Well, we slept on the dragon and nothing eventful happened during the night. It"s strange that there isn"t really bad weather but I guess it"s also convenient. The slave I bought was made to sleep on the ground but he didn"t seem to care. He"s probably been made to do it a lot anyway.
Today was the day I was meant to be spending with Lumi so the slave is meant to be staying here. The maid said she"d watch over him so the plans weren"t changed at all. She did suggest that we shouldn"t go out for too long today though. Is she planning something today?
"Don"t make it hard, okay?"
"Please be careful!"
Sarah and Tomoe both make it clear to be cautious, even if it might seem like we don"t need to be. It"s funny seeing how the two have two very different ways of telling us that. One seems to cover up their concern while the other makes it obvious… Why does that sound familiar?
Anyway, Lumi grabs my hand and we head into the town once more.
—-
In the town, what Lumi wanted to do was simply go to a restaraunt. I was ultimately surprised as it didn"t seem like something that she would want to do.
When we get to the restaurant, my confusion subsides.
This isn"t a normal restaurant where you sit down and order. It"s one of the ones where you make your own food. You pay an entry fee of 3 bronze (which seems way to cheap) and get given a table with food. Then you get to make whatever you want. You can"t complain about bad cooking though. That would be incredibly hard to do.
I"m no longer surprised that this is what Lumi wants to do as I think she really enjoys cooking. I think it"s a little odd to start learning this young but as royalty I guess it"s normal? Or, perhaps, it"s even weirder for royalty to do so? I don"t know this world"s common sense!
"… Is onii-san okay?"
"Huh? Oh fine. Sorry, I was lost in thought."
"Oh! Let"s begin!"
Lumi changes from her concerned face to her excited one at the prospect of cooking food. Such a quick turnaround in att.i.tude is slightly scary, to be honest. Then again, it"s better than her being caught up due to my moments of airheadedness.
Lumi has gotten a few pieces of meat (is it steak?) and placed them on a pan on our table, whereas I am currently cutting up things like carrots, tomatoes and lettuce in order to make a salad. There are some other things but I"m not really sure as to what they are. Who the h.e.l.l made this fantasy world?
Ignoring that, there are many other people in this place as well. That may be why it"s cheap, actually. Or, my sense of money is simply warped. Well, on the way here I learned that a family of four farmers (Parents and two children) is able to survive off two silver coins a year. The money system is:
500 Bronze coins = 1 Silver coin
100 Silver coins = 1 Gold coin
50 Gold coins = 1 Platinum coin
10 Platinum coins = 1 Royal Platinum coin
Trying to compare this to another world"s monetary system would be completely useless. The biggest annoyance is there isn"t such an existence as an atm card or something… Even other fantasy worlds had such an item, so why not this one?! It"s too unfair!
Oh, while I was thinking of random things like that, Lumi"s almost finished cooking the meat and I almost cut one of my fingers off…. I didn"t though, so I"m safe!
A few minutes later and we have food served on each of our plates.
"Let"s eat!"
"Mmmn."
We take to eating our large meals in a n.o.ble manner. It would do no good for us to not appear as though we were taught properly – after all, there are a few people here who probably know our ident.i.ty. There"s even the chance the slave salesman who I revealed my ident.i.ty to will turn up, perhaps to push another slave onto me. Thus, eating properly is only natural.
"So, do you know anything about this academy we"re going to?"
"Sorry onii-san, I don"t know much. I was told by my teachers that the education there is a hundred times tougher than a normal academy."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah! It"s also said commoners attend as equals!"
A few people glance at us then go back to cooking and eating their own meals. Perhaps it wasn"t the brightest idea to ask Lumi in public as she doesn"t really have much self control.
"Calm down…"
"Right, onii-san."
Looks like we didn"t really annoy anyone else so we take our leave. The only difference is that when we leave, the person waiting at the door has increased his politeness from the time we entered. It looks like he didn"t realise we were important figures until Lumi said something that revealed it… Are we really that unknown?
We exit the restaurant which leads us to a side-street that connects to the central square. Although I want to do more, I check my amulet and I only have two days left before it reaches a week. That being the case, we make our way back to the dragon.
——
Lumi and I arrive back at the dragon without much trouble but I"ll definitely need to sleep soon. Before I do so, I need to see about this slave.
Once she sees that I"m back, the maid no longer sticks around and takes Lumi to the top of the dragon with her. I"m looking forward to another game of poker with the maid and guards… Not the time to think about that though.
"You. What"s your name?"
"…"
Ehhh? Why isn"t there a response? Is this guy a mute?
I"ll try again.
"Tell me your name."
"… Name… Don"t have."
"You don"t have a name?"
"… No."
His voice is fairly rugged and it appears he can"t speak very well… But what"s this about not having a name?
"Why not?"
"… Fight… Wild. …Captured… No name…"
Trying to understand this guy is a pain in the a.r.s.e. Why does it have to be I pick a slave that can"t speak properly? b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. No wonder I got the cheapest slave ever…
"Hmm… What race are you, then?"
"Dem…."
"Go on…"
"… Half… demon-kin."
He cowers when he says that. Eh? Aren"t demons… Like, the human race’s biggest enemy? How did a half-demon get into slavery here.
Well, I"m not bothered by his race but it seems Sarah and Tomoe are. I can feel your pressure, people! It"s scary! Very scary!
"Alright, are you hostile to me?"
"… No."
"Why not?"
"… Scent?"
Wait, what? Not hostile due to my scent? What the h.e.l.l?
"Pardon?"
"You… Smell nice."
AHHH~ It"s a scary flag right here, right?! I"m not planning on doing "this" and "that" with this fellow! He"s only meant to be here to protect me – If I was to get somebody for that purpose, I"d have rathered one of the big breasted slaves! But it"s not like that, okay???
I take a few breaths to calm down. I"m sure it"s only a misunderstanding on my part and it"s not like the guy can hurt me anyway – It"s one of the advantages of him being a slave. Anyway, I"d better give him a name. But what sort?
The ones I can think of right now are: Charlie, Sam, Feng and Yuuki. That"s two western names, a Chinese name and a j.a.panese name… I think? I don"t really remember anymore. They"re just the ones that popup in my head.
Instead of choosing myself, I list them all until the guy chooses it.
"… Yuuki."
"Okay, from now on you are "Yuuki"."
Now that I"ve finished with Yuuki, I"ll need to get up on the dragon. That will mean that Sarah or Tomoe or perhaps even both of them will now be talking to me about the dangers of keeping this slave… Probably. It seems they weren"t able to tell that he was half demon when they first saw him. It"s sort of strange.
I guess they see me waiting at the dragon, because they reveal themselves and Tomoe lifts me up and we get to the top. I lie down on my bed and the two begin their lectures…
"Demon-kin… It"s said they have the most potent magic of all the races – to the extent where many scholars claim that Demon magic is based on blood rituals and every other magic is borrowed from other races -"
"-I thought I told you not to make my job harder? It"s rare to come across any demon in this continent. They namely live in the continents that humans haven"t conquered yet-"
"- But the blood contract of slaves is unbreakable. It appears you"ve made a valuable a.s.set this time -"
"-Ignoring that, why was the slave so cheap? Even for a discount for royalty and factoring in the broken speech it"s too extensive…"
"…"
"…"
The onslaught of speech has finally stopped. From the way they kept interrupting each other, It looks like they were more curious then I was about Yuuki. And the information I"ve learned is good as well, so it wasn"t a bad purchase. It sounds like Yuuki will be a good fighter so there"s nothing to be sad about…
Thinking about things like that, I fall back into the black world of slumber.
~ ~