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The Caretaker of Tenants From Another World - Chapter 128
🕑 Added 2022-08-30 23:58:12 +0000 UTCAlt link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PXTnP_vZLYDLv_QbfZaC0d8jQjq8pU8Vlj5ZsQcbtQI/edit?usp=sharing
Chapter 128
Both dorms gathered to introduce each other. Mine went first because we were the largest. Rebecca Stiltson, the caretaker of the Santa Barbara branch dormitory, was incredibly touchy-feely. I figured it had to do with her being a Californian. Her lingo sure fit the bill.
For every one of my tenants that introduced themselves, Rebecca clasped their hand or fist pumped, and followed up by taking a selfie with them.
It finally came to me, and Rebecca yanked my hand for a shake. She threw an arm around my shoulder and smiled wide, snapped a photo of us with her phone, and lightly backhanded my chest.
"I can already tell by their introductions your tenants are chill!" Rebecca exclaimed, then turned to hers to cue them.
"It's nice to meet you all! My name is Seresyia." The lamia woman bowed.
Easily standing taller than everyone with the exception of Irapesha, Seresyia was very well the longest of anyone here when accounting for the rest of her length. Brilliant black and brown scales covered most of her serpentine body, and the upper half was perfectly human with two arms and a normal face.
Professional decorum urged me forward to shake Seresyia's hand. "Pleasure to meet—"
A long and thin, almost ribbon-like tongue flicked out of the lamia's mouth and brushed against my face. Petrified with fear and confusion, I stood there and let it happen.
"Help. What's… What's going on… Why is Seresyia licking me?" I asked, pursing my lips inwards and squeezing my eyes shut.
"Sorry! I keep forgetting I'm not supposed to do that!" Seresyia stopped and apologized profusely.
"Ahaha!" Rebecca doubled over in laughter. "As a serpent netherfolk, her eyes can only make out shapes and heat. They use their tongues to inspect things to get a better read. Sure as hell gave me mixed signals when she first did that to me!"
I rolled my eyes and sighed just as Rebecca's next began introducing himself. The young elven boy, who couldn't be older than Tamara, made a series of gestures with his hand that I didn't understand.
The caretaker knelt down and put an arm around his shoulder. "He said, 'I'm Jonah. I hope to get along with everyone.' Jonah lost his voice during the war. Spent some time teaching him American Sign Language. You can speak to him, but he won't be able to speak to you."
Rebecca performed some motions with her hand to Jonah, who nodded as his cheeks took on a shade of pink. She hugged the kid, then ruffled his hair into a mess. A universal sign of affection from any caretaker it seemed, since I also often did it to Tamara.
"Hi, hi! I'm Huon." A taloned hand clasped mine with a fair grip.
The third was a male harpy of the owl variety. He was about as tall as myself, not counting the feathers flaring past his head like horns. His magnificent coat of brown, white, and black feathers was beautiful and brilliant. I could only imagine that the full wingspan must be quite the sight.
"Oh, Huon. Did you remember to bring sunscreen?" Rebecca asked from behind.
Suddenly, Huon's neck did a full 180 turn and left me staring in horror at the back of his head.
"We're out. I even told you yesterday, Becca! Seriously, you really should be keeping track of your own belongings." Huon sighed and turned back to me like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"If… it's sunscreen you need, I got some for you guys to use," I said, trying not to freak out from what looked like a fatal neck break.
"Really? You saved my ass. I get toasted like a slice of bread in the sun." Rebecca grinned, then whistled for Aquaria, her fourth and last tenant whom we already had the pleasure of meeting.
Mine and Rebecca's tenants were already hitting it off. Tamara, the extrovert that she was, pulled Jonah along to meet Ivory and Remmy. Even though they had a hard time communicating, my tenants got through to the elf through passionate, incoherent gestures alone. Tamara even shared ice cream that she and Ange had bought with her new friends.
Huon was knee deep in conversation with Ange and Irapesha about memories back home. Cresta allowed Seresyia to lick her, enjoying it like she was being groomed. Then there was Ines, Val, and Isla who found Aquaria's existence as an undine, a water spirit, to be very interesting. Particularly my adoptive alraune daughter, dancing under a light shower from Aquaria.
"I just noticed something… How come there's such a gender discrepancy with our tenants? I've always wanted a netherfolk guy to hang out with, but all I have are girls!" I complained.
"Did you not check the tenant's preference box?" Rebecca asked.
"That was a thing?"
"Yeah, I remember. You only checked to receive female netherfolk tenants. My boy Akira was hoping for something-something," Reggie teased me with a smirk.
Rebecca and Grace tried to hide their laughter.
"It's not what you think! Oh, god— I completely forgot! Er… C-Can you check the 'all of the above' box for me instead?" I whispered to Reggie.
"Alright, pal. I gotchu."
Maybe I did have ulterior motives before I began, but this job had since grown on me. I wanted to continue taking this seriously.
"Why you looking so tense, my dude? We're at the beach! You gotta put a smile on or your tenants'll start thinking something's wrong," Rebecca said, dragging me under her arm again.
"I'd like to relax, but it's kind of hard when Reggie and Grace show up out of nowhere." I sighed.
"What do I have to say to convince you we aren't here for anything other than to have fun?" Reggie asked as he pulled out a cigarette carton and lighter from his trunks.
"Cali beaches are smoke free zones." Grace crushed the carton to Reggie's shock. "It's like I said, Akira: we're observing how your two dorms interact. Just a normal day at the beach otherwise. So far, so good."
"But why? They act as they normally do if it was Weyera."
"You sure about that? We'll just have to enjoy the rest of the day and see," she said in such a cryptic way that sowed down in my mind.
I awakened from my nap, lying on my favorite part of Ange's body— her lap. She looked downright celestial under the umbrella's shade, ocean breeze coursing through her jet black hair, and gazing out to the sea with a soft smile. Her eyes fell to mine, maybe to catch my sleeping face again, only to smile a little wider from seeing me awake.
"Did you sleep well?" Ange asked.
"Yeah, and thanks for not giving me a weird memory. Would've been embarrassing as hell to pop a boner in public," I said.
The succubus giggled, and I knew that devilish thought had crossed her mind. I sat up to her disappointment, and she hugged me from behind until the weight of my body rested against her. My eyes scanned the beach for my tenants, Rebecca, and the handlers.
"Where did everyone go, and how long was I out for?"
"Hmm. Maybe about two hours. The others are playing behind us," Ange said, gesturing over her shoulder.
When I craned my neck back, a giant sand structure blocked my view. No, not just some giant sand structure. It was a fucking castle.
"Uh… What?" I stared in disbelief.
"Oh, that? Tamara, Aquaria, Ivory, Remmy, and Jonah made that," Ange said as a matter of factly.
"They made— what?! How did the tiniest people of both dorms make a house-sized castle?"
I jumped from Ange's grasp and followed along the sand wall to the front. Beachgoers were taking pictures of the massive thing that stood ten feet at its tallest and maybe forty-feet wide. There was even a moat of water surrounding the walls and a castle gate that led inside, including a flag fluttering on a tower.
"Baa!" Rakka bleated from the top of the castle.
"Rakka? Get down from there!" I shouted.
"The queen doesn't take orders from you!" Tamara poked her head out from the ramparts and tossed a wet ball of sand at my feet.
I folded my arms.
"As impressive as this fort is, it'd be pretty dangerous if it collapsed. How did you guys even make this?" I asked.
"Jonah built it! He used magic to shape the sand, and Aquaria provided water!" Tamara exclaimed as the elven boy in question popped up next to her and waved.
"Yeah! Relax, my man. It's stable enough," Aquaria said, forming a face in the moat.
Where were Rebecca, Reggie, and Grace when I needed them?
Ange came up to me and shielded her eyes from the sun to gaze up at the children playing. From the gaps in the windows, human kids were also crawling inside the corridors. That was just how large the castle was.
"I thought it was fine. It looks stable enough," Ange said.
"What part of 'sand crumbling at the mere touch' seems stable to you?" I asked, picking up a handful of sand and letting them slip through my fingers.
A particularly large kid for his age tried to enter the open gates. However, as he squeezed in, the entire castle came crashing down. Everything collapsed, burying the children underneath a tomb of sand. Parents panicked and dove into the pile to fish their kids out.
"Ange!" I urged her to help me search until a bluish pink slime tentacle wriggled out, dragging with it a child in each appendage.
"I knew it was a bad idea, but what do they say when I tell these imbecilic children? They harp back! Remmy! You forgot another one in here," Saralash's scolding and muffled voice spoke from within.
Remmy and Saralash pulled everyone out to the parents' relief. The children were covered in sand, but perfectly fine otherwise.
Threads of water flowed out and reformed into the water spirit.
"Uhh… My bad. Guess it wasn't as stable as I thought," Aquaria said.
"Don't you have lifeguard duties?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.
"Gimme a break. I'm off the clock!"
The last to emerge was Rakka, shoving Tamara and Jonah out with her head. Both of them glanced up apologetically at us.
"Aha… Sorry," Tamara said, spitting out a mouthful of sand.
Ange picked up Tamara, and I picked up Jonah. As I brushed the sand away from his hair and shoulders, the elven boy's gaze remained fixed to the ground, seemingly out of shame.
"You built the castle, right?" I asked him.
Jonah looked me in the eyes and nodded.
"You have a lot of talent to make something that cool, but let's try to play more safely from now on. Can you make something like a… pony?"
The boy thrusted his hands to the sand, pulling them into a small whirlwind under his control. They coalesced and compacted together to form a two-foot tall replica of a horse. I carried him onto the saddle.
"Whaaaat? That's so cool! I want to ride on a horse, too!" Tamara exclaimed.
"Me, too!"
"Us, too! Please!"
Other kids joined in asking the flustered Jonah, and he was more than happy to create it for them. The parents were even willing to let their child on it, seeing as it was a safer alternative than a castle that could easily become a burial ground.
"See?" I patted Jonah on the head, knocking loose some sand still stuck in his hair. "You can still have fun like this, too."
Jonah beamed at me, flashing a smile that was missing a front tooth.
"Oi… Did you guys forget about me? I'm here, too…" Ivory, half-buried in the sand, stuck a hand out to wave for help.
"Where were you in the castle?" I asked, fishing them out.
"I was the flag!"
"Huh. I did remember seeing a flag. Anyway, do you know where the others are?"
Ivory pointed to the volleyball courts, where a large group of people had gathered to watch the games being played. I left the tenants in Ange's care and went to investigate. All I could hear were the sound barrier-breaking smashes and grunts until I pushed to the front.
The source of the apocalyptic sounds, as I was shocked beyond words to find out, belonged to four netherfolks duking it out in a game of volleyball. Cresta and Seresyia on one side, and Irapesha and Huon on the other. Each strike nailed the ball with such force that it could knock someone's head right off, yet people were more unconcerned about their safety than being at a NASCAR race.
"Ah. Good of you to join us, Caretaker."
I looked to my right to find Val in her bikini, sitting on a lounge chair and drinking from a coconut. Isla sat at her legs, also drinking from a cup.
"What happened to feeling like this?" I asked.
"I'm better now that I'm being pampered." Val grinned.
"Pampered…?"
"Queen Valeanor! I've brought you the fruit bowl!" A rather chunky man bumbled through the crowds to deliver Val her snacks.
"I got the umbrella! This should provide you some shade!" Another man, bespectacled and naive, staked the umbrella into the ground next to her seat and began fanning her.
"Thank you, kind servants. You may leave until I have further need of you," Val said, dismissively brushing them off.
In spite of the cold gratitude, both guys were more than happy to obey.
"I know you're smart enough not to mind-control people out in the open. Which means you're taking advantage of single and desperate men." I glared.
"It's not my fault they fawn over me! They serve at their own leisure. Now, do not distract me from this match. Irapesha and Huon are at match point against Cresta and Seresyia."
As the battle heated up, Seresyia punted the ball to set up for Cresta. She leapt high and smashed with all her might. The ball struck the ground, leaving behind a crater and flying high into the sun.
"Tch. Huon, it's all yours!" Irapesha shouted.
"I got it!" Huon flew up, and everyone tried to track him into the sky. The blaring sun blinded all of us. He caught up to Cresta's smash and punted the ball back into court, where Irapesha jumped to return the winning smash.
Cresta and Seresyia, neither expecting the two to hit it back, went for the guard. Irapesha clenched her fist and punched it so hard that the ball exploded in their faces. Shredded pieces of leather scattered across the spectators.
"Aww, what? We need a new ball!" Cresta shouted to the crowds.
"YOU GUYS BROKE THEM ALL!" the crowds roared back.
"Did we win?" Huon returned to the court, kicking up wind as he landed.
"No, we annihilated another ball." Irapesha sighed.
"Guys, what did I say about indoor strength?" I interrupted the match by running into the court.
"But we're outdoors," Cresta retorted.
I chopped her on the forehead and received a pout in return.
"Normal strength then," I corrected myself.
"But I didn't even break the ball this time!"
As the crowds dispersed now that the fun was over with, they were replaced with Reggie, Grace, and Rebecca returning with ice cream and fries in hand.
"Where have you guys been?" I asked, throwing my hands up in exasperation.
"Trying to teach you a lesson," Grace said, tossing a fry into her mouth. "See now what I mean about netherfolks? We leave for a few hours, and they are already causing a disturbance. Sure, not intentionally, but you can understand how this might cause problems."
"Especially when they eventually move out of the dormitories and come across each other without our supervision," Reggie added.
Sighing, I shot Rebecca a look of defeat. She handed me a popsicle which was already melting in my hand.
"We both want what's best for our tenants," Rebecca began. "If we want them to live well after leaving our dorms, then we gotta work harder to help them adjust. As it stands now, do you feel comfortable with any of your tenants going off on their own?"
As I cycled through my netherfolk tenants, the only answer that came to me was a resounding 'no'. More than that, I didn't want them to leave me. They were my family. But maybe being like a glorified babysitter wasn't actually helping anyone become independent.
Had I been failing this entire time?
"You got my attention. What do you suggest then?" I asked the three.
Reggie and Grace traded glances, but it was the latter who assumed the stage.
Grace cleared her throat before beginning. "The Caretaker Program is still in its infancy. We're constantly refining and polishing the best implementation of it. So far, no netherfolk have moved out of a dormitory. We want to add a new phase, a pilot program if you will, to gauge the readiness of a netherfolk's independence. We want to take an adult netherfolk, who you believe to be the most capable tenant of your two dorms, and have them live as roommates away from your supervisions for a month. Of course, we will monitor from afar but at a lesser capacity. They will essentially be completely independent."
Letting one of my tenants go for one month? I turned to Cresta, Irapesha, and Val, who were among the adults of the dorm, including Ange. They returned my stare with hesitation, like none of them wanted to leave. Realization finally hit… I didn't want to let any of them go, and that was what made me unfit to be their caretaker.
For their sake and the sake of netherfolks to come who want to live in this world, I only had one choice.
"Hey, I know you're worried." Rebecca patted me on the back. "I am, too. But Huon, Seresyia, and Aquaria are all great people. I know just at a glance, your tenants all got a good head on their shoulders. Whoever you send them with, you have my word they will get along just fine."
"Okay," I said with a reluctant sigh. "Sign me up, too."
