The Road to Hamel
The day after I confirmed just why people say a single syllable can change everything.
After listening to the whole explanation, Selena had grumbled that it was all my fault even as she wiped me down, pouted while falling asleep in my arms, and still managed a thorough morning blowjob despite her sulky expression. The two of us set out for Hamel.
Well. She was probably just embarrassed about the misunderstanding that had brought her to tears.
Even long after we started walking, Selena was still pretending to sulk to hide her shame, and she blamed me once again.
“This is all Master’s fault.”
As a master generous enough to indulge any cute little complaint from his slave, I…
Wait a second. Thinking about it carefully, shouldn’t I be the one feeling wronged here? This kind, accommodating master who puts up with every single one of his slave’s tantrums had been mistaken for the sort of bastard who kills people over something that trivial? Hey, that actually hurts!
As a master who knew how to push back against unfair treatment, I put on a dignified expression and turned to look at Selena, who was following a full step behind with her arms crossed.
“Thinking about it carefully, when you said you thought I was going to kill you, that means you saw me as some vicious bastard who casually murders people over something that small, doesn’t it?”
The moment I turned around, Selena had whipped her head away in a show of pouting, but my question left her sputtering.
“Eh…?”
Then she frantically shook her head and cried out,
“N-no! I-I never thought that at all! I’ve never once thought of Master as that kind of cruel master!”
She even uncrossed her arms—which had only been emphasizing her already prominent chest—and waved her hands in denial. I pressed her further.
“Then why did you take ‘I’m going to poke your belly’ that way?”
“Th-that’s…! …I-I just didn’t know the word could be used like that… I thought you meant poking like with a spear or a skewer… I-it’s true. That’s why I thought that. I never, ever thought Master was one of those vicious masters you only hear about in rumors. Please believe me…”
Yeah. That made sense. Until recently Selena had been on the battlefield. Surrounded by blood and death, it was more than understandable.
Watching her plead in that desperate voice, eyes darting around nervously, my sense of grievance melted away like spring snow. I nodded.
“Alright. I believe you.”
I finished speaking and started walking again. Selena quickly drew up beside me and kept stealing glances.
Hmm… I’d only been a little hurt; I hadn’t actually been angry…
Seeing the sulky act vanish completely, replaced by a timid, restless fidgeting, I felt a twinge of guilt and casually held out one hand.
“!!!”
The instant I offered it, Selena’s eyes flew wide and she latched onto my arm with both hands.
No, I meant for her to hold my hand, not link arms… Aah… that soft, springy flesh pressing against my arm… Hup! No, get a grip! If it gets hard here—!
These past few days of nearly constant hand-holding on the road had made interlaced fingers familiar, but arm-linking still delivered a far more erotic jolt than my resistance could handle. While I was desperately trying to calm the something that wanted to react, Selena rested her head against my arm and spoke.
“I’m sorry for making Master angry. I never imagined my hasty judgment would upset you. If I’d just thought a little more calmly, I would’ve realized the Master who’s been so good to me would never suddenly kill me…”
Yeah, well. She also seemed completely oblivious that her hasty arm-link was making a certain something of mine angry…
Someone might argue that after having sex and getting a morning blowjob every day I shouldn’t still react to something like this, but this was this and that was that.
Having zero desire to walk a long distance with a hard-on, I carefully extracted the arm Selena was clinging to while she was still confessing.
Deprived of the arm she’d been holding, she looked up at me with the eyes of an abandoned puppy and hung her head.
“I-I was too shameless, wasn’t I? W-well, of course anger that deep wouldn’t fade so easily… You only moved your hand a little and I got the wrong idea… I-I’m sorry… I’ll just follow quietly.”
As she shortened her stride and started falling behind, I hurriedly caught her hand.
“N-no. I’m not angry. I-it’s hot. Yeah, it’s just hot, so don’t worry about it.”
I couldn’t exactly say I’d pulled my arm free because my cock was about to get hard, so I offered a ridiculous excuse—though heat had risen, so it wasn’t entirely a lie. Selena looked up at me with wavering eyes.
“Really? You’re really not angry anymore?”
“I was just a little hurt. I was never angry.”
I told the truth, but Selena didn’t believe me.
“For someone who wasn’t angry, Master’s expression earlier looked… just like Father’s…”
Hmm… Having never once in my life tried to put on a “dignified” face, maybe it had come out looking far too fierce…
“I was just trying to look a little hurt and it came out that way. I really wasn’t angry, so don’t worry.”
“Ah… thank goodness.”
Realizing the expression I’d put on just to make her flinch a little had created a far more menacing atmosphere than intended, I explained again. Watching Selena smile in relief, I suddenly felt something was off.
Wait. If she sensed a father-like atmosphere, shouldn’t she feel security… or longing… or something? In my case I’d been separated so long ago that the memories were hazy and I was fine now, but she’d only just recently been living with him—probably until the execution. Yet her first reaction was fear?
While trying to resolve that odd feeling, I realized I’d been overlooking something extremely important all this time.
Hold on. When you use Slave Summon, you get separated from your family, right? I didn’t have any family left to begin with, and Selena’s had probably all been executed for treason, but there was no guarantee the slaves I summon from now on would be the same.
Someone might ask why a guy planning to build a harem out of slaves would care about something like that, but having seen countless times how painful it is to be torn from family against your will, I couldn’t just ignore it.
And I didn’t want the slaves who would literally be with me for the rest of our lives to feel that kind of grief because of me, either.
Should I start adding “orphan” as a condition from now on? Or is there already some kind of measure in place? Sigh… there’s still so much I don’t know about this power. I need to get to a temple and meet Kaila soon.
With a new reason to make sure I met Kaila, I carefully asked Selena, who was fidgeting her soft hand inside mine.
“By the way… you don’t miss them or anything?”
She wriggled her fingers until our hands were fully interlaced, then tilted her head.
“Hmm? Miss what?”
“Well… you know… family?”
My sudden question must have seemed strange; she tilted her head again, shrugged, and answered.
“Hmm… I’m not sure. My mother died when I was very little—before I even have memories—so there’s nothing to miss there… And Father, who only ever pushed me to cast magic faster and stronger… I was always scared to meet him, so… I don’t really know if I miss him… But if I were separated from Master, I think I’d miss you terribly. Why the sudden question?”
Hearing that she wasn’t feeling any longing brought a small sense of relief, yet I still felt a flash of anger toward that nameless man who had raised his child as nothing more than a tool. I gave a slight shake of my head.
“No reason. You just said my expression looked like your father’s. Anyway, I’m getting a little hungry—want to stop over there for lunch?”
I threw out a rough change of subject. Selena glanced up at the sun.
“Already? Isn’t it a bit early? It doesn’t even look like noon yet.”
She was right that it was a little early, but I figured doing something completely different for a while would help shift the mood better than just keeping walking. Spotting a clearing at just the right moment, I pointed to it.
“We can just pretend we’re eating a little early. What’s the harm? There’s a clearing right there—better to sit somewhere comfortable and eat before we go.”
“Well… if Master says so… Then just wait a moment. I’ll have it ready quickly.”
Answering me, she headed into the clearing and began preparing lunch.
After gathering nearby fallen branches, lighting them with magic, and hanging a well-used pot over the fire, Selena pulled out the sack still stuffed full of jerky bought in Coen Village and started grumbling.
“Even on the battlefield we never ate jerky this bad. That guy was a swindler, I’m telling you. There’s no way he’d sell something like this to eat otherwise.”
She pulled out a few pieces of jerky so tough you had to suck on them forever just to chew, still complaining, then spun around to face me.
“So we should throw away that suspicious liquid too. I’m sure it’s terrible for Master’s body. Just look at this jerky. It’s obvious, right? I’m only saying this because I care about Master. So… please?”
I looked at Selena, who had been nagging me for days to throw away the “suspicious liquid”—the highly concentrated black raspberry extract Carter had specially sold me—and let out a snort of laughter.
“The only reason I could come that many times yesterday is thanks to this stuff.”
Of course it was really just my S-rank stamina, but Selena had no way of knowing that. Her face flushed bright red and she shouted,
“Right now! Throw it away right now! That stuff is weird! It’s clearly forcing Master’s body beyond its limits! Throw it away!”