The three of us exit the slave merchant pair's house. With Blossom having regained her class, we feel much safer sneaking around without getting caught. Before a guard can even enter our sight, we hide as she notices them by smell alone from a good distance.
Technically, we don't have to hide, but it's best if no one sees us near the house where many dead people lie in a pool of their drying blood.
The night is no longer young since we took our time in a leisurely fashion. My experiments and Ayame's torture session lasted longer than planned, but so far, we haven't suffered any repercussions because of them.
I don't wish to stay in this town for the time being. Until things calm down, it's best that we finally get over with the merchant mission I've been delaying since the first day of my arrival. To rent a carriage and mules, though, we first need to find someone willing to accommodate our request, and we can't do that in the middle of the night.
We also shouldn't leave Aldoria until morning comes, because the guards would see us and they might ask questions.
Questions I would rather not be asked right now.
None of us are particularly sleepy, though. Blossom is absolutely ecstatic due to the successful transfer of ownership, Ayame has just finished her cruelest execution as of yet, and my brain is filled to the brim with dozens of plans for the future.
Instead, we head back to our inn room, and each of us spends the rest of the night however we wish. Ayame drops off her stuff in the room and then goes for a walk with a very troubled expression on her face.
She is obviously seriously disturbed. It's not healthy at all to do what she just did to that old man, but I simply don't know what to tell her. I've always been bad with heart-to-hearts, but Ayame is more difficult for me than anyone I've tried cheering up before because I completely understand her.
If I went through the horrors she was subjected to, I would either become a suicidal shell of a human, like that Marla woman I mercy-killed a few hours ago, or straight-up become the enemy of the world. I would be on the path of vengeance with no feelings whatsoever.
Compared to how I would fare in her position, Ayame is doing very well. Sadly, she is heavily repressing her emotions, and the only way I can help her release them is to unleash her on slavers like the old man or the fatty.
I don't know if this world has psychologists, but I wouldn't take her there anyway. I believe in the concept of psychology itself, but not in those that make a profession out of it. What can they possibly tell her? That everything will be alright? That she is blameless?
Of course she is, but so what?
No. She needs to murder, torture, and exact her revenge. That's the only way I believe she can heal from such a deep wound. Yes, this way she will never be the same person she used to be, but how could she be after living through such a traumatic, life-altering event?
All she can do is move forward, no matter how bloody that path may become. I watch her small frame walk out the door of our room and debate for a second whether I should go with her, but I decide against it. She sees me all day long and even sleeps next to me in bed. If she wants to tell me something, she has every opportunity to do so.
Right now, she needs to sort her emotions out without my interference. At least, that's what I believe.
Furthermore, how could I possibly leave Blossom alone right after her life-altering event just went down? I couldn't. I'm not that cruel. Though the old man and his wife could argue against my statement, and rightfully so. It would be more correct to say that I'm not cruel to those I hold dear, I suppose.
I light a few candles knowing that we won't sleep in these few hours before we head out, then I sit down on a chair and pat my thighs intently. She catches on quickly and jumps into my lap and quickly finds a comfortable position, which happens to be Blossom resting her body against my chest sideways.
Blossom leans her head onto my left shoulder and I begin stroking her beautiful hair with my left hand and her arm with my right hand.
"With all that done, I wish to finally officially welcome you to my party, Blossom," I whisper into her ear.
She turns her head to look into my eyes, and I see that her gaze is full of love and adoration. "Master..." Tears of joy begin to stream down her cheeks. This is the second time I see her cry; the first was when I hugged her on our way back to Aldoria from the goblin massacre.
I sigh dejectedly. It feels great to have made her this happy, but... "I wish we could've made you into a free person. If only you weren't a war slave... Sadly I fear that I'm not strong enough to take your chains away. When we become strong enough to protect ourselves while being out in the open I will make sure you tear your collar off."
That's right; it was never my intention to create a slave harem, only a harem in general. Things just happened this way. First, I was way too weak to join a team of combatants because I was worried that they would just rob/kidnap/kill me whenever they felt like it so I made my way to the slave district to get a warrior to help me level up and I met Ayame as a result of this decision.
Blossom herself jumped into my life in a rather peculiar way, and I truly do wish I could've made her into a free person, but because she was brought over here as a war slave she literally can't be freed due to her original slave contract which is forced upon war slaves like her to make sure they never walk on free legs in this country, before she was ever sold to Ian.
That's why she became an ownerless slave after his death and not a free person.
She gasps and hurriedly brings her hands to her lumbering iron collar in a protective gesture as if she were afraid of me taking it away. She got so scared that even her tears stopped their onslaught. "No! Master is Blossom's master! 𝑅áŊОΒËŠ
Even if Blossom is no longer a slave in the future, she wants to be Master's!" she protests vehemently, before looking at me with droopy puppy eyes, and asks with a hurt expression, "was Blossom a bad girl?" Now that's just cruel. My heart is about to shatter into a million pieces.
Also, why are you looking at me like I'm trying to punish you, you crazy girl?! "Is this some dog-kin cultural thing? I've been kind to you and now you will be loyal to me until the end of time?"