*Kouya POV

Hmm... judging by my host's expression, that person I met must have been Lady Gremory herself. In truth, quite some beauty...

Little wonder a lady of such stature would adopt drinking tea at certain hours of the day on a regular basis, as a habit. A little display of elegance, perhaps?

In a way, she reminded me of Lady Brista back home--though I haven't had the honor of seeing her eye to eye.

As it was, I sensed no anger nor signs of displeasure from Lady Gremory. Apart from the shock heavily plastered on my host's expression, I guess I could call that particular job nicely done.

"Umm... excuse me..."

As I retreated out of the room, and making sure that the doors are again safely closed, I was again greeted by the sight of Liliana, blushing heavily.

"I... this Liliana is heavily indebted to you, sir! Thank you so much... I-I couldn't have delivered it with such timeliness and... elegance. Again, I will be in your care! If you need anything..."

Gotcha.

"Well... in truth, I would like your help on a perfectly minor thing..." I gave a sign with my finger for her to close up, and whispered something...

"...Oh? Are you sure about this?"

I nodded.

"In that case, sir, you may count on me!" she gave a bright smile. "To begin with, please follow me to our--I mean the servants'--new quarters~"

"Sure, I appreciate that... but would you mind explaining as we walk?"

"Oh, that would be my pleasure! Shall we, now?"

"Alright..."

We began to re-navigate the main hall. There was surprisingly little activity there, she remarked.

"No doubt, Lady Rias' visit or departure has had some way in affecting our daily schedule. This is what we would call--among ourselves, of course--a 'normal routine'; while that for when Lady Rias is here, 'Benigami ('Red-hair') routine'."

"You sure have an apt way of naming things..."

"Oh, but we did not invent such terms. It was Grayfia's brainchild. She is, if the senior servants are to be trusted, head to the servants within this Household. Some whisper that she's got another kind of personality, but any attempts to find out what it really is are doomed to failure."

"I see. So this Grayfia is rather mysterious, huh."

"Be that as it may, when it comes to Household chores she could be very demanding, they say. She is after all the only one allowed to be near the person of Maou Lucifer-sama at all times... but if you're lucky, maybe you'll get to see her too!"

"...Really, you're making it sound as if the sight of her is a prize worth dying for. Well then, you mentioned that we have two basic kinds of routine. So what's the difference between what we do in normal and Benigami ones?"

"Well, a 'normal' one is basically plain-deal: serving tea to Lady Gremory at the appropriate hours; getting Master Millicas to prepare for his day; attend to him in between tutorial lessons if required, and so on. Benigami routines are a little more complex, and could involve preparing the rooms needed for the guests--for Lady Rias has her own entourage, and they usually did stay for three days to two weeks depending on the agenda; preparing the appropriate clothes--you know what upper-class Djinns are like, parties, meetings, and all... I think that's about it."

Millicas. Yes, that was the name mentioned by my host... I wonder how this child would welcome my service.

"Liliana."

"Yes?"

"For you to describe this with such detail... perhaps you're not as novice as you think."

"Well, this is what Grayfia explained to us in our first day of service. She even expected us to memorize it and learn it by heart."

"And how long have you been serving the Household?"

"In three days, exactly two months, sir. In the internal ranking system for servants, that qualified me as a 'Novice'"