Jake sat by the fire, trying to fight the slow drift of sleep.

He’d agreed to take his shift as Priest, despite having lower chi regeneration than the women, and despite having lower healing capabilities in general due to not having a Connection Multiplier.

To sleep through the night, undisturbed, while Emily suffered because of his mistake… that would be cruel. If he ever got to the point where he could sleep undisturbed while his women suffered, that was the day he wouldn’t deserve to be their Master.

Even Ayla would have to see that. She could look past a lot, in her irrational affection for him, but she wouldn’t be able to see past him being that uncaring.

Emily shuddered, the signal that she’d taken another hit of damage.

Always 10 HP damage, always 30 seconds apart. Worse, her max HP dropped as her Connection Multiplier slowly sank. At her current max HP, 149, it would take fifteen of those — seven and a half minutes — and she would be dead.

If he drifted off for seven and a half minutes, she would be dead.

Why’d she have to go and be so stupid? Why’d she have to break stealth early?

He knew the answer: she’d thought she wouldn’t get to Ayla in time if she stayed in stealth. She thought that staying in stealth would get the other girl killed.

She’d been wrong. He’d had it perfectly planned, but he didn’t want to intrude on her freedom again…

Look where that had gotten them.

Clawdia had cursed him, spent an hour insulting his tactical skills despite Ayla’s protestations, until Emily had told her the real reason. That she’d gotten hurt because he hadn’t interefered, had let her be too free. The cat-girl had barely said a word since. Her only words had been to volunteer for first shift, and to insist at the beginning of his shift that he wake her if he ran out of Chi or started to drift off.

He cast Heal again, perhaps a little too soon. If he didn’t space it out correctly, he might run out of Chi before his shift was over. His regeneration was slower than that of a woman — it was a problem in battle, but even more of a problem with such a dragged-out ordeal.

At least he was getting AP from this. He only got EXP from defeating enemies, but using a job’s move even outside of combat got him AP to use towards buying new moves, and improved the effectiveness of the skill itself by a small amount.

He stared into the fire, counting the seconds, letting…

A pained grunt made his eyes burst open, heart racing.

How long had he drifted off for?

He cast Heal in a panic, bringing Emily’s health back to 78%.

If she died here, if he let the poison take her, then he didn’t deserve to be leading any of these girls. Even Ayla would be able to see that.

“Thank you, Master,” Emily whispered weakly. “I was just about to wake you.”

“You’re up again?”

“The body has defenses. Dying while asleep is something old people do.”

Poor girl had just barely been able to sleep already, then he had to go and rob her of what little chance she had by drifting off. He wouldn’t let it happen again. “I’m glad,” he said. “Try to sleep again. I’ll take care of you.”

“Thank you, Master.” She rolled over and her breathing settled into a steady rhythm, interrupted only by the twice-a-minute shudders from the poison.

The fire crackled, and he fed it another gigantic stick that they’d collected before dark.

Time passed. Hours? Minutes? It was hard to tell.

He pinched himself when he was afraid he’d fall asleep. He would stay awake until the end of his shift, no matter what.

His eyes popped open, panicked, cast Heal.

She was at full health. He hadn’t almost let her die again.

Ayla stirred, yawned. “You have a good heart.”

How long had she been awake, listening to his thoughts?

“You think very loudly.” She sat up and crawled over to kiss him. He felt guilty for feeling such pleasure while one of his women suffered. “Give me the Priest job sphere. You’re even more tired now than when you drifted off the first time.”

“You were awake for that?”

She said nothing, only stroked his arm until his heart rate slowed.

Someone as weak as him didn’t deserve her.

“You’re already starting to get tougher,” she whispered. “Physically, mentally, sexually… when we’re done, even Clawdia will be able to see what you’re worth. And when we’re safe, you’re going to tie me up and caress me until I can’t stand it. Now cast Heal again, give me the job sphere, and go to sleep.”

He let go of the job assignment, and the sphere materialized in his hand. He handed it to her, the flashing lights thing happened, and the sphere disappeared again.

Jake let himself sleep.

They followed the river, letting it guide them away from Devos, the capital of the Devonian Empire. Towns were built on water, and if they followed this stream far enough they were sure to hit something… or end up at a mountain peak from which they could survey the landscape.

There would definitely be a high-level Priest or an apothecary skilled enough to make antidote at Devos, but even Emily insisted that they not go back there; it was where they’d been brought, where they were going to be trained for Xerxes’ forces — likely for use at the border, or perhaps to put down a rebellious dominion within the kingdom, or maybe just given to one of Xerxes’s loyal underlings as a reward.

“It would be even worse if we went back,” said Clawdia. “The last runaways were tortured in the public square, kept in stocks and whipped by day, then by night given for use to the nobleman who won that day’s auction. They were force-fed every evening, and the babies they had from the rapes were killed and eaten in front of them. They went mad years before they died.”

Everything about that horrified Jake. He had to make sure they weren’t caught. And if they were caught, he needed to make sure they all died fighting instead of getting captured alive.

Clawdia saw Jake’s face, seemed satisfied. “You see why the neko fight him?”

“This was a previous Xerxes,” said Emily weakly, “the father to the current one. Also, it didn’t actually happen.”

“It’s common knowledge among the Neko.”

“They were kept in stocks for a week and whipped, then sold off again. The rest is Ashmere slander.”

Ayla read his thoughts, whispered in his ear that Ashmere was the home nation of the neko.

“You would think that,” Clawdia grumbled. “I suppose a nation that’s subjugated to the Devonian Empire would try to shield its citizens from their crimes.”

“Uh… selling someone into slavery is still a crime,” said Jake.

They ignored him.

“We’re in an alliance,” said Emily, sticking her lip out in defiance. The effect was ruined when she cringed in pain as the poison hit her again.

“Yes, an alliance where half your awakened women are sent down to Devos, and the other half are given to Devonian masters who live openly in your supposedly free kingdom.” Clawdia rolled her eyes.

“It’s much less than half,” said Emily.

“So they only steal less than half of your most precious resource. Wow, what a great partner. But does any of it go in the reverse? Even your unawakened women marry the Devonians, while your men must obtain permits if they wish to intermarry. Some alliance you’ve got there. Whoever controls the women, that’s who’s really in charge. That’s why Ashmere is the only free country, where each woman rules herself.”

“That’s why Ashmere is losing territory,” said Ayla. “How can you coordinate on the battlefield? And even with your racial bonuses, you are weaker than a women of the same level who is well-connected to her Master.”

“Between enslavement and death, I choose death.”

“There are middle ways,” said Emily. “I hear that in the east, the fathers choose who becomes their daughter’s Master. And in the south, the women themselves choose.”

“This is why they are both losing territory,” said Ayla. “Letting the people choose for themselves will never work as well, in battle, as letting the government assign ownership.”

“Says the person who chose our Master,” bit Emily. “Not that it was a bad selection, but you’re not one to talk about individual choice bringing a world to ruin.”

“I have exceptional taste,” said Ayla haughtily. “Besides, their world — at least the simulation shop I came in through — is almost entirely male, and I got to choose the best.”

“That is, uh, not quite true,” said Jake. “There are actually more women in our world than men.”

“Yet I still got the best. You trained well for combat and were able to beat an unfair alliance while being surprised with unusual conditions.”

That last part he would not deny.

“What are things like in your world?” asked Emily. “How do women get placed with their Masters?”

“In my world,” said Jake, “the women choose… but sometimes they wait until they’re thirty. Sometimes they don’t ever get married.”

“Married?”

“It’s like choosing a Master, except you don’t have to do anything he says, and you can leave anytime.”

Ayla looked suspicious. “How do you build a good team if she can leave at any time?”

“People don’t leave that often. It’s still painful.”

“Ah, in order to leave, she must endure a trial of agony?” asked Emily.

“Well, both people get sad.”

“And then what?” asked Emily. “Whippings? Mutilation?”

How could he explain the concept of marrying for love? "Nothing happens," he said.

"No consequences at all?"

“Well... they have to sign a lot of paperwork. And she takes half his stuff.”

Emily looked aghast. “What about the other women he married? They must share half his wealth, while the traitor gets the other half all to herself?”

“That sounds like robbery, not Mastery,” said Ayla.

“And this country is not overrun by its enemies?” asked Clawdia in disbelief.

“Not yet." Jake didn't know what to make of Emily's question, but he could at least provide a factual answer to the cat-girl.

"How long do they have?"

"Actually... it’s the most powerful country on earth.”

“You think we can open that portal again?” asked Clawdia. “I’m going through this time, and I’m not coming back.”

“Sorry, but there are no cat-girls on earth,” said Jake.

“Yes there are!” said Ayla. “I saw pictures in that world-simulation shop where we met.”

“Those aren’t real,” said Jake. “They’re women who put on fake cat ears, sometimes fake cat tails, and many men find that sexy.”

“Then I will be in high demand. I will marry a hundred times and amass a fortune, yet never obey a man even once.”

“We'll need to amass a fortune in this world if we want to charge the stone,” said Ayla. “And before that, we need to save Emily.”

Clawdia frowned, sighed. “I shall accompany you to the safe haven, and then I shall make my escape to your world, where all the women are happy.”

“Uh, actually…” Jake stopped himself. Better not to say anything. That women in America could be unhappy would be unthinkable to the cat-girl, given all that they suffered here. How could she understand free, powerful women turning to pills and suicide?

Clawdia put up a finger, stopping the conversation. “I smell civilization. A town is near.”

She reached into her bag and drew out a collar.

Jake’s eyes widened. After all her talk of freedom, she was just going to put on a collar?

She glared at him. “This is for camouflage, so don’t you dare try to lock this on me. If it looks like you’re trying, I’ll kill you just the same as the last man who collared me. And even if you do get it on, the rules are a bit different for Nekos… the hold is just a touch looser. You’ll think you’re in control, and then one day you’ll die in your sleep.”

Jake put his hands up in surrender. “You got it.”

While he might enjoy the power that Ayla and Emily had given him, the ability to Command them, to even take possession of their body — both literally in battle, and metaphorically while having sex — he would never put a woman into this arrangement against her will.

And he would never even dream of what Xerxes did, except perhaps in a nightmare.

He realized that, no matter what Ayla said, his journey would not stop once they reached a safe haven.

This kingdom was terrible, and he hadn’t trained in strategy his whole life just so he could retire to a farm while millions suffered.

Ayla touched the small of his back. “I understand,” she said sadly, “but we must reach the safe haven first. We must heal Emily, then train, and recruit, so that you can become the most powerful in the land… if you still wish to do that, once we are safe and you can do whatever you like with me.”

She whispered the last part in his ear while laciviously groping her own breast.

Clawdia coughed. “Stop fucking around. Are we ready? Act like a Master and stop discussing anything treasonous.”

They walked in silence as the landscape turned from woods to fields, and then the city walls appeared on the horizon.

The city was protected on three sides by mud-brick walls, and on the fourth by the river.

It was amazing that such a small town had fortifications like that, especially one so close to Devos.

“Bandits roamed these lands before Xerxes the Third unified the Devonians,” explained Ayla in a whisper. “They won’t be that well guarded now that they’re in the middle of an empire.”

There were two distant figures standing at the gate. “That looks well guarded to me,” said Jake.

“It’s standard for a city.”

“Still… there’s two of them, and they have your descriptions, don’t they?”

“Roughly,” said Ayla. “I’ll be able to fit in, but Emily and Clawdia stand out around here, especially as part of a private dominion.”

“Then you and Clawdia wait here. I’ll go in with Emily alone. They’ll be looking for a trio of women, not a man and a woman.”

“And let you get Emily killed from negligence?” asked Clawdia disdainfully. “I’m going with you.”

“I’m not staying out here alone,” said Ayla. “I’m not high enough level to safely face the monsters around here alone, so I’d have no excuse if I was found and questioned.”

They knew this world better than he did, and he definitely didn’t want to leave Ayla alone and unguarded. The only other option would be to send one of them in with Emily. Clawdia and Emily alone would be very noticeable, but Ayla and Emily might work…

“Let’s just all go together,” said Ayla. “Two low-level awakened women without their master is unusual, especially if we’ve clearly been fighting or travelling through dangerous areas instead of running errands. There are some men who cannot stand to negligence towards an awakened woman — that is what it will look like, if a scorpidog victim’s only escort is a level 3 who has barely trained in Priest — and will make a scene.”

“Can’t free them, of course not,” muttered Clawdia. She wasn’t facing him, but he sensed an eye roll.

Jake sighed. If there was one thing they couldn’t afford right now, it was making a scene. “Fine. We all go.”

They gates were getting closer anyways, and at this point the guards might notice if some of their party turned around and walked away.

The guards were in light chain armor, cheap but sturdy, and armed with swords. Level 4 and level 9.

The level 4 squinted as they approached.

“Well, well, well. A neko, a northerner, and a Master who is too young to have earned them.” His suspicious frown turned into a wide grin and Jake’s heart sank. “Hey boss, that remind you of anything?”