“Mr. Julius, if you listen to my orders like a good slave, I’ll take this off. For now, please bear with this. If I let you, the Black Prince, loose, the kingdom will have my head for sure this time.”
“You were thrown into prison over accusations that may not even be true, and you were stripped of everything you have. You’re certainly an unlucky woman,” Mr. Julius said.
“You were betrayed by your own empire and became a slave. You’re quite unlucky yourself,” I retorted.
He stood up from his chair. He was so tall that I had to look up to catch his eye, and he looked a bit dusty.
“As long as that collar is around your neck, you must obey my orders,” I told him.
“I’m aware. If I go against you, a deadly pain will run through my body, leaving me barely able to move.”
“Glad we are on the same page. Well then, I, Chloe Sagrid, command you, Julius Craft,” I started as I reached my hand towards his collar. I wanted you to be seated a bit longer, but oh well. “Firstly, you must not leave my side. You must be close enough that you can always hear my voice. Secondly, you must not do anything I dislike. Are we clear?”
As the words left my lips, a golden lock appeared in the middle of his collar. This meant that the contract had been created.
He furrowed his brows. “Your commands are a little abstract.”
“Well, I want you to listen to my commands, but I also don’t want to restrict you too much. Uh, I guess I want you to be like a harmless roommate or something,” I replied.
“How naïve of you. You’re a fool who doesn’t understand what kind of man you purchased.”
“I’m well aware of my purchase, Mr. Julius. Now, go take a bath. I’ll show you the bath that I’m so proud of.”
He clicked his tongue. He was intense, but not scary. As a person who was thrown into the royal capital’s alleyway with just the clothes on her back, I’d gotten rather tough myself. I led him upstairs.
Chloe’s Alchemy Shop was in the middle of the royal capital. A two-story house, the first floor was dedicated to the shop and my alchemy furnace. The second story was my living quarters. On one side of the hallway from the entrance was the alchemy furnace. The other side housed the stairs to the second floor. My room had a bath, but Mr. Julius’s room was a storage space. I’d have to clean his room later. I led him further inside, past my room, that only had a bed, to the bath.
The dressing room had a laundry basket and a towel. A linen towel was lying on top of the wooden flooring, and a star-shaped lamp sat on the bay window. There were no partitions between the dressing room and bath, but the bathing area was a step below and surrounded by white tiling.
“Now then, please take your clothes off, Mr. Julius,” I commanded him as he stood in front of me.
“Unfortunately, it seems as though I’ve forgotten how to do that as well,” he said with a grin.
“Liar. You’re lying. But I’m a benevolent master after all, so I suppose I can help you.”
You’re testing me again. I’m not naïve enough to think that you’re actually a very kind person. However, we can surprisingly hold a conversation, so I guess that’s good enough.
I extended my arms towards his overcoat. I started working on the belts. They were so stiff that pulling or pushing didn’t make them budge. As I kept trying to undo his belt, he stared at me silently.
“Forget it, I’ll do it myself,” he said with a sigh.
“If I said I’ll do it, I’ll do it. Do wait a bit more,” I replied.
“If I wait any longer, the sun will set. I didn’t know alchemists were so weak.”
“That’s why we use alchemy. To cover for our lack of physical strength.”
If I was physically stronger, I wouldn’t be here doing this.
He quickly removed his overcoat, which fell with a thud. He was completely naked underneath, except for his underwear. He didn’t have much fat on him, and his muscular body was covered with small scars. From old to new, some scars looked gnarly, most likely because they had healed without being treated properly. As he quickly removed his underwear, I pushed a large towel onto him.
I don’t want to look down there. I mean I can, but as a courtesy, I won’t. Perhaps Mr. Julius had gotten tired of teasing me, because he wrapped the towel around his waist. Phew. Since I promised to bathe him, I took off my boots and socks.
“Now then, let’s get you all clean, shall we, Mr. Julius? If you take a refreshing bath, it might even refresh your mood! Take a look at this rotating hot spring stone! With one of these in your bath, you’ll constantly have a spring of clean hot water, and the dirty water will be instantly purified.”
The bathtub was supported by four cabriole legs and was filled with milky white water. This was all thanks to that rotating hot spring stone.
“The amazing thing is that this water is actually taken directly from a hot spring! It’s from the famous springs of the Rugal district called the Snow Moon and Flowers Springs! I can sell these stones for a good price, but it’s a bit of a pain to gather the necessary items,” I explained.
I pushed his back as if to urge him to use the bathtub. With only a towel around his waist and a collar around his neck, he obediently got in. His body displaced quite a bit of water, and it went down the drain. More water had overflowed than I’d expected, and water splashed onto my clothes. I guess I can change later.
As he stayed in, the water started to turn murky. However, in an instant, the stone had worked its magic, and it became clean once more. Amazing purification abilities, but the downside was that this only lasted about a month. I had yet to make one that lasted forever.