| Author: SS Samurai | Original Source: Syosetu |
| Translator: rm31439 | English Source: Re:Library |
“W-What’s wrong? Why are you crying, Master…?”
These words brought me back to my senses and I let go of Rir.
“M-My bad.”
“You don’t need to apologize. I am… your slave, Master.”
“R-Right… I guess?”
Rir gazed at me with a puzzled expression.
They called her a defective product, but on closer look, ain’t she awfully cute?
“By the way, Master, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Hm, what is it?”
I wonder what she wants to ask. Either way, I better give her an answer…
“Why did you buy me?”
“Huh?”
That’s kinda hard to answer. Should I be honest and tell her I wanted to save her and that I felt sorry for her?
“Uh, why are you asking that?”
Right, let’s get her reason first.
However, Rir was looking at me with reproachful eyes.
“It’s not good to reply to a question with another question, Master. I was beaten for that in the past. The bruises were swollen for three days.”
Seriously, just what kind of environment did they place her in? I feel like runnin’ away.
“R-Right, my bad.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s only, why did you buy… wait, I’m pretty sure I heard him say that it was free of charge, so why did you take a defective product like me…? It wasn’t to satisfy your violent urges or provide sexual services… And it also doesn’t seem to be to have me do chores and help with housework. This appears to be an inn, right? …I don’t understand it at all.”
She absolutely right. I only thought about savin’ her, and… I believe it was the right thing to do, but…
Only tellin’ her to stay here is also wrong, ain’t it? I gotta think about that soon, too. Still, I need to tell her my reason for takin’ her.
“Say, do you know what happens to young female slaves like you, when they are judged to be defective products?”
“Well, somewhat… Though I don’t know all the details.”
“The merchant told me about it… I only got part of it, since it made me feel sick halfway through his explanation, but…”
“…Could that have been your reason?”
“Yep.”
“You… you felt sympathy for me, so you took me into your care… That was your reason, wasn’t it?”
When she realized that, large tears started to fall from her eyes.
She’s cryin’ again. Was that somethin’ I shouldn’t have told her? Still, doesn’t look like that… Let’s see how it goes for a bit.
“Yes… I wanted to save you, so that’s what I did. If you want to, I can release you from the slave contract right now. Should I do that?”
I brought out the contract and ran my hand over it.
“No, uhm…” she shook her head. “As a former slave… with a missing ear and my tail cut short, I couldn’t live either way. If… If I become a burden to you, please terminate the contract. I’ll go somewhere on my own.”
“Understood. I’ll store it away for now. If you ever want me to cancel the contract, tell me so.”
“…I don’t think this will happen, but… understood.”
If that’s what she wants…
I put the contract away.
“…Why are you cryin’?” I asked her.
“Erm… I am not used to… such kind words. It made me happy… Oh, if it rubbed you the wrong way, I am very sorry.”
“Nah, that’s not it.”
I mostly get it now. Then, what to do from now on. In the end, I never got an answer for what food she likes. Still, I gotta have her eat somethin’.
“Also… Rir.”
“Y-Yes. What do you need?”
“Naturally, you gotta eat, or we won’t be gettin’ anywhere. Even if you don’t have any favorite food, is there anythin’ you want to eat?”
“T-There is. I know something.”
“I see, what would be best?”
Rir closed her eyes, apparently recalling something, and was deep in thought for some time. After a while, she opened them again.
“…A long time ago, when my father and mother were still alive… the three of us ate something… called ‘steak’. I’d like to try eating that again. Though that was around six years ago.”
“…Gotcha.”
Steak, huh…?
Or rather, she said when her mom and dad were still alive… So, it wasn’t her parents who abused her, right? At any rate, I’ll ask her about that little by little, and now I gotta listen to her wish.
“Alright, I’ll go buy some. You can wait here.”
“…Understood.”
I left the inn and looked for a butcher’s store. I ended up searching for around 10 minutes, but there was one fairly close to the inn.
There’s a ton of meat that I’ve never seen before. It’s probably from these so-called magic beasts… With the money I have on me, I gotta buy meat that goes for 560 bells or less.
I zeroed in on a piece of meat. Child Dragon meat, 550 bells1 per piece.
Dragon meat is supposed to be tasty, ain’t it…?
“Excuse me,” I called out to the butcher.
“Yeah?”
“Would this… Child Dragon meat happen to taste good?”
“What, you don’t know it? That’s high-grade meat, y’know, so it’s obviously delicious!”
“I-I see… One of those, then.”
“Alright.”
Damn, I ended up buying an expensive one on the spur of the moment. Breakfast and dinner are included in the inn, so I should be fine on meals, but still…
Whatever, it’s to save that girl. I gotta think of it as somethin’ more or less unavoidable.
After returning to the inn, I called out to the man at the counter.
“Excuse me, Sir, do you happen to have a kitchen and tableware I could borrow… and a small amount of seasoning I could use?”
“My kitchen? Hm~… Well, that should be fine. In exchange, please clean everything you use afterwards, alright?”
“Thank you very much!”
He showed me to the kitchen. It looked like they had frying pans in this world. There was also salt and pepper.
I’d like to make somethin’ like onion sauce, but sadly I dunno how to cook stuff other than fryin’ it with salt and pepper.
While I was frying the steak, I obtained a skill called “cooking”. With that said, I managed to grill the steak without incident, though it did give me some trouble, and brought it to Rir.
TL notes:
And Shuu’s struggle continues. It’s somewhat nice to have a male light novel protagonist who isn’t super-skilled at cooking from the get-go, though I guess Alim wasn’t either when he started out.
