A Strange Encounter

Having shaken off the oddly heavy atmosphere, we left ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the man with something nice, bickered lightly over lunch, and set off at a leisurely pace toward Hamel.

“By the way, have you ever read any dirty novels? Don’t girls get curious about that kind of thing?”

Thinking back on the whole mess with “thrust” and “pierce”—the very words that had caused the misunderstanding—I realized Selena never used any of the usual dirty slang at all. That was what prompted the question.

If she’d just read a single erotic story, she never would have made that mistake.

Selena, who had been happily swinging our laced fingers back and forth, flushed and answered,

“I-I would never! There’s no way I’ve seen anything that describes tongues tangling together or people licking each other’s… private parts!”

Oh, she’d seen it, all right.

The way she denied it while describing the contents in such detail only convinced me she’d definitely read some. I tilted my head and pressed further.

“So there weren’t any lines like ‘he roughly thrust into her pussy’ or ‘he pierced straight into her cunt’? No dialogue like ‘thrust deeper’ or ‘pierce all the way to my womb’ either?”

“I-I told you I’ve never seen any of that!”

She snapped at the question about whether those particular misleading words had appeared, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then a moment later her voice shrank to a mumble.

“There… wasn’t anything like that… Just stuff like… ‘something hard entered her womanhood,’ or ‘every time he moved, her mind went blank,’ or ‘warmth filled her belly’…”

“That’s it?”

The completely unstimulating examples left me a little thrown. When I asked again, Selena hurriedly blurted,

“I-I only read one volume! Really! My roommate at the academy borrowed the wrong book and I just… accidentally read a little of it!”

Hmm… Is that just how female-oriented stuff is? Or is that how erotic novels work in this world? Either way, I should buy a few volumes and check.

While I was thinking I ought to stop by a bookstore once we reached Hamel, Selena spoke in a plaintive voice.

“It’s true… I’m not some lewd girl who enjoys dirty things, Master…”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I wasn’t thinking of her that way just because of this.

“I don’t think that at all. By that standard, what does that make me? I’ve seen enough porn to fill a whole room and then some.”

Selena had looked relieved at the first half of my answer, but the second half made her quietly avert her eyes.

“N-no matter how lewd Master is, no matter how much of a p-pervert you are… I-I’m fine with it.”

Hey.

I’d only been trying to reassure her, and now I was suddenly the pervert. I stared at her in pure disbelief.

Sensing my gaze, Selena hastily changed the subject.

“A-anyway, after we visit the temple in Hamel, where are we going next?”

I gave her an unimpressed look for a moment as she asked with an awkward smile, then sighed.

“Haa… Beats me. I hadn’t thought past grilling Kylie and getting some answers…”

From my job class all the way through the status window and the mechanics of Slave Summon—there was a mountain of things I needed to discuss with Kylie. Beyond that, I hadn’t planned a thing. I turned the question back on her.

“Is there anything you want to do?”

“Eh? Me? Hmm…”

She pondered for a moment, then smiled.

“Anywhere is fine as long as I’m with Master… but I’d still like to visit Saint Kylie at least once. They call it the heart of the Rieu Continent.”

Days had already passed since her summoning, yet she still refused to believe this was the Kalla Continent and not the Rieu Continent—and of course she still didn’t believe I’d taken the special express ticket to another world. I told her again,

“Selena… like I said last time, this is the Kalla Continent.”

When I reminded her of the truth once more, she spoke as if she’d just remembered something she’d forgotten.

“Ah, right. That was the setting, wasn’t it. Anyway. How long are we keeping that setting going?”

It is not a setting…

If only to force the reality of the Kalla Continent into her head, I needed to get to the temple and meet Kylie as soon as possible. I vaguely brushed the conversation aside and continued walking along the road, making idle small talk with Selena, who wore an expression that said she understood everything perfectly.

We walked at that unhurried pace for quite a while.

“So look—focus, okay? Focus. You have to draw only the mana that forms the spell. Take this ice spear, for example. To make it, you pull water and wind from all the mana around you. If you also pull fire, which conflicts with water? The spell just fails… Ah?”

Selena had been explaining the basic theory of magic to me after I’d said I wanted to learn. Mid-sentence she suddenly stopped both talking and walking.

I made a stupid noise of my own and stopped as well.

“What… is this?”

A broad ribbon of water blocked our path. A river so wide it made the one where Selena and I had washed ourselves look like a trickle stood between us and the city ringed by its walls.

“What the hell…”

At a glance the river looked easily twice as wide as the Han River. I stared blankly at the ferry landing on the far side and the boats moored there until Selena asked,

“What are we going to do, Master? The sun’s about to set.”

Just as she said, the sun that had been high overhead had already sunk close to the horizon, and the world around us was painted in the colors of dusk.

“C-can’t we just fly across with some kind of flight magic?”

I pinned my hopes on Selena and her S-rank elemental magic, but the answer that came back was not encouraging.

“Well… I’ve never flown that kind of distance while carrying someone. And I’m not really used to anything that isn’t combat magic. Still, want me to try? If I fail we’ll just drop right into the middle of the river.”

I had no desire to gamble my life on something so uncertain. I shook my head.

“No… Haa… Guess we’re camping out after all…”

I muttered with a sigh, wanting to avoid sleeping outdoors if at all possible. Selena grumbled,

“This is all because Master said we didn’t need a map.”

Yesterday’s me had believed the advice that we only needed to keep heading east and had decided a map was unnecessary. She was right, so I apologized without argument.

“Sorry. I should have listened to you. Haa…”

When I let out a long sigh after apologizing, Selena grinned.

“Hehe. It’s fine. It’s not like I’ve never camped on a battlefield before. I’ll go hunt something before it gets any darker. The weather’s not cold, but it gets pretty chilly toward dawn, so we should eat something solid.”

As if the grumbling had never happened, she smiled brightly, set our packs down in a clearing that already showed signs of many previous travelers, and disappeared into the woods.

“Haa… No wonder everyone was leaving so early in the morning. They were trying to reach the ferry before the boats stopped running… And we just strolled along without a clue…”

I also remembered the carriages I’d seen several times along the road—probably stagecoaches running between the ferry landing and Brill. Berating myself for not checking more carefully, I unrolled the sleeping bag.

I smoothed out the trampled ground, then tore up grass and spread it over the newly leveled earth.

“Well… it probably won’t help much, but it’s better than nothing.”

Hoping for a little cushioning, I laid the grass thickly and then spread the spacious sleeping bag on top—the one Sara had said could fit two grown men with room to spare.

I weighted the four corners with stones so the wind wouldn’t carry it off, then hung the pot over a spot that still showed the remains of an old campfire.

“Whew…”

Having finished everything I could do, I sat on the sleeping bag to test the grass padding underneath.

Yeah… this much is… good that I laid it down.

I was just feeling satisfied that it was definitely less hard on the back than bare ground when someone approached.

“Oh. Didn’t expect anyone else to be here. You mis-timed it like us, huh?”

Who the hell taught this guy that talking down to a complete stranger on first meeting is good manners?

I had been enjoying the decent softness when that rude voice ruined my mood. I looked toward the source.

After checking the status windows of two slightly older but thoroughly jobless freeloaders, I started to get annoyed—then remembered that I myself was the infamous FFF-rank.

Jobless or not, the base stats I couldn’t even view might still be higher than mine… there were two of them… I was alone… and I seriously doubted the law would protect me out here…

Realizing that if things went south I couldn’t handle both of them by myself, I swallowed the rising irritation and answered,

“Yeah.”

The bigger freeloader grinned at my reply and came closer.

“Got any food? Ah, move over a bit. Let me sit.”

He shoved me right off the sleeping bag and demanded food without so much as a by-your-leave. The urge to change his job to Slave and ship him straight to Aojir rose like smoke.

Haa… If only my Slave Merchant rank weren’t F, I’d… Hoo… Count yourself lucky.

I rationalized that I was only holding back because of my low Slave Merchant rank, stood up, and held out the bag of rock-hard jerky, silently praying Selena would hurry back and deal with these two freeloaders.

When Selena cleans these bastards up, I shouldn’t be in the way, right? Better keep a little distance.

I was still looking for a position that wouldn’t interfere ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with her when a piece of jerky came flying at me.

“Hey, you little shit. You call this food?”

The jerky that hit me still had spit on it from where he’d tried to bite it. I was just registering how thoroughly foul it felt to get food thrown in my face when—

“Master, I’m back… Huh?”

Slave Number One, my strongest slave, Selena, had arrived.