Of course, the reason I had bet a cold 1000 gold was because I wanted him to give me no reason to refuse the bet. Lydia alone could be worth 300 gold, so naturally, I needed to bet more than she was worth. On top of that, if he chose to refuse my bet, he was indirectly saying that he valued this slave more than 1000 gold. That was a statement he wasn’t prepared to make, especially in front of his jealous sister.
As for worries that this would cause jealous eyes to fall on me, I didn’t really buy that. There were plenty of rich men in this competition, and the ultimate goal of lordship already suggested that people had a certain degree of available money. Furthermore, we’re a group fighting in a competition. We’re already displaying we have the capacity to fight and defend the money we have… unless I lose. In which case, it’d be Trembling Demonheart’s problem, not mine.
That wasn’t to say I planned to go into the battle without any kind of defense. I reset my dungeon points. I have eighteen in total. One went to reset, and 6 went to giving me 3 jobs. There was a ten-point skill known simply as haste. It had to be like Celeste’s haste, but where hers blew through mana and could only be maintained for a few moments, my version of haste would be a permanent part of my body until I chose to unequip it.
With a speed increase like that, I was confident I could definitely beat this guy. I had seen him fighting alongside his sister, so I generally knew how strong he was. As long as I was careful, my level of hero should be sufficient to take him out. To date, I had only shown my spells, so no one knew me to be a swordsman. He probably thought I was a mage too, so he’d try to close the distance quickly. I would take that mistake to my advantage.
“Fine! Then let us begin this dual!” The guy said. “My slave Dysdia versus 1000 gold coins. The loser also forfeits the match!”
I nodded, only then noticing I was receiving some stares from my girls. “What is it?”
“Master… shouldn’t be so lecherous…” Lydia said, looking away and blushing.
“Just because she had big-boobs, that doesn’t mean anything!” Miki responded defensively.
“It’s not what it looks like! Don’t you remember the old lady who runs the alchemy shop back in Chalm?”
I nodded. “I thought to recruit some slaves with useful skills to help with the building of Chalm. The mayor himself said if there was anyone with any magical abilities, that Chalm could use them. I’m doing this for the city! I swear!”
Even though I said that the girls were all giving me doubtful looks. I was already a guy lucky enough to have four beautiful women who wanted to be around me. How could I want for anything? The fact she had big-boobs had nothing to do with it. I certainly didn’t imagine going to buy herbs every day and getting to watch her boobs shake as she works that mortar and pestle! Those thoughts never occurred to me at all!
While I was busy worrying about how the girls were thinking of me, the one-on-one duel against this incestuous brother had apparently started.