“Marry?” I asked, dumbfounded.

Kasey’s tail and ears hung limply. He let out a sigh. “Yeah. There’s this merchant that’s a family friend…his daughter and I have been childhood friends, and apparently, she said that she wants to marry me.”

I couldn’t say that having to marry your childhood friend sounded like that big of an issue, but it was clear that Kasey was troubled by it, so I decided not to joke about it. Instead, I wrapped an arm around the small boy’s shoulder as I said, “So, the issue is that you don’t want to get married?”

With a faint blush, he shrugged, “I-It’s not that I don’t want to get married…I just…don’t see her like that…”

“I see. Then what’s stopping you from just saying no?”

Kasey slumped his shoulders. “…My parents are excited, and apparently, it’s something they’d been hoping would happen. I can’t just shatter their hopes like that…”

“Hm, I see.”

Having done something rash for my own parents, or I guess parent, I could totally understand where he was coming from. But there was a pretty huge difference in our situations. Although I didn’t want to say it out loud, and there was no concrete evidence, it almost felt like they were using Kasey to get closer to the merchant. Either for money reasons or something else.

But if I had to bet, money would be the thing.

“Do have a sort of plan of action?” I asked. “Or are you just slowly giving in to the idea of marrying that girl?”

“…I have nothing.” His ears drooped further. “I’ve thought of everything, but I can’t find a way to make everything work out—oh, and I’m not asking you to find a solution or something!” He quickly shook his hands.

“But now that you’ve said it, I kind of want to look for one.”

“No, please don’t Kaelor!” He grabbed my arm and shook it.

Kasey pouted as I laughed.

 

Soon enough, the store I’d been aiming for came into view. It was a relatively small building with a large sign at the front. A large alley was made to the side of the building so merchant carriages could bring in goods. Even now there was a carriage station there with a few slaves bringing things out the back and into the store.

“Eep!” Kasey suddenly let out. His tail and ears shot up as he quickly hid behind me.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” I asked, but before he could answer, a loud sniff sniff came from nearby.

“I know that smell…darling!” From out the front of the carriage, a well-dressed girl jumped down to the floor. Her short silver hair bobbed as her dress fluttered upward, revealing her panties to the world. Unfazed, she ran in my direction, her eyes filled with a ravenous…lust(?).

You could practically see the hearts jutting from her eyes.

As if I was just some object in the way, she pushed me to the side and wrapped her arms around the trembling Kasey.

“I missed you sooo much!”

“I-I…just saw you yesterday—” Kasey said as he struggled to breathe.

“To me, it felt like an eternity~!” The girl squealed as she proceeded to kiss Kasey on the mouth. His eyes shot open as the girl seemingly tried devouring him. His face blushed from ear to ear as she continued to aggressively kiss him. After a few seconds, she finally pulled away, her love-filled eyes tunnel vision onto the small boy. “My dad is busy inside the shop, so what do you say we hop onto that carriage over there so you can finally ravage my pu—”

“Okay, okay, I’ve seen enough,” I clapped, snapping her out of whatever fantasies she was cooking up.

Her eyes became daggers that she shot toward me. “And who the fuck are you?” she cursed, and odd thing to see leave a girl of her caliber’s lips.

But expecting that rudeness, I proceeded to introduce myself. “Kaelor Starlin. A friend of Kasey.”

“Friend, huh,” she glanced at Kasey to confirm, at which he simply nodded. Finally, she smiled. “Oh, I see! Why didn’t you say that!”

Not wanting to point out that she was the one who got aggressive pointlessly, I continued. “I’ve heard…some from Kasey, but would you mind introducing yourself?” I had to quickly add in a lie so I didn’t bring forth the girl’s anger.

She slowly let go of Kasey as she stood up straight. “I’m Morgana Silverheart! Next in line for the Silverheart family of merchants, and soon-to-be wife of Kasey.” She quickly fell back into her lovesick ways as she wrapped her arms around Kasey from the back.

His eyes pleaded me to do something, but I was at a bit of a loss.

“I see. The Silverhearts. Your family is quite well known.”

She proudly stuck out her, moderate-sized, chest. “But of course! We only sell the best goods. Food, weapons, slaves, you name it!”

Is she trying to pitch this to me or something?

As I mentioned before, the Silverhearts were a really well-known family across the country. In fact, they had been my first option when I came to the conclusion I wanted to buy slaves, but I switched the plan halfway through after realizing I didn’t want to make my face known to the family as the slave-buying type. That and there was also the ever-prevalent scam of merchants selling ill or near-dead slaves without telling the buyer.

I just didn’t want to risk that.

But the fact that Kasey was not only acquainted with but was even set to marry into this kind of family—that’s not something I would’ve ever expected.

“I’ve heard that you wanted to marry young Kasey over here, you definitely have good taste.” I quipped. Kasey seemingly didn’t appreciate my joke, but Morgana quickly nodded.

“But of course! I’d obviously pick the best man to be my husband!” She brought him closer to her.

“Was there any specific reason, or do you just think he’s cute?”

It might’ve been a little forced, but there was no telling when my next chance to meet with this girl would come again. I had to get to the bottom of everything to see if I could get Kasey out of it.

“Do I need any more reason than because I want to?” She unhelpfully answered.

“You are getting married to him. One would think there’d be more to it than just because.”

“Hmm…” she thought it over, looking at the sky. “Then probably cause I want him to fuck me?”

“Huh?” The sudden statement left me a bit perplexed.

“Yeah. I want him to fuck me. That’s probably it. I don’t know anyone who could do that. I’m very picky when it comes to giving away my first time—Kasey’d be a perfect fit~.” She finished her sentence whispering into Kasey’s ear and nibbling at his lobe.

This…This doesn’t seem like it’ll be an easy one to get out of young Kasey.

He simply stood stock still, his face reddened and a pool of tears building up in his eyes.

 

***

 

“I wonder what they’re doing, I wonder,” Shiari said out loud, nibbling on her piece of bread. She turned to her sister, Hikari, and noticed a small crumb stuck to her cheek. With her tail swaying, Shiari leaned over and licked Hikari’s cheek, picking up the crumb with her rough tongue.

“That tickles,” her sister laughed.

It had been a long time since they could remember being this at peace. After they had reached a certain age, the church they had been raised in sold them off to slavery, and they rode from ship to ship, carriage to carriage, before ending up in Isolde’s shop.

It was nothing short of a miracle it was her master that picked them up. They’d only just arrived not long before. If he had taken even a day later, there was a high chance that some men would’ve taken them away by now.

They hadn’t been separated once the entire time. They probably hadn’t been separated in almost a decade. Who knows if that would’ve stayed the same way if someone else would’ve bought them.

“What were you saying earlier?” the question brought Shiari back into the present.

“Oh, I was just wondering what Misaki and Kishiro were doing, I was.”

“Hm…” Hikari racked her brain. After reaching no conclusion, her eyes bolted open as she said, tail excitedly curling.

““Should we go check?”” They both asked simultaneously.

They smiled as they realized they were thinking the same thing, and they gave each other a deep nod.

**// Author's Note//**

These chapter's were meant to have dropped yesterday, but I was too caught up with things to finish them on time. For the most part, certain sections of these chapters had been done a while back, which is why they're labeled as Growing Pains part 1, 2, and 3, but as I planned out some other things, I realized there was some changes I had to make. 

Anyway, I know people aren't chomping at the bit for few chapters and whatnot, but I still don't like breaking a streak (And worst of all, the chapters ended up being really short...). With that in mind, I can't say that it won't happen again since I know how I am and how busy life is getting. But still, if anyone wants some updates, even though I didn't update on this situation this time around, I do post some things on Twitte--I mean, X.

You can check that out here: @LennoxPerinox 

With that, I hope this story is enjoyable in any sense, and I swear things will ramp up in later chapters. My original plan was to have the first arc be about one of the four girls, but I realized I wanted the four of them, and Kaelor, to better get to know each other before we jump into the big stuff. So that's why I'm keeping things a bit slow for now. And with that excuse out of the way, I'll hopefully see you all this Friday...maybe...

***