Name: Himeko
Species: Human
Rank: 1st Maid (Head Maid)
Title: "Supreme Executive of Domestic Superiority"
Performance Overview: Himeko does not perform tasks—she delegates them. Often to no one. A walking HR violation in designer heels, she commands the household with all the grace of a hostile takeover. She’s never cleaned a thing in her life and insists the dirt should be grateful to be in her presence. She claims the position of “Head Maid” was divinely appointed. Everyone else remembers a coin toss and a lot of screaming.
Strengths: Does absolutely nothing, yet everyone fears her.
Weapon-grade side-eye. Can curdle milk with a glance.
Can recite the entire workplace policy manual... which she wrote herself... None of it is legal.
Weaknesses: Cannot be told “no.” Relies entirely on fear-based productivity (and it works).
Refuses to clock in or out. Claims “time is beneath me.”
Thinks “employee morale” is a type of French pastry.
Coworker Interactions:
Enma: Constantly trying to challenge Himeko for dominance. Has lost 37 consecutive times.
Nozomi: Terrified of her. Pretends to be asleep whenever Himeko enters the room. It works. Sometimes.
Miren: The only one who might not be afraid. Himeko respects that. (Which is even scarier.)
Xyntra: Once tried to cause a paradox by rewriting Himeko out of existence. It failed. Himeko doesn’t acknowledge her presence anymore.
Amaranth: Seething rivalry. Passive-aggressive hymns exchanged daily.
Employee Goal: “To maintain absolute power”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
[ARC: THE HOUSE] // CH.07: PRIDE [Himeko]
Recorded by Isoka.
Himeko asked to see me.
No one ever says no to Himeko. You don’t get a memo. You don’t get a warning. You just hear your name echo across the PA system in that tone, and then you show up. Or vanish. Depending on your life choices.
I showed up.
Her office is immaculate, of course. Not because she cleaned it—because it stays clean out of fear. The plants don’t wilt. The dust doesn’t settle. The chair legs squeak once and then learn better.
She was already seated when I entered. Legs crossed, one hand on the desk, perfectly still.
“Isoka,” she said. No ‘hello.’ No ‘please sit.’ Just my name, like a verdict.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You’ve been assisting the top six maids this week.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And nothing… unusual has happened?”
This is a trap.
This is a hundred percent a trap.
I thought about the hallway that turned into a M?bius strip.
The vacuum that whispered confessions.
The mirror Amaranth prayed into for twenty minutes straight.
Koko’s unauthorized flash mob.
“No,” I said. “Nothing unusual.”
“Mm.” She stared at me. “You’re either lying, or very stupid. Possibly both.”
“...Thank you?”
She stood up slowly. Never raising her voice, never looking away.
“Something is wrong with the House.”
The room seemed colder after she said it. Like the air itself went silent.
“I’ve reviewed the schedules. The reports. The surveillance logs. There are… gaps.”
“Like data corruption?”
“Like missing people. Forgotten entries. Rooms that weren’t built but still exist.”
“…Oh.”
“One of the maids isn’t who she claims to be.”
“You think one of the Seven is—”
“No. Not one of them. One of you.”
She walked around the desk. Her heels didn’t click. The floor just moved to accommodate her.
“There’s an eighth. Or… there was. The system doesn’t remember her. But I do. Pieces of her. A fragment. A flicker in the network. A mistake. A… ghost.”
“And you think I’m her?”
“I think you’re close to her. Or you’ve seen her. Or you are her. I haven’t decided yet.”
I didn’t know what to say.
It wasn’t a threat. Not exactly. But it also wasn’t not a threat.
“If there’s someone else here,” I said, slowly, “shouldn’t we be looking for her?”
“We are.”
“Together?”
“No. You’re bait.”
I blinked. She smiled.
“Dismissed.”
End of Day Seven.
I don’t know what just happened. I don’t know if she’s right. I don’t know if I am.
But something is wrong with this House. I feel it. In the walls. In the pipes. In the way the floors creak when no one’s walking.
Something’s coming.
And for the first time since I started here, I don’t think the boss is in control anymore.