Working For The Prince (BxB)✔

Chapter 17 - Quick Visit

Leon froze instantly as he realized what that meant. Meanwhile Asher was blushing head to toe as he heard the low whisper of the phantom servants coming from the wall behind him.

"She's back..." The beast breathed.

"Maybe she's not?" Asher offered. "Maybe she just returned the castle's magic and skipped her visit?"

This didn't comfort Leon as he backed up and unwound his tail from Asher's leg. He watched the beast pace the room, somewhat panicked as he started mumbling to himself. "I knew she was due to come back but this is too sudden!"

"What are you going to do?"

The creature's head snapped in his direction and he quickly approached the servant. "You need to hide!"

"Again?!" Asher exclaimed, unhappy with the suggestion. "Why? Just tell her I'm one of your servants or something."

"You don't understand! That's the problem! Look at what she did to all my other servants!" The creature held his arms out as he indicated around the empty room, and Asher was reminded that the Prince could not hear the whispers.

Then again, just because Asher knew they were still around didn't mean he wanted to join them. The beast was right, so the servant nodded. "Good point."

"Just...Stay here. I'll let you know when it's safe." The beast turned and hesitated before stalking out of the kitchen.

"What about you though?" Asher called after him. "What if she tries something funny like before?"

He really didn't like the idea of leaving Leon alone with that perverted nanny. Not that he'd be able to make much of a difference, but still!

The creature paused. "She always does. It'll be no different from her other visits."

"That's why I'm worried!"

This time Leon turned towards him, his face hard as stone. "And what are you suggesting I do about it? If I don't comply, she can do much worse than just turn me into a beast, but as long as I meet her, she'll let me retain some illusion of choice."

Asher didn't like the hopelessness in his tone, but before he could stop him, the Prince had vanished down the hall.

A weight seemed to fall on his heart as he realized he was powerless to help. As much as he'd like to run in and chastise the woman, she'd probably turn him into a frog before he got a word out. So the servant decided to return to his baking, only to find that the magic in the kitchen had completely cleaned away all his ingredients that he had been cooking with.

Fair enough. It wasn't like he'd need to cook tonight anyways. If they wanted cinnamon rolls, he could just....Wait. Was that how it worked? Could he ask for a specific menu item for the castle to generate? Or did it create random dishes every day? He made a note to ask Leon later as he mulled over what to do next.

Sitting in the corner he waited for the beast to return, not knowing how long his encounter with the woman would take and feeling worse by the minute. He considered cleaning, but yet again realized the castle had instantly taken care of that and found himself less grateful for the automation as he no longer had any tasks to distract himself with.

Time passed  and he poked his head down the hall just a bit to find nothing of interest. He tried listening in case he could somehow hear whatever conversation the two were having off in the other end of the castle, though he knew that was also futile.

Kicking his feet at the ground, he circled the kitchen table and seriously considered sneaking out anyways. If he was careful, he could get lucky and find an opportunity to sneak up and take a frying pan to the witch's head!