"Chapter 2, the first friend"
I'll cut to the chase : it's Gaap. Although by then Yasu thinks of her as "the witch always stealing stuff and playing pranks around me". Which makes some sense, considering what we already knew of Yasu's history from previous episodes. This convinces me that the poor child already has a very active imagination at this point (although Kumasawa's ghosts stories aren't helping)... which again makes me wonder about "Shannon".
"Chapter 3, days enraptured"
Darn you, Kumasawa, for calling tying the kid's key to her pocket with a string "a spider-web charm against the witch" ! This ain't helping ! I know you mean well, but spreading more magical realism into the impressionable child's world view isn't healthy... Especially as this allows Yasu to withstand the witch's pranks... and become somewhat friends with her. "Apparently, it's possible to build a friendship through verbal abuse..." Oh, dear...
Although all this does help Yasu get her shit together and become more competent at her job (the scene where maid!Lucifer gets humiliated for losing her key is a lot of fun), and thus more time to relax between her tasks. She becomes friends with Kumasawa, who makes Yasu share her hobby : mystery novels...
Yasu becomes quite the bookworm, although soon it becomes the now familiar game chess with Gaap!Beato : can Yasu guess the solution to the novel before the deadline ?
"Chapter 4, new days"
Years pass.
Bizarrely, all the other young servants suddenly quit at once. Apparently it sometimes happens (everyone's free to leave service at any time, and friends would sometimes quit together). Anyway, it's an obvious plot device to get rid of the bullies piling on "clumsy Yasu". Here the narrative becomes impossible to take at face value, as it's both stated that "Shannon" would stay on, while Yasu is now "the most experienced young servant" and in charge of teaching the newbies the ropes. Hum.
Not that the new kids really take Yasu seriously, especially with all the witch talk. Although maid!Belzebuth does start getting a bit rattled when her stuff starts going missing in ways that are a bit beyond simple pranks of Yasu's. (The one with the one key missing from her keyring and then being found in B's locker without Yasu leaving the room ? Impressive...) So now the B-maid believes Yasu's witch tales and helps spreading them to the next round of trainees... Dear gods, this is Maria all over again, is it ? Establishing one's authority as an occult expert to stop being seen as a child... Well, it does seem to work here.
Let's get another perspective on this crucial event. Yasu felt Gaap!Beato possess her and do the magic trick with the key... and the thrill of power was so much that, in the night, Yasu decides to stop being a servant and to become the witch Beatrice. Shannon can keep trying to be the perfect maid, but Yasu prefers to reinvent herself as the white-clad Golden Witch, deciding now and then her various gimmicks. And Yasu retcons herself out of human existence : Shannon has always been at war with Oceania alone in that room, and never had a roommate...
Well, this was very creepy indeed. I have seen madness and her name is Beato. *
But wait ! Continuity alert ! Wasn't it stated that Beato wasn't born yet "six years ago", during the Battler incident ? Although it may be handwaved with the future meeting with Maria being Beato's "real" birth...
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