"I-is it alright for me to eat with you?" Asks Lina.
"Did you do any different with your last master?" I ask.
"No… but Miss Hilde was special, As her personal attendant, it would be very inconvenient to keep eating away from her.
"Then see it the same way, it's inconvenient to treat you worse, it's just easier to treat you like everyone else."
"Thank you, master..." She bows.
"You chose the right person, little Lina, Wolfy is a really kind master. Just get prepared for the night, he's a sadistic sex beast," Teases Roxanne.
Lina freezes, Ciel looks away.
"Roxanne! Stop that, she's gonna get scared. I didn't accept you because I want your body, I already have enough women around me."
"I see..." Lina says, did I notice a hint of disappointment?
"Besides, Roxanne and Hana are the predators you should be scared of."
"No thank you, the only ones I want inside of me are Roxanne and Wolfy," Hana says shaking her head.
"Same, but inverted… I think..." Roxanne says and pulls out her tongue.
Ciel is massaging her eyes. I cough.
"Lina, do you like books?" I ask, changing the topic. Her eyes shine at my words.
"Yes! Whenever Miss Hilde would take on a peddlers job she would bring some books and let me read them during the trip. She would bring about every kind of book possible so I always had a wide variety to read."
"Well then, you know I'm studying at the magic university, right? I wanna let you use the library and research some things for me. Do you like reading about the legends and history of the world?"
"Oh, the magic library… yes! I want to! But, is it okay to let a slave inside? If I ever damage a book, the price for it might be even higher than the price to buy me..." Her voice trails off.
If that happens most masters would sell the slave, some might even go as far as executing the person.
"That's alright, if something happens I might revoke your right to use the library but I'm not unreasonable, just don't be careless."
"Yes!"
I feel like patting her head, she's so cute. When she's working she kept a firm expressionless face, but now she seems earnest and happy.
"Why do you want to research legends?" Asks Ciel.
"You know I'm from a faraway land, I just wanna know more about the life around here, perhaps there might even be similarities in the myths from my land and the local's."
Ciel seems interested, the other girls know where I'm from so they know why exactly I'm doing this. I have no information about the history of this world so using Lina to collect it for me might be the best way to go about it, I still have so much magic and training to do I can't spend time reading fairy-tales.
"So your job is maintenance of our equipment and research. I think we can carry you with Alissa so we might as well go to the university together," I say. She's so small I don't think Alissa will mind the extra weight with her increased level in transformation.
"I can also help with housework," she says raising her hand.
"Not really necessary, the other girls already help a lot and my clay golems keep the house clean from dust. Ciel and I also have a strong [
Clean
] so we can just use magic whenever the clay golems aren't enough."
Her hand falls down.
"Ah yes, you are a summoner, the golems sure seem convenient," Lina says in a pensive tone.
We start eating our meal. It's white sauce pasta with grated cheese and roasted Dragolite, we eat lemon pudding for dessert. This is a good restaurant, not too expensive and they didn't mind letting Aoi eat with us too, her intelligence and cleanliness are higher than some people. Lina melts when she eats her pudding, as a slave she didn't have many opportunities to eat sweets, even if Hilde was kind she was a bit spartan on her way of life.
When we get home the griffin nature spirit is sleeping on a column of the gate of our house. I put points into [
Animal Tongue
] and approach it.
"Helloo! Missed me?"
The little griffin opens his eyes and quickly gets up, he lets out a happy chirp. I pull out a piece of raw meat and leave it near the gate. The girls wave to it but no one has the courage to touch it yet. It happily eats while his cute ass shakes. Aoi is very interested in the spirit.
When we enter I summon 3 clay golems and get them to work on the dusty house, I don't let anyone else help, today is time for us all to rest.
"So Lina, where are you from?" Asks Ciel.
We are in the living room, the fireplace is crackling, the tea is hot, the cookies are delicious, Ciel is chatting with Lina, Alissa is reading, Hana is massaging my brain and Roxanne is brushing her mane.
"I was born on a surface village at the foot of the Mountainhome. Before Aremut fell to the undead the road around Mountainhome wasn't as popular and our village was only a small hub for adventurers. I was being trained as an enchanter like my father but all our tools got stolen, father had to sell me so he could buy new tools. Hilde bought me and we traveled as peddlers for a long way until we came here."
"Wow, Mountainhome is on the other side of the continent, that's quite the distance. Where does the Roth family live?" Hana says.
"The Roth family didn't have a home, it was only 2 years ago that we settled around the Shore of Leaves and the High Forest for hunting dragons. They bought a house in Goldcross but Miss Hildegard has a brother staying here so we should get a response from them soon," Lina continues.
"What about you Ciel, born here?" I ask.
"Yes, I never knew my parents but I believe they came from Sommerland since I have this skin color. I joined a Templar unit that was moving there when… the battle happened and I quit being a warrior priestess."
"What about you Hana?" I say, trying to distract her from that memory.
"I was born in Sommerland, I used to make escort caravans from there to Ryutake on the far south but unfortunately I never went into Gnomeria, the pixies at Betoverd Bos weren't allowing many people at the forest. If we ever get the chance, let's go to Gnomeria, the gnomes are just so huggable," Hana loses her composure a bit and her eyes go wild, then she coughs, "Once dad screwed up I decided to sell myself at Rabanara because there's a wide variety of strong adventurers here."
The other 2 retold their stories. Alissa was born at the Misty Low Forest but never left until she came into Rabanara. Roxanne traveled a lot on the Maoka continent then she came through Goldport, she went as far as Goloria then she went back and moved to Rabanara so she never traveled much on this continent.
"Do you wanna visit your home, Lina?" I say.
"I… do. Even though my parents sold me I know they had no alternative or we would starve, I know my body is rather childish so at least I'm thankful I wasn't sold to a perverted noble."
"Sorry to ask but how old are you?" I ask.
Ciel and Roxanne glare at me.
"I am your slave, master, there's no need to worry about such things. I am fifteen."
"What… that's just a year younger than me," I say. She looks younger.
"Dwarven women are like that," Lina shrugs, "Where do you come from, master?"
"My homeland is a secret, just like how I know [
Gate
] I have many other secrets we have to keep," I smile.
Ciel smiles bitterly.
"O-oh, I see, forgive me for prying," Lina bows her head in respect.
"No need for forgiveness, ask anything and I will judge if I can answer."
"Now that we are talking about it, how did you learn [
Gate
]?" Ciel asks.
"That's another secret, but you should know that I have a talent for [Space Magic]. Just like how my [
Item Box
] is huge I can easily learn spells from that school."
"Yet another secret..." Ciel mutters and even Lina looks pensive.
I think I will tell the truth to them soon, but I think I want to propose to Ciel before that. First I need to create a romantic situation with her, I don't wanna a repeat of the last proposals I had. Even though Alissa's was heart-wrenching I still feel embarrassed at the suddenness of it all, I appreciate Hana's help but I want to do it right this time.
"Considering his talent with using [
Telekinesis
] in combat I can see why this is true," Hana helps me.
I haven't had the opportunity to fight using [
Telekinesis
] but Hana assures me it's gonna be a powerful strike.
After a while Hana spars with Lina to test her combat capability, luckily Hana has a wooden warhammer for sparring. The dwarves use a long hammer, almost as long as a halberd, it has the traditional flat part of a hammer, a hook on the back and a spear at the tip, quite versatile but it lacks in slashing power.
"She has a bit of skill, around level 5 I would guess. She can kill most normal goblins around here but will struggle against orcs, her agility is not enough to face a Young Ogre yet and her [
Stonebody
] is average for her age," Hana says. Lina is dropped down on the ground, completely exhausted. Her white shirt is sticking to her body.
[
Stonebody
] is a spell all dwarves have, it works similar to the dragonkin skin that hardens their bodies and even gives them physical strength. While the dragonkin is something innate and physical, the dwarven [
Stonebody
] is purely magical.
"The wyvern attack is all but confirmed to come in one or two days," Ciel says, "That dragon was far too smart and strong, it will easily command the wyverns. With that I think it's best to leave her out of the fight, keep her protecting Roxanne and Aoi, she doesn't have the power to face a wyvern yet."
"Even so I would rather not let her use her body as a shield," I say.
She seems very submissive so I have a feeling she would needlessly sacrifice herself to protect Roxanne since she's a slave and Roxanne is my fiancee.
"Lina, I will bring you to fight but your first order is to not die, understand that? I don't want heroic sacrifices I want us to put all our effort into avoiding a situation where a sacrifice is necessary, to begin with."
"Y-yes! Understood, master!" Lina says in high spirits.
Alissa and Hana share a warm smile.
"You say that but you are the one who has a tendency to do put yourself in danger, right? The Symbol, the Orc Chief and this dragon where all you jumping in danger, literally," Roxanne says with her hands on her hip.
"Well, uh..." I'm at a loss for words.
Today is strength training, now that we are back home Hana pushes me hard, in both meanings.
"Lina, Ciel, do you mind taking a bath together?" Alissa says with a suspicious glint in her eyes.
"Not really, the bath is large for this reason, right?" Ciel says.
"I'm a slave, you shouldn't be concerned with my embarrassment. But shouldn't I wash master?"
"It's best you not, the bath is… a place for, uh,
bonding
," I say.
Ciel sighs and Lina stares blankly for a few seconds and then her cheeks reddens.
Today is the 15th.
Roxanne wakes me up, she doesn't have the skill but she's mastering sensual expressions with my dick in her mouth. After she's done I have to cast [
Heal
] on my lower back, Hana didn't unglue from me during the entire bath and then Roxanne wanted her share. Alissa, the pervert, masturbated in the corner all the time so she's happy by herself.
My [Blessing Magic] and my [Summoning Magic] increased by 1 (now 0+11 and 11+9). It seems skills increase much faster when you are purposely training them.
I spend my morning playing with Aoi in the sofa like you play with cats and a blade of wheat. Alissa had an idea and collected a few blades from the nearest farm yesterday, she lived with a few animal foxes and they have similar instincts to Aoi, it seems. Though I will need something stronger than the blades since Aoi completely destroys a blade with a simple swipe of her incredibly fast claws.
At 9AM Alissa appears in the living room, she's smiling.
"You have a visitor, his name is Nour Asaf."
Ooooh. I go out to meet him. Nour is by the front door, he's observing the house with curiosity. It's the first time I saw him using casual clothes but there's no doubt he's rich, he's wearing red woolen clothes with a shining velvet waistcoat and a green cloak.
Behind him is a tall dragonkin woman, she has pale white skin, shining emerald hair and ruby scales. Her nose is small, her chin is pointy and her eyes look sharp, a very feminine face. She has a chilling smirk that reminds me of my own man"eating woman. She's using a revealing red dress below a brown fur coat.
Besides the dragonkin woman is another woman. She's short, a bit shorter than me, she has long brown hair with a few drills, freckles and a cute round face. She shyly looks at me and then turns away. She's wearing similar clothes to Nour's but with frills and a more feminine look.
"It's been a long time Mr. Nour, I see you changed your companions."
"Yes, well, a lot happened back home, but you changed more, Mr. Ryder."
I stretch my hand for a handshake.
"Just call me Wolf."
"Then just call me Nour."
I'm a bit glad to meet Nour. I'm not really a person that spends much time with friends, especially since now I have 5 women around me, but I'm still happy.
I invite him over and we sit at the living room with Aoi at my lap, Alissa calls the others and soon the room is full and smelling of tea and cookies. Only Lina didn't know about Nour since I told them all in passing about my journey here, they all seem curious about who is the person that managed to befriend me.
"This is Midori, my first wife and this is Safiya, my second wife," Nour says, embarrassed.
Midori and Hana share a grin, Safiya blushes, bows and keeps looking down towards the cookies.
"Uh, wait what," I say.
"Well then," Nour immediately starts blushing, his voice is fast paces as if he just wants to get this over with, "I was sent home for an arranged marriage. My father got a deal with a mercenary company and they will provide escorts exclusively for our products so we can branch out of the Principality, Father is aiming to enter the market of the capital. The condition was to marry Midori, the captain's daughter, together we will train here in Rabanara for a few years and get stronger then we will inherit the mercenary company. During the ceremony Safiya interrupted, she's my friend from back home, one thing led to another and I married her too…"
Nour averts his eyes in embarrassment while I blink blankly for a few seconds. Well then, it's my turn.
"A-anyway, this is Alissa, my fiancee. She's the Blood Slave I got thanks to your gift and I'm really, really grateful for it. This is Hana, my second Blood Slave, she's also my fiancee. This is Roxanne, we met on a request, she's another fiancee. This is Ciel, she was a priest at the temple and now she's part of our fellowship. This is Lina, she was a slave for my employer during my last request but she died and I decided to buy Lina, we will negotiate for her soon. And this is Aoi a small dragon I tamed on my last request," I failed in being different from Nour, talking about things like this I realize having so many women around me is a little excessive. Though I made sure I didn't put "first" or "second" on the fiancee order.
At my words, Nour opens his eyes wide and even Safiya looks at us. Nour chuckles.
"I guess you win, your 'troubles' are much more than mine."
I cough.
"W-well, uh, what happened to your sister?"
"Ah. When we got back home she eloped with Liam and married him," I knew it, "I broke the contract with him and Rania swore she's gonna repay me someday. Dad was furious, he wanted her to inherit the business and marry a craftsman, but then he got an idea and managed to rope the lord into marrying his son to her, when eventually she came back to talk she got interested in the idea and accepted. Unlike me she's strong enough to fight alongside the lord's son and clear dungeons, perhaps in a year or so she might even turn into a True Noble. Liam is quite happy too, he was thinking about retiring but he enjoys fighting alongside her more."
"I understand the sentiment," Hana comments.
So she actually has 2 husbands, what an interesting world. I know Raina is a powerful mage, she was tired and still managed to cast [
Ice Lance
], which is a level 30 [Water Magic] spell. This spell is basically a one-hit kill for anything that doesn't have disgusting agility like the Orc Headhunter had.
"Here's something I brought from home," Nour pulls something out of his [
Item Box
], it's a small basket and inside…
"Chocolate!"
"W-what?" Nour looks confused.
"He's addicted to chocolate," Alissa says.
I immediately grab a black cube and eat. It's semi-sweet chocolate, not my favorite and not the best taste but it's the first chocolate I ate in a long time. It melts into my mouth and I feel bliss.
"Huh, where did you eat such a thing?" Nour raises an eyebrow, "It's quite a new find that's popular on the Principality. When I left the emperor had requested an urgent caravan with chocolate for the capital so it's going to take some time for it to spread."
"I uh, ate it once beyond the Maoka continent," I lie.
Just saying "my homeland" and keeping quiet about it might not cut it. Ciel raises an eyebrow.
"Well that's quite the journey, the Maoka continent itself exports a good amount of interesting products so I'm not that surprised."
He should know I'm a bit reserved about my past.
The girls eat and even Hana and Midori look pleased. Chocolate is love, chocolate is life.
"You brought more chocolate with you?" I ask, "The last of chocolate in the town has been for a long time."
"Yeah, I came with a small caravan. I will tell you where they are selling the cocoa, the chocolate they make there will sell fast."
"Say, Nour, what exactly your family works on?" I ask.
"We are dealing with the new version of magic tools for flight. We have a few craftsmen that achieved a breakthrough in copying the tools of the chimeras. Dad has been working with the empire in building an airship fleet."
Everyone is wide-eyed.
"That's... your family must be quite powerful," I say.
Nour cringes.
"Yeaaah. Kind of... well you know how it goes, when people get too much money the others start to covet. I came here to get away from all that nonsense, in Rabanara nobody really cares where you are from."
Boy, am I thankful for that.
"So, are you two from the same family or something?" I ask Hana and Midori.
"I think so, the color of our scales says we are related somehow but your skin color is rare over at Ryutake," says Midori.
"I was born at Sommerland but mom is from Ryutake. Did you know the Yokubo family?" Says Hana.
"Hm, I think I heard this name before…"
"Well the last Yokubo at Ryutake was my grandmother so it's no surprise you don't remember much."
With that, we talk freely. Nour is planning on hiring an archer or tracker and another vanguard and delving into dungeons, he's never going to set foot into Royd's Kerfuffle again, though. Hana is older so Midori has some things to learn from her, Hana's route passed through Faium so they had some stories to share.
Safiya is quite shy but she did well with Roxanne and Ciel, she's a fire and wind mage. She started training when Nour left for the first time, then learned she has quite a magical aptitude, so she entered the magic university there for a basic course.
At 10 AM a letter came to me, Dietgard Roth, Hilde's younger brother, will like to meet me to receive Hilde's remains, her belongings and to negotiate Lina. He asks to meet in the afternoon. At 11 AM Alissa, Ciel and Safiya go prepare lunch and we eat with Nour, good thing we have spare chairs as the table is getting crowded. I notice Nour is a bit uncomfortable around Midori, or rather, he's
scared
of her, in a cute way.
"Thanks for the lunch Wolf, or should I say, Mr. 'Good Luck'," Nour laughs, "Stay out of trouble, I didn't think someone as careful as you would be involved in so much fighting."
"Maybe it's because I'm careful that I can fight so much."
"Certainly seems so."
"One thing," I get closer to Nour and whisper, "The dragon is a wild animal, you have to grab it and make it submit by force if you want to tame it. A dragon answers to power and if you don't tame it and ride it, it will tame you and ride you."
Nour squirms and I smirk. We shake hands and he leaves. It's interesting how the act of shaking hands is present on this world.
At 2 PM we leave house and go towards the inn that Dietgard is at, it's on the nobles quarters so it's close by. To enter the quarters you have to show your ID and I suspect that if your clothes are too low quality the guards won't let you pass.
The houses here are all mansions or inns that look more like mansions, the shops even show their products behind glass panes allowing the beginnings of window-shopping to appear. Ciel and Roxanne show the most interest while Lina and Alissa hide their curiosity but I can still notice it. Hana only shows interest in the weapons shops but she scoffs at the weapons on display, they are all fashionable but of low quality.
"Damn pompous nobles," she mutters.
We reach a pretty building made of pale yellow concrete and salmon-colored roof tiles. With the small flower garden in the front, this inn looks so sweet I puke in my mouth. Bright colors seem to be the style of choice around the Quarters. The receptionist wears a matching pink and pale yellow uniform.
"I'm looking for Dietgard Roth, my name is Wolf Ryder, he's expecting me," I tell the woman.
With a fake smile, she looks at the register and then goes out to call for him, in a minute Dietgard comes downstairs.
Dietgard is a medium-sized man who looks like Hildegard but with bob hair, quite the androgynous face. His clothes are a similar qipao and pants that Hilde used in the first meeting. Oh, wait… he's a "trap".
"Ah, Mr. Ryder, good meeting you, I'm Dietgard Roth," he says with a somber tone.
"Good meeting you too, I'm sorry for your loss," I say and shake his hand.
"I read the reports, it's such an unfortunate encounter. My sister was such a good person, I'm thankful you risked yourself to bring her remains. Please come with me, I prepared a room to receive her," he lowers his head while speaking.
We go upstairs and enter a room, there's nothing besides a table with a thick cloth. A simple man with plain black clothes is standing at the corner.
"Please put her here," Dietgard points to the table.
I put her corpse in the table, it's wrapped in cloth but there's still blood dripping so the table cloth immediately gets bloody. I leave the sack with her belongings beside the table. Dietgard pulls the cloth in her face and grimaces.
"Take her and prepare the ceremony," he says. The man in the corner wraps her corpse in the table cloth and stores it in his [
Item Box
] and then leaves.
He grabs the sack and investigates its contents.
"Thank you for bringing her belongings too. Ask me anything and I will reward you if it's on my capabilities."
"Thank you for your consideration but I don't need rewards for this, I only did what was right."
His lips curl in a small and painful smile
"You are a good man, Mr. Ryder, pity we meet under such circumstances."
"Indeed."
He sighs.
"Let us go downstairs and talk about Lina's future."
We sit by a table at the restaurant. It seems that even though the outside is completely different the design of inns is all the same.
"Now then, you wish to buy Lina?" His somber expression disappears and the sharp gaze of a serious merchant covers his face.
"Yes."
"50 gold coins," he answers immediately.
I'm so dumbfounded I lose my voice, Lina's expressionless face turns into one of disbelief. The rest of the girls frown. Lina was bought first by 5 gold coins, this is
not
a reasonable amount.
"Why do you think she's this valuable?" I ask.
"She's a hard-working slave with a keen business sense and much experience, she will bring a lot of value to any merchant that gets her," he says. His stare is so strong it's as if he wants to stare into my soul.
I look at Lina, she pinches my thigh, this is a signal he's lying. During negotiations she used this kind of signal a lot with Hilde.
"She's merely 15 and most of the credit goes to Miss Hildegard's business sense. Lina was merely a dedicated assistant, you can find such slave in the market for 1 or 2 gold coins," I say. Lina was more expensive because she's young and cute.
It's mostly the poor that sells their family to temporary slavery. A few gold coins can change the life of a commoner.
"Acquiring the experience of living with such a talented merchant like my sister is the most valuable aspect," I can feel his poker face straining.
"Oh please, do not inflate Miss Hildegard's talent so much. She was capable but far from being such a genius that just by staying near her you could acquire talent by osmosis."
"Os-osmosis?
"Oh oops, expression from my homeland. I mean, acquire talent by just rubbing on it."
"Still, her talents are more than just in business, she's quite capable of combat and crafting."
"She's below average for combat and her crafting apprenticeship barely started," Hana says, "I sparred with her personally and appraised her crafting using our equipment."
"Oh if she's so average then why do you wish for her?" He pushes in a mocking tone.
"If she's so average why are you asking so much for her?" I push back.
"Because I see talent in her!" He's losing his temper, good.
"And so do I. But I have plenty of other experienced individuals and the capabilities to help her. Hana is experienced in combat, Roxanne is experienced in magic and alchemy, Ciel is experienced in combat and healing, Alissa is experienced in tracking and archery, I'm experienced in magic and combat. Not only that but I have a blessing of the Goddess of Knowledge and I will let her use the library of the magic university that I'm currently enrolled in. What kind of future can you give her that's better than what I'm giving?"
He bites his lip in frustration, it would be sensual if he was a woman. He inhales and exhales, trying to calm himself.
"Lina… please marry me..." He says.
I choke on my spit and Lina sighs. She looks at me while I recover.
"Uh… you wanna speak? Please do," I say.
"I'm sorry Grand Dietgard, I do not wish to marry you," she says and bows.
I don't want to ask why.
"Please, I can give you anything, you will be my first wife and we will inherit the house name. Ever since I first saw you when Hilde bought you I have been in love, I will treat you nicely and never marry another, we will be happy together, just the 2 of us," he says, his voice increasing in pitch, I'm not sure if it's a man or a woman talking anymore.
"Please understand, I do not wish to marry you, I'm sorry," she says and bows again, this time her head keeps down for a long time.
Dietgard sighs. He massages his eyes with his hands.
"Name your price Mr. Ryder," he says in a defeated tone.
"Fifteen gold coins."
He opens his eyes in surprise.
"I told you she's valuable, but not that much," I say.
"Fine…"
I give him the money and he takes it without looking. I pass him a thick piece of paper, it has the name, description, date, and place that Lina was bought, this is the proof of purchase. It's in the name of Hildegard Roth but since she's dead the closest family member, Dietgard, has authority over her sale. Lina was sold for 40 years, by the time she finished her contract she would be 50, by then it would be unlikely she would ever find someone to marry.
In a small space Dietgard writes his signature and the words "Sold to Wolf Ryder", now I have to go to a Slavers Guild to register her in my name. We share a weak handshake and we leave immediately, he didn't even look at Lina again. Having a slave decline marrying him must have hurt his pride.
Once we are some distance from the inn Lina stops and grabs my arm.
"Thank you, thank you. I won't disappoint you, I will work hard and make myself useful. I don't think Grand Dietgard was a bad person but I do not wish to be with him, thank you again for keeping me."
With teary eyes she hugs me, her head barely reaches my chest. I pat her head, she's so cute, so cute. Wait, no, put that phone away, please.
Ciel looks at her with warm eyes as one looks at a puppy. When Lina releases her hug she's blushing like a tomato.
"Don't need to overdo it, it's no good to be all work and no fun."
"Well… I think going to the library might be more fun than work..." She says bashfully.
On the way back we pass by some stores to buy a high-quality set of clothes for Lina. Walking around with Aoi on Hana's neck is rather eye-catching.
We end up passing by the Slavers Guild, it looks the same as the Golden Necklace, but less well decorated. Registering Lina is quite simple, with the paper, my name, and a small fee I get a new paper that proves her purchase. Then the tag in her metal collar gets changed to a new one with my name. On my "Affiliations" the entry "Lina (slave)" appeared.
After that we enter a luxurious store outside of the noble's quarters and Lina freezes inside, it takes Alissa to whisper something to her that she accepts to buy something from it. I see the store's owner is a middle-aged man holding back a smirk, I get an idea and approach him.
"Excuse me, I know this might not be the best place to ask but do you know of a romantic place where I could spend an evening with my women?" I ask, holding back my embarrassment.
His face lights up.
"I know just the place. Here's my favorite restaurant, I take my wife there every few day-cycles, what's special is the siren that sings there, there's also a lamia and a scylla that play instruments. If you are not going there for the singing at least go there for the view, these race's charms affect even the women so they are marvelous to looks at," his voice lowers to a whisper and he gives me a small paper.
"The theater has a new play every day-cycle, most of them are aimed at women so perhaps you should go there. Coming next is 'Roberto and Judea', I greatly recommend that one, my wife cried the first time she saw it.
Sounds familiar.
Well I gotta treat them better, I have been a bit too absorbed in working and not given them that much attention besides sex and cuddling.
When Lina gets out of the fitting room she's blushing. I massage my forehead and pray Alissa isn't going overboard. In the end, I see they chose a cute short white and black dress with a silver lining, some stockings, a pair of low wedge black shoes and a cloak with bunny ears. I tap Alissa in the shoulder and kiss her cheek, that cloak is something special, such cuteness needs to be rewarded.
The merchant stores are not something I had paid much attention to but now I'm starting to enjoy them. Most are a bit cramped and with their odd architecture it seems every single one tries to appeal with charm. There are wind chimes that play sounds that resemble the chirp of birds. Perfumes filling the store with a pleasant scent seem to be common among women's stores, the glands of monsters help a lot in creating perfumes. Every shop related to food seems to have a specialty, they probably hire a specialized hunter to catch a specific monster. The Smirk has so many different dungeons with so many different monsters that I didn't even read about them all, I had just chosen the closest one because it fit what we wanted.
On a store I found a set of not-chess called Noblesse Oblige, one side has humans and the other has goblins and orcs. Instead of king and queen it's lord and lady, the bishop is warrior-priest, the tower is a mage, the pawn is soldier, the horse is a knight. Mage and knight have inverted move types and some other rule changes. There's a more advanced version that's humanoids versus humanoids, it uses more mages and weird, complex rules, it's called Civil War. I bought it and a set of not-backgammon.
Alissa explained to me about the Lord and Lady titles. The title Lord is a little weird, it's given to any noble that holds land and it can be given to a man or woman. Lady is given to the wife of the noble regardless whether she fights alongside the noble or not. The title Gentleman is the Lady counterpart that's used only for when the man does not fight but even so it's rarely used aside for addressing amorphous groups of people. Even though this society does not put women down there are still some weird things in regard to gender differences.
Before we go home I sneak out and make a reservation on the restaurant for the 19th. They certainly know where I went since the party radar is still working but hopefully they didn't pay much attention. I told them to wait for a surprise for the 19th.
When we get home Lina tries to help with the kitchen but Alissa and Ciel get her out, seeing her dejected I give her a random book we have and her eyes sparkle. She can use our small library anytime but she seems reluctant, she must not have had much free time and is too used to having a lot of work to do.
I'm actually quite content today so I reward Alissa and receive my love marks on my back.