It’s around an hour or two after noon. Without pointless stalling, I walk towards the main market in the mercantile district. It will be the best place to look for all the ingredients.

As usual, there’s a huge crowd here. It’s not that loud, but you’d need to slightly raise your voice when speaking with someone. Walking from stall to stall, I pick up most of the things from the list I was given by Sirgia quite fast. I decide to check some stationery shops in the area too.

As I’m advancing towards one and placing my foot on the few steps in front of its door, someone bursts out through them and crashes into me while looking behind.

“Nguh!”

We both fall to the ground. I raise myself on my elbows and look at the other person.

“Come on, dude! What’s the rush—”

Our eyes meet. And that’s the only part of his face I can see. The man lying on my side has most of his face covered by a bandana. I glance down and spot a small sack in his hand and a knife lying between us, also most likely belonging to him. 

“I’ll get you, you bastard!”

Someone shouts from inside the store with a manly tone. The man frantically grabs the knife and stands up while pointing it my way. The owner of the previous voice appears at the door. It’s a tall man with short black hair and beard, which covers most of his chin and face. He leans over the door frame while clutching his chest. A fresh cut can be spotted in his shirt, slightly red from blood.

The man lunges forward at the guy with the knife, but he dodges and starts running away. Already crouching, I catch the wounded man before he slams to the ground. He looks at me surprised.

“I want a discount.” 

I pat him twice on the shoulder and break into a dash after the thief before he merges into the crowd. His wound isn’t life-threatening. 

「Time for some exercise. Hopefully, he doesn’t have any movement skills.」

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like he is of a high Tier because I can quite easily match his running speed. Nothing unexpected. The majority of the population doesn’t develop their Classes due to the risk of getting hurt. And I had quite decent stamina even before arriving here.

He charges through, pushing many people off his path. Thanks to that, I’m able to slightly close the distance between us. He notices that I’m after him and shoves some woman towards stacked barrels. They start falling and rolling my way.

“You wish!”

I quickly jump over someone’s stand to switch paths. “Sorry!”

The barrels start hitting unaware people and crashing into other stalls while I safely continue my pursuit, running through the backstages and manoeuvring between surprised merchants. After the barrels crisis is no more, I jump back to the street, still having the suspect in my line of sight. Others start noticing the ruckus and moving away from his path.

「Oh, come on! Just fucking trip him with a leg or something!」

We are almost reaching the end of this big square. After he escapes into one of the alleyways, I will have no way of tracking him down in that web of passages.

「Fuck! Not a single useful skill!」

While I’m considering my options, he spins around and throws his knife at me. I barely react in time and it grazes my cheek, leaving a hot, red line over it. He stumbles during that motion and I’m able to shorten our distance to something like six meters.

「Ohoho... Now, this is personal!」

I bring the draconic hilt from behind my back and infuse it with mana. Purple mist surrounds my arm and connects to the crystal. I create a four-meter-long whip from the dragon’s maw, still leaving it in its ethereal form.

I cast Rejuvenate focusing on my legs and sprint to my utmost limits, slowly starting to catch up to him. Noticing that, he grabs something from his pockets—a ball of a fist’s size. He starts jumping through the stalls and closing onto the buildings. I naturally follow him.

We reach the walls and start rushing alongside them. He throws his ball at a spot with lots of crates just before slipping into an alleyway. It starts releasing smoke and soon explodes, destroying most of the bottom-row crates. They all fall and obstruct the entrance to that street.

「Didn’t work the first time, won’t work the second!」

I leap to my right and, using some tables and smaller crates, hop onto the roofs of lined up wooden stalls. Reaching the highest point and also the corner of the alley, I materialize and throw my whip at a wooden beam protruding from the building at that corner, making it coil around it.

“I always wanted to try this.”

Mustering up my courage, I dive down from the stall roofs while in a full sprint. The whip stretches and the momentum pushes me flying around the alleyway’s corner, just above the fallen debris. I spot the thief standing behind it while catching his breath. To not waste the centrifugal force, I make the whip shorten midswing and get launched slightly upwards after passing the plank.

He looks up in shock, but it’s too late. Cancelling the whip, I plunge onto him from above, knee-first, slamming him into the ground. Rolling twice, I assume a crouching position and materialize my weapon again. Just when he is standing up, I send it towards his neck and forcefully crash his head against the wall. Left, right, left. The street is narrow enough for me to bounce him against them with just a bit of strength. After three hits, he falls down, unconscious.

Exhaling heavily, I retract my whip. I pick up the small sack he dropped. As I suspected, it’s filled with gold coins. I store it into my ring. Looking around, I spot no one else, so I tie my whip all around his body as tightly as possible and throw him onto my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The way back is blocked so I walk further into the alley, hoping to find a route back to the square and then back to the store owner.

Ten minutes later, and tens of weird stares, I’m back in front of the shop. I knock on the door.

“Closed for today!” a taut and husky voice answers.

“I have an important delivery. You don’t want to miss it,” I say.

He grumbles something but soon unlocks and opens the door.

“By the Goddess… It’s you!” His angry face softens a bit, then he notices my cargo. “And… how?”

“May I enter first? Standing with an unconscious man over the shoulder is quite eye-catching…”

He gestures with his hand for me to walk in and closes the door. I shove the thief off my shoulder to the ground and pull the whip back like a lawn mower’s starter. He spins a few times and rolls a meter forward on the floor. I pull out the gold sack from my ‘pocket’ inside the coat and hand it over to the man.

“I believe that’s yours, right?”

He opens it and smiles. “Yes, yes, thank you! Er…”

“Alastair. Al for short.”

“Barren. Barren Staghide. I can’t thank you enough! That was most of my savings!” 

He shakes my hand with an even wider smile. He grasps a handful of coins and presents them to me.

“No, no, no. I don’t need money. Discount, remember?” I chuckle and push back his extended fist with the gold.

“Oh, you!” 

He grabs me into a hug and spins around while laughing. He can easily do that, being almost 190cm in height and with quite wide arms and chest. He is muscular, but most likely not from training. It’s just that his stature is big.

“Ouch!” He stops spinning us when he presses me too strongly against his wound.

“Let me take care of that.”

Escaping his hold, I place my hand over it and fuel the skill with mana. The cut isn’t deep like in Sirgia’s case, so just in a minute, I’m able to completely make it disappear. I feel a mental nudge, a familiar one. I pull up my skills window, and as I thought, my Rejuvenate has reached the second level.

“Oi, you are hurt too!” He notices the line over my cheek.

“Ah, right. I forgot about that.” Without any issues, I get rid of it too.

“How did a Healer catch up with a Thief like him?” He squints his eyes.

“I was just lucky, that’s all. Moreover, what now?” I point at the body.

Barren sighs heavily. “It will be such a pain in the ass to deal with the report…”

“Should I deal with it then?” I suggest.

“What? How? You are not thinking about getting rid of him, are you?” he asks slightly shocked.

“No, obviously not. Hmmm… You have a piece of paper and some sealing wax?”

He scratches his head but brings me what I asked for. I briefly summarize the situation in the text and roll the piece. I summon a signet with a royal sigil that has been given to me by the King, in case I need to pass a message or something. Making sure that Barren doesn’t notice the crest, I quickly heat the wax with weak fire magic and seal the paper.

「Now then, the Police always starts popping up in the area after the deed is done, that’s one of the most basic paradoxes.」

I open the door and take a peek, and of course, spot two guards entering the market, three crossings further. I chuckle to myself and walk up to them. I hand one the letter and secretly show the ring, instructing him to deliver straight to the King. He instantly salutes and dashes away. I tell the other one to check the stalls because there was some damage. I walk back to the confused store owner.

“Tie him up and leave in a corner. Someone will come to pick him up before sunset.”

“Who the hell are you to make guards react like that, Al?” he asks, still bewildered.

“I’m just a pimp on a grocery run.” I shrug at him with a smile.

He erupts into laughter. “Psssht, hahahaha! Okay! Keep your secrets!” He comes closer and slams my back. People really like doing that. “Whatever do you need then? I don’t think you’ll accept freebies, so today’s half off!”

We talk a bit while he brings the lacking ingredients from my list. He seems like a pretty chill man. He is thirty-five years old and lives alone, running this decently sized store. We pack up everything into bags and I prepare to move out.

“Thanks. My chef will definitely be grateful for the extras,” I say, announcing that I noticed how he sneaked in more merchandise than he was supposed to pack.

“Hahaha! You caught me.” He laughs. “Say… you really run a brothel?”

“I do. But it’s not yet open. I’m still working on the staff and other stuff.”

He scratches his beard while looking at me. “Hmmm… You need a food supplier, or already got one?”

“No, I didn’t. And it would be great to get it done, but…” I smile wryly and look away. “I think you should reconsider that offer,” I continue, sighing heavily.

“What? Why? Come on, you saved my ass! I’ll help if I can!” he says, a bit appalled.

I shake my head and speak hesitantly, “I employ… mostly non-humans…”

“That’s it?” He crosses his arms.

“What? What do you mean by that’s it?” I turn to him, perplexed.

“What’s the big deal with some catboys or doggirls running around?”

“Eh? But, your reputation—”

“What reputation does some small store have? And it’s business. Only idiots don’t grab their opportunities because of some fucking racist beliefs,” he explains and spits to the side.

“You are aware of how rare your opinion is here? I spent two days recruiting servants and not a single one could stand even the thought of working in a place with demis.”

“I know and I don’t care. Money is money. As long as it’s not illegal.”

“You really are a nice guy…”

He hangs his arm over my shoulders while laughing heartily. We have a bit more of a pointless banter and after agreeing on the deal, we leave details for another time and I head back home.

While entering, I can sense Safi and Emi in my room so I use this chance to sneak all the groceries to the kitchen, which fortunately is empty. After unloading everything on a countertop in the middle, I walk up to them. Looks like everyone is here, even Cornelia is present.

Asked how her searches went, she just shakes her head. I explain that I most likely secured a general supplier, so that’s that at least. I wonder why they are all here and they say that they were waiting for me because Cornelia wanted to ask which room she could take. And that they just have been chatting with each other.

I chuckle and remind her that this is as much her home as it is mine and she can do whatever she wants. She then chooses the other room adjacent to mine and leaves to arrange things there. I give some pats to the overly-clingy Emi and move down to the kitchen with Sirgia.

She starts moving around and placing all the ingredients in various cupboards and shelves, also going to the fridge. I glance over the room and see that they definitely dusted the whole place and already brought out all the utensils and hung them on their corresponding spots. There’s even a small, adjustable triangle step-ladder, which Sirgia uses to reach higher places and comfortably work on the counters.

After everything is gone, she begins working on the meal and I stay to help her. We have a nice chat during it. Or rather, I’m just asking questions and she answers. Half an hour later, she pauses whatever she is doing and jumps down from the ladder. She joins her hand in the front, speaking by herself this time.

“Ummmm… I’m sorry, Master,” she says.

“What for?” I glance at her.

“For doubting Master’s intentions. Even after all Master had done for me, I still was very sceptical and distrustful, but after speaking with Lady Cornelia and Master’s friends, I understood that Master is a really kind person and doesn’t have any ulterior motives.”

I move closer and place a hand on her head. “It’s good to be wary. Raise your head, it’s nothing to be apologizing for.” She complies and I stroke her hair while she looks up. “And it’s Cornelia. There’s no Lady there. If she heard that, you’d be up for a lecture.”

I chuckle.

“Same goes for me. You don’t have to insert Master into every single sentence. Ah, but I don’t mind you calling me that. Just don’t forget that you are now part of this family I’m building here. You are now my friend and an employee, okay?”

She nods and we get back to preparing the dish. For her debut, she chose something sounding very close to Spaghetti Bolognese from my world. She focuses on meat and sauce while I take care of pasta. We move swiftly around the kitchen while talking a bit. From our chat, I learn that she is seventy-two years old and was captured by slave hunters when she was fifty-one after the ship she was on got attacked by pirates and scuttled. Those who survived were washed ashore, unfortunately encountering the slavers.

Dwarves live around 300-500 years in this world, and they are considered fully matured after they turn 50. She basically got kidnapped just after entering adulthood. This does not mean that they are just kids below that age, which require protection like in Human society. She has been travelling a lot since she turned twenty-seven years old. Sirgia was visiting various dwarven cities to learn the artisanal craft and raise enough of her name to be worthy of passing the inherited techniques and family secrets.

There’s one thing I recall from earlier and can’t hold back asking.

“Do you have fighting experience? Or went through a lot of training?”

She turns her head to me questioningly.

“I’m just curious. Before, you jumped in front of me pretty quickly and assumed quite an experienced pose. I don’t plan on making you fight or anything.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not a secret. I used to adventure to raise money for my materials, gathering some on my own. I was a D-rank, almost C,” she explains.

“I see. What is your Class?”

“Crusher. Tier 3.”

“Ooooh, an advanced hammer derivative. You must be an amazing frontliner. Warhammer or Maul?” I ask.

Her eyes widen a bit before she answers. “Both are fine.” She stops doing whatever she was for a moment and gazes at me curiously. “What is Master’s class?”

I freeze. I don’t really want to reveal it to her yet, so she doesn’t get any weird ideas, but if I hide stuff like that from the very beginning, she might lose this little trust in me that I’ve already earned.

She gets back to her work. “It’s okay if Master doesn’t want to answer—”

I sigh heavily and decide to leave it out to fate. “It’s called Sexmancer and I’m still Tier 1.”

She stops again and looks at me. “Sexmancer…?”

I briefly explain how it works, mentioning that I strengthen others and myself via a bit indecent methods.

“But don’t worry, I didn’t buy you so I can force myself on you to get stronger. This and that are completely different cases.”

She stares at the counter visibly thinking about something but then nods.

“Uhn.”

A few moments later Emi and Safi arrive in the kitchen and force me out of it, saying that they’ll prepare everything with Sirgia and I just have to wait. I comply with their request and move to the dining area where Cornelia is already sitting alone. We start brainstorming some ideas about the servants since this will be our next focus now. She tells me that looking for Humans is pointless and can take weeks. None of her connections worked. I tell her about my encounter with Selina to which she is bewildered that I received the famous Ruby Card, which is given only to the most important patrons of hers and all of them are quite the people of power.

Time flies pretty fast and the girls come out of the kitchen. They place the plates in front of me and Cornelia and sit down on the benches around the table. Sirgia tries to stand slightly behind, but Safi quickly pulls her closer and sits her down. There’s just one issue.

“Sirgia?” I turn to her.

“Yes?”

“Where’s your share?” I ask.

“My… share?” She confusedly looks over the two plates. “Ah! I didn’t bring a plate to test in front of Master!” She stands up and prepares to run into the kitchen. I signal to Safi and she catches her by hand.

“No. That’s not it. You don’t have to do that anymore. I said I believe you.” I sigh and look at her with a warm smile. “Where is the portion for you to eat with us?”

A bit of surprise paints over her usually emotionless face. “I… can eat the same things as everyone?”

“Didn’t we eat together before?” I raise my brow at her.

“That wasn’t just a special case?” She tilts her head.

I shake mine and tell her to bring another clean plate. I halve my portion and move it there, to which she protests, but I don’t back down. With a quiet thank you, she sits down and we enjoy our meal while showering her in praises. Especially Cornelia. Although Safi and Emi said they don’t need theirs, they get too curious while we are eating and I feed them a few pieces just so they can taste the dish.

After dinner, I help Sirgia with washing the plates. She asks if she can have a room next to the kitchen and I offer her one of the closest ones above, but she insists on the bottom floor, saying that those rooms are fine too. Not wanting to force anything on her, I end up agreeing. I tell her to come to me in the morning so I can take care of another part of her wound and I move to take a bath.

With bath done, I arrive in my room, which is occupied by none other than the jelly girls. Emi rushes to me as usual. I start thinking if she didn’t actually extinguish a whole breed of dogs during her life, because she’s closer to them than to a Slime. A question pops up in my head.

“I hope I won’t sound rude with this, but… do Slimes have their own personalities? Or are you mimicking the way you behave from the memories of those girls?” I ask curiously.

[I can certainly say that Emi was like this since the day we met. I think the same goes for me. We do look at their memories to understand Humans better and imitate some actions, but it’s from our own will,] Safi explains while I arrive at the bed with Emi acting as an anchor.

“I see, so this little greenish girl was always so enthusiastic, huh?” I forcefully stroke her head to which she wobbles in joy.

She looks up at me. [Emi wants to feel good with Master too! Like Safi!]

“Okay, okay, I get it.” I chuckle with her around my waist. “I’ll try my best.”

I pick the wobbling girl up into my arms and move to the centre of the bed. Let’s just hope Cornelia doesn’t walk onto us in a bit more heated situation this time.