Chapter 9- Spending the Night
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Today I learned far more about the parts activities then I even needed to. I also learned some of the intricacies that goes into slave marks from Tanya’s slave collar. Quite a fascinating piece of magic that always reads the slaves thoughts and actions. As well as giving X punishments for Y actions in a preset manner while being fully adjustable. This will greatly help in my research in telepathic communication as well as anytime I need to give a punishment that doesn’t warrant sever action. Funnily enough Tanya’s collar is almost completely turned off. Other than a few actions everything is set to no punishment and those that are on are set to the level of a pinch to a light smack. Considering the maximum punishment is an agonizing death and this is a custom programed minimum, there aren’t likely to be many people who set it like this. Hmm? It’s even is set to not punish her if she tries to kill him? I don’t think he is using the slave magic for its intended purpose… well whatever its nice to know she isn’t too restricted. Their relationship is strange enough as it is.

For now, I let go of the chance to buy out the bookstore and we headed for an inn. Its starting to get late and we can hardly spend the entire night out doing things and still pretend to be normal. Sure, some people may do that from time to time but not every night, that we would be able to do. They found one pretty easily, so we booked 2 rooms and had dinner in the bar part of the establishment. It was just some soup with unknown meats and vegetables, small loaves of bread, and some hard-boiled eggs. It seems they aren’t lacking in supplies here. I am curious if these eggs are acquired from hunter/gatherers or if this world has the knowledge to farm such things. If it’s the former it would be easy to mix infected eggs into the market. If it’s the latter then while it would be harder to infiltrate at the start, it would provide a route of constant mass infection that could expand for miles via regular trading of the eggs. At any rate, the meal gave a modest boost to my generators for a short period.

 

Shortly after the meal, while Chia, Tanya, and Jeff where chatting about this or that, Jacob (Mr. clerk) headed home from the tamer’s guild. On his way he mysteriously angered a pair of swallows that pecked and scratched at his head and neck. Right before they flew away one of the birds even pooped on his coat. He muttered about bad luck right after his windfall, as the rest of his way home was uneventful. He never realized his life was changed forever from those few scratches on his neck. When he got home, he slowly got a persistent cough and fever that lasted a week, he had no choice but to write a letter to his boss that: he had to have someone cover his shifts for a while. When he returned to work some of his co-workers commented that he had gotten nicer after he got back but no one thought much about it. Nor did they mind when he started giving them treats as an apology for how he had acted as well as how they had to cover for him, a few weeks later. Of those who ate those treats none of them realized how much of a poisoned apple it was. But that’s a story for another time.

 

After a little while for the group to catch up, they headed to their rooms. Jeff had gotten slightly drunk (he had asked me to let the alcohol affect him) and had to lean on Tanya’s shoulder as they made their way up the stairs and into their room. Chia went into her own room as well and readied for bed. Apparently, she had left her stuff at this inn for them to hold before she left. So now, she had changes of clothes and various other convenience items that have no place in adventuring supplies. I guess that explains why they found the place so quickly, though I should’ve seen that coming. It seems I still need much work on my planning and deductive abilities. Even if I keep getting smarter, I need to fully understand these parts as well.

Once she was done with her night prep and wiping herself down (not needed but I guess old habits die hard) she flopped onto the bed. Where she lay for a solid 5 minutes before it clicked why she wasn’t tired.

“So umm… how much did you see?” Chia asked

Huh? What do you mean how much did I see? I see everything that you see after all. Why would you ask that?

She pulled the blanket over her head as if to hide even though her night eye let her see perfectly inside the blanket.

“I forgot, ok? Being back in this inn after what feels like months kinda just made me go into auto pilot! The me of a few weeks ago wouldn’t even consider sharing a room with a someone, let alone having someone with me at all times. During our time together, I never felt gross since you always kept me clean, so I never felt the need to take the risk of bathing. But as expected you still should wash when you get home right? And you wouldn’t normally think someone is going to be watching while you bathe right? So, it cant be helped that I let myself go while I washed up right? Its not like I did anything weird that someone else doesn’t do right!?”

You seem to need to calm down a bit, you are practically babbling. Slowing electrical current to the relevant areas of the brain… there you should be back to normal now. And to answer your question, how would I know? I've hardly had the chance or need to observe parts bathing. After all, you are my first test on allowing a self-freedom. All the previous parts were joined together with each other and their spaceship. And then my child-self would manage that whole. It was more efficient that way. But it also made it hard to blend in. Thus, we are testing this new method now. And admittedly it is working better than expected.

“I both like and don’t like it when you do that. I like that you can calm me down but it kinda feels like you just push the ‘off’ button to my emotions. Can’t you… I don’t know, hug me or something until I calm down on my own? At least when its not an emergency? And you mean I was one failed test away from being a Chi-eff-ya!?”

… Hug you with your own body until you calm down?... Well I will consider it. Perhaps a Tacioception/Visualization hallucination would also be effective. And I would hardly consider an experiment a failure with only one failed test. Though if there was a catastrophic failure, I may investigate alternatives. Regardless you have already proven the viability of a “partner” relationship, as you call it. Though I highly doubt such a set up is viable for everyone.

“Yeah, I didn’t consider that part, but what the heck is ‘Tacioception’? But, I'm glad to know I'm no longer in danger of becoming a multi-person chimera.” Chia replied with more than a touch of sarcasm.

Tacioception is the sense of touch, as well as heat and pressure. So, you would ‘see and feel’ all the aspects of someone without them being there. But researching this will take a while as it would be a low priority. Since I feel your desire to argue rising why don’t we talk about Tanya and Jeff’s strange relationsh-?

As I mentioned them, I felt the two child-selves in those two asking for advice on their current situation. Taking a glance at their inputs, I promptly told them to ignore such happenings and not report on them again, unless they are requested otherwise by the host! It seems Chia isn’t the only one who forgot about our existence after arriving at the hotel! The least they could do is ask for privacy for goodness sakes.

“What's the matter?” Chia asked being much too perceptive for my tastes right now.

Nothing don’t worry about it. As I was saying what is going on with Jeff and Tanya being master and slave, yet the relationship seems more the inverse?

Chia laid back and stared at the ceiling while she started to recount her history with the odd pair.

“Hahaha, yeah she does seem to be the pants of the relationship. Though she seems to have gotten a bit rougher on him after I left the team. When I joined their party, I had just made it to C rank and was ready to start taking regular combat missions. But I wasn’t ready to do them alone. So, I put myself out there as a solo looking for a mentor party. This was in a different city where the adventurers were more respectable but still, I was hounded by men who wanted to ‘teach’ me the ropes. As I was ready to scream at them and go alone anyway Tanya came to my rescue while Jeff shooed them off. As recent B ranks, he only had to show his ID to make all those C rank men leave. As for the few B rank guys, they stayed but didn’t press me like the C ranks did. For me at the time it was a no brainer to trust a fellow elf woman over going alone or with just men.” Chia paused with a sigh and muttering about how naive she was then.

“The first quest was a hunting quest in a village 3 days from the city. It was a simple wild boar monster that was likely D rank. It was reported to often damage fields and fences, so they had requested for someone to come kill it. The whole way there I stayed close to Tanya while learning deeper understanding of various skills like tracking, scouting, camping, and foraging from both of them. Throughout the whole trip they made no attempt to hide the fact that they were together as more than just a party, and that was fine. I had no issue with some flirting and such between them. They acted close to how they do now, other than Tanya being a bit gentler with him. So, I was convinced that Tanya was the party leader and Jeff was her lover/partner. The quest was mostly uneventful other than it being a pair of D rank boars. I was so focused on learning that I didn’t really notice anything amiss. When we got back to the city Tanya proposed to go to the public bath together. That’s where I learned Tanya was his slave. I was naturally outraged that my new friend was someone’s property, but Tanya talked me down and I came to terms with it. Apparently, he had bought her when he first got to C rank at the young age of 22 with the money he had saved up, but he progressively released all the slave restrictions while they were together. They had become lovers even though he still hadn’t freed her. But with how he treated her she was free in all but name. Eventually she had convinced me to let it go and I spent almost a year with them. Doing quests and whatever else came by together. I had already learned the skills I would need to go solo, but they were fun to be around.”

“What I didn’t really notice much was Jeff was progressively flirting with me as well as with Tanya. It was little stuff at first and when your out adventuring there is little by way of privacy so it was rather natural for me to let things go like: rushing in because he heard a noise when I was trying to bathe, or recommending taking turns to do all of our laundry as a whole. Things that might be a red flag if you can take a step back but, in the moment, it was a minor discomfort at worst. All this came to a head when one night while Tanya was out on watch he kissed me by surprise in the tent we had. Knowing that he was Tanya’s lover, that ground my mind to a halt, but when he started leaning in for more my mind finally restarted. I freaked and started shouting at him while shoving him as far away from me as I could. Tanya came running from the ruckus I made, and I blubbered what had happened. I was afraid she would think I was trying to steal her mate or be mad at me, but she hugged me close and calmed me down. In the end they explained that Jeff, the self-centered jerk, wanted a harem. And Tanya in her seemingly infinite love didn’t refuse him, but she did give rules like no more slaves and that he has to ‘woo’ them properly and without forcing anything.” Chia chuckled with mixed emotions as she continued.

“Tanya later told me that- ‘like anyone but me would fall for this yellow-bellied blockhead’. After he fessed up to trying to force a deeper relationship between us, Tanya laid into him without an ounce of mercy. All the little things I missed or didn’t pay attention to, she apparently did. And had been keeping track! She recounted each and every time he had snuck a peak at me, messed with my laundry, ‘accidentally’ made inappropriate contact with me, or had taken advantage of teaching me to get far closer than was needed. She even included the times that he simply tried to do something and failed. I swear you could see a full-grown man go from full sized to smaller that your pinky under her barrage! I learned that day to never piss off big sis Nya. Ah, don’t tell her I called her that though! She insists on Tay but one time she dressed up as a cat-kin and it was the cu-u-utest thing ever! So, I made that her nickname in my heart. Anyway, after her berating him for so long, I didn’t feel nearly as awkward around them, but it still wasn’t the same. Not too long after that I left the party and only did the occasional job with them. Anytime I'm around them now Tanya makes sure to keep him in line while doing her best to restore our relationship to what it used to be. Or at least close to what it used to be.”

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