Miscellaneous Maid

Elena—who was that? It sounded a little familiar.

Cassandra gave a bitter smile. "Senior, look at the state I'm in now. What tricks could I possibly pull?"

"Who knows." Mrs. Allen turned and walked into the house, her long pinkish-purple hair swaying behind her.

"Back then, you were famously 'willing to do anything.'"

"You could use your own daughter as experimental material, and even treat your younger sister as a 'taste tester.'"

The words were like a thorn, stabbing unerringly into Cassandra's heart.

But she could not refute them, because that truly had been her way of doing things.

The inside of the cottage was still as warm and cozy as ever.

The flames in the fireplace danced merrily, and all kinds of dried herbs hung on the walls—some Cassandra recognized, while others were new varieties she had never seen before.

The record player was still playing folk music, its melody lilting and faintly sorrowful.

"Sit."

Mrs. Allen pointed at the sofa across from her, then sat down in the rocking chair herself.

Cassandra sat down carefully, suddenly feeling as if she had returned to her student days and been called into Professor Uter's office for a scolding.

Only this time, the one scolding her was her former senior.

"Talk. How did you end up like this?"

"Drifting." She answered briefly. "Sixty-three years of drifting through the cosmos."

"Why were you drifting? Did you court death and botch an experiment, or did you offend some higher being you shouldn't have?"

Mrs. Allen's tone carried obvious sarcasm.

"Knowing your personality, I'd guess both."

"...More or less." Cassandra could only admit it. "During the expedition to the Vital Star Domain, I ran into an... accident."

"I was swept into a spacetime turbulence. When I finally crawled out, I found myself at the