Woo~ I just realized this site has 100,000 views now woo! Idk if that’s the normal amount you get in a month and a half-ish, but whatever, sounds like a big number woo! Thanks for reading~
We returned to our inn after buying my ideal slave. The ice wolf race girl that I bought has a high total talent value which exceeds 500, and there is nothing to criticize about the distribution. That distribution really helps me out, because although I am able to change my own distribution, it"s hard to tamper with other people"s distribution.
Furthermore, her abilities and skills are excellent, and she"s hiding the best talent possible.
It"s also great that she"s a beautiful girl, which makes the process of raising her level easier. Guys are out of the question from the start, but I would also hesitate if it was an ugly girl.
I take off her clothes while she is lying down on the bed, but it isn"t to a.s.sault her, it"s to take care of her.
Using hot water and a cloth that I had prepared, I wipe her body. She probably wasn"t able to properly clean her body these few days, considering the cloth is becoming blacker. Nevertheless, it seems she wasn"t able to eat anything nutritious, because she is surprisingly skinny. Once it gets to this much, a normal person would already lose strength. I don"t get excited over skin and bones. (TL Note: Haha I love how this just came out of nowhere)
After cleaning her body, I put her clothes back on and obviously; they are new clothes that I bought for her.
"Now, I should first restore her health back to the minimum amount necessary.【Recovery Heal】" (Kearuga)
I use【Recovery Heal】on the ice wolf race girl. I heal her external wounds, restore her fallen physical strength, and at the same time, I read her memories.
"Hou, I see, so this is her wish. Rejoice Setsuna. I will grant your wish." (Kearuga)
The reason I read her memories is to make our discussion when she wakes up easier to do. As long as you know the other person"s memories, it"s a simple job to guide their thoughts. I confirmed it; this child will come to desire me from herself.
I purposely left the strange disease with her, and only restored her physical strength to the minimum. These are necessary things for the "play". (TL Note: Play as in production… I don"t know what kind of "play" you"re thinking about…)
Well, I might as well make her owe me a favor. I put a specially made, medicinal congee, which had the potion that healed the strange disease, mixed in the physical restoring potion and also added in ingredients that had plenty of nutrients, and fed it mouth to mouth to Setsuna who is currently unconscious. (TL Note: Congee is a type of rice porridge.)
2 days later, Freya and I came back to the inn from the shop we went to before. Today was the day to negotiate with the merchant we"re selling our medicine to. And surprisingly, the negotiation ended safely.
I completely thought that he would prepare plenty of soldiers to kidnap us at our meeting place, and then use Freya as a hostage to get the secret of the medicine, but I guess I was worrying over nothing.
"That was unexpected. To think that that merchant hadn"t set up anything." (Kearuga)
"Isn"t that fine, we got this much money anyways. If we live a modest lifestyle, we can live for the rest of our lives with this much." (Freya)
Inside the small bag that Freya is holding, there are 300 gold coins in it. That merchant gave us ten gold coins for each potion; it"s not a bad price. He must have had the confidence he could sell it for double the price. 300 gold coins is the amount of income a day laborer would get in 30 years.
"If I was an ordinary person that is. But since I"m going on a trip to save the world, that amount would end up being used for one magic sword and a robe." (Kearuga)
A weapon with mana residing in it costs an absurd amount of money; costing a few hundred gold coins is normal. Also, to increase my chance of survival, I want clothes that have high defense and is light. As I think about that, I become unsure whether 300 gold coins are enough.
"You just have to earn some more money. It"s a fantastic thing to be earning money while saving people"s lives!" (Freya)
I put on a bitter smile. Freya thinks that I can only make 30 potions in 1 day, but if I wanted to, I could prepare much more. I"m intentionally only making 30 a day because if I want to sell it at a high price, than I should keep it at this amount.
In one way, I"m letting other people who I could have saved die for the sake of my own profits.
Well it"s not necessary to say that out loud though. After all, the other person thinks of me as a hero who"s going to save the world.
Now then, I should check out how my other companion is going. I head towards the room with a bed.
Freya and I look at the ice wolf girl who is lying down on the bed.
"This girl still hasn"t woken up it seems." (Freya)
"She was weakened after all." (Kearuga)
If it wasn"t this girl, it wouldn"t have been weird if they died from it. It has been 2 days since she"s come here, and she still hasn"t woken up yet, but I used【Recovery Heal】earlier to make her wake up in a few minutes. That"s the best and most convenient timing, since I need an urgent situation for my play.
"I think she"ll wake up in a just a bit more, since her strange disease has already been cured." (Kearuga)
She"s currently going through the phase of healing her weakened body. Inside a pot, I put in a physical strength restoring potion and mashed up ingredients that have plenty of nutrients, and heat it up with alchemy magic. With this, the physical strength restoring potion congee has been completed. I put that into my mouth, and feed it to her mouth-to-mouth.
In these two days, I"ve been repeating this every day. There is no other way to give nutrients to a bedridden person apart from this.
The ice wolf girl"s throat moves, and she swallows the physical strength restoring potion congee. Unusually, her white wolf ears start moving, and her ice blue eyes open.
"Nn-!?" (Setsuna)
She who had woken up let out a surprised voice, and hit my cheek with her palm. If I tried to avoid it, I could have, but I chose the option of not avoiding it.
While jumping on my own accord cras.h.i.+ng, I make it look like I received damage. The girl glares at me, and opens her mouth.
"This man, what is he doing to Setsuna!" (Setsuna) (TL Note: Not good with translating someone talking in 3rd person, so please forgive me when she says "I" in the dialogue. She doesn"t say "I" in the raws, but I"m placing it there for convenience.)
She looks at me with cold eyes. She probably thought I a.s.saulted her in her sleep, but it was a situation where it"s only normal to think that.
"I could say that to you, what kind of terrible thing are you doing!" (Freya)
While shaking her pink hair, Freya becomes angry at her.
"This man a.s.saulted Setsuna. The person in the wrong is this guy." (Setsuna)
"That"s wrong! Kearuga-sama, was nursing you. Even right now, he was just making you swallow food by feeding you mouth-to-mouth. It was an act of medicinal treatment for you who was bedridden." (Freya)
It would be hard to clear her doubt if I were to say it, but Freya who was the position of having the same s.e.x, and is a third-party is able to instantly increase her persuasive power by seriously showing her anger.
"That kind of, lies." (Setsuna)
"It"s not a lie. In the period of the two days you were bedridden; Kearuga-sama cleaned your body, made medicine for you to drink and was always helping you. And to that person, your behavior to him is this! I can"t believe it. This ingrat.i.tude!" (Freya)
Freya talks on and on without pause, and the ice wolf girl properly looks at her body for the first time.
"It"s not painful at all, and my body also feels light." (Setsuna)
"That"s only obvious. After all, Kearuga-sama has been feeding you a congee with plenty of nutrients and a specially made medicine just for you every day." (Freya)
Incidentally, I would occasionally put monster meat as an ingredient for her congee. It"s the preserved monster meat I made by smoking the monster Freya and I had found in the middle of our trip. It properly increased her talent values.
The ice wolf girl looks towards my direction, hesitates a bit, and then quickly lowers her head.
"I misunderstood and thought I was being a.s.saulted. I"m sorry for hitting you." (Setsuna)
"No, it"s fine, it"s not weird for you to think that. Anyhow, it"s great that you"ve become energetic again, so I"ll introduce myself once more. My name is Kearuga." (Kearuga)
I smile sweetly towards her, and in turn, the ice wolf girl"s wariness went down all at once. After all, she has the feeling of indebtedness from hitting me, and on top of taking care of her for 2 days, I forgave her for her careless mistake, so she has the impression of me being a kind person.
"Setsuna is Setsuna. A proud ice wolf warrior." (Setsuna)
"That"s a good name. Why don"t we handshake." (Kearuga)
I reach out my hand, and Setsuna grasps onto it. For our first greeting, it should be perfect with this.
"Freya, can I ask you to go buy food for our dinner? I want to eat at our room today. Please get ready-made food with good flavor." (Kearuga)
"Certainly. Keargua-sama, to celebrate Setsuna-chan"s recovery, I want to have it a bit extravagant though." (Freya)
"Yup, I don"t mind. I"ll be glad if there is a lot of meat." (Kearuga)
Since she"s like a wolf, Setsuna will probably enjoy it too.
"I understand. I"ll go buy something tasty." (Freya)
Freya leaves the room. For Freya, I"ve made her think I"m a good person by being useful, but it"s a hindrance from here on out. Now then, let"s start our talk of making Setsuna into my companion in the true way.
"Now then Setsuna, I wonder if you understand the current situation." (Kearuga)
"… yes, I understand. Kearuga bought Setsuna, and treated me as well. Therefore, Setsuna was able to stay alive." (Setsuna)
I laugh while telling her that"s correct, and clap my hands. Setsuna seems to be worrying over something, becomes conflicted, and then opens her mouth.
"Thank you for saving me. The ice wolf race is a race that definitely returns a favor they have received, but Setsuna has to go to a certain place no matter what. That"s why… sorry." (Setsuna)
In the next moment, Setsuna"s hands grew larger. No, she"s making huge nails out of ice. She then thrusts it towards me, but she made sure to not have the pointed end facing towards me, so it seems that she doesn"t have the intent to kill me.
Hou, that"s interesting. This girl has properly recognized that she received a favor and is thinking that I"m a virtuous person. But even then, she still chooses to do this for her objective. Ah, great; that"s just to my liking.
However, although unfortunate, Setsuna is weak. I dodge her thrust out hand, grab her arm and fling her while using gyration. Her body hits the bed and I hold the knife that was in my pocket right next to her nape.
"Did you not question anything? That in spite of me not knowing your true name, I removed your slave collar." (Kearuga)
"… why" (Setsuna)
Generally, if you didn"t know that demi-human"s true name, it would be unthinkable to remove their slave collar.
"There is also the fact that the slave collar which is made to torment demi-humans was a hindrance for your treatment, but it"s basically because I am overwhelmingly stronger than you. I have no need for those kinds of things, so I removed it." (Kearuga)
Incidentally, because I used【Recovery Heal】to make her wake up in a good timing, I was able to meet with the merchant while having a peace of mind.
"Kearuga, you"re strong. Who are you?" (Setsuna)
"I"m just an ordinary chemist who"s on a trip. Anyways, you were kidnapped and made into a slave, and now you"re being held down by a chemist. So I wanted to know what that weak Setsuna was going to do after leaving here." (Kearuga)
Setsuna keeps silent. She knows her own weakness and her powerlessness.
I had seen her life with【Recovery Heal】, and I know that she was born in an ice wolf tribe village. On top of that, she was born into the family who were known as the strongest ice wolf tribe warriors.
She was stronger than anyone her age and was called a prodigy. Her overwhelmingly high talent values, her thick blood of the ice wolf king manifesting a unique skill inside her and her genius level fighting intuition than can"t be seen in numbers. Truly an existence loved by G.o.d.
"So you can"t answer huh. You know don"t you, that no matter what you declare, it would just be dying in vain if you leave this place. The weak and non-growing Setsuna can"t do anything." (Kearuga)
Setsuna bites down on her lower lip, and tears starting forming in her eyes.
It was one year ago that an accident happened to Setsuna who was called a genius. She suddenly became unable to win against the people in the same generation as her.
It wasn"t that her fighting intuition had weakened, and her abilities had actually been polished more than anyone else. It"s not like she skipped out on raising her level either, and she was fighting monsters more than anyone else as the daughter of the strongest warrior.
She had reached her level limit at a mere level of 7. She who was questioning why she wasn"t getting any stronger no matter how many monsters she fought found out the truth after using the appraiser her father got.
But even then, she tried to fill in the level gap with ability, and it had brought results for a while. However, the level gap only continued to widen and she finally became unable to beat anyone. No matter how much effort she put in, she couldn"t reach it. By then, no one expected anything from her. The ice wolf tribe genius became a dropout in one go.
She couldn"t give up though, so she continued to polish her skills and continued fighting monsters. She was given the job of patrolling the village"s perimeter, and it was a job to check if the humans are coming to this village. In that ice wolf race village, that"s a job given to the inferior warriors.
And then, two weeks earlier, the human"s reconnoitering party had come. They broke through the recognition obstruction barrier which was made to hide the village and found the location of it.
If they let those guys escape, a great number of humans will come over to kidnap a large quant.i.ty of the rare ice wolf race and sell them as high priced slaves. The people on patrol split up so that three of them would fight the humans, and one would go back to ask for reinforcements.
As a result, all four of them got caught. One of them was brutally killed as a lesson for the others, and another told all the secrets of the ice wolf race village from fear. Afterwards, the three who stayed alive were all sold as slaves.
A while pa.s.sed after they were sold, and apart from Setsuna, the rest all bit their tongue off because they couldn"t stand the pain of the strange disease. The two that died were both Setsuna"s friends.
It won"t end with just two of Setsuna"s friends dying, and if it stays like this, the ice wolf village will be attacked in the near future. All of the necessary information was confessed by the ice wolf that had a weak heart as well.
The people Setsuna resented were the humans that kidnapped them, and forced her friends into dying. The humans that are trying to attack the ice wolf village where all her important people are, and are trying to create a tragedy.
And then, her weak self that can"t do anything. Maybe, if she was stronger and ma.s.sacred all the humans, then she could"ve stopped the information from leaking. Because she was weak, she exposed the ice wolf village to danger. She can"t forgive herself for that.
Therefore, I am planning to give Setsuna an opportunity to get revenge. An opportunity to kill the humans to her heart’s content, and say goodbye to her weak self.
"Setsuna, why don"t we have a discussion. But before that, I"ll show you my appraiser." (Kearuga)
To Setsuna who was being held down, I show her my appraiser. This is an appraiser I had prepared after buying it yesterday. The column of text started from the name, and parts of it would be falsified every now and then.
I left the hero cla.s.s there without falsifying it, so…
"An increase, in the, level limit." (Setsuna)
What Setsuna, the genius who had fallen down to a dropout wanted more than anything else was written there.
"Setsuna, about the ice wolf race village, I"m sorry to say, but there is a large amount of soldiers from the Dioral Kingdom disguised as a mercenary group advancing towards it. If they"re quick, they"ll reach it by tomorrow. Well, even if you start panicking and rush back to your village, you"ll be late. There isn"t even time for them to run, and they"ll have no choice but to fight a hopeless battle. If you go there and add one weak Setsuna, you"ll just be increasing the amount of slaves they get. After all, they"re a proper army, and on top of that, they are from the Dioral Kingdom which is called the strongest country of all. All the people from the ice wolf race will either die, or become slaves." (Kearuga)
Since the moment I used【Recovery Heal】and looked through Setsuna"s memories, I had been gathering information about the ice wolf race. For the Dioral Kingdom, there is a unit that was made to earn money by pretending to be a mercenary group to a.s.sault demi-human villages and turn them into slaves before selling them off to Ra.n.a.litta. I was able to find out that those guys were on the move.
No, it"s not like I found out about it. I had just remembered that there was that kind of plan inside the imperial guard captain"s memories when I had used【Recovery Heal】on him. If I know that a large-scale army is on the move, following them from their traces is easy. It is also possible to find out their date and time of arrival too.
"Why is the Dioral Kingdom"s army" (Setsuna)
"The job of a soldier usually has a lot of free time. So if you use those bored soldiers to a.s.sault the demi-human villages, it becomes good training for them since the soldier"s levels go up, and it also turns into money. It"s one of the most important means of raising money for the Dioral Kingdom." (Kearuga)
Setsuna"s face distorts from hatred. The country itself is trying to ruin the ice wolf race just for the sake of money. That must be something the person concerned absolutely cannot forgive. Come on, hate, and resent them.
"Now, Setsuna, as you can see from this appraiser, I am strong. After all, I"m a sword saint with a high status; a match for a thousand. Freya who isn"t here right now is also around as strong as I am and also, I am able to make the weak Setsuna become stronger since I can raise your level limit. We might be able to come as reinforcements and the ice wolf race could be saved. You can also become stronger and kill the humans that you hate." (Kearuga)
Setsuna swallows her breath. It seems that she has understood what I"m trying to say.
"What can I do to get your cooperation? If it"s to become stronger, if it"s to protect everyone, Setsuna will do anything." (Setsuna)
I take back the knife that I was pressing up against her nape, and stand back up.
"There are two conditions for me lending you my strength. The first one is for you to reveal your true name to me. You understand the meaning of that right." (Kearuga)
"I understand, for my whole life, Setsuna will become a slave in a true meaning. That"s fine, but only after you save the village or else I won"t be able to believe you." (Setsuna)
"Hou, but that"s something that I could say as well." (Kearuga)
"That is, I can"t do anything apart from asking you to believe me." (Setsuna)
"I see, I"ll trust you. I"ll have you show me the good faith that the ice wolf race has." (Kearuga)
I do think it is naive. However, that naivety will become chains that restrain the heart. Using the true name is just making them obey my orders.
It"s not good enough like that. To constantly come up with ideas about what you can do with all your power. If it"s not like that, then you can"t grow. You can"t become stronger. To make her like that, I need to grab her spirit tightly.
"The other condition is that you have to become stronger yourself. It"s possible to exceed your level limit with a hero"s body fluids, and although you can use saliva or blood, the efficiency is really bad. The thing with the best efficiency is s.e.m.e.n." (Kearuga)
I point at my crotch which was cheerfully setting up a tent. Setsuna looks at that and swallows her breath. (TL Note: I think the tent is referring to him getting an erection and because of that his pants are "setting up a tent"… well I think it is, because I can"t think of any other meaning.)
"I"ll say it clearly; I want all your talent apart from your level limit. And to do that, I"ll kill the humans you hate, and protect the ice wolf race village. I"m doing this because you have that much value, but you know, if you plan on not changing how you are right now, I don"t need you. In the first place, Setsuna, are you fine staying like that? Not being able to do anything? Despairing once more because of your weak self?" (Kearuga)
"Setsuna is, Setsuna is" (Setsuna)
Setsuna hesitates, which is why I purposely laugh.
"This isn"t an order. Reach your hand out from your own will of wanting to change. Don"t hesitate. This isn"t just a 〇〇〇. This is Setsuna"s future. Now, choose. Are you going to grab onto your future with this 〇〇〇. Or are you going to give up on everything." (Kearuga)
If, she can"t pick the option of grabbing onto her future, albeit unfortunately, I have no need for her because no matter how talented she may be, she doesn"t have the essential part, her mind isn"t strong enough. Setsuna looks straight forwards to my 〇〇〇.
"Setsuna wants to change. I want to become stronger and save everyone. I want the strength to kill the humans who kill and kidnap our ice wolf race for money. That"s why…" (Setsuna)
On that expression, I was able to see strong determination. I even thought that it was beautiful.
"Setsuna will grab her future《〇〇〇》." (Setsuna)
With her own will, she reached out her hand to my 〇〇〇; she pa.s.sed the test and grabbed her own future. Without being forced, and all out of her own will. Now, with this, she"s also acquired her qualifications.
I"ll be ma.s.sacring the whole Dioral Kingdom army for the sake of my important companion and to say the truth, I hate those guys too. I want to kill them. It"ll also be interesting to make Freya kill the people of her homeland.
Fumu, I was planning on fighting for Setsuna"s sake, but it seems that it"ll become an interesting game for me instead. I"m getting excited now. Once I finish increasing Setsuna"s level limit, we"ll depart straight away.