Chapter 21

Now that we had some time to actually look around, I realized that dubbing this part of the city as the "merchant's district" was truly right on the money. There were stalls for just about everything one could want. Food, weapons, house wares, kitchen wares, camping supplies, jewelry, clothes and various imported goods that I wouldn't have been able to name without my info box holding my hand the whole way. There was even a traveling merchant set up among the rest with several intriguing potions spread out on a carpet he laid carefully atop a board, rather than the ground. A few of the potions caught my eye, but since the vendor himself wasn't an Apothecary, I cautioned away from them.

        Everything had its own stand or section of the district made specifically for each group of items. All the food stalls were lined up together along the main thoroughfare. All the fighting equipment was settled into a corner in the market. And so were all the imported goods carried in by yet more traveling merchants come to trade in the city for a while, each one dressed in the garb of their homelands that looked utterly foreign when compared to the people of Amoranth visiting their stalls, despite the fact that they all spoke the same language.

        It was an earthen shopping mall of sorts and I'd been all but oblivious to its charms.

        While we perused the various stalls that had yet to pack up their things as night settled over the city, I made a mental note of what and where to find just about everything I thought we might need later. From basic necessities to tools that would make living in this medieval world just that much more tolerable, I took great care to check the real names of the items so we weren't scammed, checked their prices and even went so far as to organize my list in order of importance so my want to better myself didn't lose out to the nagging need for my easy life to return to me.

        Meanwhile, Yua completely disregarded the jewelry and clothing stands, the ones I shamelessly thought she might want to look to the most, in favor of the weapon and armor merchants as well as, surprisingly, the ones selling various kitchen goods. Seeing how her love for fighting hadn't diminished in the least, this felt just like her. So, we spent a little extra time letting the armor vendor enchant us with all the reasons why his people's smithing process was superior to the one used in Vierre, because Yua, who was most definitely not a smith, was enjoying his speech so much.

        Well, up until he realized we weren't there to buy and shooed us away. But what can you do?

        I didn't buy anything, of course, and neither did she, but I decided to come back another time when coin wasn't so tight. All of the shopkeepers were happy to help us browse their wares until we mentioned we were only looking, where around a third of them started to ignore us entirely in favor of their actual paying customers, while the rest just kept a cautious eye on what we were doing with our hands.

        I could almost laugh at their flippant attitudes, but I quickly decided that it was probably best we didn't keep screwing around and anger them by wasting their time. So, I started making it clear we were only there to look to avoid getting their hopes up.

        After a while of looking around and Yua showing me all the shops she could think of, the Sun had finally fully set and the night completely taken over. The blue glow of the street lamps lit the city anew and colored Yua's chestnut hair in their oddly warm hues. Her eyes shone whenever we passed under one of the lamps her big, happy emeralds took reflected their light. Repeatedly. Again and again, as if she never once closed her eyes for fear of missing out on the vendor still cheerily shouting the praises of his fine craftsmanship, despite the fact that his stall hadn't a single customer. The intensity of this reflection only seemed to sharpen whenever she'd look my way to point out another interesting set of goods.

        My heart panged. Her hands dangled by her sides, looking almost lonely as she walked closer to me than she had in the dungeons. Stealthily steadying my nearly ragged breathing, I crammed my hands into my pockets to avoid another gossip-worthy incident that might sully her mood.

        Seeing as how we weren't planning to buy anything just yet, I thought it best to stop looking at all the odds and ends for sale here, lest I end up actually wanting them. But I made sure not to stop Yua's tour until her own interest seemed to wane.

        As we walked back down the road towards the inn, we caught the delightful scent of one of the food shops. Or rather, Yua did. Her ears perked up and her tail swished about happily, even though it was her nostrils that were set alight with what looked to be a barely-repressed sensory overload. It took a while longer for the scent to hit my nostrils, but when it did, I smelled something I thought might have been freshly baked bread easily stand out amongst all the other food stalls that were now closing up for the night by selling off what little they had left for dirt cheap prices.

        Once its scent fully caught my attention, my stomach gurgled loud enough for even a human's ears to have heard, let alone Yua's. Setting aside the heat I felt in my cheeks when she turned a sympathetic smile to me that suggested she'd pretend she hadn't heard a thing, I suddenly remembered our hasty retreat to the dungeon after our talk with Alphonse. But more importantly, I remembered how it ruined our plans to eat a quick breakfast out in the city before we got to work. That and the unfortunate fact that, because we'd spent the whole day fighting in the dungeon, we hadn't eaten a thing since we woke up. I was starving and I knew Yua was too, as I caught her lifting her nose high into the air, likely grasping at a much more intimate whiff of the bread's scent than I could ever hope to have.

        Amused by how cute she looked walking towards the scent on her tiptoes, I fell back just a little and pretended that I was following Yua herself and not her animal-like nose as it led us straight to a bakery in the more well-to-do section of the merchant district. Though she was silent, her happily wagging tail spoke volumes to what she really wanted. I was fully prepared to let her openly lie to me and say that she just wanted to show me one of the city's bakeries to save face. Not that she would have needed to. Whichever of the baked goods in there that hooked her by the nostril must be something good, if it had enthralled her so.

        From the front window of the aptly named Bakery, we could see the baker, a hefty man with a thick, short beard that had no shortage of white powder, flour, mixed in with the whiskers. Like the majority of the vendors outside, he was already working on closing up shop for the night. Most of the tables and shelves in his shop were already free of the breads that must have been freshly baked that morning, leaving behind little more than what I assumed he'd sell tomorrow morning at a steep discount.

        I had always wanted to try freshly baked bread, but was much too lazy to try and bake any myself and I didn't dare wake up early enough to make it happen unless absolutely necessary, so now that I actually found a place that could have fulfilled that tiny wish, only to realize it was already too late, I was a little disappointed.

        Sighing to myself as I considered braving an attempt to wake up extra early tomorrow to be first in line here, I happened to notice something else sitting on the counter that the baker had been scrubbing with a rag. Something that was utterly insignificant to me, but that Yua was gazing at almost lovingly.

        While she was distracted, I used my menu to discretely check how much spare coin we had.

        "Hey, Yua. Could you run back to the inn real quick and ask when dinner is to be served? I want to make sure we get there before we end up eating it cold this time."

        Snapping out of the daze the bakery had sent her into, Yua nodded dutifully.

        "Yes, Master. But if I may ask, are you not coming back too?"

        No doubt she was trying to be discrete and not outright ask why I didn't just teleport us back, or at least go myself if I was so worried, but I had other plans.

        "I'm just going to buy us some bread. Been a while since I had some. I'll catch up soon. If they haven't started cooking dinner yet, please ask them to."

        With a quick nod of understanding and a bow to accept the easy order I had given her, Yua took off for the inn on my behalf. Although, she took me a bit too literally and actually started running the second she stepped away from the light spilling of the bakery. I was about to call out and tell her she didn't have to, but the sooner she was out of ear shot, the better.

        With her now impressive Speed stat moving her legs, it didn't take long until she was far enough away for me to know I was safe, though I did keep a tab on her by watching her outline recede into the distance through the bakery wall once I stepped inside. With all of the time we had spent in the dungeon, I had a fairly good idea of how far her ears could reach. On top of this, even though the amount of people out on the streets had dwindled once the night took over rule of the sky, there were still enough people out and about making noise that I was sure she couldn't hear me anyways.

        Wouldn't be much of a surprise if she heard it coming, right?

        "Excuse me, is the bakery still open?"  

        Content with the dull shine of his now freshly cleaned countertop, the baker had moved over to the row of traditional brick bread ovens that were lined along the wall for maximum bread-making output. While the fires that had once burned in them had already long since gone dark, I had no doubt the scent of fresh bread would continue to linger in the shop for a while yet. When I called out to him, the baker turned to me and wiped his hands on his apron almost reflexively.

        "Sure, kid. I'm in the middle of closing up, but you can take your time."

        A surprisingly jolly smile appeared on the man's face, despite his apron being caked in enough flour dust to suggest he'd had a long day. Which is probably why he hadn't noticed that him smearing his hands all over it was only making them dirtier. His welcome was a fair bit more real than the merchants we passed today, who all just tried to usher me towards their shops to get me to buy something. Delighted to finally experience some real customer appreciation outside of someone trying to get me to drunk, I decided to be quick with my look around the shop so I could get out of his hair.

        As one could probably expect from a medieval bakery, most of what the man sold here was just various types of bread. There was the traditional white flour bread along with several other types I couldn't quite place, but were clearly not what you'd typically find on the shelves in a supermarket. Some looked like they might have been made out of differing kinds of wheat if I could split apart the loaf to check. Others looked like oats had been mixed into the dough to toughen them up. There was even a hard, dark brown bread that didn't look all that appetizing, but the shelf it sat on was almost empty, suggesting it sold fairly easily. Probably because it was the cheapest and could be bought without bankrupting yourself.

        "I'll take a loaf of flour bread, please."

        "Sure thing. Hope you don't mind it's been sitting out all day."

        "That's fine with me. Also, do you have anything sweet for sale?"

        I asked, even though I already knew the answer, just so I didn't give off the idea that I was only there for a snack.

        "Sweet you say? Why, yes, I do! I still have a half a cake here and a few cookies," he gestured towards the cake sitting on the counter, the reason I was here, and to a tray of what looked like plain cookies right next to it. "My wife might even have a pie waiting in the back if you'd like a slice."     

        "That's fine, thanks. How much for two slices of cake and, say, four cookies?"

        "A slice of cake is 1 silver and the cookies are 5 coppers a piece."

        "1 silver for a piece of cake? Isn't that a bit much?"

        I had still yet to fully grasp the worth of most things in this world, but considering what we had to fight in the dungeon just to get that 1 silver, it felt like a rip off. Even if the slices were fairly large.

        The baker shrugged sympathetically.

        "Sugar is hard to come by these days thanks to those greedy fellows over in Dragma. Actually, recently I've only been taking orders for sweets, instead of having them ready like I used to. Otherwise, it'd be a waste of what sugar I have left in stock. Takes too long to ship it in from the other countries, you know?"

        "Then why did you make these?"

        "I don't know, really," he said with an honest shrug. "I just woke up today and felt like baking some sweets. You know, like the passion for the job suddenly kicked in and kicked hard. Guess it's your lucky day that there is still some left."

        "Ya, lucky."

        I could almost laugh at the thought. Did it really count as honest-to-Goddess luck if I was the one choosing to level my Luck stat?

        "If that's all you're wanting, your total comes out to 4 silver pieces."

        I paid the man by piling my coin on the silver tray he slid over the counter to me. I then had to throw in a few extra coppers to buy one of the small baskets he kept on hand so I could carry my lot of baked goods out of the shop without fumbling all over myself to keep from dropping them. Without Yua and her backpack, I had no way to discretely access my item box, so this was an unfortunate necessity and a small oversight on my part, but this seemed like a fine alternative. I could probably reuse the basket for something else later, anyway.

        Completely lost in a part of the city I had never been to without an escort, I went ahead and used my right as her master to search for Yua's outline again. Even though I wasn't looking in the correct direction at first, I got a tickle in my head that told me where to look, so I turned. There the small white outline of the girl in question appeared, tiny, but very much there. And growing bigger as I approached. She had already made it to the inn by the looks of it and, by how she moved her lips, I guessed she was speaking to someone, likely asking the innkeeper about dinner.

        I thought back to how she'd practically been watering at the mouth as she ogled the cake and, wanting to see her expression when she had it in her hands, I quickened my pace.

        "Master, the innkeeper says that dinner will be ready in about an hour."

        Yua was dutifully waiting under the inn's crooked and dilapidated-looking awning with a small, but honest smile on her lips and a swish of her tail. By the looks of her, I didn't think she had noticed the real reason why we separated. I had no reason to believe otherwise, but I was sure my item box hid the scent of the cake.

        "Great," I said. "I got us this loaf of bread to share. Hope you're hungry."

        I had managed to slip into a deserted alleyway, which was easy due to the hour, and hid the treats I bought. So, all she saw when I showed off the basket was the lone loaf of white bread. And when she saw it, the emotions fueled by her empty stomach had started to slip and she let out a small squeal of delight.

        But really, her hunger was completely my fault. And this time, that was not me taking myself further down a peg. I should have at least brought some kind of food with us into the dungeon since I knew we were going to be there for an extended amount of time. So, even if she saw fighting as fun and exciting, I essentially made the both of us fight for several hours without so much as a glass of water to keep us going.

        "S-Share?" she repeated, as if she thought she'd be left out, but still celebrated anyways at just the thought of getting to eat it.

        "Yea, obviously. You don't think I can eat all this myself, do you?"

        "But…"

        "Although, just to warn you, I had to buy an old loaf of bread since that's all that was left. It won't keep for long, so let's eat as much as we can tonight, okay?"

        Yua bit her lip and squeezed her palms together in front of her hips like she was trying to offer up a discreet prayer that I wasn't messing with her. And I very much wasn't.

        The last time we shared a meal, she told me that most slave masters only give their slaves gruel to eat, if anything more than table scraps. Because I gave her more than this for our first meal together, and off my own plate no less, she was so happy that not even the devil himself could say without blushing that he was intending to trick her here, even if he really was. It just wouldn't do. So, I figured some real, hot food and some good bread would make her all the happier.

        "Let's just go upstairs and wait for now. I've been on my feet all day and, I don't know about you, but I'm tired."

        "Y-Yes, Master."

        Once more without being asked, Yua hurried to hold the door open for me. Even at this hour, the innkeeper was still standing at the front desk waiting to greet potential patrons and by the furrow of her brow, she didn't like the fact that I was carrying bread up to our room. I couldn't tell if they have a cockroach problem or if she just saw it as some kind of insult to the food her inn was preparing for us, but she didn't stop us from heading up with it.

        I plopped down onto the bed the second Yua closed the door behind us and instantly felt like I could like my eyelids would have welded themselves shut for the night if I so much as blinked too slowly. The fatigue accrued during the day had made itself known once more, but it didn't seem like it was going to let me forget it a second time.

        Yua began to take off her backpack, which she had been wearing since we left the inn this morning, despite it being empty for the vast majority of the day. Matching her want to relax, I reached toward my belt to send my sword into storage, but my fingers only touched leather.

        Oh, right… I sold it. Guess that means I have nothing but the clothes on my back for the time being.

        After pulling off her bag and stuffing it back into the chest at the end of the bed as she had the night before, Yua stretched her arms over her head. Then, still holding her arm with a rather insecure look about her, she looked at me, then at the bed, before her tail whipped the air unsurely.

        "Come on, Yua. You can sit on the bed, too. You're tired, right?"

        "But for a slave to sit on their master's… I can just sit on the floor. If Master allows…"

        "It's fine. You can sit on the bed. It's not like we have a chair in here and besides, I told you last night, remember? No floors."

        Regardless of status, hell, regardless of whether or not I even liked her, I wasn't about to make a girl sit on the cold floor while I took the only comfy seat in the room. Not after all she's done for me today. I wasn't so daft that I couldn't see how incredibly rude that would be.

        "B-But, Master, you only said when sleeping…"

        "I meant it for sitting too. I want you to be comfortable. Although, when dinner's served, we should probably eat on the floor so we don't make a mess on the bed... Now come on."

        I pat the far end of the bed to make sure she didn't get the wrong idea.

        Once more looking torn between trusting in my kind-meaning gesture and her own relaxation, she gave into the latter and reluctantly climbed onto the bed. She sat down not too far from me, straightened her posture and sat on her knees like she was expecting to need to get up the second I myself felt uncomfortable. Not that I would.

        "Now what… Master?"

        "Hmm? Well, you said the food will be ready in an hour. So, all we can do now is wait."

        Yua bit her lip again and I laid back, using my forearms as a make-shift pillow so my gaze didn't further unsettle her. However, to keep from actually falling asleep while she sat there hungry, I forced my eyes open and counted off the number of planks that made up the roof.

        In these idle moments, various thoughts of the day's events sped through my mind, mostly my various mistakes, our triumphs in the dungeon and the fun we had in the city after everything else was taken care of.

        We'd only meant to walk around the city for a little while to pass the time and we did just that. We ended up out and about for a couple hours. Yua may not be from Amoranth, but I could tell from her enthusiastic tour that she really liked the place. And to be honest, aside from the near-constant screwups on my part, I did too. In hindsight, starting off in a big trading hub like this, instead of some rural village as was common in video games, we should have had various opportunities to find work and have fun, but all we did tonight was have fun. Maybe we should have been searching for more work to fill our purse, instead of skipping our way through the city as I fought off the urge to take her hand in mine.

        Choosing to let my thoughts lean more on the fun we had, instead of all the negativity that had been brewing in my mind, I felt a grin that might have looked a bit creepy were I to see myself from the outside as I thought of what it'd feel like to call tonight's trip through the merchant's district a date and mean it.

        But now probably wasn't the time to be thinking such things.

        *Sniff*

        Trying to keep the hopeful wishes at bay for the time being, I once again tried to think up some contingencies for what we could do if the ring didn't sell, but my brain was too tired to come up with anything coherent against the backdrop of everything else I'd taken in today. I suppose the downside to this Memorization trait was that I was quite literally forced to remember every little detail of the day's events. You'd think that would make coming up with a backup plan easier, since I now had a plethora of information at my beck and call, but it was actually just more confusing.

        I seriously doubted that knowing the exact number of coins the woman put up to trade at the stall next to the one Yua and I were looking through an hour ago would be of any help save for, maybe knowing that a head of cabbage cost exactly 3 coppers. Same goes for the equally pointless knowledge that I now knew roughly the percentage of city-dwellers that preferred sandals to more conventional shoes. I wasn't even looking at their feet, but now the number was stuck in my head.

        Like this and with me unable to use my new abilities for anything of actual use at the moment, we sat in silence for a few minutes as I watched the seconds on my HUD's clock tick away.

        Man, this time period is tougher than I was expecting when it came down to keeping yourself entertained. No TV, no video games, hardly anyone can afford books, including myself. We already took a trip around the city and were too tired to venture out again. What did people in my world use to do at times like this?

        *Sniff*

        I mean, I used to trudge home after work, sit myself down in front of my computer and spend the rest of the night filling my eyes with just about anything and everything the internet had to offer. And on the rare occasion when the power was out or I otherwise wasn't in front of my monitor, I had my music playing in a constant loop in my earbuds and/or a book in hand. There was pretty much never a time when I didn't have something going on. Even if boredom struck, I could just waste away the hours by playing on my phone. But now…

        Hell, this wasn't the sort of thing I should be thinking about either. As much of a conversationalist as I could pretend to be, I was sure I should be using this quiet moment between us to think up something fun to talk about, instead of wallowing in what I lost in coming to this world.

        *Sniff*

        Opening my eyes, which had apparently shut themselves at some point without my noticing, I temporarily gave up the thought of asking Yua about her homeland and searched for the source of the only noise either of us had made since I laid down. It didn't take long to find the source of the sniffling, as I found Yua scrunching up her nose every few seconds before straightening her expression back out into the same bored look I had. Though, when she caught me looking, she pulled on a smile and stiffened up a bit more.

        "Something wrong Yua?"

        "N-No, Master. It's nothing."

        If she tried to make her back any straighter, she'd snap her spine.

        "It's fine. You can say whatever you want. If you need it, you have my permission to speak your mind."

        She bit her lip again. Then she looked me in the eyes before quickly looking away.

        "I…You see, Master… It's just that… the cat-kin may not have as strong a nose as the dog-kin, but ours is still stronger than that of a human so… I've been fighting all day and got really sweaty and…"

        Ah.

        I held up a hand to tell her she didn't need to finish, but she looked down at hers as if I was telling her to shut up, which couldn't be further from the truth. I just didn't want to make this girl admit that she smelled bad. And with that nose of hers, it probably wasn't something she could put up with without any suffering.

        Actually, now that she mentioned it, I picked up a bit of a stench on me as well now that we didn't have the breeze outside to whisk away the smell. It's not exactly like leather protects against bad smells. Add in rigorous exercise such as, oh I don't know, fighting in the dungeon, and you have yourself an instant recipe for a bad time that was probably torture for someone like her. Even if she claimed to be used to the various smells that came with living in the city. And leather made up about fifty-percent of both our outfits.

        "Okay, Yua. We both worked up a sweat. So, how about we go wash up before dinner?"

        The words fell out of my mouth before I could even recognize how they could have meant to her, which seemed like it was starting to be a bad habit of mine. I was just trying to do something nice by telling her it's okay to clean up, but given my knowledge of how the bath at this inn works, I may have just stepped on a landmine by unintentionally suggesting we go together.

        "Yes, please!"

        However, she either missed that concern of mine or she was just so happy to have a chance at getting rid of the smell that she didn't care. Unwilling to take back that offer once she gave me a big smile, I got up first.

        "L-Let's go then…"

        "Yes, Master!"

        Without further discussion, which might have been for the best, we went downstairs. While Yua took a minute to procure us some towels and wash rags from the innkeeper, I couldn't stop the image of the dog-girl stripping down in front of me like it was nothing from reappearing in my mind. And like with all the other pointless information I had collected today, my memories spared me no detail when it came to that woman. The way she unabashedly showed me her everything as if it were entirely natural to be seen like that would have been unforgettable even if I hadn't committed the image to mind on purpose.

        As I understood it, save for the nobility and probably the people that had other options for collecting water, public bathing really was seen as something completely natural, if not uncommon. The complete opposite of where I come from.

        But… Doesn't that mean Yua would… In front of other people? In front of other men? Would she even mind?

        Thinking back to last night, when she was reluctant to so much as change her clothes in front of me until I turned away from her, maybe she did have a bit more awareness of her body than the other women here. I mean, of course she would. We had only just met. I couldn't expect her to strip in front of me so easily. And I'm sure we are still within the parameters of "just met" even now.

        Then again, I had only just met that dog-girl, too. And unlike Yua, I never even got her name.

        "Master, I have our towels."

        Yua held up a pair of dingy-looking towels that looked like they had been in use for years and that likely couldn't absorb water to save their lives.

        That wasn't the problem, though. The problem was that her tail was swishing about as happy as could be. She's too cute, but also too unconcerned with what we were about to do. Does she not know that the bath is outside? I don't want anyone else to realize how truly beautiful she is, but even if I technically own her, I don't own her.

        Whatever the hell that means.

        As if smacking my doubt across the face, she started towards the backdoor I knew lead to the back garden. Damn innkeeper must have told her where it was.

        Shit. What if someone else sees her?

        "Uh… Um, Yua. Could you wait a second?"

        "Hmm? What is it, Master?"

        "Well…" I didn't want to come right out and say it, but she'd know better than I could. "Can you tell me if there is anyone else out there right now?"

        "Sure."

        As easily as when I was asking her to scout out our next enemy, Yua lifted her chin to listen to the world. She brought it back down with a smile and shook her head.

        "There's nobody out there right now. Does Master prefer to wash alone?"

        "No… Well, yes and no… But…."

        She tilted her head in confusion, her cat ears twitching curiously in the silence. For some reason, have all her attention on me while this particular group of thoughts were running through my head made me feel small. Almost childish.

        Shit… Now that I made her check, I might as well just come out and say it.

        "Um, Yua… Would you mind if I made a selfish request of you?"

        Her ears perked up, this time from a sense of obvious surprise that colored her face pink before she looked away. From the side, I watched her bite her lip, but only slightly this time. Her tail gave a sudden, sharp jerk that made it thud against the wall, shaking the placard marking the room we stood beside as the Lazy Cat's kitchen. Holding her towel out in front of herself like a shield, she then rubbed her knees together for some reason that made her look mildly uncomfortable just standing there. Finally at the end of her oddly silent, but very physical reactions to my question, she put a hand to her chest and drew in a long, deep breath to steady herself. When she let it back out, and only then, did she look me in the eye again. Whatever discomfort she had been reeling from only a moment ago vanished into thin air.

        When she spoke next, she did so with a clear tone, a gentle smile and with the composure of someone completely at peace with the world.

        "Master, I will obey any order you have for me."

        "O-Okay. Great… Then, from here on out, I-I don't want you to allow anyone else to see your naked body. C-C-Consider that an order!"

        I could feel my face growing hot, but likely not as hot as the blushing girl in front of me that nearly dropped her towel once I gave voice to my ridiculous, unearned request. Confusion spread across her face like a wildfire.

        "B-But, Master, if we're washing outside… What if…"

        "If someone else comes, I-I want you to cover yourself with your towel. Just keep an ear out for people. I just… don't want anyone else to see you like that, okay?"

        While I made my selfish request for her to keep her truest appearance to herself, she didn't seem like she actually minded the request any more than she did the absurdity of the request itself.

        The bath was outside. People staying here wash themselves outside. This was an inn where many other people were staying. The odds of someone else coming out to bathe at this hour were definitely not zero. And, as even Beth from the Mage's Guild knew from her brief visit, we could easily see the bathing area from our room, which meant those in some of the other rooms could, too.

        It may be her body, but I just couldn't stand the idea of another man looking at her the way I do. A few tried back at the Adventurer's Guild, and tried openly, so I know I am at least not hallucinating her beauty. I don't deserve that right, but neither do they. And that is a hill I am willing to die on!

        Now that my memory had improved and I could clearly remember what happened the day I died, I felt as though the situation was not too dissimilar to why I finally built up the courage to confess to that old neighbor of mine. Only this instance felt immensely more dire.

        Blushing, eyebrows still raised up high in surprise, she just looked at me as though she couldn't believe I had actually said the words that her exceedingly adept cat ears just heard clear as day. To combat her confusion, I tried to emphasize the seriousness of my request by straightening my back to at least pretend at the sort of confidence needed to say that I was somehow in the right for asking this, but it probably came off as too forced. I couldn't have felt more ridiculous if I were unironically striking a super hero pose right here in the hall.

        Yua blinked, but it was the seemingly involuntary twitch to her ears that got the gears in her head moving again.

        "If that is what Master wishes, then I will make sure that nobody else sees me without my clothes on anymore."

        Much to my surprise… No, my bewilderment, instead of going off on me the way she probably should have for making such a ridiculous request, the corners of her lips turned up to softly dimple her blushing cheeks.

        Yes, she smiled at me. It was utterly unmistakable, beautiful, natural and, dare I say, loving. But most of all, it was very present.

        How it was that that so easily became her response, I could never know, but it was a smile nonetheless.

        "G-Good… Then please keep an ear out for other guests while you wash."

        "Yes, Master!"

        Without waiting for a secondary order or for me to collect my jaw where she left it on the ground, Yua swung the backdoor open stepped out into the magically soft blue glow of the night sky once more. I hurried behind her, fearing that the smile she just showed me would prove to have been a lie if I let myself lose sight of her now.

        The night air was cool as it blew against the sweat already dried against my skin. The leafy foliage lightly rustled in the gentle pressure of the very same breeze that felt like it would have blew me over had I not stopped to hold onto the doorframe first. Water from deep within the well filled the yard with a pleasantly damp scent that seemed to cling to each and every blade of grass, giving the yard a perpetual coating of morning dew that sparkled under the moonlight. And just as she said, there wasn't a single other soul out here, save for the bed of flowers that would neither judge nor ogle.

        We took our boots off by the door so the wet grass didn't spoil their leather and stepped into the yard together. I made my way over to the same bench I had borrowed the last time I cleaned up out here and felt with my toes the squishier spots in the grass where an unknown amount of other people had washed at some other point today. Trying not to imagine who that might have been, I reached to pick up a bucket to collect my water when...

        "Wait, Master," Yua called out to me, grabbing the bucket before I could. "It's a slave's job to fetch their master's bath water. Please, let me handle this."

        "…O-Okay?"

        Yua gave me one of the towels and a rag and ran off to the well with two buckets. Standing there now with nothing to do, I began to sink into a quiet panic as I forced myself to look away from Yua to seek advice from the flowers.

        Should I undress? I mean, I have to in order to wash, but shouldn't I wait until she got back? She may claim it's her duty to handle things here, but her coming back to find me naked would be a pretty big ordeal for the both of us. Or would waiting to expose myself to her when she was close just make her hate me again? Maybe. Probably. After all that convincing I had to do just to reassure her that I wouldn't attack her in her sleep, I was sure that would be several steps too far.

        Or… D-Does she think I am expecting her to wash my body? Is that why she got flustered a moment ago?

        I shook my head. I dared not think of that sort of scenario any more than I already had.

        As she finished collecting the first bucket of water, she let out a small, almost effortless grunt as she set it in the grass. Following was a soft clunk of wood against the stone of the well's rim as she started on the second bucket. The hand crank she turned squeaked as it spun the collecting bucket back into the water. Drawing water from a well was a mildly amusing experience for me just yesterday, but now each crank felt like another tick of a time bomb waiting to blow.

        Hate was the last thing I wanted her to feel for me. But at the same time, if she so willingly accepted bathing at the same time as me, then what if she just sees this as normal? Perhaps masters often ask their slaves to wash their bodies because of the same laziness that lead the master to buy them in the first place. Then again, if I couldn't put up with the norm of her eating gruel or sleeping on the floor, then shouldn't I be rejecting that norm too?

        But if she were willing…

        I shook my head again, this time fast enough to make myself dizzy. If I was unable to keep my mind off of any dirty thoughts, it would be best if I just waited to see what her own intentions were. After that, I could just respond accordingly.

        "Master, here's your water."

        Startled by how the soft grass and her lack of boots allowed her footfalls to paced towards me entirely without sound, I flinched as Yua appeared behind me. She moved so swiftly that it was as if she never left my side. With her towel slung over her shoulder, she held in her hands two buckets filled to the brim with water. Offering one to me with an upturned palm and a courteous smile, she almost looked like a waitress bringing their customer their meal.

        She was still smiling. She doesn't hate me yet, despite what we were both going to have to do here.

        Is she really this interested in taking a bath? I understood the issue of our day's-worth of fighting leaving us smelling rather unsavory, and I was certainly desperate enough to embrace my own discomfort, strip down and wash myself outside here where anybody could have seen me, but Yua? A girl, especially one as alluring as her, most definitely had more to lose if she gave into such desperation in such a public way.

        Standing there in the middle of the yard, gazing like an idiot into the wavering surface of the water that she herself gave me as if begging my unrecognizable reflection for answers, I realized she was still standing there. While I nearly flinched again at the sight of her, her tail continued to swish through the air calmly, as if she were only waiting for me to give her the okay to start. If so, this could be my way around the issue of how we would conduct this little wash-up.

        "Uh… Yua, if you want, you can wash up on the other side of the bench. W-With the bushes and tree between us, I won't… I mean, if someone else comes out here, they shouldn't see you."

        There. I gave her an out. I made it her choice. No need to make this awkward. Now whatever she did was up to her. I wasn't making her do anything.

        "O-Okay…"

        Yua said, sounding a little dejected for some reason.

        As expected, she wondered off to the other side of the bush, completely out of sight as she fled to hide her body from my lecherous gaze. I knew this was for the best when I unconsciously gulped at the sounds of her disrobing.

        I quickly undressed after deciding that I didn't want to be in this tempting situation any longer than I needed to be. Now really wasn't the time for embarrassingly weighing the pros and cons of washing half my body at time to spare myself the embarrassment. Stuffing my clothes onto one of the tree branches to keep them from getting wet as I had the day before, all I could do was hope that the darkened sky would hide her well enough to let myself keep calm. More so, I hoped that the cool night air would act the same way a cold shower might once I was cleaned.

        "Ahhh…"

        Yua let out a soft, relaxed sigh when I heard the tell-tale sound of leather sliding over flesh as she dropped her pants. Understandable. Yes. Being dressed in leather that tight all day had to be as exhausting as it was uncomfortable. I found my own equally as dissatisfying, despite them not being nearly as tight… But why did she have to sigh like that?!

        Already feeling a reaction stirring where said pants used to be thanks to the softness of her voice, I splashed several handfuls of cold water on myself and started scrubbing. Anything to be done faster.

        By the time my chest and arms were cleaned, practically polished to a mirror shine in my fervor, I just barely heard the soft rustling of a much lighter fabric rustle the leaves of the tree separating us. Apparently, she was so in favor of ditching her pants that she abandoned them before her shirt. Trying not to imagine the pure white subtleties of her natural form as it soaked in the moonlight, my ears were once more tempted by the soft sound of and even softer fabric sliding over skin. If she'd already taken off her shirt and pants, this had to have been her…

        I dumped more water on myself. I may have been the first to strip, but why did this seem so easy to her? Was it just because she was born in a world where this was normal? Doesn't matter. I just need to calm down.

        "Ooh, cold…! Aah."

        Yua let out another soft sigh after she splashed a generous amount of the chilled water over herself. Splashed water on her naked body. Naked, beautiful body out here in public. Right behind me.

        No. Calm down, my son. Now is not the time to rise! Remember your promise to her!

        We were only out here because she requested it. Don't take advantage of that. I mean, sure, I needed a bath too, but how could I not notice the fact that the beautiful girl I came out here to wash with only had one set of clothes to her name and that they were currently hanging on a nearby branch, including the simple pair of white panties I had once promised to feign ignorance of when last I saw them, when their existence amongst the leaves now proved the completeness of her nudity?

        Just wash. Wash your body and clear your mind. Geez, the well water is even colder than it was yesterday and I'm still half…

        Wash, wash, wash.

        I didn't think I would be able to do a very good job washing myself, and how could I without soap, but since I was able to wipe off all of the dried sweat, I figured I at least shouldn't stink anymore. I'm sure Yua was being nice and saying it was her own body that stank, but I'm a man. If she stank from the sweat, I must have offended her nose twice as much.

        I scrubbed myself the best I could, given the circumstances, and raised the bucket up over my head to dump some more of the cold water over myself, both to wash away the grime and to strengthen my resolve. Then I washed some more.

        I could hear the soft sound of wet cloth slapping against bare, smooth skin behind me. While I was in a hurry to finish up, Yua seemed to be taking her time as she hummed a tune I never heard before. She was clearly enjoying her wash, despite the circumstances being what they were. Although, if her clothes were anything to go off, I guess most slaves may not get many opportunities to wash up, save for when they were about to be presented to a prospective buyer. So, maybe this was a happy chance for her.

        For all I knew, this could have been a moment as special for her as when we shared that meal last night. And here I was doing nothing but thinking about how naked she was. If that was the case, then how could I not be called a piece of trash? No, I pretty much am for even having this debate with myself. I was probably a little crazy for it, too.

        There was a loud splash behind me and, on reflex, I looked back to source the noise. There I found Yua's hands holding her bucket over her head as she let its contents rain down in a carefully controlled, glistening stream over her weary body. Thankfully, the bushes had done their job and guarded her important bits from my line of sight, but I was able to see her cat ears twitch cutely to shake off the water when the localized downpour of hers stopped.

        I snapped my attention back forward towards the inn fast enough to nearly break my neck, instantly reminding myself of how the Hobgoblin did the same before accidentally slamming its face into the wall.

        What if she had seen me looking? I mean, I couldn't see anything important, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be embarrassed. Or, maybe she wouldn't? We did kiss, after all. She didn't reject me in the slightest when I pressed my lips to hers. So…

        No. No. She, we, almost died right before that and she was so exhausted after that she couldn't stand for several minutes after. I might as well have taken advantage of her.

        But ever since this morning, she still smiled at me whenever she caught me looking at her. If she had thought of that as me taking advantage of her, why would she smile? Matter of fact, why did she so readily accept it when I asked her never to show her body to anyone else like it belonged to me?

        Well, I mean, it technically does, but that's not the point! This and that are totally different!

        "Master!"

        See? Even Yua disagrees with me!

        "Master!"

        "Huh...?"

        Feeling a hushed seriousness in the voice that suddenly sounded a lot closer to my person, I looked over my shoulder. Once more entirely on instinct. And once I took in the eye-widening sight that instantaneously enraptured my very soul, I realized I could only ever thank my Luck stat for allowing such a sight to be seen. For not even the Goddess up above could have willed this into existence.

        With the fullness of the moon casting a heavenly halo over her, and with her face a bright shade of pink that was no doubt a reaction to the cold water she poured over herself, Yua stood directly behind me. She was close enough to say I could smell the dampness of her hair. That in and of itself was only something that would have sent my heart a flutter on any other given day, but the impossibility I was faced with now gave my heart a pummeling so severe that I was sure it stopped altogether.

        Standing there in the same open garden we both had been washing in, she wore nothing over her body but a short towel that barely managed to cover the most important aspects of her curvature. Even as she pressed the thin cloth against her breast to at least try at the concept of modesty, I could still see the beginning of a lighter, perkier pink just barely slipping out from beneath the edge of the fabric, tempting me to notice. And more, to look.

        Down below, as she bent forward, I couldn't see her most maidenly of places, but her towel was clearly short enough to say that all she had to do was stand up straight and I would have been able to see her everything. With her chestnut hair wet and clinging to the sides of her face, shoulders and back, she was unbelievably, unbearably beautiful.

        As if none of the sight before me was enough, she leaned in closer, unintentionally pressing her breasts and the bare pink buds poking out against my back, which had the immediate effect of causing every muscle in my body to stiffen to the point of tearing. Before my mind could implode entirely, she whispered directly into my ear.

        "Master, I've been trying to get your attention. You asked me to warn you when someone was coming."

        Ripped out of my stupor brought about by seeing her freshly bathed body, I quickly got to my feet.

        "Uh… Oh? Oh! Right. Um. Here, get behind me. I'll hide you while you get dressed."

        I turned, but only to give her a reassuring thumbs up and a thankful smile for actually having listened to my selfish request and definitely not to take another look of what she'd yet to hide. However, the only reaction I got from her was a widening of her already large emerald eyes when something caused her to look down.

        "Hurry," I pressed.

        "S-Sorry, Master!"

        Yua scrambled back over to grab her clothes off of the tree. Her towel hit the floor just as she left my line of sight. Knowing what this meant, I steadied my resolve once more. She was already prepared to obey my order to hide her body from the sight of other lecherous men, I didn't want to break that feeling of trust by ogling her now.

        She rejoined me at my backside and quickly started dressing. Despite my human ears, I could hear every movement she made with an unrepentant clarity. From the snap of her panties' waistband clapping down on her hips to the small grunt she gave in stepping back into the same tight leather pants she was quick to peel off earlier, nothing escaped my notice. But for fear that someone else might hear the same momentarily, and to focus on hiding her, I tried talking in hopes my voice would mask the sound of her dressing.

        "Do you know who is coming?"

        "No, Master. I can only tell that it is one person."

        "Damn… I didn't think anyone else would come to take a bath this late."

        I listened to Yua pull her shirt on over her shoulders and as she untucked her wet hair from its collar. Just as she did, the door finally opened and someone stepped outside to join us in the night.

        "Oh, hey! It's you again!"

        The absurdly sensual dog-girl I met just yesterday stepped out into the night, wearing what looked like a looser, less restrictive version of the dress I'd seen her in the day before, though it was of a much lesser quality than that one had been. If I had to guess, I'd say that this was what she was intending to wear to bed and that she was just here for a quick wash. But that guess was based on nothing more than the fact that she was a slave herself and that Yua's nighttime outfit had a similar cheapness about it.

        "H-Hi…"

        Realizing I hadn't responded to her yet, I mustered up a casual greeting that failed on launch, but she smiled back at me anyways. Without pause, she looked down at my groin and as she did, and as I only just now realized that I had been so worried about Yua's nudity that I hadn't covered my own at all since I coming out here. The dog-girl giggled behind her hand and thankfully, her laughter came without an antagonistic flair to it.

        Then, with the same casualness she showed me yesterday, she bent down to grab the hem of her dress before pulling it up over her head in one smooth motion. Once more, like last time, that woman was wearing nothing but a pair of panties beneath her dress. I gulped loudly when those came down as well.

        Catching myself blinking repeatedly and rapidly as my brain tried to compile all the sensory data in front of me into something visually coherent, I felt Yua press her palm to the center of my back. She left it there for only a second or two before she pulled away.

        "M-Master, maybe we should go…"

        As if trying to catch my attention and to hurry me along, Yua pressed her body against mine as she spoke. When she did, and before my brain could fully register her softness, I realized her tone was what was important as it came out as an odd mixture of both concern and a slight annoyance. I nodded rapidly to show I'd heard her. It was the only way I could think to respond with the world becoming so suddenly chaotic.

        "R-R-Right. It's nice to see you again, miss, but we just finished here. We'll be going now."

        The dog-girl tilted her head with a sympathetic smile before she bent over to pick up the same personal bucket she brought out yesterday, showing off her nicely rounded ass and her fluffy tail in the process. Tearing my eyes away from the dangerous sight she unintentionally forced upon me, I reached for the clothes hanging from the tree branch above me while trying (and failing) to nonchalantly cover myself.

        "Oh, is this your slave?" the dog-girl asked, sharing her smile with Yua now. Yua smiled back, but I think I saw a slight irritation in her brow, but didn't dare look to confirm.

        As attentive as my ears had become out here in these last few minutes, I know hadn't heard the sounds of her buttoning up her blouse yet. Was she mad at me for making her hide her body when this slave's master didn't request the same?

        The dog-girl then looked back to me, her tail wagging about as she smiled mischievously. Clearly, she was thinking that her little talk with me inspired me to go out and get a slave of my own. I mean, she wouldn't be wrong for thinking so, but I sure as hell wasn't going to admit to it.

        "Y-Yes. I am Master's slave."

        As shocking as it was unbelievable, Yua was the one to step up and confirm the woman's suspicions. The woman smiled back, delighted to have been proven correct without ever asking the question by what might have been a territorial flick of her cat ears.

        Maybe the very slight animosity I was feeling from Yua had something to do with this being a bath time showdown between a cat and a dog, a pair of eternal rivals. 

        "I-I'll just get dressed now."

        I pulled my pants off the tree and, apparently unperturbed by the situation or Yua's half-glare, the woman walked right past us to go collect her water. My male biology demanded that I look at her as she passed that I just couldn't disobey no matter how hard I tried. Her breasts bounced openly as she walked by, juggling the hardened pink tips at their center with each and every step. As close as she was when she passed me by, I couldn't help myself from noticing the faint red outline of a bite mark around her right nipple.

        I forced myself to look away after noticing. And the woman clearly stifled a giggle.

        Why was she doing this? And with Yua right here! I could practically hear her glare shift over to me for having looked. Though, contrary to this feeling, she was still smiling.

        I needed to dress and get the hell out of there. So, I slipped on my underwear, as difficult as that simple task had now become thanks to my condition, and hurriedly pulled my pants back on. Yua reached over my head, once more unintentionally pressing her chest against my back to grab for my shirt. After I slipped that on, I grabbed Yua's hand and made for the door. Instead of stopping to put our boots on, I just grabbed them and rushed inside.