Kai sat up in his bed, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
"Good morning, my godchild," Vira floated above him in her pixie-form. "Today we will—"
"Please, no more cleaning," he moaned. "We spent the past three days scrubbing almost every inch of this house; I even used the last of my month's allowance on three sets of bed sheets that I'll never need, and I can't for the life of me understand why I bother doing any of this myself to begin with." He sighed. "The whole point of this is to help me find a girlfriend… Don't you see the irony in that—how crazy this is?" He looked at Vira expectantly, but the fairy godmother just seemed confused. She didn't get it. "Cleaning is a woman's job!"
"Who'd want to clean after you, fugly?" Vermallelia crossed her arms, her back leaning against the wall by the window.
"Look who's talking. What would a sewer rat like you know about cleaning?"
"I clean my fur every day, unlike you, who showers once a—"
"Enough, you two, or do I have to take your voices away again?"
They fell silent.
Vira sighed. "Even if, by some miracle, you find a girlfriend who's happy to take care of all the household chores—the moment you invite her to an apartment that looks as horrid as yours used to, she'll run for the hills, and you'll never see her again. As long as you live alone, you have to learn to clean and take care of the house… How you distribute chores once you are in a relationship is between you and your future partner."
Kai grunted a begrudging agreement.
"Besides… look around you," she gestured to the room. "Doesn't it feel much nicer to be in such a clean home?"
Kai pursed his lips and looked around. It really was nice. The room suddenly felt much larger without the clatter, the floor was more pleasant to walk on without the stickiness and dust, and finally having bed sheets—which smelled fresh and flowery—was oddly comforting. And he had to admit, all of this would have been much harder to get done without Vermallelia's and Vira's help. "It is nice…"
"Either way, it isn't what today is about."
"It isn't?"
Vira smiled. "It is time to move to something else—the next step in my ingenious plan."
"Okay…" he responded cautiously.
Her eye twitched with annoyance at his lackluster response, but she cleared her throat and continued onward. "Today you will…" She pointed her finger at him, her magical glow flaring. "Find a job!"
He stared at her blankly. "You know, I think I have a better idea."
"Oh?"
"Why don't we clean the fridge? Haven't done that yet. I am sure it will take us half a day or so."
"Whoa! Can we, can we, can we?" Vermallelia jumped in excitement, her mouth salivating at the opportunity.
"No, no, no. While I respect your sudden interest in something you consider to be a woman's job, I believe it is time for you to find a traditional man's job," she said. "I had planned to wait on your search for a career job until later, but that was because I thought you were at least partially employed. There is much we need to do for my plan to work, and to do anything, you need money."
"Ugh!" he groaned. "Fine, I'll stop by the grocery store down the street and ask if—"
"Oh, no. Absolutely not, that won't do," the fairy godmother smirked. "I know your secret, Kai, though I can't imagine why you hide it."
The Oathless gulped, knowing that whatever she found, it couldn't be good.
"You see, while you were busy cleaning the house, I did a little digging through your…" She paused, looking for the right 'modern' word. "Computer! And sifted through the records you keep in that digital dimension."
"Ah…" His mind went blank.
"No, Godmother, tell me you didn't," Vermallelia cried in horror.
"Oh, I did, and I found it—your stash…" She waved her hand at the monitor, conjuring the images with her magic.
Vermallelia covered her eyes.
"Your paintings," Vira said as dozens of pictures opened on the computer screen—mostly of women, who were mostly naked. "While you have plenty of images on your computer, I know these were created locally, on this very interface."
"I… I can explain," he said.
"Don't bother, pervert," the rat-girl couldn't help but peek between her fingers. "She found you out. There is no redemption for you."
"Redemption? Pervert? I hardly think that's appropriate, little helper."
"Godmother?"
"Ah…" Kai blinked. "You don't?"
Vira scoffed. "Drawing the bare human form is one of the first steps every artist takes in his path to mastery, and I would say, my dear godchild, you have quite the talent."
"You…" Kai smiled, "you really think so?" She nodded, and he blushed. "Look, I am flattered and all, but… my art is just a hobby, something I do for fun. I don't want to make a job out of it."
"Oh… I see." She closed her eyes and inclined her head. "I understand how you feel, and if you had any other prospects, I might have been able to accept that answer."
Kai nodded, misunderstanding her position. "But…" he thought he was adding helpfully.
She opened her eyes. "But… you don't have any other prospects."
"Ah…" He looked up at her, still not quite getting it. "So, what are you proposing?"
"That you become a professional digital artist."
"Ah…" He scratched his head. "I'm not sure I understand. What are you—"
"She is saying you are so useless; drawing half-naked women is your sole redeeming quality, and you are going to do it, for money, whether you want to or not."
"No, that can't possibly be—"
"That's exactly right," Vira cut him off. "But don't worry, I have led a godchild before on a similar path of artistry, so I am quite proficient in the practice myself and can give you plenty of advice. Naturally, if you require models for reference, Vermallelia and I would be happy to help."
"Haeh?" Vermallelia cried. "No way," she crossed her arms over herself. "I'd rather die than model in the nude for this pervert. Standing still for hours as he ogles me with his disgusting, lustful eyes," she shuddered. "I won't do it!"
"You won't have to model in the nude," Vira rolled her eyes. "And you won't have to stand for hours, either—Kai will simply take a picture, and—"
"Take a picture?! What, so he could publish it on some perverted website? I don't think so."
"He would never do something like that," she scowled at her godson. "Would you?"
"Ah…" he hesitated, thinking of the picture of her he had already uploaded to the G.I. chat server. "No, never."
Vermallelia narrowed her eyes. "Even if he isn't lying, are you really going to model for this creep?"
"I'd be glad to."
"Godmother!" the rat-girl gasped.
Vira crossed her arms. "Have you seen his paintings?"
Vermallelia scoffed. "Have you?"
"I did, and while I think his shading technique could use some work, and his style isn't to my taste, his line-art is quite good, and the underlying structure of his figures shows a conceptual understanding that could easily be improved to professional—or at least semi-professional—levels." She nodded to herself, satisfied with her own analysis. "Yes, in fact, I'd be quite honored to model for a fledgling artist, as he is in the process of discovering his full potential."
"Honored…" The rat-girl stared at her godmother, dumbfounded and defeated.
Kai shrugged. "It's not like I need models anyway. There are plenty of online resources I can use for reference… Don't get me wrong, having a model would be nice, but it isn't essential, and I can take pictures of myself if I really need to get a specific pose right."
"Then it's settled," Vira said. "Today, we will start your training. If you keep practicing every day, with my guidance, you will become as good as a professional in no time."
***
Vermallelia looked over the Oathless's shoulder. He had been playing B2B for hours now.
"Shouldn't you be practicing?" she asked.
It had been a week since he started his training, and this time of evening was usually reserved for working with Vira's guidance… only the fairy godmother was away that day.
"Maybe. What do you care?"
"Vira is going to be mad," she smirked.
"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," he said, and glanced at the rat-girl.
Her smirk turned into a wide grin.
A bead of sweat went down his brow. "You are gonna rat me out, aren't you?"
She narrowed her eyes, not appreciating the pun.
***
The bribe noodles were wrong, but so, so delicious, and the rat-girl slurped them up without a shred of guilt. Paying for her silence with food had stirred Kai's own appetite, and he had decided to take a break from his gaming, grab his own cup of instant noodles, and eat while watching a show.
The animated character on the screen wore a long red jacket and had a longsword strapped to his back—a tumor of flesh coating its handle, as if part of it was alive. Vermallelia recognized him from the posters in Kai's room.
"What are you watching?" she asked.
"BLOODRAGER, it's an anime about a demon hunter who is a half-demon himself. I've been watching it since I was a teenager. It's pretty good."
They continued watching, munching on their food, until Vira entered through the open window in her pixie-form.
"How are things progressing, Godchild?"
"Ah, Vira—hey—" Kai paused the episode, struggling to keep his cool. "Yeah… ah… everything is good. We are just taking a break. How have you been?"
"I went for a flight around the city, made some preparations for the next steps of my ingenious plan," she puffed out her chest, then paused, looking over his shoulder at the monitor. "Mind showing me what you worked on today?"
"Ah, you don't need to see it now. You just got back. We can review it later, or—tomorrow! Tomorrow would be—"
"Oh, I am a bit tired, but I just want a glance. We can keep the proper analysis for tomorrow."
He gulped and shifted the display on his screen to one of his old drawings, hoping she wouldn't notice.
The fairy godmother narrowed her eyes. "Kai…"
"Yeah?"
"What have you been doing for the past four hours?"
"Drawing."
"This is an old painting."
"I know, I tried to improve the shading, use some of the techniques you taught me. I know it doesn't look that much different, but that's just because I'm not very good yet, though I am getting—"
She ignored him and waved her hand at the screen, using a bit of her magic to pull back into view the program he was hiding. "I knew it!" she said as B2B appeared on screen. "You were playing this stupid video game all day, weren't you?"
Kai winced. "Look, I've been doing everything you asked for over a week now, without complaint, but I can't go on like this. I need some time to myself, some time to relax—it can't be all work all the time."
"And your solution was to trick me? Hope that I won't notice?" the fairy yelled, then turned her ire on the rat-girl. "And you, you must have known what he was up to—were you planning to keep it to yourself?"
"Wha—I—" she stammered, then put her cup aside and bowed. "I'm sorry, Godmother. He bribed me with noodles, I couldn't resist."
Kai clicked his tongue. In the end, she ratted him out anyway. He should have known.
Vira took a deep breath and exhaled angrily through her nose. "This merits a punishment."
"Ah…" He held his breath. Her magic could change animals into humans, take away voices, and who knew what else. He feared discovering what she would consider a worthy 'punishment'.
"You," she pointed at the rat-girl, "no pizza this week."
He let out the breath he had been holding, relaxing a bit. If that was the kind of punishment he had to look forward to, he could handle it.
"And you… You have been heard, my godchild, and you are right; you deserve a break every once in a while. But a break is only a break if it's bordered by hard work, isn't it?" She channeled her magic and shot it at the monitor. It spread through the cables, to the PC, then the router and the modem. The screen glitched, and Kai's account got disconnected from the B2B server.
"No! What-what did you do?" His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing his username and password.
Vira chuckled. "I took some time to research this game of yours—Born to Battle—as I figured it might become a hindrance in the process of our work. Within its Account Management Options, I found the ultimate solution."
Kai pressed Enter, and an error popped up on the screen. His jaw dropped. "No…" He shot up, knocking his chair over and grabbing his head in disbelief. "You-you… you activated Parental Control?!"
"Well, I am your god-mother, after all," she covered her mouth and giggled. "Your playtime is now limited to only a couple of hours per day, which I think is a healthy amount of time to spend on a relatively useless hobby, don't you?"
"There has to be a way to cancel that—" he opened his account on the B2B website. "I can open a service ticket, ask them to undo it… yes, if I can prove I'm not a minor, surely they would—"
"You are welcome to try, Godchild, but even the people who made this game won't be able to help you… not unless they can undo my magic."
"What the hell? What kind of spell is that? Vira's Cage of Boredom?"
"Please, I'd never be so vain as to name a spell after myself."
"So… just Cage of Boredom?"
The fairy clicked her tongue. "This is for your own good, Godchild—or do you wish to be Oathless forever?"
Kai clenched his fists and thought hard… there had to be something, anything he could do. "Sundays," he jabbed a determined finger at her. "I want full access on Sundays!"
"Hm…" Vira crossed her arms, considering. "Very well, as a reward for good behavior—if you complete all of your tasks—I will remove the Parental—"
"Cage of Boredom."
"Yes," she said with distaste. "I'll remove the Cage of Boredom, temporarily."
Kai nodded to himself, satisfied with the deal, when a thought occurred to him, and he smiled devilishly.
"Don't even think about it."
"Wha—were you reading my thoughts?"
"Like I would need to—you think you could play after midnight, when my spell weakens. Well, let me assure you, foolish godchild," she hovered over him. "I am going to work you so hard every day, that by midnight you'd be begging for sleep, understand?"
"Y-yes, Godmother…" he said warily.
"Good… Now, it's time for practice. You must make up for the hours you wasted away."
His shoulders sagged. "Yes, Godmother."