Minard. The very first town in zone 2. It is a pretty lively town in which various people going around doing their work.

Despite the heat considering it is a desert zone no body says a thing. It might be due to them living here for a long time already or perhaps just adopted but now that we are walking here I can understand why. 

"Wow..." Elly gasps.

"Yeah." I replied.

I mean who wouldn't be surprised. This place is so lively. You can feel everyone's spirit. Stalls here, stalls there, foods over there. Every corner of the place are bustling despite the fact that it's only few hours to lunch time. 

We follow Henry towards his office in which we are greeted by a fairly tall building. Yellow walls green roof. I won't be surprised if someone told me it's 4 or 5 floor building. 

As my sight look downwards towards the door I saw a girl. She might be smaller than Elly which is the smallest among us four. But what strikes me the most are three things. First is the feline like ears that's twitching when our eyes met. Next is the tail. Her tail are wagging left and right as if showing how excited she is despite looking neat as she stands infront of the door. And lastly is her neck. Around her neck lies a collar. I look around me and saw Velvet's gaze met mine. It seems she is also thinking about the collar as we all stare at Henry.

"W...welcome back master." The girl bows infront of Henry.

"Master?" I asked only to be ignored as he approach the girl and gives her a hug.

"Ma...master? We...the guests..." Although the girl flails as if rejecting him, her tails betrayed her as we saw how much it's wagging.

The girl saw me watching and became as red as tomato right away. You can totally see her blushing since her skin is pale. Despite the feline ears and tail her skin resembles human.

"I'm back cleo." Henry proceeds to scrub her head while occasionally give the back of her feline ears a scrub. We can totally hear her purr.

"Ahem." Gerald suddenly turns our attention to him.

Henry seems to understand as he quickly let go of the girl and head to the door mentioning us to follow.

We all enter his office only to be greeted by maids. They all have animal parts on their body. One got various snakes in replace of hair, one got a cow like ears and tail, one got even have plants in their head with vines like appendages around her body. All of them are wearing maid outfit. 

Henry proceed to enter a room behind the counter im which we all follow. Inside is his table which means this must be his office. Henry sat and we all followed suit. Sitting on the chairs around the table now sitting in each sides of his table.

The girl with feline ears and tail now starts serving tea as we all settled down.

"You guys must have a lot of questions. Well I am currently free till evening so feel free to ask." Henry asked us.

"Then I will ask right away. Are they slaves?" I asked while pointing on the cat girl's neck.

"Yes but not mine."

"Explain." I asked right sway.

"I, I mean we saved this girls before from a slaver. Although I asked them where they wish to return, all of them decided to stay and serve me instead." Henry answered.

"Is that true?" I asked the catgirl startling her almost dropping the tea pot.

"Y...yes. We are all indebt to master. And it's not like we can live normally... now that we have this..." She replied as she holds the collar.

"Can't you just remove it?" Velvet asked.

"Unfortunately no. First of all that is not a normal collar. That is an item imbued with servitude magic. Anyone wearing that will be stripped of their freedom. You guys do know this zone are the zone of contracts." Henry explained.

"Yeah. But never thought it will be like this." Emy replied.

"Well that's the gist of things." Henry answered as the catgirl curled towards Henry allowing him to run her head. She must be sad or lonely but all of that is gone the moment Henry rubs her head and ears. Now she is simply purring.

"Do this town participate in those things? Like slavery?" Gerald asked.

"Believe me or not but no. This girls are the only slaves here and they don't even came from here. I hate those stuff since I believe everyone's life weight higher than money. So selling life doesn't suit my tastes." Henry answered as the catgirl nods seemingly had enough of scratches now returned to preparing tea.

Elly sighed after learning about it. Emy simply holds her twin's hand.

"That said be careful. Outside this town there are still some few always waiting to nab someone and then abduct humans." Henry warns us.

"That bad? Damn." I replied.

"Yeah. Since inside the walls are the only place they are off limits." He added.

The room turned quiet. The cat girl hands cup of tea to everyone to relax.

"Can I touch your tail?" I asked cleo the cat girl after she served mine which is the last.

Cleo blushes before nodding her head.

"Excuse me." I slowly held her tail as if it's the most delicate thing in the world. I can feel her tensed up now that I am holding her tail. The feeling is so soft and fluffy. Her fur seems to feel hot. It might be normal or just her body heating up as I slowly and gently caress it's end. She started huffing the more I rub it's tip. I am not sure if it's a skill or not as I feel more focused and absorbed to fondling her tail only to be disturbed by a chop on my head. Velvet seemed to notice cleo's face. Her eyes now starting to tear up.

I quickly let go of her tail and lowered my head to apologize. Cleo panicking now with the sight of me apologizing only to reply "ple...please dont mind it. Just be... Careful next time." 

(So I can touch her tail again next time.)

I thought to myself in which I received another one of Velvet chops. I look at her only to hear her say "don't" it seems she realized my intention.

"We all discuss more stuff like the things sold here in town, places to visit and things to look out. It's lunch time now so we all head to a restaurant Henry suggests.

We all had a hearty lunch. The meal consists of steak and a pair of soup. This was a hearty meal but it made me think of my life choices. 

(Soup in desert? At the middle of the day?)

Although I question myself, I never doubted the meal infront of me as I notice it's already empty.

We all head back to the office after in which Henry gave us a key.

"For now you can stay in this house. It's empty and it works for you all. It has kitchen and a bath plus it have 4 rooms. The master bedroom have 2 king size bed inside while the other 3 is the guest rooms with 2 normal size bed." Henry describe the place.

"Are you sure? Do ee owe you something?" I asked.

"Nah. But if you want to pay atleast accept some quests on the quest board instead. After all we will benefit if you guys finish quests." Henry said.

"Alright. We will be sure to do tomorrow.

"Perfect. Sorry but I must excuse myself now." Henry stands on his seat and leave the room.

"Cleo? Can we ask something?" I asked the catgirl.

"Sure." She replied. It seems she became calm on our presence now after we all had lunch.

"Where is the house exactly?" I show her the key.

"Oh. It's on the opposite side of the gate you passed earlier. The gate you passed earlier is the east gate. The house are in the front of the guild. It's brown wall and red roof. You can see the name 'Henry' in the mailbox near the green door of the house." She explained.

"Great. Thanks for the help." I pat her head.

She doesn't reply instead she purred after I give her head and the back of her ears a gentle scrub.

After having my way with our feline friend we head out of the office and went to the house. As cleo said it is indeed very easy to see. We enter the house and see how spacious it is inside. The house seemed to have 3 floors. The master bedroom, comfort room and the crafting room are the only room at the top floor. The guest rooms and storage room on the second floor. The first floor are the kitchen, living room, dinning room and the bath. While the underground floor is what resembles the granary. 

We all head to our rooms. It's decided that we four girls will use the master room and Gerald will use one of the guest room with Kanna.

We asked if he want us to help Kanna in our room instead but he insisted.

After settling our baggage in the rooms we all meet in the living room to discuss. We decided to leave the meals to Velvet as she is the only one who can cook well. Shopping will be done by Emy and Gerald while cleaning is for Elly. I asked what will I do but they insisted for me to relax instead. 

(It can't be helped.)

It was unanimous decision. Now I feel like becoming a lazy bum as I lay down on my bed.