Reborn as the Psycho Villainess Who Ate Her Slave Beasts' Contracts-Chapter 59 --

"None, Your Highness. No dedicated storage spaces. No pantry beyond the kitchen itself. And no outer buildings—no servants’ quarters, no stables, no separate structures. Everything is contained in the main house."

Elara processed that. Seventeen rooms for sleeping and working. One small kitchen. No storage. No outer buildings.

Tight. Very tight for thirty-two people.

The beast knights stood silently, processing the information about the seventeen rooms. Captain Lyra’s expression remained neutral, but Elara noticed the slight tension in her shoulders.

They were thinking about the outer house. Or rather, the lack of one.

In the palace, beast knights had dedicated barracks—separate buildings with proper heating, individual quarters, training spaces. Outer houses were standard for any noble household with guards. A place for warriors to stay that wasn’t mixed with the main household.

Here, there was nothing. No outer building. No separate quarters. Just the main house.

Which meant the beast knights would be sleeping in whatever room they were assigned. In a house that was barely heated. Through winter. For three months minimum, possibly longer.

If it were one or two days, they could endure sleeping in the cold. But three months? Or longer? In these conditions?

None of them said anything. They just lowered their heads and remained silent. Accepting the reality without complaint because what else could they do? They were sworn to follow. Complaining wouldn’t change the situation.

Elara made note of it. Another problem to solve eventually. But for now, she needed to organize what they had.

"Room distribution," she said, pulling everyone’s attention. "Three rooms set aside for work purposes: one for my study that doubles as an office. One for the administrators’ workspace. One for storing documents and goods."

Dimitri was taking notes quickly.

"One room for me personally," Elara continued. "Now count the females excluding me."

"Lisa, Mira, Petra," Dimitri counted. "Plus six female beast knights. That’s nine females total, not counting you, Your Highness."

"Nine females. Three per room. That’s three rooms for female quarters." Elara looked at the males. "Males?"

"Twenty-three males," Captain Lyra said. "Nineteen male beast knights plus three male administrators."

"Three males per room where possible. Twenty-three divided by three is approximately eight rooms—seven rooms with three males each, one room with two males. Eight rooms total for men."

The beast knights’ heads came up slowly, eyes widening.

"Wait," the fox knight said. "Your Highness, you’re placing the beast knights... in the same room arrangements as the administrators?"

"Yes. Three per room. Mixed distribution between administrators and knights as makes sense for compatibility."

"But—" The hawk knight looked genuinely shocked. "We’re guards. We don’t... we’re not assigned the same quality quarters as—"

"You’re all part of my household now," Elara interrupted. "Same distribution system applies to everyone. Three people per room regardless of role. That’s efficient and equal."

The silence was profound. Several beast knights looked at each other in disbelief.

"Your Highness," Captain Lyra said carefully, "in the palace, beast knights have... significantly different accommodations from administrative staff. We’re typically housed separately. In barracks. With more people per space."

"This isn’t the palace. And cramming Twenty-five warriors into one or two rooms would be inefficient and reduce your effectiveness." Elara looked at them. "Three per room. Same as everyone else. Is that a problem?"

"No, Your Highness," Lyra said quickly. "Just... unexpected."

"Get used to unexpected decisions." Elara turned back to Dimitri. "So that’s my room, three for females, eight for males, three for work spaces. That’s fifteen rooms. Two remaining."

"One room positioned between the male and female quarters," Dimitri said, catching on. "Creates separation. Can be used for storage."

"Exactly. The final room becomes a reception room for receiving visitors and conducting business meetings that don’t require my study."

"All seventeen rooms accounted for," Mira said, sounding impressed despite herself.

Behind them, the beast knights were still processing the fact that they’d been given the same room distribution as administrators. The same treatment as valued household staff rather than expendable guards.

"It’s not ideal," Elara acknowledged, looking at all of them. "Sharing rooms. No outer buildings. Limited space. Once we establish income from preservation magic, we can expand. But for now, this is functional."

"Functional," the hawk knight muttered. Then louder: "Your Highness, are you certain about housing beast knights with the same considerations as administrators? Most royals wouldn’t—"

"I’m not most royals. You’re all part of this household. You all left the palace for me. You all get treated as valuable members of the operation, not disposable muscle." She gestured at the house. "Now, assignments. Dimitri, finalize who shares which rooms with consideration for compatibility. I’ll start cleaning the female quarters and my room first. Then rotate to male quarters."

As people scattered to their tasks, the beast knights remained clustered together, clearly still shocked.

"She’s housing us like we’re administrators," one of them whispered.

"Three per room. Same as everyone else."

"That’s... that’s actually better than palace barracks. We had eight per room there."

"She got us carriages on the dock. Now equal housing. What kind of princess is this?"

The fox knight just shook his head slowly. "The kind we follow. Apparently."

Elara ignored the murmurs and headed for the stairs to begin the exhausting work of magically cleaning rooms.

Seventeen rooms. Thirty-two people distributed equally regardless of role.

It was practical. It was fair. It was logical.

And apparently, it was shocking. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Good. They could all be shocked together while they made this horrible mansion livable.

One dusty room at a time.

.

.

.

By the time the sun set, Elara had managed to magically clean five rooms as promised—her own, the three female quarters, and one male room. She was exhausted in a purely physical way, her magical reserves depleted to the point where even maintaining the small light spell in her hand made her head hurt.

The cleaned rooms were habitable. Barely. Dust-free and bug-free, but still mostly empty of functional furniture.

Which brought them to the first major problem of the evening.

"The beds don’t work," Mira announced, standing in one of the female quarters looking at a bed frame that was missing critical support slats. "This one’s broken. The mattress just... falls through."

"This one has bugs in it," Petra called from another room, her voice high-pitched with disgust. "Living bugs. Inside the actual mattress."

"The blankets are moldy," Lisa added weakly from a third room.

Elara closed her eyes briefly. Of course. Of course the furniture that had looked salvageable was actually disaster waiting to be discovered.

"So we have no functional beds," Dimitri summarized from the doorway.

"Apparently not."

"Where are we sleeping tonight?"

Elara looked around the now-clean but furniture-less rooms. "The floor, presumably."

***

The kitchen situation was worse.

Soren returned from his assessment looking grim. "Your Highness, the kitchen is... problematic."

"Define problematic."

"The stove doesn’t work. The pump for water is rusted through and leaking. There’s a rat’s nest in what used to be the pantry. And I’m pretty sure something died in the chimney because the smell is unspeakable."

Elara processed that. "So we can’t cook tonight."

"We can’t cook for the foreseeable future without significant repairs. And pest removal. And possibly divine intervention."