<~> Chapter 13

I pulled it out and looked at Bella with an eyebrow raised. “Who would wear something like this?”

After a glance, “Ah that’s for sex slaves. It’s illegal in most cities to walk around naked so he probably carries some of those around to dress anyone he intends to sell as a sex slave.” I look back down at Bitch, a weird mixed feeling in my gut. I had been saying over and over that I wanted to sell them into slavery to get back at her but now that I was more in my right mind I felt conflicted.

I looked at Bella, “I’m not sure what to do. I detest slavery and the freedom it takes from people.” I look down at the still sleeping poodle girl. “But after what she did to me… I want to really punish her, punish her for what she did to me and who knows what else she’s done to get so much negative karma.”

There was silence for a bit before Bella answered, “It’s not uncommon to find slavery barbaric but in this case… In this case by turning her into a sex slave you’ve probably given her as much mercy as possible short of just letting her go.”

“I don’t understand, what do you mean?”

“In most cities up and down the continent, rape is punishable by death. Rapists are said to be like monsters because they remind people of things like goblins, monsters that rape people over and over to breed and increase their horde. In most places if you can definitively prove that they raped someone they’re immediately cut down like any other monster. The only reason he would do something like that to you is because he thought he could get away with it.”

She continued, “Secondly, not only did you spare her but you turned them into someone who would no doubt be treated better than any other class of slave. Pleasure slaves are almost always treated better than any other slaves, so not only are you sparing her from death today, you’re sparing her the death she would have probably had in a few months as the lowest class of labor slave. Rapists are rarely treated gently even once in bonds, but as a pleasure slave she has a chance at finding a gentle master to serve, or at least one that won’t work her to death. And the only price for her is the freedom she would have lost anyway and the ability to stop herself from being raped they way she did to you.”

I looked at her with a frown, she was convincing but it still didn’t sit perfectly right with me. At the same time my only alternative at this point would be to just kill her which was something I wasn’t ready for. I sighed. “Alright then. Do you know how any of this works? I don’t like, need to be a member of a guild or something do I?”

“I don’t think so but when we try to sell her we’ll have to have someone with lie detection magic to prove that they actually raped you. It might be a hard story to explain considering her new… situation.” She finished by gesturing to the sleeping dog girl.

“Hmm… well, I’d prefer to get some new clothes before walking through town leading her to the slavers. Your old clothes don’t fit anymore and frankly aren’t very good quality in the first place. My clothes are decent but I’d at least like to get them actually tailored to my body.”

“I’m sorry mistress but I don’t have any money… Would you be able to lend me the money to get new clothes?”

I flicked her on the forehead. “First off, don’t call me mistress we’ve been over that. Second, don’t be silly I’m not going to make you borrow money from me, we’re partners now… maybe something more, I’m going to dress you up properly. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out a way to make some more money later.”

She was rubbing her head and smiling in that cute shy blushy smile she’s been doing lately. “If you say so Lilith. Are you sure it’s okay though? I don’t know how much money I can make, I’m just a farmer….”

“Didn’t you use healing magic on me last night? Between your healing magic and my level 33 swordsmanship I’m sure we can make some money adventuring.”

“Oh yeah, I have healing magic now… Wait, level 33? His swordsmanship was that high level? What level are you?”

“I’ve only really gained levels through sex so far so I’m only level 21 now.”

”Twenty-one!? How long have you been on this plane? I thought you only learned about [status] last night? How have you been here this long without knowing about it?”

“Wait what? I only woke up here the night before last.”

“You got twenty levels from having sex just last night? That’s insane! I’m 19 and I’m only level 8!”

There was a pregnant pause that hung in the air a little uncomfortably before I spoke again, “Well now that you’re a healer and I have a high swordsman skill maybe we can go kill some monsters for some money. I’ve never fought a monster before but I think that maybe between the two of us we might be able to manage.”

“Actually… now that I’m looking I gained two levels last night too…” She had a look of conflicted worry on her face. “Maybe we can do it, I’ve never really fought a monster before either but if you’re level 21 and I am able to heal you, maybe we can actually do it. How did you even manage to make it in that forest in the first place if you were running around at level 1?” She asked shaking her head.

I decided not to answer since the question seemed rhetorical. I stood up and started getting dressed again. I put on the dead nobleman’s clothes. They were still uncomfortable in a few places but not too bad either. I looked over the pile of clothes that wouldn’t fit the little poodle girl anymore, it looks like the poodle previously had feet that more closely matched my own compared to the dead nobleman’s though.

I cautiously lifted one of the high quality steel toed boots and found that it didn’t smell at all, the only thing I could smell was something akin to new leather. “Odd, his boots don’t smell at all. It’s like they’ve never been worn.”

I spoke mostly to myself but Bella had an answer for me. “Oh he probably just used a simple clean cantrip to clean his boots every night. She lifted up a pair of socks that looked too big for her now, made a motion on them with her finger and spoke, “[Clean]” and just like that a shimmer of magic ran across the fabric and the socks looked completely grime free.

“What the fuck, this world is amazing.” I said stupefied at her.

“I used magic to literally seal up the cuts in your asshole in mere moments and the thing you’re impressed by is a [Clean] cantrip?”

“Don’t get me wrong, healing magic is amazing on its own but it’s… expected. Magic that can clean for you changes everything!”

She looked at me still mystified. “How did you do it in your home plane? Cleaning cantrips can’t be used on all of your clothes but how do you clean your mouth in the morning?”

“You… don’t need to brush your teeth? You can just use magic to clean your mouth?” Shit, I just realized, I haven’t seen anyone with rotten teeth. Maybe people had crooked teeth but I hadn’t noticed any that had stained or rotting ones.

”Brush… Your teeth? Why would you clean your teeth with a brush, that’s bizarre. Why didn’t you use magic, no one could figure out a simple clean cantrip?”

“My realm doesn’t have any magic. At least not to the extent that anyone really knew about it. We had to use other means to deal with things.”

“No magic? Do Succubi have some different source of power then? Wait, how do the demons of your world kill people if they don’t use magic?”

“Demons aren’t real, or rather, just like magic there’s no way to prove that they exist anyway. Succubi in particular are story characters more than anything provable to actually exist.”

“Hmm… I can’t really picture a world without magic. There are so many things that I just wouldn’t know how it would work otherwise.”

“Well, I’m sure we’ll come across things as we go along. Just don’t be too surprised if I ask you questions that seem rather obvious to you. Now, before we move on though, how do you use this cantrip? Can anyone use it?”

We finished getting dressed as best as we could with all of our ill fitting clothes. After, Bella spent the next twenty minutes describing how to pull at the mana from your body and then described drawing or very clearly visualizing particular geometric shapes in order to execute the cantrip. She taught me a few basic ones, one to clean something small, one to slightly heat something up, another to slightly cool something down, and one to quickly dry something small. She said there were more but promised she would teach me the ones she knew as I needed them.

“What happens with people who can’t visualize the sigils in their mind?”

“Hmm, I’ve never heard of anyone that can’t use at least some of the smaller ones through visualization but I know some people aren’t able to use cantrips at all for some reason. I can’t imagine it would be possible to use magic at all in that case though, I don’t know of any magic that doesn’t have a visual element to it but I’m hardly a scholar. Though the [System] might make some of that automated or instinctive but you can’t really gain a skill if you’re unable to do the basics. Otherwise more people would be mages.”

“How do people create new spells? Is there some pattern to the spell sigils that can be used?”

She smiled sadly. “I’m just a farmer, I wouldn’t know any of that sorry. Maybe we’ll come across a mage that can help you, just be careful not to give away you’re a world traveler.”

I nodded. “I’ll try to ask you if I’m going to ask a dumb question but I can probably just use the cover story of being a nomad traveling in the wilds.”

“Even that might not be the best story really. I remember thinking that your story sounded suspicious when you first started travelling with us. Especially since your clothes look like they are in the style of the capital city and you had relatively local currency. I’d bet Mark just guessed you were a noble who ran away from their family or something.”

“What would be a better cover story then? I need something that will explain away why I know next to nothing about anything around here.”

“Well for things like basic magic I don’t have anything that would explain it away but in terms of why you wouldn’t know any of the politics or customs you could say you traveled from the Queendom of Arala. It’s a Queendom on the other side of the Aralian sea on the Northeastern coast of this kingdom, the Kingdom of Torlimal. Right now we are near the Wilds on the eastern edge of the Dutchy of Morstet ruled by the Duchess Erica Morstet. The Queen of Arala is Melaena Arala, you should probably remember that if it’s going to be your cover story.”

“Are Queendoms and female led Dutchies common on this plane?”

“Well, Queendoms aren’t as quite as common as Kingdoms but noble lands can be held by either sex. Is it different where you’re from?”

I nodded. “Nearly every major civilization has been either patriarchal or at least mostly sex neutral in nature. I think there may have been female kings before and there are kingdoms actually headed by queens but for the most part that’s how it was.”

“Strange, I’m not sure wh- Oh! Actually, most nobles are pretty high level and after around level 10 or so your stats would completely overcome any differences in sex. If there’s no magic in the world then stats wouldn’t level things out.” She had a rather thoughtful look. “It’s so strange to think that even something as basic as stats doesn’t even exist on another plane…”

“I wonder how much more egalitarian that makes this place by comparison.” I smiled wryly as I finished lacing up my boots.

Saine

I hope you're having a great week! Lots of world building this chapter, next chapter we have a shopping date with Bella plus more LitRPG elements.

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