Amoranth Forest was just outside the city itself, but both were miles from our cabin. Far enough away for the towering trees shading the area to be of a completely different breed. Same goes for the wildlife whose curiosity had been peaked by the light of my spell. One, a squirrel-like creature with the coloring of a raccoon, poked its head out from one of the many bushes filling the forest. Its ears shot to quick attention and it scurried away the moment it noticed I saw it. I kept a small smile to myself when Yua’s ears twitched at the sound of it fleeing. I scanned the area.

I’d brought us to the same spot where I first tasted human civilization after being reincarnated. So, while I had a vivid memory of the surroundings, this spot stood out more in my mind than anywhere else.

That being said, it was almost completely out in the open. A fact that almost immediately became a problem as I spotted the cart of a traveling Merchant, as her info box read, heading down the dirt path towards the city. Luckily, she did not seem to notice my spell thanks to the Sun’s light overpowering it, as she didn’t yank back the horses’ reigns to steer them away from the potential threat we didn’t mean to be.

Better safe than sorry, I lightly grabbed Yua by the arm and pulled her down to hide behind the fence bordering the forest. Without so much as a yelp in surprise, she squat down out of sight. Though the curious arch to her brow suggested she was only humoring me.

“Why are we hiding?”

“Shh… Wait until the cart’s gone.”

The merchant unfortunately wasn’t the same kind, elderly man that helped me out before. The person sitting atop the cart’s driver’s perch was a middle-aged woman that happened to be hiding her face with a shawl. It might just be a substitute hood meant to keep the Sun off her, but I didn’t want to risk a pair of beast-folk ears existing beneath it, ready to hear us. Ready to report us.

Alphonse mentioned before that he’d bribed the men guarding the city gate into arresting us had we tried to run away before Yua’s contract had been paid off. I didn’t want to run the risk of them setting some sort of ambush for us if the merchant told the guards that we, a somewhat suspicious-looking pair, were coming.

With our old room at the Lazy Cat Inn being potentially occupied, we had nowhere in the city we could teleport to that could assure we wouldn’t be seen. And I still heavily preferred keeping that spell a secret. Besides, one of my first mistakes in this world was me stowing away on a cart to avoid paying the entrance tax. Knowing what I do now of this world, I could only say I was lucky that it didn’t count towards me becoming a Thief. So, out of thanks for that and for the want of righting this wrong, I wanted to enter the city the way I was supposed to.

Holding my hand on Yua’s waist, we watched as the merchant slowly passed us by. Once we were sure she was out of earshot, we both got back to our feet. Leaning over the fence just to make sure she hadn’t stopped somewhere down the road, I sighed.

“Why were we hiding from her?” Yua asked again, her brow still arched. “You’re not still worried about Alphonse, are you?”

“Er… How did you…? Yes, there’s that but it’s also to hide…”

“Hide your magic?” Yua finished, putting her hands on her hips. “Alphonse is dead. And if that woman questioned us, we could have just told her we were out hunting. You don’t have to worry so much.”

“Right…”

I suppose I was just being a bit jumpy, but could you blame me? After everything we went through last time we were here, it’d be stranger if I wasn’t. Though, now that she brings it up, the obvious option of saying we were out to hunt for pelt-drops and such was the obvious answer to why we were out here.

Yua smiled sweetly to me, already at peace with what happened back then and tugged on my hand.

“Come on. Let’s get going.”

In a show that everything was truly fine, Yua jumped over the fence in one smooth motion without so much as letting her skirt flutter from the effort. Her tail swishing about in the late morning sun, she stepped further into the road and peered down towards the city gate. Reminded of my ridiculousness, I followed her example.

“Doesn’t look like there’s many people today,” Yua said.

The line of people and carriages waiting was nowhere near as long as it was last time I was here. The swarm of people that had been carrying the fruits of their labors after working in the fields and the near-endless stream of carts, all vying for entrance into the city, were mostly absent. Replaced by a good handful of those that must have lagged behind the morning rush. Thankfully, this meant we wouldn’t be waiting long.

“You’re right. Let’s…?”

Yua was all but ignoring me as I confirmed her observation. She stared blankly down the long, empty dirt road towards the gate, as if entranced by the sight. I found the tail that had been calmly stroking the air behind her a minute ago now whipping side to side in slow, jerking, excited movements.

Just as she figured out my worries without my saying a word, I knew exactly what she wanted. If I learned anything about her this last month, it’s that she loves exercise. Other than me, it was always the first thing she did after waking. Where it placed amongst her love for fighting and bedroom antics, I couldn’t say, but seeing that long stretch of unblemished road in front of us left her wanting.

Smirking at this, I took a moment to ready myself before speaking.

“Hey, how about we have ourselves a little race to the gate? Winner gets to pick what we have for breakfast.”

Her head spun to me so fast that her ears actually lagged behind for a split second before whipping back to stand up straight. When I saw not the loving smile I’d become accustomed to, but a confident grin, I knew I hit the nail on the head.

“You’re on. I look forward to having barbequed pork, Master.”

“Oh? Confident you’ll win before we even start? How cocky.”

“Hehe. Well, since you won’t use your magic, I think the winner will be obvious.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be? I see. Then how about instead, we…!”

“Hey!”

I took off sprinting full speed towards the gate, leaving her complaining in the dust. I wasn’t usually a sore loser when it came to sports, but knowing full well that her Speed stat was higher than mine, I felt as though I deserved a little handicap.

And thanks to this, I only lost by about ten paces.

Neither of us were out of breath, but we were both laughing as we huddled together in line. As I didn’t have the benefit of having my ears sticking out of it to keep it straight, I had to take a moment to fix the hood of my cloak as I waited for Yua to finish patting herself on the back for her victory.

We’d drawn the attention of quite a few people on the way, but none seemed to care much as they all went back to waiting for their turn in line. Included in this were the gate guards. I hadn’t taken into account how they might react to a couple of cloaked people running towards them, but once we joined the others in line, they all but stopped caring as the line slowly inched forwards.

Yua, still grinning beneath her hood, leaned around the crowd to look at something ahead of us that gave her ears a curious twitch. Or rather, it was a someone, as she caught my eye too once I took notice of her.

When I first caught sight of the long, wavy green hair that ran down the girl’s slender back straight to her hips, I almost immediately thought it was the tiny Apothecary we met in the city and was about to call out to her, but thought better of it just as fast. Probably for the same reason why Yua turned her nose on the girl and lost interest.

It wasn’t her. This girl wasn’t as petite as the apothecary in any of the height, bust or hip departments, nor was she wearing a revealing dress that was the only part of her that could ever attempt to provoke the image of a mature woman. The only thing in common between the two was the color of her hair and the general air of fatigue building up around her as she repeatedly drew in deep breaths.

She turned, catching me looking and lazily wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve. She was cute, but with all that sweat caking her pretty face, she looked as though she’d spent the last several hours pushing herself to her utmost limits in the gym.

My heart thudded in my chest when Yua tugged my arm. Thinking I was about to receive a jealous glare for staring too long, she instead pulled me towards the girl. This girl, hunched over in a desperate attempt to catch her breath, had failed to keep up with the line and those impatiently waiting behind her hurried to take her place. She looked up, noticing her displacement much too late and let out a long sigh.

Confused and intrigued by how she was dressed only in a frilly nightgown and a pair of slippers, instead of any of the casual city dresses the women here favored, I found it hard to look away. It was already after noon, but nobody in the line seemed at all bothered by her dress. With this, and how messy her hair was, she looked as though she’d just rolled out of bed.

“Excuse me, miss. Are you okay?”

The green-haired girl lifted her head, her shoulders slumping from the effort, and met my gaze. Hers widened for at most a second, as if she hadn’t realized I was talking to her, then she hurriedly brushed her sweaty bangs from her forehead.

“O-Oh,” she stammered before forcing her expression to soften. “Um, how may I help you?”

“Are you okay? You look… tired.”

At this, she eyed me dubiously, as if she’d taken what I said as a comment on how sweaty she was, but all she did was sigh and press her hair back some more.

“I’m fine, I guess. My mistress just caught me sleeping in too late again. And, as a punishment, she had a carriage drop me off outside the city and forced me to walk back.”

“Mistress…?”

For some reason, that one word really stood out to me, but I can’t say why. My computer’s browser history was… interesting… but that word did not exist within the confines of my preferences.

However, before I came to the sort of conclusion that would have forever solidified me as an idiot, Yua saved me by whispering in my ear.

“Mistress is what slaves call their female masters.”

Quietly thanking Yua for saving me from making an unfortunate assumption, I made the executive decision to never let either of these two know what I was thinking and checked the girl’s info box. Ignoring how she tugged on and fanned herself with the collar of her nightgown, I read the window that appeared over her head and found that she was indeed a slave, that her name was June and that her only class was Tailor. But learning her class title only brought up another question.

“So, you’re saying your mistress found you in bed and dumped you out here all on your own?”

June nodded, letting her arms dangle as she tilted her head back to catch her breath. The line moved forward again and this time, she moved with it.

“Yup. She threw me over her shoulder, tossed me into a carriage and told the driver where to dump me. This is, like, the third time this week.”

At the reminder of how most masters treated their slaves in this world, Yua put up a sympathetic smile, but I clenched my fists.

During my first pass through the gates, I distinctly remember the city guards mentioning that bandits had been seen in the area. Leaving a girl like her, dressed like that, without a weapon or even a combat class to protect her, in the middle of nowhere just sounded like she was inviting trouble.

I am no arbiter of justice. While I may be a hypocrite for saying I don’t agree with the slavery system in this world, there was nothing I could do about it. Not when it was as ingrained in life here as the laws of physics. But that was too far. Just imagining what she likely had to put up with on a daily basis that left her tired enough to sleep in despite knowing the punishment she’d receive made me want to help out more with the chores. Even if Yua didn’t want me to.

“D-Don’t worry about it,” June said, forcing a smile back at the both of us. “I didn’t mean to complain. It was really my fault for sleeping in so much.”

“Oi! If you’re entering the city, hurry it up!”

June split off from the conversation when the gate guard called to her. Apparently, our talk last longer than we meant it to as it was now her turn. She turned back to us, clutched her hands together in front of her hips and offered us a small bow before running off towards the guard. She made it only five steps before her body lurched again and she had to stop to take a breath.

Becoming increasingly annoyed to have to keep waiting, the guard thumped the butt of his spear into the dirt a couple times to spur her on, but when he got a better look at her, he palmed his forehead. He and the other two guards with him sighed in unison. 

Guess she wasn’t joking about this being a normal punishment for her.

June reached into a pocket and dug out a silver coin. Leaving her entrance tax on the silver tray provided for visitors, she hobbled in through the gate the best she could. The guard shook his head as he watched her go, took the coin she offered and tossed it into a lockbox before waving us forward.

“Sorry for the wait,” he said. “What’s your business in Amoranth?”

Openly eyeing our cloaks, he straightened his back and tightened his grip on his spear. Choosing to believe in Yua and very much wanting to avoid creating more trouble for ourselves in this city, I pulled my hood down and let him look at the best polite smile I could muster before answering.

Thankfully, his arrogantly-bored expression suggested he didn’t recognize me. A couple of his buddies were still eyeing us suspiciously, but only until Yua copied me and pulled off her hood. I forced my smile to remain on my lips when I noticed that their gazes turned more inquisitive when I caught where exactly on Yua’s person they were looking. I supposed that a girl in a skirt, knee-socks and a cloak must look pretty odd.

“We’re here to visit the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Right. 2 silvers for two people.”

He gestured to the silver tray and, remembering exactly why everyone trading money used these silver trays, I set the coins on it without question. He leaned over, looked at the coins briefly, shrugged and waved us through before accepting them and ushering the next person forward.

Catching a sort of I told you so smirk from Yua, we threw our hoods back on and passed through the tunnel under the gate.

Entering the great city on foot instead of under a blanket in the back of a cart felt like I’d been hit with the hustle of the city all at once. In an instant, the city I once believed was a castle exploded into view. The endless rows of buildings stretched as far into the distance, all of them and the untold thousands that lived within were confined and protected by the massive wall that towered high enough for the far side of it to still catch the eye.

More than the buildings were the people. An endless flow of citizens moved about through the city, to and from and in between the various stalls and shops in the merchant district to the taverns, restaurants, their homes and more. They all felt like an emotionless mob of random NPCs that were only acting at life when I first saw them, but now, as each of them went about their daily lives however they fancied, it felt more real than my previous self-centered depression could have allowed me to see.

Nothing had changed. One of the most influential men in the city supposedly just up and vanished, but nothing was different. Everyone walking the streets and touring the city still held the same mix of expressions you’d expect from people living the city life anywhere in the world. It was as if his death didn’t matter at all.

The most striking visual of all, though, found its way to my attention when Yua tugged on my arm and pointed down the city’s main street. There, a green-haired girl clad in a nightgown of a quality higher than what her status as a slave should have allowed, shambled down the cobblestone path.

June’s shoulders slumped as her head dangled from exhaustion. After managing a grand total of four more steps before she collapsed to the ground in a heap. She didn’t even have the chance to catch herself as she fell. She just plopped down face first into the street as if every muscle in her body gave up in unison. None of those walking near spared her more than a glance and walked on, robbing me of the wonder the city had bestowed on me. So, Yua and I ran to her side.

She hadn’t made it far from the gate, so we were beside her in seconds. Naturally, Yua got to her first and lifted the poor girl’s head from the hard stone and cradled her. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be hurt from her fall, but her cheeks were flushed. Though the bags holding up her eyes and the sweat dripping off her face made her look like she might have been sick, not tired. 

I would have assumed as much, but Yua only looked mildly concerned for her fellow slave as she examined the girl’s meager musculature. Unimpressed as she was, she didn’t let it affect the way she held her.

Silently cursing her mistress’s heartlessness, I reached into my cloak, into my item box, and pulled out a stamina potion. Bewilderingly, June didn’t so much as bat an eye in protest once I uncorked the bottle and pressed it to her lips. I couldn’t say if she thought it was just water, but she gulped it down almost greedily once the liquid energy touched her tongue.

 During our first night together, Yua and I tested the validity of the stamina potion’s effects in full and kept at it for so long that we ended up sleeping until noon the next day. And then we did the same the next few nights. I had put a quick stop to it once I realized we were going to wind up making sleeping in a bad habit, but by that time we’d almost completely drained our supply of the potions.

So, when June drained the last of the bottle’s contents and her eyes widened to reveal irises that were a green several shades lighter than Yua’s, I knew the potion had done its job. Mostly, anyways. She had to forcefully lift her head to watch as I stuffed the empty potion bottle back into my cloak. She grew concerned when she caught sight of what it was, but Yua lifted her to her feet before she could say a word.

“You okay?”

“Y-Yes,” June said, struggling to let her own feet carry her again. “I’ll be fine. I just need a little break.”

Weakly, she pointed over to a wood bench that sat in front of what looked to be a small grassy park separating the merchant’s district from the main gate. Careful not to cause her anymore discomfort, I let Yua help her over.

June’s bottom hit the bench with a relaxed sigh so potent, you’d have thought she just steeped herself in a hot bath. She picked up the collar of her nightgown, which had gone a little see-through from all the sweat, and used it to fan herself again for a moment or two before she decided it required too much effort and stopped. Letting her head hang back over the bench, her hair seemed to blend in with the bush behind her.

“Thank you for helping me and… for the potion. You really shouldn’t have…”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, confusedly watching the concerningly labored rise and fall of her bosom. The potions usually did the trick for Yua, so why hadn’t it completely restored June’s stamina when her level was lower than ours? “Your mistress doesn’t need to know about that.”

At this, June smiled wryly, as if she were more than willing to pull one over on her mistress, but she sank further into the bench all the same. I took out a waterskin that had already been filled with magically purified water I’d been keeping in my item box just in case we needed it and handed it to her. Again, she took to it like she hadn’t seen water in years and gulped it down.

“How long have you been walking, anyway?”

With a great, pleased gasp for air, June wiped her chin.

“Gods, I don’t know... It’s been at least five minutes.”

Yua and I looked to each other. Her ears flicked, showing she heard the same thing, so I pressed for clarification.

“… Okay, sorry, but did you mean five hours? Or maybe five miles? Five days?”

June tilted her head in confusion, took a sip of her drink like this and dismissed me with a small wave.

“Nope. It took me about five minutes to get from where the carriage dropped me off to the gate. Why?”

I could say nothing to this. This girl was sweating enough for several parts of her nightgown to turn a little transparent. Enough to say for certain that another potion wouldn’t guarantee the return of her stamina. But she only walked for five minutes before she ended up like this? Who gets this winded after such a short walk?

Forced to arrive at the conclusion that this girl was just irreparably lazy, it took several seconds to work out something coherent to say.

“No reason. Then, um, are you okay getting back on your own? I’d like to help if I can.”

If she was this weak, then I at least wanted to make sure she stayed safe. I used to be the sort of lazy bum that would rather inhale a bag of chips than go for a walk, so I know all too well how easy it’d be to take advantage of someone when they’re tired.

After hearing out my offer, and seeing Yua nod in agreement, June’s eyes widened slightly, as if she’d only just fully woken up, before she looked away and fanned herself. Though I did notice a small smile appear on her thin lips before she bowed her head.

            “N-no thanks. I appreciate the offer, but if my mistress knew I was aided, she’d just get more upset. I’ll be fine on my own. I just need a bit of rest. Plus, there’s plenty of benches along the way for me to take breaks, so it’ll only take me a few hours to get back.”

“Right… Well, then, um, have a nice day?”

Still confused, I waved and started back down the street. With all the knights patrolling the city, I figured she’d be safe anyways.

However, when I reached to take Yua’s hand again, only to grab at nothing, I turned back to find that she was bent over June and shared a few whispers with her. For her part, June grew visibly more confused until she pointed to Yua and then to me. All Yua did in response was nod with a pleasant smile adorning her face.

Her ears flicked when she caught me looking and she hurried back to my side. She grabbed my arm and led me into the crowd and away from June. Left behind on the bench, June slunk even further into her seat, looking as though my cat girl had graciously gifted her all of my confusion. Though, when her green eyes linked with mine, she pouted.

I waited until we were a fair distance away, far enough for June’s human ears not to catch what I said, before I said anything.

“What was that about?”

“Hmm? Well, she wanted to talk to me alone, so I don’t think she wanted you to know.”

“I see…”

I suppose that, if she knew to whisper low enough to grab only the attention of a cat folk like Yua and nobody else despite the busy hour, then she must be fairly familiar with their people. After mulling it over for a second, Yua went ahead and explained.

“All she asked was how we knew each other.”

“Really? What, um… What did you tell her?”

I’d already done my time as a dense idiot after we first met, so I wasn’t about to question the existence of our relationship. But I was curious to know how she really saw it.

“I was honest,” Yua said matter-of-factly. “I said you are my mate and my master.”

As happy as it made me to know she was willing to admit we were together to complete strangers, mates was the only word she ever used to describe us. I suppose her people must not have a word for relationships past mates and not mates.

Still, why bring up that she’s a slave too?

“Alright then… Look, even if the city’s likely safe now, I don’t plan on staying here for long. So why don’t we get on with our shopping?”

“Sure!”

Gearing up to tackle our shopping mission, Yua pulled at the straps of the backpack she carried.

“Hold on, take this first.”

From within my cloak, and my item box, I pulled out a small green bag filled with coin. Curiosity striking her leagues more than greed, Yua accepted the bag and… sniffed it. Her nostrils flared once or twice before she looked at me. Knowing what the look in her eye was asking, I answered.

“I made the bag out of that old rag shirt you used to wear. That’s why it smells like you.”

Ever since we filled up her wardrobe with clothes that didn’t look like they were made from dumpster leftovers, I’d been wondering what to do with the rags she wore when we met. I knew she had no attachment to them so, trying out Material Destruction and Creation to see if it also worked on leather and fabric instead of just wood and stone, I dismantled her pants and reformed them into a pair that looked brand new. I gave the new pair back to her, but I never told her what I did with the shirt that never fit her right to begin with.

“Really?! Thank you, but what’s the coin for? I thought we were going to shop together.”

Her eyes lit up like fireworks at the gift, but she ended up pouting as though she took the gesture as meaning I was going to send her off on an errand. I laughed.

“It’s for you. I want you to be able to buy the things you want, too. And I won’t take no for an answer here.”

Hitting her with a preemptive rejection of the want to return the coin, if not the bag, I’d seen furrowing her brow, she sighed. Smiled, but sighed as she tied the bag under her cloak. It was surprisingly hard to get her to accept the coin she herself worked so hard for. Even if, as a salve, she technically couldn’t own the coin, I say it was still hers.

“Good. Now let’s go.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and walked her into the crowd buzzing through the merchant’s district.

 

 

Having already familiarized myself with most of what the merchant’s district had to offer, I walked Yua through the city. However, unlike our last visit, where we were more or less focused only on pre-cooked foods we could eat on the run, we stopped by several stalls and shops selling all sorts of raw foods and ingredients to save what coin we still had.

With a much better understanding of how much we needed, we bought enough food to last us at least another couple of months. Each time Yua’s bag overflowed with ingredients and we had to stop in a nearby alley to secretly stuff it all into my item box, I found myself drooling at the delicious thought of how I’d soon be able to enjoy her cooking. I can’t really see myself experiencing the modern-day fantasy of being greeted by my beloved and a lovingly prepared homemade meal after a hard day’s work, but that’s more my fault for not having a proper job. So, maybe helping her in the kitchen would be the next best thing.

As soon as I confirmed our shopping was done, Yua excitedly grabbed my hand and, with her impatient tail whipping up a storm, pulled me straight towards the barbequed pork stall that so enraptured her tastebuds.

Seeing this cloaked girl, looking both so out of place and so happy, and over something so simplistic to boot, it was no wonder why I haven’t been missing all of the conveniences Earth held for me in the past. Sure, my magic and abilities made up for some of what was missing and, despite doing little else with my free time than enjoy her company, I haven’t felt the least bit bored without my computer or headphones to keep me secure.

As if she were trying to stop me from thinking of the past, Yua’s giddily-quick steps drew both me and my attention fully onto her. Enjoying the playful bounce of her tail as she sped through the throng of people, a sudden force struck and caught my left arm. I barely staggered from the surprise blow, but the person that bumped into me fell back and hit the stone sidewalk with a hard thud, letting out a cute “oof!” as she did. Before I could fully register what had happened, the thud was quickly followed by a desperate wail from a second person before the sound of glass shattering against the cobblestone ruptured the pleasant atmosphere.

Catching wind of the commotion she’d failed to see with a flick of the ear, Yua doubled back to see what happened. As did the crowd around us.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going, jerk!” said a red-haired girl. The aggravated glare she shot at me conflicted greatly with her otherwise cute face and the frilly maid’s dress she wore. At first glance, I thought she was one of the maids from the auction house, but there were enough differences in their uniformed outfits to suggest otherwise.

Unlike her angry declaration might have suggested, it was not her that I accidentally knocked over. Hardly taking notice of me, a second maid sat, half-kneeling on the ground where she landed. Surprisingly, this girl had bright blue hair styled impossibly into a pair of drill-shaped twintails that continued to bounce long after she herself stopped moving.

More curious was how that odd hair color looked entirely natural on her, as if she had been born with it. And she probably had been. I hadn’t thought much on the various hair colors in this world, but now that I was faced with a glaring, fiery redhead and by the blue-haired girl staring vacantly at the broken glass bottle whose contents were currently soaking the cobblestones, and after meeting a second green-haired girl just an hour ago, I realized that hair color must just be another way this world differed from Earth.

This world continues to fascinate me in incredibly stupid ways.

“What are you standing there gawking for?” the redhead barked, prodding my chest with her finger. “You trying to look down her top, or something?”

“Wha… N-no,” I stammered. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“Hmph! Obviously,” the redhead said, grabbing her fellow maid by the elbow. “Come on, Silla. Stop spacing out or your dress will get dirty.”

The blue-haired girl, Silla apparently, hefted herself up without sign of any actual injury. Despite this, she couldn’t pull her eyes off the shattered remains of the bottle. Its info box labeled it as nothing more than a “broken bottle,” but the scent emanating from it stung my nose in the way only alcohol could. I knelt to pick up the shards of glass for them by way of apology.

“Wait!” Yua bolted over and grabbed my wrist before I could pick up the bottle to read its label.

Unfamiliar with alcohol other than the general scent of it, I didn’t know what it was, or had been, specifically, but whatever it was made her wince when her extra-sensitive nose caught wind of it. Maybe the beast-kin, or at least those with powerful noses, weren’t fans of alcohol as a general rule. Realizing that the bottle didn’t belong to me, I let her pull my hand away.

“Would touching it make me a Thief?”

“No. But you might cut yourself.”

Yua turned my hand over to search for cuts even though I hadn’t touched the glass yet. Just a month ago, she looked like she’d rather beat me to death for just thinking of touching her, now she was handling me as if we’d been together for years.

The redheaded maid’s glare darkened just as I caught myself smiling like an idiot at Yua’s fussing.

“Can you two stop flirting?” she said. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“Er, uh…”

“Mary…” Silla said, a despondent look in her eye as she tugged the redhead’s, Mary’s, skirt like a worried little sister. “The mistress is going to kill us.”

Checking their info boxes to confirm their names revealed that they were both slaves. Unlike with Yua’s status page, it didn’t tell me who they “belonged” to, but it certainly sounded like they were a woman. Apparently, there were more female slave owners than I would have guessed. And with how scared Silla looked, even female slave masters were known to act violently towards their slaves.

As if she came to this same conclusion, Yua forgot all about my non-existent injury and turned a worried look to the girls. It took fighting through several life-or-death situations together to really instill the proof that I wasn’t going to abuse my power over her, but as a slave herself being reminded of the life she almost had yet again today, she couldn’t just shrug off their plight.

“Wait, wait,” I said. “Please, this was my fault. How about I buy you a new bottle to give to your…er, mistress?”

“Huh?” Mary scoffed. “If it was a question of coin, the mistress wouldn’t bat an eyelash at your fuck up. This is Mont’s Black Barrel! Her favorite rum, you idiot!”

“A-And it was the last bottle in all of Amoranth!” Silla added, raising her hand into the air, as if she felt she needed permission to join the conversation she was already a part of. “We went to every tavern and inn in the city looking for it!”

“I, uh…”

Shit. I was already being overly cautious of potentially running into Alphonse’s thugs to the point of wearing a hood despite the weather being pleasant. But did I really just piss off someone wealthy enough to not only buy two slaves, but who could also afford two as cute as these girls? Not to mention being wealthy enough to give them well-tailored dresses to wear as they did their chores.

I barely scraped by putting a down payment on Yua’s contract and had to rely on my luck to finish paying it off. But imagining how much Yua cost and how much these two must have cost in comparison, I had to wonder if I just unintentionally picked a fight with some powerful noble or merchant.

“Look, I’m really sorry. If that was the last bottle, how about I buy you a couple others to replace it? Your mistress may not get what she wanted, but at least she’ll have something to tide her over until another shipment arrives in the city.”

The maids looked to each other; confusion etched clearly on their faces. Silla’s shoulders hiked up as she timidly latched onto Mary’s shoulder, eyeing me wearily all the while. Mary on the other hand, scratched her cheek.

“Well, um… I suppose my attitude reflects poorly on our mistress, so please accept my apology,” Mary said, looking like she were trying her best to sound sincere. “But why are you being so… nice? Most would just brush us off after realizing we’re slaves.”

            Before I could say anything, Yua laced her arms around mine, unintentionally drawing my bicep into her cleavage, and smiled for the girls.

“It’s because my master is nice to slaves!”

“Eh?!” Silla gasped. “You’re a slave, too?”

“Yup. And Master has been nothing but kind to me. He’s even going to let me eat pork for breakfast!”

Come on Yua… Aside from threatening to make me blush in public, in front of two cute girls nonetheless, they’re clearly worried about how their own mistress is going to react to what happened. I can only imagine they aren’t being treated as kindly as you are. Why rub it in their faces?

Was this what she was like when she spoke with June? Was she bragging?

Mary crossed her arms in a barely hidden huff.

“Pfft, lucky. I mean, we eat just fine in the mansion, but we have to deal with the mistress’s harassment all the time.”

“S-Sorry to hear that,” I said, trying and failing to extract my arm from Yua’s cleavage. “I’m from a place that looks down on slavery, so I try to treat Yua here with respect.”

“That so?” Mary said, eyeing Yua up and down. Given that the cat girl was nothing but smiles, she couldn’t really deny what I said.

Still, on the other hand…

“But if your people look down on slavery, why did you buy a slave?”

Yea. Yea, no. Definitely not telling them why. I don’t even want to remember the answer myself. Not even after acknowledging the fact that, in the end, I technically got what I wanted from buying her in the first place. Now that Yua and I reconciled it, my dark past should stay in the dark.

“I, uh… So, how much was the rum? I’ll give you three times its worth to make up for breaking it.”

“Th-Three times?! What’s with rich people and this stuff? It’s just booze!”

Haha, sorry, but I’m not really rich. I’m just sitting on a fairly robust pile of coin I only managed to collect purely because of my Luck stat. My actual income is basically nonexistent. But if waving around a bit of coin will help me save face in front of these two innocent-looking girls, then I’ll play the part of a rich merchant. I mean, I did at least have the Merchant class and the coin to back up what I said.

Forcing a straight smile, hoping they forget their question, I pressed on.

“So, how much was that bottle?”

“T-Two gold…”

“Really? Two gold for a single bottle?!”

What the hell?! Health potions don’t even cost that much and those things are capable of closing life-threatening wounds almost instantly! And regular food, even pre-cooked meals, only costs a few coppers. What the hell was in that bottle, the elixir of life?! Who the hell pays that much for booze?!

“Y-You don’t need to pay us,” Silla said meekly. “We’ll just… The mistress’s punishments usually aren’t too… severe.”

For whatever reason, she blushed deeply. Mary’s cheeks reddened too, but she pat her fellow maid on the shoulder in what looked to be a resigned solidarity.

“Yea. She’ll just wine and moan about it for a little while. The most she’ll make us do is join her in the ba…”

“M-M-Mary! Shush!”

The crimson in Silla’s cheeks deepened several shades as she lunged to cover Mary’s mouth. The redhead just rolled her eyes and let her cheeks get squeezed by the smaller girl.

Seeing her fellow maid’s blood pressure rise enough to turn even her ears a bright red, Mary sighed through her nostrils, the only part of her still capable of breathing, and pulled Silla’s hand off of her.

“Fine, fine. Look, Mr.…”

“Oh, Alex.”

“Okay, Alex, you don’t need to pay us. Our mistress has plenty of her own coin and is usually pretty lax with it. So, don’t worry about it.”

“No, I said I’ll pay. So, please, let me do so.”

Yua ended up becoming a Thief because she promised to pay off the Adventurer that saved her life, but ended up being unable to do so completely by accident. Good will aside, I already made a promise myself. Should the world already have decided that my promise was set in stone, I’d rather not run the risk of the same happening to me.

After checking with Yua, mainly to see if she thought the girls were lying about the rum’s cost, I hid my hand under my cloak and reached into my item box. I held the promised 6 gold out to the maids. Silla’s eyes glowed with what might have been reverence, but Mary eyed the small pile dubiously. Neither of the girls reached for it.

“Come on. I know it’s a lot, but let me make up for my mistake.”

Seeing that I wasn’t going to back down, Mary slowly stretched out her hand while Silla stayed behind her. It almost looked like they were expecting me to grab at them.

Carefully reminding myself again of the silver tray’s purpose, I turned my hand over to drop the coins into the offered palm. The coins clattered uneventfully into her hand and, after a quick check of my status page to confirm I didn’t become a Thief, the transaction was completed.  

“Thank you for this,” Mary said, stuffing the coins into the pocket of the weirdly small apron she wore around her hips. “We’ll let our mistress know what happened. Hopefully this will be enough for her.”

“Sorry again.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She squat down, letting her knees rest wide open in rather tomboyish-manner to pick up the broken bottle. Unconcerned for how she looked doing this in public while wearing a skirt, she quicky cleaned up the mess and continued. “Between you and me, I think it’s about time she took a break from the drink anyways.”

With that casual comment on her mistress’s apparent drinking problem, Mary scooped up the last of the glass and gestured to Silla with her chin to have her follow. With nothing more than a small smile as her goodbye, and a timid bow from Silla, the two maids hurried off.

I hope I didn’t cause them too much trouble.

“Yua… If you happen to notice my attention slipping in public, please let me know.”

I’d rather not have a repeat of this. Especially not with someone of a higher status than me. At that, I quickly scanned the info boxes of those around us to make sure nobody of concern found us in the commotion.

“Okay, but should I have said something while they were here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s just that you were staring at their boobs a lot, so…”

“I-I was?!”

I don’t remember actively ogling them and, if my Memorization trait was anything to go off of, then that had to be true, right? Then again, aside from their cuteness and shared petite frames, I do somehow vaguely remember that they were both on the flatter side, with Silla being near-cutting-board levels of flat and with Mary only being slightly bustier, it was a little difficult to deny. How the hell did I notice that without noticing that I noticed?

Also, and more importantly, was that why Silla kept hiding behind Mary?

A few of the women walking past us giggled at my expense, forcing me to draw my hood lower over my face. I guess finally becoming a man didn’t cure me of my bad habits.

“… That’s not your fault, Yua. I shouldn’t have…”

“Eh, I think it’s fine, though. They seemed used to it.”

“That’s not… Ugh. How about we stop talking about this and go eat? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

I rubbed my stomach, positive that it didn’t make so much as a peep that Yua could hear and she beamed at me with a renewed determination to finally get the food I promised her. Seemingly having forgotten how she used to berate me for ogling female Adventurers wearing enchanted bikini-armor, she completely ignored my unintended lecherous gaze with ease and started walking again. Grateful for her mercy, I let her lead the way.