“G-Good morning, master.”
“Morning... Er, what are you doing?”
“Oh! Well, I was just watching you.”
Right. Come to think of it, I didn’t make her a room, and she doesn’t have a bed. There’s not really anything here for her to do either. Sorry about that. Wait...what if she needs to go to the bathroom? Oh, looks like she knew to use the pot. Good.
“How’s your throat? And are you getting used to your new arms?”
“Yes, master. I’ve been exercising them, just as you told me. And I can speak just fine!”
“If you ever have a problem with them, just let me know. I can adjust them for you, er...” I was about to say her name, then realized I didn’t know what to call her. The master was supposed to name the slave, but I wasn’t so good at naming things—I could only come up with “Karina” as my own temporary name, after all! So I decided to let her pick her own name.
“Right, you don’t have a name yet, do you, Miss Slave? Then go on and pick one yourself.”
“Huh? Are you sure? Is that really okay? Th-Then, please call me Aishia, master!”
“Aishia, huh? Nice name. All right, Aishia, you’re going to be in my service for the rest of your life, so from here on, you’re forbidden to lie to me. That’s an order.”
“I understand. Don’t worry, master, I’ll be with you until the day I die.”
So said the slave girl—Aishia—with a polite bow.
She seemed loyal for now, but maybe that was just because she was currently on a high from being healed and back to normal after so long in that miserable state. I’m going to have her around for quite a while, so that’s plenty of time for her to turn on me without warning. You can’t trust her, Karina! Remember Shildon’s teachings... Remember Shildon’s teachings!
“Anyway, does anything feel off? Need me to tweak anything?”
“Yes, master! There are no problems with my body at present, but my voice feels funny.”
And so, I got to work fine-tuning her voice.
“Ahh. Ahh. Um, could you make the pitch a little higher, please?”
“Sure. Let’s see, I’ll just fiddle with the vocal cords a little and...done. How’s that?”
“Ahh. Ahh. Yes, that’s perfect! Thank you so much, master!”
With that, I’d finished tuning Aishia’s voice. Considering she used to be a minstrel, I got why she’d be particular about it.
Naturally, I didn’t do it out of the goodness of my heart. This is all part of my strategy!
“Just to let you know, if I don’t check your throat periodically and perform regular maintenance on it, I can’t guarantee you’ll keep your voice.”
“I understand. Don’t worry, master, I’ll be with you until the day I die.”
“You’ll serve me until then, huh? I’m happy to hear that. You’re a good girl, Aishia.”
“Tee hee, you’re embarrassing me, master!”
Good. Now she knows that she might lose that voice of hers if she tries to betray me. That’s right, I’m holding her precious minstrel voice over her head so she’ll stay bound to me forever! Mwa ha ha!
By the way, I also used spatial magic to let her check her own face, but apparently she was pretty happy with it as is. I wonder if I made her prettier than she was originally? Well, that would stand to reason—I modeled her off Li’l Satie, after all! Anyone would find Satie cute, and my revised version of her based on my memories no doubt makes her even cuter!
At that moment, an adorable puppylike growl came from Aishia’s stomach. Come to think of it, I haven’t fed her anything yet. I haven’t eaten yet either.
It wasn’t like I had no food at home. There was dried jerky in my space of holding, as well as apples. I also had a cauldron and logs, so cooking was an option. But, well, it would take time to whip something up, and I didn’t have a traditional cookstove like the ones in Japan.
“Guess we’re eating out today, then. Here, make do with this for now.” I handed her an apple.
“I will! Have a nice meal!”
“Er, you’re not going to come with me?”
“Huh?” She tilted her head in confusion. “But I’m a slave.”
I tilted my head in confusion. It seemed like there was a mutual misunderstanding between us. “Oh, wait. Surely you didn’t expect me to be the kind of master who passes you one apple and considers that your meal for the day? I wouldn’t do that. That’s just a snack to tide you over.”
“E-Er, um, is that so? I apologize for my stomach’s rudeness just now, master. Just imagining tasting something so sweet made it jump for joy, I think.”
R-Right. Well, considering the state she’d been in, an apple was probably like a luxurious feast for her. “There are plenty more of those where that came from, so go ahead and eat it all, if you want.”
“Ohhh! Then I’ll help myself!” She took a big bite. “Mmm!” Tears began to stream from her eyes.
“Are you okay?! Did you get a sour bite or something?! Are you okay?!”
“N-No, I’m fine... I was just so surprised at how sweet it was! I’ve never tasted anything so delicious in all my life!”
Really? It’s just a normal apple, though... Wait, no; considering how long it’d been since Aishia had had anything sweet to eat, a normal apple for her was probably like the highest-class, most expensive apple in the world. Like the old saying went, an empty stomach was the greatest seasoning of all.
“Savor as many as you want. I have an unlimited supply, after all.”
“Th-Thank you so much, master! I will serve you as long as I live!”
After Aishia had polished off three apples, she seemed to be full. But I still had yet to eat dinner, so while I was at it, I decided I’d take her out on the town and show off her cuteness to the public.
“All right, time to head out. I’ve got the money from the failed potions I sold, so I would’ve liked to buy you some bedding, but it’s too late for that now, huh?”
“Yes, master. Also, I’ll be fine sleeping on the floor. There’s no wind in this place, so I won’t get cold.”
“Really? Well, I could also just copy my own bedding. It’s for personal use, so it won’t violate the rules I imposed on myself.”
At any rate, I walked out of the closed space with Aishia in tow. As I suspected, it was evening—just in time for dinner.
When I entered the Adventurer’s Guild, Blade called out to me, looking relieved. “Hey, Karina! You’re still alive and kickin’! We hadn’t seen you in a while, so we were worried about you! We even went lookin’!”
“Hey, Blade. You went lookin’ for me? Why?” Did he think I’d kicked the bucket or something? Look, dude, I’m healthy! Not a scratch on me!
“There’s someone running all over the place looking for you for some reason. On top of that, we hadn’t seen you at all. Where’ve you been, anyway?”
“Huh? Why would they be looking for me?” I couldn’t imagine why. I’m just your friendly neighborhood adventurer-slash-merchant, is all.