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Chapter 72
“M-m-master!” Lydia said in a weak voice. “Ah… this girl?”
“It seems I have agreed to take on a new slave.” I said to her.
“It’ll be only 2 silver for the slave magic.” Figuro announced.
“What? Slave magic?” I frowned in his direction while peeling the foxgirl off of me.
Figuro shrugged helplessly. “Well, the fee is usually waived with a purchase, but since you didn’t pay for her, technically…”
I sighed. Figuro really was a man out for money. I also noticed he had waited to say such things until after it was too late to back out. That was when a thought occurred to me. That was right. I had a skill called Slave Taker. I didn’t really want to reveal this ability around Figuro, but I also didn’t want to pay him unnecessarily. I raised my hand and touched the foxgirl’s head.
“Slave Taker.” I announced.
There was a sudden bright light on her chest, and a circular sigil appeared. Ever so slowly, the sigil started to change. I realized I had to keep pushing mana into it, and the sigil also seemed to want to resist. I drained over half of my mana by the time a new form appeared. I didn’t recognize the new formation, but it felt familiar, as if it represented me. When I pulled away, I realized that the foxgirl was panting.
{Miki has become your slave.}
{Name: Miki
Class: Mana Manipulation
Job: Alchemist (Slave) – 8
Unlocked Jobs: Commoner – 5, Basic Magician – 1, Spiritualist – 2
Race: Nine tailed Foxkin}
“Are you okay, Miki?” I asked, feeling slightly awkward that I hadn’t asked her name earlier.
“M-master?” She looked up at me in wonder. “I feel…. good… better than okay!”
The slave status up must be in play here. Her complexion was already looking better. I didn’t want to start casting any more spells right now in front of strangers, so I held back from tossing out my White Mage spells.
“You used Slave Taker?” Figuro’s mouth was wide open and he was shocked. “I had only heard of it, I’ve never seen it used before.”
“Is this acceptable?” I asked now that it was too late to do anything about it, just like he had done to me. “No spell, no fee, right?”
Figuro smiled wryly. “It would seem that is the case. I will get the paper documents.”
The pale fox Miki remained sitting on the bedding that had been her funeral pyre. Her complexion did look bad, but she still had her hands out, grabbed on to my outfit. Lydia seemed to be doing the same, grabbing my shirt from behind. Maybe this was just a slave thing?
When Figuro came back out, I signed the paperwork that confirmed Miki as my property.
“I appreciate that you have respected our contract and not taken Lydia in this manner.” Figuro spoke as we finished up. “I mean no offense when I say this, but you may not want to show that skill to very many people. I will not tell a soul, but other slavers may take offense to someone with such a skill. I won’t ask how you got it, but the ability to take a slave from someone else will make many people feel threatened.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.” I said noncommittally.
“Wait… has the kitty girl not been made Master’s slave?” Miki asked, cocking her head.
“I currently have her on loan. The official slave ceremony will only occur after I’ve paid off her debt.”
“Then that means… I am Master’s first slave.” Miki blushed, something very noticeable with her pale skin.
“W-what!” Lydia’s expression turned panicked. “Wh-what does this mean?”
“No matter…” Miki shrugged. “It simply means I’m Master’s first and most important.”
“N-no! Impossible!” Lydia puffed out her cheeks. “I’m Master’s first! I’m definitely his first!”
“I’m just calling the facts as they are.” Miki responded casually. “You can’t deny the truth. One of us is Master’s first and one of us is… a used pussy!”
“You…! Master! Tell her your pussy isn’t all used up!”
“Ahem…” I coughed, feeling a headache coming along. “Can we have this conversation once we return to Chalm?”
I had a feeling I’d be getting a lot of headaches in the near future.
Chapter 73
I figured there was no point in hiding my abilities anymore. I wanted to know if Return worked, so it seemed like as good of a time as any. I gestured for Lydia to give me her hand. She blushed, but took it and then moved right next to me. Meanwhile, Miki was still clinging to me from the other side.
“Ladies, would you like to be in my party?” I asked.
Miki cocked her head curiously, while Lydia gave me a confused look. They were both slaves, so of course it would seem a bit weird for me to suddenly ask them to join my party. By all accounts, I was in charge. However, I didn’t know any other way to make a party, so I felt I needed to ask. I gave the two girls a nod of confirmation that they should answer.
“Okay.”
“Yes.”
{Miki has joined your party.}
{Lydia has joined your party.}
“Ah? I feel even better than before?” Miki said in surprise.
Lydia nodded, “I too feel rejuvenated.”
It appeared like they could feel the Party Status Up. Unfortunately, it didn’t apply to me, but I imagined it felt a bit like I felt when I switched from something like Cook to something like Hero. Just a boost of strength and energy that came from that particular job’s skill boosts. It was good that Miki now had that boost. Figuro had said she could pass out unconscious within hours of being revived. That might have happened without her status boosts, or perhaps Figuro was being a bit dramatic to discourage me from getting Miki. I didn’t know.
“Okay, girls, stay close to me. If I disappear for some reason, just wait here and I’ll return in a bit.”
This added a few more weird looks towards me. Well, that was fine. I was just experimenting anyway.
At this point, I’d probably just use Portal to come back if I found that the Return ability of the Hero didn’t work. I’d need to do a lot more tests on it in the future. For example, could I use it multiple times a day, or just once like Portal? Would it teleport all of my party? Did they need to be touching me? If they were touching me, did they even need to be in my party? All of these were questions I had, but the first thing I wanted to test is if I could bring people in my party at all, so I worked towards maximizing that likelihood.
“Alright, Return!”
It would have been nice to see the look of surprise on Figuro and company’s face as we vanished, but Return was too quick for that. One second, I was surrounded by a caravan, the next second, we were standing in the town square right next to the fountain feature.
“Master is awesome…” Lydia said wonderingly. “That was much faster than Portal.”
“That’s true…” I breathed, knowing that both girls in my party traveled with me. “But it might have some limitations I don’t know about yet.”
I already knew it couldn’t work in a dungeon. I couldn’t believe the skill would be much more OP than Portal, which required the rare and elusive dungeon points.
I took a step forward, planning to leave the town square, but then I felt a tug on my pants. I looked down to see Miki lying there on the fountain steps, smiling helplessly.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Master, I cannot walk. You will need to carry me.” Miki said.
“Ah? I guess the resurrection did weaken you a lot, huh? In that case, Lydia, can you please help get her on my back?”
Lydia looked between me and Miki, with a concerned look on her face. “Ah… y-yes… Master…”
However, Miki shook her head. “My arms are too weak to piggyback. I might fall. Master must carry me in front with two arms.”
“P-princess carry?” Lydia gasped.
Miki nodded, a mischievous smile showing on her face. “Master must carry me princess style!”
“I… see…”
Chapter 74
The walk back to the inn caught a few people’s notice. I was the hero of Chalm, but I hadn’t really gotten around to meeting the whole town. There were a couple hundred citizens here, and there were plenty who only heard of me. Lydia was walking next to me while Miki was in my arms. She seemed quite content with me holding her. Her eyes were closed, her ears were lowered, and her pale skin made her look almost like death itself. If she wasn’t breathing softly, I would have thought she slipped off to death again.
As for Lydia, she was the polar opposite. Her tail was lashing excitedly, and she kept glancing over at the pair of us, a worried expression on her face. Every once in a while, she would stop, then take a few quick steps to catch back up. Her agitation was clear, as she gave off the vibe of a tiger in a cage perfectly. I could only smile wryly and hope she dealt with it.
When it came right down to it, I had no particular interest in Miki. She was pretty, with pale perfect skin, a soft feminine scent, and a small figure. However, she also had very small, almost nonexistent breasts, a mischievous and obstinate attitude, and a sickly feel to her. I wanted to make her better, but there was no way she’d replace Lydia in my heart. Lydia was my first, in many ways, so I wasn’t such a selfish guy as to have fantasies about having a harem. It’d be downright disrespectful to Lydia to sleep with Miki, and given Miki’s status as a slave, it even could be considered inappropriate whether she could give consent.
Suddenly, I wanted to ask Miki what selection she had under her slave form. Wait, scratch that. Wouldn’t Lydia have filled out such a slave form too? What selection did she make! I shook my head. There were no good things in the direction of those kinds of questions. Both girls had hard lives in the past, and I wanted their futures to be filled with peace, health, and happiness.
We reached the inn, and I put Miki in a chair in the common room, ordering something to eat, even though she said she wasn’t hungry. She had just been resurrected from the dead, so it was impossible that Miki wasn’t hungry! While I ordered the food, the innkeeper’s eyes kept flickering to Miki, and I was wondering if she was curious about her. However, she didn’t say anything so I let it be.
“Lydia, can you go to the seamstress and pick up the clothing they have finished?” I asked.
Lydia’s eyes went from the door to the pair of us. I had picked up a piece of food and was feeding it to Miki. Although she said she wasn’t hungry, she was happy to open her mouth when I was the one giving it to her. As a result, I ended up feeding her. Things sort of just ended up that way.
“Miki wouldn’t be able to go, only Lydia can.” I spoke carefully.
Lydia’s eyes opened excitedly. “Th-that’s right! I have legs! Miki cannot walk! I will definitely do what only I can!”
Lydia’s spirit seemed to be rejuvenated with just that. She left with her tail swaying excitedly back and forth. I breathed slightly easier. I knew Lydia didn’t mean to act this way; she was just worried her place was being taken. Tonight, I’d have to reassure her that she was still my very important person and that Miki wouldn’t take away from that.
Once Lydia left, the innkeeper returned. Every time she was near me, I couldn’t help but look up over her head. I was really trying not to. Women didn’t like it when you looked at their chests, but the innkeeper had long bunny ears. I imagined if my eyes were a bit high, she’d notice and be similarly angry. She had a complicated expression on her face.
“Your new… friend…” She spoke uncertainly.
I looked over at Miki and blinked. “That’s right, Miki is a slave I recently bought… well, saved… she’s a-”
“Foxkin…” The girl said, her eyes flashing in a shockingly angry light. “A spirit fox!”
Miki looked down, her usually playful expression turning sad.
“What of it?” I asked, frowning at the bunnykin.
“Will she be staying with you at the inn?” She said it more like a statement.
“That was the plan, yeah…”
The bunny girl crossed her arms and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t let you stay here anymore. Not while she’s with you!”