“Please wait a moment!”

The lady at the reception desk called out to me just as I was pivoting to head back.

“I have yet to return your guild card.”

… I’d completely forgotten. The only thing on my mind was the upcoming sweet nighttime together with Nellie.

“With the subjugation of the aforementioned scale vipers, you have earned enough points to proceed immediately to D-rank. Congratulations.”

“Eh? I jumped two ranks in one go? Am I allowed to just skip ranks?”

“You are. In the first place, even just a single scale viper would normally require a C-rank party to take it down… for example, Govack-sama’s party over there. To have accomplished such a task by yourself, and having defeated five of them on top of that… it would be difficult to leave you at F-rank.”

“Think about it this way,” Govack interjected, “if you were an actual F-Rank, there’d be nothing left of our reputation as guild members. And it’d look like we tried to steal a rookie’s job… You should just accept your promotion in earnest. It’s for the best, don’t you think?”

Ah, I see… you could look at it that way too.

“Understood. I’ll graciously accept it.”

“You can accept requests that are up to one rank above or two ranks below your current guild rank, s.h.i.+no-dono. You are currently rank D, so that means you can accept requests from C to F-Rank.”

“Thank you for letting me know.”

Having lost the opportunity to explain, the lady behind the counter glared at Govack.

“Well, I’ll leave the more detailed questions for tomorrow when I’m looking for some jobs… but for now, I’d like to relax and take a bath.”

*Karma*

“Mm? An inn with a bathhouse? A bathhouse… You can only find expensive inns if that’s what you’re looking for. Around here anyway…”

We soon separated from Govack’s party. They were staying at an inn that was managed directly by the guild. Me and Nellie on the other hand were headed to one of the ‘tad expensive’ inns recommended by Govack.

*Karma*

“What do you mean we can’t enter the bathhouse?”

I demanded a clear explanation from the employee who was clearly casting hesitant glances in Nellie’s direction.

“Uhh, that is to say… There are some customers who might find it unhygienic to enter the same bath as a slave.”

“Hey… Are you trying to imply that my Nellie is filthy…?”

“N-n-no, it’s just… ”

Looking at the way Nellie was dressed right now, post panaceaic pills, there wasn’t a single a trace of disease or blemish. Not a flake of dandruff on her fur. How could they not even understand her beauty?

“Uh, uhm, s.h.i.+no-sama, if it’s just me, then I do not mind…”

“I won’t allow it. By this hand, I will clean everything from your nails to the tips of your fur until it sparkles!”

“I-If, if that’s the case… how about a compromise?”

“Hmm?”

“It would be quite pricey, but if you choose to stay in a suite… you could use the bathtub in those rooms rather than the public bath.”

Some bathtime for just the two of us, in a place where no one can interrupt us.

“There’s no helping it then. I’ll take the room,” I answered instantly.

*Karma*

“Funfu~n♪”

I hummed a tune as I brushed Nellie’s hair.

“Despite not being fed properly, your hair is still so glossy… Ah, finished. You look so lovely.”

Once the dreamy bathtime concluded, we sat in the dressing room in front of a bronze mirror,1 and I began to stroke Nellie’s hair.

Now that I think about it, a single night here set me back 500 kuramu. I’d already gotten my money’s worth!

“Tha-thank you very much. But! You’re the one who is beautiful, s.h.i.+no-sama…”

I giggled and said, “Thank you.”

Nellie wasn’t flattering me just because I was her master.

This must have been another example of my game character “Kagura s.h.i.+no” having an influence on the real me.

“They should be just about done preparing our meal. Shall we head over to eat?”

“Yes.”

This was to be my first proper meal since arriving in this world. I was really looking forward to it.

“Woah, what is all this?”

This definitely was one of the expensive inns. Extravagant dishes lined the table in a quant.i.ty that I couldn’t possibly finish… but that was only my portion.

Obviously leftover sc.r.a.ps. On top of that, there wasn’t a spoon or fork in sight… Was she meant to eat with her bare hands?

But most of all, Nellie was already sitting directly on the floor.

“I can’t believe it. There’s white bread… and even fish.“

Nellie appeared to be deeply moved by this kind of treatment. Just what kind of terrible circ.u.mstances had she been in beforehand?

“Nellie, you needn’t sit on the cold floor. Let’s eat together at the table okay?”

“I, I couldn’t possibly… For a slave to eat at the same table as her master, I’m not worthy.”

“Hmm, really now… You won’t no matter what?”

“Y-yes.”

“… Then in that case.”

I opened my inventory and selected the tatami mat.2 It was one of the items that allowed the player to customize their personal residence should they own one.

“Choosing a target location, place six mats… also add a tea table, place one… a cus.h.i.+on3 too, place two.”

And just like that, atop the stone-cold floor appeared a simple but familiar six-tatami floor room.

“Eh? Where… Where did all of this come from?”

“Mmm, I’ll tell you after the meal alright?”

I browsed through my inventory again and then took out some food. Sengoku Online had all the ingredients found throughout j.a.pan registered as items, so there were many options.

“Tsukimi udon, hegi soba, bamboo-leaf-wrapped dango, red bean mochi, okesa persimmons, hamaguri sakamus.h.i.+, oyaki, houtou, chan chan yaki, nankou ume rice b.a.l.l.s, and chicken mizutaki.”4

I took dish after dish out and arranged them on the tea table.

“… They’re all dishes I’ve never seen before. Are these from your country, s.h.i.+no-sama…?”

“That’s right. Now, let’s eat together.”

“Eh, b-but-”

“Where I live, we usually sit on the floor atop these tatami mats you know? Of course mealtimes are also like that.”

Although Nellie began eating extremely timidly, eventually she increased her pace… In the end, she wolfed down the food with gus.h.i.+ng tears.

It’s alright, eat for as long as you like.

About an hour later having finished eating, I decided to talk with Nellie about our plans.

“Our most urgent goal is… to buy land and to free Nellie from slavery.”

“s.h.i.+… s.h.i.+no-sama! H-have I done something wrong!? P-please don’t throw me away…”

Don’t look up at me with those teary eyes Nellie-san. I might pounce on you.

“Dummy, of course I won’t throw you away… I just simply can’t stand anyone calling my Nellie a slave. And just who was it that pa.s.sionately swore to me, ‘even if I’m no longer a slave, I still belong to s.h.i.+no-sama’?”

“Ah, ahh…”

Her face flushed red. A silent Nellie, so adorable.

“Land… to build a house on. As long as we have land, we can use the foundation system to take care of the actual building.”

In Sengoku Online, the foundation system was used to construct the house for a player’s residence.

Once I had found a suitably open and convenient location, all I had to do was designate it and a house would be constructed in an instant.

“Hmm… If I wanted enough land to build a n.o.ble’s mansion… I wonder how much that would be within the city.”

“I can’t picture it at all, but… I think that 100,000 kuramu wouldn’t be enough.”

“Is that so? Then how about 300,000 kuramu for some leeway… So about thirty gold is the goal.”

Since one C-rank monster was worth fifty silver, it wasn’t too out of reach.

“The next problem would be how to go about freeing you from slavery. How does it work? If I, as the master, tell you that you’re free to do whatever, do you stop being a slave?”

“For my official social standing, then it is as you say. Similar to earlier in the morning, while touching my collar of submission, you need to pray to the G.o.d of Contracts, Promys-sama, to dissolve the contract.”

“I see, I see. So is it something like this? ‘G.o.d of Contracts, Promys, I pray to thee. My name is Kunoichi s.h.i.+no Kagura, master of the slave Nellie, and I request of my own free will that she be released from slavery with no fee attached’?”

Oho, Nellie’s collar began to glimmer. Though I had just blabbered some words that seemed appropriate, it looked like it was actually working…

“Now, my official social standing has changed from a slave to a commoner… Thank you so much s.h.i.+no-sama… But…”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Even if I’m no longer a slave, I, I still want to work for s.h.i.+no-sama. This time, of my own will… would you allow me to serve you not as a ‘slave’ but as an ‘attendant’?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want Nellie…”

“Thank you very much, s.h.i.+no-sama…”

No. Thank you Nellie.

Thrown into another world by myself and in that dismal time, to already have someone care for me this deeply… aren’t I extremely blessed?

“Ah, you were saying earlier… What did you mean by your ‘official social standing’?”

“Uhm, in the Adventurer’s Guild, my cla.s.s is still set to basic slave, and that hasn’t changed.”

“Ehh?”

“Well, there aren’t really any particular drawbacks…”

“No, we must do something about that too!”

“Even if wish it to be so… in order to change cla.s.ses, I must be over level 15.”

“If you do change… what can you become?”

“I believe the options were maid or attendant…”

“Yes, that’s exactly what we need!”

At last, my long-awaited cat-eared maid!!

“Starting tomorrow, I plan to acc.u.mulate funds and rapidly raise your level… Operation ‘Power Leveling’ commence!”

“Y-yes!”

“By the way… would it be alright if I take a look at your status for reference? I’ll show you mine as well.”

“Yes, of course! Um… here you go.”

Nellie’s guild card was as pure white as the hair on her body:

*karma*

s.e.x: Female

Total Level: 1

Cla.s.s Level: Basic Slave – 85

MP

Vit

Spd

Mid

*karma*

800

15

15

9

*karma*

‘Celestial Maiden of Mana’

Special Skills

Beastkin Body

Type Affinity

Light +10%

Blessings

*karma*

“Mhm, you’re quite amazing! 800 MP, isn’t that really large?”

“A-about that, last I checked, I only had 10 MP… ‘Celestial Maiden of Mana’ t.i.tle? My Shadow affinity also went up to 10%… And under blessings, isn’t that s.h.i.+no-sama’s name!?”

“Ah, ahaha… I wonder why…”

It was that wasn’t it… I had hugged her, so I had given her a lot of mana. Fooling her completely was probably impossible this late in… I suppose I should explain somewhat.

“Then, it’s my turn.”

Setting everything to revealed, I handed my card to Nellie.

“Le-… Level 85…? I thought the limit was 50… and your MP is N/A!? Under your status, you have three stats maxed at 18, and the rest are all above average… Y-you have over a 50% affinity, even the people from the legends didn’t have that!!”

From coming another world, to serving as an intermediary for the mana between the two worlds, it seems that I would have to explain both to Nellie.

Even if it causes her to fear me and run away.

But, Nellie just showed me an unfazed smile and said, “As expected of my Goshujin-sama.”

Before I knew it, I had bore Nellie down onto the bed… and had begun submerging myself into her mushy cat ears and tail…

“Ah, ahh! s.h.i.+no-sama… I-I’m… sensitive there…”

Part way through, her voice had become quite seductive, and she began to gasp for breath, but I choose to pay it no heed.