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“How many rounds have we made including this one?”
“12 of ’em. While we take a break… let’s go outside and open the boxes.”
“Alright.”

Since clearing the mission room for the first time, Rir and I had gone through the dungeon another 10 times. She took care of three of the rooms, while I cleared the other two plus the challenge mission. From what she told me, it took her between one and two strikes to defeat the deteriorated Myrmecoleon specimen. I was also able to defeat it with a single magic attack.

Thanks to that, we were averaging around seven minutes per round. After we realized that consciously using our quickness would make our surroundings slow down, we were able to shrink down that time even further.

I lined up the boxes on the ground.

“Then, let’s open ’em up.”
“Yeah.”

The contents were the following:
-10 S-Rank magic cores
-One Legend Potion
-A legend grade magic bag with the unlimited storage enchantment
-Three large chunks of Orichalcum
-One SS-Rank magic core
-The corpse of a magic beast called Orthrus¹　
-10 Master Potions
-An S-Rank SK1 skill called “Momentary Imperceptibility²”
-A magic card containing the enchantment “Stainproof and Everlasting”
-A 4-star SK2 skill called “Great Clairvoyance³”

Once I finished appraising everything, I relayed the gist of my findings to Rir.
I’ll give her a detailed explanation in the evening.

“Great Clairvoyance? Uhm…” Rir mused with slightly flushed cheeks once I had finished my brief explanation, showing an expression as if she had realized something. “Master… if it’s merely in front of you… and if you desire so, I can just take off my clothes… There’s no need for you to learn this skill.”
“Nah, I wasn’t… I’m not gonna use it for that stuff. I mean, I’d like to see it, but…”

It was half in jest, but I kinda had to say it. Still, for some reason Rir’s expression turned incredibly sad.

“As I thought… It’s because my body is covered in wounds… isn’t it?”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that! It’s not because of your body… the reason is… hang on? Your body…!?”

I got to this point in my excuse when I realized something. I remembered the effects those 11 potions we had gotten our hands on. Rir could use one of these. On top of fully restoring your HP and healing all wounds, Master Potions could also regrow arms and other body parts. In other words, if Rir used one of them, it might remove the source of her inferiority complex.

Why didn’t I realize that the moment I saw their description?

“Master…!? Is something wrong?”
“Hey, Rir. If you could regrow your missing ear, would you want to!? And… what if you could get rid of all those wounds and scars on your body?”
“Of… of course I would…”
“In that case… take this,” I held out a Master Potion to her.

After staring intently at the potion for some time, Rir asked me for a detailed explanation. I told her about its effects and how useful they would be for her.

“That’s ’bout it. We got 10 of these, so… no need to hold back. It was hard for you up till now, wasn’t it?”
“Master…! I’m sorry, I’ll need a bit of…!”

I thought I saw some tears in her eyes, but the next moment ran away somewhere. It looked like she came to a stop in a fairly close spot, still within range of Detection.
Oh, right. She’s probably embarrassed to check if her wounds are all gone after drinkin’ it, while in front of me.

I got a bit worried, since it took an awful lot of time for just drinking something, and I also heard something that sounded like a howl. A short time later, Rir, who was crying hard, returned

She wasn’t wearing a single piece of clothing… There were traces of blood from her mouth running in a straight line down her body, which had lovely white skin, unmarred by any wounds. She also had both her ears, and her tail had grown longer and looked bushy like that of a Shiba Inu.

I want to tell her that this is great, really great.
I do, but… How am I supposed to react to a buck-naked girl with blood on her mouth, who’s roughly the same age as me and looks as if she’s about to jump me any moment now? Moreover, she’s holdin’ somethin’ in her hand that looks important…

“Wah~~… Master… Master! *Sob*… I…”
“Hang on… Rir… Clothes! Put on some clothes…! And what’s with that blood-”

*Fwoosh*, she pulled me in an embrace. The impact made me tumble over.

To think that she’d hug me while being naked… Just what the hell am I supposed to do? Please, don’t notice what’s happenin’ in my lower half, will you?
Nah… doesn’t look like she has the mental leeway for that… Though I don’t either.

“Master, Master! I will stay with you for the rest of my life. That’s what I want to do…! Both in body and soul, you have my deepest… deepest… wah~…”
“Hey, hey!? Rir!?”

_____
____
__

“My apologies, Master.”
“…Right.”

After some time, she managed to calm down.

It was super hard to keep my mind free⁴. But, with a lot of effort, I managed.

Currently, Rir had put on the clothes she’d been wearing earlier again and was holding out something to me, while prostrating herself like that time when I’d saved her from falling off that cliff.

It was a canine tied together with hair and with blood dribbled onto it, something that did nothing but evoke dread. Out of curiosity I appraised it, but the “Wolfkin’s Proof of Absolute Loyalty” the skill displayed only served to deepen my confusion.

“For now… it’s fine. Congratulations!”
“Awoo!! It’s all thanks to you, Master! Thank you, really… thank you so, so much!”

Rir started crying again.
Well, guess those are happy tears.

“Hm… I can see that you’re super happy, so… uhm… I won’t say anythin’ about you suddenly huggin’ me.”
“Yeah…”
“Still, I do have two questions. First, what’s with that blood running down your mouth? And second, what’s this thing you’re holdin’ out?”

Rir momentarily stopped prostrating herself and looked at my face while still kneeling. There seemed to be somewhat of a smile on her face.

“For the first question, I pulled out one of my teeth. It was a bit hard to get it out and it hurt… That’s where the blood is from, you see.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“About that… you’ll understand once I’ve told you,” she said and showed me the puzzling object once again. “This is… a bundle of hair from my head and my tail, tied together with a tooth in the middle and with my blood dribbled on it…”
“Hearin’ you say that, it kinda scares me…”
“Eh-heh-heh… I guess that’s true. But this is something we wolfkin, who usually act in packs, give to the person whose strength we’ve recognized and at whose side we plan to spend the rest of our lives. I can only do this once in my life.”

So that’s why it’s called “Proof of Loyalty”…? Somethin’ to give to the person at whose side you plan to spend your whole life…? And she wants to give this to me?
To me? Seriously! And she can only do this once in her whole life…

“Hey, Rir. You said you can only do this once, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You shouldn’t… I can’t accept somethin’ like that.”
“W-Why? This isn’t a marriage proposal, you know? Well… I mean… if that’s how you see it, then I wouldn’t mind, but… I meant it in the way of staying at your side as a slave and supporting you for the rest of my life…”

A marriage proposal…? This conversation turned kinda heavy…
In other words, I’m faced with a choice that, no matter how I choose, will decide Rir’s whole life.

Still… I was plannin’ to free her from bein’ a slave. That she’d stay her whole life as my slave…
To begin with… I’ll probably return to Earth at some point.

TL notes:
I decided to make some changes to the naming scheme for demi humans and specific types. I’m switching to “beastfolk” when it’s specifically about 獣人 (beast person), demi humans will be for all humanoid non-humans that can use the status screen. For specific types I’ll be using type + kin (e.g. Rabbitkin, Catkin, Wolfkin), mostly since “tribe” implies that it’s one group of people living together rather than people that share the same animal traits.

1. The Orthrus is a two-headed dog from Greek mythology. The brother of Cerberus who guards Geryon’s cattle and is killed by Hercules.
2. The original is 瞬の不視化. Changed the name slightly due to information from a future chapter.
3. The original is 大透視. 透視 is more in the meaning of “seeing through things” than “see the future”.
4. The original is 無心, which, aside from “innocence”, also has the meaning “free from obstructive thoughts” in Buddhism. I assume it’s meant that way here.