Chapter 138

Volume 2

Chapter 117

Chapter 117 – The Hero, Signs the Contract 2

It was an hour or two after noon.

We were in a huge eating place filled with people that were eating after selling their wares during the morning.

「So, I wonder if we can get them to talk to us or something?」

We sat at the edge of a restaurant’s long table.

We were stuck in a group of other tables arranged all around us.

Minnalis and Shuria stood behind me making sure to look like they were my slaves.

We had already talked it over, so they had the look on their faces like “We’re definitely being held against our will!”

It was a strange feeling having them like this. Minnalis was wearing a sexy maid outfit, and Shuria was wearing a mini-skirt kimono.

「Ah…I’m getting hungry, let’s get this show going.」

I took out an old book that I had bought, and broke open the cover’s binding.

「Wha?」「What the hell?」「What’s he doing?」

Below the leather binding was a parchment with a silk-like warmth.

The white sheet was Richmond’s contract.

However, in the midst of all the surprised voices, the only one that emphasized that something was wrong with her face was Leone.

「I only ask you to do three things: Get me information, don’t do anything to mess up our operation, and pretty much not to do anything that would cancel this contract.」

「…get information?」

「Yeah, not to lie to any question, and answer everything. In exchange for that we’ll erase Minnalis’ slave mark, and let you do what you want.」

「Not only that, but since you said we shouldn’t do anything to mess with this operation, that means that you need to add not trying to mess with us girls as well.」

「Hmph, well, sure.」

She really is like a businesswoman in that regard…no point missed.

Disregarding about all that talk about messing around, even if I decided to mess around with her, there’s no way she could resist me.

「Got it, then I won’t do anything to cause any problems with any of you, okay? Is that accepted?」

She asked to make sure that I was being honest.

「Are you really okay with that condition?」

Leone looked at me with a strong gaze of caution.

Honestly, as long as we all accepted the condition of not messing with the operation it was fine. And as long as I followed her condition, it wouldn’t matter even if they tried adding on to it.

Even so, any action that would mess with our operation could be hidden by us anyway.

Well, it was still possible that there might be extra conditions made if I accepted this condition.

「Yeah.」

So I answered, and wrote the condition on the contract.

「Now, all of you need to write your names down here.」

「…please first allow me to confirm the words of the contract.」

Not retreating an inch from her careful sense of caution, Leone looked over the contract.

After that other members had looked over it as well in succession, they wrote their names.

And I wrote my name to formalize the five names written on the contract.

「Okay, the contract is complete.」

I then tore the contract vertically and the contract burned with a white fire from bottom to top.

Then the white sparks of fire spread and then were sucked into the people that had signed the contract.

「「「「「!!」」」」」

In that second, I heard a voice reverberate in my head.

「Take off Minallis’ choker, now! Without delay!」

「Geez, you don’t have to order me. I’ll do it.」

As I was trying to think about other things, the sound of the order kept echoing in my head.

「Minnalis, give me your neck.」

「Oh? Oh, sure, master.」

She lifted her hair and Minnalis exposed her neck.

Putting magic into the master seal on the back of my hand, a dark blue light erupted from it and arched over to Minnalis’ neck.

Almost like a tug-of-war, my master seal and Minnalis’ slave seal crackled and spat like water hitting a hot plate, and smoke rose.

The slave seal on Minnalis’ neck then disappeared without a trace.

The orders repeating over and over in my head disappeared.

「Okay then, now all the boring conversation is over. Let’s eat. Here, you two sit down.」

「Okay. I really want to eat meat!」 Shuria said.

「Ah, somehow, it does make me feel a bit lonely, master. I didn’t really feel it’s importance until now…」

「「「「What are you talking about?!」」」」

Minnalis and Shuria tiredly slumped into the seat.

Leone couldn’t hide her surprise at the sudden change in our composure.

Yeah, yeah, I like that look on her.

「Uh, mister, would you like three of our daily specials, our meat meal? I mean, would you like that master?」

「Huh? Yeah, I guess.」

I felt more like having fish than meat, but it wasn’t something I was going to demand.

However, with that answer Minnalis’ rabbit ears sprung up.

「Sigh, master, why are you going to make a meaningless lie like that? Hold off on one of those meat dishes and get him a fish plate instead.」

「It’s easy to tell you’re lying, Kaito-sama.」

「Hey, why the disrespect all the sudden?」

Now that the conversation returned to normal, Leone responded to it all, almost as if she had rebooted.

「Ah, um…Minnalis?」

「Yeah, sorry about that. I haven’t introduced everyone here. Nice to see you again, Leone. Dan, Zank, Shupene. Glad to see you seem healthy.」

Minnalis smiled at her own refined behavior.

「Eh, wha? Wait. Minnalis, I thought you were brought here against your will as a slave…」

「Sorry for fooling you with that, but, it was necessary for me to do.」

Minnalis bowed apologetically.

「…n? So you’re a slave of love to this GUY, Minnalis?」

「Heh! Hee hee…」

「Wha? Slave of love? Don’t make fun of me like that.」

「Heh, heh heh, slave of love…that’s a very attractive nickname.」

And, the food we ordered just arrived.

The whole situation was a bit of a turn off, so I went to work on my lunch.

「Ah, I see. To think that one day Minnalis would fool ME like this…」

「Yes…I never knew that I’d make a Ménage à trois either.」

Hey, you all need to stop, I attempted to indicate by feigning ignorance of everything being said.

In times like this, it’s really hard to be a protagonist that has to pretend being that he’s deaf and slow.

「N…no, what am I, some kind of clown?!」

「Yeah, sorry for fooling you. I’ll pay for your food so don’t freak out.」

「Ah, dang, well, MISTER WAITER! GET ME THE MOST EXPENSIVE MEAL, FOUR OF THEM!」

Leone cried out desperately.

「Aaaahhhh! This is too much! To have to wait on two beautiful women too, and, with those maid and mini-kimono uniforms, I thought you were just some NEET pervert that owned them!」

「Wow, that’s saying a lot…」

「Shut up! Do you have anything to say for yourselves? If anyone looks at you they’re going to think that!」

「Ugh…」

I got pissed at what was being said, but everyone around was staring at me.

Damn, this conversation’s getting lost in the weeds.

That’s why I didn’t want to talk about this in the first place.

「And what information do you want? You have to want something!」

「Yeah, well first…please show me to the nicest bed in the town.」

「Wha?」

「Ah…well well.」

「I…I…am a man, after all.」

「Nonono…saying something like that will make ME blush, master.」

Something leaked out of Leone’s mouth as she attempted to speak, but she was at a loss.

But, as she stood, her face got red and she screamed.

「W, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?! Y, YOU PERVERT!! HORRIBLE! YOU REALLY ONLY WANT SEX, RIGHT?!」

「What are you whining about you depressed perv? You’re the one who’s a pervert. And stop spitting all over the place…disgusting.」

Leone’s head jutted out after her red-faced outburst.

Using her closer position, I spoke so that only Leone could hear me.

「I’ll tell you your ordered after we eat…I haven’t told you about Japan, right?」

「!!」

Leone had nothing to say in response, and I went back to eating my lunch.

☆

「…reincarnation? Well, that possibility, I’ve never thought about it.」

After we were done eating, Leone and I moved seats as she listened to my story.

I had thought a lot over but never knew I’d end up in this pattern.

After being reborn from Japan, I had memories of everything before time was reversed.

There was no doubt that he had experienced a time slip, she must have been caught in my tutorial mode.

If I was living in the second world I was in, then that meant that Leone was living in the third world.

(I thought only I remembered the old world, because I was resurrected?)

The thing that connected me to seemed only to be that.

「That’s right. So, how did you know I used to be Japanese?」

「Business secret. There’s no way I’m going to reveal that as an adventurer.」

「I guess not. So anyway, this goddess’ tutorial mode is…」

「Let me just check once before we continue, you’re not someone’s spy, right?」

「Whatever, Leone. I’ll say it again, no one’s going to be a peddler AND a spy.」

「I have to make sure.」

I simply shrugged my shoulders.

「Anyhow, the first world was set upon by a demon lord, and even now is searching for me by Aurelia’s princess. No point in my being worried about safety, right?」

「Yeah, maybe, but…Then, is the purpose of your journey to find a way back?」

「Well, yeah, I guess.」

Of course, that wasn’t my purpose, but there was no reason to tell her some other one that would agitate her.

Minnalis was somehow happy to see Leone again, so there was no reason to put her on guard.

And, thinking from her view, she was wondering what would happen next.

「Do you want to go back? To the old world.」

「No. In this world I’m Leone. The Japanese me is dead, so there’s no way back. My place is here.」

It’s certain that she thought a lot about the old world and had made that decision.

She had said so without any confusion.

「…I see.」

Well, I guess that conversation is done.

It was time for us to visit that place in Minnalis’ village, I thought.

「Hey, if we don’t hurry, the lodging places will fill up!」

Dan said in a tired voice after looking over at us several times.

As I looked outside after hearing that, I saw that the evening was quickly approaching.

It’s true that if we didn’t start looking for a place to stay, we’d have to probably make camp outside or something pitiful like that.

「Minnalis, Shuria, go get us some lodging around here. It’s no fun coming to a town and then having to camp outside it.」

I’d ask about Minnalis’ town tomorrow.

And after that, it would be necessary to get information about where Aurelia’s princess was moving.

After I died, the place I want to be farthest away from in my future is that empire.

My knowledge was slowly losing awareness of that fact.

Even though there were several reports here and there, at least it would reinforce my hate for her.

That trash princess wouldn’t just leave me alone.

「Yes master.」

「Okay….」

They both stood up and I did as well.

「We’ll leave now, but have you decided where to stay? I’d like to talk to you again tomorrow.」

「We’re staying at the 『Cat’s Forest Lodge』. We can’t meet tomorrow. Because we have to get rid of some of this load, we don’t have time to talk.」

「I see, you all really are sellers and not adventurers.」

「Let’s meet here four days from now. We’ll give you the price for our info.」

「For money?!」

「Of course. We won’t just give information for free as traders! Even if the contract says “No lies” we still have to get money for our info.」

…yeah, they’re right.

「Well, as long as you get us some good info.」

I said and left while paying their bill as I said.

「So Minnalis isn’t your slave right? So she doesn’t have to call you master, right?」

「No, even without the slave mark, I’m still her master.」

「Well, but…」

「I’m her master.」

「…」

I see, she’s not happy with that.

「Well, we will be in this place for a while, so if you have something for us, contact the head maid at the 『Cat’s Forest Lodge』.」

They said right before leaving the place.

「Well, see you.」

No, even so, it was a good exchange.

Even now I wondered how our conversations would progress.

I was happy that I had taken care of one problem, and so I left the restaurant after Minnalis and Shuria.

☆

Kaito Ukei

『The foulest traitor of all – the former adventurer Kaito Ukei』

The real guy behind all this talk about him being some crazy criminal showed that he wasn’t anything to scream about after all.

I thought he was a low-life after seeing Minnalis and that other Shuria under his control, but it was all acting.

It was stupid, well, I mean that guy gets carried away too easily.

When I was a student in the former world, there was a guy that got charged stupid stuff in class.

At least I thought that I could talk to him and not see him as someone that I had to be really hostile to.

「Do you want to go back? To the old world.」

「No. In this world I’m Leone. The Japanese me is dead, so there’s no way back. My place is here.」

The old world, back to Japan.

It’s not that I never thought about it. But even with the chance, I wouldn’t choose to.

Just as I said, Japan was dead, and now I was Leone.

I see, he answered shortly, and he left money for Dan and then left.

It seems he has a good relationship with Minnalis too so we talked and then he left.

She was sold as a slave, her kind mother died, so it wouldn’t be strange if things went bad that she ended up dead.

I was really happy.

「Well, we will be in this place for a while, so if you have something for us, contact the head maid at the 『Cat’s Forest Lodge』.」

After saying that, he waved goodbye with his hand, that Ukei.

(Really…happy.)

I thought it was great that Minnalis had found someone to go around with.

I know she must have had some horrible memories. She didn’t even ask about her mother either.

Even so, Minnalis was smiling.

Honestly, it still weighs on my mind that she’s running around with a guy being chased by the princess.

But, because she’s beside him, she looks like she’s enjoying her life.

(…skill operation – piercing eyes)

That’s why when he left the store, I used that to see him and check it.

The guy in charge of Minnalis.

She met a kind guy, and now she was happy.

Yeah, I had to make sure.

However, beside all of them, in the middle of all those three.

「…?! What, what is this?」

A dark, dark, dark, with only light from around, a dark flame that consumed everything.

Though it was only a skill that saw color, there was an evil, terrible light that seemed to be an illusion, but could consume everything.

It seemed to cover his whole body like an aura, a darkness like chains that seemed to consume the other two, stretching from Ukei.

I’ve never seen this color.

I don’t know this color.

「That, that…」

If this is some evil new color, it’s far too new of one for me.

The kind of feeling, that makes one smaller and lighter with time.

Humans aren’t made to have strong feelings like that.

Not just hard chains covering the girls, but something softer like tar sticking to them, strengthening the feeling.

「This is worse than being a slave…」

Something attached to the heart.

More like brainwashing.

That man has done that to them…and to himself…

「Leone? What is it?」

「I have to help them.」

I didn’t know how to respond to my questioning partners, so I just whispered those words quietly, and drank the rest of the cup in front of me.

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