"Deek!" An attractive guy in silk noble's attire approached us. "I'd never thought I'd run into you here, and so soon after we last met."
"Huh? Who are you?"
His face dropped for a moment, "You… don't even remember me, and after we walked the path of manhood together…"
"Forget it, Brother, his head is bad!" Eliana snorted.
"Oh, you're that guy… um… him…"
"You don't even know my name, do you!" He let out a long sigh. "I'm Edward! My name is Edward!"
"Ah… what do you want?"
My response didn't seem to make him happy, but he shook his head and quickly recovered. "Actually, I was listening to my sister and Lord Tibult talk, and I thought of a simple solution."
"What is that?" Lord Tibult demanded.
"Well, it's really quite simple," Edward said, smiling, "A competition! Specifically, a Master-Slave competition. Three challenges that test the skill of the slaves and the capacity of their master. If Lord Tibult is the better Slave Master, as one would expect of a noble of our fine country, then Deek here will be found unfit to possess these slaves. However, if he wins-"
"What is in it for me?" I demanded. "I've been wrongly accused and insulted here. You're suggesting I go through the trouble of this competition when I'm only guilty of owning slaves I acquired legally. If I'm proved innocent, shouldn't I gain some recompense?"
The only reason I was able to remain calm at that moment was that there was really nothing they could do. The curse on me made it impossible to remove them as slaves, even if they tried. If things got messy, I would flee the country with them rather than give them up to these bastards. I must have had that kind of expression on my face because the man lifted up his hands reassuringly.
"I will definitely make it worth your while. If you win this competition, then I will rectify the paperwork you submitted. Your lordship and the city of Chalm will be established immediately.
"Lordship!" Lord Tibult cursed. "Absolutely ridiculous!"
"You want to make him a lord?" Eliana said similarly.
Edward silenced them both with a look before smiling back at me. "Furthermore, I will help you get a property in the city. I've heard you've been looking for one."
"You've heard a lot about me," I responded with a frown.
For a guy I randomly ran into at a hot spring, he seemed to know just about everything about me.
"Of course, I apologize!" He bowed. "However, I had you investigated after our chance meeting. I like to help the people that I have good feelings about, and I had good feelings about you. I was surprised to see that we had such an illustrious guest. The Hero of Chalm and the unproclaimed Lord of the Wilderness. Rumors have it you've conquered two dungeons on your own, and even did it with only three people."
Eliana seemed shocked by his description, suddenly looking at me with a slightly different light.
"It was three dungeons, and all of my girls helped," I responded, and then shook my head. "But who are you?"
He let out a laugh. "Ah, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself before. I'm Edward Aberis. Prince Aberis. How do you do?"
It was my turn to turn surprised. This pervert was a prince? He wasn't just a prince. As I heard it, the king only had two children. That meant he was in line for the throne! And, the girl who had been such a source of headaches and had given me so many problems… was the princess of Aberis!