Shangri La Pt. 1

114: Been Through

( Still in Flashback! )

"Ah– W-Wait– Where are all of you going?" 

"Where do you think? We're all done for the day?" 

"W-What?! B-But what about all this laundry that needs to be done?" 

"Ah– She has a point. I know~" a maid hummed as she pointed right at Izumi. 

"You take care of all of it."

Hearing such a blatant answer left Izumi stuck that she froze up and unsure if she heard the right thing. 

"E-Eh? B-But... W-Why me?" 

"You said it yourself earlier to Takeyama. You know how to do a lot of things, and though some of it might be different here, and that you can manage. You're not trying to take back your own words and act like a child, are you?" 

"Ah– N-No, I-I can handle it, b-but I don't know how to use something like that... large tool." 

"Then figure it out yourself." 

"Ha?" 

"What makes you think we'd wanna help someone who's from the East? Definitely not me." 

"Me neither."

"B-But... But I–" 

"Yah– We're already done for the day, so stop trying to stop us when it's clear that you can take care of this all by yourself." 

"Yeah, so make sure you get everything done before the morning, so you might not wanna try and fall asleep anytime soon." The maids laughed as they all rushed out the door and left the helpless greenette all alone. 

'T-They... They actually left me behind... to take care of all of... this?' Izumi thought as she turned around to see the piles of dirty laundry left behind. Some of it was still wet from the wash, but that didn't really help the greenette in any way. 

Though Izumi wanted to be surprised and upset by all of this happening to her, she could only sigh, as she remembered all the things she had to deal with back when she was younger.

'Hah~ Not the first time I've been left behind and forced to do all the work, seems no matter where I go... people will judge me differently, and not in a good way. Well, there's no reason for me to just stand here and let all of this sit here when it needs to be done and clean. Erm– But that big tool... it looks too strenuous to do all by myself. Hmm~ Ah– I got it!'

"Mn! This place should be perfect, no one will bother me over here." Izumi told herself as she reached the roof of the palace to see how large and open the roof was revealed to be. And not only this, but it seems that the maids have actually done some laundry on the roof in the past, as there were still clotheslines hung out. 

"That'll help me after I wring all the water out of the sheets. Right, time to log everything here and then get to work." she agreed as she stretched her arms and back before heading back to the washing room and hawling basket after basket full of laundry that needed to be cleaned. Finally, after carrying everything that she needed onto the roof, Izumi knew there was no point in dilly dallying any further. 

"Umm~ Guess I should start." Izumi told herself as she started by grabbing certain things and organizing them into certain piles to help herself tell which to clean in order.

"There we go, now that everything's sorted, I can get to the hardest past!" 

"Huh? Izumi?"