It hadn't been long since Jerry signed a contract with the Jacksons. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if the time was less than five hours.
So, how was it possible to guess his measurements and pile on clothes just before his arrival?
Jerry shivered. These scary bastards might have really orchestrated everything to have him end up here!
He shut the closet before reaching out to his phone and staring blankly. He eventually shoved it back inside his pocket.
It really hadn't been up for five hours!
Dina had a lot of questions, but after a quick contemplation, she let it go. Even if she found out the answer, what good would it do her?
Jerry moved from the WIC and peered through the window. He could see the sides of the house covered with neatly trimmed grass.
Everything about his room was excellent… despite the startling reveal.
'There's no bathroom inside my room, so I'm guessing I'll have to use the one in the middle?'
Jerry frowned a bit. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to share one bathroom with Jack now… would he?
He had finally arrived at his final destination, and after a few polite knocks, he called out to Jack.
"Young master? It's me, your new… caretaker?"
He wasn't exactly sure what to say, since maid was simply incorrect and servant seemed rather limited for the range of duties he was to fulfill.
He was ignored rather blatantly, and after struggling a while with his morality, he finally took out the multipurpose key.
'This is for his good…'
"You're just fulfilling your curiosity—"
'—And duty! Now shush!'
"...."
A soft click, and Jerry opened the door lightly. "Young master?"
There was still not a single answer, and after a bit of brooding, he silently intruded—and nearly lost his soul.
'Holy fuck!'
Jerry stumbled backwards with a start, nearly tripping and falling.
In front of him was a boy sitting on a small fluffy armchair with drooping head and wide-open eyes, while silent snores escaped his lips.
It had come so suddenly that Jerry was scared witless.
'Who the fuck sleeps with eyes wide open?!'
Apparently, this master of his did. He opened his mouth to say something, and then clenched his fist, rolling it to help him shut it.
He still had to be careful. It'd be ridiculous if he cursed him out and he overheard and never forgave him for it. Then his job would become even more difficult.
Jerry sighed softly and, with calm steps, approached Jack, who was still quite fast asleep.
He scooped him from the chair and felt a bit grateful he was light, or else with his feebleness, their collapse would have been one heck of a show.
His eyes fell onto the child who had now closed his eyes in slumber.
He bore a startling resemblance to his mother, but his appearance was much more polished and beautiful.
His skin was porcelain, fair with a hint of fragility surrounding him. His lips were dry and pale—almost like he was lacking in various vitamins.
He had nasty dark circles under his eyes, and his tall dark green lashes and long green hair made him appear quite effeminate, along with his petite figure that looked more like that of a teen girl starving to achieve some faux beauty standard than that of a teen boy.
Jerry gently laid him on the bed, using a pillow to anchor his head before covering him with the thick blanket.
The room was well-ventilated, but he still opened up the windows, closing only the nets, allowing fresh air to filter through.
This young master of his looked… very sickly.
Dina felt even more ashamed. The luxury surrounding him had made her subconsciously forget his state of affairs, but now she had learned her lesson.
She would exercise maximum consciousness of his state of affairs from now on!
***
The next thing Jerry did after the tour was to take a quick shower, change his outfit, and settle down.
After much tinkering with the botched hair, Dina just came to accept the fact that only a professional barber could fix this mess, or just let the hair grow out on its own.
And thus, after combing it into a neat state, she let it be.
'It feels odd having natural white and pink hair. And pink eyes. I can't stop feeling like it's fake.'
"Wanna pluck it off then?"
'....'
Rude bastard.
Jerry finally fell into the soft bed and melted into its sweet embrace. Frankly speaking, wealth with suffering was far better than poverty with suffering.
Dina wasn't sure what Jack had been going through, but he was still far better off than Jerry.
At least he could have good food and a decent place to sleep while being bullied. As for Jerry, he was being bullied and still lived a trashy life.
'Nah, both are just as terrible tbh.'
"..."
And why was he being bothered by this nonsense?
Jerry accessed the documents the agent had spoken about and went through everything.
It was like a to-do list as the young master's servant. From the daily duties, which included cleaning, cooking, handling his daily lessons, to the other duties, including stocking up food items from the butler, changing out the young master's wardrobe from time to time, and various others.
There was quite a lot, and boy, was Dina glad she completed the role adaptation training—especially Module 1.
The next place she accessed was the internet. It took her some time and clicking as many icons as she could to do so, and even then Zero had to lead her through the entire thing, because this world's technology had a severe case of "similar enough to be understood yet too foreign to be fully accessed."
She slid onto the internet and was met with a whole different world… To be exact, it looked just like the internet she knew, except people with different colored eyes and hair, beast features, and A/B/O terms were the norm.
'This should be the Twitter equivalent of this world… right?'
Only when she saw a distressful post from a mother whose child's beast heritage was that of an ant did it truly dawn on her how different this world was.
The child had recently differentiated and had learned to use his beast powers—one of them being shrinking.
He had… yes, the mother was a male, but an omega male, and Dina had to reread a couple of times before it clicked.
Anyway, the mother had shouted at his child for not doing their chores, and the kid, in annoyance, not only turned into his ant form but shrunk and hid away.
Now everyone was alert and on their tiptoes to avoid accidentally stepping on him, and the mother was really worried.
Though most of the comment section was filled with humorous replies, the helpful ones advised the mother to either lure him out with his favorite food or snacks, or let him come out on his own after he got tired of playing.
Some advised hiring a Beastman with excellent eyesight to find the child.
One particular comment proposed:
"Do you have someone close whose beast heritage is your son's natural enemy? I suggest you invite them over—watch that little brat run into your hands crying."
The whole thing was… fantastical to Dina, to say the least, especially when it dawned on her even more that this was now her new reality.
Perhaps Zero was right—oddly colored hair and eyes were the least of her worries.
"I never said that."
'Shut. Up.'
***
Jerry was awakened by the alarm clock on his phone, and the first thing he did after brushing was to clean out the whole house.
Since most places were still neat, he did more sweeping and dusting than mopping. In about an hour, he was done with cleanup, and after throwing out his old clothes, which he had put into the trash, he took a shower, dressed casually, and with his pair of fluffy, silent slippers, slid into the kitchen.
Luckily, the groceries were fully stocked, and after much pondering, he decided to prepare something savory for breakfast.
Soon the plates were stacked, and a warm, fluffy banana pancake stack paired with cheesy scrambled eggs, crispy turkey bacon, fresh berries, and a creamy banana-choco smoothie was completed.
Jerry suddenly felt embarrassed. Had he gone over the top?
Cooking was one of Dina's favorite sports. Normally, she was too lazy to try and would order takeout.
But sometimes, once the cooking spell hit her, she'd end up spending the rest of the day trying out different recipes—ending up stuffing herself so much that the next day would start with an impromptu visit to the gym. That was, until she got her own home gym.
The dining table was placed at a distance in the living room, directly facing the television.
But Jerry decided on the logical decision: serving Jack breakfast in his room. There was no way such a gloomy child would come around so quickly.
A loud knock shattered the calm drawl of the morning, and after a whole minute of knocking, Jerry accessed his trusty key and let himself inside.
Jack was still sleeping. He sighed a bit in relief. Somehow, this was better than being willfully ignored.
Jerry placed the tray of food on the small table across the room before moving to Jack.
He suddenly changed his mind. He'd have to somehow convince Jack to move to the living room for breakfast to clean his room.
"Young master. Young master, please wake up. Young master!"
It took Jerry a startling amount of time to awaken the sleeping boy, who woke up with a groggy look.
"W-who…?" he muttered quietly.
But Jerry's instincts were sharp, and he had managed to catch his voice—which was surprisingly more masculine than he had expected! Or perhaps the sleepiness made it seem so?
"Young master, I'm your new caretaker," Jerry smiled. "Breakfast is done. You should brush, then head to the living room to eat—I need to clean out your room."
Jack stared at him for an uncomfortably long time, and just as he was about to re-explain himself, the boy fell back in bed and covered his face with a blanket.
'....'
"Pfft—"
Dina: (╬ಠ_ಠ)