“Ah…!” The women’s astonished voices raised as one.
“I’d like to say there’s a huge variety, but honestly, there aren’t that many outfits here. Still, grab whatever suits your fancy.”
After we finished eating, we cleared off the large dining table, and I stacked a bunch of outfits, cloth, and even underwear on top of it. One of the reasons I always kept things like this in my inventory was exactly for situations like this, so uh, yeah. I wasn’t some pervert carrying women’s underwear for shits and giggles.
“Generally speaking, these are all for humans, so there aren’t any tiny tail holes. Use the sewing tools I’ve got here to make whatever adjustments you need, okay?”
The tops were fine, but the skirts, pants, and shorts would all need a little work so that beastmen could wear them comfortably. I figured the women would know what to do on that front, so I felt fine leaving it to them.
“All right! Um, thank you very much.”
“It’s no biggie,” I said and waved a hand at the fox-eared woman—her name was Byaku—who’d first spoken to me back when we rescued them.
After breakfast, I had everyone introduce themselves since I hadn’t gotten their names yet.
Let me break it down.
There were eight women in total. All of them were female beastmen with animal ears and tails but otherwise human features. And all of them were young. The bandits had clearly gone out of their way to kidnap younger women. The fact that they all leaned more human-looking probably wasn’t a coincidence either. Ugh.
The first of the group was the fox-eared woman named Byaku. She was a beautiful woman with red-tinged, yellowish-brown hair—just like a fox. Her sharp, straight ears and fluffy tail suited her perfectly.
Among the group were a pair of dog beastman sisters with blackish-brown hair and droopy ears that fell over their hair, hiding them almost completely. If they didn’t have tails, you could mistake them for humans. They shared similar features, and sure enough, when I asked, they told me they were twins. Apparently, it was fairly common among dog and wolf beastmen for children to be born as twins or even triplets. Their names were Luna and Lana. Both were pretty shy and stuck together like glue from the moment we rescued them.
The fourth woman was a mouse beastman named Mito. She was small, with pure white hair and matching ears, and always hid behind someone. She seemed much more timid than the others. Up to now, the only words we’d exchanged were her name, but the way she peeked out at me from behind the others told me she wasn’t actively trying to avoid me. Maybe once she felt safe enough, we’d actually be able to talk.
The fifth woman was a tall horse beastman named Shen, with chestnut hair. I’d been told she resisted her captors fiercely, which led to her being abused more brutally than any of the others. She’d been punched in the face and had both of her Achilles tendons severed. Thankfully, she was all healed up now—her tendons were good as new. When I spoke with her, she seemed peaceful and calm, though I had a feeling there was a stubborn streak hidden underneath.
The sixth woman was a rabbit beastman named Meme, with gray-tinged hair. Her long, pointed rabbit ears definitely stood out. Most rabbit beastmen I’d met were small and slender, but Meme was quite tall and full-figured—though describing a woman like that felt rude. Strong in appearance, apparently she’d carried Shen to the airboard by herself when they escaped, without Shemel’s help. The fact that she’d acted so decisively even after all she’d been through made it clear she was strong-willed.
The seventh woman was Fei, a beastman with small, round, brown ears. Even after checking her tail, I couldn’t quite figure out what kind of animal she was, but according to her, she was a weasel beastman. She and Shen shared the same hometown, and she was deeply grateful that I’d healed Shen’s wounds. Apparently, Shen had been injured so badly because she was protecting Fei, and that guilt had weighed heavily on her ever since. Now she barely left Shen’s side, doting on her constantly.
The final woman was Olivia, a goat beastman with two short, curly horns atop her head. She had both horns now, but before I healed her yesterday, one had been broken clean off. Until I treated her, she’d been completely despondent, but when I used a regenerative medicine made from Grande’s blood to restore her horn, she broke down crying with gratitude. I’d heard that for horned beastmen, losing a horn was considered a profound disgrace, so I was glad that I could help her.
And for the record, of the eight women we saved, Olivia was by far the most grateful. She was the one who’d tried to visit my room last night. I decided to give Shemel a little bonus for handling that situation so gracefully.
“I’ll be making all sorts of things in the room over there, so if you need me, don’t hesitate to come get me. Ladies, if you please?”
“Aye, Boss.”
“Roger that!”
“All right.”
Leaving everything in the ogre girls’ capable hands, I retreated to my room to start crafting some accessories and small items for the women. I absolutely had to head into Museburg tomorrow to speak to Viscount Travis. Madame Zamil should’ve already contacted him, but…how was that going to play out?
Explaining all of this was going to be a real pain.
✦ ✦ ✦
I made combs, brushes, and other accessories for the women so that they could tidy up. I handed out bonuses to the ogre girls, gave some food to the rescued women because they wanted to make lunch for me, and made donuts for Grande when she said she was hungry. Before I knew it, night had fallen.
“So, what do you think?” I asked.
“I may have a good eye, but I can’t see into someone’s heart,” Tozume said from above. “That said, I do think they are well enough to travel.”
“Great, great.”
Tozume and I were having a serious conversation while soaking in the bath. By the way, Tozume’s voice was literally coming from above my head.
I swear, between you, Shemel, and Bela, you all really love holding me whenever we bathe together, huh?
“Well, we had a stroke of bad luck at the end, but we’re done with work for now, right? The saint and Amalie will probably be havin’ their kids soon, so I guess we’ll be on break for a while, huh?” Bela mused.
“I’m not so sure about that,” I replied. “First we have to keep an eye on the villages I built, then adjust our plan depending on any issues that pop up. If that happens, yeah, maybe you’ll get some free time.”
“You work way too hard, Boss. I think it’d be A-OK if you lived a more chill life.” Shemel grinned.
“It certainly feels like you’re living fast and recklessly. You’ve got a lot of wives, so why not spend the time until winter pumping out babies?” Bela added.
“We’re down for it!” they chorused.
All three ogre girls were grinning like maniacs.
“Don’t even start. I’d die,” I said. “But, well, I do have a lot to do in Merinesburg.”
“Didn’t we just tell you to relax? Now you’re already talkin’ about work?”
“We’ll have to ask Her Majesty to force you to take a break.”
“What if we just made sure he couldn’t stand up every day?” Tozume suggested, half joking.
“That’s terrifying. Please don’t?” I begged.
I only had one body! Be kind!
“Anyway, we’re headin’ out tomorrow, yeah?”
“Uh-huh. We can’t just keep chilling here forever.”
I was worried about Elen and Amalie and wanted to get home as soon as possible. But first, I had to go to Museburg tomorrow and spend a few days letting Viscount Travis play host. Pain in the ass, but necessary. If we hurried back to Merinesburg without letting him do his thing, we’d be making him look bad. For example, other nobles would gossip that Travis couldn’t host a royal guest properly. It’d be just deserts if he treated me poorly, but leaving would hurt his reputation for reasons beyond his control, and he’d resent me for it. Man, nobility sure were annoying creatures.
“We’ve got to go to Viscount Travis’s manor tomorrow. Ugh, what a pain.”
I’m not built for this kind of political busywork, but given my position, I had to suck it up and get used to it. If I screwed up, I could usually smooth things over with my authority. Or, failing that, raw violence. And violence. And violence.
The fact that that was my fallback said a lot about how much this world had already influenced my way of thinking.