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Today, I had also earned a good amount. Tomorrow would be the day when I’d take Rir to the guild to become an adventurer, as I had promised her.

I really would prefer for her to rest a lot more, but… from how she’s able to eat food, her recovery is strangely fast, and more than anythin’, she has nothin’ to do… so it should be fine… I guess?

At any rate, it looks like she’s worried about bein’ in front of other people. She probably doesn’t like how she’s missin’ one of her ears.

I seemed that she didn’t worry about her tail, which was hidden under her skirt, or the slave brand, which was covered by the sleeve of her dress, but she was apparently concerned about her ear. She didn’t tell me that herself, but each time we talked about going outside, her hand strayed to where it was missing, so I guessed as much.

She never told me what she wanted, unless I pressed her to do so. For that reason, I bought a red hood for her.
A wolf wearing somethin’ like Red Ridin’ Hood feels a bit like a joke, don’t it?

“I’m back.”
“Welcome home, Master. We talked about it in the morning, but tomorrow is finally the day when I’ll become an adventurer, isn’t it? The athletic abilities of wolfkin are quite good, so I am sure I’ll be able to support you!”

Right after I returned from my purchase, Rir jumped up from the bed. Her ear stood up straight and her tail was swishing like that of a dog, which I could infer from her skirt stretching out a little.

“Right, what kind of role do you want to take as an adventurer? I’m currently mostly usin’ magic…”
“I was thinking about acting as a warrior. Though I never fought anything before. My father was a woodcutter, so I can only handle axes¹.”
“So, you use an axe… ain’t that dangerous?”
“I’ll be fine. You don’t think I’m the same as a human, do you? It’s not only wolfkin… in general, all beastfolk have high strength, you see.”

From how slender her arms are, I wouldn’t have expected Rir to swing around some heavy axe with ease, but… that’s what she says, and she also told me that the athletic abilities of wolf beastfolk are good, so she can probably handle it.

“I see… Then, tomorrow, right after registerin’ you, let’s go buy you an axe and some defensive gear.”
“Ah… I see, you’ll have to spend money for it, won’t you? …I don’t need any armor, you know. You didn’t spend money on armor for yourself, Master, so it should be the same for me, too.”
“No, what are we goin’ to do, if you end up injured?”
“As I am, this would be no issue. I am covered in wounds, so adding one… or two wouldn’t make a difference at this point.”

When she said that, she suddenly turned over her skirt and showed me her thigh. Same as when I cast a glimpse at her before, I spied various scars and burn marks on it.

I’m kinda lost how to react to those wounds… For the time bein’… I gotta make her understand that it’s not just to prevent new wounds, but also to avoid fatal injuries.

“What if you get some life-threatenin’ injury? Not even talkin’ ’bout cases where healin’ an injury will cost more money than the armor would’ve, y’know?”
“In such a case, you can simply abandon me.”

This… I just can’t get her to stop spittin’ out this phrase every time.

Even though she’s gettin’ better regardin’ food. Why, just why does she keep sayin’ that? I had to warn her implicitly about her excessively self-deprecatin’² manner close to ten times in these three days.

“…I won’t abandon you, Rir. That won’t change, no matter how often you tell me. Enough already, don’t make me say it again.”
“Mas-…!? I am sorry…”

I got a bit angry, resulting in her changing the way she spoke and behaved. This was probably another habit she picked up together with that disposition to put herself down.
There’s clearly somethin’ she’s afraid of, ain’t there?

“…Ah, the thing is. Let’s heal that part of you, too, little by little, y’know? Alright?”
“Yeah… you’re right. If you say so, Master, let’s do that. Still, about the armor, I should be able to move more easily, if I don’t wear any.”
“Then we’ll use one that’s on the lighter side.”
“…Yes. I’m sorry for making you spend money for me.”

Our talk has reached some stoppin’ point… right?
The mood ended up pretty gloomy. I gotta do somethin’… Right, let’s give her the hood as a present.

“H-Hey, Rir. By the way, I bought something for you that I think should suit you…”
“What is it? …A hood?”
“Yup, it kinda looked like you were weirdly worried ’bout your missin’ ear… Though I don’t really get why you’d be concerned ’bout that.”
“Oh, you noticed? Well, I don’t like being in front of other people very much, I guess. It feels more embarrassing than a crowd of people staring at my slave brand.”
“I see. Well, I thought you’d feel like that, so I went and bought it for you. Try wearin’ it to see how it looks.”
“Yeah… thank you.”

Rir took the red hood from me and put it on.
Hrm, looks really good. Doesn’t feel off, or anythin’.

“I… I am covered in wounds… and I never had much confidence in my looks from the start. If anything, I am hideous. B-But this is my nature as a woman. Uhm… I’d like to ask you something, but…”

She looked up at me bashfully. At my age, never having had a girlfriend, this caused a lot of damage.
…I can’t help but call her cute.

“It suits you, y’know. Ah… erm… I think that… you look cute.”
“L-Let me finish talking… Oh, still, I’m cute? Really? That someone like me would be cute… Eh-heh-heh, y-you don’t think I’m ugly?”
“Come look in the mirror.”
“I-I’m afraid. I… uhm… I haven’t looked into a mirror for several years… and I always try not to look at my reflection, when I take a bath…”
“Then, should we look at it together? If you don’t want to, that’s fine.
“…C-Come with me, then… please.”

“Rir and I moved in front of the washbasin, and both peered into the mirror. In there, me with my cauliflower ears³ and an adorable girl wearing a red hood were reflected.

“…That’s me in the mirror?”
“Well, yes.”
“Master, compared to me, you are much taller, aren’t you? There’s a one… and a half head difference.”
“…That’s true. So, what do you think?”
“This red hood is very cute. Thank you, really.”
“I’m glad that it made you happy. Erm… I think the reason the red hood looks cute is… uhm… because the one wearing it is cute in the first place…”
“Heh-heh. Thank you, Master. No matter if it’s a lie… or if you really mean it. This makes me incredibly, incredibly happy.”

We stepped back from the washbasin and afterwards spent the rest of the day talking.

TL notes:
We’re back to Shuu, who apparently fixed his communication issues, at least somewhat, and will soon be joined by a partner in adventuring. We’re also getting some snippets about Rir’s past, though still nothing about what happened before she became a slave that resulted in her injuries.

Anyway, confession time: Back in April, when I backed up chapters from Syosetsu (in case they’re deleted or something) and found a chapter with Shuu’s status screen, I apparently misread his name (even after learning Japanese for more than a year, I still misread katakana embarrassingly often). His name is actually “Shou”, and I only realized that when reading a future chapter where his name in katakana was next to something else also in katakana which didn’t make sense with a “shu” sound.

At this point, I’d prefer to keep it as “Shuu” since I’ve been using it for months and it’d be a pain to go through all chapters to fix it (plus I always think of him as “Shuu” in my mind).

1. I wonder if there’s a specific skill for axes, or if they fall under one of the other weapon skills. There was also the morning-star dude back in chapter 157, so maybe there are additional weapon skills other than the ones you start out with.
2. The original is 自虐 (“self-torture”, “masochism”). I’ve seen masochism used a lot in light/web-novels in ways that go against its primary meaning: enjoyment derived from feeling pain. It feels like it’s very often associated with humiliation and self-deprecation instead. I used the latter, since I think it fits the intention here better.
3. The original is 餃子耳 (“Gyoza/Dumpling ear”).