My sword clattered to the ground when the beast it was plunged into disappeared in a great burst of light. I left it to fall and I ran to Yua's side as she tried to stand again.
"Are you okay?" I asked, grabbing her by the shoulders.
She looked briefly to where the Proud Great Wolf's body once lay, saw that the thing that nearly killed her was now nothing but air and then turned back to me. She nodded and smiled slightly.
"Thanks to you, Master."
Filled with relief, I hugged her and she let out a small yelp of surprise, but she did not push me away at all.
"I'm sorry I didn't act sooner. Because of that, you got hurt."
While I am loathed to admit it, after seeing how much damage her first strike caused the boss, I almost let myself become fully content with letting her live up to her own blustering and let her handle the fight on her own. Because of this, I was late to attack. And again, just like with the slime, I should have thought to use my magic from the start. After seeing how the flames blinded our foe, I could have made the fight so much easier for us both.
"Master… N-No. It wasn't your fault. Even after telling you not to get cocky, I let the advantage we gained at the start get to my head. I'm sorry for making you… worry?"
From within my arms, she turned an intensely confused and slightly meek look towards me, but I ignored it. She was safe again.
I sighed, my breath ruffling her hair as the relieving thought that I was holding her warm, still very alive body continued to ease the tension that kept me so stiff in that fight. I don't think my heart is going to be capable of handling this much worry for every fight we face going forward. We need to hurry and make as much coin as possible so we can be done with the dungeons for good.
I had no idea how Yua managed to handle that thing by herself when her level was even lower, but I really had no reason to believe she was lying. She handled the fight perfectly until that one slip up nearly cost her her life. In fact, as far as I know, slaves might be unable to lie to their masters. Maybe she really did just dodge and weave around it until she found a chance to strike at its hind legs. It was large and had more health than the other monsters, but its defenses clearly weren't unbreakable. Her method was entirely plausible.
Maybe it was my being there, attacking at the same time, that enraged it enough to go wild and become unpredictable. Whatever fight she might have prepared herself for just ended up being different due to a second party being there to help. She must have gone into this planning for a one-on-one fight, since it worked the last time she tried.
As I pressed my arms tighter around her by way of apology, a pop-up window appeared in front of my face.
[Boss of Amoranth Dungeon first floor, Proud Great Wolf, has been defeated. Experience gained: 1000]
No. It wasn't my existence in the fight that almost cost us. We just hadn't spent enough time together to really get in sync and fight as a single unit, rather than as two individuals. As far as I could tell, Yua only had experience fighting by herself and that was how she tackled this boss. Her confidence in her own abilities was abundantly obvious to me now, but since most of my abilities are a mystery to her, there was no way we could have coordinated properly on the spot.
I really need to test my abilities to their fullest so that I could at least know what I could and couldn't share with her.
"Um, Master… I think I can stand on my own now."
Without realizing that I had gotten lost in thought while reviewing the fight, I had forgotten to let go of Yua. I quickly pulled my arms back and embarrassingly tried to play it off by scratching the back of my head. Yua just looked at me with a slight furrow in her brow and a pink hue to her cheeks. She lifted her chin into the air with a "hmph," and looked away.
She left me standing there like an idiot and walked over to where the boss' body once lay.
I sighed.
Unable to complain, I decided to check my stats again since the boss rewarded us with a lot of experience.
When I opened it up, I saw that my Adventurer class had gone up to 7, my Swordsman had gone up to 3 and my Mage grew to 5. That was a pretty sizeable jump from just that one boss. But then again, bosses should be expected to give out much more experience than the regular mobs, anyways. Definitely can't complain there. It was a small token of our efforts here.
I went ahead and checked Yua as well. Thanks to the potion, she was at full health again and her Beast-Warrior class grew to level 6, finally putting me ahead of her. But that was the only class of hers that changed. Which was strange, since I clearly remembered her using her Monk ability "Iron Fist."
"Unless… Even with bosses, it depends only on who gets the final blow."
While I murmured to myself, Yua walked back towards me holding my sword with the pommel turned towards me and a big grey pelt large enough to be used as a blanket draped over her shoulder. I took the sword back and put it back into its sheath while she shifted to holding the pelt with both arms against her bulging chest. It looked oddly comfortable… The fur on the pelt, I mean.
"I wonder how much this is worth," Yua said looking at what she carried.
"Let's find out."
I put my hand over it and silently cast Appraisal. What popped up was the expected explanation that the pelt belonged to the Proud Great Wolf and the price on it wasn't too terrible if and only if compared to the other wolf pelts Yua was carrying. However, when compared to how much trouble we had just fighting the damn boss, I felt robbed.
"Well, Mr. Merchant-Master, how much is it?" she asked with a smug smile and a wave of her tail when I dropped my chin.
"It's only worth 10 gold pieces. That's all we got for our troubles. And you even ended up getting hurt."
While I seethed to myself, Yua's eyes went wide and her ears stood on end.
"C-Can you really use Appraisal, then?"
"Yes, I can. Like I said, I don't know how to explain it, but I can. Why?"
"Because, when I beat the boss by myself, that's how much I sold its pelt for."
"Oh…"
Did I accidentally just simultaneously prove I wasn't lying about my extra classes and that the price shown in Appraisal is what the item will sell for? I suppose I can tack onto that the confirmation of my previous thoughts on Yua selling the loot she picked up and not telling me their worth out of spite.
Seeing my bewilderment, Yua's expression shifted from surprised to oddly annoyed. I suppose being faced with someone so unsure of themself while she was full of pride for her strength must have irked her some. I coughed into my fist to clear my throat. Then coughed again, probably due to all the smoke I inhaled.
"Ahem. See, I told you. I wasn't lying about the other classes, either. Have some faith in me, would ya?"
At that, her ears drooped, rounding out the top of her head and she bowed deeply to me. The image of her doing the same back in the city flashed across my eyes. It was so unlike her that it almost felt like she'd become a different person within the span of a second, and without leaving my sight.
"Master, please accept my apologies. I should have believed you."
"Hey, hey. You don't need to go that far. It's okay."
She lifted her head, then shook it almost commandingly.
"As your slave, I should have trusted what you said without question. It is my duty to apologize," she said, then bowed again.
Concerned that she was taking this apology too far, I put a hand on her shoulder to tell her it's okay to stop. It's not like she had reason to assume I was telling the truth when even I figured out the class limitations that are supposed to be in place. Even I don't understand why I can gain more. My own trait aside, gaining them easily was different from having more than the limit.
After I hurried to gesture for her to stop, she lifted her head again.
"Please, don't worry about it," I said. "A little healthy skepticism is good for you."
"No, Master. I apologize again, but I refuse to accept that. Because I thought you were lying to trick me, I didn't believe in your true ability and ended up making you worry instead of helping you properly."
She bowed again and I sighed. Rubbing at my eyes, raw from the smoke and flames, I once more gestured for her to stand. I don't know if I'll ever get used to this. Couldn't we just have a normal relationship? I don't need this hierarchy weighing us down.
"Alright, how about this? You were wrong for doubting me and I was wrong for not sharing what I knew beforehand. How's that?"
She looked down at the pelt, then to her now fully healed arm. The wound that was there was entirely gone, with nothing left behind to remind her of its existence other than the already dried blood. She turned back to me before nodding slightly.
"Alright," I said and checked the time on my HUD. "It's getting late. I doubt any of the merchant stalls will be open right now, so I think we should just go get some rest and leave the buying and selling of things for tomorrow."
"I agree," she said seriously and, much to my surprise, without that snarky attitude she usually peppered her language with. She seemed to flip-flop on the snark quite a bit. Hopefully I don't screw up again and we can stay like this.
"Great. We've agreed on something. So, can you lead us back out of the dungeon?"
"Nope."
"Okay, thank… What?"
I had to do a double take to understand what she said. I would have chalked it up to the fact that, because she was rolling up the large belt into a burrito-like shape before strapping it onto her backpack like a camping bedroll, that she simply wasn't paying attention to what I said. So, I asked again, but got the same answer while she lifted the bag straps back onto her shoulders. The extra weight didn't seem to bother her in the slightest.
"My apologies, Master, but I can't do that. I was only able to bring us this far because I could hear the monsters. So, because the dungeon's shape changes every day, I don't know the way out."
"T-Then how do people normally find their way back?" I asked, fearing the answer I knew I was going to hear.
"They either draw up a new map every day and follow it back to where they came or just wonder around until they find the exit."
"… Wouldn't they just risk getting lost down here doing that?"
She shrugged.
"Most adventurers don't actually push this far into a dungeon on a daily basis. Due to the changing shape of it, it's easy to get lost down here, since you can't rely on past experiences in it. So, they usually don't have to back track too much."
"…Really?"
That partially explained why the Adventurers were having a hard time clearing the lower floors, but being told that we would have to wonder around to make it out of here really made my exhaustion hit home. I wasn't the most active person in my past life, so putting the whole life and death aside, this has been the longest workout I've ever had.
I went from wondering around blindly in the woods and walked all the way to the first city I found. Ran all over said city to gather the things and information I needed. Nearly had a heart attack in the bath. Got conned out of all my money when trying to buy my dream girl. Then right after we spent at least an hour and a half in the dungeon fighting nearly non-stop. Until we both nearly died fighting the very first boss in the dungeon.
Then there was that comparably brief delay while we were trapped in the stone. It was stimulating, but not exactly relaxing to be forced so close to her the entire time.
"Wait, if there's a barrier blocking the main dungeon exit and boss doors between each floor, how were we supposed to get out in the first place?"
Another small nod from Yua and, pretending that she wasn't serving an ignorant master by keeping a mostly straight face, she gave me a quick answer.
"Any adventurers inside the dungeon that want to leave gather near their floor's entrance and either leave the next time someone enters to share their portal or they wait for the General to cast one on his own. He does so each hour, for each floor."
Each hour on each floor? How much mana does the man have if he can cast that spell that many times a day? Does he eat and drink mana potions?! I can barely cast a few Fire Balls before I'm tapped, but I can imagine him needing to cast that spell at least a hundred times a day if that was true.
"That's why they had someone writing down which floors those that entered were going to. So, that they can be brought back later. Or didn't you notice?"
Notice someone writing? No, I can say safely that I didn't. Again, all I could remember was the sight of that bikini-armor woman. It did make sense for them to at least keep track of where those inside the dungeons meant to go, if the only way in or out was via teleportation.
"… I really should have paid more attention to where we were going."
"No, Master, that should have been my job. I'm sorry for making that mistake. However, if we are lucky, we may be able to find the exit before midnight if we hurry."
Yua, wearing what must have been a pretty heavy backpack by now like it was nothing, and after nearly dying due to blood loss, proactively headed out of the boss room while I complained about being tired.
Shit. I hadn't considered the time. I knew it was late, knew the shops would be closed after a mere glance at the clock, but I didn't really take in the actual time itself.
It was 10:20PM.
We hadn't exactly taken a linear path to get to the boss room. We focused entirely on chasing down each and every enemy Yua could find us because our goal was to collect as much loot as we could. We weren't divebombing through the place to head straight to the boss. We'd taken enough twists and turns up to this point that I could easily say we were lost. And that is without including how that trap left us displaced from the path we were already on.
In theory, we had plenty of time to leave the dungeon before it shifted at midnight and I was very opposed to the thought of lingering here to wait and see what would happen to a living creature that risked staying within its depths all night long. The mental image of the stone walls and floors moving and grinding against each other with a person unfortunately sandwiched between them made me shudder.
But it could easily take us hours to get back, since each wrong path would wind up forcing us to double back to try a new route. And we had less than two hours to escape this place before we found out firsthand what happened to those trapped inside by the stroke of midnight.
If we could just teleport back to where we started…
"Wait. Wait," I said running to catch up to and grab Yua by the hand. Her cheeks reddened a bit when I did, but she stopped when I asked.
"What is it?"
"Just… Hold on a second. I have an idea."
I quickly navigated back through my menu to my abilities page and found exactly what I thought I would. I had almost completely forgotten that my trait allowed me to memorize the teleportation spell the General used to let us in. Assuming it worked, we probably could have used it to escape that trap earlier, but that's beside the point now.
Smiling to myself and praying that the spell worked both ways and that the barrier wouldn't prevent it from being used within the dungeon itself, I pointed my hand at the wall closest to us. Thinking of the dungeon entrance, I incanted, "Dimensional Step!"
The second I did, I suddenly felt completely drained and had the desperate urge to climb into my bed at the inn and fall asleep. I checked my status page and saw that the spell had used up most of my remaining mana. My stamina bar hadn't been touched after the fight, and yet I felt more tired now than I had in years.
Does blowing through your mana make you feel just as fatigued as you would after depleting your stamina, but instead of physical exhaustion, it's all mental? Just how many Fire Balls did I throw at the boss for this one spell to nearly wipe me out? Blinking hard to keep myself awake, I felt what respect I had for General Bertol for managing an entire city's worth of Adventurers this way.
"Master, what are you…Woah!"
Yua was completely caught off guard as, thankfully, the spell seemed to have worked. A large mass of swirling blue light took form in the air in front of my outstretched palm. The lights each took on a mind of their own and swirled together to build upon themselves until they took the shape of a portal shaped just like a door that pasted itself to the front of the wall I aimed at.
Once the lights stopped moving, Yua gasped, clearly both amazed and impressed.
"Master, I didn't know you could use teleportation magic!"
"Heh, I only just learned it. To be honest, I'm not really sure if it worked."
My Easy Spell Copy trait allowed my to instantly learn this spell, but it's not like I've ever used it myself.
"Well, there's no way to know but to test it ourselves then!"
Excited for reasons I couldn't understand, Yua dashed behind my now lethargic body and playfully shoved me towards the glowing door. In my exhausted state, I wouldn't have been able to fight back if I wanted. So, working the rest of my consciousness on keeping the doorway open, I walked along with her into the light.
We phased through the light unharmed just like we did when entering the dungeon before, but what I felt wasn't the cobblestone floor surrounding the Amoranth Dungeon. Instead, my feet touched down on a wooden floor that looked like it should have squeaked beneath our combined weight, but it remained silent. A quick glance at our surroundings was enough to tell we weren't in the coliseum-like fort, but that we had entered a small, non-descript bedroom. I was greatly concerned that I had messed up the spell, but then I recognized where we were.
"Where are we?" Yua asked, taking her hands off my back to look around.
"This is the room I rented at the Lazy Cat Inn. I guess I messed up the spell."
Upon learning the spell, I also learned how it worked despite never having seen or used it before that moment. So, my guess was that, since I started thinking about climbing into bed at the inn before the spell's light show settled, that same thought must have changed the destination I had in mind on accident. I must need to continue concentrating on where I want to go. At least until the spell is complete.
This mess up could have easily been a huge mistake if my mind had slipped to somewhere more dangerous like the forest, or potentially worse if we landed somewhere in public view. I didn't exactly think it best to let everyone know that I could teleport now, since it sounded like I'd end up in some sort of trouble for using it. It was hard to imagine this kingdom's government, or any government for that matter, allowing just anyone to use teleportation magic whenever they please. The thought of teleporting into a bank vault to ease our money troubles did flash across my mind, but I brushed it off as just more of my newfound mental fatigue. No point in becoming a Thief myself when I'll need to meet with a Slave Master in a few days.
Still, at least we ended up somewhere safe.
The general out by the dungeon must have a crazy amount of focus if he can stand there doing that all day while women in skimpy armor walked up to him as if trying to show off.
"This is your room?" Yua asked excitedly, then started searching for something. Apparently, she found it because she shot me a bright smile. "It's my suitcase! This really is your room. To be able to teleport straight out of the dungeon all the way over here. Master, you are amazing!"
Thoroughly lightened up by her enthusiastic praise, I decided to poke a little fun.
"Amazing, huh? What happened to calling me Idiot-Master?"
"Er… I mean… Master, I'm sorry!"
She shouted her apology and bowed. Reflexively, I checked to see if anyone heard her and I was grateful to remember the sound-muffling magic placed on the room. It was late and a lot of people were probably already asleep and I really didn't want a rush of people coming to bang on our door, yelling at us to keep it down.
I raised my hands to try and calm her down. Or to at least get her to stop bowing already.
"Woah, I wasn't reprimanding you for what you said earlier. I was just joking."
"But I'm not," she said firmly.
Yua looked me square in the eye, straightened her back, brought her bare feet together like a soldier about to salute their superior and then bowed a second time. She then began to tremble, clutching at her knees as if to brace herself. When she spoke again, she spoke to the floor.
"Master, I have been doing nothing but disrespecting you since you purchased me. I hope you can forgive me!"
While what she said was actually completely true, I had no idea how to respond to that. Even if I would really rather not think of her as such, I did drop a lot of money to buy her. She was my slave. She was most likely raised to act as one for a significant portion of her life as well. Alphonse did tell me that she had been trained to act as a slave, even if she was unruly when we first met, but I had to wonder if his teachings included telling her that her master would likely hit her whenever she messed up or was rude.
It was easy to guess as much since that's typically how slavery use to work on Earth as well. That's probably how it worked everywhere, actually. But it was even more cruel a thought to think that any rational person could do such a thing to someone they actively knew couldn't fight back. At least, not without receiving more pain from the spell that bound them to their master than the initial violence they were forced to bear.
Still, how had she been treated until now if this girl, someone I knew to be strong enough to shatter the femur of a wolf several times her size in just a couple jabs of her fist, felt the need to cower in front of her master?
Quickly and easily deciding that I would not do that to her, ever, I once more had to gesture for her to raise her head. And when she did, I was met the wavering, almost teary gaze her emerald eyes professed to me and returned her serious expression.
"Yua, I accept your apology," I said and saw her shoulders relax a bit, but I continued. "I don't know what they told you at the slave house, but I'm not ever going to hurt you for doing something wrong or disobeying me. Should you ever do something I don't like, I'll just tell you and we can talk about it. Okay?"
She gazed up at me, tears nearly spilling from her eyes, her lips quivering. She nodded before covering her mouth and turning away to wipe at her face.
I could tell that I had hit the nail on the head. Of course, she would worry about something like that. Who wouldn't? After years of being told that she would have to put up with being abused as a part of her daily life going forward and that she would have to just take the abuse obediently must have been very taxing on her mind.
Was the threat of future violence the reason why she was so rude to me? Was I the man she thought might hurt her and she just wanted to fight back the only way she could? Shouldn't she had noticed that I wasn't planning on such a thing? I never once laid a hand on her, regardless of how rude she was. Then again, maybe she thought I was just holding back because we were in public. I did go and get all embarrassed when she bowed to me in front of the Apothecary shop.
I watched her standing there, shaking as she tried not to cry, and imagined that she might even be telling herself not to believe such kind words for fear of it hurting worse when they were found out to be a lie. I thought I should hug her and tell her it'd be alright, but decided against it.
I still had no idea what to really say to her, past what we'd already talked about, but I was sure that the last thing she must have wanted right now was for me to put my hands on her. In any way. And any more honeyed words directed at her now may just be perceived as lies. So, I thought to give her a moment to herself and took care of our luggage in her stead.
I unlocked and opened the chest at the foot of the bed and tossed her backpack inside for safe keeping and for quick access come morning. I closed it and, since the larger boss pelt wouldn't fit, I left it on top of the chest. I left the regeneration ring in my item box for extra safe keeping. Even if the odds were low, I wasn't about to risk a thief breaking into our room and stealing the answer to our problems.
That was pretty much it. That was all I could do. We had nothing else to really take care of, me being from another world without any of my old possessions and with her being a slave with hardly anything to her name in the first place. There was Yua's suitcase to deal with, but since it contained her things, I'd rather wait for her to decide what to do with it.
Since Yua hadn't composed herself just yet, and because I figured someone with so much pride in her strength wouldn't want to be confronted as she was now, I moved to the window to take in the sights.
The streets below were all but entirely empty. The only souls still out walking through the merchant district looked to be city knights out on patrol, lit only by the blue glow of the street lamps. The once bustling city had chosen to head to bed for the night. Perhaps a testament to how early people in this world had to get up, there were so few candles burning in the distance that I could have easily convinced myself that I was hallucinating the ones I saw burning the night away.
The sun had long since receded and hid behind the horizon, leaving the room to almost completely surrender itself to the darkness once the teleportation door and its swirling lights faded away. The only light that found its way inside was the gentle vibrance of the moon.
I checked the bedside table for a candle and found one along with a note containing some brief instructions on how to use it. And in English to boot. I never even thought to consider whether or not the language was written the same. I didn't even stop to think that the shop signs I'd been reading since arriving in Amoranth were all in English as well. Once I heard they spoke it, that was more than good enough for me.
Guess that was just more of me half-assing my way through life.
The candle itself seemed to be some kind of magic item. All I had to do to light it was let a small amount of mana flow into it. I wasn't sure I could do that, but I just followed the instructions I was given by the Goddess and imagined it happening as I touched the candle's base. Same as it did with the Fire Ball spell, a little bit of thought later and a small, red flame flickered into existence at the tip of the candle's wick.
Amazed by the little implement, I waved a hand over it and registered heat against my palm. The flame was very real, but the candle's wick didn't look to actually be burning, as it never turned black and the shaft of the candle didn't look to be melting.
Now with a bit more light to see by, I found a plate of food that had long since gone cold sitting on the nightstand. There was a fairly large piece of meat, whose animal source I couldn't quite name, a baked potato and a small salad topped only with cherry tomatoes. At least, I think it was a salad. The leafy vegetables it was made up of were a dead giveaway, but I didn't recognize any of them either.
Still, I smiled to myself when I wondered if the woman I saw entering the city had been carrying this very potato.
I'd forgotten that I paid for a meal when I rented this room, but apparently, the innkeeper didn't. I may be guessing, but judging by her gruff personality, she didn't care if you ate them. The meals you paid for were delivered whenever she felt like, even if you aren't there to receive them. I don't know why the innkeeper decided to waste the food though, since we clearly weren't here at the time it was delivered, but I was happy to get what I paid for since I didn't have the money to spare.
Yua was still wiping at her eyes, but seemed to have calmed down a fair bit as she was no longer trembling.
Her misshapen, hand-me-down outfit was tight enough on her body that, despite her sizable bustline, it was too easy to see how thin she really was. I thought as much while watching her fight and wondering where in her apparent fragility she summoned all of her strength from, but my idiotic self didn't put any thought into thinking on why she was so thin in the first place. I was just too enraptured by her beautiful appearance to give her circumstances a second thought
The thought brought me back to thinking of Lucy, my housecat, and how I was forever unable to help feed her now. She may well end up like this if the owner I was promised she'd find mistreated her the same way. But I didn't have another world blocking me from Yua. I could take care of her.
There was only one thing I could do after this connection made itself known in my mind. So, I tore the piece of meat in half, did the same to the potato and divided the mysterious medley of vegetables as evenly as I could. I set my half on the smaller plate that had been used as a coaster for a cup filled with what was once likely hot tea.
"Yua. You should eat something. Here, take this."
I handed her the plate and she sniffled one last time before turning back to me and gave me a weak smile.
When she saw the food I held out to her, Yua's ears and tail stood on end with her surprise. She snatched the plate out of my hand like she thought it might disappear if she wasn't fast enough, but didn't immediately dig in, even though she had to be at least as hungry as I was. If not more so after all that fighting and the blood loss. I'm guessing that greedy bastard Alphonse didn't prepare the best foods for the slaves he sold and cheaped out like he did when dressing her. She must have been surprised at how much I had given her.
She started poking the food with her index finger, as if testing to see if it was real. Then she looked to my plate and right back to hers. Her ears drooped.
"Sorry it's not hot anymore, "I said. "I actually forgot I ordered dinner when I checked in. If I had thought about it, we could have come back sooner…"
"Master, I can't eat this," she said abruptly after biting her lip.
"What? Why not? Are you a vegetarian? Oh, or you just don't like it cold? The kitchen downstairs is probably closed for the night, but I could try to heat it up with Fire Ball."
"No, no, no!" she said in a panic and jumped to cover my mouth with her hand to stop me from making another stupid suggestion, or maybe to stop me from incanting my spell. I mean, really? Fire Ball? I nearly burned down the forest trying to light a twig on fire.
Yua realized what she had just done when I muffled an apology into her palm and she quickly withdrew her hand. She gripped the edges of her plate, looking at it longingly for several long seconds, before looking back at me.
"This is Master's food. I-I can't take it from you."
So, that's what that was all about?
I let out a slight laugh and handed her the fork that came in a set with a knife.
"It's fine. I don't mind. Really, I don't. Please eat. You'll need your energy for tomorrow. I'll get us both something tastier tomorrow. I think we need to get up and head to the dungeon as early as possible so that we can fight as many monsters as we can. I think we should probably clear the first floor again for some easy experience, so that the next…"
Somewhere along my rambling, Yua finally started crying. The bravado she put up to hide her emotions a minute ago had been shattered and silvery tears slipped down her cheeks without pause. She quietly wept into her plate and when I offered the fork again, she accepted it with a half-nod.
I watched as she took a bite of the unnamed meat and how, even through the saltiness of her tears, that one bite looked like it had been the tastiest thing she'd ever eaten. I'd have to be a heartless bastard to question why, considering how bland it tasted when I tried it myself.
Instead of continuing the barrage of my plans for tomorrow and the questions I still had about the world, I sat with her on the floor and ate with her. She enjoyed herself by picking at each morsel of food with her fork, as though she expected it to jump off the plate and reveal itself as a cruel joke aimed at her expense, only to then bite into it with a teary-eyed smile. To her, it was as if the simple, cold meal were cooked to perfection by the world's most renowned chef.
Watching her flip-flop between the sadness of her expectations and the unrefined happiness that existed on her plate, I was conflicted. I wanted to shove more of my food onto her plate to let her smile persist as long as possible, but I was sure doing so would only bring in more protests. So, in order to not spite that smile of hers, I kept to myself and ate in silence.
When we finished, Yua got up and, looking somewhat rejuvenated, took the initiative to set the plates outside the door for a morning pickup all on her own. I stretched out on the floor, letting the bland contents of the meal I had to force down with only a cup of cold tea to share between us to help it settle for a minute. The food wasn't bad, per say. Definitely would have been better hot, but the flavoring was too different from what I was used to.
Still, I couldn't complain about anything after watching Yua enjoy each and every bite as if the food was only getting better over time, not colder. I got up.
The moment I got to my feet, all of my fatigue rushed over me again and made me dizzy. Thankfully, we had been using the bed as a backrest while we ate, so even if I managed to fall, I'd have something soft to land on.
"Yua, it's late. How about we go ahead and sleep so we can get an early start tomorrow?"
"… Yes, Master."
During her meal, I believed she may have finally pieced together that I wasn't some abusive asshole and warmed up to me a bit. So, when the smile she gave me reached all the way to her tired emerald eyes, I felt duty bound not only to return it, but to protect it for the rest of my life. Then she surprised me.
"Yua… What are you doing?"
She had laid down and curled up into a ball on the floor, hugging her knees to her ample chest for warmth, the second I suggested we get some sleep. As if it had already been predetermined that she would take the floor and I the bed.
"I thought you said you wanted to sleep?"
"Yea, but not on the floor. You… Um… You can sleep in the bed with… me."
I guessed that slaves sleeping on the floor was the norm in this world, but I found it unacceptable. To me, making her sleep there on the cold hard floor was just as much abuse as hitting her would have been.
Yua shot up into an oddly refined, yet very stiff sitting position with her hands clenched on her knees. Her face quickly grew crimson and, unable to hide it, she clutched her own hands so hard I was genuinely concerned that she might break a bone.
"Wha-Wha-What do you mean, Master? I th-thought that, since you haven't completely bought me yet, that you weren't allowed to do dirty things to me!"
Now fully taken aback and suddenly a lot less tired after receiving that verbal kamikaze attack, I nearly laughed. But I could understand full well what she was getting at. The complete one-eighty she did from bitchy-helper earlier today to the cute and timid maiden before me now was because she knew full well that her contract demanded that she belonged to her master in both mind and body. It was the body part of that contract that had her covering her heaving chest with her arms when all I did was look down to tell her she had the wrong idea.
While she had a point about me not buying her fully yet, nowhere in our conversation did Alphonse mention that being intimate with her was off the table. Technically, he did say she was mine. With the added stipulation of "for now" tacked on at the end, but who cares. As much as I didn't want to think about it, because he planned on killing her if and when I failed to bring him the money, he probably didn't care at all what happened in the in-between.
I would be lying if I said that some of the finer details Alphonse reported me of just what it meant to own a person's body had nothing to do with my decision to buy her. I was in a very weak state of mind after the encounter in the bath out in back of the inn reminded me of just how lonely I'd been all my life, but the thought of offering her to sleep in the same bed as me came with as many different connotations as I really didn't want to put in her head right now.
I truly wasn't inviting her to bed for that. We were both tired and needed sleep.
I rubbed my eyes, ridding myself of my manly desires to lift this cute girl in front of me up in my arms and carry her all the way to adulthood tonight. Instead, I gave her the warmest smile I could while trying not to look like a total creep.
"You don't have to worry about that right now. I promise. I just don't want you sleeping on the floor," I paused, thought it over and continued, "In fact, sleeping on the floor is forbidden from now on, unless we don't have a proper bed to share. In which case, I will sleep on the floor as well. Okay? Consider that an order."
I threw around the word "order" like it wasn't the first time I did, meaning to do something nice for her, but it was still something she was being forced to obey. So, when she looked at me apprehensively, clearly not fully believing what I said, I couldn't complain.
"I just don't want you to be uncomfortable," I added. "Please, just sleep on the bed."
"Th-Then… You really won't touch me?"
"No. I promise. I just… Don't want to be alone. Okay?"
I thought it best to turn the conversation back onto myself and give her a bit of the real truth. I had been all alone during the entirety of my adult life. Another night alone in bed when I had an option to have some companionship wasn't something I could accept. Call it selfish, call it a form of abuse all on its own, but having her warmth next to me, even if not all of it, was something I truly desired above all else in the world right at that moment.
Still looking confused and scared, she swallowed. Then she nodded. I don't know if it was because I was ordering her to do so as her master, or if she grew to trust the man she just met enough to sleep by his side after spending half a day fighting alongside him. I couldn't know without asking and I didn't think myself capable of doing so.
Either way, she stood up.
Then she began unlacing the leather string below her breasts holding her messy top together with a still very flushed face.
"I-I told you, you don't have to do anything like that tonight," I said, covering my eyes.
"I-I understand, but… If I'm not sleeping on the floor, I need to change into something lighter so I don't bother you… C-Could you maybe turn around, please, Master?"
I nodded and did as she requested, wondering why she didn't just ask that to begin with. She must have only intended to sleep with her clothes on because she thought she wasn't going to have a blanket to cover herself with.
With my back to Yua and with the light of the magic candle casting my shadow over her, I heard the sounds of the leather strings bound to her clothes quickly sliding against each other to come undone. Then there was something that sounded like the shifting of a shirt being pulled over her head. The soft sound of her hair rubbing against the fabric before it fell into place with an almost imperceptible slap against her slender back caught my attention more than anything else. I gulped at the thought of what was happening right behind me.
I knew panties were a thing in this world thanks to that dog-kin girl in the bath, but I didn't dare check to see if bras were, too. But given that same dog-kin girl didn't wear one, I doubted it. It was either that, or her master had specific requirements to how she dressed.
Soon, I heard the untightening of some very tight leather, remembering only now that her pants had no belt and no button to keep the front closed. I clenched my fist to steady my resolve and keep to my promise. She had to be taking off her pants now and I wasn't about to turn around and ruin what trust we had built up fighting together in the dungeon and after sharing a meal.
While I steeled myself, I heard her slide her suitcase across the wooden floor before unlatching the metal clasp holding it shut. The sound of this alone, this completely unsexual click of a clasp, seemed to shake the entire world. Then there was another brief sound of a softer fabric rustling in the darkness. After a moment of more clothes and leather rustling, probably the sounds of her day clothes being stuffed back in the suitcase, the room went quiet.
"Y-You can turn around now."
Her voice prickled more sweetly against my ears than I guessed she meant it to. Cautiously, I did as she said and turned around to find her standing there wearing nothing but a long, white cloth that was tied into two knots, one on either shoulder, to act like a hastily put-together tank top that was clearly several sizes too big for her. I did my best not to notice the twin peaks poking out from under that makeshift shirt or the fact that the sides of it dropped low enough to see the bare sides of her breasts.
My resolve threatened to break free and run rampant when I saw her standing in the moonlight dressed like that, clenching at the hem of her top to pull it lower, as if deciding on her own that covering what was hidden beneath the cloth was worth the sacrifice of letting more of her cleavage peek out from its protection, but I bit down hard on it to keep it in place.
Her shirt was a mess. The thin, beat-up fabric looked dirty enough for me to easily say it might have once been a loose scrap that had been pulled from a dumpster and, like the rest of her clothes, repurposed into something she could wear.
On top of this, despite her obvious embarrassment, though she didn't try to cover herself any more than strictly necessary, the emerald eyes just above her blushing cheeks still looked very tired.
"Let's just go to bed, then," I said.
Trying to show that nothing about this situation needed to make her worry, I kicked off my boots, pulled off my gloves and threw my shirt over my head with a contented sigh. Her ears stiffened once more as she gasped after seeing me standing there half naked.
"I-I-I thought you said you weren't going to…"
"No, no, no. I'm not going to do anything! Relax, please! I just don't like sleeping with a shirt on, is all. I promise. And this is my only set of clothes. I don't have anything else to change into and don't want to ruin what I have."
Even with that said, I didn't take my pants off to avoid scaring her further. I hadn't planned on doing so from the start, mind you. If I told her that I actually preferred sleeping naked, she'd probably never talk to me again. And, if I'm being honest, I was worried that the upgrade the Goddess gave me might show itself tonight, against my wishes. And the thought of my leather pants holding strong and firm to keep it at bay was somewhat comforting.
Yua nodded, still too apprehensive to trust me fully on the issue, but she climbed onto the bed anyway.
The tail lifting up the back of her shirt and preventing it from properly covering the proof that she was a least wearing a pair of striped panties under that too-revealing top, swayed back and forth along with the movements of her hips as she crawled unsteadily onto the mattress. Once her feet were off the ground, she quickly threw her hips around so that her back was to the wall, as if she'd noticed me looking. She smoothed down the back of her shirt the way I thought a girl in a skirt might before sitting down. And there she waited. Watching.
I sighed at her admittedly justified lack of trust in me with this subject, but I climbed into bed too. Wondering how it was I wasn't freaking out like I used to do when a pretty girl so much as looked at me, I laid down beside her. I guessed it had something to do with the confidence boost ability I got from the goddess finally activating now that I had out-leveled her. Or maybe I was just too tired from all the fighting to care. In the end, I guess it doesn't matter.
I pulled thin wool blanket over myself to hide what exposed skin she could see for no other reason than her peace of mind, but held it just high enough off the mattress to signal for her to join me.
She looked at it, still as apprehensive as ever, but the bed was thin and meant for one. There wasn't enough room to really share. And there was only the one pillow.
She bit her lip and spoke softly.
"I-I guess your arm is better than the floor."
With just a hint of snark to hide her obvious embarrassment, she pushed her feet under the blanket and put her head down on my bicep, watching my every movement with wavering emerald eyes. I hadn't exactly meant to have her use my arm, I could do without a pillow for the night, but I suppose that one was on me for not offering it to her properly.
Her hair was still soft as silk, despite the intense fighting and the sweat she'd built up all night. I wondered a little too late if my scent was at all offensive to her sensitive nose. I had taken a bath earlier, even if said bath lacked soap, but I did work up just as much of a sweat as she did. I couldn't smell anything particularly bad, but that didn't mean she didn't.
Hoping to hide anything that might bother her, I dropped the blanket over us and made sure to cover her properly since I was positive that cloth she wrapped herself in wasn't strong enough to stay in place and cover what it was meant to all night long. Feeling this was safest to avoid any temptation should I wake up in the middle of the night and see her looking utterly defenseless next to me, I laid my head on the small pillow provided with the room.
The second my head hit the pillow and I registered the feeling of her next to me, primarily the softness of her hair tickling my arm where she laid her head, I felt a shocking amount of comfort I hadn't felt before bed in years. Decades, even. All fatigue aside, I felt as though I could conk out at any moment.
That is, until I felt her arms move under the blanket. She clenched her hands together in front of her chest, like she thought I was still planning something after all of this and wanted nothing more than to protect the chastity that I so callously blurted out a comment on when we'd only just met. But I wasn't. I really was just tired.
Plus… I just didn't want her to hate me. So, for several long seconds that might as well have been hours of silence, I kept quiet and kept my eyes welded shut.
"To think Master's first real order would be something so nice as saving me from sleeping on the cold hard floor."
I didn't respond. Those words seemed to be more for herself than me.
Thinking to myself in a half-asleep fogginess that it was because my restraint surprised even me so, that I had little issue ignoring the inner conflict between the parts of me that wanted to jump out of bed to leave her alone and the part of me that only wanted more. Instead, I swallowed hard and allowed myself the small prize of wrapping the arm she laid on around her shoulders to hold her just a little closer. The act of doing so was slow, awkward and incredibly new to me, but I felt my heart move in ways I didn't even think possible anymore when she didn't fight back. I wasn't sure if this was right or wrong or anything other than what it was. What I wanted.
I had the companionship that I so desperately wanted. But she wasn't really my companion.
Yua was stiff as a board in my arm. Her tail, which had been lively all day, had gone limp somewhere between us and I was sure it wasn't because she had fallen asleep. She was still on guard and probably for good reason. I probably shouldn't take offense to this, as any girl in her position would react this way to a man holding her in bed their first night together.
I'm no fool. If anything, aside from the stupid decisions I've been making all day, I know I haven't won her heart just because I saved her a couple times. Life isn't some fairy tale and she wasn't a damsel in distress. She was a warrior that, in one instance, chose to save the life of a man she didn't even care for, despite that choice's guarantee of leading to her own death, just so one of us could live on. And only because she felt doomed regardless of what she did. I was the one who panicked when I saw her in danger. Not her.
No, despite the danger to her life, she considered the situation carefully and chose what she thought of as the best option. She just made a mistake in triggering that trap in the first place. And after watching the skill in which she fought these last few hours, I could easily guess that, had she been alone and if I wasn't there to distract her, she may well have noticed the trap and avoided it.
I can't let myself be fooled into thinking her emotions had changed in my favor just because of all that happened in the dungeon or because of how honestly excited she looked to learn I could use teleportation magic.
That was a fluke and nothing more.
I complained about learning and mastering things too easily back on Earth and how it made me lazy, and now I gained what seemed to be a super powerful spell by literally just looking at it be cast. Why was it that the Goddess, knowing of my plight, decided to give me this power. It was just making the problem more severe. If this admittedly absurd problem of mine were an untreated cut left to fester after deigning it not worth tending, then that Goddess tore back the scab it created to try and heal it by smearing mud all over it.
All that effort I put into trying was ultimately pointless. It came too easy. Everyone had been hyping up the monsters in the dungeon as supremely dangerous, but nothing in the dungeon was a threat except for the boss, which I already managed to figure out a plan on how to beat it with less effort and risk next time we faced it. The only difficult part of today was almost losing her and realizing that our chances of paying off her contract were slim, which we may have just cleared up anyway thanks to that enchanted ring.
It was just more of the same. An easy life I didn't want to live. Only this time, I couldn't hide behind my computer screen.
Yua's stiffness slackened a little in the unprobed silence. Her ears, still attentive as they were in the dungeon, seemed to be on high alert for any movement I might make outside of breathing.
I closed my eyes.
How can I continue thinking this way with this girl at my side? It was easy, sure, but there were plenty of troubles. And if the ease at which all of this came to me meant I could win her contract and protect her, then shouldn't that be worth it?
The short answer was yes. The long one… probably. She could wake up in the morning and decide that forcing her to sleep next to me was too much and swear to hate me forever. I could imagine the sort of depression I might fall in were that to happen. So much so that I thought to jump out of bed and take to the floor myself after all. But regardless of how she felt about me, I would keep her safe.
I let that be my final thoughts on the matter as sleep's sticky tendrils once more pulled me deeper into the pillow. I decided to enjoy the warmth and the rapturous feeling of the breathing of the person next to me that was slowly growing steady.
The last thing I felt before finally drifting off to sleep was the slight tickle of the tips of her ears rubbing against my nose as they flicked.