I woke with a start, not because I wanted to return to that dreamland or the world it was modeled after. Nor was it the jarring sensation of having been in a state of consciousness that felt both awake and aware, only to instantly find myself back in bed, muddled and tired from what now felt like it had been a restless night.

                It took several seconds of semi-consciousness for my senses to register the fact that the sheets in the inn were nowhere near as soft as the ones I used back in my apartment, something that I should have noticed before giving into despair so quickly. But this difference was proof that I was returned to the barebones room at the Lazy Cat Inn and, most importantly, that I wasn’t alone. As if my own senses were teasing me for having doubted her, the last thing my mind was able to let me take notice of was the presence of the girl leaning over me.

                Yua was still here. Right where she said she’d be.

                A sweet breath swept against my face and the familiar sensation of the kiss I’d tasted only once before stole all other meaning from the world. A tongue that was clearly not my own parted my lips purposefully, but carefully in search for a deeper passion. Two large and tantalizingly soft somethings pressed unrestricted against my chest where a delicate, but powerful hand clung to me.

                Now awake, and ready to let out a joyous cry that would have robbed me of any lingering sense of manliness, I threw my arms around her slender form to embrace this wonderful girl. She let out a cute yelp of surprise, apparently unawares that she’d done her duty in waking me until I pulled her closer. The light swishing of her furry tail brushing against my arms forced me to smile.

                She was still here.

                Once I opened my eyes, the tongue invading my mouth receded before I could really enjoy the sensation of her kiss with the full range of senses that now seemed to burned like a wildfire. Our lips parted and she blushed when she looked me in the eyes. Drawn by the lingering sensation of her lips, I couldn’t quite pull my eyes away from the two peach-pink lines drawn up into a smile, until they moved, dancing to the sound of her voice.

                I brushed the chestnut-colored hair away from her cheek to better see her. She took my hand in hers and held it to the dimple rising in her cheek.

                “Good morning, Master.”

                … If you love her, then why does she still call you Master?

                “G-Good morning…”

                Forced to remember the cold, hard slap of reality the Goddess hit me and my idiocies with, I found it impossibly difficult to focus just on her loving greeting and not that one word.

                The meeting with the Goddess had been the dream, not this life in this world with this girl. For that simple fact, I was ready to say that that I was a fool all over again, but not for the reasons I originally thought. This entire time, I’d been contradicting myself, letting her get away with treating me like her master, instead of as a man when I claimed that was all I wanted. This new consideration should have been enough for me to fall into another round of vicious self-admonition, but…

                “Master,” Yua said again, still wearing that same smile. “Do you feel better now? Your heart sounds much more… calm.”

                Sitting on her knees beside me, Yua leaned over again and pressed her hand back to my chest, this time to get a better reading of what I myself was oblivious to. The quite thumping of her tail against the mattress and my leg was a threat great enough to quicken my pulse, but she seemed satisfied with what she felt.

                “Yea… I feel much better. You, uh… You were right. About what you said last night, I mean.”

                She puffed up her ample chest, still clad in just that exceedingly loose-fit rag and she grinned that same toothy grin she’d always put up when she’d slay a monster in the dungeons.

                I could tell at a glance at how the lingering negative thoughts clouding my mind truly weren’t’ going to be banished by this girl alone, but she sure as hell was going to help.             

                After she confirmed the state of my heart, Yua threw a leg over me to climb off the bed. As she did, that rag of a shirt she wore dipped low, hanging off her body to leave the sides of the softness she’d been pressing against me moments ago entirely visible, right along with the impressively flat abdomen she sported and the white triangle of fabric down below.

                On pure reflex, I immediately recoiled at the thought of how she’d react to my having ogled her yet again, but the Goddess’s advice stopped me. Yua stated clearly that she didn’t mind me looking, so it should be fine. Though I probably shouldn’t be so eager to test the limits of her good will just yet.

                I won’t lie, I still had a few doubts that she wasn’t viewing her own declaration behind the lens of her being a slave, but that smile she wore after kissing me this time around very nearly killed such doubts. This newly improved memory of mine remembered exactly what she told me, how she said it and the way she looked at me when she did.

                There was no fear in her, only love and a warm smile. Both of which needed to be responded to in kind.

                Stretching her arms over her head to wring out the last few kinks of her own sleepiness, Yua walked over to her neatly packed suitcase and crouched to begin pulling out her clothes for the day. The slowly swishing tail just above her bottom hiked up the back of her shirt enough to see the single layer of thin cotton fabric protecting her maidenhood from my line of sight. Her right ear gave one of its usual flicks and I was half certain she’d noticed me looking. But she didn’t stop what she was doing to cover up.

                This alone was enough to acknowledge last night’s declaration. She was showing me this much of her without even a shred of resentment or shyness pushing her forward. It was a new feeling for me that I wasn’t’ at all sure how to react to. The parts of me that were warning to look away were being beaten back by the parts that wanted more. The internal battle between these two factions raged for several seconds in which I could say nothing to stop them as she dug through her suitcase. The war for my will was ended with the emergence of a third party: The utter nonchalance in which Yua moved.

                After collecting her clothes, the only items that filled her suitcase, she set them on the foot of the bed and, without checking to see if I were looking, and without a shred of hesitation, she lifted her rag of a shirt up over her head. As my jaw dropped and as she folded up the rag, the twin mounds of softness that so enraptured me were set alight by the sun peeking in through the window. Meanwhile the pink nubs at their centers did nothing to hide as they themselves started to perk up in morning chill.

                I gulped. It was just about all I could do.

                As if she heard my desires and refuted them internally, Yua started stuffing her slender legs into her tight leather pants, hiding the panties she had been standing there in. But then, as if to apologize for rejecting my gaze, she reached behind herself. Arcing her back with that simple motion, her breasts lifted into the air just enough to pronounce the perfection of their shape all the more.

                Though making such movements in front of a man could have been seen as teasing, she was clearly just trying to undo the clasp above the tail hole in the back of her pants, so that the extra appendage could slip through and rest comfortably. She had it undone and her tail through it before I even noticed the messiness of the chestnut hair draped over her shoulder. She turned around, seemingly unintentionally towards me, and looked at her backside to test her tail with another good swish. Apparently satisfied with the result, she picked her usual green top off the bed and quietly wrapped it around herself one arm at a time, finally hiding the breasts that so captivated me and what stole my voice. She pushed the misplaced buttons through their improper holes and finished up by tying the leather straps that truly held her blouse together.

                Like that, the show that wasn’t a show was over and done with. Yua pulled her flowing hair out of her collar and, after running her fingers through it a couple of times to straighten out what was left of her bedhead, she brushed the still slightly messy hair behind her ear and crouched once more, but only to put her sleepwear away.

                I got out of bed.

                Barely able to think or consider why it was that I ever bothered with the thought of denying my want to look when the results of doing so were so wonderous, the impact was even greater when paired with the fact that she clearly knew I was looking. I was struck dumb by her display, but when the gears in my head finally started turning again, I realized exactly how much of an idiot I’ve been.

                Her initial weariness to let me look at her barely-there nightwear was because she was concerned I’d attack her. Because of this and because I knew why she was concerned, I’d spent all this time tip-toeing around her when I really didn’t need to. She’d accepted me. That’s all that matters, really, but I had a hard time accepting that at face value.

                Careful not to let her notice, I clenched my teeth. If getting out of my head, as the Goddess put it, was what I needed to start on first, then stopping myself from overthinking every little confusing aspect of this cat-girl had to come first. She’s already told me almost all I needed to hear.

                She accepts me. That was a feat that I myself hadn’t been able to accomplish in decades of trying, but she managed it in only one day.

                 I shook my head and took a moment to clear my mind of all thoughts good or bad and thought back on every thing Yua confessed to me yesterday. There was one simple, but potentially dangerous way to confirm that she, this beautiful girl was being genuine and that I had only to pull my head out of my ass to hurry up and accept reality.

                So, gulping down a multitude of emotions both for and against this next act, I walked over behind her. Overly aware of my own weight as I waited for the floorboards to squeak and signal my approach, I pressed on without pause. With those ears of hers, there was no point in tip-toeing anymore.

                Still working on putting her things back into her suitcase to keep them safe until they were needed again tonight, Yua was silent where she knelt down. It was as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Given her extra sensitive hearing, I was positive she knew I was behind her, but her cat ears didn’t so much as twitch to prove it. Or maybe she just didn’t let them.

                I knelt down behind her and this time, her ears gave a small, almost imperceptible twitch, but she didn’t stop what she was doing. Her suitcase was entirely empty, save for the one shirt she needed to put in it. She was prolonging the act of folding and refolding that same shirt for some reason. Waiting.

                Clenching my fist hard enough to almost draw blood, I decided it was time to act before the negativity crept back in.

                So, I slipped both of my hands past her sides, under her slender arms and gently cupped her breasts with the full face of my palms.

                “…!”

                Yua let out a small gasp of surprise, but that was all. That was it. That was all she wrote. My heart was trying to tear itself from my chest to slap me across the face, but she just continued with her suitcase, as if nothing was wrong. In fact, thanks to her brushing her hair back earlier, I could see that she was smiling. Blushing, surely, but smiling.

                Unable to think for a completely different reason now, I let my hands move of their own accord.

                The soft, springiness of her breasts was divine. Sparks of dopamine raced throughout my brain like a battalion of siege weapons ready to flatten the mental walls I had put between us. I groped them, squished them, molded them without reserve and they always bounced back into their original shape, as if asking for more. I could feel the now hidden peeks of her nipples hardening beneath her shirt where they pressed against my palm. There was probably no real technique in my uneducated hands, just reckless exploring, but she opened her mouth, saying nothing, and leaned back into my chest and let me. From over her shoulder and the chestnut hair resting over it, I let myself watch as I kneaded her, so that I’d never be able to deny what was happening in any way.

                She lifted her chin to look at me. She seemed to be having a hard time keeping her mouth closed as she let out a couple heavy breaths, but the smile she wore never faded. Not when her emerald eyes bore into me and I could see her lips start to form the one word I didn’t want her to say in that moment.

                And for all it was worth, that word was not “stop.”

                “Mast…!”

                Before she could utter that damnable word, I released her breasts and wrapped my arms tight around her middle. Pulling her tight into my chest, I made sure I spoke before she could.

                “Yua, I don’t want you to call me Master anymore.”

                “What? But you are my…”

                “I know,” I said. “But I don’t want to be.”

                “You mean… You’re not giving up, are you? There’s still plenty of time in the day, so we can…”

                “That’s not what I mean.”

                I held her tighter still, refusing to let go as I buried my nose in her chestnut hair.

                “I don’t want you to be a slave.”

                “I… don’t understand.”

                Proving once more that my own physical strength was insufficient compared to hers, and despite my holding her so tightly, she wrenched herself out of my grasp to better face me. There was a surprising worry arcing her brow, but that was understandable. To her, it must have sounded like I was once again rejecting reality for what it was.

                She was a slave and, as from what she herself told me, there was nothing that could change that. Further, she was raised to believe that her future master would do to her what I did just moments ago and, even if she accepted me doing so, it might have only ingrained that thought deeper into her being.

                I bit my tongue, pausing before I could jump to conclusions again. I skipped an important step with her just now, or several probably, when I shut my pessimistic brain down and let my other, lower brain do the talking.

                Now, I needed to be clear. I just wasn’t sure how. The word girlfriend came to mind, but in this world, it sounded incredibly out of place.

                Her eyes almost seemed to glow as she waited, caring not for the service I did in disheveling the blouse she’d only just put on. Content with a momentary silence, she gave me a minute to think, as if she knew I was having trouble.

                “Yua?”

                “Yes, Ma… Um, Yes?”

                “… I don’t want you to be a slave anymore… I want you to be my woman.”

                After I said my piece, there was a long moment of silence in the inn. My cheeks burned so hot that I could practically feel them melting, right up until her ears shot up into the air in an incredibly delayed response. She looked to me, her eyes wide and her lips apart and ready to answer. But before I could give her a chance to speak, I continued, holding her tighter than ever. Half for reassurance, half so neither of us could run away.

                “I’m sure it sounds ridiculous, but I fell in love with you the moment we met. The odds were so stacked against you, but you powered through and fought off those thugs like it was nothing. And I just… I really don’t know how to explain it, but it’s true. I love you. That’s the main reason why I bought you. After seeing you, seeing how beautiful and strong you were, I just didn’t care about anything else. I just knew I had to have you, so I forced you to be with me. That’s why I said you could leave. It was guilt. I felt guilty over what I did to you. I don’t want to selfishly force you to stay here, but I do want you here. I don’t care about the debt we owe, just that it might take you from me or that my own actions would…!”

                Before I could say another word, before I could utter so much as another syllable, Yua grabbed my cheeks much like she did last night. But this time, instead of forcing me to look her way, she pressed her lips back onto mine, telling me without a word that it was time to shut up.

                Our lips mingled for only a few, long seconds, but it was enough to help calm my racing heart. Though it did nothing for the lingering heat in my cheeks once we parted and her loving smile returned to her.

                “I already said I belong to you and only you. And I didn’t mean as your slave.”

                I couldn’t breathe. Not until she looked upon my hesitant visage, eyed each and every part of my face, smiled sweetly and gave me another brief peck on the lips again to cement what she’d said as irrefutable fact.

                “If you want me as your woman, then you have me.”

                Barely attempting to settle the volley of fireworks bursting in my head, I fought the ridiculous urge to question her further. I was happy, if not proud, to say that there wasn’t a shred of doubt anywhere to be found in her expression.

                “G-Good,” I said, clearing my throat. “Then no more of this Master business. From this day on, consider yourself to be a free woman again. I won’t take no for an answer.”

                 “Hehe. Then may I call you by your name?”

                “Y-You don’t need to ask me permission for every little thing. Just call me whatever you want.”

                “Then, Alex,” she said and my brain almost folded in on itself in trying to process the sweetness in her tone. “Maybe we should go.”

                Yua lowered her chin to gesture at the arms I held around her. She didn’t look to be in any pain, but my groping and the following forced hug had her kneeling in a somewhat awkward position. I let go.

                “S-Sorry.”

                “I don’t mind at all. I’m happy to finally get to hear what your heart has been saying all this time, but…”

                M-my heart…? Wait, she knew? This whole time? What?

                Smirking cheekily, likely hearing my inner panic at having what confidence I poured into my confession thrown back at me, she continued.

                “But didn’t you want to go watch the auction? We slept in a little too long, but we should still have time to get there before it starts.”

                Checking the time with my HUD, thankful both for the distraction and that my steaming cheeks couldn’t actually fog up the window that wasn’t actually there, I saw that she was right. Without the aid of any sort of time piece, she guessed at how late we’d slept in. It was almost noon. One hour before the auction was set to start. We must have slept longer than usual because we were both so exhausted after all of the fighting yesterday, probably a side effect of my stupidly forgetting to bring water down with us, but we still had plenty of time.

                “S-Sorry.”

                I let go of her, careful not to touch her chest again because I knew I wouldn’t want to let go a second time, and stood. Before I could offer her a hand, she jumped to her feet and then turned to face me properly.

                “You don’t need to apologize for touching me,” she said, the blush in her cheeks deepening. “I belong to Mas… I’m yours.”

                She smiled a bit wryly at her slip-up. I wasn’t expecting her to instantly change the mindset that had been drilled into her these last few years any more than I could change myself, but she was trying. We both were. And her effort proved itself equal to mine when she followed up her statement by lifting herself onto the balls of her feet to kiss me yet again. Deciding herself that this still might not be enough to make her point, she grabbed hold of my hand and pressed it firmly to her breast again. And there she held it for as long as her lips held mine.

                Our lips met, parted and met again, with barely a moment left to breathe in between. Her movements became just a little bolder with each kiss and soon enough, I no longer felt the need to breathe all together. With each luscious kiss threatening to have us while away what spare time we had in utter bliss, we made up for what I’d lost us in not realizing her feelings sooner.

                As if sensing this and wanting to tell me that it was okay, Yua guided my fondling herself, pressing her chest firmly into my palm, it almost felt like she was trying to inspire me to act with less hesitation moving forward.

                I could have easily fallen into darker thoughts, wondering if this was some ploy to keep me under her thumb in some ridiculous way by giving me what she’d known I wanted all along, but I banished the thoughts the instant they showed themselves to be malicious each and every time they appeared.

                I wouldn’t give this up for anything.

                We continued like this for a short while until Yua finally pulled back to catch her breath. I let go of her breast and hugged her to my chest.

                “Goddess…. I want to wake up like this every morning.”

                “Hehe. Understood.”

                With her ears flicking happily against my chin, she hugged me right back and we stood there in the morning sun feeling each other’s warmth. Well, I suppose it’s not actually morning anymore, but who cares?

                “Yua, you were right. We need to get going. I’m happy that you’ve accepted me, but you’re not completely mine yet. There’s still one more thing we have to do before that.”

                “Got it!”

                With an almost absurdly happy smile, Yua bounced on the spot and hugged me again the second I tried to separate from her. With another quick peck on the cheek, she let go and sped back to her suitcase, found that she’d already tidied it and instead fixed her blouse again after noticing that I was trying to hide my embarrassment again. Choosing to be gracious and not comment on it, she retrieved the shirt and belt I lazily threw to the floor last night, and that I had completely forgotten about until now, and held them out for me.

                I quickly put them on, feeling what I hoped to be an understandable embarrassment for being the only one us half-naked, despite her earlier display. She looked so happy regardless of the uneasy expression I was surely making, that I hesitated before speaking.

                “Yua… One more thing.”

                “Yes? What is it?”

                “… If the ring doesn’t sell, if we fail to get the coin we need to pay off your contract, I want you to run away with me.”

                If the ring didn’t manage to sell even at the lowest price possible, we would have no chance to gather the rest of the money needed to pay Alphonse in time. Even if we spent the rest of the day in the dungeon, anything worth that much wouldn’t be able to sell outright due to how few coin the local shops had on hand at any given moment. And I was positive we wouldn’t run into another chest full of coin again. So, unless the next dungeon floor was filled with leprechauns using their pots of gold as a bludgeon, we were done.

                This was our last chance to do this right, but I wasn’t beyond cheating and using the powers the Goddess gave me to run.

                Yua closed her suitcase, set it aside and stood up as straight as an arrow to face me. The seriousness in her expression told me that whatever she said next, was going to be the absolute truth. That no matter how many hoops I tried to jump through, nothing I could think up would ever be potent enough to doubt her conviction even slightly.

                “I will follow you no matter where you go.”

                “Even though I won’t be your master if that happens?”

                The slave contract binding us was supposed to revert back to Alphonse in the event that I failed to pay him what I owed. Meaning that I would no longer be her master and that the spell binding us would be forever broken.

                “Yes. Even then.”

                “Even if Alphonse becomes your true master again and he tries to track us down to kill us?”

                “Yes. Even then.”

                “Even if I am branded as a Thief for stealing you away from him?”

                “Yes. Even then. As your mate, I’d never leave your side because of something so trivial.”

                “Yua…”

                “Yes?”

                “Come here.”

                With her bare feet not making a single sound that the room’s enchantment needed to muffle thanks to the cat-like agility she made such effective use of in the dungeon, she stepped lightly across the wood floor. When she stopped in front of me, when she looked up into my eyes, I kissed her without any of my prior restraint. It wasn’t just because I hadn’t had enough of her earlier, we’d already spent more than enough of our time on this, but because I needed to taste her steadfast desire to stay by my side no matter what. I needed to feel it was real, just as much as I believed it.

                My more pessimistic side was doing its darndest to find a flaw, any flaw, in her quick and short answers and prove them to be lies. But of course, there was nothing to be found. For once, that side of me stayed quiet.

                If we fled Amoranth using Dimensional Step, we could easily gain a giant head start the second we decided to run away. But because ownership over Yua would revert back to Alphonse, he would be able to automatically track her down the same way I could. I still didn’t know the limitations of that ability, but I knew it still worked even when she was too far away for me to see her outline. I proved as much last night when I snuck off to the bakery. That means, Alphonse might be able to chase us all over the world to get her back. And given how much her contract was worth, he very well had the incentive to do it.

                Yua accepted my kiss with one of her own and clenched my shirt almost desperately, because she was the more experienced between the two of us when it came to such matters in this world. And as a slave, she must know even better than I of how ruthless our enemy would be in pursuing us.

                This time, it was I who separated from her. Though I did need to force myself a bit. I collected the boots I left by the door and handed her hers. Once we were both fully dressed, I reached for the doorknob to rob her of the need to hold it for me, but she stepped in front of me before I could open the door.

                “Wait, Ma... Alex. Your hair.”

                Just as she did yesterday, Yua combed her fingers through the mess the pillow made of my hair. I watched her as she worked, torn between the look in her eye that now could only ever be called loving, that wonderful smile of hers and at the cleavage that pressed against my chest as she did her thing.

                Beating back the constant negativity was going to be a difficult task, but I think holding back on those sorts of thoughts might be even worse.

                “There,” she said, taking a step back to admire her work. I was never very confident in my looks, but the way she looked at me now felt like it might be close to how I looked at her.

                Fighting back the urge to kiss her again, I threw the door open, ready to see thing to its end.