Artisanal Bloodline
I stare at the woman in the eye-catching attire. Besides her clothes, her hair is also flashy red and quite long. I'm surprised her eyes are not. They are green. What an irony. If I had to guess, she looks like someone around 40-50 years old, but who knows in this world.
There is no doubt that she is the owner. Lucas and some other guy peek out from behind her. She glances all over me as if trying to get as much information from just looks as possible. She walks closer. The little girl quickly retreats to the corner of her cell.
"Ah! Where are my manners! My name is Selina Noint and I'm the owner of this business." She grabs the hem of her dress and makes a very light bow while nodding her head. "I stumbled on my employees having an issue, so I decided to help them resolve it, but looks like you've already dealt with it quite skillfully." She smiles knowingly.
I place the right hand over my heart and also bow lightly too. "Alastair Carter. I'm honoured to be able to meet the president personally, Madam Noint."
She chuckles. "Not only quick-witted but also courteous. Interesting. Very interesting."
I smile wryly at her compliments.
"Would you mind exchanging a few words with me in my office, Sir Carter?"
「Great…」
"No, of course not! I'd be happy to have that opportunity."
I glance over the cage and she notices it.
"Don't worry, Lucas will personally make sure that no one will intrude on your reservation during our talk. Isn't that right, sweetie?"
"Naturally!"
He steps into the front and bows to me. He is sweating a lot. Having your boss walk into you while you are in the middle of something you fucked up is the worst that can happen.
Leaving the two guys behind, she guides me back up. Every employee we pass instantly stands up and bows. Even those busy with customers. While walking, she moves with a dignified aura. I wonder if she is of noble birth. After a few minutes, we reach her private office and I'm invited inside.
It's not big. One small area with a table and two sofas, and another spot with a big wooden desk in front of a huge window, almost the size of the whole wall. Most of the wall space is covered with bookcases full of documents. Everything is in the usual fashion of dark wood and red details and other things. We sit on the sofas, on opposite sides.
"I must say, I'm really amazed by your shrewd attempt to drive that group away," she begins.
"I'm sorry for messing up with your customers, Madam," I try apologizing.
"Oh, no, no, no. Don't be. I was able to see something really interesting." She smiles mischievously. "Coming up with a fake subrace after noticing that they aren't very well versed in Dwarves was quite smart."
She leans to the front and joins her hands under her chin.
"You could have just lied all the way, but you balanced around the facts and falsehoods, making yourself very believable."
"They looked like adventurers. If I had straight up lied to them, it could possibly endanger them too much in the future," I say.
"And you even correctly advised them to look for a Gnome after, so it's not like I lost a patron." She squints her eyes. "Although, I'm really curious about what you said to that Dwarf to make her cooperate with you."
"Whatever could you mean, Madam. I just—"
"She was tortured for a month. Do you think anyone knowing this would believe that she became an obedient little girl with just a few mean words?"
She interrupts my sentence and keeps staring daggers at me. I just smile awkwardly and we sit in silence for a moment. She sighs and finally gives up.
"Well then. Did your weird hand movements have anything to do with her answers to the boy?" she asks.
「Dammit… She had to come specifically from that side and be very perceptive...」
I nod to answer her. She stares at me a bit more, but soon starts giggling and explodes into a burst of full lady-like laughter while covering her stomach.
"Ufufufufu! Brilliant! To come up with such a hustle on the spot! You truly are something!"
I look at her, bewildered by that reaction. I expected to get into a lot of trouble, but perhaps I'll be able to somehow avoid it. She slowly calms herself down and stands up.
"Ufufu. I really love people like you! They make the best business partners. Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything. You will get your merchandise."
She extends her arm my way. I rise and grab it before she changes her mind.
"I feel like this is the beginning of a great relationship! To commemorate it, I'll throw the best slavery mark we can offer for free!"
She pats my shoulder a few times still laughing, breaks off the handshake and moves to her desk. She brings back something that looks like a ruby credit card.
"This is a special VIP card. Just show it to any employee and they will comply with any request, knowing that I approve of it. Well, besides too high discounts of course! Today is special!" She shoves it into my hand and starts pushing me towards the door. "Now go pick up your prize. I have something to do! They will know about the mark."
I'm out of the office and the door closes behind me. A soundly 'ohohohoho' laugh can be heard from the inside. I stand in front of it with a blank expression like an idiot.
「What the fuck did just happen?」
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I move back down. Lucas, seeing the card, starts prostrating himself in front of me and apologizing frantically for his mistake, while begging to have mercy. This VIP status might have more power to it than I thought.
I wait in the room with the stage while they prepare everything. The Dwarf girl is brought in and they place a slavery mark under her collarbone, firstly getting a bit of my blood. Only now I can see how long her braids truly are. They almost reach her ankles. I start feeling a faint connection. It's different from my Partners one. I subconsciously know that she can't disobey me now. I need to be careful about this.
After everything is done, I pay up her price of fifteen gold coins and we move out. We start walking back in silence. She just quietly follows behind me, without any reaction or interest in anything. I try to slow down enough to walk beside her.
"So… What's your name?" I ask in Dwarvish, trying to break the ice. We can have some privacy using it.
"It's Sirgia, Master," she answers lifelessly, not even looking up.
"Sirgia, huh… Sounds cute."
And silence returns. I don't think I should expect her to hold a decent conversation yet. I thought that she perhaps opened up a bit after our little act.
"What about your clan name?" I pry further.
She stumbles over her legs. That question must have surprised her because she finally looks up.
"Don't you have one? Did your clan lose their inheritance rights? Or were you disowned or exiled?"
A bit more clarity returns to her eyes, even though her facial expression does not change.
"... Forgegraver." She returns her gaze forwards and quietly announces.
"I see." I ponder for a moment before continuing. "Are you perhaps related to Forgegravers from Dwarguhlim or The Mad Lady Thorargiel?" I ask while rubbing my chin.
She stops and I turn around. For the first time, I can see sincere emotions on her face. It's shock and disbelief. Her eyes go wide.
"How does Master know of—"
"She created The Dawnbreaker, which solely annihilated thousands in The Great War. The Mithril King wouldn't have stood a chance if not for her artifacts."
Her mouth goes completely agape. I smile at her reaction.
"But, Master is—"
"A Human? Does that mean reading dwarven chronicles is forbidden for me?" I chuckle. "Did you not notice we were speaking Dwarvish this whole time?"
She covers her mouth as if realizing this fact just now. She must have been really lost in her own mind to miss that. Especially after the scene in the company. Maybe she was in denial that it all happened.
"Why does Master know so much about Dwarves?" she asks very hesitantly.
"Because your culture is interesting?" I answer, tilting my head.
She drops her gaze to the ground and most likely begins thinking about something. I glance over the bandaged part of her face.
"Did you lose an eye?" I ask.
"Huh? Ah, no, it's a deep wound, but my eyes are fine."
I look around and spot an empty alleyway. Grabbing her hand I lead us there. At the spot, I kneel on one knee in front of her, so that we are on a similar level.
"Can you show it to me?"
She seems a bit confused. "Does Master not know how to use commands?"
I shake my head with a smile. "Like this? Jump two times," I speak while sending a clear intent through our connection and after a moment she jumps twice.
"Then why?" she asks.
"Listen. I know it's quite hard to believe, but I meant every word I said back there. Both today and yesterday. I don't want to abuse you. Just to give you a place to stay. You don't have to do everything I say. I don't know what you went through, or anything about your life, but from now, I want you to act like a person, not like a slave. I'd rather not use commands on this, okay? If that's too much, then just try acting like a servant."
We stare at each other for a moment. Me with a smile and her with a blank face again. After a moment she starts untying the eyepatch and I can see a big, vertical wound over her closed left eyelid, starting in the middle of her forehead and reaching down to the cheek. It's quite deep. I'd say it has less than a week. She was fortunate to not lose her eye.
I place my hand gently on her face and start channelling mana. I haven't worked with wounds yet, so this will serve as a good experiment.
"Nhhnn…"
Her body shivers a little and a soft moan escapes her lips. I immediately stop the spell, worried that using this ability can cause pain.
"Sorry, did it hurt?" I ask concernedly.
She shakes her head. "No. It felt warm. I was just surprised."
Reassured, I continue. While I supply mana, the wound is slowly getting darker. I start focusing on its part on her eyelid and close to the eye socket. Bit by bit the scab forms, toughens and falls off, leaving a whitish scar behind. In three minutes I run out of mana, but manage to partially heal the targeted area. The wound is still untouched on her forehead and cheek.
I exhale deeply while swiping my face out of all the sweat. I falter a bit while standing up. Sirgia quickly grabs me around the waist to assure that I don't fall.
"Master?"
"I'm okay. It's just mana exhaustion. You can try opening your eye now."
While she slowly does so, I grab a small mirror from my storage ring behind my back and pass it to her.
"Unfortunately, I'm not a healer, so all I could do is to speed up the natural recovery a little. We will have to deal with the rest in turns. And I can't do anything about the scar." I lean over the wall.
She turns her head from side to side examining her face in the mirror from every possible angle. For a moment, I think I notice a faint smile in the reflection while looking over her shoulder, but it fades instantly. She turns around, hands me the mirror back and makes a very low bow.
"Thank you, Master."
And she is back to her emotionless self. But she clearly pays much more attention now, so that's a success. She looks up at me as if ready to ask something.
"Ummmm…"
*BUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRP*
Her stomach suddenly grumbles loudly and she covers it with her arms while dropping her gaze to the ground. I chuckle a bit.
「Good. She finally somewhat relaxed. Hahaha.」
"Let's grab you some better clothes and go eat something. You must be starving," I say, push myself off the wall and start walking.
She catches up to me and walks by my side. "Clothes for me?" she asks.
"Obviously. Or would you rather stay in those rags forever?"
We walk around looking for a tailor or a clothing shop while Sirgia is the first to break the silence this time.
"I'm not a direct descendant…"
"Hm?"
"My family branch has some ties to the Mad Lady, but we are not considered as directly connected to the root. We receive only some minor teachings," she answers my earlier question.
"As I thought."
"How?" She looks up at me.
"No offence, but Dwarguhlimian women tend to be a tad shorter, more burly, round and also," I glance at her from feet to shoulders, "they are known from their quite voluptuous bosoms."
Sirgia is slim, not to an extent of it being unhealthy, but amongst most of the dwarven subraces, she can be considered skinny. And while she might not be completely flat, her chest is definitely on the smaller size. Somewhere between A and B cups or something. The small, perky mounds are still quite distinct thanks to the fact that she's braless.
She stares at her chest for a moment. "Master really does know a lot about Dwarves…"
We find a decent looking shop and enter. I tell her to pick something she likes, but she just tilts her head confusedly. It might take a few days for her to understand her new position, so I just select a few things that look fine and tell her to wait in the changing room. I pick up a linen shirt, short leather pants and some shoes with socks. It feels a bit awkward to browse through women's underwear, but I have to man up or she'll go commando forever. I pick a few pairs of panties since I'm not sure about the size.
I arrive at the changing rooms and slide the curtain behind which is Sirgia. Only to instantly drag it back in a flash.
"Sirgia? Are you completely naked?"
"Yes?" she answers like it's something obvious.
I sigh and inwardly berate myself for not predicting that. "Here. Wear this. Choose one of the underwear." I extend my hand through the curtain.
While she is dressing up I notice some not-so-nice stares from the cashier and a few other customers. I recall my conversation with Cornelia. Fortunately, it seems like they have collars here too. I take a leather one with a dangling badge, which looks the least uncomfortable and pass it to her too.
"Put it on for a moment. Just in case."
A few moments later she uncovers the curtain.
"What the… Are you an idiot?!"
I jump at her to which she covers her head with her hands and closes her eyes. My hands instantly move to her neck, where the collar is strapped so tightly I can feel it on my own throat. I quickly loosen it up and it falls onto her shoulders. I step back and exhale audibly while she coughs softly. Then she examines her neck confusedly.
"Why?" she asks.
"Already forgot the no abuse part? Geez..." I shake my head.
I pay up and we move out. I have no idea which inns or restaurants have a non-hostile policy towards the non-humans, so we'll have to leave today's choice to luck. After around half an hour we pick one that's not too crowded. We get in and I sit at one of the tables. Sirgia sits on her knees beside it.
"What are you doing?" I ask, looking down.
"Siting?"
"Get up and sit on the opposite side."
"But I'm a slave," she responds, yet a moment later she stands up and takes the chair with slightly mechanical movements. Yes, I used a command.
"Maybe, but you are my slave and I want both of us to have a nice breakfast, okay?"
She stares at me for a while and nods hesitantly. The waiter arrives at our spot and starts glaring at her.
"Can we order yet?" I ask.
"Not with that thing sitting like—"
"Okay, look here." I interrupt him in a cold tone. "It's still morning, but I'm already tired of all this shit. So, you will either take our orders or there won't be a reason for you to come back here tomorrow."
He sizes me up as if judging the weight behind my threat. I get an idea. Trying to act like someone from higher ranks, I reach into one of the pockets in my vest and pull out the Ruby Card between two fingers. I point it at him while raising my brows. He's taken aback for a moment, but he quickly bows, apologizes and takes our order.
「Interesting. This is more prestigious than I thought.」
Sirgia gobbles up her portion like there's no tomorrow, even before I reach half of mine, she's already done with it. I slide my plate in front of her, saying that I ate before coming for her and she finishes it too. She keeps sending me glances all the time. After she finishes, I speak first.
"You can speak up whenever you want. No need to ask for permission."
She stares at her empty plate thinking about something. "Master said he needs a cook, right?" she asks uneasily.
"Yes, but don't worry if you know nothing about it. You can still stay at my place."
"No, I do know how to cook. A bit. And I watched servants prepare meals for my previous owner almost every day. But... " She looks up from the plate. "Is it really fine for me to do it?"
"Why wouldn't it?" I ask curiously. "Because you are not a Human?"
She drops her gaze again. "Isn't Master afraid… that I'll poison the food?"
「Ah, right… this...」
"Did you do it?" I join my hands under my chin and ask.
Her eyes widen barely. "Master didn't use a command?"
"Would your answer be different if I did?"
She shakes her head. "I didn't do it…" She closes her eyes and tenses her muscles.
"Then there's no problem," I announce and stand up. "Let's go. I'll explain everything on our way home."
She opens her eyes and also stands up. "Master is not going to hit me?"
"Why? Didn't you tell the truth?"
I move closer and ruffle her hair a bit for the first time. She winces at first but realizes that I'm not going to hurt her and just stares confusedly at me from below. While we are walking back, I thoroughly explain about the mansion, brothel, cooking and other things. A few times, just to be sure. We arrive around noon.
Seeing the mansion doesn't evoke any changes in her emotionless expression. We enter through the main entrance. A green girl clad in a skimpy maid outfit makes a dash towards us the very second I close the door.
"Slime?!"
「Ah, shit… I forgot to mention them...」
Sirgia notices her and quickly moves in front of me, taking a weird stance. She reaches behind her neck with her hand as if grasping something, but realizes there's nothing there but air and switches her stance to a brawling one. Emi discerns hostile intentions, stops a few meters in front of us and prepares herself to jump at her.
"STOP!" I shout switching to Common. "Both of you, calm down."
I move past Sirgia and signal to Emi that it's okay. She embraces me in the usual, snuggly hug with her face in my neck. Safi slowly walks out from the corridor. I turn back to Sirgia.
"They are friends, not enemies." I look back at the Slime girls. "And so is she now, so treat her nicely, okay?"
"Master's friends are… Slimes?" Sirgia stares at us, confused.
"Yes, they are Queen Slimes." A slight surprise flashes on her face for a moment. "Do you have anything against living and working beside monstrous races?"
She shakes her head. With the misunderstanding resolved, we show Sirgia around the mansion and end up in the kitchen.
"It's so big and well furnished…" She walks around while admiring all the kitchenware. "It even has a cooling chamber?"
"A cooling chamber? What's that?" I come to her side and ask.
She points at a metal door with a magic circle and some runic sigils carved onto it. She then moves closer and touches the metal. The circle starts glowing with a cyan colour while runes flash in dark blue. She pulls the handle and opens the door. She seems quite strong.
Behind it is a small room or wide corridor with a lot of shelves. Everything is out of metal. There are plenty of blue magic crystals embedded into the walls. When we walk in, it's slowly getting chilly.
"A frost chamber too? Amazing..." Sirgia notices another similar door on the left wall inside.
「Isn't this just a huge fridge with a freezer?」
She turns around. "Even my previous owner didn't have such expensive arrangements. Who are you really, Master?"
I shrug and smile. "Just a random guy starting up a brothel." I chuckle a bit and we exit the chamber. "So. What does our new chef want to prepare for her debut this evening?"
"But there are no ingredients."
"Just write down a list and I'll get them." I ruffle her hair again.
Acting like I'm opening a cupboard and picking something up, I pull out a waterskin from my ring. "And you girls? Anything you would want to eat?" Turning to Emi and Safi, I take a sip.
"Pfffffffffft, cough, cough, cough." I accidentally choke on water due to the unexpected statement from Safi. Sirgia comes rushing to me. "I'm fine! Cough, cough. I'll… consider that... for later..." I smile awkwardly while wiping my face off.
Sirgia stares at me confused. She looks at them and back at me. "Master can understand Slimes too?"
"Ah, no, I can just read lips very well. They, fortunately, know Common."
「Thank god, they can't speak for once… She doesn't need to get even more weirded out by me on the very first day...」
I receive the shopping list from Sirgia and head for the city. On my way out, I instruct Safi to show Sirgia the bath so that she can refresh herself a bit after spending who knows how much time in that prison. I also tell Sirgia that they can communicate in writing if she has any questions. Hopefully, they won't start with the fact that we had sex...