Master and Slaves

"Are there no other slaves?"

"..."

I nearly fell over.

Enrico too looked at Azret with a dumbfounded face.

"...There are not?"

Maybe he caught the air. Azret looked awkward, but asked again.

"Ah, no, all of them are out right now... ah, there is one, but... ah, no, I cannot recommend that one, yes."

Enrico, back to himself, spoke in a muddle.

"Could you show me that slave!?"

Hearing there was a slave, Azret pressed in on Enrico.

"Y-yes, I do not mind... I truly cannot recommend her. She is even called a master-killer... uh, this way."

Pressed by Azret’s force, Enrico agreed and started guiding us further in.

A master-killer. That was something...

A muscular, violent woman, maybe?

"...Wait. I’ll look too."

My interest caught, I told Muriel that and followed behind Enrico with Azret.

We went deeper along the passage we were in.

This was underground, but magic lights were lit on the walls, so it was quite bright.

On left and right were many rooms divided by iron grates, but all of them were empty.

Go to the very back, and there was a door.

Enrico took a bunch of keys from his breast and opened the lock on the door with one of them.

"Quite strict."

"No, it is not that..."

To Azret’s words, he answered in a way that did not come clean.

Open the door, and a sound came from inside.

Beyond the door was bright too, and as before there were iron-grate rooms on left and right.

To the iron grate nearest on the right, someone clung from inside.

And then...

"I’m sorry I’m sorry please forgive me I’ll do anything, pleaseee."

That one suddenly shouted at the top of her voice, and toward the end appealed in a tearful voice.

"Uwah!"

Azret and I both jumped in surprise.

"Hey! Do not frighten the customers!"

"But I was scared... sniff."

When Enrico scolded her, that one made an excuse and looked ready to cry.

We were struck dumb.

"Her face is not bad, her looks are good, and she is a hard worker, but..."

Told that by Enrico, I looked at that one well.

She was certainly a cute girl.

From short blond hair, ears like a cat’s were visible.

The same Bista beastkin as the girl just now, maybe.

Her eyes were wide, and she had the feel of a kitten.

She crumpled that lovely face and sniffled, crying.

And her small body trembled small.

The opposite of what I had thought, but that in itself caught my interest.

"This girl is the master-killer?"

I asked Enrico.

"Yes. This girl seems to fall in love easily, and almost without fail she becomes the Dule of whoever newly becomes her master, but for some reason that master dies soon after... and killed, at that."

Enrico explained the reason, but only the last part he lowered his voice and whispered, even though it was only us.

Ah. Maybe he had considered not letting this girl hear it.

"That this girl killed them... there is not. A Dule should not be able to kill her master."

Azret moved to ask, and seemed to have solved it himself.

He was satisfied with the answer he had put out.

"Yes. But that is why it is eerie. In this one month alone, four have died. So I cannot recommend this girl."

"I see... sniff."

The girl clung to the iron grate and hung her head.

"...Is that all right?"

"Ah, yes. I thought she might be an acquaintance, but I was wrong."

When Enrico asked, Azret scratched his head and smiled wryly.

"Is that so. If you like, I will cooperate. If you tell me the appearance..."

"A wound of letters on the stomach..."

Enrico and Azret talked as they left through the door.

I moved to leave too, but this girl, crying and looking at me as if appealing, pulled at me.

"Is something the matter?"

Enrico was waiting for me from outside the door.

Azret was beside him too.

"Ah, no..."

I gave Enrico a vague answer and looked at the girl again.

"Ugh, egh, sniff..."

"..."

"Ngh, uuu, sniff..."

"..."

"Ueh, fueh, fueee..."

The girl, who had been holding it in even while sobbing, finally broke into tears.

"...Haa. I’ll buy this girl."

I let out a deep sigh.

I really was weak to this sort of thing.

"Eh? Ah, no, it would be better to leave this girl..."

"If a buyer does not turn up, what happens?"

I asked Enrico, who had gone round-eyed in surprise and moved in a hurry to stop me.

"That... she will not sell in the city either... it would be disposal..."

"Hii! No! Nooo..."

Hearing the word disposal, the girl wailed.

Damn.

I had been able to expect it, so I should not have asked in front of this girl.

"Anyway. I’ll buy this girl. The price..."

"No, the price is fine. Either way, she is not something that will sell. Only, take care."

Enrico unlocked the cell and took the girl out.

"Come, will you not greet him."

"Y-yes, sniff, I-I’m Hexa. I-I’ll do anything, so please take care of me!"

She bowed her head with a desperate face.

The word disposal just now must have been that frightening.

"This girl is not a virgin, but is that all right?"

Enrico asked me.

A bit late, I thought, but seeing him state it plainly, I could tell it was only a confirmation.

"Yeah, I don’t mind."

"Understood. Then I will have her clean herself, and deliver her to your residence tomorrow."

"No, I’ll take her now. It’s pitiful for her to be alone here."

I answered and looked at the cat beastkin who had named herself Hexa.

Maybe she was making an effort to smile. She looked at me with her cheeks twitching.

She certainly had a cute face, and the cat ears were set where a human’s ears would be.

Her height was about the same as Cathy’s.

A rather large chest and rear looked sensual.

The tail visible behind swayed side to side.

If I were to judge, her features were cute, her manner childish, but she also had a grown air.

A girl of uncertain age, like that.

"Hah. Certainly."

Enrico answered as if he had given up somewhere, bowed his head, and went out the door.

Hexa and I went out the door too, and Enrico locked it.

"Then, let us go."

Enrico started walking at the front.

I started walking too, and Hexa started walking as if following after me.

"You have odd tastes too, Hiroyuki. And with that many Dules, is it still not enough?"

Azret lined up beside me and whispered while glancing at Hexa behind.

Ah, right.

What was I going to tell them?

I returned a vague smile to Azret and walked the way we had come, thinking of an excuse.

...

"Well, an impulse buy."

I explained to Muriel and the others while laughing, ahaha.

With only this, an explanation with no content, or rather an excuse, there was no way they would be convinced.

Everyone’s cold gazes pierced me and put me full of holes.

The one who broke the heavy silence of a few moments that felt long was Muriel.

"...Hah. So, what will you do?"

Muriel spoke of what came next, as if what was done was done.

"Right. For now I was thinking we’d live together at the house."

"We are lodgers."

"Ugh..."

Birga’s cut-in was too sharp, and it hurt.

"W-well, eventually she’ll stand on her own..."

"Eh? ...Eeh!? You won’t make me a Dule!?"

Hexa looked at me with moist eyes.

"Ugh..."

Seeing that face about to cry, I choked on my words.

"Uh, ah, what happened to that girl?"

Ah, he ran, a voice like Sophia’s could be heard, but I ignored it.

"She has not regained consciousness since then, but she is much better. But there is still a lot to heal."

Rosina answered in her usual drawn-out way of speaking.

"Then the rest is fine with medicine."

"Mmm, I cannot quite say that."

But Rosina grimaced at my mutter.

"The wounds left are deep, and old. Even with magic medicine, scars will remain."

She is a girl, after all, she said, and smiled wryly.

Well, I did not want to leave wounds if I could help it.

"Standing and talking will not do. This way, please."

Enrico went back the way we had come and guided us to a room that seemed to be a parlor.

"It is already noon. How about a meal?"

When Azret and I sat on the sofa, Enrico asked us.

I had asked about the plan from here, but they did not seem to have decided where to eat lunch, so I gratefully accepted Enrico’s offer.

With this many people, just looking for a place with open seats would have been hard.

Or so I thought...

"No. I was told that if it came to it, I could give Freit’s name."

...What would happen if he gave it?

Interest rose on that point.

Well, setting that aside.

"Continuing from earlier, can magic heal her?"

"It can heal, but it will not be a full cure. And it will take time."

Rosina answered plainly.

"Like aftereffects remaining?"

"That, no. Scars remaining, maybe."

She was a girl, so that could never be called good, but it was better than aftereffects remaining and her being unable to live.

Ah, but as a slave she would be damaged goods.

What did Enrico mean to do?

"What do you plan to do with that girl?"

It bothered me, so I asked the man himself.

"Let me see... in times like these, I think she will sell... of course, I mean not to sell her until she recovers. But if you would buy her, I will sell her at once."

He answered while thinking.

But the last words he said with a serious face, looking at me.

I could not tell if it was a joke or serious, so I answered nothing.

Then Azret agreed with that.

"That is good. You have many who can use healing magic."

That was certainly true.

I would not shy away just because she was damaged goods.

We were lodgers, but with Hexa here I could brazen it out as one more.

But I could not ignore the Dules.

"...Muriel."

"Yes. I agree. I think it is the best method as things are."

...Oh?

"Sophia."

"I agree too. We treated her that far, so I want to see it through."

...Oh?

"Rosina... agrees too."

"Of course."

"Gejia."

"I am unfamiliar with that sort of thing. I will pass."

Pass? ...Something felt off...

Well, anyway.

"Birga."

"I think it is fine."

Well, well.

I had thought she was the most likely to oppose.

"Lilli."

"I super agree!"

She raised both hands with a smile.

"Then, those who are fine with taking that girl in, raise a hand."

Asking everyone one by one would only take time, so I took a majority vote.

Except one, everyone raised a hand.

"Higii!"

That one too raised a hand after Sophia kicked her in the rear.

"Uh, then why was Hexa no good?"

Until just now they had been negative about taking Hexa home.

I had not yet said the master-killer part.

Which meant, was it because that girl was pitiful?

I looked at Hexa. Large tears were about to spill even now.

"No, it is not that she is no good. Only, Master decided alone..."

Muriel said it as if it was hard to say.

I see.

I was convinced by the Dules’ claim, but Enrico was not.

"Muriel! Where is a master who asks a slave’s opinion! A slave need only follow what the master decides!"

For some reason Enrico, an outsider, flared up and shouted at Muriel.

Muriel was surprised, then drooped and lowered her face.

The other Dules, especially the older Dules, were downcast.

But I did not like someone putting a word in on my Dules.

"Enrico, they are my Dules."

"I-I am sorry. I could not train them properly, but they are slaves I sold, so, that, I felt responsible, yes..."

I said it quietly, and with a little pressure, and Enrico answered while wiping the sweat that sprang out.

Well, until now I would have thought there was malice, but now that I knew something of Enrico’s character, I thought he was thinking of both me and Muriel and the others. Probably.

I held down Enrico, who was apologizing as if sorry, with a hand, and confirmed with the Dules.

"Then both of them coming to our place is fine."

The Dules nodded alike and answered.

"Ah, thank you."

Hexa thanked everyone while tearing up.

"Then, first I will make Hexa a Ze-Dule, so wait a little."