These birds sure know how to wake someone up in the morning with all the noise they make. I slowly open my eyes and turn my head to Sammy. I'm quite surprised that she's still asleep with all the noise coming from outside. I cautiously slip out from under the fur and head outside to find the source of the commotion. With feathers everywhere, the 3 kobolds have found their breakfast. After a brief stare-off between the 4 of us, I head back inside to hopefully get some more sleep. Moments after I made myself comfortable and closed my eyes, a pair of sweet tasting lips joined mine, starting a saliva exchange.

There is this again, this feeling of comfort I felt before. And I am only just realising it now, but Sammy's kiss seems to give me power, just like the Mana Organ did back then. So do I get power from physical affection? Is this perhaps the way the sin of love works, strengthening me by exchanging love with someone else? Well, that's not a pressing matter at the moment, what is important is the lack of kisses. I open my eyes to find a hesitant Sammy staring at me. “Why are you stopping?” I ask her and she answers with a slight blush, “You seemed lost in thought and I wasn't sure if I should continue, so I didn't.” “Your assumption is correct. I think I've figured out how my sin works, although it's only a guess.” I say to her and explain to her my guess.

“Do you… do you want to confirm that?” Sammy asks me with a deep red blush. “Later. First, I want a more comfortable home and more summons, then we can get as chummy as we want.” I answer her, but start to mumble the second half. I sigh lightly before adding, “Let's go outside. I think a bit of fresh air wouldn't do either of us any harm, and besides, the others should have finished their breakfast by now.” “Breakfast?” Sammy asks in surprise. “Raw birds. All three of them.” We both laugh and head outside to my idling minions.

“Listen up, kobolds. Today we are going on another hunt for critters. I want to increase our strength if possible.” The 2 newbies from yesterday bow down to me. “Got told. You King. We serve. We loyal.” “Excellent. Sammy will also make you some spears and then we will go. In the meantime,” I look at the kobold who already has a spear, “you and I will train. I want to familiarise myself with my weapon.” The look it gives me is priceless. “Ok. Gently please.” We walk a bit away from where we reside and start training after a bit of preparation.

The kobold lunges at me first, and I simply dodge it without much effort. Even though I should punish the opening this simple manoeuvre offers me, I don't. I don't want to hurt my servant. Simple ideas for simple creatures, as it attacks me again, with the same result as before. No matter what approach my servant takes, whether it is zigzagging to close the distance, wide swings or multiple thrusts, it quickly becomes clear that my kobold is severely outmatched by me. I am about to stop the training, but we must have caught the interest of the other 2 kobolds. “Do it. Believe yourself. Trust weapon.” They shout together to motivate their kinsman, and it clearly works.

The focus of this lesson changed for me. Instead of familiarising myself with my weapon, all I do now is dodge. I try to move less and less with each action, avoiding each attack with less margin for error than the one before. It feels more like a dance and less like combat training to me now. Each step carefully placed, each pose fluid and precise, always leading my opponent. Its attacks begin to slow down considerably and the panting is audible. “How possible. Me attack. Attack, attack. You dance. So gracefully.”

“Let us stop for now. You will need your strength for today's hunt, so don't waste it anymore.” I say to the clearly exhausted kobold. “Good timing. I finished the spears while you two were still at it. We can start whenever you want, Milord.” Sammy's voice reaches both of us, and when I turn my head to look at her, she is standing next to the other kobolds, who are inspecting their weapons very closely. I decide to wait 10 minutes before the five of us head out.

“I hope we get better bait than yesterday. I mean, the lizards weren't - wait, where's our rabbit? Did any of you take it home yesterday?” I ask the group, hoping someone took it. With shaking heads and simple denials my hopes are crushed. “Let's go to the lake and look for it. If we're lucky it might still be there and we'll save some time looking for a new one.” With that order we head for the lake and are about to head for the last known location of our forgotten lure when we are interrupted.

A beast emerges from behind a bush, not far from us. I order the group to stop as soon as I can identify the species. An adult brown bear with a rabbit in its mouth. The bait rabbit, to be precise. “What do you think, can we fight it?” I ask Sammy as we stare at the bear and it stares back at us. “You and I have no problem with it, but I doubt the kobolds would survive the encounter. Consider yourself lucky if one of them makes it out alive.” “Shit. I hate to say it, but I think we need to find a new rabbit.”

After a few moments, the bear stops staring and walks away from us at a leisurely pace. While we were unlucky in this encounter, we do find a burrow a short time later, and after sending the kobolds in, we manage to get our hands on two large weasels. After using summoning magic on them, both creatures fuse and another kobold is added to our group, making it 4 for now. Although it's still afternoon, I decide to stop for the day and give us some time to recover. On the way back we stop at the lake again. “I will take a bath; you can do whatever you want the rest of the day.” I tell the group and everyone is surprised in a good way. “Food! Food! Food!” The kobolds shout in unison and head off. One pair seems to be sharing a single brain cell and I chuckle at the thought. “In the meantime, I will go and make another spear for our newest addition. I wish you a pleasant bath, Thanatos.” After saying that and giving me a quick peck on the lips, Sammy also heads off into the forest, leaving me alone.

Saibler

A bit of a weird chapter as it has a bit of everything, from romance to hints about how the sin works and also training with the kobolds. The next chapter is finally a description of Thanatos and ??? Well, I let you guess. :P