– Day 6 –

Window shopping

We travel back along the riverfront heading to where the carriage initially dropped us off. Emily is whistling an unfamiliar tune with her hands on the back of her head. I ordinarily can’t stand whistling, but she’s oddly musical, and I find it rather pleasant, she stops when she notices my gaze.

“Sorry Master, habit.”

“Don’t be; I was enjoying the tune albeit I don’t recognise it.”

“Ah, that’s cause it’s something I made up.”

“I see. It’s very soothing.”

“Hehe, thanks. Want me to continue?”

“Only if you feel like it.”

We soon arrive back at the restaurant or bar the carriage stopped at and then proceed in the same direction as the slave market but down a different road. I can already see a clothes shop right in front of us, so I know we will be turning left long before the slave market itself.

“Draconis, there are five clothes shops for men just down here, and two used mixed race clothes stores just over there. Where would you like to stop first?”

“Is there nowhere that sells new female humanoid clothes?”

“There are, just down– Wait… Draconis, are you planning to buy tailored clothes for your slave!?”

Her shock raises my brow.

“Is there a reason I cannot?”

Emily is just laughing at this, while Katharine’s jaw looks to have fallen to the floor. Mira looks confused with the ‘I don’t know what’s going on' look, +five cutey points for that. I think Emily understands me better than these two. It must have been the slave comment earlier.

“Well, it’s not that you can’t, but it’s just not done. Tailored clothes are expensive after all, and a slave is only going to ruin them quickly.”

“How much is ‘expensive’ in the Capital if I may ask?”

She shakes her head, still in disbelief that I would even consider this.

“1 Gold King for a complete daily outfit. 5 Gold Kings for formal wear. Undergarments vary. You can buy used clothes for only a few silver.”

She raised her hand, pointing to fingers as she recounted as if trying to emphasise her point further.

“Then it’s fine. I still have some of my money from before coming to the Capital.”

I walk off into the store, my voice trailing behind me.

“Wait up Master”

The girls follow Emily’s lead and head into the store as well. Katharine’s muttering something along the lines of ‘madness’, but most of it's inaudible.

I attempt to haggle with the storekeeper unsuccessfully for a while until I bring four gold kings out of thin air like a magic trick. Mira’s eyes twinkled and shone brightly when I did it, and honestly, I may end up falling for this simple girl.

The shopkeeper took the girls measurements and my order. Three daily outfits with undergarments for Emily and one full set plus undergarments for Mira.

Mira tried to refuse at first, but Katharine told her she should benefit from my madness and explained they were only to be worn on special occasions.

I offered to buy something for Katharine, but she politely declined the offer. Either she has no more need of dresses, or she’s still angry with me from the carriage ride. One of the two.

We then headed over to the used clothes shop to buy shoes and clothes for Emily to wear now. It will apparently take a day or two for the tailored garments to be made and I can’t have her wearing that potato sack for a minute longer. It’s just cruel.

I let Emily chose her own clothes after she kept asking me what to look for and tell her not to worry about the prices. I would prefer she have a say in what she wears… plus I’ve never liked shopping.

After ten minutes, she comes back wearing some men’s trousers, a red cloth top and leather boots. She’s also picked up a brown leather jacket and three other various outfits and brings them to the counter. Oddly, no feminine dresses though..

“Is this okay Master?”

She raises both arms to shoulder height and strokes the tips of her fingers down her sides.

Assessing her choice, the cloth top she’s wearing is also a man’s shirt. It’s being pulled tightly at the chest area, but it doesn’t look like it’s about to rip so I can’t say there’s anything wrong with it…

*Ahem*

The trousers, however, are clearly a size too small and hug her figure but, well, she does have a hell of a figure. Damn my perverse mind!

“They suit you so if you're comfortable in them, yes.”

HP: 330 / 330 MP: 670 / 670

Hunger: 46% Thirst: 52%

Blood State: Dangerous Inventory:

– Gold King Coin x3 –

– Silver King Coin x11 –

It seems, 1 Gold King is 25 Silver Kings. I don’t know how many Copper Kings to Silver yet…

Hmm.

I don’t know why but I get a bad feeling about what happens when my blood state drops another level… I should prioritise dealings with Emily when we get back to the manor–

“What’s wrong Master?”

“Oh, I was just thinking that we should probably get something to eat. Anyone else hungry?”

“I recommend the bar at the centre of the city where the carriage dropped us off.”

“Yes! Food~”

Emily is practically drooling… Ah ha, I finally get it, she’s a tomboy! I feel like I should have gotten that sooner..

We head back to the restaurant.

The outside of the building is rather dull. It’s the same type as the ones from the riverfront but slightly more modern with red wooden pillars holding up an entranceway to the left of the building. Inside, however, it’s reminiscent of an old western saloon with a central bar at the back, wooden floors, tables, chairs and women that look like they offer ‘services’ lining the stairs.

“You recommend the food here?”

I ask Katharine, slightly confused. I mean, it was her suggestion to come here.

“Yes but more importantly, they don’t care about the company you keep as long as your a paying customer.”

Ah, I see. We’re here instead of some high-end place because I wanted Mira and Emily to eat with us. Damned city.

After we sat down, a slave wandered over and asked what we wanted.

There doesn’t appear to be a set menu here, it's pretty much simple meat dishes in enormous portions. Emily looks satisfied with it though as she gobbled it down like some wild animal, but personally, I think mine could do with more flavouring.

For an unknown reason, it took some convincing to get Mira to eat. She was very hesitant until Katharine said something to her, I don’t know what it was though. Might it have been guilt over her sister not being able to share in the meal? I’ll have to arrange a doggie bag…*ahem* for her to take home for her sister.

Katharine was the surprising one with her order however. A giant boar leg that looks like it belonged to the same type of boar the Ogre smashed to bits before our fight. Even more surprising was the extremely manly way she chose to eat it on the bone. It was a shocking moment for me to witness such ferocity from her eating considering her usual noble etiquette.

I saw various ales on the wall behind the bar, so naturally, I ordered several of them for each of us. Only to help wash down the meals of course. Can’t have good meat and taters without a good bit o’ ale after all! ...Excuse the weak attempt at a Somerset accent.

HP: 330 / 330 MP: 670 / 670

Hunger: 0% Thirst: 0%

Blood State: Dangerous Inventory: 39 / 99

– Copper King Coin x51 –

I paid the oddly inexpensive bill and collected the takeout for Mira’s sister before we left with the girls.

“Where to now Draconis?”

“Well the sun is setting and being honest, I’m a little tired. How about we retire for the day and pick up again tomorrow?”

“Very well, I’ll go and arrange a carriage.”

As Katharine heads off towards the slave market again, I notice a building directly opposite of the restaurant we were just in.

It’s a large building, about the same size as the bar with a large walled backyard. It looks to have been empty for some time and is in a slight state of disrepair but has a ‘for sale’ sign on the front.

It catches my interest as I’m thinking about buying a house in the Capital for storage and processing. This one has two floors, allowing me a shop on the ground floor and living space on the second. The large backyard also gives me room to grow plants or experiment with various skills in seclusion–

“The carriage will be here shortly. They sent a runner for us.”

Katharine’s returned and noticed me checking out the building.

“Does it interest you Draconis?”

Okay, the final straw. I need to nip this ‘Draconis’ thing in the bud.

“Are you still angry with me Katharine?”

Katharine looks at me with a confused expression.

“Angry?”

“You have not called me by my first name since we left the carriage.”

She pauses for a moment and then looks me in the eye.

“…I showed that I didn’t trust you and your words rang true. I took them to mean that I should not be so informal if I were not capable of trusting you.”

I.. guess I did say something along those lines..

“You jumped to a conclusion, that’s all. If I thought it had come between our friendship, would I not have also stopped using your first name?”

“…You consider us friends?”

Oh crap, a landmine…

I’m not sure the right answer here. That posture and facial expression, I can’t tell if this is a 'love' flag or a ‘best friends forever!’ one. Thinking it through logically, I’m a Dark Elf, she’s Human, this is the Capital so it can’t be a 'love' flag, right? That said, since when is love logical?

Aargh, s-sorry!–

“Y-Yes..”

Oh thank the gods of sanity, looks like that was the correct answer. Katharine’s face is all… smiles…?

“…Then I shall call you by your first name.”

“P-please do!”

I’m scared. That’s not a regular face. I don’t think friends was the wrong answer, but it wasn’t the right one either? Why are women so complex!

“Hehe Master, is everything okay? Your eyes are turning a funny colour?”

Topic change. Thank you, Emily. Truly!

“Funny colour?”

“Yeah, the whites of ya eyes.."

She reduces her volume to a murmur.

-- "They’re turning black."

Hmm? Now that she mentions it… I do feel a little strange.

HP: 292 / 330 MP: 670 / 670

Hunger: 0% Thirst: 0%

Blood State: Rampant

Oh, that cannot be good…

“Master, before the coach comes. I need to show ya something. Can ya come with me a sec? You guys wait here, we’ll be right back.”

I follow Emily out of an instinct I can’t control. I don’t truly understand what the Rampant state means, but I can feel myself losing control of my mind. I get the feeling that before my health reaches 0, I’ll probably turn into a blood-sucking predator, killing everything that moves. ..Emily, she knows more than she’s letting on.

“This’ll do it. Master, when was the last time you drank?”

“D-drank?”

“Blood. It must’ve been awhile as ya look like your about to transform.”

“So… you know what I am?”

“I do, and I don’t. Ya red eyes tell me you're a Vampire; which isn't that rare but ya appearance tells me your a Desert Elf and they don’t combine from what I remember."

She pauses a moment, putting her finger to her chin.

"Then there’s the fact ya out in sunlight… So I don’t know what ya are, but ya clearly need blood right? Just like vampires.”

“So you knew why I needed a slave and yet still volunteered?”

“Yep. Master, I need a knife. We can talk more about this later.”

*blink*

“Cool, how’d ya do that? Never mind, this first.”

Emily takes off her top and then takes the sword–

“Ow ow owie… Yep, that should be deep enough. Absorb it, but remember to hold back now yeah.”

It’s great that your willing to help freely, but I only know one blood absorption spell, [Blood Syphon]. Something tells me using that will kill you…

Hmm, I wonder…

If reading a spell description learns the spell, does breaking the spell down learn the individual spell components if the base skill is high enough? Let’s try–

[Blood Drain learned]

[Blood Pool learned]

[Blood Transfer learned]

[Blood Absorb learned]

…Cheaty. There was no effort involved in that at all; forget it. Now isn’t the time.

[Blood Absorb]

HP: 320 / 330 MP: 670 / 670

Blood State: Low

“Thank you, Emily. That should be enough for now; I owe you.”

“Nothing to thank. I serve Master and his needs.”

She hands me back the sword.

*blink*

“No, there is. You knew what was going to be involved before becoming my slave. By volunteering at the slave market, you saved me from having to force this on another”

“Master–”

“Then you saw my need and served it without hesitation or even being asked. I am extremely grateful to you for everything so far, and I feel I need to apologise for the likely pain to come.”

“…You're a little strange Master, but I think I understand ya. Don’t worry about me; I’m tougher than I look!”

Emily puts her top back on, and we head back to the others. I was expecting a blood patch to form on her new clothes, but it seems [Blood Absorb] closes the wound as it works. I’m guessing Emily made the cut on her side so no one would see it and ask about it. She’s unquestionably a very intelligent woman.

“Is everything okay?”

Katharine looks concerned, I should probably make some–

“It’s fine; it’s the special requirement Master mentioned at the slave market. He has an incurable disease that causes weakness unless ya receive a treatment."

She winks at me before continuing.

"I know someone with the same disease. It’s not life-threatening or anything but the treatment is strange, so I took Master away from ya for it.”

Not bad Emily. Not sure how I feel about the ‘incurable disease’ part but this does work, and it’s not too far from the truth which makes it believable. Although Mira and Katharine are now both looking at me with the same ‘I’m so sorry’ look..

“It’s something I’ve had it since birth. It’s nothing to worry about, honest.”

The carriage pulls up just as I scramble to stop the looks of worry.

“Anyway, let us retire to your manor.”