It wasn't like she was taking me somewhere romantic. My four girls had rejoined me and were following along too. She actually took us down into a lower portion of the castle. This was likely a location under the castle. It was cold here. Miki didn't do good with the cold and was shivering. I didn't realize where she was taking me until we entered a room. In the center were two bodies covered in blankets. She lowered them to reveal Carmine and Salicia.
"I wanted to ask you what you'd like to do with Lord Tibult's former slaves. At the end of the competition, they were supposed to be freed."
"Even if you say that, they're dead."
"We've used a spell to keep their bodies from decaying. Since you were able to bring your own girls back, I thought it might be possible that you could bring them back too."
"Is that even a good idea? I mean, Carmine is an enemy of the Church, and her sister is a Bandit King. I suppose, faulting Carmine is a bit cruel, but so is bringing them back only to cast them out," I explained. "On top of that, I had to use the slave mark to facilitate bringing the girls back. These two are not my slaves. If I wanted to bring them back, they would need to be. If that's the case, I don't think you guys can afford to put up another bond disruption formation, and I'm not going to cut off my limbs, so if these girls are enslaved, I won't be able to get rid of that slavery."
"I understand!" she said, her face turning slightly red. "I know what I am asking isn't fair. However, I definitely want you to try to bring them back to life! It was my own selfishness that caused everyone to suffer so much, so I don't want any more deaths on my conscience. The others who passed, they weren't slaves. Slave marks cannot be imprinted on the dead. However, if someone who dies already has a slave mark, then it may be possible to use your Slave Taker ability. For at least these two, there is a chance!"
Eliana had clearly thought all of this through. She even knew about my Slave Taker ability. She had likely heard about it when I was in a coma. By now, they would have figured out how I was able to distract Shao. They likely knew that Shao was my slave now. Well, I had questions about Shao too, but for the moment, I would focus on this.
"Very well, I will bring them back," I sighed.
"R-really!" she said it like she expected I wouldn't do it.
"I said I would!"
"I love you!" She suddenly threw her arms around me and kissed me. However, no sooner had she done it than she pulled away and blushed. "I- I mean… thank you…"
The fact she suddenly said that and kissed me caught me off-guard, but it was a glance at the other girls that left me confused. I was expecting some very angry glares, but all four women seemed fine.
"Ah… you're okay with this?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
"Master is Master…" Lydia sighed. "I'm glad that Princess Eliana has finally taken our advice."
"Advice? Ah, that was right, you had a heart-to-heart with her back at the hot spring. What did you say to her?"
"Naturally, we suspected she was interested in Master, so we described our sexual experiences with Master," Terra explained.
"What?"
"Yup, I told her how Master likes to take his…"
"Okay! That's enough!" I immediately stopped her words, but it was clear by Eliana's expression she had already heard them.
"After that, we noticed an imagery stone in the wreckage," Miki continued.
That probably had to be Prince Aberis's version of a camera.
"So, we thought it'd be nice if Master could see before he decided if he wanted, so we took pictures of Eliana. After doing several nice positions, she saw the camera and fled!" Terra sighed.
"You weren't blackmailing me!" Princess Eliana cried out.
"And then, after Master lectured us about bullying and said Eliana wasn't interested, we put the imagery stone away, but then we ran into her again and the house."
So, in short, they told Eliana all the sexual things I did to them, then took incriminating images of her. She fled in terror, but after sleeping on it she came to the conclusion that I was a pervert who definitely must be stopped and she couldn't accept blackmail. That lead to these events.
"How many other people have you told about my sexual prowess?" I demanded.
"Hmm… there was that maid at the inn. Salicia. Basically, every girl in Chalm…" Lydia started.
"Okay… please stop."
"Um…" The Princess spoke up, still blushing. "Since you weren't holding the imagery stone over my head, can I have it back?"
"Ah, sure!" Miki says, but then she frowns. "Huh… where did we put it?"
"Didn't we give it to Celeste?"
"Don't look at me! I lose things all the time!"
"Sorry, it seems we misplaced it. Eliana's photos are bound to show up somewhere!" Lydia declared.
"…"
"Ah… she passed out again." I sighed, barely managing to catch her.