired innocent lady above me and not me. It is the truth.

"Alright," I said. "I’ll get you some specimen then."

I bowed and was about to turn around when Weiss coughed.

"And a pipe. I hate this cigarette."

Classist as well, I see.

***

"Shush... don’t cry. Don’t cry or we’ll be found out."

Wooden panels creaked. A few rays of dim light came crashing down, illuminating only as much of the cramped area as the holes were big in the floorings above.

A stern yet soft and low voice sharply rebuked a small child. The child barely looked to be in his teens.

"It hurts a lot..." he whimpered. The blonde man behind him covered his mouth. They were both trapped under this cramped area underneath. Slowly, he pulled the boy’s sleeves back and winced.

At the same time, a louder voice tore through the building, echoing everywhere.

"Find those bastards! They wouldn’t have escaped far."

"Fucking heretics... the bishop will teach you a real fucking lesson."

The man closed his eyes, and held the mouth of his little brother tighter.

The two’s tails drooped to the ground.