Death March — Fixed

I can hear the sound of people, and of the wooden wheels of carriages bumping over paving stones, coming from outside my window.

Did I oversleep?

I was able to learn many things last night, and also know Arisa’s true personality--as well as her weak-points, places that if I touch just right, she makes funny noises.

While contemplating whether I should lose myself in the warmth of the bed and go to sleep once again, or not, the door opens with a bang.

Whoever entered didn’t knock.

“Tek, are you awake? Your lover has come, she is waiting for you down in the dining room!” Martha is strangely energetic as she calls out to me, her hair a little ruffled and her glasses slipping down her nose.

“Good morning--” I raise my upper body and greet Martha with a slightly slurred mutter.

It’s colder than I expected--I had taken off my robe after I finished my business in the labyrinth, and just went to sleep like that--but why is my shirt off, and where is it now?

“Oh my, that’s quite a good body.” Martha gazes at me with interest, it seems her thoughts subconsciously leak out, a blush rapidly rises on her cheeks.

She covers her mouth with her hand.

 

“Oops, sorry. I’ll go put on a shirt immediately.”

 

I place down my hand while trying to get up.

A strange, moan of pleasure, suddenly sounded from below my hand.

 

“Hmm?”

 

Whatever my hand landed on is strangely soft and warm, and--familiar?

When I look down, I see that my hand is resting on the side of the bare breast of the naked girl laying asleep next to me, curling up against me her legs pulled up and her arms wrapped around her knees--a very defensive sleeping posture; which makes sense with all that she has suffered.

Looking closer however, I can see, balled up in her grasp, my shirt which had disappeared--she seems to have stolen it.

But, when did she crawl into my bed?

“Mmm--Master. I-if you do that--I’ll break.” I hear another voice speak, quietly mumbling, definitely asleep.

As if she was waiting for the perfect timing, it seems that Lulu is sleep-talking. When I force my eyes up from the naked Arisa, I see that Lulu has been moving in her bed--she’s sleeping slightly sideways with her back facing here. Since her clothing is so short and has pulled up, I can see her cute, naked ass facing me--and I realize that she doesn’t seem to wear any underwear.

Hmm?

The sheet has a red stain.

I didn’t sleep with her--is she okay?

Martha scratches her head, “Sorry for disturbing you, please take your time.”, and she slowly closes the door--not the whole way, I can see her eyes glinting as she looks intently into the room.

“Hmm? Masterrr--” Arisa’s sleepy voice comes from below my hand--it seems I forgot to move it. She opens her eyes and sleepily looks at me for a second before sitting up and stretching, yawning widely.

“Morning Arisa,” I smile as I look at her.

“Morning, Master.” She smiles to me and then turns to Lulu’s bed, she then turns back to me, “Master, if you have a clean cloth, could you give it to me? Lulu seems to be on her period.”

Ahh, that explains the blood.

I take some cloth out of my storage and give it to Arisa.

“Thank you, leaving that aside, shouldn’t you go downstairs to meet this--lover?” Arisa grins, poking out her tongue.

Good--She doesn’t seem to be the kind who gets easily jealous, at least I hope not--I should find some time to talk to her about that.

As I think that, I reach out and stroke her hair, causing her to let out a happy noise.

“Alright,”

I get up.

Arisa nods to me.

When I get to the door, Martha opens it unabashedly--before turning and leading me back to the dining room; she seems normal, but I can see the tips of her ears poking out of her hair, and they are bright pink.

With a grin I follow her, and when we make it to the bottom of the stairs she goes off towards the kitchen, glancing back at me. She can’t seem to meet my eyes, and while she has a business smile on her face, her cheeks are flushed, “Well, have a good day Mr Tek.”

Giving her a small wave, I walk over to Zena, who I see sitting at one of the tables; she is happily eating something that is comprised of meat and vegetables, and has a cup of steaming liquid in front of her.

“Morning, Zena” I smile at her as I sit in the seat opposite her.

“M,mm,m!” Zena replies with enthusiasm, her mouth still full, so I can’t understand her; I take it as a good morning.

She quickly swallowed and blushed, looking up at me, “I’m finished--do you--w-want to walk through town?”

Damn, her flustered look is cute.

“Sure.” I get up as I answer, and walked over to her side; when I reach down to help her up, she grabs my hand with a very pleased look on her face, her eyes narrowing because of how much she was smiling.

We walked side by side out of the inn.

“Hmm? Today you’re wearing something different from the one piece yesterday--the neatly arranged frills are gorgeous. It’s drawing out your charm!”

“Such a thing--it’s just the clothes--” Zena responds shyly, looking very happy.

“It’s lovely, but aren’t you cold wearing such light clothes?”

“No, since I’ve trained myself--it’s alright!” She sounded proud.

That’s not a normal line for women, Zena.

“Well, there’s a shop just ahead, it’s selling beautiful shawls. Why don’t we go and see it together?”

“Is that true? I’ll go!” Zena skips a few steps with a look of joy on her face--this girl is so cute.

When we get to the shop, Zena happily compares dozens of shawls, and finally picks a pink one. I buy it for her, as a present. She is so happy, her mood is infections.

We may have been here for almost an hour picking out a shawl, but her reaction is worth it.

***

Since the weather is quite nice, we decided to take a walk together to a nearby park while chatting.

“Are you off-duty today?” I ask curiously as we sit down side-by-side, leaning back against the rough bark of a tree; I take my robe off and fold it, placing it as a pillow for Zena, she thanks me with flushed cheeks.

“No, I have duty this afternoon.”

“Didn’t you also have night duty just yesterday?”

“That’s right, we don’t really have enough personnel, so a half-day holiday is all I could get.”

Hmm?

You came to meet me despite being that busy?

It’s hard to imagine that she has fallen that hard, does she have other business?

“They gave us all a half-day holiday--it was the first real experience with real battle for some of us, so to give us the chance to calm our hearts.”

Ahh, I see.

Come to think of it, even if it was something that wouldn’t endanger my life, I was curiously calm--although there’s still some lingering memories from the battle last night that keep popping up in my head. Well, even while fighting the Demon, I was fine.

Is it because it didn’t feel real?

It felt like I was a character in a game.

But what worries me the most is that I slaughtered an entire community of races similar to Liza, but I don’t feel the slightest guilt--why is that?

Could I have an unknown Special Ability?

The questions are whirling around and around in my mind--

Well, if I think about this alone, the answer won’t appear any faster; I guess I’ll talk to Arisa tonight.

A strange, but very nice, fragrance suddenly tickles my nose.

When I raise my eyes--there’s the face of a worried Zena, she is staring at my face in concern, “Are you alright, Tek?”

I school my face into a smile and reach out, stroking Zena’s soft hair, “I’m sorry, my mind just wandered off for a bit, I’m alright.”

Her face relaxes and she smiles--before suddenly leaning forwards, her soft lips suddenly brushing mine--for only an instant before she jumps back, blushing so hard that it’s almost as though steam is coming from her ears.

“T-that was to cheer you up--” She stutters, before sitting back down against the tree, close beside me, her face turned slightly to the side.

“Thank you,” I smile at her.

After a few seconds, she calms down and we talk about random things--mostly, she is telling me about life in the army, about her fun times with her friends.

She soon looks at the light, at the position of the sun.

It’s around 2pm.

“I have to leave soon, my shift is in around half an hour or so,” Zena says, disappointment flashing across her eyes--then she pauses, she seems to gather her courage for a second, “You know I’m a--was a noble right?”

I have no idea why she asked this, but I answer anyway.

“I do.”

“You don’t know too much about nobles do you?” She pauses again.

“Not really”, I was getting very curious as to why she was saying all of this.

“Well, it’s common among nobles to be polygamous--They even have relationships with slaves--though their children could inherit any of the noble’s assets if he dies.” Zena spoke quickly and quietly, looking intently into my eyes, “I heard that you bought a pretty female slave--I, want to say, I don’t mind it if you use her, or like her--but--I like you--remember that, okay? Lilio says I have to tell you this now, as soon as possible--before the slave steals you completely, since one of their jobs is to make their Master--feel good--”

Her words are disordered as she speaks quickly, the last part was almost whispered.

“I will remember that--I like you too--and once I like someone, I won’t get rid of them; they have to leave me first.” I speak in a reassuring tone, my hand running through Zena’s hair, and over the sensitive skin at the back of her neck.

She has relaxed a lot, and is breathing a little heavily.

“Uhh--I have to go, it’s time for me to get ready for my shift!” She looked at me, and seemed to reluctantly look away again as she began to walk off, “Bye.”

“Goodbye,” I smile at her, and she looks back a few times before she goes around a corner and out of sight.

***

When I get back to the inn, Arisa is calling me from somewhere near the barn.

“Welcome back, Master!”

“Thanks, what are you all doing in a place like this?”

“We’re asking Liza to share her bread, since we were hungry.”

“So, you finished eating?”

“Yup, Lulu is still eating inside--she seems to lack an appetite--” Arisa looks sympathetic.

I give Arisa several copper coins, and tell her to go buy some fruit for Lulu.

When she walks off happily, I go back to my room to put on new pants--I may have changed my cloak, and shirt, but I kept the same pants on. Back in the room, I pour some water from the Hell Water Bottle into a copper basin that I take from storage, and use it to wash my face and neck.

Since my hair is okay, I just wet my hand and give it a quick run through.

I change into new clothing and boots that I take from storage.

Speaking of storage, that reminds me--I try to take out the hot pie that I put in here the first day I was in Seryuu--it remains piping hot. After confirming that it’s not rotten, using appraisal, I take a quick bite. It tastes the same as the other pie I got.

When I walk back out to the barn, Arisa is coming back with four apple-like fruit in her arms, and one in her mouth; she smiles around the fruit, making a noise of greeting, and walking into the barn to give the rest to the others.

When I enter, Lulu doesn’t look too well, so I suggest that she returns to the room.

I put ten silver coins in a small bag, giving it to Arisa to buy some changes of clothes and daily necessities. Liza will act as a guard, while Tama and Pochi carry the luggage.

“Master, is it okay to use some of the change for sweets?” Arisa asks, Tama and Pochi smile and nod at her words.

“As long as it is around five copper coins, it’s okay.”

“Thank you, Master!” Arisa says with a cheerful voice, before departing down the east street. Pochi and Tama are walking along by her sides, she looks like an older sister leading her younger siblings--Liza follows along like a parent, her eyes quickly moving from side to side, looking for danger.

I walk back into my room, laying on the bed and taking out an Alchemy book to read while waiting for the girls to return. Lulu is laying in bed, and looks asleep when I enter.

Knowing that she is very shy, I don’t bother her as I sit back and read.