The Journey Begins

Once we had finished washing, Selena dried us off with her magic, and we headed back into the watermill.

Getting dressed, I caught sight of her rags and briefly wondered whether washing had even been worth it — but she had looked so happy scrubbing herself clean that I decided it counted for something.

Still, finding her something better to wear was becoming urgent.

Sure, tattered rags were the classic look for a broken-down slave, but draping them back over her after all that felt like it cut her charm clean in half. I didn't want to leave her like that.

The problem was where to get clothes in the first place…

"Master. Shall we head out?"

Selena spoke up just as I was fretting over how to procure an outfit.

"Ah. Yeah, let's go."

"An adventure. A journey. I can't even remember the last time… But Master, what are you going to do about food?"

Oh. Right.

Her words made hunger hit me all at once. Clothes for Selena were a problem, but food was the more immediate crisis.

"Obviously Master's going to feed and keep me, right?"

She said it with a smile, but she didn't look like she expected much.

Once again I felt my dignity as a master take a hit, but sadly, as an FFF-rank nobody, I still had no way of reclaiming it.

"What? Master, you can't even feed a single slave?"

"There's got to be some edible fruit or something nearby…"

"Ahahaha!"

Hearing my thoroughly unconfident answer, Selena burst out laughing, grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the watermill.

"You could just order me to do it. Why sound so unsure? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Come on — try it. Tell me to go get us something to eat."

"Uh… Go get us something to eat."

I gave the order half in a daze.

"Hehe. Got it! Master. I'll be right back."

With that, she skipped lightly into the forest — and before long she came back carrying two rabbits, each with a spike of ice run clean through its body.

"I'm not great at cooking, so don't complain too much."

Saying so, she shaped an ice knife and set about butchering the rabbits.

She must have bled them beforehand; not much blood came out. Still, watching something I had only ever seen in documentaries — most of them heavily pixelated — play out in real life, I…

Huh? Why am I fine with this? Because the rabbits are small? It's not like there's no blood at all… Am I secretly more hardcore than I thought?

I, who had always avoided gore even in harem slave stories, frowned at the strange sense of dissonance.

While I stood there tilting my head, Selena never stopped working the meat off the bone.

She lacked the fine control for clean work — the skinning and deboning were messy, and a fair bit of meat went to waste — but she still managed enough for a light meal.

Once she had the rabbit meat gathered, she skewered it on wooden sticks like kebabs and began roasting it over a fire she conjured with magic.

I had no idea why the sight didn't bother me, but all I could think was that the charred flavor was going to be killer…

While I was having thoughts like that, Selena's voice reached my ears.

"It's ready, Master."

She held out a rabbit skewer.

"Oh. Thanks."

I reached for it — and she pulled the skewer back.

"No. Not 'thanks.' 'Good job.'"

…

"Good job."

"That's right. Hehe. Here, Master."

Is this how it's supposed to go…? I feel like I'm the one being trained. A master being trained by his slave…

Thinking that, I took the skewer she offered and brought it to my mouth.

Hmm…

Rabbit meat, which I was trying for the first time, was a hard flavor to pin down. Meat roasted plain with nothing on it was never going to taste amazing to begin with, but this had a strange quality beyond that. Still, it was edible enough.

Selena watched me eat out of the corner of her eye, then started on her own skewer.

"Did it… taste okay?"

Once I finished, she asked with a tense look on her face.

"First time eating rabbit, so I'm not sure. I think it was fine."

"I'm glad…"

Her expression eased at my answer.

We polished off the skewers in no time and set out along the road.

Neither of us knew where the temple — our final destination — actually was, so we had no choice but to follow the path leading away from the village I had fled the day before and simply keep walking.

Well, a temple was basically like a church or a cathedral or a shrine. Whichever direction we went, we'd probably run into one eventually. I wasn't too worried about that.

What did worry me was gathering the supplies we'd need to get there.

Bedding for the nights we might have to camp out, spare clothes, cooking gear — for a journey of unknown length, the list of necessities was long.

I had no idea where we might find any of it, and even if we reached a place that sold such things, we were completely broke. Whether we could actually obtain them was another question entirely.

Would they even take barter…?

The thought crossed my mind that we could hunt along the way, the way we had with those rabbits, and trade the game — but without a pack to carry anything, hauling kills all the way to some unknown destination was impossible.

Selena, apparently oblivious to my fretting, walked along with a bright expression.

"You look happy."

"Of course I am! You know that saying? After you nearly die, the world looks beautiful. I always thought it was just something people said, but it's real. Before, if anyone told me to walk more than three steps I'd have thrown a fit and demanded a horse. Now I love it. Looking at the trees in the forest, hearing birdsong every so often — it's all wonderful."

Watching her answer with that sunny smile lifted my own mood.

But how had she gotten mixed up in a rebellion, anyway?

Curious how she had ended up involved in treason and sentenced to death, I asked her.

"So how did you end up in the rebellion?"

"You don't know about Count Mille's revolt? Ah — right, the whole amnesia setup. Hmm… I got pulled in simply because Father was the one leading it. It was natural I'd be tangled up in it."

To my surprise, Selena was a count's daughter — a high noble's young lady. When my eyes went wide, she gave a little snort of laughter.

"Master's good at playing shocked. Well, for all that, right now I'm just a slave branded by her master."

Mentioning the brand, she flushed slightly and stroked her lower belly, then suddenly linked her arm through mine.

"So Master shouldn't be thinking about anything else. Just focus on how to handle your slave properly."

The sudden soft, springy press of her chest against my arm threw me completely off balance.

"Uh, uh. Yeah."

"Master's so cute. We did everything yesterday, so why get nervous over something like this? Hehe."

Finding my fluster amusing, Selena grinned and hugged my arm even tighter. Her chest rubbed against me all the more firmly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

She wasn't wrong, but for someone who had only ever seen this kind of thing in games and novels, it was still far from familiar.

"Uh. No. I'm fine. I wasn't nervous."

"Really? Then let's walk like this all the way to the village. I wonder how long it'll take~"

When I tried to play it cool, she only upped the pressure.

"Uh… Isn't this hard to walk in?"

"It's fine~"

My feeble resistance was crushed, and I had no choice but to walk plastered against Selena. My heart started overheating.

At this rate it was going to give out, so I desperately needed a way to break free of the situation — or for a village to appear right this second.

But a long stretch of road later, no village was in sight, and no decent method of peeling Selena off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me came to mind.

Am I going to die of a ruptured heart like this…? Selena, you're not trying to kill me and take back your freedom, are you…?

I was entertaining that completely baseless thought, half-convinced my heart really was about to burst, when a man burst out of the roadside forest.

Caught off guard, we stopped short. Selena shaped a spear of ice and stepped in front of me.

The man who had come out of the trees jumped at the mass of ice pointed his way, threw both hands high, and shouted.

"I'm not a bad person! I'm just an herb gatherer! Please spare me!"

Bad people rarely announce that they're bad, true — but the man in front of us really wasn't one.

Because the Status Window told me so.

Most of it was locked, but the job line clearly read Herb Gatherer.

"Selena. I think he's fine."

"If Master says so…"

At my word, Selena sent the ice spear she had been holding on Charles flying ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the forest instead. It buried itself in a tree.

"Watch yourself. If you get any funny ideas, I'll make you look just like that tree."

Charles glanced at the spear stuck in the trunk and swallowed hard.

"N-no, sir. Funny ideas? Absolutely, absolutely not. I would never."

"It's all right. You don't need to be so tense. We know you're a decent man."

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

I drew the still-wary Selena back toward me and tried to calm Charles down.

"Th-that's right! I am decent!"

Despite my efforts, Charles didn't settle easily. Still, compared to when the ice spear had been aimed at him, he was much better, and we could hold a proper conversation.

"Of course. You're a good man. By the way — how much farther this way until we reach a village?"

"Th-that direction… about half a day's walk and you'll hit a village."

The thought of another half day stuck to Selena made my head throb. Selena, on the other hand, had already forgotten her wariness of Charles and was smirking at me. Seeing that, I racked my brain and spoke to him.

"Would you, by any chance, be able to guide us to that village?"

If someone else was with us, she wouldn't be able to cling like this.

Charles, of course, had no idea what I was thinking, and looked at me strangely.

"Uh… There's nothing really to guide. You just keep going straight on this road. There aren't even any forks…"

At this rate my plan was going to fall apart, so I cut in quickly.

"No, you never know. And there are a few things I'd like to ask along the way."

"Well… if there's something you want to ask, it might be better to ask now… I still have herbs left to dig…"

"We're from out of town and don't know the area well. We'll make it worth your while — please come with us."

I piled on every reason I could think of, determined to get Charles to travel with us.

Watching me, Selena's face soured in an instant. But I had to protect my heart. There was no helping it.

Doing my best to ignore her scorching glare, I kept at the persuasion until Charles finally agreed to accompany us. Selena's expression darkened.

Seeing her like that left me feeling guilty, so I quietly reached out and took her hand.

"Master!"

She lit up at the touch, then shifted her fingers to lace them through mine.

Hmm… this has its own problems…

The soft, fidgeting, faintly sensual feel of Selena's hand playing with mine put another overload on my heart — but I was the one who had reached for her, so there was nothing I could do. I could only fight to calm my racing pulse as I followed after Charles.