Death March — Fixed

Warning:

Slightly Sexual Content Lurks Below

“Tek here, I like both lawful shops, and shops in the gray-zone--having used both during some of the worst days working as a programmer. I have been to brothels on Earth, and now it’s time to try them on another world.”

I lead Arisa to the wagon, and along the way I meet Martha in the dining room of the inn--she doesn’t look very shy, she looks at me with a knowing look and then offers me a meal--since I plan on eating outside with Liza and the girls, I decline.

Then, when she giggles and walks away, it occurs to me--she may have been meaning a different sort of meal. Arisa behind me mutters about innocence, and sharing.

Ignoring her, I continue walking for the wagon.

When we got to the courtyard where the wagon is, the other four girls are waiting there; Tama and Pochi look bored, while Lulu seems to be laying against the wall and napping--Liza, however, is standing like a guard without even the slightest trace of boredom or annoyance.

When Liza spots me, she quickly walks up, “Master, is it fine to load the luggage?”

“Wouldn’t tomorrow would be best time to load it, since we will be picking up more luggage from the Merchant Guild--but, it may inconvenience the landlady.” Arisa whispers to me from behind while I’m thinking about it, “So, let’s keep them in my Item Box? Don’t you think it will be safer there?”

Arisa’s idea makes sense.

I nod to her, and then turn my attention back to Liza, “Sorry for the wait, feel free to load the luggage.”

“Yes, Master,” Liza replies, and walks back to the wagon.

Arisa and Lulu head inside the wagon, to sort out the luggage, and have Arisa store it; Tama and Pochi stand on the wagon, to receive the luggage--with their STR being as high as it is, they are each on par with two large adults, so they handle the heavy preserved foods as though weigh nothing.

It almost looks like a Magic show.

Liza and I pass the luggage up to them.

It didn’t take too long to load the luggage, and when we finished, I told all of the girls, other than Arisa, to get and get the water for the three small barrels. One small barrel can hold six liters of water.

“You don’t need to exclude Lulu, she knows about my Item Box,”

“Well, I’m worried that someone would pick a fight with the three Beastkins if it’s only just the them, so I asked Lulu to go with them.”

Yes, there was a second reason to ask Lulu to go as well--I already suspected that Arisa would have told Lulu, since I knew that she cared very much for her half-sister.

“For now, let’s split the preserved foods, each of us keeping half. I’ll carry the Magic Tools, and nobody is likely to steal the learning cards, so they should stay in the wagon. Let’s leave the foods that Liza and the girls bought.”

“Kaay,” Arisa spoke in a light tone as she stored the preserved food in her Item Box; I also stored the same amount.

The preserved foods are composed of jerky, black bread, fried beans, and dried sweet potatoes--as well as flour, rock salts, and some other groceries like that.

“Hmm, maybe I should get some baskets and boxes to sort things out,”

“Yeah, and I also want some cushion materials if possible--if we leave it like this, the cookware will be noisy when the wagon shakes,” Arisa turned her head to me as she spoke, “I also want thin ropes too.”

“Ropes? Ahh, for airing out clothes, right?”

She smirks suggestively, “Yeah, that too.”

“If it isn’t too presumptuous, I think that having sturdy ropes would be good as well.” Liza, who had just come back from getting water, suggested.

I ignore Arisa, and look over to Liza--I’m not too sure what she needs sturdy rope.

She looks at me, “It’s for hanging up prey, to drain their blood, during the journey.”

“Anyone else have any suggestions?” I ask, noticing that alongside Liza, the others have come back as well.

Tama raises her hand in the same way, saying, “Brush?”. She tilts her body in a troubling way while raising her hand--Did she learn that from Arisa?

I try to ignore the slightly proud look in Arisa’s eyes.

It seems that she wants a tool that is combination brush and pick-thing, to brush the horses and clean their hooves.

Ahh, tools for taking care of the horses, I completely forgot about that.

Lulu also timidly raises her hand, “--U-Umm”.

Her face turns bright red just from saying that.

It seems to be something embarrassing

I glance at Arisa--and she winks back.

“I-I want a washboard and a bucket.” Lulu continues her request.

Is it really embarrassing?

I have a few of them in storage, so I’ve forgotten about it--but it’s certainly necessary.

“If possible, I want a mirror! I’m fine with hand-sized ones.” Arisa spoke again.

“Arisa, you’re asking too much.” Liza gives a warning to Arisa--though it is rare for her to give an opinion before I decide.

I wonder if it’s expensive in this world?

That reminds me, I don’t think I’ve seen any glassware either; but I’m sure that mirrors made from polished metal would exist.

“Well, I’d like to use one too, so let’s buy one if it’s not too expensive.”

“Yay!” Arisa cheers with a happy expression.

Lulu is also smiling.

Liza nods in acceptance, she doesn’t have any objection since it’s my decision.

Pochi and Tama look happy as, grinning; and in Pochi’s case, energetically wagging her tail.

It’s decided that tomorrow, while I’m getting the commodities from the Guild, the other five will buy all of the things we’ve just discussed.

After changing clothes--only Lulu used the shelter of the wagon--we go out to eat dinner together. We ate dinner at the stalls not far away from the inn--just a light dinner of soup and bread.

Since Pochi and Tama look so sad while we’re eating, I order meat skewers, enough for two to three skewers for each of the Beastkin. It’s Liza who looks the happiest somehow, her tail swinging--I may have been planning on simple dinners, but it’s okay as long as they’re happy.

Since I meet Yosaga, who had just come back from work on the way to the inn, we talk and decided to advance the plan to go out for the night, forward.

Arisa listens and then looks at me, “Oh? You have ‘plans’ to go out for the night?” She raises and eyebrow.

Lulu looks away from the old man and I, who were talking excitedly.

Liza is as stoic as usual.

Tama and Pochi don’t seem to care, they hold my sleeves and swing our arms--they seem pure and innocent. But I can tell from the way Tama flutters her ears at the words, and glances at me with a contemplative gaze, she definitely understands.

I send them back to the inn and follow Yosaga off.

***

The East District is crowded, just like yesterday.

Yosaga, who’s chewing a meat skewer that he bought from one of the stalls, is greeting some of the girls who are gathering under the outside lights, while we slowly wend through the crowds.

When I ask if they are his acquaintances, he tells me that they’re courtesans. They usually work as waitresses and courtesans at the same time, but during the slave auction they seem to look for customers outside.

Confirming from the Heads-Up-Display, I see that a lot of them have the ‘Sex Technique’ skill--however, I feel anxious when I see that a lot of them have various venereal diseases or STIs listed as Abnormal Statuses.

Can’t it be healed with Magic?

Walking past them, we enter the red-light district. Metal plates with glowing Magic Circles hang on the shops to change the lighting around them, drawing the eye. Most of the brothels are two stories tall and have wrap around verandas on the second floor.

Courtesans wearing expensive looking clothes, with very high exposure, are lining up on the verandas trying to lure in guests.

When I look up, they raise their skirts, showing their bare--legs--they blow kisses.

It’s a feature that almost every shop has.

The number of people who have Sex Technique increase, and proportionally, the girls with Abnormal Statuses decrease.

“Young Master, here’s the shop--let’s quickly enter.” Yosaga pulls me to the shop. This shop seems to be quite refined, and strangely is one of the few shops without girls on its veranda.

The floor is made from bare wood, and it’s very polished--the inside of the store seems to be around thirty meters wide. There is a counter, doors, and a staircase which leads up to the second floor; there are four rooms, their doorways covered by cloth, on the left and right.

“Welcome to the Seryuu branch of the Captivating Mansion.” A rather penetrating voice rang out as a woman in the later half of her forties come out from the back door. She is wearing a pink dress with an excessive number of frills, her excessively fat body making the clothing look like it is about to burst apart at the seams.

Guided by the woman, we enter one of the partitioned rooms.

It seems that this is a room for guests to wait for the girls, since it’d be awkward to meet acquaintances in a brothel.

There is a sofa and three low quality marble tables inside the room, a girl who looks to be around ten is standing by in a corner.

“Excuse me,” The girl speaks quietly and then puts two small cups of alcohol on the table--which, judging by the smell that hit me, is very strong spirits.

According to the Heads-Up-Display, the cups are made from Prasiolite, which is a form of green quartz. The liquor inside the cup is Shiga Vodka--it seems to be a strong liquor which is made from something similar to potatoes.

Hmm?

My Menu seems to have the ability to compare drinks from Earth and this world, as well as giving them names closer to their Earth equivalents, with the Shiga name in a subtitle--the actual name for this drink is Shugoka.

Yosaga gulps the drink down like it is water, with no change of expression.

The girl pours more alcohol into the cup.

I shrug, then drink the alcohol as a shot.

Blah, like normal, alcohol tastes bad--but the burn is good.

The girl pours me a second cup--Yosaga looked me with a grin, and we both drank at the same time; for some reason the girl rolled her eyes at this.

However, before she got to pour us a fourth, the Madam came back with five girls.

The most beautiful girl has blonde hair and blue eyes. With a small face, thin eyebrows, and strong looking eyes. She is a little too well endowed for my opinion, but Yosaga doesn’t seem to mind, judging by the way he is staring--she looks to be eighteen.

The second and third are twins--they’re beautiful girls with black hair and black eyes, their most notable feature is that they look either French or eastern European.

According to the Madam’s words, it seems that there are a lot of people who spend the night with the two of them together; of course, the fee is for two people--They are sixteen years old.

The fourth is a woman with nice eyes, dark brown hair and reddish-brown pupils. Her eyebrows are thick, but well groomed. Her breasts are the biggest and her voice sounds mellow, somehow comforting to hear--she is twenty-one years old and the oldest in the shop.

The fifth girl has red hair, and similarly coloured pupils. She’s not as attractive as the other girls, but she has the nicest expression. She feels lively, bubbly--reminding me of Arisa. She is also the only person in this shop without the Sex Technique skill.

Every girl is wearing a thin one-piece which sticks to their skin and makes them look very sexy. The chest and abdomen areas are transparent, and I can’t help but mutter, “Good job”, to the unknown tailor.

However, Arisa--and Liza appear in my mind as I look at the girls--Why am I here, and paying, if I have at least one slave who is willing?

“Which girl will you choose?” The Madam’s high voice rang out and pulled me out of my reverie.

Yosaga looked at me, offering for me to choose first; however, I said that he could, since I was the one paying for him as a way of saying thanks. He chose the most beautiful one with blonde hair.

He quickly gets up and leaves with the girl.

I felt a strange feeling, and sighed.

“I will pay for him, and what I would owe if I bought a girl--and give him the message saying thanks for the offer.” I smile and leave a pile of coins on the table and walk out.

Leaving the red-light district, I go back towards the inn.

When I walk in, Martha looks slightly surprised--but I ignore that and walk up to the room.

“Master?!” Arisa’s shocked voice doesn’t come from the bed she shares with Lulu, but from the one I slept in--the form under the blanket squirms a little more, and then her head pokes out, her violet hair disheveled.

I grin at her and walk over to the bed, taking off my robe and dropping it by the side of the bed.

When I pull up the blanket, to lay down, Arisa is revealed--naked and in a small damp patch.

“Didn’t you go to the brothel, master?” Her voice shakes a little, it seems that she needs a little time to regain her breath; she looks up at me, her slightly shocked expression changing into a happy smile.

“Well, yes, but I decided not to stay.”

She nods at my words, before smirking, “Well, I will do the same services for free--” Licking her lips, she moves over and pats the bed.

I strip the rest of my clothing and get in next to her.