At first, I didn’t trust this slave named “Yoshida Shuta” that Yoi had bought. His smile was flippant and his manner was that of a slacker, a cheat, a trickster. And sure, I could tell right away that he was Japanese. But knowing that just made things worse.
By the standards of the Order of Templars, he would have been one of the patron saints. Doctrine teaches that someone transported from the realm of the Goddess is able to embody miraculous powers.
Yes, he knew karate and yes, he was an accomplished martial artist, but that’s hardly a miraculous power from the Goddess. I wondered if maybe just being from a different world wasn’t enough. Perhaps you had to get dropped somewhere with a religious affiliation to be granted the powers of a patron saint. Which would mean Shooter was just a regular person.
But if that were true…I’d learned a lot since being flung into this cruel fantasy world, and yet it still enraged me to hear him talking about how he had just gotten married, how he’d performed feat after feat of incredible combat.
I don’t know when I changed my mind about him.
When he challenged me in the middle of our camp in the dungeon, I still expected him to get violent with me, like a giant apeman.
“Let’s make a bet: if I lose, I’ll do anything you say from now on, and I won’t ask to be treated as your equal. I’ll be your slave along with Miss Yoi’s.”
I took the bait because I was overconfident. I had the miraculous power of the Goddess behind me. I had undergone the training of a holy warrior and become a Templar. After all the work I had done, I didn’t believe I could lose. I didn’t bother to picture what might happen if Shooter won.
But then, I lost.
I waited, heart pounding, to hear what he would demand of me.
“We’re equals from now on,” he said. “Two members of the same party. Sound good?”
He never demanded anything else.
At the time, I couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind to make him ask such a thing. So when I asked him what he was planning to do, I didn’t expect his answer.
“The last-ditch option human beings have is communication. The more we learn about each other, the stronger the bonds between us become.”
“You’re not making any sense.” Why did he always wear that dopey smile of his, even as Yoi ordered him around as her slave? Even then?
His attitude never failed to irk me, and yet there was no one more dependable when battle erupted.
Back in that crumbling dungeon, when we faced off against the basilisk that appeared out of nowhere, he leapt into battle so calmly, without even a thought of surrender. He said he had fought a wyvern, so maybe Shooter had been through more than I thought. Bit by bit, I started to look at him differently.
In that moment, there was barely enough time for him to toss me a spare weapon. But he did, and it saved my life.
“You’re amazing! I really got lucky when I bought you!” Yoi gushed. She was a short distance away, but she was so overjoyed. That didn’t sit well with me, either.
And yet, through the anger and distrust, I suppose deep down I was actually grateful. Alone, Yoi and I probably wouldn’t have been able to take down the basilisk. And yet the words “thank you” were so difficult to say.
“Huh? What’s wrong, Mari? Is there something on my face?”
“I-It’s nothing,” I snarled. “I just can’t stand that stupid look on your face!”
“Well, that’s not a very nice thing to say. I was born this way!”
I had insulted him for no reason, but Shooter just replied with a laugh.
Even at that moment, I had trouble trusting him. He patted Yoi on the head and moved deeper into the dungeon. As I watched him walk away, I took a deep breath and thought of one thing I could thank him for.
“I-It was pretty useful having a warrior for a slave back there,” I muttered. “I j-just wanted to say thanks.”
“Well, of course. We’re all one party, after all!”
There was nothing endearing in what I said, but Shooter played it off jokingly. Like it was all in good fun, like he was on everybody’s side. So irritating. Why did it make me smile?
Ah. That was probably when it happened, when I revised my opinion of Shooter and started to trust him.
I hadn’t understood what he meant by “the last-ditch option human beings have available to them is communication.” But I did know what “the more we learn about each other, the stronger the bonds between us become” meant.
When I went through the holy warrior training, the other initiates and I fought with each other constantly. We were completely out of sync. But as we went through training exercises again and again and again, we began to consider one another as allies. Even the infuriating ones, and there were many. I could tell stories.
Once we decided to stop insisting on getting our own way, things became easier.
I considered that idea, remembered that moment, and understood a little. Shooter’s flippant little smile was his unique way of building bridges.
So fine. I’ll admit it. I dropped my guard a little.
Once we finished hunting the first basilisk, I asked my partner, in passing, what she thought of this man. This was when we were getting ready for the rematch and inspecting our adventuring equipment.
“I think Mr. Slave was a real bargain!”
“Hm. Is that so?”
“He’s so big and strong, and I know he’s kind of gross because all he does is stare at your big ol’ bottom, but he sure does come in handy.”
That was how Yoi saw him. I knew that he was always ogling me, but I hadn’t realized he was checking out my butt. Ugh, just as I was starting to relax my guard, I had to deal with that.
“You make me sick!” I snapped once. “You can’t use magic, you can’t even read, and now you choose to show off that gross—guh, that thing in front of us! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. It’s a natural biological function. I can’t do anything about it. Unless you’re, uh, offering to help me let off some steam? Heh.”
“How about you die?! Hell always needs some steam!” Ugh, if Shooter liked butts so much, how about he grope his own?
I kicked him—hard—and Shooter yelped like a confused little puppy.
I glared at him, looked for a familiar anger, and…didn’t feel it as much as I used to, even though I’d let my guard down and he’d responded by being a huge, dumb ass. I ended up feeling even more fed up with his shit.
Unfortunately, Yoi saw the whole thing. Then she asked me about it. “Did something happen, Ganjamary?”
“N-no, nothing happened! Don’t worry about it!”
“That’s the truth?”
“Nothing happened, really…” I muttered. “But see, that’s the problem. I was ready for him to do something to me, but nothing happened.” He wasn’t who I thought he was. I didn’t know what to do with that.
And he’d wagered that if we dueled and he lost, he would obey us without question. I couldn’t tell Yoi that he had made that promise and then we’d fought each other while she was asleep. That was why my hasty explanation confused her. She cocked her head to one side curiously.
“I thought he was the just the worst kind of guy, and I was going to treat him that way… but then he has the nerve to be nice! Ugh, now I don’t know what to think!”
Yoi looked confused, but she kept coming after me with shrewd questions. “Tell me—do you like him or hate him?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a slave! You can’t like a slave and you can’t hate a slave, so…neither! I’ll admit he’s a bit more of a gentleman than I thought, but he put the bar so low already. I mean, he’s buck naked!”
Even I didn’t really understand what I was trying to say.
Wouldn’t a naked gentleman just be a degenerate? His parts stuck straight out in the morning and he was always checking out girls’ butts…but …
A wry smile crept over my lips as I explained the problem to my tiny partner, choosing my words carefully.
But then all of a sudden, Yoi beamed brightly as if she’d just had a realization. “I’m so glad you and Mr. Slave learned to get along! I didn’t even notice. I hope the three of us can keep on adventuring together! I’m smart, so I know that if you two get married, we can stay together forever!”
Argh. Okay, she was a kid, and kids say all kinds of stuff, but did she really need to say something like that?
She was pointing at her slave’s butt, grinning as if she’d had the most wonderful idea ever.
I quickly covered Yoi’s mouth with one hand and quietly hissed, “He’s got a wife back home in the sticks. That is never going to happen…got it?”
“Mmph—but, Ganjamary! I thought the law says he can have as many wives as he wants.”
“That’s not the issue here! The more wives someone has, the more tax they have to pay too! How is a slave like him going to pay taxes?”
“You could pay the taxes for him.”
In the midst of this ridiculous discussion, Shooter turned around with a curious look on his face.
Oh no, how much had he heard?
At least Nishka the Scalesplitter wasn’t there with us. She was from a tribe of long-eared steppe barbarians and a hunter to boot, so her ears would have been keen enough to catch everything.
But looking at Shooter, I was pretty sure he hadn’t heard us. He had the same goofy expression as ever and an empty-headed grin, so maybe everything was fine.
He’d only been in this new world a few months and had already landed himself a wife, so who knew—if he overheard us, he might get overconfident and try to propose to me.
I figured I should give him a good, angry kick just in case. “What’re you lookin’ at?! You want another one?!”
“Yeowch! No, one was enough! Please, save me, Miss Yoi!”