Some uncomfortable feeling cuts through the wonderful abyss of sleep, dragging me awake again. I sit up groggily in bed, hands groping around for something, but I don't find it, whatever it is.

“Why hello there, sleepyhead. It's already light out you know.” It's Liina's voice, and I gaze around in a stupor. Then I see her, standing a few feet away from the bed, dressed in some light clothes that look good for lounging around the house. “Come on, up. I told you before, you will be a proper slave.”

The small, stern note in her voice is quickly waking me up. I shake my head to clear the fog of sleep. “That means, you have to make breakfast.”

With a gentle tug on my hand, she pulls me staggering up out of bed. I have to cook? How? I'm still barely standing when she hands me something. “Can't do it like that, get dressed.”

I stare at the fabric she handed me for far too long before I realize it's a big shirt.

And I'm naked.

Quickly swishing the garment on over my head, I blush. It must be one of Liina's oversized shirts since I don't have any other clothes except the dirty ones I wore here yesterday.

I'm pretty short due taking after my biological father, so the altraska who trend very tall tower over me. Liina is pretty average by their standards, which... still gives her a full foot on me.

The result: Her oversized shirt is enormous, practically falling off of my shoulders. The amount of skin it bares is embarrassing, it doesn't leave much to the imagination. I blush, realizing that if she stood close, she could look right down my shirt.

Before remembering that last night, she stripped me and washed me head to toe.

Then I blush way worse.

“Yumi,” Liina's voice comes in a slight scolding tone. “Talk to me.”

I cover my face with my hands. “I just remembered that you saw me naked. A-and washed me. And, and, and... everything else. I'm... ashamed...” Everything from last night fills me with so much shame it's almost unbearable.

Her big hand lands on my head, ruffling my short hair. “I told you, it's my job as your master to take care of you. You can rely on me.”

I lower my head. I still don't know if I can really trust her, but...

Part of me is relieved to have someone to take care of me...

That's the dependency talking, and I know it. I try to push those thoughts away. I don't want to be dependent on someone else...

Then Liina's scolding voice cuts through my worried thoughts. “Come on, Yumi. Don't make me repeat myself. I want you to make breakfast.”

I flinch, shoulders jumping at the tone. I make myself say, “Y-yes, Master.” Then I start walking toward the kitchen, but... what am I supposed to do? I don't know how to cook!

As it turns out, I'm being stupid. Liina saw my Status. She knows I don't know how to cook. When I get to the kitchen, cursing my cunt mother for intentionally never teaching me how to cook so I could never be self-sufficient after moving out, Liina's presence cuts my thoughts short.

With a chuckle, she tells me that she'll help teach me so I can do my job properly. And... then she does. It's something really simple, just some food kind of like eggs, but she walks me through all of the basics until I'm able to do it all on my own. It's... really not that hard...

After breakfast, she puts on a stern face again and reminds me that I also need to clean the house. But... clean what? Her house is already so clean, I don't do much beyond straightening a few things, and wiping down the tables and counters for dust. It hardly even takes an hour to do the whole house, nowhere near as hard as the cleaning work at the tavern was. Most of that time is taken up sweeping my hair Liina cut off last night and washing the dirty clothes from our last quest.

“Alright, you've taken care of your chores. Good girl.” Liina pats me and praises me. I feel a little silly, since it makes me feel like a kid. Or... a pet.

Let's go with kid...

Then Liina speaks up again. “We're going out now. Come.” She pauses for just a moment, her expectant look prompting me.

“Y-yes, Master,” I stammer. Saying that is still embarrassing...

Looking pleased, Liina heads for the door, but... I'm not going out dressed like this, am I?!

But I can't say anything. The words die in my throat as Liina heads out the door, and I follow obediently behind. If she didn't want me going out in this, she would have told me to change, wouldn't she? I mean, she changed into more town-appropriate clothing herself while I was cleaning...

I can feel the eyes of the passing altraska on me as we head out into town, and anxiously rub my new, unfamiliar collar while staying close at Liina's heels.

In no time at all, we arrive at a clothing store. I don't want to assume, but... When she catches my look, Liina grins. “Can't leave my nice new slave with nothing to wear, can I?”

For just a moment, I'm reminded of when Keane bought me clothing. But he gave those to me, charging me for them with more debt.

This is different. Liina isn't charging me, she's paying for me.

Like someone pays to take their dog to the vet.

I squeeze my eyes shut and try not to think about that. I need new clothes. I'm not allowed to have money, so the only option is for Liina to buy them for me. Don't think about it past that...

But... why can't I have money?

It feels unfair. Like a restriction for no reason.

But I don't get to complain about things like that now, do I...?

“Yumi, again?” Liina chides me when she catches me frowning, and I flinch. With a wave of her hand, she urges me to speak.

I bite my lip, but I've already learned that I can't defy her on this. It'll just make my crest hurt for being disobedient. But even my thoughts were... I yelp a little as the pain comes. “S-sorry. I'm sorry. I was thinking...” I gulp. “I-I don't mean to, uhh, question you, but... well...” I squeeze my eyes shut. “I thought it was unfair that I can't have money,” I admit.

She won't be mad, will she? Punish me again for contradicting her? I still have no idea how harsh she is about things like that. My parents were always... As I start to curl up in preparation, she laughs. Huh?

“Hah, you wouldn't know, would you? Two reasons. First, because you're supposed to rely on me. Simple as that.” So, it's to intentionally make me dependent on her... “Second, because giving a slave money makes them a target.” What does she mean?

“Think of it this way. If someone mugged you and stole your money in town, what could you do about it? Attack them and take your money back? Then you would get in trouble with the law, a human slave attacking an altraska. And I would be on the hook as your master. There's no good outcome, so it's best not to give you any money to steal.”

I stare at the ground. That's... not a bad reason...

She's taking away my freedom... to protect me...?

When I can sort of pull myself together again, Liina leads me into the clothing store.

It's nothing like when I went with Keane. He grabbed some stuff and handed it to me.

Liina goes around with me, sizing me up and has me try a bunch of different clothes. I... never got to do this with my friends. My parents wouldn't let me go to the mall with them... Because they had to choose all my clothes themselves...

The best I could do were clothes my friends gave me, but I had to hide them from my parents or they would throw them out when they found them... And yell at me... and ground me...

When I remember that, Liina notices my mood drop and stops our shopping trip briefly, making me tell her about it. It makes me want to cry, but she just rubs my head and pushes me into a changing room with some more clothes.

By the end, I have a bunch of new clothes. Some casual, some cute, and even a few that look like this world's version of formal attire. How much did she spend on me...?

Leaving the clothing store, I'm dressed in some nice, loose fitting town clothes with little patterns on them, Liina's oversized shirt stuffed in the bags with her other purchases.

From there, our shopping trip brings us through a number of places. A market for food and 'lunch.' It's weird thinking of it like that since we eat eight plus meals a day and Panir has different names for all of them that don't really translate, so I still sort of think of all of them like that...

After eating, she picks up some other stuff, like shampoo and conditioner. It's... somewhere between incredible and disturbing how capable they are of producing things similar to some modern Earth products using magic here. We hit a wide range of stores throughout the town.

There's are a couple specific things I've had to go without since coming to Verilz, things I get the urge to ask her to look for, but I'm absolutely mortified at the thought, so I bury the idea deep, deep down. I don't... really need them, I guess.....

The last stop on our trip turns out to be... a barber? I'm confused, but can't bring myself to argue as she pushes me into the building. The glaring sheep-altra woman who approaches scoffs at me as she looks over my hair.

“Lose a fight with a reener?” I... have no idea what she's referring to. Some kind of monster?

Liina answers while I'm too confused to react. “I just got my new slave. Her hair was in a bad state, so I had to chop off a lot of it myself. I wanted to get it evened up to make her more presentable.”

“Ahh, fair enough,” the woman's attitude suddenly makes a full one-eighty when she addresses Liina.

After the barber's, we head home, arms full of bags. Liina... she spent so much money on me... I gulp. Somehow, her following through on her claim of taking care of me makes me jittery. I don't know. It's weird. I keep finding myself fingering my collar, but now that there's no automatic punishment to stop me, I just keep doing it.

“Alright, now it's your job to put away all of the things we bought,” Liina instructs.

“Yes, Master.” I've gotten a little more accustomed to addressing her like that over the course of the day...

Still, I don't really know where a lot of the stuff goes. I do my best, but there are a number of items that I simply don't know what to do with them. Like this weird ball thing, a little larger than a golf ball. I keep peering at it while putting away other stuff, until I have to ask her, and she tells me that it's some sort of food, so I wind up putting it in the fridge.

I also don't have anywhere to actually put all my new clothes. Liina ordered a new dresser for me, but it'll probably be a while before it's delivered, so for now, my bags of clothing get piled up on the floor next to hers.

With that done, we're pretty much settled after our shopping trip.