“You don’t seem particularly bothered that you were thrown in a dungeon, let alone becoming a slave.”

She lets out a carefree laugh. “I kind of just go where the world takes me. I’m usually happy as long as I’m allowed to practice my craft?”

“And Lord Reign didn’t say anything to you? He didn’t threaten you not to do something, or asked you to do some kind of favor for him?”

Rubee or I guess she was Garnet now, shook her head as an answer. She didn’t even seem to have to think about it. She truly had no clue what was going on here and was just going along with the flow. She seemed as relaxed being in the bath with a man as she was with being made a slave. She was casually washing and humming while I thought about what her value had to be.

Perhaps, I once might have thought this was all just a coincidence, but it was Xin who snapped me out of that kind of thinking. I couldn’t underestimate Demon Lord Aberis’s foresight and knowledge. He always had a reason. He had tossed us all into this dungeon to keep it from being completed. That meant that there was probably a reason he tossed her in here as well. He could have had her imprisoned in the castle. He could have had her left in his control at Lord Reign’s keep. Instead, he dropped her in this world and let her go about her own devices.

However, I couldn’t figure out what this dungeon wanted, and what she had to do with it, let alone Xin. Just who was Aberon? This seemed like the war between her original country and Aberis when he took control of the south. That would make the princess her grandma or something? Was Aberis the Demon Prince, and did he have a baby with the princess of Osteria? No, that didn’t make sense with what I knew. If he had a child, who would that be?

“Welp! I’m clean!” She stood up just like that.

I couldn’t stop myself from getting an eye full of her youthful body before looking away. It wasn’t like I was into that kind of thing! All of the women in my life were older, despite that barmaid’s previous look, I am not some kind of deviant!

Muttering in my mind about such things, I waited until she left the bath before I got out myself, dried off, and then dressed. I had had more relaxing baths in my time, but I had also had worse. I also didn’t know where Garnet had run off to. I hadn’t asked her much about what she was doing in this village, and she had run off before we could talk about our plans. It was probably for the best. After a good night’s sleep, I could find her in the morning. It wasn’t like this place was any bigger than the miner’s town. Finding her would be simple.

I left and went to my room using the key they had given me. It was dark, so I just threw everything into my Inventory and then crawled into bed. I reached out to hug the pillow.

“Ahhhn!”A girl’s voice echoed in the darkroom.

My hands were squeezing something, but the softness was completely absent and I could feel an absence of such things.

“Please say you’re the barmaid,” I responded tearfully.

“My lord, are you stalking me? You don’t need to play games. We can just cut this sexual tension and have sex!”