Chương 70: Chapter 33 : The Laundry Demon

The next morning, Aldric woke before sunrise, just as he had throughout his years of military campaigns. The first rays of sunlight streamed through the small attic window, casting a golden strip across the wooden floor. For a few moments, he remained seated on his mattress, observing the room that now belonged to him. Every object occupied the same place where he had left it the night before.

The chair stood facing the small table, the saucepan rested on the stovetop, and his sword still leaned in the corner of the room. Nothing had changed, yet everything felt different. For the first time since arriving on Earth, he was waking up in his own home. After putting away his bedding, he began organizing his belongings. His clothes were folded with the same precision as his former military equipment, but one detail caught his attention.

The T-shirts Emma had bought him still bore the marks of several days of work. His trousers were covered in dust, and his work gloves had lost their original color. In his former world, squires maintained armor, and servants washed the clothes of the largest garrisons. Here, no one would perform that task for him. △ SIDE QUEST △ Wash Your Clothes Difficulty: D Objective Clean your clothes. Aldric closed the window before looking at the pile of clothes resting on his chair. — A new quest...

His gaze then swept across the apartment. — I assume the necessary equipment can be found here. He opened the kitchenette cupboards, examined the bathroom, looked under the sink, and even inspected the small closet near the entrance. Inside, he found a few empty shelves, the electrical panel, and several products whose purpose he did not understand at all, but no installation resembling what he imagined a cleaning workshop should look like. — Strange...

He then remembered a conversation he had had with Emma a few days earlier. She had mentioned a machine capable of washing clothes without the need to scrub them by hand. The idea had seemed so extraordinary that he had assumed it was a joke. Yet Emma almost never joked when explaining how her world worked. He resumed his search. A few minutes later, he went down to the building's ground floor to inspect the common areas. A small room near the courtyard caught his attention. The door stood slightly open.

Inside, several white machines lined the wall. He stopped in front of the first one. It stood higher than his knees, had a circular opening on the front, and several symbols surrounded a rotary dial. A glass window allowed him to see the metal drum inside. He rested one hand on the top. — So this is the machine. He crouched down to examine the various pictograms. Numbers. Lines. Drawings of clothing. None of the inscriptions resembled any language he knew. He turned the dial. Nothing happened.

He then opened the circular door. The drum appeared before him. He reached a hand inside. — A purification chamber... He closed the door. Then his eyes returned to the various symbols engraved on the control panel. In his world, the most complex magical artifacts were almost always activated through runes. Some controlled fire, others water or wind. This machine could not function any other way. It had to possess runes of its own. He leaned closer to the control panel. — Cotton... Synthetic... Delicate...

The runes of this civilization are remarkably subtle. This artifact still lies beyond my understanding. He left the laundry room carrying his basket of clothes. He had barely stepped through the doorway when he spotted a figure already walking away down the hallway. It was Emma. She was heading toward the exit. — Emma. She turned around. — Oh! There you are! I went up to your apartment to check on you, but you didn't answer. I thought you'd already left. — I was trying to understand how this machine works.

Emma followed his gaze to the basket of laundry. Then to the laundry room door, which had been left slightly open. — Don't tell me that's what's giving you trouble... If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. — I suspect it requires an activation ritual that I have not yet mastered. — You've never used a washing machine? — Never. — Never even seen someone use one? — In my world, this task was carried out differently. — All right...

Then we'll start from the beginning. Emma crouched in front of the machine. — Watch carefully, because you'll have to do this by yourself soon. She opened the door and showed him how to place the clothes inside. — Don't fill it completely. You need to leave a little space so everything can move around. — Like a formation of soldiers... She then opened a small drawer above the door. — This is where you put the detergent. And most importantly... don't use too much. She poured a small amount into the compartment.

— Just this much. — That is enough? — Yes. She closed the drawer and turned the selector. — Then you choose the appropriate program. She explained the main settings, the temperature, the spin cycle, and the washing time. Each explanation found its place in his notebook. A few minutes later, the machine began to turn. — Impressive... — See? It's not complicated. — I believe I understand. Emma smiled at him before walking over to a second machine standing right beside it.

— And once the wash is finished, you can use this one. It's a dryer. — It removes the water from the clothes? — Exactly. You transfer the laundry into it, choose a program, and let it do the rest. Otherwise, you can let your clothes air-dry, but this is more convenient. — I understand. Emma closed the dryer's door. — Perfect. I still have a few errands to run. You can finish everything at your own pace. Aldric inclined his head. — Thank you for your instruction. She left the building.

Aldric waited for the first machine to finish its cycle. When the drum finally stopped, he removed the clothes and transferred them into the dryer. After observing it for a few moments, he found the settings Emma had shown him and started the program. He then turned toward the pile of dirty laundry he still had left to wash. — A second attempt will confirm the method. He loaded the drum. So far, everything was unfolding exactly as Emma had demonstrated.

When he opened the detergent drawer, his eyes settled on the bottle. — Strange... He remembered the small amount Emma had used. Yet that quantity seemed incredibly tiny to him. His gaze shifted toward the clothes he had just packed into the machine. There were noticeably more than during the demonstration. — A larger quantity of clothing probably requires more detergent. He poured in a little detergent, checked the level, then added some more. He hesitated for a moment before reaching for the bottle again.

— Better to err on the side of caution. He emptied the entire bottle into the drawer, closed it, and started the cycle. The first few minutes passed normally. The drum rotated, water flowed inside, and Aldric carefully observed each stage of the process. A thin layer of foam appeared behind the glass door. — Interesting... The foam, however, kept growing. Within moments, it covered the entire window. Aldric tilted his head. — It is multiplying... The foam was now trying to escape.

Bubbles began slipping beneath the machine's door. Aldric crouched down to examine them more closely. — That is unexpected. A stream of foam spilled onto the tiled floor. — It is counterattacking... In less than a minute, the entire laundry room was overrun. Aldric grabbed a towel and tried to contain the invasion. The foam continued its advance. He seized a second towel, with no greater success. Moments later, the foam had already reached his ankles. It was at that exact moment that someone knocked on the door.

— Aldric? Emma opened the laundry room door and froze on the threshold. The small room had disappeared beneath a veritable mountain of foam. At the center of the disaster stood Aldric, an empty bucket in one hand, covered in foam from head to toe. She burst out laughing. — The demon has won, said Aldric. — How much detergent did you use? — More than you did. — A lot more? — I concluded that a larger quantity of clothes required a larger quantity of detergent. Her eyes drifted to the detergent bottle.

It was almost empty. — Aldric... — You used about a hundred times the normal amount. — That explains it... △ SIDE QUEST △ Clean Everything Difficulty: B Objective Restore the laundry room. Without wasting another second, she rolled up the sleeves of her sweater and grabbed a mop from the utility closet by the entrance. — All right... First, we stop the demon from conquering the hallway. — Understood. They opened the laundry room window to air out the space, then began pushing the foam toward the floor drain.

Aldric quickly realized he needed to be just as careful as he had been during the moving jobs. Several times, he wrung out the mop with far too much force, sending soapy water splashing all the way to the ceiling. — Easy! — My apologies. Every time they thought they had cleared all the foam from one corner of the laundry room, fresh bubbles escaped from the washing machine or crept out from beneath the two appliances. Gradually, however, the foam began to recede.

The tiled floor reappeared, the machines regained their white color, and the hallway was no longer under siege. When the last trace of foam finally disappeared, the two of them leaned back against the laundry room wall, still slightly out of breath. — In the end... we made it. — Thanks to your help. — You would have managed on your own eventually. — More slowly. And probably with much greater damage. Thank you... for everything.

△ NEW PASSIVE ACQUIRED △ Read the Instructions Rank: E Description Reading the instructions before using an unfamiliar artifact greatly reduces the risk of catastrophic failure.